Radio Free Erie

Jan Brewer – Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicians to Secure America’s Border (Broadside Books)

2012-02-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

This is not a typical political biography, but the story of what spurred the Arizona law known as SB 1070 – Support our Law Enforcement & Safe Neighborhood Act.

Article IV – Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution imposes on the Federal Government the duty to “protect each [State] against invasion…domestic violence.” At its best, the federal government selectively enforces our laws with regard to protecting our borders and immigration. That lack of protection and the violence and high costs that have become part and parcel of life along our southern border spurred Arizona to action.

The Arizona law has been labeled racist and worse, but that can be said of just about anyone or anything that disagrees with President Obama. What it really boils down to is a fundamental difference in the interpretation of the Constitution and private property rights. Brewer correctly believes that citizens have the Constitutional right to be safe on their property.

Brewer outlines not only the negligence of the Federal government for not enforcing our border security, but their complicity in the death (in Arizona) of border patrol agent Brian Terry. It was the Obama administration failed program known as Fast and Furious, in which the Justice Department, under the failed leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, that allowed 2020 weapons to be purchased and funneled to Mexican drug cartels on the border. One of those weapons was used in Agent Terry’s murder.

Brewer quotes Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever’s testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee; “We cannot sit by while our citizens are terrorized, robbed, and murdered by ruthless and desperate people who enter our country illegally.

In contrast, Obama and his ilk would have you believe that every illegal – or as they dub them, undocumented – alien is a hard working family man with a wife and two small children, he is desperately trying to feed, clothe and put a roof over.

Holder highlighted his incompetence in exchange with Texas Congressman Ted Poe, where he admitted that he hadn’t actually read the 10-page law – but that hadn’t prevented him from publically and with some regularity stating his opinion that the law was unconstitutional.

Holder would later be joined by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and State Department spokes-weasel P J Crowley, two more members of the Obama administration who criticized the Arizona law that were forced to admit publically that they hadn’t bothered to read the law before registering their public denunciations of it.

This amazing account not only spells out Brewer’s courageous fight to secure and protect the people of Arizona, but serves to highlight the utter incompetence of the Obama administrations law enforcement and Homeland Security leadership.

The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan– Michael Hastings (Blue Rider Press)

2012-02-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

If you believe:

That terrorism should be dealt with as a law enforcement matter…
That you can use diplomacy and negotiate with terrorists…
That the treatment of prisoners during interrogation at Abu Ghraib amounted to heinous acts of torture…
That politicians and diplomats have all the answers….

Then this book is for you.

The Operators is Michael Hastings’ book length adaptation of his Rolling Stone magazine article entitled The Runaway General, which profiled General Stanley McCrystal and caused the firestorm that led to McCrystal’s sacking from his role as commander of the Afghanistan operations.

Of course to buy into the story, you would have to buy into Hastings contention that General McCrystal and his team, are the first members of the military that ever blew off a little steam and chose to disagree with their boss, in this case President Obama and his policies. Hastings seemed genuinely shocked that McCrystal and his pals would occasionally consume large quantities of adult beverages and bad mouth the boss and tell a few bad jokes.

Hastings seemed concerned about the honor of no less an intellectual heavyweight than Vice President Joe Biden from being labeled Joe “Bite Me”. Imagine the outrage…soldiers who swear, drink and drop F-bombs! Oh the humanity!

After reading The Operators I can’t help but wonder what the Pentagon leadership is thinking when they delude themselves that they can win friends and favorable coverage by allowing access to clearly liberal reporters like Hastings and equally liberal outlets like Rolling Stone. That magazine came of age during the Viet Nam war and while society has evolved, Rolling Stone has remained firmly implanted in the mindset of mistrust of the military and anything but liberal socialist government.

Hastings disdain for the military seeps through in his writing despite his desire to be a part of the action and fit in with the people he writes about. I can’t quite shake the image of Jack Nicholson’s monologue from A Few Good Men with the line about wanting him out there on that wall…Liberals love to disparage the military at the same time they enjoy and indulge in the freedoms that the military fights to preserve every day.

Hastings seems to have three guiding forces at play throughout the book; he is first and foremost a liberal. Second he is clearly a supporter of Hillary Clinton and is influenced by the Clinton doctrine – that treats terror a legal rather than military issue, that would have us go back to the do nothing approach to dealing with terror where we try diplomacy and to buy our friends. Third, he supports Obama, but only because he sees the President as a fellow traveler while clearly questioning whether President is Liberal enough.

The only real revelations to come out of The Operators was the sickening fact that the Pentagon was actually considering awarding a medal for “courageous restraint” to members of the military who put themselves in harm’s way, but rather than taking out a threat with force they held back. The clear stupidity in this thought process would have lead more often than not to this being a posthumous award. It isn’t now, nor has it ever been the charge of the military to restrain themselves; their purpose has been twisted over time by Liberal outcry.

The second revelation is that even in war torn Afghanistan the Obama administration feebly clings to the ridiculous notion of so-called “green energy” as Hastings describes the Afghan disgust over a $1.9 million solar panel array that ‘didn’t work.”

Who’s the Real Fake? Ron Paul…

2012-02-23T09:25:00.002-08:00

One of the most laughable segments of last night’s Republican debate from Arizona was Congressman Ron Paul’s explanation for calling frontrunner Rick Santorum a “fake”.

Citing Santorum’s spending and votes in Congress as evidence that he was not nearly as conservative as he may appear. “No one accuses me of voting for too many bad bills,” Rep. Paul added, he is often criticized for refusing to vote on any bill as part of his philosophy.

There’s the rub. While Congressman Paul loves to proclaim that he’s never voted in favor of a earmark, it hasn’t stopped the so-called “Dr. No” from requesting and delivering piles of earmark cash for his Texas district. Paul lards the pork barrel earmarks onto bills then turns around and votes against the bill that he knows will pass, thereby claiming safe cover from critics.

Paul’s own website lays out his requests for $157 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2011 and $398 million in 2010. Congressman Paul’s list of earmarks reads like a page out of Community Organizer in Chief Obama’s playbook. The highlights include:

• $2.5 million from taxpayers to modify medians and sidewalks for an "Economically Disadvantaged" area.

• $38 million in multiple requests for literacy programs to "encourage parents to read aloud to their children."

• $11 million from federal taxpayers for a "Community-Based Job Training Program."

• $1.2 million for a "Low-income working families Day Care Program"

• $2 million from federal taxpayers for a "Clean Energy" pilot project

So this is what Congressman Paul passes off as “REAL” conservatism?!

Where is the Outrage?!

2012-02-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

What’s Another $150 Billion in Debt…
The House, the Senate and President Obama have painted themselves into a corner once again, passing and signing off on yet another $150 billion in new debt in the form of an extension of the so-called payroll tax cut, before the two month Bandaid they passed late last year runs out.
Not only did they add to the already insurmountable debt but they added to the looming short fall in funding of Social Security. I continue to be amazed by the roll over and play dead Obama media that doesn’t bat an eye about this defunding of, to use the Liberal terminology, “America’s safety net”.
Instead we get bombarded by lines like allowing this cut to expire would be “a tax increase on the poor and middle class.” What happened to all of the indignant Democrat voters who wanted to string up then Senator Rick Santorum for having the nerve to suggest that taxpayers be allowed to take the exact same amount of their Social Security money, 2% and invest it as they see fit for their future retirement? They made it seem like that 2% was the difference between Grandma having a roof over her head and being out on the street.

A serious question comes to mind; when will it be acceptable to put the 2% payroll tax back in place? We simply can’t continue to under-fund the Social Security account and expect it to survive. One of the biggest contributing factors to Santorum losing the election was the scare tactics the Democrats rolled out regarding Social Security and now they are doing something even worse and completely removing the money from the system.
And for what? You’ll hear the bullshit and lies that this money will stimulate the economy and help families; how much impact did the first full year of payroll tax cuts work out for stimulating the economy? Real unemployment, not the bullshit government numbers, but the actual hard numbers that include people who have dropped out of the work force hovers around 15-17%.
Put it in perspective, this cut will put about $40-$50 per month in the average American’s pocket. That equates to a couple of pizza’s or a partially filled gas tank a month! Now let’s take the actual costs to pay for this; the upfront number is about $150 million, but paying back the money we borrowed to do this will cost us a whole heck of a lot more over time. So is it really worth it?

Speaking of the Obama Roll Over and Play Dead Media

With $4 a gallon gasoline looming ever closer and talk of $5 a gallon gas, I’m wondering where all of the Democrat and media outrage over gas prices that we heard during the George W. Bush administration has gone? It seems like all we heard about was the Bush Cheney ties to “Big Oil” and there were calls for investigations of gouging and huge profits taxation for Democrats. But now with the Community Organizer in Chief in office all we get is the sound of crickets.

The fact of the matter is that when Obama took office the price of gas was $1.79 a gallon for regular unleaded, so we have seen the price soar by more than double! The mere talk of the Keystone XL Pipeline caused the price per gallon to drop; then the Community Organizer in Chief blocks the pipeline and what has happened to the price of gas since then?

Speaking of the Obama Roll Over and Play Dead Media – Part 2

Rick Santorum supporter…supporter, not campaign spokesman, Foster Friess makes an old joke and the Obama Roll Over and Play Dead Media gets their panties in a knot and froths at the mouth to express their outrage. The fact that they want to hold Santorum responsible for what a supporter says is absolutely astounding!

The Community Organizer in Chief gets a free pass on comments and acts that are a whole lot more incendiary from his supporters like his Pastor of over 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones and his neighbor/co-worker Bill Ayers among others.

It’s absolutely laughable to see MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell getting her granny panties in a bunch during the interview with Friess and then have her co-worker Chris “Tingles” Matthews slurr his outrage and claim that Republicans hate women! This from the guy who called Michelle Bachmann a “balloon head.” I guess for Matthews the fact that Democrats like Bill Clinton who blew his load on the intern and and Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd’s exploits with waitress sandwiches prove how much Democrats love women!

Can’t wait to see what the Rev. Al Sharpton, a guy who gives Ed Shultz and Rachel Maddow a run for their money for the title of “Dumbest Man on TV” has to say about all this!

Odds and Sods

2012-02-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

• Now that Obama’s trampling of religious freedom has blown up squarely in his face, he is trying to sidestep the issue by changing his mind and putting a big government program in its place to dole out contraceptives. So much for the one year waiting period to role this out…this will be in place by August of this year, well in advance of the election so it can become another entrenched program. Quick! Name one temporary government program or tax? Can’t do it! Once this gets done, it will be mean spirited Republicans who don’t care about women’s rights if they try to role this up when Obama gets sent packing. The time to stop this is NOW! Think about it…what gives the Community Organizer in Chief the right to enact this? This guy is acting more dictatorial everyday; just imagine if he gets a second term?

• For years Liberals have accused Conservatives of wanting to be in everyone’s bedrooms; frankly speaking for myself and most conservatives, I don’t give a hoot what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home, not sure the same can be said about Liberals. You can’t seem to be able to keep Libs out of your kitchen with Mrs. Community Organizer wanting to tell everyone what they can and can’t eat and what schools kids can eat and now she’s even sticking her nose into the military’s chow lines trying to force feed veggies to the troops. Sorry but I trust these grown men and women to make their own choices when it comes to the food they eat! Don’t think they need Nanny Michelle to hold their hand.

• I love how Liberal environmental types get so worked up about mercury in the water system, yet they want to force you to have mercury in your home, with their poison pigtail light bulbs! You need to get guys in Tyvek suits with special respirators to clean up if you break one of these stupid things! So really, what’s more dangerous?

• Liberals claim to be pro-choice unless your choice involves not paying for contraceptives, which fly in the face of your belief system, then choice goes out the window. Why won’t they just admit that what they really are; Pro Abortion! They are pro-government dependency! The whole argument over the Catholic Church being forced to pay for contraception speaks volumes about the mindset of liberals. They are so used to pimping for dependency that they think that people aren’t free to choose where they work. If you work for an institution that has a health insurance plan that doesn’t cover contraceptives and you want that coverage, here’s a news flash; you can go get a job working for a company that covers that under their plan! Freedom of choice- what a concept!

Dahlkemper Parades Her Stupidity

2012-02-08T06:13:00.000-08:00

Former Erie Congresswomen Kathy Dahlkemper just can’t seem to contain herself, insisting on parading her stupidity.
The Weekly Standard, picked up on a press release fired off by the oxymoronically named Democrats for Life of America, denouncing the Obama administration’s decision to force religious institutions like Catholic schools and other institutions to pick up the tab for employee contraceptives under the Obamacare health care reform plan, which has Dahlkemper claiming that she would not have voted for the bill had she known this would be the outcome.

"I would have never voted for the final version of the bill if I expected the Obama Administration to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic Colleges and Universities to pay for contraception,” said Dahlkemper. "We worked hard to prevent abortion funding in health care and to include clear conscience protections for those with moral objections to abortion and contraceptive devices that cause abortion. I trust that the President will honor the commitment he made to those of us who supported final passage."

The story has been picked up by the Drudge Report and the Blaze, leading to reader comments calling Dahlkemper stupid, lazy, incompetent, naïve and worse.
I find it odd that it wasn’t that long ago that Ms. Dahlkemper proclaimed publicly how proud she was of her vote for the Obamacare bill because she helped to author the part of the virtually unread bill that extended parental healthcare coverage to offspring to 26 years old. Now she suddenly came to the realization that she had been played like a cheap fiddle by Obama and his minion Nancy Pelosi just to get her vote.

Maybe it’s time for Ms. Dahlkemper to come to grips with the fact that voters sent her packing largely based on her Obamacare vote and to borrow a line from heavy metal poets Motley Crue, “don’t go away mad, just go away.”

Dylan Ratigan – Greedy Bastards (Simon & Shuster)

2012-02-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

I have always found the portrayal of Conservatives as “angry white guys” entertaining and misguided. Grab your Advil, tune in MSNBC, which is guaranteed to induce a headache, and soak up to nearly non-stop anger and bitterness of the cavalcade of Liberal hosts.
That is the point you have to start from when you read Greedy Bastards by Dylan Ratigan, host of MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show, described by the press materials accompanying the book as “one of the highest-rated, daytime shows on the network.” Talk about damning with faint praise…given the cable news channel’s less than stellar audience numbers.

In Greedy Bastards, Ratigan attempts to details his perspective on our “broken system.” He runs down what ails a wide variety of problems ranging from banking to the stock market and healthcare to big oil/energy. Taking off on his crusade to remove money from politics, Ratigan attempts to draw correlations between the root cause of the problem and the flow of cash to politicians.

I don’t disagree! But I do find it interesting that Ratigan spent much of his early career as a financial journalist covering Wall Street yet he didn’t do a whole lot to raise red flags about the ridiculous Ponzi schemes and outright fraudulent financial instruments that the folks he was charged with covering were creating that became part and parcel of the financial meltdown tsunami that mowed down the housing, banking, finance and insurance industries in it’s wake. These guys created a financial house of cards that got a total pass from the regulators and politicians that wrap themselves in the cloak of looking out for the little guy and Ratigan stood idly by and said nothing until now.

Full disclosure; my day job is in the healthcare industry, so I read that section of the book with great interest. Ratigan lays out a classic example of his friend “Larry” who was clearly suffering a repetitive stress hand injury and was offered medical advice to address the issue with physical therapy which would have offered some relief. “Larry” decided not to follow through on the exercises that were recommended…let me stress that point; “Larry” decided not to follow through on the exercises that were recommended, and later needed to have surgery to solve the problem. It seems more than a bit ridiculous to indict the entire industry based on a patient choice.

Surprisingly, Ratigan does offer up a market based solution to the problem of the high cost of healthcare, rather than turning to the government to fix the problem. He advocates for a solution that I have pushed for many years; allowing market forces of health savings accounts and patient choices to drive down the cost of healthcare through competition and increasing quality.
The roadblock to most solutions tends to be the government and a HUGE increase in regulation. Ratigan bemoans some regulation, while pushing for new regulations, never accounting to the very real costs of those regulations and the fact that regulatory costs get passed through the so-called “greedy bastards” and get paid by the end-users.
The cartoonish cover may not have been the best choice, because it sets the tone for Ratigan’s BAM, BIFF, POW, approach; skimming the surface of very real issues, yet not really offering much in the way of in-depth solutions to the problems. Instead he chooses to nibble around the edges of solutions or offering up tried and failed solutions; like the electric car to solve the so-called energy crisis.
The real solution is not getting money out of politics, which is a limitation on free speech. The real solution is an energized, alert and informed electorate that pays attention and calls their elected officials when the put self-interest over public interest and an electorate that understands that the government is not the source of solving problems, but the source of creating problems.

Little Bobby - Unemployment Benefits = Jobs

2012-01-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

No one ever accused Pennsylvania's current senior Senator of being a genius. He joins a chorus of clueless Democrats that cling to the silly belief that continuing unemployment benefits creates jobs.

Amazing that he isn't clear on the question if the President can claim that we are better off today than we were when he took office. Three years into this disastrous administration the better question is will we ever recover from this mess!

Betsy Myers - Take The Lead (Atria Books)

2012-01-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

Ms. Myers was the COO of the Barack Obama presidential campaign and chaired the Women for Obama campaign organization in the last election cycle. She has served as the executive director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She, like her sister Dee Dee, was a senior official in the Clinton administration, working as the President’s advisor on women’s issues; women’s issues… not the President’s issues with women…I’ll leave it to you to fill in your own punch line.

Suffice it to say that Myers has tackled some high profile, high powered leadership roles. Yet I find her book, Take the Lead, as not so much a leadership book, but rather a set of what she describes as 7 core principles, that she wraps with political anecdotes as an example of those principles in practice.
Myers 7 principles include:

• Connection – Making people feel seen and heard

• Collaboration – Being willing to embrace different points of view

• Authenticity – Knowing who you are

• Respect – Treating each person as important

• Clarity – laser focus and uncompromising consistency

• Learning - always listening and staying open to new ideas

• Courage – The courage to take risks; to apologize; to tell the truth; to grow

This could be the most contradictory list I have ever seen. Taking Ms. Myers at her own words, how can you be willing to embrace different points of view and be open to new ideas, yet remain uncompromisingly consistent? Does this say more about my Myers background in the political realm then about leadership?

Politicians by their very nature are some of the least authentic people I have ever encountered. Realistically speaking, if Barack Obama had been genuinely authentic during his Presidential campaign, does anyone really believe that he would have been elected President?
Boiling it down, Ms. Myers “core principles” aren’t a road map to leadership, but a road map to becoming a Democrat politician. It reads like a playbook for talking a good game, but doesn’t really show how to deliver the goods, which is really what Democrat elective politics have become – make it sound like you care about and issue/person, act like you’re going to do something, but never really deliver on a promise.

It’s interesting that the two powerful leaders that Ms. Myers worked for were so uniquely skilled at connection, yet such utter failures at having the courage to tell the truth. Interesting political insights…maybe. Leadership book…not so much.

Bill Bennett- The Book of Man- Readings on the Path to Manhood (Thomas Nelson Books)

2011-10-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

The introduction of talk show host/commentator/former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett’s new book The Book of Man is as thought provoking a handful of pages as I have read lately. In it he makes the case that the state of manhood in America has gone through a dramatic and altogether not good transition over the course of the past couple of decades.

While it is not Bennett’s premise, I think the case can be made that we can trace the current malaise we find ourselves mired in, to the pussification of the American male. We have steadily erased some of the cornerstones of what made men, men. And Bennett’s book wants to put in place a framework, through the written word, to put manhood back into its rightful place, by changing the way we teach the next generation of males.

Think about it. We have erased from our society some of the most basic tenets of manhood. We whimpify boys by not allowing them to keep score in youth sports; going a step further when we actually allow scoring in scholastic sports, teams who win a lopsided victory are chastised for “running up the score.”

We have raised a generation of men not to seek knowledge and pursue critical thinking skills, but to merely get good grades. I recently took part in a discussion with a college professor who studies generational differences who spoke of the disturbing trend where college students are likely to have a parent call a professor about a bad grade or even go so far as to bring along a parent on job interviews!

We have taught a generation of men that they are inconsequential to the family unit; that women are strong and don’t really need them around. Is it any wonder that we have tragic divorce rates, scores of children being born and raised out of wedlock and where in the 1950s 96 percent of males between the ages of 25-54 worked; today that number stands at around 80 percent. Yes, a full 20 percent, one fifth of men do not get up and go to work each day!

Where once men took care of families, the government now plays the role of provider. No I am not a chauvinist, women are certainly a vital part of the work force and the family, but how can you read these numbers and not see that we have created an unsustainable and growing problem of dependency.

The Book Of Man is not a prescription to fix this problem, but gathers the writings of great thinkers on a variety of topics including; Man at Work, Man at Play, and Man with Women and Children, which can at the very least envision a different sort of path to manhood than we currently find ourselves on.

I can’t help but wonder if instead of government handouts if we might see a greater benefit in handing out copies of Mr. Bennett’s book. I also have to wonder if the maggot-infested flock of Wall Street Occupiers might benefit from a copy of the Book of Man…maybe we could enlist someone to read it to them, or better yet, we could set up a large PA system and blast them with the audio book version 24/7.

John Edwards...Quite A Guy

2011-10-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

What kind of a guy has an affair, knocks up the dumb slut and then asks other people to foot the bill to try to hide said slut from his wife and the tabloid media all while running for President? Keep in mind that this guy has a fortune estimated at between 30 and 40 MILLION DOLLARS!

That of course would be John Edwards!

Who smiles for a mug shot?

Now the trail lawyer turned politician is trying desperately to get out from under a Federal case charging him with circumvent campaign finance laws when he asked a couple of wealthy campaign donors to pony up nearly a million bucks in secret cash to try to hide campaign videographer and not too bright slut Rielle Hunter from the prying eyes of the National Enquirer and his cancer stricken wife Elizabeth.

Edwards’s lawyer filed an armload of motions in a North Carolina court room today to try to cut the legs out from under the government’s case. Edwards’ mouthpiece Abbe Lowell is claiming that the “Silky Pony” knew nothing about the payments and that the cash never made its way through the campaign coffers.

You’ve got to wonder what kind of people become so enamored with a politician that that would be willing to stroke checks for huge money to help the guy cover up his indiscretions? Makes you wonder what the expectations were for a quid pro quo if the second tier Edwards miraculously could have pulled off the election win?

Seriously, this whole episode could have been avoided, if Edwards had just sucked it up and took the hit or easier still would have covered his slut fund out of his own fortune. Makes you wonder not only about his character, but also his lack of intelligence.

Bobby the Bundler...Looking Out of Pennsylvania

2011-10-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Running my finger down the list of some 351 campaign donation "bundlers" who collected some $55.5 million in campaign cash, in the most recent quater, for the Obama For America and Obama Victory Fund 2012 Volunteer Fundraisers mixed in among the Hollywood 1 Percenters like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Katzenberg was none other than Pennsylvania Senator Bobby Casey Jr.

Bobby The Bundler apparently wasn't too busy looking out for the best interests of the citizens of the Commonwealth to take out some time to hit up enough foloks to lan himself a spot in the $50,000 to $100,000 catagory on the list

Could it possibly be that things are going so well that Bobby Jr. has nothing else to do but play bank teller to the President? Isn't bad enough that he plays rubber stamp in the Senate?

If You Believe Liberals...

2011-10-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

If you believe Liberals...then you would have to believe:

That it would be a good idea to create lists of rich people, so that "social pressure" could be applied to those money grubbers to "give some back." Perhaps former Jimmy Carter national security advisor Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, is just longing for the good old days of his youth in Warsaw, Poland. Besides list makers don't have a checkered past in world history right??

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Or if you point out that 47% of Americans DO NOT PAY Federal income tax...then obviously you are a racist. Just ask ask MSNBC Race Relations commentator and The Nation magazine contributor Melissa Harris-Perry...

And last but not least, you would have to believe that well know racist and alleged singer Harry Bellefonte was "meditating" according to his agent, rather than catching a quick nap during a recebt TV interview...

Amazing!

President Obama Left Speechless!

2011-10-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

Oh the humanity! NBC affiliate WWBT TV in in Henrico, Virginia has broken a major news story, with word that President Obama was struck dumb today! No it's not some mysterious illness that has stricken the President's voice, but the fact that thieves have apparently stolen the President's Teleprompter from the parking lot of the Virginia Commons Courtyard Marriott, in advance of a Presidential campaign visit.

Known for his soaring orratorrical skills, the President rarely makes off the cuff comments, relying on the ever-present smokey gray screens with rolling text rimming the stage. One wonders what will happen to the man's schedule until replacements can be sourced?

Hank Yanks Back

2011-10-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

I pointed out on Monday, ESPN pulled the Hank Williams Jr. song All My Rowdy Friends from it’s intro to Monday Night Football over comments Williams made on Fox And Friends and that the sports network was well within it’s rights to yank Hank.

Well now comes word from the Hank Jr. camp that that he would be pulling the rights to use the song from the networks broadcasts. “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” he wrote. “By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.”

As an artist who retains the rights to his product, in this case his song, Williams has the right to choose who he wants to do business with. If Hank Jr. does like ESPNs response to his comment, then he has every right to tell ESPN to stick where the sun don’t shine. Freedom is a wonderful thing!

Debbie Does Dumb

2011-10-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought she couldn’t get any more stupid, Democrat National Committee chair, Florida Congresswomen, Debbie “Dumbasshit” Shultz rides again. Schultz insisted to CNSNews.com yesterday that “anyone’ can see that the economy is improving and sought to interpret what Pres. Obama really meant when he admitted Monday that Americans were not better off today than four years ago.

“Well, what President Obama said was that certainly since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, that Americans are not better off,” Wasserman Schultz told CNSNews.com. “That was specifically the president’s comment. I thought. And I think anyone who looks at the economy knows we have come a long way.

DNC Chair Debbie "Dumbasshit' Shultz proudly displays her IQ...on two hands

Really? Anyone? I wonder if this clueless, drooling, moron would like to ask the nearly 116 thousand Americans that lost their jobs last month, the largest number in two years, if they think things are getting better?

Does this women really think that all of the American people are as stupid as the voters who elected her? So much for the best and the brightest.

ESPN Yanks Hank

2011-10-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

While making an appearance on Fox News channel's Fox and Friends morning program country music legend Hank Williams Jr. criticized President Obama for his golf summit with House Speaker John Boehner this summer; “It would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli leader) Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Naturally the comment got picked up by the media and this afternoon ESPN announced that it would dropped Williams classic Monday Night Football open, "Are You Ready for Some Football" from the game broadcast.

ESPN released the following statement: “While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

Naturally Hank Jr. fans are ticked off at ESPNs actions, lighting up comment sections on news stories about the move, many bemoaning the "death of free speech." Sorry, but ESPN, or any other media company outlet for that matter, doesn't control free speech and they have the right to yank Hank! Feel free to fire away, but first remember the Dixie Chicks. When lead Chick Natalie Maines blathered on about George W. Bush and country music stations yanked the trios music, liberals went berserk about free speech and censorship.

To be consistent, businesses can not censor, only governments can! Hank Jr. or the Dixie Chicks have the freedom to say what they want! And businesses and individual consumers have the same right to deliver consequences for those comments. Maines for all intents killed the Dixie Chicks career as a consequence of her comments. I doubt Williams will feel the same kind of impact, but ESPN certainly has the prerogative to exercise the actions it took.

Mitch Daniels: This Guy Gets It

2011-10-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Mitch Daniels – Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans (Sentinel)

Usually politicians author lofty treatises on their ideas or plans for changing, transforming or fixing America when they aspire to higher office. These books tend to be one part biography, one part historical and one part multi-point road map to fixing a problem.

The fact the Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has already declared his non-candidacy for the President, makes his new book Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans more intriguing.

Daniels’ book is a guide book for American exceptionalism. He not only understands that the only way out of the country’s current financial mess is to get government out of the way of the American people, he advocates that the answer lies with the people. Daniels knows that the more that government tries to fix the problem (that more often than not they created) the worse the problem becomes.

Daniels outlines the sheer immensity of the problem we are facing and ties it directly to the growth of government in our lives. In the chapter entitled “Shrunken Citizens” Daniels addresses the reduction of freedoms tied to government growth. It brings to mind the analogy of the frog dropped into a pot of boiling water that hops back out versus the frog in the pot of warm water that slowly has the heat turned up until it is cooked alive. The government intrusion has come a slow, steady, pace.

Daniels drives home the point while outlining the damage done by the passage of Obamacare. He details how government wage and price controls lead to business offering healthcare coverage. This has created the mindset is that somebody else will pay the bill, which has turned into an “inefficient model that has allowed Americans to grow accustomed to the idea to the idea that when it comes to the most personal and important purchase of all, those affecting their health, they are sheep, bystanders to the process in which they have neither the competence to decide what services to buy nor the intelligence to determine for themselves what price is too high for the value they are likely to obtain.”

Amazingly, Daniels approached his job with the seemingly unique mindset that he shouldn’t spend more of the taxpayers money than he takes in. Daniels is an example, or should be, of the new American mindset when it comes to government overspending.

It’s easy to understand why big government, Democrats misread the American people, thinking Daniels would be an easy political target when he ran for re-election. It was Daniels taking a tough stance on spending that transformed his state deficit to a surplus and positioned Indiana in a way to better absorb the recession of 2008.

Daniels approach to governance would not only see him easily win a second term, but also serve as a guidepost to leaders like Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey, Rick Scott in Florida, John Kasich in Ohio and Scott Walker in Wisconsin.

News Flash: Debates Don't Matter!

2011-09-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

I love the fact that Liberals want to be so helpful to Republicans when it comes to selecting the nominee who will challenge Barack Obama in the 2012 election. Liberals go out of their way to suggest that the Republican field of Presidential hopefuls is weak and utterly lacking in anyone who has a real shot at removing Obama from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It ranges from slurring morons like Chris Matthews who regularly dips into not only the happy juice, but also into the tried and tired Liberal playbook that Republicans are lacking in intellectual curiosity and are generally flat out stupid. This is nothing new; George W. Bush was a stupid party boy, His father was out of touch with “real people” and Reagan was an amiable dunce according to the geniuses of the mainstream media.

Based on Texas Governor Rick Perry’s recent less than stellar debate performance has brought out a cavalcade of liberal critics wanting to handicap the Republican field. Eugene Robinson, the Kermit the Frog voiced, columnist for the Washington Post, utilized his latest column to declare the entire Republican field as a bunch of dogs.

Here’s the rub for Liberals; Presidential primary debates are meaningless. Earlier this week while subjecting myself the Morning Joe on MSNBC, someone posited a question about the importance of debates to which veteran NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell dismissed the question with no debate with the response, “of course debates are important.” Just so I am perfectly clear even to Mrs. Alan Greenspan (Mitchell) let me re-state my point; PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATES ARE MEANINGLESS.

For political junkies, debates are high entertainment value events and down right fun to discuss. When it comes to picking the eventual nominee, the really don’t matter. Quick question who won the 2008 Republican Presidential primary debates? Believe it or not there were over 20 debates held during the 2008 cycle. Of those, roughly 11 were what I would call “major” debates; meaning there was a wide array of candidates who participated in a media sponsored format and included top-tier candidates. Sorry but Tom Tancredo standing on a stage by himself does not equal a debate for me.

Of those 11 debates, how many did the eventual Republican Presidential candidate John McCain win? Well based on media reports, Congressman Ron Paul won 5 of the 11; Governor Mitt Romney bested the field in 4 of the 11 and Governor Mike Huckabee won 2, leaving John McCain with zip, zero, zilch, nada in the win column. If debates are such a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to winning the nomination, then how did John McCain ever get the nomination? (Believe me I have asked myself that question any number of times, but not based on his performance in the debates!)

The bottom line for liberal dipwads boils down to this any one of the announced candidates, including Ron Paul, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, hell even Congressman Thaddeus McCotter and unannounced, potential candidates like Sarah Palin, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie or Florida Senator Marco Rubio would be a better choice for President than the current, temporary resident of the White House.

Clueless in Massachusetts,

2011-09-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

Former White House financial reform adviser Elizabeth Warren, who recently launched her bid to unseat Republican Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts, recently rattled off her spin on class warfare.

Here is the transcript of the certifiable Marxist’s comments;

“I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.

“You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.

“Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Apparently Ms. Warren is completely oblivious to the point that the person she talks about building the factory and hiring the workers, likely paid a disproportionate amount of the taxes that paid for the roads, the schools and the police and firefighters that she prattles on about.

Ms. Warren thinks nothing of the fact that this person also put their and their families resources at risk to start the factory, with no guarantee that they would be successful and I would bet that they willingly took that risk without a second thought to having their neighbors bail them out if things didn’t work out and the business was not successful! Something I doubt can be said about Ms. Warren and her ilk, seem to think that the government can fix all problems.

Warren apparently can’t comprehend that people of her ilk have buried factory owners in so many layers of ridiculous regulations that the cost of doing business has been skewed so dramatically, that many folks aren’t willing to take the risk of failure, hence the economic struggles we currently find ourselves in.

While RINO Scott Brown is far from an ideal choice, he’s miles ahead of this clueless, drooling moron.

Social Security = Ponzi Scheme

2011-09-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

I love the lazy media’s reaction to Governor Rick Perry, Republican Presidential candidate, calling the Social Security system a Ponzi scheme. Naturally they miss the qualification the Perry puts on his comments, that current recipients and those who are poised to join the system have nothing to worry about, but it is the young workers just starting out that are being taken to the cleaners by this huge lie.

For those clueless media types and their Liberal friends who like to scare old people into thinking that anyone who talks about changing Social Security really wants to take it away…let me share this definition of a Ponzi scheme…

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going. The system is destined to collapse because the earnings, if any, are less than the payments to investors.

Does any of that sound like Social Security? HELL YES IT DOES! The last I checked, the actual rate of return on the money that people invest in the social security system is about 1 to 1.5 percent. The need for an ever-increasing flow of money sounds oddly familiar when it come to the social security system.

So is Rick Perry some big dumb cowboy, like the lazy media would have you believe, or is the guy right on?

Follow the Liberal Logic…“Let's take these son of bitches out”

2011-09-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

The following is an exercise in Liberal Logic:

Yesterday, while appearing at a Labor Day rally in Michigan, Jimmy Hoffa Jr. the head thug of the Teamsters Union loudly and now famously proclaimed of the Tea Party, “Let's take these son of bitches out”.

Today comes news out of Senator Harry Reid’s state of Nevada, that a currently un-named gunman opened fire inside an IHOP restaurant, wounding six and killing three, including two uniformed members of the National Guard.

Run this through the Liberal Logic machine that claimed that Sarah Palin’s “targeted” Congressional districts, somehow encouraged Jared Loughner to launch a murderous rampage, gunning down innocent bystanders and Congresswomen Gabby Giffords.

So where are the cries of outrage from Harry Reid, DNC Chair Debbie Dumbasdirt-Shultz, Nancy Peolosi and other deranged Liberals, claiming that Hoffa’s fiery rhetoric was the root cause of these terrible, senseless shootings? ***Insert Cricket Sounds Here*** Clearly many members of the military are supporters/members of the Tea Party movement, so it would follow that this shooter was some deranged, union member, hellbent to cap some Tea Party types.

Now do I know for a fact that this shooter was a union member? Or that he heard Jimmy Hoffa’s ridiculous and incendiary comments? No. But when did actual hard facts ever matter to Liberal Logic? They never bothered to get the facts before they launched the attack on Sarah Palin.

Once again, this just another illustration that proves how twisted and illogical the thought processes of Liberals really are.

Warning: Don't Let Your Kids Watch This Crap!

2011-08-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Love the opening paragraphs from the Nickelodeon television network release…

On September 1st at 9 pm, Nickelodeon will premiere their commercial free special on Nick News With Linda Ellerbee entitled What Happened?: The Story of September 11, 2001. This show will help shine a light on the facts and inform kids on the importance of the events of 9/11.

Being the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Nick thinks it is important to teach kids that do not have a first hand recollection of how the events occurred and clear up any misconceptions or unanswered questions they may have.

Now…what television network will air a special to clear up the lunatic liberal misconceptions and out right lies that a card-carrying lefty like Ellerbee is bound to spread? Please avoid the confusion, don’t let your kids watch this crap.

Land of the Free...Home of the Whimps!

2011-08-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

Yes. I felt the earthquake. My first reaction was I was bit lightheaded; then I saw my computer monitor shaking. I didn’t say anything to folks in other offices down the hall, because I thought it was no big deal.

I got a quick confirmation from the radio stream I was listening to, with news reports of a quake near Washington, DC. Then I went about my business, only to be inundated with BREAKING NEWS reports of building being evacuated in New York and DC followed by wall to wall reports of peoples reactions. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

The ground shook for about 30 seconds…there were NO reports of buildings being toppled or loss of life…this thing measured 5.8 on the Richter Scale. An interesting rumble, but really…buildings were evacuated in Scranton, Pennsylvania?! Penndot sent a crew of engineers out around the state to examine roads and bridges for possible damage!

When did we become such WHIMPS!?

Were not talking about Hati or Japan where buildings were converted to rubble and the ground was literally ripped open. Read the reports! Some rocks fell off the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument may (or may not) have a crack in it! Really? This deserved wall to wall breaking news coverage? C’mon! The ground rumbled for 30 seconds! BIG DEAL!

Jeez suck it up! Be a man for God’s sake! Next thing you know you’ll be reading about Bill “Big Mac” Clinton becoming a vegan! Oh wait…what’s become of this once proud nation…

What’s the Common Thread Here?

2011-08-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

While President Obama was touring lily white flyover country in his Canadian built bus, talking up buying American to put people back to work, the Congressional Black Caucus led by Congress-monster Maxine Waters have been conducting a jobs fair tour in places like Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.

Waters made headlines at the Detroit stop when she was quoted as saying; “We don’t put pressure on the president,” said Waters to cheers and jeers as people interrupted at will and yelled at her. “Let me tell you why. We don‘t put pressure on the president because ya’ll love the president. You love the president. You’re very proud…to have a black man [in the White House] …First time in the history of the United States of America. If we go after the president too hard, you’re going after us.”

She then told the fired-up crowd that voters must “unleash” the Democrats on Obama before criticizing him for not visiting any “black community” during his bus tour:

“When you tell us it‘s alright and you unleash us and you tell us you’re ready for us to have this conversation, we’re ready to have the conversation. The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president too. We‘re supportive of the president but we’re getting tired ya’ll…we’re getting tired. And so, what we want to do is…we want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he’s prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity…but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don’t know what the strategy is. We don‘t know why on this trip that he’s in the United States now, he’s not in any black community…we don’t know that.”

I thought it was kind of interesting that the CBC chose these five cities to hold their job fairs. What do these five cities have in common? They have largely been run by Democrat Mayors for much of their history!

Look at the amazing electoral history of these cities and it’s easy to grasp the long term problems faced by their residents. The tour kicked off in Cleveland Ohio, a city that elected a Democrat 8 out of the past 10 Mayors, dating back to 1946; including Dennis “Spaceman” Kucinich! Need I say more?

Detroit, has had a Democrat Mayor for the past 49 years, dating back to 1962. Miami has had a Democrat Mayor every year since 1947, 64 years. Atlanta has elected 9 Mayors since 1942, all of them Democrats. Oddly enough it’s Los Angeles that has the most varied Mayoral past mixing both Democrat and Republican Mayors, but with the 20 year tenure of Tom Bradley dominating the cities recent history.

If you have any common sense it has to raise the question, why would voters, facing long term, deeply ingrained problems like unemployment, crime, drugs, poverty…you get the idea; continue to elect Democrats, hoping for a different outcome? Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

Dumb and Dumber

2011-08-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought liberals couldn't get any dumber comes this from Obama's Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: "Well, obviously, it's putting people to work. Which is why we're going to have some interesting things in the course of the forum this morning. Later this morning, we're going have a press conference with Secretary Mavis and Secretary Chu to announce something that's never happened in this country -- something that we think is exciting in terms of job growth.

Yes...this really is Obama's Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack...amazing

I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the food stamp program, you have to recognize that it's also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times."

Can Anyone Really Be This Stupid?

2011-08-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

At the daily press gaggle at the White House, Obama’s mouth piece Jay Carney got into it with a Wall Street Journal reporter and had this to say about unemployment checks
“It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren’t running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They’re not going to save it, they’re going to spend it. And with unemployment insurance, that way, the money goes directly back into the economy, dollar for dollar virtually.”

Following this twisted logic; given all of the people who have been collecting unemployment checks during the Obama presidency, if unemployment checks really did create jobs, then wouldn’t our unemployment rate be below 5% rather than hanging where it’s been for months, above 9%?!

Can anyone really be this stupid?

Oh…wait a minute…then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said this of unemployment benefits back in July of 2010… “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”

I guess the short answer is…yes…Democrats really can be that stupid!

If unemployment checks really created jobs…then why work? Don’t you want to help the economy?

Real Hope, For a Change…

2011-08-11T05:27:00.000-07:00

While I’m certainly not holding my breath for much to come of the so-called “super-committee” that is tasked with hashing out a debt deal, at least there is some good news as Sen. Mitch McConnell has named Pennsylvania’s junior senator, Pat Toomey to the Republican team.

Toomey is a real deal, small government, conservative with solid credentials on the finance side of things including a stint as the president of the Club for Growth. Toomey is joined in the Republican senate contingent by relatively reliable Arizona Sen. John Kyl and Rob Portman of Ohio. Portman is a guy who cut his teeth on economic issues as a member of the House of Representatives, then moving to the Bush 43 White House. Portman was a close ally of former Erie Congressman Phil English.

The Democrat contingent from the senate is comprised of usual suspect, lightweights including; John Kerry, who “fought” in Viet Nam and has made it his life’s practice to spend other people’s money, Max Baucus of Montana, and Patty “Empty Suit” Murray of Washington. Intellectual firepower is not a term I would use to describe the Democrat lineup.

Rounding out the Republican team is House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan. Upton was the genius responsible for putting out the legislation banning the incandescent light bulb, so I can’t say I have high hopes for him to hold the line on tax increases and slashing spending.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi….sorry…I still like the sound of that so much I need to say it again…House minority leader Nancy Pelosi apparently has some pressing Botox treatments she needs to get taken care of before announcing her choices, she has until August 16 to make her picks. Wonder if they will include a member of the Congressional Black Caucus?

Baltimore Mayoral Candidate Proposes Increase in Crime

2011-07-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

It’s is an age old political practice for candidates for office to talk about their plan to deal with violent crime, but a Baltimore, Democrat, Mayoral candidate has a visionary plan that amounts to proposing an increase in crime!

Otis Rolley has rolled out The Rolley Plan to Make Every Neighborhood in Baltimore Safer, an eight page manifesto that includes the cornerstone plan “to impose a $1 per bullet tax (or about $50 per pack).” The genius of Mr. Rolley’s plan reasons that the tax “will increase substantially the financial cost of committing a crime and, unlike guns, bullets cannot be shared after their initial use.” Pretty tough to argue the reuse point…even with Rolley’s habit of referring to himself in the third person throughout the document!

Like most mind-numbed gun control types, Mr. Rolley deludes himself into thinking that average dirt bag criminals all head down to their local gun shop or sporting goods store and fill out all of the government forms and get the necessary clearances and permits to purchase a gun and therefore would head to said weapons purveyor to dutifully pay the buck a bullet tax before committing a crime spree. Since the pack of bullets now features an excessive government tax, the crime problem is solved! Much like the delusional democrats who think you can tax your way to prosperity, this nitwit thinks you can tax your way to safety!

In reality, what this moronic plan will do is make it more expensive for actual law abiding, gun owners to purchase ammunition that they can use to defend themselves from scumbags who want to do them harm! The result will be an increase in violent crime, because the criminals, who more often than not steal their guns and ammunition, will realize that it’s less likely that the potential victim will be less likely to be able to defend themselves!

The problem with Liberal thinking often ends up being the unintended consequences of the actions they take. Eco-geniuses had us ban DDT use in 1972 to allegedly protect endangered species; and the unintended consquences include by some estimates tens of thousands of deaths do to malaria.

Hopefully Mr. Rolley’s political career will amount to a failed run for Mayor, so we don’t have to start a countdown on the unintended deaths caused by his ridiculous plan.

Common Sense Vs. Politi-speak

2011-07-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

I love politi-speak. More often than not politi-speak comes about when liberal politicians need to use words to fashion a more voter friendly message. As the debate over raising the debate ceiling continues to rage we have been inundated by calls from President Obama and what passes as leadership of the Democrat party for a solution that includes;“an increase in revenues.”

Washington claims they need more money, so what better way to get more money than to “increase revenue” right? This poltii-speak has become very popular with the media; with members of the drooling moron media from MSNBC, CNBC, CNN and the like latching on and repeating the term with regularity.
The problem is, not one of the drooling set has called this politi-speak what it really is; an increase in taxes! The Democrats know full well that they can’t come out and tell the American people that they want to raise taxes!
Concerned that there might be a handful of folks who can see through the ruse of “revenue increase” the Democrats have also taken to painting this tax increase as “closing loopholes” in the tax law that give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations for private jets.
That sounds good too, right? Stick it to those greedy bastards and their luxury items. Once again the drooling moron media buys into this line of crap too. Hey even “Republicans” like Joke Scarborough from Morning Joke on MSNBC has labeled this idea as “common sense.”
Here’s the problem, you may think it’s absolutely stupid to give corporations and billionaires tax breaks for buying private jets, but think about it this way; not about who buys these planes, who builds these planes? Add to that who sells these planes? Add to that what goes into building those planes?
Think about it? There has to be millions of parts; plastic, metal, fabric, rubber, the list goes on and on that goes into the building of an aircraft. All of those parts and pieces are built by somebody, sold by somebody, engineered by somebody, manufactured by somebody, sold buy somebody. These somebody’s have JOBS! And they pay taxes! Yes they contribute revenue to the Federal Government!
If we follow the “common sense” thinking of Morning Joke, what is the likelihood that billionaires are going to cut back on buying new or additional planes? If this so-called loophole in the tax law encourages them to take advantage of savings and buy a plane, then that loophole is doing something the Obama administration has failed miserably to do; it’s created jobs!
Instead of closing this alleged loophole, maybe we should look at additional ways to encourage billionaires and corporations to spend more money! The same fundamental flaw exists in the Democrats “increase revenue” strategy. The U.S. economy is consumer driven, when you raise taxes, you not only take money out of the system that could be spent on goods and services, you also create an environment of uncertainty so consumers, businesses and even greedy billionaires stop spending.
This isn’t brain surgery! If you don’t buy that widget, then the guy who builds the widget doesn’t need to make more, and the guy who sells it, sells less and the guy who supplies the pieces of the widget sells less, and needs to build less, and the guy who supplies the raw materials for the widget sells less…and so on. In the end if you sell less then you may need less people, which means more unemployment and less revenue to the Federal Government.
So the genius of the Democrat strategy is to actually create more unemployed people during one of the most difficult economic periods in our history. Instead of raising taxes, what we really need Washington to do is to CUT SPENDING! and CUT TAXES!
If you cut taxes, you will increase revenue to the Federal Government! If you just swallowed your tongue: follow the logic. Tax cuts equal more spending which equals more goods needing to be manufactured, equals more people to make the stuff, equals MORE TAX PAYERS! Now look at history; every time tax cuts have been tried, it has resulted in an increase in revenue to the Federal Government. EVERY TIME!
Think about it; would you prefer a system that relies on a small number of people contributing to the tax base of a country or would you prefer to spread the responsibility of funding government over a wider group of people? What is a more stable foundation for anything; something that is an inch wide and a mile deep or something a mile wide and an inch deep? Spreading the responsibility over a wider range is truly COMMON SENSE!

Federal Budget Debate Really Not That Hard…it’s simple stupid!

2011-07-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

There has been a seemingly endless debate about the Federal government budget, debt and spending cap that has dominated the news. I hate to think about all of the money that has been wasted on endless studies and “expert” economists to try and come up with an solution to the problem.

Based on all of this chatter, discussion, debate and brain power, you would think that this is an insurmountable problem. Well I am here to tell you…it’s not. Forget about all of the battles and numbers and boil the problem down to two pretty basic numbers and you can see exactly where the problem lies.

In the 50 years between 1960 and 2010 the revenue coming into the federal government is 20 times greater. In other words the dollars we took into the Federal government coffers is 20 times the amount of money that we took in back in 1960.
The other number is based in that same 50 year period…spending by the Federal government in 2010 is 42 times! greater than it was in 1960.
If you can’t figure out what the problem is, based on those two basic numbers, you’re either not trying, you’re lying or you’re stupid. It’s really that simple.

The Death of Common Sense

2011-06-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

By now you have likely heard the story of the 95 year old, Florida women; stricken with cancer, who was forced to remove her adult diaper while being searched by the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA continued to remain common sense free and chose to defend the actions of its security goons, releasing the following statement about the incident: "While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner," the federal agency said. "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

The fact that these clowns chose to duck behind “procedure” shows exactly how weak minded the leadership of this bunch really is. This really isn’t brain surgery; it boils down to one very easy to answer question: “How many elderly, wheelchair bound women (or men) have attempted to commit a terrorist attack on a U.S. airliner?” We can even go as far as extending the question to include: babies, small children, and tweens.
The answer, if you have been paying even a little attention, is easy. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. So why in the name of common sense do these drooling morons continue to step in soiled adult diapers with an ongoing string of ridiculous, misguided, public relations nightmares? Then rather than seeing and stating that they are wrong, they vainly try to defend their stupidity offering up an empty defense like procedure!
Even more amazing is the media’s willingness to run these stories, but make no ultimate stand and demand that this ridiculousness STOP! Yet if a Muslim cries mistreatment, religious profiling, or the need for religious privacy; for burqa wearing women, the media jumps in with both feet and the TSA is cowed into giving them a free pass at security check points.
It’s time for the American people to step up and demand that this ridiculous abuse of our freedom be stopped in its tracks. In it’s nearly ten year existence, the TSA has not prevented one terrorist attack, it’s long past time to end this bloated government bureaucracy and allow the private sector to take over airport security.

Liberal Stupidity In 140 Characters or Less

2011-02-10T17:14:00.000-08:00

The folks from the American Conservative Union are live streaming some of the speakers and panels forums from their CPAC event in Washington, DC. The event, set to run over the next few days, will feature any number of the possible 2012 Republican Presidential hopefuls mixed with some of the usual supects on the conservative end of the political spectrum.

I took the opportunity to dial in a few of the first day, featured speakers and tune out some of the more mudane panels, like the traditional marriage forum, that featured no female speakers! Why do conservatives choose to go out of their way to shoot themselves in the foot?

One of the more annoying features of the CPAC stream, aside from the constant buffering breaks, is a continuous Twitter tweet feed. As the speeches and discussions go there is a non-stop rolling run down of micro-bloggers who are both at the CPAC evebt and watching the stream. This wide open approach allows nitwits of every stripe to spew forth in 140 characters or less on the proceedings from their often twisted persepctives.

One of the most ridiculous comments I saw roll by came during the speech by former Pennsylvania Senator, and possible Presidential candidate Rick Santorum. During his speech on American exceptionalism, Santorum spoke about his (legal) imigrant grandfather coming to the United States. Santorum opined, "My grandfather didn't come to the United States because we had 99 weeks of unemployment."

This was clearly a reference to the hard work that his grandfather and many of his generation did to make this country great, yet some twisted tweeter decided to parade their stupidity with the comment, "Rick Santorum bashes unemployed people." REALLY? What was unclear about this speech being about American exceptionalism? While I don't think this was a great turning point speech, it was clearly a positive commentary that American can still be great.

Twitter and tweeting is sold by marketing gurus as the thing to do and if you're not you and your business will lag behind the rest. Shakespeare said, "brevity is the soul of wit" the problem is most of the tweeters are twits! Most have nothing to say even in the minimalistic 140 characters and more often then not they end up displaying nothing but their own stupidity.

Reaction: Keith Olbermann Quits!

2011-01-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

Keith Olbermann quits MSNBC...reaction....YAWN! Sorry to break the news to his liberal fans, but more people know who this loser is based on Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly and conservative bloggers bitching about him, then ever actually watched his little cable news mess. Frankly, if it weren't for Dan Patrick, I doubt many would know who Olberman was based on his stint at ESPN. The question becomes, once he's done sitting out his Conan Obrien style hiatis from TV, where does this clown land? He's worn out his welcome where ever he's been for being a pain in the ass to deal with, so I can't imagine there will be a long line of folks fighting for his services.

Wal Mart Shooting Reveals More Liberal Hypocrisy

2011-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

Given all of the ridiculous, unfounded, rhetoric from the lunatic, liberals in the media and politics surrounding recent shootings in Arizona, where blamed was placed with Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Plain, rather than with the nut bag, shooter, Jared Loughner; why am I not surprised that the same whack-a-mole media is silent on the shootings in Washington state at a Wal Mart store.

The incident left two dead, including the shooter and two deputies in the hospital in serious condition. Given the ongoing, relentless attacks on Wal Mart by labor unions and other liberal groups that paints the retailer as the devil’s spawn, out to kill small business and enslave the masses, why haven’t the lefties drawn the conclusion that this heated rhetoric drove the shooter to act?

Now don’t get me wrong! I don’t believe for a minute that this shooter was driven by the anti-Wal Mart crowd to start shooting. No real details have been released about the incident, so unlike my liberal friends or dimwitted elected sheriffs, I won’t jump to a conclusion. I am simply asking, where is the consistency on the part of the liberal media?

Given all of the ridiculous claims and ballyhoo about the “crosshairs” on Palin’s PAC website, “targeting” Democrat Congress members, for defeat in last November’s elections, let add the following flyer, promoting a protest at the developer of a potential, Washington, DC (yes I know the difference between Washington state and DC) that features the Wal Mart price cutting smiley face, pictured in the crosshairs!

The flyer/protest is featured on the website of the community organizers fighting against Wal Mart setting up shop in DC, called Wal Mart Free DC As with all of these “community organizations” you have to dig a little deeper to find the real roots of the group. In this case a little research leads you to another group call the Institute for Policy Studies, a fairly typical liberal “think” tank, whose causes include peace, justice and the environment.

A quick visit to the website for the Institute for Policy Studies reveals a top story on the home page featuring a screen shot of Sarah PAC and the now infamous crosshairs and an added arrow pointing out Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords, who was one of the victims in the Arizona shooting.

The crosshairs double standard is astounding. Like so many previous examples, when it comes to liberals, it’s do as I say, not as I do.

Journalists = Liberal Press Secretaries

2010-12-30T13:54:00.000-08:00

The Diversity committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is asking their fellow journalists to refrain from using the terms illegal immigrant and illegal alien from their reporting because the phrases might be deemed “offensive” to Latinos.

In an effort to “inform” and “sensitize” people to the harm these phases may be causing, the DC of the SPJ is asking their brother and sister journalists to instead utilize such phrases as “undocumented workers” or “undocumented aliens.”

Now for someone who sat through too many journalism classes back in college, I was under the impression that the goals of most journalists was to deliver the truth…you remember, the truth; a verified or indisputable fact.

Let’s see; Illegal…forbidden by law; unlawful; illicit. Last I checked, people who enter the United States without the consent of the U.S. Government, are here unlawfully, illicitly…or gee, illegally. So those journalist who properly describe people who are not lawfully in this country, are indeed here illegally. That goes for people who unlawfully enter the country from more than just Mexico, which makes me wonder why the painfully politically correct journalists of the SPJ are stereotyping illegal aliens as being only of Hispanic or Latino origin?

Let’s call the SPJ what they really are, a gaggle of press secretaries for politically correct liberals! Calling people who break the law to enter this country undocumented workers is the equivalent calling the neighborhood pot seller an “undocumented” pharmacist.

Is Tom Brokaw On Crack?

2010-11-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

I laughed out loud when I read media know-it-all Howie Kurtz's piece in the Daily Waste about the alleged in-fighting at MessNBC over general know-it-all Keith Olberman and his recent "suspension" for making monetary contributions to a handful of Democrat candidates campaigns. Not sure how the fact that he rolled out his check book and strikes a few checks is any different than the in-kind donation to the Democrat party he makes every night in the form of his TV show.

The laughable part comes when Kurtz alleges that "several of NBC’s front-line stars, including Tom Brokaw, have expressed concern to management that Olbermann has badly damaged MSNBC’s reputation for independence." Is Brokaw smoking crack?!! Has he ever bothered to tune in and watch anything on MessNBC? Or is he like most of America and has never watched this bunch of libtards?

"Stay Classy San Diego"

Yuck-master Kurtz cuts loose a belly laugher when he reasons that "NBC executives say that the cable channel is far better positioned to withstand an Olbermann departure than it might have been a year ago. Rachel Maddow has emerged as a genuine star, Ed Schultz is gaining momentum, Chris Matthews has been energized by the midterm campaign, and Lawrence O’Donnell has successfully launched a new show in the 10 p.m. hour previously reserved for Countdown reruns." Apparently group think extends to the crack pipe over at 30 Rock!

If Maddow got a closer shave...She could be the Karate Kid's Twin Brother!

What could these people possibly be thinking? This entire network is a train wreck. If it weren't for the utter cluelessness of CNN, then it's likely MessNBC would be lining up behind it's parent company General Electric for a taxpayer bailout! I'm constantly left scratching my head wondering how networks that are ratings also rans can justify shelling out big bucks deals like Olberman's $7 Million monstrosity. That deal makes it seem like CBS got a bargain when it comes to the rating-less Katie Couric.

Somebody Is a Liar...The Question Is Who?

2010-05-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

At his press availability President Obama denied any wrong doing in the case of the claim made by Congressman Joe Sestak that he was offered a job by the Obama administration to drop out of his primary race with Senator Arlen Specter. Sestak defeated the long-time incumbent in the May 18 primary and will face off with Republican challenger Pat Toomey this November.

The President told the media that his administration will release a statement in the near future that will clear up the matter and insisted that "nothing improper" happened.

There have been calls for investigation of the claim, including a call for Attorney General Eric Holder to empower a special prosecutor to look into the matter.

What this boils down to is somebody is lying! If the president is lying, then it is a serious, criminal offense. If Sestak is lying, then he certainly can't be trusted to represent Pennsylvania's best interests. The President said the statement would come sooner rather than later, given the tenor of the media outcry over the obvious delay in responding to the Gulf oil disaster, it's probably best if he doesn't drag his feet on the issue.

The interesting play will be how Sestak responds to the statement and if he gets out in front of the issue and stands by his earlier comment. either way it's more bad news for Democrats.

2010-05-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

My favorite story of the day has to be the hub bub surrounding a gaffe by Today Show news reader Ann Curry when she delivered the commencement address at Wheaton College.

Apparently Ms. Curry sited a string of illustrious alumni of Wheaton Collge, in Illinois which included the Reverend Billy Graham. The problem was Ms. Curry was speaking at Wheaton College in Massachusetts!

I love the fact that the media is siting the gaffe, while missing the story. Sorry for being cynical, but what inspiring message could a network news reader possibly have to deliver to the newly minted grads of Wheaton College? Really? Ann Curry? Wow hope they didn't overpay for that address.

Laughing At the "Experts"

2010-05-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

I can’t help but laugh at the so-called “expert” analysis of defeat of Senator Arlen Specter in Tuesday’s Democrat primary. Erie Times News reporter John Guerriero’s piece recounting the Franklin and Marshall College pollster G. Terry Madonna’s month old column headlined, “Admiral Hits An Iceberg” referencing Congressman Joe Sestak, who defeated Specter, and his prior career as a two-star admiral.

Why anybody still believes Gee, “I Never Get anything Right” Terry Madonna is beyond me! This guy hasn’t called a race correctly in years! But, he’s not alone when it comes to getting it wrong on the Specter loss. Most of the gurus think that Sestak did a great job of drawing a connection to former President George W. Bush, and that was what un-did the senior senator’s re-election bid.

The fact of the matter is that Specter’s defeat had nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with his support for the failed policies of the Obama administration and the seemingly endless self-interest of the Senator!

It was Specter’s own words, where he uttered the line, “changing parties will allow me to be re-elected” sounding more than a tad like WC Field, that was his un-doing. Those words proved that the Senator’s best interests were his own and not the voters here in Pennsylvania.

GAF Raw Deal...For Taxpayers.

2010-05-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

For years, the complaint of Erie politicians has been that 40% of the properties within the city limits are un-taxed , non-profit entities, that cuts into the revenue to the city’s coffers. While the administration of Mayor Joe Sinnott has worked diligently to launch payment in-lieu of taxes, of PILOT agreements with some of the non-profits, as with prior city leaders, the results have been less than stellar.

So as I read the details of the agreement that city fathers and the Erie County Convention Center Authority put together regarding the vacant, but on the tax rolls, former GAF Plant on Erie’s bay front, I have little doubt that the location will end up as part of a LERTA or other tax exempt program when an eventual developer is found to take on the property, thereby reducing the tax base yet again.

The “deal” calls for the Convention Center Authority to get $3 million in taxpayer dollars from the State and pay off GAF, who would cover the cost of the demolition of the plant. An un-named developer would be responsible for the environmental cleanup of the site and environmental liability insurance on the property.

I’m more than a little skeptical that some investor would agree to eat the sizable cost to clean up the former shingle factory site and the price tag for future developers to be protected against environmental damage claims without some back end break to cover the costs.

The deal just sounds too good to be true. Keep in mind this whole thing was put together by the Convention Center Authority, Executive Director Casey Wells and authority board member Roger Richards, a pair of masterful salesmen who sold taxpayers the bill of goods about the rosy future of the Bayfront Convention Center and it’s neighboring hotel. As predicted, both facilities, while very nice, have not really done much in the way of new business.

While the Authority leadership may try to claim a level of success, the reality is that the facility has yet to bring in much in the way of new business. Instead the Bayfront Convention Center has plundered it’s business from other, local, often privately owned and operated facilities. For a huge expenditure of over 100 million taxpayer dollars, the results are dismal!

So what do we do now? Why of course we throw more money into the bay front, with no real, concrete plans in place. It’s seems long past due that the taxpayers of the Erie Community stand up and demand accountability from its leadership. Therein is the problem. City, county and state leaders know they can pass the buck on accountability, because the shuffle these deals off to the un-accountable authorities. This way they have the plausible deniability and cover that they need when it comes to the people left footing the bill, you the taxpayer.

RED FLAG ALERT- It's no real surprise that the Erie Times News editorial board thinks this raw deal is a good deal! Keep in mind, they thought the Convention Center was a winning idea too!

Election Day - Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Arlen Goodbye!

2010-05-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

It is primary election day 2010. Sorry I missed all of the usual stellar political insights about the polling station baked goods selection and guesstimates of turnout based on “what number voter were you” questions.

I literally can’t remember an election day where I was uncertain about who I was voting for just hours before I head to the polls. I’ve always been a pragmatic voter. I know that I will never find the perfect candidate, one who agrees with my stance on every issue, as the communications skills and the finances to win, in November.

In the Third district congressional race the Republican nomination for me boils down to a couple of businessmen Mike Kelly and Paul Huber, and factory worker/Tea Party kind of guy Ed Franz. Based on the number of yard signs, Dr. Martha Moore should be the hands down winner, but as we all know signs don’t vote and if you look closely, while there are a lot of her signs out there, most are on vacant land or street corners, not in supporters front yards.

All of the candidates are playing the bloated government and job creation cards. That will play just fine in the primary voters, but the November, general election will be a real battle. Democrat Representative Kathy Dahlkemper has proven to be a reliable rubber stamp for Obama/Pelosi, look no further than her idiotic justification for voting for Obama-Care based on a meaningless Executive Order banning public funding for abortions. They won’t let that vote go away easily, so look for lots of national money to be thrown at this race.

No Republican has run what I would call a strong campaign, so I’m left undecided at this point.

The one bright spot that may come out of today’s vote is the long overdue, final, demise turncoat Senator Arlen Specter. Specter is EVERYTHING that is bad about politics! He has made a long career based upon “getting the job done in DC” meaning he is a master manipulator at bringing home taxpayer dollars to Pennsylvania. Some may think that is the right thing to do, but if you look at the way this guy has larded pork onto Senate appropriations bills, more often than not the bill had nothing whatsoever to do with Specter’s piggy package.

Challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak has run a pitiful campaign, but scored late with TV spot that points out Specter’s desire to save one job and one job only, his own! The latest Real Clear Politics aggregate poll has Sestak up by 3.2%. If Sestak wins it sets up an interesting fall race with Pat Toomey, the likely Republican challenger, who just missed taking out Specter in the last Republican primary 6 years ago.

While the Obama team has supported the newly minted Democrat, Specter, it will make for high entertainment to see them roll that support to Sestak in the general election and to see if Sestak has the testicular fortitude to be his own man, despite the attempted buy off job offer from team Obama to drop out of the race. I think it highly unlikely that Sestak will turn his back on Obama, no matter how unpopular the President is come November, it’s just not in the Democrat make up, where party is the only thing. Toomey and his team are sharp enough to beat Sestak senseless with his own flip flop.

I used to encourage people to get out and vote, but I’ve seen too many examples of stupid votes, like the one that set Dahlkemper to Congress, to run the risk of enough people going to the polls to keep a clown like Arlen Specter around and give the clueless Philly voters a chance to save him again.

Elena Kagan and the L - Word

2010-05-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

It’s been absolutely amazing to watch and listen to the lazy media tap dance around the “L- Word” when it comes to President Obama’s latest Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

The White House went out of its way to deny Kagan was “the first openly gay” Supreme Court nominee, after a CBS blogger, “with ties to the Bush administration,” surfaced an online entry.

Shortly after the nomination was announced Michael Smerconish, the often painfully, moderate morning host on WPHT (Philadelphia) kept referring to “rumors” about the personal life of Ms. Kagan while interview legal eagle Allen Dershowitz. Claiming not to understand the question or not having heard the “rumors” Dershowitz repeated “I don’t know what you’re getting at,” while Smerconish hemmed and hawed, refusing to utter the "L-Word."

Thankfully, Dershowitz pushed the host to get to the point and Smerconish finally! asked if it should matter if Kagan was a Lesbian, as it’s been reported/rumored in some corners. Dershowitz, whose famed poker games apparently once included Kagan as a regular, said he’d never seen any evidence of it and no it shouldn’t matter.

I couldn’t agree more! Who cares, who Ms. Kagan chooses to bed down with?! The truly frightening "L- Word" when it comes to Kagan it LIBERAL! Despite all of the talking point “concerns” being touted by Liberals in the lazy media about whether or not Kagan is “liberal enough” the fact of the matter is based on the minimal paper trail this first time judge nominee brings to the table indicates some troubling thoughts on Kagan’s take on constitutional issues like the Second Amendment.

Kagan’s writing for the Chicago Law Review; also portray some troubling thoughts on the First Amendment, free speech protections. Kagan wrote that speech that promotes "racial or gender inequality" could be "disappeared." The protection of disagreeable speech is a hallmark of the first Amendment, just because we find something troubling or distasteful does not give us the right to ban it. The troubling part of this thought process is who would be charged with determining what speech gets, to use Kagan’s line, ‘disappeared.”

The striking similarities in their paths to power between Obama and Kagan are striking. It’s almost as if Obama has nominated a female version of himself to the bench, which should frighten us all!

Specter Banner B S

2010-05-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

While checking my e-mail the other night I noticed this banner ad pop up. By now you may have seen the television ad for Senator Arlen Specter's ever-tightening primary race with Democrat challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak, where President Obama touts the flip-flopper's vote for the economic Recovery Act.

There's no denying Specter cast a deciding vote, but the claim that his vote created "thousands" of jobs in Erie, I find more than a little hard to believe! I'd be curious to have the Specter camp detail exactly where those "thousands" of job are.

Clicking through the banner ad led to the turncoat Senator's campaign Website, where they detail the multitude of taxpayer dollars and pork that Specter "brought to the Erie community" but I've got to tell you, I can't see the numbers translating to "thousands" of jobs being created here.

One of the bullet points details: "Senator Specter's key vote for the Economic Recovery Act pumped hundreds of millions into the region so teachers could stay in their classrooms - and paid for police and fire fighters to stay on the job and continue to protect our families." Huh?! Did I miss something? Can't seem to remember any reports of big bucks going to school districts or municipalities to keep these folks on the job.

Even if that is the case, which I doubt, how does that equate to creating "thousands" of new jobs? The reality is this is out and out BULLSH*T on the part of Senator Specter and his campaign! Where is the lazy media? Why is this allowed to pass with no one raising a question and demanding an answer?

***UPDATE- The same banner ad is also running on the Erie Times News, Goerie.com Website, so clearly the "reporters" at the Times News should be aware of the Specter claim.

Welcome To Obama's Hooterville

2010-05-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

Michael Graham- That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom (Regnery Publishing)

While I realize there will always be the Kool-Aid types that will latch onto Presidents of any stripe like a barnacle and blindly agree with that leader’s policy with a cult-members mindlessness, I have been absolutely amazed by the reactions that Barack Obama has gotten during his first fifteen months in office.

I’ve been at a loss to explain why seemingly intelligent people have bought into the big government, anti-capitalist, class warfare doctrine pushed by the Obama administration and the predictable attacks on talk radio, Tea Party activists and anyone who dares disagree.

In his new book, That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom, talk show host Michael Graham comes up with the most plausible explanation I’ve heard up to this point, when he draws the humorous analogy to the classic television show Green Acres.

For those not familiar with the 60s era classic, the Green Acres storyline has Attorney Oliver Wendell Douglas living behind the rat race of Manhattan for the simple life, down on the farm. Douglas sets up to work the land in Hooterville, a town populated by the goofy, the weird and frankly the downright insane and since the town’s residents are of a like twisted mind, it is Douglas who ends up the weirdo.

Welcome to Obama’s Hooterville! Where perfectly normal, hard-working Americans who are concerned with the growth of government, the growth of the national debt and looming death of American exceptionalism and choose to express that concern in a public way are treated like to a volley of insults ranging from Tea-baggers to being labeled racists by the lazy media and what Graham dubs the O-bots.

Graham does the not-so-heavy lifting that the lazy media won’t do when detailing the ridiculous charge that the Tea Party types are short fuse looking for a light and claims that these ordinary, hard working folks are secretly plotting to overthrow the government or worse. The lazy media claims that Tea Party rallies are a hot bed of violence just doesn’t stand up even the lightest of scrutiny, in fact Graham points out that much of the “violence” has been perpetrated by the loyal O-Bots, most often sporting some form of Union garb.

Graham acknowledges that like any large group there are a few loose cannons in the Tea Party, but unlike liberals who embrace the nutcases, conservatives tend to shun the lunatic fringe and generally denounce their actions and words loudly and clearly.

Graham utilizes a sharp wit and clear-headed point of view to dissect the left’s ridiculous reactions to Tea party dissent.

Odds and Sods

2010-05-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Captain Obvious Rides Again-

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the suspected Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad was not only a victim of nefarious Wall Street bankers, having stared foreclosure in the face, but he also disliked former President George W. Bush. Of course he did! Clearly this is another incident that can be laid at the feet of old GW!

The Journal sites no less a source than real estate broker Igor Djuric, who showed Mr. Shahzad the home eventually purchased and lost. Djuric “remembered that Mr. Shahzad was quiet about himself, but was openly critical of President Bush in the aftermath of the Iraq war,” according to the Journal.

"I didn't take it for anything, since a lot of people didn't like Bush," Mr. Djuric said, "but he was a little bit strong about expressing it."

Clearly this will come as welcome news to MSNBC news twit Contessa Brewer, who recently told liberal radio host Stephanie Miller “there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country.” Apparently she was hoping for some beer-bellied Bubba, militia member and Tea Party protester to be the bomber, so that the liberal template and claims of impending violence were just one Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck monologue away.

Of course it’s no surprise that the Obama administration is passing the buck and the blame onto Emirates Airlines for allowing Shahzad to board the flight at JFK. Funny the last I checked it is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that is responsible for airline security, not the glorified, flying waitresses who work for the airlines.

The amazing thing was the fact that Shahzad wasn’t placed on the terrorist watch list until Monday! Apparently the fact that this freshly minted U.S. citizen took a five month sojourn to Pakistan didn’t raise any red flags for the TSA folks. Amazing.

Another Democrat Who Would Rather Quit Than Fight

The Congressman who was dubbed the architect of the stimulus bill, David Obey (D-WI) announced that he will not be seeking re-election this November. Faced with sagging poll numbers the 20 term incumbent, who was easily re-elected in a heavily left-leaning district in the last go-round, saw the handwriting on the wall and decide to quit.

So much for the popularity of the policies of the Democrat majority. If the American people truly thought things were going in the right direction, would so many professional politicians, like Obey, be running for the exits? sounds like the definition of gutless!

Senate Donors to Crist Say “Show Me the Money!”

Florida Governor Charlie “Arlen” Crist, who bailed from the Republican party, when faced with an ass whupin’ in the Senate primary has been asked by 20 major donors to his campaign to pay up and return the donations.

In a letter sent to the Crist campaign, the donors said Crist had ‘broke the trust” of his supporters when he bailed from the party. The Crist camp had no immediate response to the request.

Mario Bagnoni Would Be Proud!

Borrowing a page from the Erie City Council playbook, the town council of Concord, MA has passed a ban on the sale of bottle water in the town, commencing in 2011.

Loony, tree-hugging council-person Jean Hill who introduced the ban said, "We only have one planet and I just don't want to see it spoiled." Apparently Ms. Hill isn’t aware of the fact that they sell a variety of soft drinks in plastic bottles, which don’t fall under the ban.

"Water is something we can get from the faucet. You can't turn your faucet on and get soda," said Selectwoman Virginia McIntyre, explaining why other plastic bottles would not be banned. Yes, but does the tap water contain fluoride?

In the grand Erie City Council tradition, the ban on plastic water bottle sales may be largely symbolic. Town officials aren't sure they have the power to enact the ban without approval from the state.

Why Not Just Tattoo A Big L On Your Forehead

2010-05-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

Recently while I was waiting in my car for a family member a white SUV parked down the row from me. Normally that's not what I would consider a noticeable event, since I not a global warming wing nut who thinks, "I'm special, I drive a Prius" types, in fact I was sitting in my big honkin SUV. No what made this intriguing was the incongruous placement of a pair of bumper stickers on the vehicles doors.

The first one proclaimed:

The second one proclaimed-

Now, affixed to a Prius I probably would have chuckled and thought how typically misguided the driver was, but the stickers struck me as way out of place on the SUV. So I paid closer attention as the driver slipped from the car and walked into the store. I can't say I was surprised to see a scrubby looking, long-haired, freak emerge. Now before you get your knickers in a knot about me being old-fashioned or stereotype of some guy with long hair, I would not have been shocked to see some dude with a backwards baseball cap and black T-shirt step out of the truck either.

I find it takes a certain level of youth and / or immaturity that is typical of these clueless types. The kicker was, as it usually is with these clowns, the back of the vehicle was covered with other similar stickers. It's almost as if they feel the need to wave their arms and shout out loud exactly how stupid they really are. My favorite on the back was-

I wonder how this bozo paid for the SUV? Did I miss the Obama Big Government program to dole out SUVs to whack-a-moles? Aside from that, how did he think his vehicle was manufactured? Here's a news flash, It was built by CAPITALISTS.

While I was tempted to offer the guy fifty bucks and directions to a local tattoo shop so he could get a large L inscribed on his forehead, I decided to move on. While I've never been one of those "America, love it or leave it" types, by the same token, I've never understood why people who think things are better elsewhere, don't take their own advice and move to the allegedly greener grass. Maybe we need to enact the Big Government program to fund their departures. Now that's Big Government I could support!

Florida Governor Charlie Crist...Specter Lite

2010-04-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

While an official announcement is set for tomorrow afternoon, political allies of Florida Governor Charlie Crist say that he will pull and Arlen Specter and bail the Republican party and continue his run for the U. S. Senate as an independent.

Much like Pennsylvania's senior Senator, Crist sees the handwriting on the wall, with polls indicating his chances of securing the Republican nomination are on par with a proverbial snowball's chance in hell. Watch for Crist to claim that he is doing what Florida voters have encouraged in to do and how he wants to do what's best for Florida. Which really equates to "I'm a self-serving, low life, scumbag, more concerned about myself and my aspirations than anything else."

Also watch for the cluless media to point to former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent endorsement of Christ's Republican opponent Marco Rubio as all the push Crist needed to go the indie route. One current poll has Crist winning in a three-way race with Rubio and the Democrat nominee Congresman Kendrick Meek, watch for the clueless media to speculate heavily on that.

Speaking of self-serving, low life, scum bag politicians...the latest polling has Senator Specter trouncing Joe Sestak in the May 18 primary. The storyline about Sestak being offered an Obama administration position if he leaves the primary race is entertaining and not surprising; it's the Chicago way.

Real Clear Politics polling has Specter trailing likely Republican nominee, Pat Toomey by an average of 8.8% in a head to head match up come November.

Green Nut Sting Has Meltdown

2010-04-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Desperate for anyone to notice him, Sting and his sniveling, equally self-important wife, Trudie Styler, took to CNN on Lenin's Birthday, commonly dubbed Earth Day, to continue their decades old gloom and doom song and dance routine, proclaiming once again that the end of the earth as we know it, is right around the corner.

The has-been rock star even went so far as proclaiming his desire for "big government. Even the CNN anchor seemed incredulous asking, "You want big government!?" To which the fidgeting singer replied, "Of Course we do! This is a huge problem and only big government can solve it."

Clearly old Sting has been too busy with trying to revive his career or non-stop sessions of tantric sex and must have missed the global disintegration of the so-called scientific consensus of the global warming hoax. Odd how he and the missus continue to punt the time line on exactly when the world will cease to exist.

News Flash- Businesses Don't Pay Taxes!

2010-04-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

This may be a surprise to some and will likely outrage others, but here is a news flash; Businesses DO NOT PAY TAXES! Business owners may be crying foul, but the fact of the matter is that any person who operates a business that wants to stay in business rolls the cost of their taxes into the price of their goods or services.

That simple fact alone should have every person in the United States screaming mad and running for the phone to call their elected officials! No! Not to protest that businesses don't pay taxes but to make in absolutely clear that the Obama administration floating the possibility of a value added tax or VAT is a non-starter and would destroy any makings of an economic recovery.

For those not familiar with the VAT, it is a tax that is rendered on every step of the process of taking a raw material and adding value to it. Let's take a bolt for example. Take all of the raw materials that go into making a steel bolt, now add a tax on each one of those steps. The cost of that bolt rises dramatically. Think about it; the raw materials are formed into a steel bar, tax. The steel bars are formed in into steel rods, tax. The rods are machined into the form of a bolt, tax. The bolts are threaded, tax.

Imagine that multi-taxed bolt is used as part of the manufacturing of a car, along with thousands and thousands of other parts, each taxed every step of the way. What do you think is likely to happen to the cost of that car? Certainly the automaker isn't going to eat the cost of the increased taxes, anymore than the the bolt maker would for all of the taxes on the bolts. So the costs get passed along to the final end purchaser, you the car buyer.

Now to multiply the effect. Say the car manufacturer buys new equipment for building the vehicle, the company that makes that equipment is hit with taxes every step of the way so the cost of that equipment goes up and naturally get factored into the cost of doing business for the automaker and gets passed along to you once again.

The Obama administration will try to sell this as a way to cut down the Federal Government's spending deficit and the debt built up by decades of overspending on he part of the Federal Government. This tax will have a detrimental impact on any economic recovery we may be experiencing. The tax will hit hard on the lower and middle class as well as higher income earners.

The only way to avoid the VAT will be to avoid any unnecessary purchases and history has shown that to be the reaction. As part of the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, then President George H. W. Bush, broke his “read my lips, no new taxes,” pledge by placing stiff tax on luxury items like cars, planes, yachts, and other items costing in excess of $100,000. Sounds about right, right? Tax the rich who can “afford” to pay the cost if they can buy $100,000 plus boats.

The Joint Committee on Taxation projected that the lux-tax would generate $31 million in 1991. The actual number, $16 Million. Why? Because even so-called rich people don't like to waste money. George Will ran the numbers in a 1999 column as follows: “According to a study done for the Joint Economic Committee, the tax destroyed 330 jobs in jewelry manufacturing, 1,470 in the aircraft industry and 7,600 in the boating industry. The job losses cost the government a total of $24.2 million in unemployment benefits and lost income tax revenues. So the net effect of the taxes was a loss of $7.6 million in fiscal 1991, which means the government projection was off by $38.6 million.”

So when the Obama administration starts floating out wondrous projections for the impact of the VAT, take it with a grain of rock salt. They won't talk about the negative impact on jobs, purchasing and the economy as a whole. Keep in mind we live in a consumer driven economy, with consumer spending generating two-thirds of the U.S. economic engine.

Unlike the healthcare mess where they sold us a bill of goods, we need to demand answers up front on the impact of this ridiculous idea. Unless the goal is to make the United States a Third World Country, this idea should not see the light of day!