To the Right of Center

Obama AZ speech from 2008 Campaign Theme/Site

2011-01-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

If those who received a memorial t-shirt will look at the bottom, they will see a "tag" from the DNC: "Rocking America and Rocking the Vote" ..... more evidence that what many suspected to be more like a campaign speech than a memorial and tribute to those who were either heroic, wounded and killed in Tucson last week.

Instead -- we get "Together We Thrive" text and themes from a post at Obama's 2008 Campaign site "Organizing for America" at this 2008 site.

While the site may now be difficult to load (it is occasionally "jumbled" -- which may be intentional), I and others have screen shots.

The first screen shot is HERE.

Here is also the investigative report by CFP's Judi McCleod:

The “Together We Thrive” T-shirts that starred at Wednesday’s Arizona
`Memorial’ originated from Organizing for America (here), a sad fact unearthed by The Drumbeat of Liberty Preservation of Freedom editor and Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Robert
Rohlfing.

In the controversy of the pep rally/rock concert style Memorial for those
who lost their lives in Saturday’s Arizona tragedy, the mainstream media
reported that the “Together We Thrive: Tucson & America” T-shirt given to
mourners as they entered McKate Center was the idea of University of Arizona
brass, not the Obama administration.

Yet the “Together We Thrive” slogan dates back to a post to Obama’s own
Organizing for America in a Feb. 11, 2008 post by self-described “globalist”
John Berry IV.

More than passing strange that the Obama campaign message of civility was
the same on Feb. 11, 2008 as it was in his Wednesday Memorial speech, and the
same one, too carried by the mainstream media in coverage of the
Memorial. 

“For too long Americans have been set one against the other. It
is a side affect of a free market society,” Berry IV posted. “How can
profits be maximized, how can I get the work down for the lowest possible
costs. This continually sets one group against the other, especially in
the blue collar sectors of America. It has become part of the American
Business model, whether it was indentured servants, slaves picking cotton,
sharecroppers, the industrious people that built the railroads or today’s
migrant workers. As long as we remain divided, fighting for the scraps
that America has to offer it will be one group against the other.

“What I see in Obama is a chance for revolution. (Italics CFP’s). A
chance for every group to be heard; A chance to live the American dream that has
been denied to so many…

“In a previous career, I was the global leader of Diversity for a global
fortune 500 corporation. I have studied the affects of diverse groups
working together and the results can not be denied. Together we
Thrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

University of Arizona brass did not originate the “Together We Thrive”
T-shirt. They merely recycled it for Obama—and recycled it in time for
what should have been a dignified Memorial for the dead.

If you were a mourner who took home a “Together We Thrive” T-shirt have a
look at the bottom of your shirt. “Rocking America and Rocking the Vote”
is a common theme of the DNC, and it’s right there on your Memorial
T-shirt memento.

Welcome to the era of Obama, where cheering and standing ovations, for the
first time in history, became part of the Requiem for the Dead.

Not referenced in the article above were the boos which greeted the current AZ Governor when she spoke or the "WE LOVE YOU, OBAMA" chants that disrupted speakers. Where else BUT a campaign setting would you hear boos and chants???? Certainly not at a memorial service or a tribute to survivors.

Same Dog -- Same Tricks: Obama's 2008 Tactics

2010-11-06T11:38:00.000-05:00

-- From American Thinker, 2008:

America waits with bated breath while Washington struggles to bring the U.S. economy back from the brink of disaster. But many of those same politicians caused the crisis, and if left to their own devices will do so again.

Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors -- Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others. David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks.org have also contributed a wealth of information and have noted Obama's radical connections since the beginning.

Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. When seen together, the influences on Obama's life comprise a who's who of the radical leftist movement, and it becomes painfully apparent that not only is Obama a willing participant in that movement, he has spent most of his adult life deeply immersed in it.

But even this doesn't fully describe the extreme nature of this candidate. He can be tied directly to a malevolent overarching strategy that has motivated many, if not all, of the most destructive radical leftist organizations in the United States since the 1960s.

The Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis

In an earlier post, I noted the liberal record of unmitigated legislative disasters, the latest of which is now being played out in the financial markets before our eyes. Before the 1994 Republican takeover, Democrats had sixty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress - with substantial majorities most of the time. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?

Why?

One of two things must be true. Either the Democrats are unfathomable idiots, who ignorantly pursue ever more destructive policies despite decades of contrary evidence, or they understand the consequences of their actions and relentlessly carry on anyway because they somehow benefit.

I submit to you they understand the consequences. For many it is simply a practical matter of eliciting votes from a targeted constituency at taxpayer expense; we lose a little, they gain a lot, and the politician keeps his job. But for others, the goal is more malevolent - the failure is deliberate. Don't laugh. This method not only has its proponents, it has a name: the Cloward-Piven Strategy. It describes their agenda, tactics, and long-term strategy.

The Strategy was first elucidated in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation magazine by a pair of radical socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. David Horowitz summarizes it as:

The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

Cloward and Piven were inspired by radical organizer [and Hillary Clinton mentor] Saul Alinsky:

"Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules," Alinsky wrote in his 1989 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system's failure to "live up" to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist "rule book" with a socialist one. (Courtesy Discover the Networks.org)

Newsmax rounds out the picture:

Their strategy to create political, financial, and social chaos that would result in revolution blended Alinsky concepts with their more aggressive efforts at bringing about a change in U.S. government. To achieve their revolutionary change, Cloward and Piven sought to use a cadre of aggressive organizers assisted by friendly news media to force a re-distribution of the nation's wealth.

In their Nation article, Cloward and Piven were specific about the kind of "crisis" they were trying to create:

By crisis, we mean a publicly visible disruption in some institutional sphere. Crisis can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognized disruption to public attention.

No matter where the strategy is implemented, it shares the following features:

The offensive organizes previously unorganized groups eligible for government benefits but not currently receiving all they can.
The offensive seeks to identify new beneficiaries and/or create new benefits.
The overarching aim is always to impose new stresses on target systems, with the ultimate goal of forcing their collapse.

Capitalizing on the racial unrest of the 1960s, Cloward and Piven saw the welfare system as their first target. They enlisted radical black activist George Wiley, who created the National Welfare Reform Organization (NWRO) to implement the strategy. Wiley hired militant foot soldiers to storm welfare offices around the country, violently demanding their "rights." According to a City Journal article by Sol Stern, welfare rolls increased from 4.3 million to 10.8 million by the mid-1970s as a result, and in New York City, where the strategy had been particularly successful, "one person was on the welfare rolls... for every two working in the city's private economy."

According to another City Journal article titled "Compassion Gone Mad":

The movement's impact on New York City was jolting: welfare caseloads, already climbing 12 percent a year in the early sixties, rose by 50 percent during Lindsay's first two years; spending doubled... The city had 150,000 welfare cases in 1960; a decade later it had 1.5 million.

The vast expansion of welfare in New York City that came of the NWRO's Cloward-Piven tactics sent the city into bankruptcy in 1975. Rudy Giuliani cited Cloward and Piven by name as being responsible for "an effort at economic sabotage." He also credited Cloward-Piven with changing the cultural attitude toward welfare from that of a temporary expedient to a lifetime entitlement, an attitude which in-and-of-itself has caused perhaps the greatest damage of all.

Cloward and Piven looked at this strategy as a gold mine of opportunity. Within the newly organized groups, each offensive would find an ample pool of foot soldier recruits willing to advance its radical agenda at little or no pay, and expand its base of reliable voters, legal or otherwise. The radicals' threatening tactics also would accrue an intimidating reputation, providing a wealth of opportunities for extorting monetary and other concessions from the target organizations. In the meantime, successful offensives would create an ever increasing drag on society. As they gleefully observed:

Moreover, this kind of mass influence is cumulative because benefits are continuous. Once eligibility for basic food and rent grants is established, the drain on local resources persists indefinitely.

The next time you drive through one of the many blighted neighborhoods in our cities, or read of the astronomical crime, drug addiction, and out-of-wedlock birth rates, or consider the failed schools, strapped police and fire resources of every major city, remember Cloward and Piven's thrill that "...the drain on local resources persists indefinitely."

ACORN, the new tip of the Cloward-Piven spear

In 1970, one of George Wiley's protégés, Wade Rathke -- like Bill Ayers, a member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) -- was sent to found the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now. While NWRO had made a good start, it alone couldn't accomplish the Cloward-Piven goals. Rathke's group broadened the offensive to include a wide array of low income "rights." Shortly thereafter they changed "Arkansas" to "Association of" and ACORN went nationwide.

Today ACORN is involved in a wide array of activities, including housing, voting rights, illegal immigration and other issues. According to ACORN's website: "ACORN is the nation's largest grassroots community organization of low-and moderate-income people with over 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the country," It is perhaps the largest radical group in the U.S. and has been cited for widespread criminal activity on many fronts.

Voting

On voting rights, ACORN and its voter mobilization subsidiary, Project Vote, have been involved nationwide in efforts to grant felons the vote and lobbied heavily for the Motor Voter Act of 1993, a law allowing people to register at motor vehicle departments, schools, libraries and other public places. That law had been sought by Cloward and Piven since the early1980s and they were present, standing behind President Clinton at the signing ceremony.

ACORN's voter rights tactics follow the Cloward-Piven Strategy:

1. Register as many Democrat voters as possible, legal or otherwise and help them vote, multiple times if possible.
2. Overwhelm the system with fraudulent registrations using multiple entries of the same name, names of deceased, random names from the phone book, even contrived names.
3. Make the system difficult to police by lobbying for minimal identification standards.

In this effort, ACORN sets up registration sites all over the country and has been frequently cited for turning in fraudulent registrations, as well as destroying republican applications. In the 2004-2006 election cycles alone, ACORN was accused of widespread voter fraud in 12 states. It may have swung the election for one state governor.

ACORN's website brags: "Since 2004, ACORN has helped more than 1.7 million low- and moderate-income and minority citizens apply to register to vote." Project vote boasts 4 million. I wonder how many of them are dead? For the 2008 cycle, ACORN and Project Vote have pulled out all the stops. Given their furious nationwide effort, it is not inconceivable that this presidential race could be decided by fraudulent votes alone.

Barack Obama ran ACORN's Project Vote in Chicago and his highly successful voter registration drive was credited with getting the disgraced former Senator Carol Moseley-Braun elected. Newsmax reiterates Cloward and Piven's aspirations for ACORN's voter registration efforts:

By advocating massive, no-holds-barred voter registration campaigns, they [Cloward & Piven] sought a Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. that would re-distribute the nation's wealth and lead to a totalitarian socialist state.

Illegal Immigration

As I have written elsewhere, the Radical Left's offensive to promote illegal immigration is "Cloward-Piven on steroids." ACORN is at the forefront of this movement as well, and was a leading organization among a broad coalition of radical groups, including Soros' Open Society Institute, the Service Employees International Union (ACORN founder Wade Rathke also runs a SEIU chapter), and others, that became the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. CCIR fortunately failed to gain passage for the 2007 illegal immigrant amnesty bill, but its goals have not changed.

The burden of illegal immigration on our already overstressed welfare system has been widely documented. Some towns in California have even been taken over by illegal immigrant drug cartels. The disease, crime and overcrowding brought by illegal immigrants places a heavy burden on every segment of society and every level of government, threatening to split this country apart at the seams. In the meantime, radical leftist efforts to grant illegal immigrants citizenship guarantee a huge pool of new democrat voters. With little border control, terrorists can also filter in.

Obama aided ACORN as their lead attorney in a successful suit he brought against the Illinois state government to implement the Motor Voter law there. The law had been resisted by Republican Governor Jim Edgars, who feared the law was an opening to widespread vote fraud.

His fears were warranted as the Motor Voter law has since been cited as a major opportunity for vote fraud, especially for illegal immigrants, even terrorists. According to the Wall Street Journal: "After 9/11, the Justice Department found that eight of the 19 hijackers were registered to vote..."

ACORN's dual offensives on voting and illegal immigration are handy complements. Both swell the voter rolls with reliable democrats while assaulting the country ACORN seeks to destroy with overwhelming new problems.

Mortgage Crisis

And now we have the mortgage crisis, which has sent a shock wave through Wall Street and panicked world financial markets like no other since the stock market crash of 1929. But this is a problem created in Washington long ago. It originated with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), signed into law in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. The CRA was Carter's answer to a grassroots activist movement started in Chicago, and forced banks to make loans to low income, high risk customers. PhD economist and former Texas Senator Phil Gramm has called it: "a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks."

ACORN aggressively sought to expand loans to low income groups using the CRA as a whip. Economist Stan Leibowitz wrote in the New York Post:

In the 1980s, groups such as the activists at ACORN began pushing charges of "redlining"-claims that banks discriminated against minorities in mortgage lending. In 1989, sympathetic members of Congress got the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act amended to force banks to collect racial data on mortgage applicants; this allowed various studies to be ginned up that seemed to validate the original accusation.

In fact, minority mortgage applications were rejected more frequently than other applications-but the overwhelming reason wasn't racial discrimination, but simply that minorities tend to have weaker finances.

ACORN showed its colors again in 1991, by taking over the House Banking Committee room for two days to protest efforts to scale back the CRA. Obama represented ACORN in the Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 1994 suit against redlining. Most significant of all, ACORN was the driving force behind a 1995 regulatory revision pushed through by the Clinton Administration that greatly expanded the CRA and laid the groundwork for the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac borne financial crisis we now confront. Barack Obama was the attorney representing ACORN in this effort. With this new authority, ACORN used its subsidiary, ACORN Housing, to promote subprime loans more aggressively.

As a New York Post article describes it:

A 1995 strengthening of the Community Reinvestment Act required banks to find ways to provide mortgages to their poorer communities. It also let community activists intervene at yearly bank reviews, shaking the banks down for large pots of money.

Banks that got poor reviews were punished; some saw their merger plans frustrated; others faced direct legal challenges by the Justice Department.

Flexible lending programs expanded even though they had higher default rates than loans with traditional standards. On the Web, you can still find CRA loans available via ACORN with "100 percent financing . . . no credit scores . . . undocumented income . . . even if you don't report it on your tax returns." Credit counseling is required, of course.

Ironically, an enthusiastic Fannie Mae Foundation report singled out one paragon of nondiscriminatory lending, which worked with community activists and followed "the most flexible underwriting criteria permitted." That lender's $1 billion commitment to low-income loans in 1992 had grown to $80 billion by 1999 and $600 billion by early 2003.

The lender they were speaking of was Countrywide, which specialized in subprime lending and had a working relationship with ACORN.

Investor's Business Daily added:

The revisions also allowed for the first time the securitization of CRA-regulated loans containing subprime mortgages. The changes came as radical "housing rights" groups led by ACORN lobbied for such loans. ACORN at the time was represented by a young public-interest lawyer in Chicago by the name of Barack Obama. (Emphasis, mine.)

Since these loans were to be underwritten by the government sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the implicit government guarantee of those loans absolved lenders, mortgage bundlers and investors of any concern over the obvious risk. As Bloomberg reported: "It is a classic case of socializing the risk while privatizing the profit."

And if you think Washington policy makers cared about ACORN's negative influence, think again. Before this whole mess came down, a Democrat-sponsored bill on the table would have created an "Affordable Housing Trust Fund," granting ACORN access to approximately $500 million in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac revenues with little or no oversight.

Even now, unbelievably -- on the brink of national disaster -- Democrats have insisted ACORN benefit from bailout negotiations! Senator Lindsay Graham reported last night (9/25/08) in an interview with Greta Van Susteren of On the Record that Democrats want 20 percent of the bailout money to go to ACORN!

This entire fiasco represents perhaps the pinnacle of ACORN's efforts to advance the Cloward-Piven Strategy and is a stark demonstration of the power they wield in Washington.

Enter Barack Obama

In attempting to capture the significance of Barack Obama's Radical Left connections and his relation to the Cloward Piven strategy, I constructed following flow chart. It is by no means complete. There are simply too many radical individuals and organizations to include them all here. But these are perhaps the most significant.

(See chart at original site)

The chart puts Barack Obama at the epicenter of an incestuous stew of American radical leftism. Not only are his connections significant, they practically define who he is. Taken together, they constitute a who's who of the American radical left, and guiding all is the Cloward-Piven strategy.

Conspicuous in their absence are any connections at all with any other group, moderate, or even mildly leftist. They are all radicals, firmly bedded in the anti-American, communist, socialist, radical leftist mesh.

Saul Alinsky

Most people are unaware that Barack Obama received his training in "community organizing" from Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. But he did. In and of itself that marks his heritage and training as that of a radical activist. One really needs go no further. But we have.

Bill Ayers

Obama objects to being associated with SDS bomber Bill Ayers, claiming he is being smeared with "guilt by association." But they worked together at the Woods Fund. The Wall Street Journal added substantially to our knowledge by describing in great detail Obama's work over five years with SDS bomber Bill Ayers on the board of a non-profit, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, to push a radical agenda on public school children. As Stanley Kurtz states:

"...the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle. That is a story even if Mr. Ayers had never planted a single bomb 40 years ago."

Also included in the mix is Theresa Heinz Kerry's favorite charity, the Tides Foundation. A partial list of Tides grants tells you all you need to know: ACLU, ACORN, Center for American Progress, Center for Constitutional Rights (a communist front,) CAIR, Earth Justice, Institute for Policy Studies (KGB spy nest), National Lawyers Guild (oldest communist front in U.S.), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and practically every other radical group there is. ACORN's Wade Rathke runs a Tides subsidiary, the Tides Center.

Carl Davidson and the New Party

We have heard about Bomber Bill, but we hear little about fellow SDS member Carl Davidson. According to Discover the Networks, Davidson was an early supporter of Barack Obama and a prominent member of Chicago's New Party, a synthesis of CPUSA members, Socialists, ACORN veterans and other radicals. Obama sought and received the New Party's endorsement, and they assisted with his campaign. The New Party also developed a strong relationship with ACORN. As an excellent article on the New Party observes: "Barack Obama knew what he was getting into and remains an ideal New Party candidate."

George Soros

The chart also suggests the reason for George Soros' fervent support of Obama. The President of his Open Society Institute is Aryeh Neier, founder of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). As mentioned above, three other former SDS members had extensive contact with Obama: Bill Ayers, Carl Davidson and Wade Rathke. Surely Aryeh Neier would have heard from his former colleagues of the promising new politician. More to the point, Neier is firmly committed to supporting the hugely successful radical organization, ACORN, and would be certain back their favored candidate, Barack Obama.

ACORN

Obama has spent a large portion of his professional life working for ACORN or its subsidiaries, representing ACORN as a lawyer on some of its most critical issues, and training ACORN leaders. Stanley Kurtz's excellent National Review article, "Inside Obama's Acorn." also describes Obama's ACORN connection in detail. But I can't improve on Obama's own words:

I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career (emphasis added). Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. - Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007 (Courtesy Newsmax.)

In another excellent article on Obama's ACORN connections, Newsmax asks a nagging question:

It would be telling to know if Obama, during his years at Columbia, had occasion to meet Cloward and study the Cloward-Piven Strategy.

I ask you, is it possible ACORN would train Obama to take leadership positions within ACORN without telling him what he was training for? Is it possible ACORN would put Obama in leadership positions without clueing him into what his purpose was?? Is it possible that this most radical of organizations would put someone in charge of training its trainers, without him knowing what it was he was training them for?

As a community activist for ACORN; as a leadership trainer for ACORN; as a lead organizer for ACORN's Project Vote; as an attorney representing ACORN's successful efforts to impose Motor Voter regulations in Illinois; as ACORN's representative in lobbying for the expansion of high risk housing loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current crisis; as a recipient of their assistance in his political campaigns -- both with money and campaign workers; it is doubtful that he was unaware of ACORN's true goals. It is doubtful he was unaware of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.

Fast-forward to 2005 when an obsequious, servile and scraping Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus swearing in ceremony for newly-elected Illinois Senator, Barack Obama. Mudd called, the Congressional Black Caucus "our family" and "the conscience of Fannie Mae."

In 2005, Republicans sought to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Senator John McCain was at the forefront of that effort. But it failed due to an intense lobbying effort put forward by Fannie and Freddie.

In his few years as a U.S. senator, Obama has received campaign contributions of $126,349, from Fannie and Freddie, second only to the $165,400 received by Senator Chris Dodd, who has been getting donations from them since 1988. What makes Obama so special?

His closest advisers are a dirty laundry list of individuals at the heart of the financial crisis: former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson; Former Fannie Mae CEO and former Clinton Budget Director Frank Raines; and billionaire failed Superior Bank of Chicago Board Chair Penny Pritzker.

Johnson had to step down as adviser on Obama's V.P. search after this gem came out:

An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report^[1] from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive substantial bonuses in 1998.^[2] A 2006 OFHEO report^[3] found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Originally reported as $6-7 million, Johnson actually received approximately $21 million.

Obama denies ties to Raines but the Washington Post calls him a member of "Obama's political circle." Raines and Johnson were fined $3 million by the Office of Federal Housing Oversight for their manipulation of Fannie books. The fine is small change however, compared to the $50 million Raines was able to obtain in improper bonuses as a result of juggling the books.

Most significantly, Penny Pritzker, the current Finance Chairperson of Obama's presidential campaign helped develop the complicated investment bundling of subprime securities at the heart of the meltdown. She did so in her position as shareholder and board chair of Superior Bank. The Bank failed in 2001, one of the largest in recent history, wiping out $50 million in uninsured life savings of approximately 1,400 customers. She was named in a RICO class action law suit but doesn't seem to have come out of it too badly.

As a young attorney in the 1990s, Barack Obama represented ACORN in Washington in their successful efforts to expand Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) authority. In addition to making it easier for ACORN groups to force banks into making risky loans, this also paved the way for banks like Superior to package mortgages as investments, and for the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite them. These changes created the conditions that ultimately lead to the current financial crisis.

Did they not know this would occur? Were these smart people, led by a Harvard graduate, unaware of the Econ 101 concept of moral hazard that would result from the government making implicit guarantees to underwrite private sector financial risk? They should have known that freeing the high-risk mortgage market of risk, calamity was sure to ensue. I think they did.

Barack Obama, the Cloward-Piven candidate, no matter how he describes himself, has been a radical activist for most of his political career. That activism has been in support of organizations and initiatives that at their heart seek to tear the pillars of this nation asunder in order to replace them with their demented socialist vision. Their influence has spread so far and so wide that despite their blatant culpability in the current financial crisis, they are able to manipulate Capital Hill politicians to cut them into $140 billion of the bailout pie!

God grant those few responsible yet remaining in Washington, DC the strength to prevent this massive fraud from occurring. God grant them the courage to stand up in the face of this Marxist tidal wave.

Out of Afghanistan?? ACORN to do census?

2009-02-08T14:44:00.001-05:00

Amazing --- utterly amazing what our new prez can come up with in the nam of "hope and change" --------------- we're in big trouble, folks.

from Over the Hill Oracles:

The answer to the census question may be decided by the Supreme Court, but watch Obama’s clandestine maneuvers to assign “responsibility” for the census from the Secretary of Commerce to the White House.

Here’s the law:

The Congress, by law directed that:

“The Secretary [of Commerce] shall perform the functions and duties imposed upon him by this title, may issue such rules and regulations as he deems necessary to carry out such functions and duties, and may delegate the performance of such functions and duties and the authority to issue such rules and regulations to such officers and employees of the Department of Commerce as he may designate.”

Credit those folks over at Samizdata ….

As I read it, the Director of the Census must, by law, be within the Department of Commerce and under the direction of the (Senate approved) Secretary of Commerce who then reports to the president. Am I missing something?
Correction: From reading through Title 13, Chapter 1 it appears obvious to me that the POTUS has no role in the census whatsoever beyond, with Senate approval, selecting the Secretary of Commerce and, also with Senate approval, selecting the Director of the Census who ” shall perform such duties as may be imposed upon him by law, regulations, or orders of the Secretary.” Hhmmm… No president mentioned.

The Secretary of Commerce is the only authority the law recognizes. Since as commenter Laird points out, the Constitution did not place the census function in Article II - the Executive branch but in Article I - the Legislative branch, it is not at all within the President’s reach unless the legislature places it there.

And watch for Obama to still try and put ACORN in charge of the census ….

Any question about WHY there are so many Obama-watch sites on the web???

More blurbs from the blogs:

– Stimulus Plan (Porkarama) updates are here ….

Biden: Ignore the voters

HERE’S a good question: why doesn’t Obama tell us specifically HOW this money will resolve his “now or never” crisis? We won’t see any jobs outta this political payback package for years.

– Obama has again voted “present” on this bogus stimulus plan. How to hype a crisis in two steps …. So where exactly is the change we (?) hoped for??? Forget it. It’s the same ole way with a Chicago twist ….

– BREAKING: Obama tells Gates to “stand down” on the troop surge in Afghanistan …..

Is he looking for ‘out‘ in Afghanistan???

– World opinion on Obama is fading ….

From London to America: What have you done?

Pakistan to the US: Show us the money!!!

Russia forms Alliance with six central Asian nations: Take THAT, America.

Ecuador expels US Embassy official: South America rejects the “Chicago way” …

– USS Cole mom is disgusted with Obama …. article and video

Pending: More and more parents and (retired) naval personnel are speaking out about the way the killers of their loved ones are being released ….

more pending …..

Stimulus Plan = Pork Bait?

2009-01-06T10:29:00.003-05:00

From Las Vegas on the DC stimulus pudding (i.e., America's Pork Pie):

Las Vegas’ proposed mob museum is a subject ripe for ridicule, and the
Republicans here have held it up as just that.

Now that work is under way on the economic recovery package of tax breaks
and public works projects being developed by President-elect Barack Obama and
congressional leaders, lawmakers in both parties are insisting that no money go
for earmarks — pet projects in lawmakers’ home districts.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, raised the mob
museum as Exhibit A in frivolous spending on a Sunday morning political talk
show on ABC.

“We would like, on the spending side, obviously, to avoid funding things
like a mob museums or water slides,” McConnell reiterated during a news
conference on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in his own appearance Sunday on “Meet
the Press,” insisted there will be no earmarks in the stimulus
package.

Reid’s spokesman repeated the refrain on Monday when asked whether the mob
museum should get stimulus money. “There will be no earmarks in the stimulus.
Nada. Zero. Zilch,” spokesman Jon Summers said.

Las Vegas’ effort to secure federal money to help turn a historic post
office into a museum about its storied criminal past is something watchdogs of
excess spending love to hate.

The museum rose to prominence last month after Las Vegas Mayor Oscar
Goodman was quoted telling the Review-Journal he would seek funding for the
project in the stimulus package.

In fact, he said, he was hoping to suggest as much in an upcoming talk with
Reid.

“If we could get some help along those lines, that would be what the
stimulus bill was really talking about,” Goodman said at the time.

What happened next is a product of the 24/7 nexus of media and
politics.

The story went out the way stories do — on a local radio station and blogs,
including the Drudge Report, the conservative must-read site.

Republicans in Washington heard about it and, presto, a poster child was
born.

Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley declined to dip into the fray Monday with a
response.
Rep.-elect Dina Titus, a Democrat, chuckled when asked whether the
museum should get stimulus money.

“That wouldn’t be at the top of my list for infrastructure,” Titus said.
“I’m thinking more of highway construction is what we need in Nevada —
transportation infrastructure. You’ve got to be careful. The public’s not going
to put up with things.”

But Ted Olivas, Las Vegas’ director of administrative services, said he
remained “hopeful some of the economic stimulus money would make it to Southern
Nevada.”

“We think our projects are just as important as those of the other local
jurisdictions in the nation.”

Rumor is that after this pork-pit is built, it will be "piggy-backed" to it's rightful sty in Chicago ....

oink oink oink!!

.

Obama: 9/11 was "a failure of empathy"

2008-09-10T23:56:00.000-05:00

Eight days after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Obama -- the man who would be Commander in Chief -- blamed the terrorist attacks on "a failure of empathy."

The July 20 issue of the New Yorker magazine got a lot of attention for its cover, which carried a "satirical" cartoon depicting Michelle and Barack Obama that Obama supporters found tasteless and offensive. Buried inside that issue's feature story, however, was a reaction by Obama to 9/11 that all voters should find even more tasteless and offensive.

The article reprised a piece published in Chicago's Hyde Park Herald on Sept. 19, 2001, and written by a then-unknown and otherwise undistinguished state senator from Illinois. The senator, a former community organizer, wrote that after tightening security at our airports and repairing our intelligence networks, we "must also engage . . . in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness."

According to Barack Obama, the madness that drove terrorists to turn passenger jets into manned cruise missiles aimed at our centers of finance, government and military power "grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair."

As if the answer to the attacks should have been food stamps for al-Qaida.

Sen. Obama advised caution and warned of overreacting. "We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad," he wrote. "We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle Eastern descent."

We should also be just as concerned, he felt, with American anger and bigotry as we were about al-Qaida.

In an opinion piece in Commentary magazine, writer Abe Greenwald commented on Obama's belief that the 9/11 attacks were rooted in poverty and despair. "Strange," he called it, "considering our attackers were wealthy and educated, connected and ecstatic."

As Greenwald put it, Obama "could have asked (terrorist and colleague) Bill Ayers, 'Bill, did your 'failure of empathy' stem from your impoverished upbringing as the son of the CEO of Commonwealth Edison?" Did poverty and despair also cause the Weather Underground member and host of Obama's first fundraiser to bomb government buildings?

Fact is, the roster of terrorists and their handlers reads like a list of of Ivy Leaguers:

Osama bin Laden, the son of a Saudi billionaire, studied engineering. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, architect of 9/11 and other major attacks, has a degree in mechanical engineering. Mohammed Atta, who flew a jet into the World Trade Center, is the son of a lawyer and earned a master's degree in urban planning at Hamburg University. Ayman al-Zawahri is an eye surgeon. Seven doctors were involved in the London-Glasgow bomb plots.

You get the idea, even if Barack Obama doesn't.

In a speech before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2001, President Bush pointed out the real reasons Islamofascists hate us: "They hate what they see right here in this chamber — a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

Bush aptly called the 9/11 terrorists and their ilk "the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century."

"By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism," he said.

Knowing the nature of your enemy is the key to victory. On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, we should all thank President Bush for keeping America safe. Along the way, he brought freedom and democracy to the Middle East, draining the terrorist swamp.

Bush gets it. So does John McCain. This is one thing we shouldn't want to change.

I have no idea how Obama's comments have failed to resonate with the American people. Hopefully, those words will resonate before it's too late.

Take Back the Truth!!

2008-09-09T17:59:00.002-05:00

Finally --- a software program that spots the spin in journalism.

It's about time!!!

McCain and Amnesty

2008-02-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

Have GOP Voters forgotten that just a few months ago, John McCain stood hand-in-hand with liberal icon Ted Kennedy pushing for the largest amnesty for illegal aliens in American history?

While Rasmussen polling showed that Americans following the legislation very closely opposed it 3 to 1 (69% to 23%), McCain ignored the massive public outcry! The angry calls rolling into the Senate offices, including John McCain's, were between 50 and 100 to 1 against McCain and Kennedy's bill.

We know this because we stood outside his door counting calls received by his staff and because other Senators told us the ratios they were receiving. History was made when the Capital phone system shut down, due to overload of calls from angry Americans.

John McCain refused to listen to Americans and went so far as to call members of the Senate who refused to support the McKennedy Amnesty "Racists"! John McCain showed no regard for American voices and instead called those who disagreed with him petty names. Who was John McCain listening to? He was listening to the US Chamber of Commerce and the racist illegal alien support groups like La Raza (The Race) whom he openly coordinated the effort with.

John McCain has illustrated in dramatic fashion that when he feels safe in his office, he couldn't care less about what a majority of Americans think. Now, John McCain claims he is listening because he wants to be President in a few months. He says he will "Secure the Border First!"

Even if you could trust John McCain, which you cannot, his border security pledge will be quickly reduced to irrelevance, if his desire for Amnesty for 20 million illegal aliens becomes a reality...

Barrack Obama brags about how he worked with Senator McCain for "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" amnesty. If the GOP voters allow McCain to win the primary, they will be denying Americans any real choice against Amnesty in November.

Unless an independent candidate enters the race, our choice will be between Clinton, Obama, or McCain all pushing for Amnesty from the White House, just like Bush!

Some conservatives will hold their nose and vote for McCain out of fear of the Democrats, others will go third party. Many conservatives would not vote for McCain at gunpoint! The Republican Party will not be destroyed, if the McCain, Obama, Clinton Amnesty becomes a reality. Each party will race to replace American voices in their ranks, with the twenty million new voters who were recently illegal aliens.

Does this surprise anyone who is knowledgeable about how American homes, jobs, tax dollars, limited health care resources, and finite seats in schools are being given to illegal aliens as well?

Any border security promised by McCain will quickly fade into irrelevance beneath the political weight of America's new race based voting block of legalized illegal aliens. What hope will Americans have for border security or immigration enforcement once this happens? The answer is clear... NONE!

Seventy Seven percent of Americans oppose licenses for illegal aliens. Under the McClintObama plan, twenty million illegal aliens will be eligible for licenses within a few years. Over seventy percent of Americans oppose taxpayer benefits and welfare for illegal aliens. Under the McClintObama plan, twenty million illegal aliens will be turned into citizen voters and will be eligible for welfare and all taxpayer benefits.

Over 80 percent of Americans oppose in-state tuition for illegal aliens. Under the McClintObama plan, twenty million legalized illegal aliens will qualify for in-state tuition. Under the McClintObama plan, employers will only have to worry about hiring the next twenty million illegal aliens flooding the country, in response to the Amnesty provided to the most recent wave.

John McCain supports Amnesty. If you have any doubts, then ask yourself why his campaign has deployed open borders fanatic, Juan Hernandez to secure the Hispanic vote for McCain.

Juan Hernandez is a dual citizen of Mexico and America. He used to work for Mexican President Vicente Fox by reaching out to and organizing illegal aliens from Mexico inside the US. Hernandez is known for his stance called, "Mexico First". He is a regular on national television, where he flagrantly advocates amnesty and Open Borders with Mexico.

Juan Hernandez is the face of the McCain's campaign to Hispanic voters and he did a great job delivering the Hispanic vote in Florida to McCain!

There are two main reasons McCain is winning the GOP Primary right now. One is the anti-illegal immigration vote is split up between Romney and Paul, who appear to be sincere in their "No Amnesty" pledges. The anti-illegal immigration vote is also splitting to Mike Huckabee, who truthfully supports Amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, but is a very skillful liar. Huckabee is deceiving voters by mailing out endorsment cards from lone Minuteman Jim Gilchrist.

The anti-illegal immigration vote is divided three ways, and the pro-amnesty vote is now collected around John McCain.

The second reason McCain is winning is that many GOP voters don't know his immigration stances, have forgotten his immigration stances, or have forgiven his immigration stances.

They say, "He has changed" or "We have to stop Clinton and Obama". John McCain has not changed or he would not have Juan Hernandez out promising Amnesty for illegal aliens. John McCain has not changed or he would not be saying, "Secure the Borders first", without getting into the part where amnesty is then passed. John McCain has not changed because he recently stated on the national news that he would still vote for his amnesty bill or sign it into law as President!

Do GOP voters really prefer to have one of their own pushing amnesty than a Democrat?

I am a Republican, getting closer to independent every day, but I will say that at very least the Democrats are more honest about their pro-amnesty positions than McCain and Huckabee.

What madness, lies, or misinformation would infect the mind of a GOP voter for them to support a man like John McCain, who works openly with ultra-liberal Democrats, almost changed parties to join the Democrats in 2001, and has the worst record on immigration of any of the GOP candidates?

Why would anyone support a man who is so detached from reality that he told a booing crowd of Union workers that they would not pick lettuce for even $50 an hour!?!?!

John McCain says he knows all about securing the border because he is from Arizona. Say what? Has anyone seen the conditions in Arizona lately, where they have declared a state of emergency and fought to pass strict state laws to enforce the immigration laws, which John McCain and his DC insiders refuse to enforce?

There are good reasons why Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingram, Hugh Hewitt, and Michelle Malkin are heavily criticizing John McCain. There are good reasons for Ronald Reagan's son, Michael to condemn the McCain candidacy. There are good reasons why ALIPAC, NumbersUSA, and almost every other organization in America fighting against Amnesty and illegal immigration, while supporting Border Security, are screaming NO to McCain!

The principles of this nation are at stake. The value of our votes is at stake. The survival of the United States, in its current form, is at stake.

We must stop the McClintObama Amnesty Plan. We must stop twenty million illegal aliens from becoming voters by 2010.

We must race against time to warn every GOP voter before Super Tuesday, because we must do all we can to stop John McCain.

from Americans for Legal Immigration

Mitt. Today FOR Tomorrow!

2008-01-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

America needs Mitt Romney.

Today. For Tomorrow.

I was with Mitt and MLK

2007-12-22T08:03:00.000-05:00

.... in Michigan, in spirit. I was also with Gull in Greensboro. Did you see me in Denver? How about Birmingham?

When we gonna get back to the REAL issues in campaigning and stop the banter over "was" ? It's not like we don't know the meaning of "is" already.

Relax and Enjoy ......

2007-10-27T14:09:00.000-05:00

Melinda Doolittle --

She's just right! Can't wait for her CD to arrive AND will never understand how/why she wasn't the winner last year.

Sing it, gal! A new age Tina Turner ..... You're the best!

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Bill Clinton: A Reputation the US Doesn't Need Restored

2007-10-05T08:21:00.000-05:00

What will the Clintoons do to reclaim the White House? Other than that ---- what will they do if they were to reclaim it?

Check out the plan Bill is touting in Europe right now.

Lock up the young women. Cancel cigar sales within 50 miles of his shadow. Here's hoping that American voters will rain on their parade.

I'm ordering one of those "God Help Us." bumper stickers ......... just in case America is lulled to sleep at the ballot box again.

Iowa Taps MItt!!!

2007-08-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney wins the historic straw vote in Iowa.

To view his Iowa speech, click here.

For more information on the Iowa campaign, check out Perish the Thought.

Go, Team Mitt!!!!!!!!

The NAU Fight: Alamo II?

2007-08-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

Gull at Perish the Thought reacts to a investigative report on the fight against the NAU-related fight against the NAFTA-Texas superhighway.

Plenty of food for thought ....

Who's gonna rise and lead the national charge? WARNING: beware of any member of the Council on Foreign Affairs.

When Will We Learn the Truth?

2007-08-07T11:44:00.000-05:00

The coming megolithic ‘NAFTA’ highway, one quarter of a mile wide, is already being built in Texas, where private land is being expropriated, and will eventually reach the Manitoba border and go on from there ... it allows the west coast shipping ports to be circumvented, instead relying on huge Mexican port, in the name of facilitating "free trade" . but free trade of what ..? Asian drugs ..?

And how is that port to be defended?Water (the new gold) will be the ‘issue’ of this century, as more than 25 states in the U.S. are currently in desperate need. Where do you think they will get the water they need? Canada claims 20% of the world's fresh water "reserves"!! and plans to get it out where developed IN SECRET by the Center for Strategic and International Affairs in Washington DC; they very people who brought you the shock and awe technique used in bombing Iraq into submission. Just who is deciding who gets the resources as they dwindle ..?

The United States is already guaranteed 60% of Canadian natural gas resources from NAFTA, which mean that even during emergencies when Canadians need energy that cannot have it. This is somewhat perplexing since Canada only has nine (9) years of PROVABLE gas supplies for itself. Canada is asked to import it! in case of shortage ...

This is just one example of how Canada is being shortchanged, and it’s only going to get worse. Even people in Harper's own Conservative party are aghast at this, which was only revealed in Parliament by Gordon Laxer - and the committee Chairman walked out in protest of his testimony!! -- a first in Canadian history. So much for government transparency.

When will the truth be told?

Mexico is so far exempted out of the energy equation; they are in control of the energy part of the 'protocol' and have a state run cartel.

From UpEd News

Mitt Tops the Morning Debate

2007-08-05T13:42:00.000-05:00

Classic Romney.

Watch highlights of the debate that ABC scheduled at 8 am this morning.

Then hop over to Perish the Thought and watch Mitt Unplugged in a radio interview commercial break.

Romney Addresses the Issues

2007-07-21T10:42:00.000-05:00

Speaking to the future about the future ....

The Link: http://mitt-tv.mittromney.com/?showid=187736

Full text:

Mitt Romney. We need him NOW.
.
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Happy Birthday, America!

2007-07-04T12:58:00.000-05:00

Stand tall and proud!

An "Over-the-Hill" Coalition Tribute -- July 4, 2007

MUTTS4MITT

2007-07-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

OK -- we couldn't help ourselves. After reading the article about how Mitt tied his dog's kennel to the roof of the family station wagon a quarter century ago, we just had to create a blog to commemorate MUTTS who LOVE MITT!!!

Send us a photo of your pet. What a hoot ... I mean, howl. (Unless your pet is an owl.)

Railroading the Immigration Bill

2007-06-17T07:55:00.000-05:00

This one is a full left turn -- engineered by none other than Teddy Kennedy as puppet-master for a gaggle of republicans who see fit (gawd knows why) to mouth his bleeding heart effort to solve the illegal immigration problem by simply making them legal.

And the President -- eager to gain the respect of at least one very large special interest group -- gives Kennedy, Reid and that crew of crooks and liars full throttle.

New package for marketing America? Re-sell it to the corporations who will do anything to keep labor cheap. If things aren't going well, change the rules.

Mark Steyn knows the realities of what's at stake.

De-RAIL THE BILL AGAIN, AMERICA!!!!

More info is over at Gull's place.

Immigration Reform Still Rages

2007-06-10T16:54:00.000-05:00

Harry Reid may want to blame the President and Republicans for messing up the Senate's attempt to push through an Immigration Reform Bill while no one was watching (or reading, for that matter), but he won't get off that easy.

Reid should know by now that (unlike the elected officials he's been bribing with special interest "pork projects" hidden in other legislation), 75% of the American public didn't take the bait.

We don't want the additional tax burden Reid et al want to give us -- just to provide more cheap labor for corporations. If legitimizing 12-20,000,000 illegal immigrants is THAT important, let business use THEIR profit base to support them. Legally, that is.

And Kennedy needs to find a new "bleeding heart" tactic as well. Americans truly care about the oppressed, the meek and the poor -- but saddling us with even more health care and welfare costs to support MORE illegal immigrants is NOT the way to our already bleeding ~~wallets~~ hearts.

Mitt Romney again reminds us of how simple the process of reform CAN be --

Mitt speaks for 75% of us. It's time Congress listened.

Murtha Mops Up on Home-style Pork

2007-06-03T16:46:00.000-05:00

Jack Murtha is probably the most unethical, dishonest dem of the crew now leading congress. If he wins re-election, somebody better check the voter list.

Clarifying Myths formerly Called Facts --

2007-05-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

Don't make me have to go to Washington tomorrow.

My disposition is not as pleasant as I would want. Fortunately, Bluey at RedState sorts through the myths that the WH casually called facts and blows holes in the basic issues behind the Immigration Reform Bill heading to the Senate tomorrow.

The White House released a "Myth/Fact" document about the immigration bill
last week. But instead of setting the record straight, it perpetuated more
myths. What follows are 10 myths the White House is telling us about the amnesty
agreement.

1. MYTH: This is not amnesty.
• FACT: This is amnesty. Title VI of this bill is amnesty, plain and simple. According to an op-ed by former Attorney General Ed Meese that appeared in the New York Times last year discussing the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, “the difference is that President
Reagan called this what it was: amnesty. Indeed, look up the term ‘amnesty’ in
Black’s Law Dictionary, and you’ll find it says, ‘the 1986 Immigration Reform
and Control Act provided amnesty for undocumented aliens already in the
country.’” It was amnesty then, and it’s amnesty now.

• FACT: The proposal
forces illegal aliens to acknowledge that they broke the law, pay a $1,000 fee,
and undergo a criminal background check to obtain a Z visa granting temporary
worker status. The acknowledgment, fee and background check does not mitigate
the fact that this is forgiveness for illegal aliens breaking numerous
immigration laws. The bill waives numerous provisions of current law that would
require deportation.
Read the other nine myths ...

2. MYTH: This proposal does not repeat the mistakes of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.

• FACT: This proposal is substantially similar to the 1986 Immigration
Reform and Control Act and does repeat the mistakes of the 1986 law. The 1986
law failed, despite the fact that, according to Meese’s op-ed, it provided
amnesty for 3 million immigrants for the price of “border security and
enforcement of immigration laws” being “greatly strengthened.”

• FACT: The 1986 law also allowed “most illegal immigrants who could establish that they had
resided in America continuously for five years would be granted temporary
resident status, which could be upgraded to permanent residency after 18 moths
and, after another five years, to citizenship.” The current compromise allows a
Z-visa holder to adjust to Lawful Permanent Resident status after satisfying a
points system, files the application for adjustment in the applicant’s home
country and pays a fee of $4,000. A Z-visa holder has the discretion to choose
to stay indefinitely in the United States if the Z-visa holder chooses not
pursue a “pathway to citizenship.” Meese stated in his op-ed about the 1986 law
that “this pathway to citizenship was not automatic. Indeed, the legislation
stipulated several conditions: immigrants had to pay application fees, learn to
speak English, understand American civics, pass a medical exam and register for
military selective service. Those with convictions for a felony or three
misdemeanors were ineligible. Sound familiar?” Yes, it does.

3. MYTH: The government will crack down on the hiring of illegal workers.

• FACT: The government will not crack down on the hiring of illegal workers. The government
will be granting amnesty to illegal workers under the new Z-visa category. Thus,
it will have fewer illegal workers to punish. There will be a handful of illegal
workers that will not qualify for the new program that allows amnesty for
illegal aliens in the country by Jan. 1, 2007. Therefore, by granting amnesty,
there will be no pool of illegal workers to punish and/or deport.

• FACT: A Z-visa holder merely has to provide two documents to prove eligibility. First,
“sworn affidavits from nonrelatives” that the illegal alien qualifies, plus one
other non-secure document. (Source: page 271 of the draft bill.) This is a huge
loophole in the verification provision of who is present in the country
illegally after Jan. 1, 2007.

• FACT: Another loophole contains a waiver for
humanitarian reasons. The deportation requirements of current law can be waived
for “humanitarian circumstances.” (Source: page 1 of the draft bill.) This is
yet another loophole that will prevent a crackdown on the hiring of illegal
workers.

4. MYTH: This proposal would not cut in half the amount of fence
built by the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

• FACT: This proposal cuts in half the
amount of fencing to be built as mandated by the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Only
one half of the additional fencing authorize by the Secure Fence Act of 2006
must be built before the temporary worker program and Z visa could go into
effect.

• FACT: The Secure Fence Act authorized the building of 700 miles of
new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. This bill provides that a trigger that
the federal government has to have “installed at least 200 miles of vehicle
barriers, 370 miles of fencing, and 70 ground-based radar and camera towers
along the southern land border of the United States, and have deployed Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles and supporting systems.” (Source: page 1 of the draft bill.)
This bill allows for less than half the amount of fencing mandated by the Secure
Fence Act before the Z and Y visas are issued.

5. MYTH: The trigger period will not cause a rush to the border.

• FACT: Although to be eligible for a Z
visa illegal aliens must prove they were in the country prior to Jan. 1, 2007,
it is expected that it will not be difficult to produce fraudulent documentation
to prove illegal continuous presence in the United States and employment offers
or employment. This legislation creates the perverse incentive for illegal
aliens to prove that they were illegally present and working in the United
States as of Jan. 1, 2007. As previously stated, a Z-visa holder merely has to
provide two documents. First, “sworn affidavits from nonrelatives” that the
illegal alien qualifies, plus one other non-secure document. (Source: page 271
of the draft bill.) This is a huge loophole in the verification provision of who
is present in the country illegally after Jan. 1, 2007.

• FACT: An exception of the “Grounds of Ineligibility” for Z-visa applicants states “nothing in this paragraph shall require the Secretary to commence removal proceedings against an
alien.” Therefore, even if a Z-visa holder is deemed ineligible for Z-visa
status, nothing requires the federal government to deport the ineligible illegal
alien. (Source: page 261 of the draft bill.) This is yet another loophole in the
bill.

6. MYTH: By providing an opportunity for citizenship to illegal
immigrants already here, the bill will not exponentially increase
extended-family chain migration.

• FACT: The bill will dramatically accelerate family chain migration. The bill will dramatically accelerate family chain migration over the next six years. After that time, family chain migration by low-skill immigrants will allegedly be replaced by skill-based immigration.
The promised change to skill-based immigration in the distant future is unlikely to ever occur.

• FACT: The bill contains a brand-new category of visas for
family members. The bill contains a waiver for “family members in hardship
cases.” Although this category is capped at the number of 5,000 per year, this
is an exception that will allow limited chain migration. (Source: page 251 of
draft bill.)

• FACT: Allows visitor visas for family members of the Y visa,
temporary workers that would allow the spouses of Y-visa holders to come to the
country and have children who will be U.S citizens entitled to welfare benefits,
also known as “anchor babies.” (Source: page 254 of draft bill.)

• FACT:
This bill does nothing to preclude illegal aliens coming across the border and
having children that will be granted citizenship. The “anchor baby” problem is
not addressed by this legislation. The Heritage Foundation has provided as study
that asserts that a statutory change in law would be a constitutional means to
disallow the common practice of automatically granting citizenship to the
children of illegal aliens.

7. MYTH: The temporary worker program is good for
American workers.

• FACT: Under the guest-worker program, guest workers will
be able to bring spouses and children into the United States. Children of guest
workers will be entitled to free education in public schools, with an average
cost of $9,600 per child imposed on U.S. taxpayers. If the spouse of a guest
worker has a child in the U.S. that child will become a U.S. citizen with a
guaranteed lifetime entitlement to more than 60 different federal welfare
programs.

• FACT: There will be two new programs for workers. The Z visa will
be for illegal workers to adjust their status to legal workers and the Y visa
for future temporary workers. A Y-visa program without the Z-visa program may
help the U.S. economy, but taken together, the American worker may be harmed by
a flood of new workers coming from illegal status and new future flow workers
from foreign nations flooding the economy and depressing American wages.

8. MYTH: Illegal immigrants will not come onto the welfare rolls.

• FACT: Illegal immigrants will come onto the welfare rolls. Amnesty will give illegal
immigrants entitlement to welfare benefits for most of their lives. Illegal
aliens will become Z-visa holders. While they are in Z-visa status, amnesty
recipients will have access the free medical care under the Medicaid program,
but would not be eligible for other welfare programs. After five years in Lawful
Permanent Resident status, the amnesty recipients will be eligible for nearly
all 60 federal welfare programs including food stamps, public housing, and
Temporary Assistance to Needy families, and will remain eligible for the rest of
their lives.

• FACT: After a Z-visa holder completes the “pathway to
citizenship” they will be availed of the same access to welfare benefits as all
American citizens. Children born to Z-card holders will be immediately eligible
for welfare. After a few years, Z-card holders will be given Lawful Permanent
Resident status. Given that 50% to 60% of amnesty recipients will be high school
dropouts, welfare use will be quite high; the average amnesty recipient will
probably receive about $4,000 per year in welfare benefits every year for the
rest of his life.

9. MYTH: Government agencies will be able to share
information to pursue immigration violators.

• FACT: This is both true and
false. The government will have far fewer immigration violators, because the
Z-visa grants amnesty to an estimated 12 million pool of illegal aliens who, a
large percentage of which, are working in the United States. The government will
not be allowed to pursue some visa holders, because once a Z applicant applies,
there is a one-year time period that precludes deportation pursuant to the draft
bill. The process starts when the Z-visa holder applies for a visa, then fills
out paperwork. If a background check is not done by the end of the next day, the
Z visa is automatically issued. Even if background check is not completed the
applicant has a statutory right to get a Z visa.

• FACT: This bill grants
the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to issue a national ID card to
citizens. This immigration bill states that the “Secretary in consultation with
the Commissioner of Social Security may modify by Notice published in the
Federal Register the documents that must be presented to the employer, the
information that must be provided to EEVS (Employee Eligibility Verification
System) by the employer, and the procedures that must be followed by employers
with respect to any aspect of the EEVS if the Secretary in his discretion
concludes that the modification is necessary to ensure that EEVS accurately and
reliably determines the work authorization of employees while providing
protection against fraud and identity theft.” (Source: page 105 of draft bill.)
This grants the authority to the federal government the authority to force
national ID cards on all American citizens.

10. MYTH: Senators are asked to vote Monday on a lengthy bill that they will have time to read.

• FACT:
Senators will not have time to read and understand this bill before Monday's
cloture vote. Working behind closed doors for months, a handful of Democrat and
Republican staffers, along with a few senators and principals from the
Administration, have been drafting a “comprehensive immigration reform package.”
Until Saturday morning, May 19, 2007, the legislation was unavailable to any
other senators or staff, let alone the media, policy analysts, or the general
public. This legislation would be the most significant reform of immigration
policy in 40 years, affecting not only our national security and homeland
defense but the fiscal, economic, and social future of the United States for
several generations. A document marked “DRAFT – FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY,”
is being relied upon by senators and staff as the final language to be debated
beginning on Monday, May 21, with the expectation of a vote on final passage --
without congressional hearings, committee mark-up, fiscal analysis, expert
testimony, or public comment -- before the Memorial Day recess. This is not a
good way to deliberate over such an important piece of legislation and tosses
aside years of the U.S. Senate tradition as being the most deliberative body in
the world.

And if that's not enough, drop by Perish the Thought and let Gull give you a few other suggestions on reforming immigration. New Over-the-Hill blogger Humbug has a perspective to share on "triggers" and cradle to grave welfare.

Nancy's Nil on 100 Days

2007-05-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry, Nancy. You must have been too busy slow bleeding our troops to get around to passing legislation during those first 100 days. Those hearings to discredit the President don't count. Nor does Spring Break. Or that non-binding resolution.

That's gotta hurt. Hanging upside down in your moonbat cave instead of keeping your pledges and all that stuff. It's gotta hurt.

No al Qaeda - Saddam Connection? Think Again.

2007-04-28T00:06:00.000-05:00

Perish the Thought

I wonder if the Iraqi Study Commission will be updated.

When the Commission found no "conclusive" evidence of a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam or Iraq, did everyone accept that finding as "conclusive?"

No. Common sense prevailed for many of us.

If the wise leaders who contributed to that Commission had a "do over," would their conclusions be any different?

Look ------- when the GWOT was initiated, there were admitted errors in the preliminary planning. But the core principles were right-on, based on available intelligence and common sense. As more of Saddam's documents are translated and more al Qaeda figure-heads are captured, more will be learned.

And confirmed, no less.

WE NEED JOE LIEBERMAN -- NOW!

2007-04-26T00:41:00.000-05:00

Perish the Thought posts a convincing rationale for asking Joe Lieberman to either switch political parties or caucus with Republicans to STOP the dems from submitting to terrorists.

To stop Pelosi, Murtha and the defeatist dems, Harry Reid must be replaced as Senate Majority Leader. Hyscience (which Gull quotes) has Joe Lieberman's contact numbers and addresses.

Take a stand if you cherish the sacrifices of our troops and our national security. Democrats are placing a political vindetta against George Bush above their Constitutional duties to protect this nation.

We must stop Harry Reid and the surrender-crats before it is too late.

Contact Joe Lieberman if you share a concern for
funding our troops,
congress as commanders-in-chief,
enabling the enemies of this nation, and
personal vindettas above Constitutional duty.

Ask Joe to take a more proactive role in removing Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader. He'll know what you mean. Ask him to change the balance of power in the Senate so he can work directly to promote our fight against Terrorism.

Harry Reid is the current lead-defeatist who does harm, not only to his own party, but to this nation. Dems have been unable to gag him; instead, they apologize for him and clarify what he means. That's not good enough.

Do the right thing and ask Joe to step up.

Additional links:

Hot Air
The Democrats' Gonzalez

Honoring the Hokie Nation

2007-04-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

We share your grief and your hopes.

Over the Hill Oracles

2007-04-21T18:41:00.000-05:00

We've started a drive to add members to the OTHO gang. Hopefully, there will be other elder-bloggers joining the group!

If you're interested, click the link in the sidebar!

The Black and Right Message (Bob Parks)

2007-04-08T00:08:00.000-05:00

Visit his blog. By all means, watch his video.

Thanks, Bob Parks. Proud to stand with you.

Block THE VIEW Where it Hurts!

2007-04-04T12:45:00.000-05:00

Can you $pell pocketbook? It'$ time to hit them where it hurt$:

(CREDIT: Michelle Malkin and Hot Air)

Check out the li$t of $pon$or$ in the Hot Air comments section!

Feingold-Reid Offer Bill to Redeploy Troops -- Again

2007-04-02T12:37:00.000-05:00

You've probably already seen the press release or read the headlines, so it's time to act.

Contact your representatives, your neighbors and your distant cousin. Ask them to join you in stopping the slow bleed of American troops and their fight against terrorism. Do it now, please. Your personal security and welfare may be at stake if the Congressional Defeatists are not told to STOP SLOW BLEEDING AMERICA!

Knowing that their war funding supplement with it's Iraq withdrawal date will be vetoed by the President, House leaders Harry Reid and Russ Feingold have another bill to offer:

(a) Transition of Mission - The President shall promptly transition the mission of United States forces in Iraq to the limited purposes set forth in subsection (d).(b) Commencement of Safe, Phased Redeployment from Iraq - The President shall commence the safe, phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq that are not essential to the purposes set forth in subsection (d). Such redeployment shall begin not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.(c) Prohibition on Use of Funds - No funds appropriated or otherwise made available under any provision of law may be obligated or expended to continue the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States Armed Forces after March 31, 2008.(d) Exception for Limited Purposes - The prohibition under subsection (c) shall not apply to the obligation or expenditure of funds for the limited purposes as follows:(1) To conduct targeted operations, limited in duration and scope, against members of al Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations.(2) To provide security for United States infrastructure and personnel. (3) To train and equip Iraqi security services.

Reid and Feingold can expect another veto.

Contact your representatives and let them know that our nation does not need 200+ Commanders-in-Chief. Our Constitution specifies that we have only ONE. And that one is the President of the United States.

Pork Pushes thru the Pelosi Vote --

2007-03-23T16:52:00.000-05:00

President Bush reacted to the House vote this afternoon, chastising Democrats (and 2 idiotic Republicans) for the vote on the emergency war spending bill. The only was Pelosi could gather sufficient votes to pass the bill was to add on billions in pork projects:

"...The purpose of the emergency war spending bill I requested was to provide our troops with vital funding. Instead, Democrats in the House, in an act of political theater, voted to substitute their judgment for that of our military commanders on the ground in Iraq. They set rigid restrictions that will require an army of lawyers to interpret. They set an arbitrary date for withdrawal without regard for conditions on the ground. And they tacked on billions for pet projects that have nothing to do with winning the war on terror. This bill has too much pork, too many conditions and an artificial timetable for withdrawal.
As I have made clear for weeks, I will veto it if it comes to my desk. And because the vote in the House was so close, it is clear that my veto would be sustained. Today's action in the House does only one thing: it delays the delivering of vital resources for our troops. A narrow majority has decided to take this course, just as General Petraeus and his troops are carrying out a new strategy to help the Iraqis secure their capital city...."

What "pork" was attached?

Check out these for starters:

$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;
$400 million for rural schools;
$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;
$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;
$100 million for citrus assistance;
$74 million for peanut storage costs;
$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;
$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;
$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;
$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;
$25 million for spinach growers;
$25 million for livestock;
$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;
$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;
$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;
$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;
$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;
$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and
A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.

In the Senate, these are the anticipated pork attachments:

$1.5 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for recovery along the coast, including funding for Hawaii for an April 2006 flood;
$850 million for Department of Homeland Security grants ($625M for rail/transit grants, $190M for port security grants, and $35M for urban area security grants);
$660 million for the procurement of an explosives detection system for the Transportation Security Administration;
$640 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program;
$425 million for education grants for rural areas;
$388.9 million for a backlog of Department of Transportation projects;
$165.9 million (including $60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin region) for fisheries disaster relief;
$75 million for salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;
$48 million in disaster construction money for NASA;
$25 million for grants through the Safe and Drug Free Schools program;
$25 million for asbestos abatement at the Capitol Power Plant;
$24 million to sugar beet producers;
$22.8 million for geothermal research and development;
$20 million for reimbursements to Nevada for “insect damage;”
$12 million for Forest Service money requested by the president in the non-emergency FY2008 budget
$3.5 million for guided tours of the Capitol;
$3 million for sugar cane; and
Allows the transfer of funds from holiday ornament sales in the Senate gift shop.

Veto the bill, President Bush. Let them garner the sufficient number of votes to over-ride your veto and let America see these defeatists for what they are.

Updates later .....

30,000 Voices Answer the Call

2007-03-20T20:32:00.000-05:00

For once, the clowns and hired hacks that represent the most visible activist voices met their match.

Led primarily by what appeared to be high school and college students, the anti-war (and assorted splinter groups) were no match for the Americans who showed up in DC on March 17, 2007.

Thank you, Eagles!

Folk-Hero President

2007-03-15T12:23:00.000-05:00

Today is the birthday of the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, (books by this author) born in on the western border of South Carolina (1767). He was first president of the United States who could honestly claim to have pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. Before him, all the presidents had come from distinguished or aristocratic families along the East Coast. Jackson was born in poverty in the backwoods frontier, west of the Appalachians, and he received almost no formal education.

The Battle of New Orleans turned him into a national hero, and when he ran for president in 1828, he portrayed himself as a champion of the common man and appealed to working-class voters, especially frontiersmen who were settling in the West. The election drew more than three times as many voters to the polls as the previous election, and Jackson won in a landslide.

And that is the rest of the story.

Credit: Garrison Keillor

Romney Reports ....

2007-03-10T12:54:00.000-05:00

ROMNEY in the NEWS

MITT COMMITS

2007-02-13T10:18:00.000-05:00

"I am happy to be in Michigan this morning. I'm happy to have my brother Scott and Sister Lynn here. And I'm proud to have all my children and grandchildren here too.
"Michigan is where Ann and I were born. It is where we met and fell in love. I still love Ann. And I still love Michigan!
"During my parents' campaigns, I visited all 83 Michigan counties, doing my best to convince Michiganders that Romneys and Republicans could lead the state back to prosperity.
"You know my father as a business leader, a governor, and as an advocate of volunteerism. But he came from humble roots. He labored with lath and plaster. He never graduated from college. But like many other Americans, he made his dreams come true.
"And he made a difference. My father worked here to improve Detroit Schools. He worked to write a new state constitution. And he worked as your governor for six years to get Michigan on the move. His character and integrity left an impression that has lasted through the decades.
"It was Mom who did the lion's share of raising Lynn, Jane, Scott and me. Dad said, that as a successful Mom, she had accomplished more than he. Later she worked in charities, in foster care, in music and the arts, and in volunteerism. She even ran for U.S. Senate.
"I always imagined that I would come back to Michigan someday. That's why I took the bar exam here. I hadn't imagined it would happen this way, but I sure have come back to Michigan today.
"I chose this site for a number of reasons. It's filled with cars and memories. Dad and I loved cars. Most kids read the sports box scores. Dad and I read Automotive News. We came here together, him teaching me about cars that were built before my time.
"The Rambler automobile he championed was the first American car designed and marketed for economy and mileage. He dubbed it a compact car, a car that would slay the gas-guzzling dinosaurs. It transformed the industry.
"This place is not just about automobiles; it is about innovation, innovation that transformed an industry, and in doing so, gave Americans a way of life our grandparents could never have imagined.
"The DC 3 above us was the first true commercial airliner. It transformed aviation from a luxury to a standard mode of transportation.
"Next to us is a Ford hybrid. It is the first giant step away from our reliance on the gasoline engine. It is already changing the world of transportation.
"Just outside is Thomas Edison's laboratory. There, electricity that Benjamin Franklin discovered was transformed from a novelty into a necessity.
"Innovation and transformation have been at the heart of America's success. If there ever was a time when innovation and transformation were needed in government, it is now.
"We have lost faith in government, not in just one party, not in just one house, but in government.
"We are weary of the bickering and bombast, fatigued by the posturing and self-promotion. For even as America faces a new generation of challenges, the halls of government are clogged with petty politics and stuffed with peddlers of influence.
"It is time for innovation and transformation in Washington. It is what our country needs. It is what our people deserve.
"I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician. There have been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements ... and too little real world experience managing, guiding, leading.
"I do not believe Washington can be transformed by someone who has never tried doing such a thing before, in any setting, by someone who has never even managed a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world.
"Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation. It has taught me the vital lessons that come only from experience, from failures and successes, from the private, public and voluntary sectors, from small and large enterprise, from leading a state, from being in the arena, not just talking about it. Talk is easy, talk is cheap. It is doing that is hard. And it is only in doing that hope and dreams come to life.
"This Christmas, Ann and I gathered my five sons and five daughters-in-law to ask them whether I should run for President.
"We talked about the special time this is in the history of America - the challenges and the opportunities. We talked about the qualities that are needed in our leaders. They were unanimous. They know our hearts. They know our values. They know my experience innovating and transforming, in business, in the Olympics, and in Massachusetts. And they know we love this country.
"And so, with them behind us, with the fine people of Michigan before us, and with my sweetheart beside me, I declare my intention to run for President of the United States.
"It has been said that a person is defined by what he loves and by what he believes and by what he dreams.
"I love America and I believe in the people of America.
"I believe in God and I believe that every person in this great country, and every person on this grand planet, is a child of God. We are all sisters and brothers.
"I believe the family is the foundation of America – and that we must fight to protect and strengthen it.
"I believe in the sanctity of human life.
"I believe that people and their elected representatives should make our laws, not unelected judges.
"I believe we are overtaxed and government is overfed. Washington is spending too much money.
"I believe that homeland security begins with securing our borders.
"I believe the best days of this country are ahead of us, because ... "I believe in America!
"At this critical time, we must 1) transform our role in the world, 2) strengthen our nation, and 3) build a brighter future for the American family.
"Today, as we stare at the face of radical violent Jihad and at the prospect of nuclear epidemic, our military might should not be subject to the whims of ever-changing political agendas. The best ally of peace is a strong America!
"Our role in the world must be defined not only in terms of our might, but also by our willingness to lead, to serve, and to share. We must campaign for freedom and democracy in our own hemisphere, now threatened by a second aspiring strongman. We must extend our hand to Africa's poor and diseased and brutalized. We must lead the world's civilized nations in a partnership that will support moderate Muslim nations and peoples, to help them embrace principles of modernity and defeat violent Jihad. We must link arms with all responsible nations to block Iran from realizing its nuclear ambition. America must never engage and negotiate with Jihadists who want to destroy us, destroy our friends, and destroy our way of life!
"Across the nation, there is debate about our future course in Iraq. Our desire to bring our troops home, safely and soon, is met with our recognition that if Iraq descends into all-out civil war, millions could die; that Iraq's Sunni region could become a base for Al Qaeda; that its Shia region could be seized by Iran; that Kurd tension could destabilize Turkey; and even that the broader Middle East could be drawn into conflict. The possible implications for America and for American interests from such developments could be devastating. It could mean a future with far more military involvement and far more loss of American life. For these reasons, I believe that so long as there is a reasonable prospect of success, our wisest course is to seek stability in Iraq, with additional troops endeavoring to secure the civilian population.
"And no matter how Iraq is resolved, we must honor and care for the veterans who risked their lives, and for the families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice. Our nation has a sacred pact with those who defend freedom. It is a pact we must never break!
"America must regain our standing in the world. Our influence must once again match our generosity. Over the entire 20th century, no nation gave more, shed more precious lives, and took less for itself than America. Our sacrifice for freedom and for human dignity continues unabated. But this is not the way it is seen by others. America's goodness and leadership in the world, must be as bright and bold as our military might!
"America can also overcome our challenges and seize our abundant opportunities here at home, but only if we follow the right course.
"There are some who believe that America's strength comes from government - that challenges call for bigger government, for more regulation of our lives and livelihood, and for more protection and isolation from competition that comes from open markets.
"That is the path that has been taken by much of Europe. It is called the welfare state. It has led to high unemployment and anemic job growth. It is not the path to prosperity and leadership.
"I believe the American people are the source of our strength. They always have been. They always will be. The American people: hard working, educated, innovative, ready to sacrifice for family and country, patriotic, seeking opportunity above dependence, God-fearing, free American people. When we need to call on the strength of America, we should strengthen the American people, not the American government!
"We strengthen the American people by giving them more freedom, by letting them keep more of what they earn, by making sure our schools are providing the skills our children will need for tomorrow, and by keeping America at the leading edge of innovation and technology.
"Our government has become a weight on the American people, sapping their strength and slowing their climb. We must transform our government - to become a government that is smaller and less bureaucratic, one with fewer regulations and more freedom for our people. The innovation we need today is to make government more responsive to the needs of everyday American citizens. It's time to put government in its place, and to put the American people first!
"At America's core are millions of individual families: families of children and parents, aunts and uncles and cousins, grandparents, foster parents. There is no work more important for our nation's future than the work done in the home.
"But the work done in the home isn't getting easier. Values and morals that have long shaped the development of our children are under constant attack. In too many cases, schools are failing. For some, healthcare is inadequate. Family expenses and government taxes take a larger and larger bite. America cannot continue to lead the family of nations if we fail the families at home.
"How is the American family made stronger? With marriage before children. With a mother and a father in the life of every child. With healthcare that is affordable and portable. With schools that succeed. With taxes that are lower. And with leaders who strive to demonstrate enduring values and morality.
"This was the agenda I pursued as Governor of Massachusetts. This is the agenda I will pursue if elected President.
"When I was a boy, the American dream meant a house in the suburbs. The American dream today must mean more than a house. The new American dream should include a strong family, enduring values, excellence in education, dependable and affordable healthcare, secure employment and secure retirement, and a safe and prosperous homeland. It's time to build a new American dream for all of America's families.
"How will this new American dream be built? Our hopes and dreams will inspire us, for we are an optimistic people. But hope alone is just crossing fingers, when what we need is industrious hands. It is time for hope and action. It is time to do, as well as to dream!
"As we look around us in this museum, we see the evidence of American innovation - airplanes, automobiles, appliances. But these are not America's greatest innovation. America's greatest innovation is freedom. Without freedom, we have nothing. With freedom, nothing can hold us back.
"Freedom has made the American dream possible. Freedom will make the new American dream possible. And with the work, sacrifice, and greatness of spirit of the American people, freedom has made America - and will keep America - the greatest nation on earth. God bless America."

Mitt Memes to Mellow?

2007-02-10T23:45:00.000-05:00

Gull at Perish the Thought thinks it won't be long 'til candidates and their supporters turn on each other and mellow a little on Romney. She's probably right.

The more critics attack Romney ----- the more exposure he gets!

Hummmmm .... I'm gonna add her pixel banner to my sidebar so her blog won't feel so lonely.

How About a Do-Over?

2007-02-07T12:09:00.000-05:00

I still think we got it wrong.

Marriage licenses should cost more. In addition to blood tests, there should be an IQ test plus a pre-nuptial contract. Applicants should also be required to open a joint savings account.

1) License fees should be equal to normed legal fees for filing a divorce.

2) Blood test should include all the routine checks: AIDS, HIV, STD's, sugar level, cholesterol and drugs should be administered and provided to each party no less than 24-hours before the blessed event.

3) Something equivalent to the MMPI should be administered no less than two (2) weeks before the blessed event.

4) A pre-nuptial contract -- clarifying what each party brings into the marriage and how post-nuptial earnings and property will be divided should also be drawn by mutual consent no less than ten (10) days before the blessed event.

5) A joint savings account equal to two one-hour legal consultations [renewable every seven (7) years to deter "Seven Year Itch" infestations] should be established no less than thirty (30) days before the blessed event.

6) Each individual participating in unofficial coupling and/or common-law marriage arrangements lasting up to fourteen (14) days (cumulative) should be annually assessed a prorated DOMESTICATION TAX, equal to the cost of a license fee for each unofficial coupling or common-law living arrangement.

Children produced by such coupling shall receive a monetary award equal to an amortized charge for savings that would have accrued if parents had entered a legal marriage. (See item #5).

EXCEPTION: individuals concurrently covered by items #1-5. Such individuals shall forfeit all rights to the pre-nuptial agreement and/or remunerations from the benefits of the legal marriage.

7) Divorce expenses, when and where applicable, should include filing fees and court costs. Legal fees incurred for consultation, arbitration and/or settlements not covered in item #4 shall be the responsibility of the aggrieved parties.

--------

Of course, this will never happen, but that doesn't mean we AREN'T due for a do-over.

Pay Up, Pelosi --

2007-02-03T16:39:00.000-05:00

Andy McCarthy reminds us that the bills Pelosi pushed through Congress in those first 100 hours (sans review or debate) are not without hefty price tags.

So who is going to pay?

You guessed it.

Me and Thee.

Andy is right. No wonder the moonbats didn't want review or debate.

Romney at Heritage Foundation Retreat

2007-02-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney spoke Friday at the the Heritage Foundation's Conservative Planning Retreat. Here is one highlight. Click the title above for more remarks.

... we don't need a listening tour with Iran. While I support gathering
intelligence about our adversaries in any way possible, engaging is not the
right policy. To the contrary, economic and diplomatic isolation must be our
priority.

Romney is referring to remarks by Hillary Clinton, who wanted to "listen" to Iran, to "engage" Iran.

Listen to Iran?

LISTEN TO IRAN?

How much louder can Iran speak? Their idiot leaders want to kill us. What part of "WE WANT TO KILL YOU" doesn't Hillary Clinton understand???

New Dawg in the 'Hood

2007-02-03T14:30:00.000-05:00

Gull asked me if I wanted to contribute to the "Right of Center" blog. I said "yes" because I not only lean toward Mitt Romney for President in 2008, I've also been known to dry my nails in the smoggy breeze while cruising up the 405 (you left coasters will understand this).

Gull promised I didn't have to agree with her on everything. Which is good. Because I don't. Our prospectives from the right of center, however, have more similarites than differences, so we'll just see how this goes.

Since I live in the Land of Botox, let me be the first to suggest that if Ronald Reagan had indulged in the vanities ---- he might have come closer to being the hunka eye-candy that Mitt is. But then -- if he HAD been better looking -- Reagan probably would have had more A-grade movies and never entered politics!

The Other Rockwell --

2007-02-03T13:32:00.000-05:00

No, no, no --- I'm not talking space shuttles or Teledyne systems. I mean NORMAN Rockwell. It's his birthday. Let his art take you back to a genre where life was relatively innocent and simple ....

Meanwhile, I'll try to figure out what I want to do with this blog.

Just a Journey ....

2007-01-26T01:01:00.000-05:00

.... Mostly to the right of center -- politically and philosophically -- sometimes hedging on irreverence. Always with respect, however.

Lead, follow or get the heck out of the way!