Beautiful morning here in central Fla., drinkin coffee on the porch, clear skies and temps in the low 70’s. It doesn’t get much better than this, huh?

To be honest, I’d not considered a post this morning. I had been just kinda glancin at the headlines last night, and to be shootin straight with ya, there couldn’t be a more appropriate title for breakin news, than it simply bein called, HEAD-lines.

My reasonin for this statement, well, it’s actually very simple…

After just a couple minutes of readin them, they give me…

A HEAD-ache!

Geez, what is happening in our Country today folks??

You’re tellin me this political atmosphere we live in today is condoned by the majority of the American people?

NOT!

First off, I read an article from Channel 10 News Tampa Bay, describing an incident on Flight 1880, from Reagan National Airport in DC, to Orlando International, where 4 middle-eastern males were observed moving around the plane…as if on some type of “dry run.”

http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/339104/250/INVESTIGATORS-Memo-warns-of-terrorist-dry-runs-on-planes

The 10 News Investigators contacted both US Airways and the Transportation Security Administration both confirmed the incident. US Airways says it won’t discuss the details of security measures, but that it works closely with authorities.

The TSA told us it takes all reports of suspicious activity aboard aircraft seriously, and the matter requires no further investigation at this time.

However, a current Federal Air Marshal who works flights every week says of the TSA, “They’re liars. They’re flat out liars.”

The Air Marshal, whose identity we are not revealing because agency rules prohibit him from talking to the media, says the TSA doesn’t want the flying public to be aware of the problems with terrorist probes.

The Air Marshal and others we have spoken to say several flights they have worked were targets of dry-runs and that most of his colleagues believe no matter what the TSA says, the incident aboard Flight 1880 is serious.

Until now, there has been absolutely no publicity about the US Airways flight from D.C. to Orlando International Airport, but security experts say incidents like this should not and cannot be ignored.

As the Federal Air Marshal and industry insiders tell us, “We’re waiting for the next 9/11 to happen, because it’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.”

This from the “US Airline Pilots Association,” titled ,“9/11 Security Update.”

9/11 Security Update

Pre 9/11 Briefing by USAPA Security Chairman Steve Sevier and Committee Member Pat O’Laughlin:

Bringing down an airliner continues to be the Gold Standard of terrorism. If anyone thinks that our enemies have “been there, done that,” and are not targeting US commercial aviation — think again.

There have been several cases recently throughout the industry of what appear to be probes, or dry runs, to test our reaction to an inflight threat. A typical example is an incident that occurred just a few
days ago on one of our flights from DCA-MCO.

A group of Middle-Eastern males boarded in DCA. Shortly after takeoff, one got up and ran from his seat in coach towards the flight deck door. He made a hard left and entered the forward lav, where he stayed for a considerable length of time! While he was in there, the others got up and proceeded to move about the cabin, changing seats, opening overhead bins, and generally making a scene. They appeared to be trying to occupy and distract the flight attendants.

Coincidence?

There is another interesting twist to this case. It just so happens that on the return flight from MCO-DCA, with the same flight number, a group of 8 Middle Eastern females—concealed in full burkas—were

in the boarding area for the flight to DCA. This flight did not have a FAM team, even though it was supposed to have a significant VIP on board.

(He was rebooked when all these details were made known to his security detail.)

Coincidence?…

Then, I’ve been following the behavior of our National Park Service employees and their treatment of American citizens (sounds funny the treatment of American citizens…in America, doesn’t it)???

The Great Philosopher…Mao

Claude Moore Colonial Farm…

I’d never heard of it until…our government shutdown…with pay, mind you.

Seems the National Park Service USED to be involved with this farm, but that stopped in 1980, when they decided to cut the funding. Since then it has been run through an endowment by private citizens, thus operating through donations and volunteer work.

Remember that point, no NPS involvement since 1980, BUT…the NPS told the Claude Moore Colonial Farm to…SHUT DOWN!

The farm appealed this, but, the NPS sent officers to forcibly remove volunteer workers, AND visitors.

They’re forcing parks to close that they aren’t even involved in, simply because they…have been ordered to??

Hope and change…how ya likin that now folks? Very little hope, but PLENTY of change, huh?

This type of behavior has been seen at numerous sites, with one NPS officer quoted as saying… “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for the people as we can.”

That is one heck of a statement, isn’t it?

Course, an administration that considers, Mao Tse-Tung a great POLITICAL philosopher, what do ya expect?

Don’t believe me? Well, don’t take my word for it…I’m just the messenger.

Was gonna say, “Don’t SHOOT me, I’m just the messenger, but in today’s world…I thought I’d better phrase it a little more mildly! LOL!

But look guys, I didn’t pull this “Mao thing” outta the air…they OPENLY discuss it.

She referenced Mao and his goal of taking China over…not Mao bein elected, but…TAKIN OVER.

Sound familiar today?

Oh, she was misspoken you say…she made a mistake? hmmm…

How bout Ron Bloom, and his famous, Mao quote…talkin bout the barrel of a gun, guys.

Ya reckon that’s why they…WANT OURS??

“Your political power comes from the barrel of a gun? If you want a friend…get a dog?”

Yep…that’s why they want our guns.

I mean, how many of Mao’s own countrymen did he have killed…30 million? 40 million? Perhaps as high as 60 million??

Kinda easy to do when most of your countrymen are armed…with pitchforks, shovels and the like, huh?

You guys read where Bill Ayers talked openly with an undercover FBI agent, I believe, in regards to possibly having to do something with around 25 million Americans, who may not abide to THEIR (Ayers) political beliefs?

Just sayin…

In all honesty though, these people are very dangerous to us. Nothing, and I mean just that…NOTHING surprises me today.

Funny how it’s become unacceptable to say, “Merry Christmas,” here in America, huh? But not to me it isn’t, so let me wish you guys exactly that this morning, although a tad early…
“Merry Christmas!”

But, after watchin the video of the Mao ornament, I’m sure it WOULD BE politically correct to express it this way here in the good ole USA!

聖誕快樂;

This means… “Happy Christmas,” in…CHINESE!

Now if this actually DOESN’T mean Happy Christmas, don’t blame me…I looked it up on the internet.

It is SUPPOSED to mean Happy Christmas, but for all I know, it could be talkin bout our Mama’s or something!! LOL!

Now if the Chinese who were so unfortunate to have lost their lives under Mao’s regime could give ya a little advice today, I kinda figure it might go something like this…

保持你的枪
Bǎochí nǐ de qiāng

Translation…

“KEEP YOUR GUNS.”
Jus sayin!

Also sayin, that once more, in this translation as well, I’m totally dependent on the internet.

It might mean, “Ya want a little fish to go with that rice, ya’ll?” (which is…SOUTHERN Mandarin, I’m guessin? LOL)

Then we have the school in New York that banned ball from the playground during recess…no football tossin, no basketball shootin, no baseball chunkin, and no place kickin any dern soccer balls either?

Why??

They claim too many injuries.

Saw a comment declarin they oughta ban pencils and such in the classroom as dangerous to our kids too. ..even paper…ya know…paper cuts!

Then a school in Pennsylvania banned Halloween activities (but since has been reinstated)…cause…it might offend someone??

Good night a livin folks, what is goin on here?

There IS a Bigger Power

I read a devotional this morning.

I read it daily, and it is an app on my phone… “The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.”

I don’t know bout you guys, but I have ALWAYS admired Rev. Graham. I’m drawn by his ability to connect with people, and the sincerity in his own belief.

Here is his message…

Man hungers for food, and God sends the sun and rain upon the golden fields of grain. The grain is made into flour, and flour into bread, and man’s physical hunger is satisfied. Man hungers for love; and God ignites the fire of affection in another heart, and two hearts are made complete in the bonds of holy matrimony.

Don’t tell me that God can supply man with an abundance of everything material and yet will let him starve spiritually! . . . God will satisfy the hunger and thirst of those who desire His righteousness because He loves the world with an undying affection.

Prayer for the day…

You have abundantly supplied my greatest need, heavenly Father, for You have given me love.

You guys have a great day, and God Bless you and yours!

Also… “Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!”

Oh yeah…

保持你的枪
Bǎochí nǐ de qiāng (Keep your dern guns!)

Doug and Lucky

This behavior demonstrated by our ELECTED (I still ain’t believing that??) officials, is a simple flaunting of… “the ends justify the means.”

I know to most this morning, I’m just “speakin to the choir,” but it still makes me literally shake my head at the goins on in our Country today.

What have we become?

Alinsky in Our Lives:

“Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history…the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively, that he at least won his own kingdom…Lucifer.”

By my reading that statement from Saul Alinsky, ideology, or whatever it is, I can’t help but come to the conclusion it is indeed okay to sell your soul to the devil…to obtain your goal.

I also understand that through Alinsky’s teachings, and what has been accepted by his disciples, is simply this…

Morals, virtues, goodness, integrity, truth nor values play any part in their beliefs or judgements. It IS though, only about…POWER.

THEIR POWER.

So you see…the ends DO justify the means!

This power exhibited today by our elected officials is the most blatant, in your face, total disregard for the will of the people that this Country has ever witnessed.

Law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying, believers in our Constitution, and God, are labeled as…terrorists.

Of course we can’t leave out our title of being racist too.

Dr. Benjamin Carson hits the nail on the head quoting scripture speaking on… “Godless leaders.”

Can we label government today as a… “Den of Thieves.”

Certainly.

Take the time and Google up retirement packages for our elected officials, cash payouts upon retirement, double and triple dipping (if you don’t recognize those terms, Google them up as well), and of course, our elected officials and ALL their cronies are exempt from Obamacare.

Hmmm…what’s up with that?

First off, I can’t envision the term…Obamacare???

Honestly, I’m tryin to determine when Obama…

EVER cared???

Back to checking out the pension plans for public service employees, you need to take a quick look at one State in our Country that believes in your right to work, the American Dream, LEGAL immigration, very little taxation, representation of its citizens, and a State that does very well economically, day in, and day out…

California.

Jus kiddin!

Think on this a moment…

All data from “The Pension Tsunami.”

In 2005, there were 1,841 public service employees who pulled down over $100,000 a year in pension checks from the California Public Employees Retirement System.

$100,000 a year in pension checks! Listen again, that’s $100,000 people…a year!

Paid for by you and I.

Boy…we ARE the “silent majority,” huh?

By 2009, this so-called “100K club” had more than tripled…to 6,133!

At the end of 2012, membership more than doubled again….to 14,763!

That’s up 700% in less than a decade!

Wanta hear something else that’ll jump start your engine this morning.

Vernon California, which by the way is the SMALLEST incorporated city in the State, was represented at one time by a Mr. Bruce Malkenhorst.

I say “represented” because it seems Malkenhorst was once the city of Vernon’s city manager, finance director, redevelopment director, city clerk, city treasurer and head of the municipal light and power operation, pretty much at the same time.

His retirement pension, which by the way is…$540,882…a year.

Yep, ya read it right…$540,882!

CalPERS reviewed this last year and slashed it down to $115,000, but Mr. Malkenhorst dubbed this… “elder abuse”…and continues to fight it in court.

He continues to receive the $540,000+ until all his appeals are settled.

How small is Vernon you ask?

Population…112. (according to Wikipedia 2010)

Yep…ONE HUNDRED…and TWELVE!

Reckon “Den of Thieves” may in reality BE the perfect title for today’s government?

You tell me.

Our officials today want our guns as well.

I only have to look back in history and see the events that took place in the former Soviet Union, and China both, although there are many more examples of other Countries which advocated a no gun policy.

Shoot…talkin bout a no gun policy…look no further than Chicago! Gun control really has been helpin out there, huh?

As I am in favor, and very much so, of our RIGHT to keep and bear arms, let me toss out a little scenario here…

We live very rurally.

If we were to experience a break-in, or home invasion, I’m guessin the police response time would be in the neighborhood of 2 to 5 minutes…maybe more??

Is callin 911 an option with ARMED intruders in my home?

Certainly it is, and that’s just what my wife would be doin, or speakin to the company that monitors our home alarm system.

Durin all this though, I’d be dialin something up myself!

I’d be dialin…

357…

At the very least! LOL

I love Clint Smith’s statement, the owner of Thunder Ranch…

“Why do you own a .45?”

Cause they don’t make a .46!

When the general public is disarmed, I’m talkin the law-abidin general public, not the nut cases, we are then left open for most any type of assault you could possibly think of.

Criminals WILL have guns, no matter how the left attempts to spin it.

Anyway…

GOD in Our Lives:

On the flip side of the coin of all this madness, there are many good, good people out there who DO believe in our Constitution, just as it was laid out for us, who believe in integrity and values, a hard work ethic, and even, ya gotta come closer now cause I’m gonna have to whisper this (because of the PC Police)…

Go to church.

Let me say this startin off.

I am by no means perfect. Probably bout as far from this as anyone ever has been. BUT…I do try to treat others as I’d like to be treated. Sure, I fly off the handle from time to time, and will sling a word or two at ya that I really didn’t intend to sling your way…if ya tick me off.

But I’ve learned to ask for forgiveness, and honestly, the cuss words that not too long ago pretty much made up bout 35% of my vocabulary, today seem few and far between.

Possibly, this may have influenced the big gaps in my posts there for a while. Shoot, I didn’t know what to say to you guys, or, better yet…

HOW to say it! Lol.

My point to this is that God does work in mysterious ways. I am a prime example of this.

I have thought often about, “How in the world could our Good Lord ever possibly want anything to do with me??”

Well, for starters, He loves us, each and every one of us.

He’s always with us, and never puts more on us than we can bear.

Since becoming a Christian, on numerous occasions, God has put me with someone, total strangers most times, and we strike up a conversation and God becomes the centerpiece of our talk.

I was fixin fence one day alongside the road, and this young man stopped (today, ANY man under 45 I consider a YOUNG man!).

He offered to help, and me bein the appreciative, easy goin feller I am, I asked, “Humph…then why’d ya wait till I was stringin the last strand a wire to help?”

Not really, but I thanked him for his offer, and we just started talkin.

Before long, our conversation had turned to God, and we shared some things of how God had influenced our lives.

We had a great talk.

A point he made really stuck with me.

He explained that he used to be afraid of death. Death, particularly his death, bothered him and he thought of this often.

Then he considered his BIRTH…

He explained that while we were in the womb, what a great place for us it must have been. It was our “home,” and was our sanctuary. It kept us safe, and content.

As we grew in the womb, and the eventual birth experience neared, the leaving of “our sanctuary” must have indeed been traumatizing, wouldn’t you think? It was after all, the only home we’d ever known.

But, we came into this world, and the life we began to experience was exhilarating to us. Each day we grew, both physically and mentally.

We loved our family, and our friends…we loved life itself!

Each and every day opened new doors, and life itself was cherished, and with this, we began to realize our own mortality.

How could we ever possibly want this to change?

He then stated that with some thought, he began to realize that death, of which he’d been so frightened, would be a lot like leaving the womb.

Through knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he realized that death too, was only a new beginning.

A new birth.

As wondrous as our life here on this earth had been, it couldn’t possibly hold a candle to this “eternal life” promised us by our Lord.

At that point he understood that death was nothing to be feared, but in reality, should be looked upon as our new beginning.

As he started leavin, he stated…”Ya know Doug. We just had church, right here…on the side of the road.”

He was right, that’s just exactly what had taken place.

Now, in my opinion, ya really don’t have to be an Einstein to decide what type of people you’d like to be around.

People whom the first part of this post was speaking of, or people like Eric, the young man who stopped to offer his help.

No matter what the left tells you, family values, a work ethic, morals, virtues, integrity, and religion all are needed in order for a Country to flourish.

These all lay the good foundation needed for a Country, or family for that matter, to prosper, based upon your or its principles.

I read an article from “Newsmax” this morning featuring the Rev. Billy Graham, and my only reason for reading this…was Rev. Graham.

Rev. Graham states, “Our early fathers led our Nation according to Biblical principles.”

“HOPE AND CHANGE,” has become a cliché in our Nation, and it is daunting to think that any American could “hope” for change from what God has blessed.”

He goes on to speak of “trendy faith,” or the tailoring by Americans today of their religion, or mixing their Christian beliefs with a little of this, or a little of that, with other religions of the world.

He speaks of society’s condoning or advocating this, “trendy faith.”

He warns by doing so, we have dismissed God.

What does this mean, or lead to?

How about “skewed thinking, and consciences that are desensitized to right and wrong, basing moral decisions SOLELY on what fits in with OUR individual preferences.”

Sounds familiar, does it not?

So, it seems today’s world is based upon a couple choices for us to make…

Christianity, and its roots in our Country’s greatness, OR…

“Alinskyanity” (ya like that, Alinskyanity…I jus made it up, LOL), and its immoral teachings?

The choice is yours.

Closing Out:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:3-16)

You guys have a great day, and God Bless!

Be sure to “keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!”

Doug and Lucky

A good friend of ours, Bonnie, or “Mountain Gal,” sent me a video last week.

I thought it was great, and felt I’d let you guys in on it today.

If you haven’t seen this video before, please watch it. If you have, then watch it again…if ya feel like it…

“A government that continues to rob Peter to pay Paul obviously can continue to count on Paul’s support.”

How easy is that?

Yet, all these “Paul’s,” have sold their souls, black, white, green, or brown…

To our politicians.

For a little bit of nothing.

The very politicians these “dumbed down” constituents continue to vote into office, time after time, after time, really couldn’t care less about them…their “constituency.”

I won’t even get into this part, simply because it should be very obvious to see.

“We The People,” have complacently say by and watched our freedoms, our values, our integrity, our Constitution, our Flag, and our National Anthem be walked on, and literally tossed under the bus.

Why?

My thoughts on this is that our politicians used our own Christian morals, our belief in “our system of government,” with its checkpoints and limitations it provided through our Constitution of power allowed…our politicians.

I also know, that these same politicians understood very well our belief in law and order, our system of law, and because of what America WAS, and what it stood for, we’d sit back…and trust in our government, and our voters, to in fact, right the boat.

I gotta say…this has worked out very well, hasn’t it?

Well, actually it HAS worked out very well…FOR…the political elite!

Power and greed…More and more, power and greed!

Yep, this agenda has in fact worked out very well.

Through our belief that our Constitution provided these limitations of power, and our mind set of, “Let’s not rock the boat, let’s not do anything against the law, let’s just sit back, be patient and then…things will be alright.”

Wrong!

Power and greed…this is our Country today.

Political correctness…what’s that all about, anyway?

Only an agenda to silence dissent.

Funny thing though…how in the world did believing in your Constitution, believing in your right to worship freely, believing that if you’d only work and apply yourself, that in turn, our Country provides you the opportunity…to live the American Dream,” EVER become classified…AS DISSENT???

Our politicians, power, and greed.

Gun control??

Take off the gun, and you have exactly what this “gun control” agenda is REALLY ALL ABOUT…

CONTROL!

Look what our politicians have done to us…without gun control. Look at how they literally chunk our Constitution under the bus….and we STILL have the ability to protect ourselves???

What happens when we roll over, and once more give in to our governments wishes of…they know best. “Just listen to us…We’ll make it right.”

Yet they want our guns, but this very same administration advocated, then set in motion… “operation…Fast and Furious.”

Boy, that sure worked out for the Mexican citizens, didn’t it?

Thousands dead, shot by automatic weapons supplied by this administration, who originally, with our media’s help…tried to put the blame on us.

They were claiming it was OUR right to bear arms that allowed these weapons to be bought openly, and because of this…we needed to take a long hard look at…gun control.

It was quite simple to understand, for anybody with a semblance of a brain to know quite well, that automatic weapons are not sold freely in the US…without very, very stringent background checks.

So, ass I said, it WAS quite clear as to where these weapons hittin the streets in Mexico were REALLY comin from!

And…

Ends up…our political powers that be were indeed…letting this take place!

THEN…

They deny it. Then they refuse to dig deep, and prosecute anyone for this atrocity??? Shoot, it’s much easier to simply blame it on you and I… “We The People.”

IF it had been this way…you think anybody would have been held accountable?

Of course they would have!

Hitler once said, “How fortunate for governments that the people they govern…don’t think!”

Ring a bell to anyone is morning?

The law-abiding citizen in this Country abuses their right to bear arms, very, very infrequently. The stats prove this time after time.

The school shootings?

Terrible, terrible acts! There is NO condoning this in any way shape or form.

Yet, look at our politicians, AND their agenda once more…

They are destroying the family unit as a whole. They TELL us, what our children will eat at school.

They tell us whether we can discipline (NOT ABUSE, although this is the left’s counter to discipline) our own children. Through this, how do you teach your child accountability for THEIR actions?

Time out, you say?

Baloney, says I!

How do you teach them morals and respect?

You don’t!

How bout teaching YOUR children the value of a work ethic, and the ability for them to do literally anything they want, or be anybody they want by running their own business, through hard work and sacrifice?

You don’t!

Shoot, the government today considers a hard work ethic…greedy, selfish, and actually, stealing a piece of the “poor and oppressed” …slice of pie!

Ponder this for only a second or two…

OUR political leaders, most of which HAVE absolutely no idea what so ever of fiscal responsibility, have never run a business, or made a payroll, at least with THEIR OWN MONEY, are telling THEIR CONSTITUENCY” that…we, the working people, the tax payers, the lawful, the believers in our religious and personal freedoms our Country allows us…

Are…the greedy ones here in this picture???

These same people, now have us, our children, our grandchildren, and who knows how many future generations will be affected by this fiscal irresponsibility, are portraying the “engine that runs this Country,” the taxpayers who literally are funding all these “give-away” programs, which by the way, the recipients of this generosity of our, hate us!

Yes, they do!

Why?

Because they’ve been indoctrinated to hate us.

By…once more…our politicians!

Kinda funny though, that our politicians, the very ones who STEAL daily, not only from us, but their own constituents as well…

Paint us…as the greedy ones.

Even funnier is the fact that we’ve set on our backsides for so long, and allowed our government to “dumb us down,” that these poor oppressed…believe now, that what we have…IS THEIRS TOO!

What a crazy, mixed up society we live in today!

We’ve helped poor people out in this Country since its inception…over two hundred years.

Not through the barrel of a gun as Dinesh states, but through OUR OWN generosity, values, and integrity.

Out church, and I’m sure most others have a food pantry.

You come, state you lost your job, can’t feed your family…you walk away with food. Many times even having your power bill, or rent paid too.

Our church doesn’t pay these bills, I don’t think, they might, but I know there are MANY that do…I’m just sayin.

BUT, my point is this is done out of our own generosity and need to have some moral transactions that…make us feel good, about helping a friend, or neighbor out.

That’s all.

This worked.

UNTIL, our politician figured out…we don’t WANT people controlling their own lives, starting up businesses, being successful…cause…we can’t control these people! Shoot, they have…MINDS OF THEIR OWN…God forbid!

What do we do??

We USE this very Democracy…against them!

We USE our citizens giving hearts against them!

We then advocate laws AL:LOWING us to take what we want from the producers, and THEN, GIVE a part of it to…the NON-PRODUCERS!

We PUT people ON WELFARE, and DON’T give them the opportunity to GET OFF WELFARE!

Through this, we create a voting bloc that will continue to grow, and grow, and GROW, until one day…we’ll have power forever!

This “DEMOCRACY THING,” IS GREAT!

Once we have “the numbers” we then have…power…FOR LIFE!

I love America!!

The sad part, and the truth is…NO they don’t love America, not by any means, they HATE America, but sadly, just as they figured out…they CAN, destroy America…from within.

Folks, they are, too!

Welcome to…

Today’s society!

Don’t ya just love it?

Sadly, we must, cause we sure ain’t doin anything about it!

Listen…once more, okay?

WE, the people…are FUNDING our own demise!

WHY, do we not put a stop to this?

Why, do WE not advocate boycotting anything and anybody who continues shoving this political correctness upon us?

Look at the blacks, the Hispanics, homosexuals, and even look at the Muslims.

Believe me, I’m not anti ANY of these people, but simply making a point here.

I advocate people of ANY and ALL color, white included…IF…they believe in MY COUNTRY!

OUR COUNTRY!

IF they advocate, we’re not African -Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Muslim-Americans, again, even White-Americans!

I consider us ALL, simply…AMERICANS!

These people turn out in the streets…by the thousands!

WHY, don’t we?

They don’t like the direction of something, or even the wording of an ad???

They boycott it!

Tax revolts, maybe??

I dunno, but…we need a hero folks!

A John Wayne kinda guy, who literally tells it like it is, and leads not only through his words, but also…HIS ACTIONS!

We’re fast comin to a time of either “steppin up,” OR, “shuttin up!”

The choice is ours.

The type of society we leave for our children, and their children, and their children, rests squarely upon…our shoulders!

How’s that for some pressure on ya this morning, huh?

So there’s a little something for ya to kick around some today…think on it as little, okay?

You guys have a great day, and God Bless you, and yours!

“Keep a smile on your face, and one in your hearts!”

Dub

I went to bed at 9:30 last night and got up at 2 am, number one because I was tired so I went to bed early, but secondly because I really didn’t want to undergo the stress of watching the election returns. I figured I’d just get up, get on the internet and see that as a Country, we’d realized the terrible mistake of this past 4 years and redeem ourselves at the voting booth…until now.

I figured that after the citizens of our Country had witnessed such atrocious spending, and printing of money, and the massive borrowing by our political elite, that through our process of free elections, we’d right our ship…until now.

I figured that even though many had made the mistake of voting in “a person of color,” mainly because of guilt associated by actions that were taken so many years ago to suppress the “people of color” by others, that they’d now realize that actually none of these actions had ANYTHING to do with them, and that their casting their “sympathy” votes during the last election was in reality, wrong…until now.
I really still believed that the citizens of our Country were smarter than making the very same mistake again, in regards to the associations in the past, and present, that our President had, and still has…until now.

I believed that, as a whole, our children and grandchildren’s futures were much more important to us than what our politicians obviously thought…until now.

I believed that the freedoms and liberty this great Country of ours stood for, and represented to us, such as our “freedom of speech,” would be appreciated once more, and that we’d finally silence such absurd thinking created through, political correctness…until now.

Which by the way, this very same political correctness, AND our freedom of speech all allowed our political elite to misconstrue, turn around and twist, and misrepresent through wording, and by these actions, to finally use these very same freedoms to destroy our Country as we’ve always known it.

They literally used these very values to turn our world upside down, as law-abiding, taxpaying, hard-working, family oriented, and a Christian people (majority wise), into an agenda of everyone being equal. This IS…social justice, or social equality. Welcome…

I’d have never believed this to be possible in our Country…until now.

I’d never have believed, in the farthest stretches of my imagination, that we, as a Nation, could possibly ever elect a President that has shown such disrespect of, and towards our Nation’s Flag, the VERY SYMBOL of our freedoms, not just once, BUT TWICE, mind you…until now.

I never thought I’d wake up to find that our Country has been so totally blinded, through these so called, “entitlement programs,” that we’d literally vote in, again mind you, an administration that has any and everything on their agenda for THEIR power and greed to continue moving forward with absolutely NO consideration for, “We the People”…until now.

I’d have never considered that by literally having to show some type of ID at a polling station, proving who you are, could ever POSSIBLY be seen as oppression against some class of people…until now.

YET, in renewing my own Driver’s license, I had to display my birth certificate, or NO license. To an extent I can understand this, BUT, not when I’ve had a Florida Driver’s License, in my possession for 40 years! Same license, same picture on my license, same guy in the picture.

I’d have thought that the simple right to vote, and the importance of your vote, in electing as a free society your leaders, would have much more significance, and I’d expect much more emphasis by our system to actually PROVE who you are, than say, your Driver’s license…until now.

I’d have thought that seeing what a monstrosity the entitlement programs have become, simply through the funding now required to keep them afloat, that “We the People” would overwhelmingly…toss the bums out. Until now.

I believed that the Health Care our administration shoved down our throats, and the horrendous implications small, and large business, even individuals such as yourself are now faced with, and now actually becoming enacted, would be more than sufficient to demand change at the highest levels…until now.

I always believed that we Americans, through our work ethic, our values, and our will to succeed, by only having the chance our Country provides for us in these regards, would ever allow any type of socialist movement to take a foothold in our Country, much less gain total power, would…COULD…never happen…until now.

I’d never have dreamed, here in our Country, that I’d EVER wake up and wonder…can I, as a small business owner…survive the next 4 years…until now.

I’d never have dreamed, that I’d live to see business in our Country, BIG business too, laying off people, cutting their employee hours below full-time status because of their own concern that they no longer know what these very employees are going to cost them through taxation, AND Government FORCED Health Care and regulation…until now.

I’d never have believed that the American people could ever not understand SIMPLE economics…until now.

One simple explanation of this is that IF you have a jar of money sitting on your kitchen table, as an example, and you continue daily to go take a little out here, a little out there, but NEVER put any money back into your jar…eventually, the well runs dry. There is…no more money.

This is where we’re at.

The very people who consider it a right to get something for nothing, will be dumbfounded when “the jar” runs out of money, and their first question will be… “WHAT happened?”

Ah…geez guys…I don’t know??

In all honesty this morning, I have to say, I’m very glad God is in my life. Through him, and the strength I take from this, my life is still secure. He sees to this.

I never thought I’d ever say this, until now, but this morning I’m very glad, elated actually, that my dear Deb has left THIS world.

I say this because I believe in my heart, we as American citizens have a very tough road in front of us and by her being gone, I’ll not be worried in her regard. Personally, I can take whatever they throw at me.

Even if we’d have had a change in the Oval Office, our path as Americans, and the challenges that lay ahead of us would have been very difficult. Now…they’ll be EXTREMELY difficult.

BUT, the path that lays ahead for us is still…up to us.

It is not too late to exert our will. We simply have to face the adversity that will come, face it head on, and accept it for what it is. It is not too late to demand our own rights, to bond and support one another as believers in all the greatness our Country STILL provides for us.

It is up to us to BELIEVE in ourselves! To not take no as answer, and to still demand accountability by our elected elite.

I made this statement yesterday, and I’ll always know that it is entirely correct…WE, again WE, allowed all that has gone wrong in our Country to take place.

It’s not our politicians fault, although they are now in the driver’s seat, because of our inability to act as one, and snuff out the policies that they’ve enacted, and by our inability to act as one, their policies became more and more arrogant. This is human nature.

Complacency, my friends is our biggest strike against us. We, the silent majority…were silent far too long, and we now see we’re paying a very heavy price for it.

The game is not over though…not by a long shot, IF, we no longer see complacency as simply…not wanting to rock the boat!

Watch our politicians very, very carefully from now on. You HAVE to become a player in the game NOW, or, the game will soon be over.

Understand though, that using football lingo, we’re only fixing to start the second half…of the game!

There’s still two full quarters to play. Get involved, stand up for your rights, because no matter what our government would LIKE for you to believe, they are still just that…YOUR RIGHTS!

Let’s stop punting the ball, and go on the offensive for a change. We’ve got to start pounding, demanding action from our representatives, and by this…us gaining the initiative once again!

One thing about the “true” American people is that we have always have had a resolve to win. This literally is bred into us! Who likes to lose? Not me!

“We the People” are at our very best when our backs are against the wall. Our true character comes out, and we have the mentality we’ll ALWAYS win, with a no matter what it takes attitude!

Nothing is unattainable, and I STILL believe that our children and our grandchildren’s futures are far too important of issues for us to throw up our hands and quit. We will overcome any obstacles we have to face.

Yes, we’ll endure some tough times, but there’s also a saying that is very appropriate here… “When the going gets tough…the tough get going!”

To look at this any differently is so…SO…UN-AMERICAN!

I’M IN…how bout you guys? Just hold them accountable, and not accept anything less from them. By simply doing this, we’ll win the second half…AND the game!

Also, let’s all thank Judi and Brian, the Canada Free Press, and all the others out there just like them that have spent the time, effort and had the concern to bring us the TRUE goings on in our Country. Your work has been so appreciated by each and every one of us!

Please…keep it up!

God Bless you guys, God Bless America, and let’s keep her…”The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave!”

Through it all, let’s keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub

Big day tomorrow huh? Actually, tomorrow will be a VERY BIG day!

After 4 years of massive debt, massive unemployment, massive growth in the public sector, massive growth in Americans now on some type of government aid, massive attacks on our religious freedoms, massive growth in regards to ‘socialist agendas” through government sponsored programs such as ACORN and the pitting of the “haves,” versus the “have-nots,” and the teachings instilled by this that you DESERVE (DESERVE mind you), your fair piece of the pie too!

All of this is simply…STEALING! There’s no other term or explanation for it. Again…it IS stealing!

We’ve had 4 years of pitting “people of color” against anyone who is designated as…racist. Racist meaning… most anyone white.

This from the very guy who promised to put racial differences aside. This from the very guy who while campaigning KNEW, that by him being black, although only half, he could create a guilt factor among voters that it was indeed time to put our racial differences behind us, and would vote for him to ease their own “guilt” from atrocities committed by others LONG before most were even born.

He played “the race card” to a tee! Still does! They actually, literally, advocate racial division in our Country.

Listen to em!

Professor Gates… Travon Martin…Rev. Wright…Louis Farrakhan…Rev. Meeks…Affirmative Action…immigration, legal and illegal…and Mark Lloyd of “there are some good white people in positions of power, yet…they must step down to allow more people of color, homosexuals, women, etc.,” plus he speaks of Chavez and his “great revolution.”

How many times have you heard blasted across the airwaves that IF you didn’t vote for Obama…it was simply because of…RACE?

Your ability to cipher for yourself that through his associations with people of less than desirable character THROUGHOUT his life, his refusal to wear a flag pin or give our Flag the proper respect during the playing of our National Anthem, ESPECIALLY while campaigning to be the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, his refusal to celebrate National Prayer Day, but to in fact observe Ramadan, he declares America NOT a Christian Country, even during an interview with George Stephanopoulos stating that, “Some people have a problem with my Muslim identity (or something very similar), then Stephanopoulos stepping in and saying, “You mean your Christian identity,” and Obama replying “Yes, that’s what I meant.” Uh ,huh…

He takes it upon himself during the campaign that…his middle name CAN’T be used. Shoot, Hussein’s bout as Christian sounding as it gets, huh?

Then the guy states that we, after Maj. Nidal Hassan shot and killed many of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, all the while shouting Allah Akbar…should not jump to conclusions that this incident may have been an act committed by a suspect with radical Islamic sentiments???

Now who in their right mind would NOT have considered this an act committed by a radical Islamist? To me, the shouting out of Allah Akbar was kinda a giveaway…jus sayin!

We saw children singing praises to this guy after his election, we’ve had a member of the mainstream media make some sort of remark about “peeing down his leg,” when hearing Obama speak, we’ve heard the guy being proclaimed as… “THE MESSIAH???”

YET, in spite of all this, which personally I find ALL very, very disturbing…in the eyes of all these far-left nut cases, yep, that’s EXACTLY what they are, they then have the AUDACITY to declare me, only because I refuse to vote for someone so blatantly, AND arrogantly ANTI-AMERICAN, that my only reason for doing so, is simply…I’m a racist, far-right, uneducated redneck.

Uh, huh….okay.

Then I read this morning about the devastation inflicted on the Northeast by the recent storm. Terrible damage, loss of life, people without homes, and the ones with homes…without power.

My heart, along with SO many others, go out to these people, right? Yes indeed.

YET, states such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, etc., send crews to help restore power to these people who had been hit so hard by the storm. This in itself being a testimony of the goodness in people’s hearts to “step up” in times of hardship to help their neighbors, their fellow human beings, and their fellow Countrymen.

It’s times like these that make me proud to be an American.

Sadly though, not everyone seems to feel this way. Once more we see greed, power, and pretty much everything dealing with any type of morals, virtues, or integrity “shot down” by political agendas.
Our Country was founded on OUR RIGHT to work, wasn’t it?

But once more these dern unions, who by the way are in Obama’s pockets, and support his ideology wholeheartedly by donating their time, effort and monies (BIG time monies) to his campaign…STOP, you hear me, STOP some of the very crews sent to the Northeast to aid in restoring power to…the people.

One example…

Decatur Utilities general manager Ray Hardin said Friday during a Fox Business Network broadcast that ”we were presented with documents from IBEW that required our folks to affiliate with the union. And [that's] something that we could not agree to. And it was our understanding, and still is, that that was a requirement of working in that area.”

This is an atrocity! Also, there’s no need to discuss it any further. If you can’t see the impact of such actions, and their total disregard for the wellbeing of the people within their own cities and states, then God help you, you are indeed a lost soul.

One other thing about this…if you think for one minute that Obama and his minions have had no idea of this type of strong-arm tactics taking place, then you’ve been living on another planet!

So, pardon me for asking, but HAS anyone seen “The Land of the Free,” or “The Home of the Brave Lately?”

Me either.

So, take a look at the road we’re seeing our Nation go down today. Do you feel good about this?

Once more…me either!

So, let’s all get out tomorrow and vote for Mitt Romney.

Was he my first choice? No. BUT, I do like many of the things he brings to the table, and versus what we have in office today, in my opinion where to cast our vote as God-fearing, law-abiding, hard-working, taxpaying Americans is simply…a no-brainer!

Plus, I don’t see ANY chance of our Country continuing to survive such a socialist based ideology without suffering irreparable damage. To be honest, for us to recover the damage already done is going to be a hard row to hoe. Very painful in fact!

You want to understand the shape our Country is in? You only have to look at today’s Democratic Party. It is this in name only anymore.

Our economy? Our educational system? Our work force being depleted? Our jobs leaving here, going overseas? Our massive debt created from welfare programs? Our situation in regards to illegal immigration? Our inability to have…the right to work in many states? Our weakening in regards to our National defense? Our inability to “drill here” and do away with our dependence upon foreign oil?

Our having a “Health Care Reform System” shoved down our throats, literally AGAINST the will of the people, which by the way, when and IF, implemented, will allow widespread government intrusion into your personal lives that will be the start of “our freedoms” literally being a thing of the past.

Our inability to speak out against any of this “throttled” by the complete absurdity of a phrase implemented and used by the left allowing them ALL the gain, and leaving “we the people” voiceless. This through… “political correctness!”

Stop also and ponder the absurdity of us, as Americans, now no longer being able to use, or express our faith-based, well intentioned sentiment, of wishing others…to have a “Merry Christmas.”

Think again of such unheard of examples of our school children not being able to display our Flag, simply because we “may offend” Hispanic students during the observance of Cinco de Mayo??

Or our children simply having a lemonade stand but having it shut down by city officials.

Right down to dialing on your phone, here in America, and being told…if you speak English…press 1??? IF WE SPEAK ENGLISH???

Any of this bother you??

Well, you can lay the blame at the feet of the Socialist Party. I mean the Progressive Party. Actually, I MEAN the Democratic Party! Sorry…

Get out and vote tomorrow! DO NOT make the mistake of having the mindset that, “Well, I really don’t like either candidate… so I ain’t voting period!”

BIG, BIG MISTAKE if you have this sentiment! EVERY vote counts!

Also, please don’t throw your vote away by voting for obviously someone on the ballot that stands absolutely NO CHANCE of winning. This is only throwing your vote away.

This IS a two horse race…that’s it. It boils down to Romney versus Obama…there IS no other name on the ballot that amounts to a hill a beans! A vote cast to any other, is just like…stayin home and not voting at all!

Remember Edmund Burke… “Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little!

GO VOTE!

In closing let me say just a couple other things…

Today, our Republican Party, to me, is a far cry from what it has pretty much been. This too is only how I look at it.

They too are advocating welfare and entitlement programs. They too are enjoying their own brand of health care, retirement packages, and great salaries, subsidized by… “We the People!”

This meaning…they too have to be held accountable! We all need to be much more involved in our political process.

Our elected officials start twisting around, rewording, or going against our Constitution as laid out by our Founding Fathers…then they need to be BOOTED out of office, without the opportunity to stay in power until the end of their term and then voted out.

“Booting out of office,” simply meaning them being… “drop-kicked through the goalposts of life!”

Accountability…we’re forced by these elected elites to be held accountable for our actions and deeds, right? You betcha!

It’s past time they’re held to the very same standards! Don’t you agree?

Well, you all know what tomorrow brings…vote wisely, and from your heart! Let’s all do whatever we can to be once again… “The Land of the Free,” and “The Home of the Brave!”

You guys have a great day, and God Bless! Please…keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub

Let’s start off with this today…

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones.
Learn from their ways and become wise.
Though they have no prince
Or governor, or ruler to make them work,
They labor hard all winter.
But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep?
When will you wakeup?
A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest-
Then POVERTY will pounce on you like a bandit;
Scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

(Proverbs 6 6-11)

Stop and think about this a moment. Have you ever witnessed anything anymore industrious than those little fellows? They’re in constant motion…it seems they never stop!

How many of you have ever walked outside and were amazed at the size of the anthill you were staring down at in your yard…that wasn’t there yesterday? Talking about the expression “moving mountains?”

These creatures do it daily, day after day, year after year. I wish I had a quarter of their work ethic, and that’s exactly what this “take a lesson from the ants” is speaking of in my opinion…a work ethic, and through a strong work ethic, becoming wise.

Why? I’d think that through a good solid work ethic, you provide a good life for you and your family. That’s a wise act, right? It is in my book!

By this, as years go by, and you’re no longer here on this earth, what have you left behind? You’ve left a foundation laid that has taught your children, and their children, the value of this same work ethic…this ideal.

Also, through your own toil, sweat, and blood, you’ve left your heirs better off financially, than when you first started out. This too, is a foundation that you’ve left that allows them to build from. Pretty wise, huh?

Finally, by these actions, you’ve guaranteed the livelihood of your family TO survive. To be able to take what’s thrown at them and continue moving ahead, through their own work ethic, values, and morals that you left behind for them.

Now that’s very wise, indeed!

Look around you today at this great Country of ours. Yes, you still see hard working, driven individuals, “ants” that very much believe in our system. A system that has always ensured that such a work ethic is rewarded by the many opportunities this Country provides for such people.

Yet, our Country today has over 46 million people on some type of welfare program!

I was brought up kinda like the ants. I always understood the old adage, “you don’t work…ya don’t eat,” as the norm, and harbored no ill will towards this statement. Seemed plenty fair enough to me.

Once more, I’m not talking about the recently laid off, but instead an entire society that has been taught, BY OUR POLITICIANS…to become the cornerstone for the word…sorry. Lazybones is appropriate as well!

Many of these people haven’t held a job…in generations! GENERATIONS for God’s sake! There’s no need for them to. Why on earth would they even consider something as outrageous as…getting up each day and going to work? Are you crazy??

Yet, what in the “you know what” possesses us, the taxpayer, to have allowed this blatant stealing of our tax money to happen in the first place.

Give our money to a class of people who have literally NO desire to help themselves. With this being the case…WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD I want to help them??? I don’t do that for my own children!
Also, help is exactly what we’re not doing by this. We’re destroying, not helping.

These same people though, think it’s THEIR RIGHT to draw something for nothing, then literally EXPECT us, the workers, or “ants,” to continue to labor for their benefit.

On top of this, in all honesty…they don’t even like us, much less appreciate the sacrifice we make each week, supporting them, the lazybones!! And by this, we’re taking away income, that should be directed back into…OUR own families!

Another example of such mentality is exhibited daily by many of the immigrants coming into our Country. Back in the day, the immigrants that came used to get down on their knees and kiss the soil upon arriving here. We WERE the LAND OF OPPORTUNITY!

Why did they come? Because their own Countries could not provide the very same. We were looked upon worldwide as…the GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH!

We have politicians today, even in the highest branches of our government, that don’t consider our Country in this way. The words, “totally transform America as we know it,” come to mind. Do you remember?

Today though, a lot of the immigrants that arrive here, many, many illegally, could care less about the freedoms our Country provides for them, this freedom to work hard, save, and better your life.
Nope…they come for what our “entitlement programs” give out to them.

The difference today is that when they arrive here now, they don’t kneel and kiss the soil of our Country. Instead they arrive expecting US, to kneel and kiss, THEIR rear-ends!

Not only do they expect it…most of our elected officials advocate it! Plus…we’re kissin their rear-ends to boot!

Through their policies of this great farce called “entitlements,” we’re letting these same “elected elite” destroy our Country just the same as they’ve destroyed a class of people, their own constituents, mind you, for the simple reason of…their own power and gain.

I’ll say it again, just as I’ve said it before until I’m blue in the face. These people they claim to care so much for, and are champions for in the fight against poverty, they couldn’t care less about.

They’ve destroyed their will to work, their will to better themselves, they’re taking away their religion, their ideal of having a family unit, and their individuality as human beings. They have literally indoctrinated these people into an ideal of…you’re owed something.

Stop and take a lesson from the ants my friends.

Nothing is free. It all comes at a price, and the price paid for by these “constituents” of socialist leaders is appalling in the mildest sense! Power for the ones in power, yet poverty for the people they claim to be concerned for…who also happen to be the very ones who elected them in the first place.

Look throughout the history of the world. Social equality is just that…nothing for everyone, but this is just the type of equality the “elitists” speak of. There never was, nor ever will be…a “Socialist Utopia.” It doesn’t exist!

As for the jobs we lose daily to overseas companies…once again, we have to look at our “elected elite” for this as well.

Too excessive taxation, government regulation, unionization, and offshoots out of DC as well. The Environmental Protection Agency comes to mind!

Yet President Obama speaks of…keeping jobs in the US. Yeah, okay!

In closing today, let’s look further into this scripture about the ants. Stop and contemplate what’s being said, and if in fact it applies to Washington DC and the agendas that come out of there as well.

What are the worthless and wicked people like?
They are constant liars,
Signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye,
A nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.
Their perverted hearts plot evil,
And they constantly stir up trouble.
But they will be destroyed suddenly,
Broken in an instant beyond all hopes of healing.

(Proverbs 6 12-15)

So as the title of today’s post asks…Who You Gonna Listen To? The choice is yours.

God Bless each and every one of you, and God Bless America! Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub

Today’s post is from my good, good friend AP. A lot of you have read his posts before and today starts it up again on our site.

AP is in his nineties and sharp as a tack, although he’s a dern carpetbagger…uh…I mean Yankee! He just underwent a procedure on his heart and he feels great! We’re elated that he’s “back in the saddle” once again!

God Bless you buddy!

“The president shall have the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during a recess of the Senate” The Constitution Article 11, Section 2

When on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama swore to defend the Constitution; he did not mean all of it. He evidently believes that the provisions quoted above merely expresses the Founders ‘now anachronistic anxieties about abuses of executive powers. So on Jan. 4, 2012, Obama simply ignored the Recess Clause to fill 3 seats on the National Labor Board, even though the Senate said it “was not in recess. Obama” cheeky response was” when I decide what “recess” means.

The Recess Clause states that only the president’s power extends only to vacancies that ‘happen” while the Senate is in recess… The Framers wrote the Recess Clause to give the president very limited time, as little as 10 days to fill vacancies. Congress has adopted the practice of conducting pro forma sessions, so the Senate is not in recess while many of the Senators are not present. The Senate was holding such sessions every 3 days when Obama banded the settled for presidents respecting this practice. He treated the Senate’s unwillingness to act on his NLRB nominations as an inability to act, and said this inability constituted a de facto recess.

Consider this episode when deciding whether on January 20, 2013 he should again have a chance swear to only selectively defend the Constitution

Former U.S Senator Arlen Spector, died at the age of 84, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30 year career Announcing the diagnoses with his trade mark doggedness, Spector said “ I have beaten a brain tumor, bypass heart surgery , and many tough political opponents and I’m going to beat this, too”….When we were building the Scranton Mall, he would show up in time to have his photo and a few words for the press…..he was sort of an odd ball, but I believe he was an honest one.

THE ESSENTIAL OBAMA……..BY EMMETT TYRRELL JR.

WASHINGTON – Well, apparently I am not crazy after all. The polls have caught up with me, and they — après le debate — are coming around to my point of view. Governor Mitt Romney is ahead in the race for the White House, and he will probably be residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2013. President Barack Obama looked great at most official functions. Beginning with Ron Susskind’s fine book, “Confidence Men,” and continuing on to Bob Woodward’s recent “The Price of Politics,” it has been increasingly apparent that this president does not sit through meetings — even national security briefings — does not know how to make or implement policy and much prefers to gabble on and on, preferably with the assistance of a teleprompter. And to think the official party line on Obama has been that he is eloquent. I think the wind came out of that legend when in debate the other night Romney said, “Look, I’ve been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” All true blue Obama fans — and even I — expected the president to come back with any one of a half-dozen witty zingers. How about a rude reference to Bain Capital? Yet, Obama looked glassy-eyed and the ref, Jim Lehrer, stepped in. Moreover, Obama continued to be wobbly and evasive in response to Romney’s challenges. Some Obama fans blamed the ref, though if not for him Obama could have suffered bodily injury.

After four years in the White House, our ceremonial president is presiding over the weakest recovery of modern times. He presides over low growth, high unemployment and trillion dollar deficits every year of his presidency. All he is offering the electorate in the next four years is more of the same. Jimmy Carter could not get reelected with such a shaky strategy and neither will Obama. Furthermore last month his foreign policy went poof right in front of him. His nonsense about leading from behind, deferring to international organizations, and paying obeisance to Arab militants has been seen for what it is, a warrant for invading our diplomatic installations in foreign lands. In Libya the animals slaughtered our ambassador, and the evidence is clear, to wit, the ambassador was seeking more security at the time of his death and being rebuffed. Remember Benghazi!

The debate last week was a classic. Romney put together the finest showing of any presidential candidate in the history of televised debates. He did it by speaking of his record and in speaking of Obama’s record. Yet, he did something more. James Rosen of Fox News took notice with a lapidary remark: Romney “delivered one of the great defenses of the free market ever given to an audience of this size. Obama seemed intimidated and adrift with the material. His constructions were lengthy and complex, whereas Romney’s were clear and commanding and fluid. Even if Romney loses on November 6, this still goes down as an epic electronic-age primer on various models of economics that Ronald Reagan couldn’t even deliver; and Milton Friedman never addressed an audience of this size. At all points, Romney returned to the theme of competition as a driver of reduced costs and improved quality.” Rosen concluded: “Romney also delivered the sharpest elbow of the night, with the reference to Obama’s campaign contributors: the closest thing to the pressing of a charge of corruption.”

Now let me make a prediction. Romney will not lose on November 6. Obama will continue to perform wretchedly in debate. He is not going to do better. What you saw last week was the essential Barack Obama, community organizer and part-time senator.

JOE WAS THE ONLY ONE LAUGHING…..”If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs. And there is no quiet”

Conventional wisdom says that vice presidential debates don’t move the needle in elections, and last night’s debate was probably no exception. That said, Thursday night’s debate couldn’t have contrasted two more different candidates. Paul Ryan, the respectful, serious and earnest policy wonk, against Joe Biden, who behaved like a drunken clown and a jerk and paid due homage to the mascot of the Democrat Party — the Jackass.

On substance, Ryan held his own against Vice President Chuckles, despite having to face a second debate opponent in “moderator” Martha Raddatz of ABC News. Yet on style, whether the subject was the terrorist attack on our Libyan embassy, the ailing economy or abortion, Biden smiled, laughed, sneered, rolled his eyes and strategically interrupted Ryan every time the congressman hit his stride on an answer. And if it wasn’t Biden interrupting, it was Raddatz.

Biden is obviously a disciple of Saul Alinksy, who in his “Rules for Radicals,” Rule No. 5, said, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.” Clearly, the Obama team decided that the president’s failure last week was that he was “too polite,” and that Biden had to use ridicule to shore up their anxious base. The result was appalling, but then again, Biden has been rehearsing his socialist obfuscation and diversion in Washington for 40 years.

With that, here are a few high and low lights.

Libya: Biden blamed the intelligence community for the ever-changing story coming from the White House, and flat out lied when he claimed ignorance as a defense. “[W]e weren’t told they wanted more security” at the embassy, he said.. But the bottom line is that the whole episode is, as Ryan responded, “indicative of a broader problem,” and we’re witnessing “the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy.”

Iran: Biden made the ridiculous assertion that even though Iran has spent the last four years further developing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, “they have to be able to have something to put it in. There is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point.” Well, building a bomb to “put it in” is the easy part. When the argument shifted to how the ayatollah sees it, Biden argued that the administration’s “most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions, period,” have the Iranians looking at an “economy being crippled … the currency going into the tank … [and] the economy going into free fall.” We wondered if he meant the Iran economy or the U.S. economy. Maybe the administration should ease up on sanctions here at home.

Economy: We have to give Raddatz props for asking Biden why White House projections of unemployment under 6 percent were so wrong, but Biden immediately defaulted to blaming Bush. He then berated Mitt Romney for wanting to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” in contrast to the administration, which “rescued General Motors.” What he neglected to mention was that Detroit did go bankrupt — the White House just made sure the unions came out okay.

Biden then proceeded to the usual leftist class warfare, accusing Republicans of holding the middle class “hostage” to tax cuts “for the super wealthy.” Yet tax policy should be about growth, not “fair shares” and “economic patriotism,” as Barack Obama put it last week. As Ryan noted, “The economy is barely limping along. It’s growing at 1.3 percent. That’s slower than it grew last year and last year was slower than the year before.” The Romney/Ryan tax cut plan — a 20 percent cut across the board with reforms to deductions and credits — is first and foremost a pro-growth plan. The so-called “cost” of cutting those taxes will be more than offset by economic growth. Ryan tried to note despite rude interruption that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did the same thing with great success, contrary to the leftist assertion that we “can’t afford” it and that the Bush-era tax cuts caused the current deficits.

As for unemployment, the real (U-6) rate, which includes those who are underemployed and those who have become discouraged and simply given up looking for work, is reported as 14.7 percent but, as with U-3, is probably much higher. In addition, the real unemployed and underemployed ranks of Americans have swollen to more than 20 million, households considered impoverished have grown to one in six, and there are 47 million food stamp recipients — up 50 percent since Obama’s election. Obama has also amassed $5 trillion in new debt, and our national debt now totals $16 trillion, which for the first time in history now exceeds U.S. annual economic output. Finally, median household income has declined by $4,520 (8.2 percent) since Obama took office (that’s the real “Obama tax”), energy prices have doubled because of Obama restrictions, and economic growth has slowed to an anemic 1.3 percent.

Biden made hay of Romney’s statement about 47 percent not paying federal income taxes, but that created an opening for Ryan’s best zinger of the night: “I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”

Medicare and Social Security: Ryan hit the most critical point, saying, “Medicare and Social Security are going bankrupt. These are indisputable facts.” He noted that Democrats “got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, turning Medicare into a piggybank for ObamaCare,” taking $716 billion from future Medicare outlays to make ObamaCare look less expensive, but in essence trying to spend the same dollar twice. Biden countered with the same lie about Ryan’s “voucher” plan supposedly costing seniors $6,400 a year when it does nothing of the sort. Biden’s real assertion is the same old canard that markets and competition don’t work, only government does.

Taxes: This was largely covered under the economy section, but it was at this point that Ryan really nailed it: “[W]e think that government taking 28 percent of a family and business’s income is enough. President Obama thinks that the government ought to be able to take as much as 44.8 percent of a small business’s income.” And, given that “[e]ight out of 10 businesses file their taxes as individuals, not as corporations,” this is key.

Afghanistan: Ryan took issue with Obama’s withdrawal deadline because “we don’t want to lose the gains we’ve gotten. We want to make sure that the Taliban does not come back in and give al-Qa’ida a safe haven.” That’s exactly what’s beginning to happen under the current commander in chief. Biden’s reply was essentially that deadlines are good for cooperation. And, he noted, “I’ve been throughout that whole country, mostly in a helicopter, and sometimes in a vehicle.” Well then, that settles it!

Religion and abortion: This is not the top issue for most voters, but the candidates answers certainly were a window into their philosophies. While both men are Catholic, only one of them expressed genuine faith. Ryan noted that “reason and science” go hand in hand with his faith, saying that, when they saw the “seven-week ultrasound for our firstborn child, and we saw the heartbeat,” it confirmed to him that “life begins at conception.” Biden agreed, “Life begins at conception in the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.” And yet somehow, in public policy, he’s determined to protect not that innocent life but a woman’s right to “control [her] body.” His faith teaches that abortion is murder, yet he thinks it should be legal and funded by the federal government. The contradiction was stunning.

Biden also played fast and loose with verb tenses in claiming that Catholic institutions don’t have to pay for contraception, per the ObamaCare mandate. They will next year. And Ryan responded with a simple question: If the administration is so great on religious liberty, “Why would they keep suing you?”

In closing: Biden struck the pose of the used-car salesman trying to make a deal with a sucker: “Who you gonna trust, me or your lyin’ eyes?” Ryan contrasted the two approaches, listing all of Obama’s unkept promises, and saying, “The choice is clear: a stagnant economy that promotes more government dependency or a dynamic, growing economy that promotes opportunity and jobs. … [W]e will not try to replace our founding principles. We will reapply our founding principles.” That would indeed be an excellent place to start.

Quote of the Week
“On nearly every specific issue on which Mr. Biden attacked, he was demonstrably wrong. The Administration’s Medicare actuary really does say that 15% of hospitals will take on operating deficits as a result of ObamaCare’s cuts in payments to Medicare providers. The American Enterprise Institute study doesn’t say that Mr. Romney’s plan will raise taxes on the middle class, and Mr. Ryan’s Medicare plan doesn’t raise costs for seniors by $6,400. Mr. Biden never even tried to offer a second-term agenda. But this 90 minutes wasn’t about an exchange of ideas or a debate over policies. It was a Democratic show of contempt for the opposition, an attempt to claim by repetitive assertion that Messrs. Ryan and Romney are radicals who want to destroy ‘the middle class.’ Mr. Ryan’s cool under assault was a visual rebuttal of that claim, and we certainly know who looked more presidential.” –The Wall Street Journal

On Cross-Examination

“A team of 19 Heritage [Foundation] experts cut through the malarkey and focused on [the] substance” of last night’s debate. Read their outstanding analysis.

Open Query

“Vice President Biden is laughing. Are you?” –Republican National Committee ad

Government and Politics

Campaign Trail: Obama’s Money Machine

A scandal is brewing over potential campaign-finance violations by the Obama campaign, but it’s not getting much press coverage. A new report by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) notes that the Obama campaign has extraordinarily lax online security that leaves it open to receiving foreign and fraudulent donations. The 108-page study points out that the official Obama campaign website requires a credit card security code to purchase merchandise but not to make a contribution. It also doesn’t have a strong address verification system, which, like the security code, is a standard tool used in e-commerce.

The Federal Election Commission doesn’t require candidates to maintain basic credit card security procedures for online transactions, nor does it require recipients to record and track donations under $200. The problem here is that without proper security protocols in place, there is no way to determine if candidates are accepting foreign donations, which is illegal. But one might easily believe that the Obama campaign deliberately shirked these online security protocols in order to accept illegal foreign donations.

For 10 months during this election cycle, the campaign’s official website, BarackObama.com, received visitors redirected from a privately owned site, Obama.com. The latter URL was purchased in 2008 by businessman and Obama supporter Robert Roche, a China-based U.S. citizen with strong ties to several state-controlled financial institutions. The lax security procedures at BarackObama.com meant there was no way of knowing if any of the 68 percent of the foreign visitors to the Roche-owned site made illegal contributions to the president’s campaign. But we do know that Obama has raised over $270 million in contributions under $200. And we also know that in his 2008 campaign Obama raised $335 million in contributions under $200 with a similar open-door contribution policy and overall lack of transparency.

Hope ‘n’ Change: Obama Campaign Pulls Down Offensive Flags

As noted in Mark Alexander’s column, The ObamaNation Plantation, the Obama campaign store contained crudely painted American flags with the Obama seal taking the place of the stars. Called the “Our Stripes” collection, it now appears to have been pulled from the store. The links no longer work and we’ve been unable to locate the art on their site. Draw your own conclusions.

News From the Swamp: Senators Meet to Avoid Fiscal Cliff

A group of eight senators met this week to try to carve out a deal to prevent the country from going over a fiscal cliff that will hit taxpayers with a massively larger bill come January. The three-day meeting included four Republicans — Saxby Chambliss (GA), Mike Crapo (ID), Tom Coburn (OK), Mike Johanns (NE) — and four Democrats — Michael Bennet (CO), Kent Conrad (ND), Dick Durbin (IL), Mark Warner (VA). Also in attendance was Alan Simpson, co-chair of the 2010 Simpson-Bowles debt reduction commission.

The three-day gathering was the latest in a series of failed attempts to come up with a workable plan to tackle the mounting federal debt, and the attendees aimed to come up with a framework for broader debate once the Senate reconvenes after the election. No details of the framework have emerged, but Washington’s track record on the issue doesn’t offer high hopes. Obama helped craft the Simpson-Bowles commission himself only to later reject the commission’s findings. Since then Congress has repeatedly failed to devise a plan on which Republicans and Democrats can agree. If Congress does nothing, the ruinous tax increase will likely push the economy over a cliff and back into recession.

Another Voter ID Law Upheld, if Delayed

A three-judge panel of the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, upheld South Carolina’s voter ID law this week, the second defeat for proponents of voter fraud in as many weeks. Last week, Pennsylvania’s law was upheld. The headlines for both rulings, however, blared that judges had “blocked” the laws. In reality, the judges acknowledged that the rulings were too close to the election to be reasonably enforced by then, and so deferred enforcement until next year. In neither case did the judges find fault with the laws themselves. The only victory the Obama Justice Department can claim in challenging these laws is that they successfully delayed them until after Barack Obama’s re-election opportunity.
Voter fraud came into play again this week when Obama supporters were caught on camera offering aid to investigators pretending to be seeking to vote for Obama more than once. No wonder Democrats object to the supposedly “racist” hindrance of having to present a photo ID at the polls before voting.

Economy

Income Redistribution: Food Stamps Hit Another Peak

Lost in the hoopla about a deceptive employment report released last Friday was a cruel reminder that our economic recovery is far from complete — the number of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients hit a record 46.68 million in July. Yes, one out of every seven Americans receives government help to buy food, at a monthly cost exceeding $6 billion. But hey, Obama cares.

While the USDA summary blamed the jump on weather-related issues in some parts of the country, the depressing fact is that the number of recipients has exceeded 46 million every month since last September, meaning that ever more people grow ever more dependent upon governmental assistance every day because their long-term employment prospects are bleak.

Few know more about lengthy stays on the unemployment line than the typical construction worker. Since construction employment peaked at 7.7 million in April 2006, the industry has shed more than two million jobs, with over one million of them during Obama’s term alone. This despite the $833 billion “stimulus” that promised “shovel-ready” projects to recover 400,000 of those jobs.

Instead, we’ve seen more and more once-proud workers forced onto food stamp rolls by the sheer necessity of needing to somehow feed a family. All Democrats seem to have stimulated is the caseload of thousands of government employees needed to continue refilling those electronic benefit transfer cards, month after agonizing month.

Picking — and Creating — the Losers

The $90 billion in “stimulus” debt spent on green energy was intended to jumpstart an industry the Obama administration wagered would be the wave of the future. But they failed to take a key aspect of the energy industry into account, as natural gas prices plunged thanks to new technology for extraction. That drop in natural gas prices has eased demand for coal, but Barack Obama’s pledge to make electricity more expensive is assisted by regulations that might force the closing of coal-fired plants accounting for a quarter of coal’s power production share. A study by energy industry experts calculated that utilities would need between $126 and $144 billion to retrofit and replace all that coal capacity.

The government won’t help utilities invest in fossil fuels, but they’re only too happy to support those who waste government subsidies with impunity. After the well-publicized failures of Solyndra, Ener1, and other “green energy” companies, two more companies are on the ropes after receiving millions. Abound Solar, recipient of $68 million (of about $370 million promised), filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. That’s hardly news except that Abound has also skipped out on nearly $2 million in unpaid property taxes and sold a product described as “working well unless the sun hit it.” Abound’s panels have an annoying tendency to underperform or even catch fire if the sun hits them.

In another success story, the future battery maker for the Chevy Volt has placed its employees on rotating furloughs due to a lack of demand. Compact Power, whose plant was built with $150 million in federal funds, hasn’t yet made a single battery for the Volt or a planned electric Ford Focus. But the lack of Volt sales has created a ripple effect at the Michigan plant that’s supposed to begin producing the batteries for it next year. The Volt’s batteries are currently made by a plant in South Korea, hardly a hotbed of American jobs.

Security Department of Military Readiness: Romney’s Foreign Policy Foray Barack Obama’s foreign policy took a solid flogging this week at the hands of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, just in time for his senior accomplice, vice president Joe Biden, to defend it against vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan in round two of the debates. Romney pointed out the long trail of foreign policy missteps and humiliations inflicted by Team Hope ‘n’ Change. Among them: the blatant snubbing of our otherwise-close ally, Israel; the grave threat of allowing Iran’s nuclear ambitions to continue to develop; the stiff finger we gave to the millions who filled the streets of Iran in 2009 demanding freedom from an oppressive government; the dramatic cuts in our defense, leaving the U.S. in a weaker position to defend its vital interests abroad; and, most recently, the passive stance on the terrorist attacks on our embassies in the Middle East, culminating in deaths of four Americans, including one U.S. ambassador in Libya. While Obamaphiles drag the same tattered suit out of the closet, repeating, “The tide of war is receding,” the rest of the planet realizes the tide is not receding — it’s regrouping.

Romney apparently “gets” the threat from that tide, noting the substantial difference between administrations of the past and this one. Highlighting the critical role leadership plays in foreign affairs, Romney stated, “It is the responsibility of our president to use America’s great power to shape history — not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events.” Driving the point home, Romney said, “I know the president hopes for a safer, freer and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States. I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy.” Likewise, while killing Osama bin Laden was a credit-worthy achievement, it, too, doesn’t amount to a coherent foreign policy. The threat from al-Qa’ida remains. Nor does a “run-for-the-exits” political move amount to a strategy.

How does Governor Romney propose to undo this mess? Simple: Leadership. Specifically, Romney outlined key pieces of his foreign policy that differed from the status quo. These include beefing up defense so that our words can be “backed up by deeds”; putting rogue nations like Iran on notice that the days of attempting to acquire “the bomb” are over through more stringent sanctions and, if necessary, actions; reaffirming ties with Israel and other Gulf “partners” by employing the old Arabian adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”; reforming foreign assistance to bolster freedom, free enterprise and rule-of-law governance among nations we help; and championing free trade as a strategic tool of freedom, generally. Regarding this last point, Romney noted that Obama hasn’t signed a single new free-trade agreement during his tenure.

At least the military appreciates Romney’s straight-shooting approach. In a recent poll by the Military Times, former and current U.S. military personnel favor Romney over Obama by more than two-to-one, with character and economy handily besting other considerations, including national security, as factors. While we are not so naïve to presume that foreign policy is the pivotal issue in this election — either for former or current military members or for the rest of America — it’s certainly at least one among many important reasons why the Dear Leader must be ousted in November. No less than the fate of the nation hangs in the balance.

Warfront With Jihadistan: Changing the Tune Yet Again

Since the attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia on and around the anniversary of 9/11, we have chronicled the ever-changing story of the Obama administration. This week, the State Department claimed that it was “not our conclusion” that the protest and ensuing murders in Benghazi were caused by the anti-Islam movie trailer on YouTube. Yet White House officials, including Barack Obama himself in his shameful UN speech and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, repeatedly blamed the violence on the video. Now State wants us to believe that they never believed what they continued to say.

Not only didn’t they believe their own spin, but the State Department also now says there wasn’t a protest at all. The murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, two former Navy SEALs and another security officer was simply the deliberate work of al-Qa’ida terrorists. This is finally a credible story, but why did it take a month for them to admit it?

In related news, Obama bragged while on the campaign trail of his foreign-policy promises kept. “Now, four years ago, I made a few commitments to you,” said Obama. “I told you I’d end the war in Iraq, and I did. I said I’d end the war in Afghanistan, and we are. I said we’d refocus on the people who actually attacked us on 9/11 — and today, al-Qa’ida is on its heels and Osama bin Laden is no more.”

His claims are full of holes. If al-Qa’ida successfully executed an attack on our embassies on the anniversary of their most successful terrorist attack, how exactly are they “on their heels”? They also killed a security official at the embassy in Yemen Thursday.

Furthermore, reports the Associated Press, “Al-Qaida is rebuilding in Iraq and has set up training camps for insurgents in the nation’s western deserts as the extremist group seizes on regional instability and government security failures to regain strength, officials say. Iraq has seen a jump in al-Qaida attacks over the last 10 weeks, and officials believe most of the fighters are former prisoners who have either escaped from jail or were released by Iraqi authorities for lack of evidence after the U.S. military withdrawal last December.”

It’s almost as if the commander in chief doesn’t want to lead the world’s only super power.

Immigration Front: Border Patrol Agent Update

Last week, we noted that U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie was killed in the line of duty, and we pondered if there was a connection with Fast and Furious. Tragically, however, it turns out that Ivie was killed by friendly fire.

According to the Associated Press, “The head of the U.S. Border Patrol agents’ union says the agent killed last week in a shooting in southern Arizona apparently opened fire on two colleagues thinking they were armed smugglers and was killed when they returned fire.” He died at the scene. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ivie’s wife and two children.

United States Navy Birthday

On Oct. 13, 1775, the U.S. Navy was born when the Continental Congress authorized the arming of two sailing vessels with 80 men and 10 carriage guns in order to intercept British supply and munitions transports. The Declaration of Independence came nine months later, followed by the creation of the Department of the Navy in 1798. Today, our Navy is the most powerful in the world. We at The Patriot Post offer our thanks to all our sailors for a job well done and wish you a Happy 237th Birthday! God bless you and your families.

Please visit The Patriot Post Shop for a great selection of items bearing the Navy’s insignia.

Culture

Second Amendment: The Chicago Way

Crime is up in Chicago this year (and not just due to the Obama campaign), with murders increasing a staggering 25 percent from last year’s already incredibly high body count. The city and surrounding Cook County have over 9,00 inmates, almost the local jail’s capacity of 10,155. Throw in street gangs, drug use, high-school dropouts, and it’s obvious what needs to be done in Chicago: Tax guns and ammunition. Because all gangsters will pay taxes when they buy their legal guns and ammo.

Once again blaming inanimate objects instead of criminals, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle wants to impose a “violence tax” on guns and ammunition sold in the city and suburbs. “If we were to pursue a tax on something like guns and ammo … it is consistent with our commitment to pursuing violence reduction in the city and in the county,” Kurt Summers, Preckwinkle’s chief of staff, said, adding that the idea is to reduce the number of guns in circulation. Left unexplained, of course, was how removing objects that don’t commit violence will reduce violence, but leftist logic has always been sketchy. We propose a violence tax on the perps illegally using firearms to commit violent crime. Say, 20 to 30?

Gun rights proponents rightfully vow to fight Preckwinkle’s tax idea. “This is just another example of the blame game. … [T]hey want to make legal gun owners — guys like me — the scapegoat,” said Todd Vandermyde, an NRA lobbyist who works in Springfield. He said this is an unfair tax on a constitutional right that will mostly hurt the poor.

Two bills in the Illinois legislature would create an explicit tax on ammunition, but both bills are currently parked in the House Rules Committee. These types of tax attacks on constitutional rights have been tried before and been successfully defeated. Let’s hope these two bills share the same fate.

Leftists Use Science to Justify Trampling Religious Liberty

Four hundred years after the Pilgrims journeyed to the New World in search of religious liberty, the president of this New World has been waging war against that religious liberty. Last week on the campaign trail, Barack Obama boasted of ObamaCare’s mandate that employers purchase insurance to cover contraception, including abortifacients: “I don’t think a college student … should have to choose between textbooks or the preventive care that she needs. That’s why we passed this law. And I am proud of it.”

He claims to allow exemptions for religious organizations, but even this flies in the face of liberty by relegating religious practice to the realm of “tolerated” rather than “free.” And in order to receive an exemption, an organization must meet Obama’s criteria of “religious,” which apparently a Bible publisher does not. Tyndale House Publishers, the Christian publisher named after William Tyndale, who was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536 for translating the Bible into English, sued the government over the mandate. If a Bible publisher isn’t religious, we’re not sure what is. Of course, if Tyndale set up shop in a government park or building, we imagine the administration would sing a different tune.

Supporting Obama’s war on religion, a new study found that free birth control results in significantly lower abortion and teen-birth rates. The study tracked 9,000 St. Louis women from 2008 to 2010 and concluded that, when unhindered by costs, women select more effective contraceptives — namely, implanted devices — over birth-control pills, thereby reducing the rate of pregnancy. Predictably, the authors claim that this proves ObamaCare’s contraception mandate works. What these results fail to address, however, are the myriad consequences of promiscuous sexual activity: STDs, emotional distress, family breakdown — the list goes on. The truth is that there is something that neutralizes all of these plus unintended pregnancies and works 100 percent of the time. It’s called abstinence. But to say so is akin to splashing leftists with holy water.

Faith and Family: Protestants Now a Minority

The U.S. made history this year. For the first time ever, Protestants represented less than half the population. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that just 48 percent of Americans can be classified as Protestant. For the first time, no Protestants hold seats on the Supreme Court, and the GOP presidential ticket has no Protestants. Much of the change is due to the growth of nondenominational churches, which aren’t classified as Protestant, as well as a sharp increase in those who claim no religion at all.

The study seems to be another indicator that we are becoming ever more like Western Europe — a post-Christian nation saddled with a massive debt-financed welfare state because the church is largely absent. The non-religious tend to vote Democrat at least as heavily as Evangelical Christians vote Republican, and the latter seems to be a shrinking population. We would note that the GOP has largely failed to make the case that smaller government benefits people of all stripes and religious backgrounds, and that one need not embrace religion to support and defend our Constitution. But if the trend continues — not to mention the trend of minorities voting Democrat — the GOP could be in serious electoral jeopardy.

And Last…

Are you planning to carve a pumpkin for Halloween but unsure what design to carve? Well, you’re in luck, because Obama’s Energy Department has some helpful suggestions. “Green energy is going orange for Halloween,” reports CNS News, “as the U.S. Energy Department offers downloadable pumpkin-carving patterns on its website. The ‘Energy-ween’ designs include a windmill, solar panel, and compact fluorescent light bulb.” Those may not be the brightest ideas, but on the other hand, the sheer quantity of taxpayer money wasted on these projects is pretty scary. Perhaps we should just cut right to the chase and carve the scariest Jack-o-lantern of all: One that says, “$16,000,000,000,000.”

Tonight (Sorry, I posted AP’s article late)the President and Romney go at each other again, with another LEFTY as moderator. The format will be “town hall sryle” where the questions will come from the audience, you can be sure that each side will have “stooges” asking some of the questions, with Obama will come out swinging, with the 47% as a prime topic. If Romney can keep his cool and concentrate on Obama’s record. Then I believe we will be HOME……..see ya’all in the funny papers……..AP

OBAMA’S SELECTIVE MEMORY OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY…….”Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress. And I’d just remind a conservative commentator that for years what we have heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example, and I am confident that this Court will recognize that and not take that step.” (April 2, 2012)

“Let me be very specific. We have not seen a Court overturn a law that was passed by Congress on an economic issue, like health care, that I think most people clearly consider commerce – a law like this has not been overturned at least since the 30’s, pre-New deal.” “And the point I was making is that the Supreme Court is the final say on our Constitution and our laws, and all of us have to respect it, but it’s precisely because of that extraordinary power the Court has traditionally exercised significant restraint and deference to our duly elected legislature, our Congress. And the sole burden is on those who would overturn a law like this.” (Obama, clarifying comments he made the previous day, April 3)

President Obama made these remarks during a series of a high-profile news conference, taking the unusual step of commenting on a Supreme Court case, the challenge to the Affordable Care Act, while the justices were still deliberating.

YOU WILL NOT FIND IN THE CONSTITUTION………..Judge Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is a courtly Virginian who conveys a manner as soft as a Shenandoah breeze. He has written a book, Why Americans are Losing Their Inalienable Rights to self-Government, in which he takes on issues of the Constitution, pro and con. I wish to quote parts of his thoughts: “The Constitution is a companion of the Declaration of Independence, and should be construed as an implementation of the Declaration’s premises, Government exists not to confer rights but to secure pre-existing rights…The constitution is a Document, one understood, as America’s greatest jurist, John Marshall, said, chiefly from its words. And those words are to be construed in the bright light cast by the Declaration. [Wilkinson] worries] about judges causing an ever increasing displacement of democracy. Also most worrisome, is the displacement of liberty by democracy in the form of majorities indifferent to or hostile to what the Declaration decrees, a separate sphere of individual sovereignty.”

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT REGULATION?…….While typing the above, I heard an announcement over the TV, that the government was contemplating a regulation as to “what farmers’ kids can or cannot do, even to the limit as to how many square feet of grass can be cut. There were additional examples which I cannot remember, but I am sure there will be some news coverage……..What we need is Buck Rogers and his robots.

“The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I conquered, as the first baby in the family always does”….Helen Keller

DISHONESTY OBAMA STOCK IN TRADE……While dishonesty is aberrant to most Americans, for Obama it is a finely tuned art form. He has been practicing it from day one. From his empty promises of civility, transparency and uniting America, to the way he finagled the cost of Obama Care, he has divided the country and constantly demagogues’ dissenters. His latest masterpiece occurred in Cushing, Oklahoma, where he attempted to create the illusion that he is NOW FOR the Keystone Pipeline, a project he just recently vetoed and lobbied against. He blithely announced that he was “fast tracking” one small portion of this pipeline, from Cushing to the Gulf Coast, knowing full well that this was already a done deal despite his administration doing everything it can to delay the actual work… It is a sorry attempt to woo almost 70% of Americans who favor the entire pipeline, and to deflect attention from the now $4/gallon gas price and his failed energy projects.

He likes to claim we need to create alternative energy because we only have 2%, or 2.2 million barrels, of the world’s oil. Yet his own Department of Energy says we really have 1.6 trillion barrels of recoverable oil; not counting for our abundance of gas, we have enough oil for at least 200 years. The “kicker” to all these misleading STATEMENTS is that our liberal media allow the Obama Administration to get away with not informing the public of the real facts. The media is more interested in helping Obama get re-elected than “constantly “reporting the facts.” Hard to tell who is more dishonest, the President or the media.

FAREWELL TO THE NEW FRONTIER……..As the space shuttle Discovery flew three time around Washington, a final salute before landing at Dulles airport for retirement to a museum, thousands on the ground gazed upward with marvel and pride. Yet what they were witnessing, for all its elegance, was a funeral march. The shuttle was being carried because it can no longer fly. Its pallbearer was a 747. The pity is not Discover’s retirement, beautiful as it was. The shuttle proved it was too expensive and too risky to operate; the pity is it died without a successor. The planned follow up; the Constellation rocket capsule programmed to take humans back into orbit and from there to the moon, was suddenly cancelled in 2010. And with that, control of manned space flight was gratuitously ceded to Russia and China. Who cares, you say, when we are in economic distress? But if we are talking jobs and growth, science, and technology, R&D and innovation, what Obama insists are the keys to “an economy built to last”, why on earth cancel an incomparable, sophisticated, uniquely American technological enterprise?

Neil Armstrong, James Lovell and Gene Cernan are deeply skeptical. In a 2010 open letter, they called Obama’s cancellation of Constellation a “devastating decision that destines our nation to become one of the second or third rate nations.” This is why museum visits to the embalmed Discovery will be sad, indeed. America rarely retreats from new frontiers, yet today we cannot even do what John Glenn did in 1962, let alone fly a circa-1980 shuttle. ……….Discovery will lie intact, a magnificent and melancholy rebuke to constricted horizons. [Excerpted from Charles Krauthammer’s April 25th column.]

OUR DO NOTHING CONGRESS……..Any suggestion of doing something positive about the conditions of our country get nowhere, as every elected person is afraid to step forward in fear that it may cost him/her a vote in the coming election………without a scandal or two, they are sitting, watching the clock and the debt numbers….why in hell don’t they take the time they are wasting, go fishing, without pay of course……..OH, SURE!!!!!!

TREASURY’S RUN AROUND DeMARCO, TAPPING TARP TO PAY FANNIE MAE FOR ANOTHER HOUSING BAILOUT……….If you can’t roll over Ed DeMarco, run around him. That is the latest ploy of Obama’s as he tries to arrange one more election-year housing bailout. Mr. DeMarco is the career civil servant who drew the “short straw” and ended up as the acting chief of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He is legally bound to balance three priorities: preserve and conserve Fan &Fred’s assets to protect the taxpayers, keep the institutions running while Congress figures what to do next, and to maximize assistance to homeowners to minimize foreclosure. The last imperative isn’t supposed to come at the expense of the other two.

But don’t tell that to the Obama Administration, which has been hounding Mr. DeMarco to unleash Fan and Fred to write down principals on millions of home mortgages. DeMarco has resisted on grounds that it would hurt taxpayers. For this effrontery, Democrats in Congress have tried to get DeMarco ”fired”, and even New York Federal Reserve Chief, Bill Dudley, has lectured his fellow regulator to get with the Obama program. Treasury Secretary Geithner joined the pressure campaign, telling the Senate there is a strong economic case for write-downs in some cases because they “might increase the overall recovery of the investor and the tax payer.”

Since Mr. DeMarco won’t budge, Treasury is now proposing an offer they believe he cannot refuse. The Administration wants to take a chunk of the $20.9 billion leftover TARP funds and use it to subsidize mortgage write downs through its Home Affordable Modification Program. About 80% of borrowers with Fannie and Freddie backed loans are under water, with a home worth less than the mortgage, but who still make their monthly payments. Why should taxpayers subsidize people who can afford to pay? And what happens to those who aren’t current, and receive subsidized money? My guess is that the home owner who is paying might stop, knowing that the government will reduce their debt. Contrary to the administration’s guess, Mr. DeMarco told Congress he would consider principal reduction, “if funds become available” to make up for the losses incurred by Fred and Fannie. Instead of using TARP money to reduce the $1.3 trillion federal deficit, Mr. Geithner now wants to hand it to FHFA so Mr. DeMarco can’t object to principal write downs. Thus even as Mr. DeMarco protects taxpayers from losses at Fred and Fannie, Treasury picks the taxpayers’ pockets through TARP. Treasury and President Obama get their election year bailout without having to fire DeMarco.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”……Helen Keller

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT, AS A POLITICAL TALKING POINT……….Left wingers need to preserve the talking point that the Right hates women. The Violence against Women Act, now pending reauthorization in the U.S. Senate, offers a great example how liberals use political “kabuki” to keep the myth alive. The bill is fundamentally flawed and fully deserving of rejection. As the Washington Post reports, “Democrats see the debate over the bill and potential amendments as an opening to continue accusing Republicans of waging war on women’s rights.” In recent weeks the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has used the issue, including the 11 Democratic women running in the Senate races this year, to raise money from supporters. The NY Times reports, that Republican Senator Murkowski has urged Republicans to surrender on this issue. No one disputes that violence against women is a problem, and one that has to be addressed by law enforcement. But crimes of violence are meat and potatoes issues for state and local enforcement, and Our Founders had set up the Republic with that idea in mind…….James Madison wrote in the, “ Federalist 45 that the powers of the federal government are limited and the powers remaining in the state are numerous.”

The Heritage Foundation notes, “That despite the fact that each state has its own statutes that punish domestic violence, the federal government intervened in 1994 with the Violence against Women Act. The President AND Congress may feel better by passing this law, but the federal government is not supposed to waste federal resources on issues more properly dealt with by the state and local governments.” The pending legislation before the Senate, S1925, vastly increases the rights of the federal government, which in turn creates another subject to dispute, and the liberals have loaded this bill with provisions meant to bait conservatives’ politicians.

What we need is more women in Congress, there are many, many well qualified women in business and politics that have to rise to the top, our country needs the balance of a Margret Thatcher, Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meier, Meg Whitman, Sarah Palin, Carly Florina, Jeanne Fitzpatrick and many more………I would be amiss if I didn’t include part of a Mark Twain’s speech on “Votes for Women”…”I should like to see the time come when women shall help make the laws. I should like to see that whip-lash, the ballot, in the hands of women. As for this city’s government, I don’t want to say much, except that it is a shame-a-shames: but if I should live twenty five years longer, and there is no reason why I shouldn’t, I think I shall see the women handle the ballot. If women had the ballot to-day, the state of things in this town would not exist. If all the women in this town had a vote to-day they would elect a mayor at the next election, and they would rise in their might and change the awful state now existing here”

MOOSE SKOWRON, FIVE TIMES World Series champion dies at the age of 81….. Moose was one of the two players who hit three homers in the seventh game of a World Series.; Yogi Berra was the other player. Born, William Joseph Skowron on Chicago’s north side; he said he was given the name “Mussolini” when his grandfather cut his hair at the age of 7 that caused his friends to call him “Mussolini” the knick name was changed as the war ended… He was an All Star with the Yankees from 1957-1961 an All Star again in 1965. He was a class act throughout his career, and a pretty good first baseman…..

Originally I was going to use this space for “comments from our readers”, but I have been reading about one of the government’s “scams” that has my blood boiling, that needs attention……..FRESHMAN CLASS PRESIDENT…Obama (and Congress) rocks the youth vote by soaking the taxpayers……..This past week the President toured college campuses in state critical to his re-election. And thanks to an aggressive interpretation of Federal law, it now seems that both parties are trying to get around this law. The obvious political play is to shore up support among the college-age voters who are faced with an increase on their loans, from 3.4% to 6.8%, starting in July 1, 2012, which amounts to about $6 billion dollars, which both parties would like to freeze for one year, which Obama suggests raising taxes to cover the “freeze” ( It took me several years to pay off the loans that helped two of my children’s education) and now the taxpayers are faced with a TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT, TO PAY OFF OTHER CHILDREN’S EDUCATION DEBT.. The real beneficiaries are ten colleges, whose fees have risen with the increase in the student body, and the prompt payment by the government for the benefit of the student.

The interest rate sounds serious; after all there are 39 million Americans with student loans, which the student made voluntary taking on as an investment to benefit themselves. Federally subsidized loans are handed out to millions of college students regardless of risk. Thanks to taxpayer backing the loans are far below what private lenders would offer. When the student can’t afford to pay, the American people are stuck with the bill. Bankruptcy laws should be reviewed, perhaps like a home mortgage, spread over 25 /39 years, since bankruptcy not available to discharge a student loan. There are about 18 million students enrolled in about 5,000 colleges and universities, and when one checks, he will find that the colleges and universities have determinate badly, when graduation finally arrives, an unacceptable amount of students have actually learned very little, find themselves unable to find a job and yet find themselves trapped in a student “debt loan debt hell” for sensually for the rest of their lives. A debt total that exceeds the credit card debt, automobile loans, except the home owners mortgage.

Finally closure time, all above may be very confusing, which can happened when one is pissed, and I am PISSED……The scam was that the government promoted an education for everyone who could walk, talk and chew gum at the same time, and there were far too many that had boom boxes, cell phones and a lack of ambition, relying that the government will pay for their tuition, and like many of our “projects”, payback time is not in their vocabulary, including those in government who forgot the rules, just as long as the “student” could sign his name on the ballot box. Anxious to see how this matter is discharged, before Election Day, I am sure…………TERM LIMITS, TERM LIMITS, TERM LIMITS!! UNLESS YOU ARE HAPPY WITH A $16 TRILLION DEBT AND COUNTING…….

STAY WELL, KEEP IN TOUCH, AND WE WILL SEE YA’LL IN THE FUNNY PAPERS…AP

Once more, I find myself torn in regards to our Country today. Again, Deb and I would like nothing better than to talk about gardening, canning food, tell a few jokes, and in general just keep a big smile on our faces about 90% of the time.

But, I have to ask each of you today…where, when, and how did our Country “jump its tracks?”

How did the term “Merry Christmas” become offensive? How did we lose our industrial might? How did the act of disciplining your OWN child, by the way, become a crime, and an act to not be tolerated by our, “lawmakers?”

Again, I’m not talking abuse, I’m merely speaking of disciplining YOUR child…NOT THEIRS!

Today, it seems that teaching our children at home the values of morals, character, honesty, a work ethic, and respect, not just for themselves, but others as well, is wrong.

Oh, I don’t want to leave out religious values as well! Man, oh man, I AM treading on thin ice this morning, huh? The audacity of me to speak of religious freedom! At the mention of such, I’m probably labeled an extremist by our administration!

Good night…I better start showing a little restraint in speaking on such topics! A belief in God?? Honestly, I don’t know what came over me?? If I offended anyone, please…forgive me! Yeah right!

Who decides all this? Our elected leaders pushing THEIR agendas and ideology, of course!

Yeah, you know, the very same people who literally exude such qualities, and practice them daily…morals, ethics, virtue, respect, and probably their strongest trait would obviously have to be…HONESTY!

WHAT?? You don’t believe for one minute my last statement?

Good for you. I see you’ve not bought into their agendas, or their indoctrinations of our Country’s citizens, through their “fight for the poor and oppressed,” as they like to call it!

Through the buying of your votes, they offer you…an existence, that’s it. The opportunity to supply you with JUST enough to keep you…alive. YET, they ARE the great crusaders of the poor!

They’re the great crusaders alright, though the only crusading they’re doing is crusading for the destruction of our Country as we know it, and leading us down the path of economic ruin, religious blasphemy, and the takeover of our society as a whole!

This people…is social justice or social equality. When they’ve taken away our freedoms, our jobs, our religious values, and our family unit, THIS…is social justice!

To the people who don’t understand this, redistribution of wealth is not that at all. It is…the redistribution of…P-O-V-E-R-T-Y!

OUR poverty, and our leaders P-O-W-E-R! Total control!

Control over our assets, our freedoms, our children, our ability to make and earn a living, our religion, and our living in the greatest Country on this earth…gone… kaput!

How is all this SO difficult for others to see? This amazes me! The very selling of your souls through accepting a mere pittance to what type of life you COULD provide for your family through a good, solid work ethic. The sky literally being the limit to what you COULD do, IF, you’d only apply yourself.

The worst part of this to me in regards to these types of people? The selling of their OWN children’s souls as well. Those poor guys will never experience any type of lifestyle than one of…poverty. Sold out by…their own parents, for God’s sake.

As a child, your whole being is shaped by your surroundings. If you’ve been taught the traits I listed above, value, respect, etc., 9 times out of 10, you stand a very good chance of being successful in your own right.

BUT, if you’ve not been taught, or brought up in that type of environment, but one in which you have been indoctrinated that you SHOULD and WILL, get a check every month, then that’s what you’ll accomplish in life. The ability to walk to the mailbox, take out “Your Entitlement,” and that’s about it.

Your contribution to your Country and society…absolutely nothing! Then, when the money runs out, AND IT WILL, you go to the mailbox and…NO CHECK! Well what happened?? WHERE’S MY CHECK? I WANT MY CHECK!

Sorry, because now, through YOUR burdening the taxpayer, our governments uncontrollable spending, and our politicians belief that they too are “ENTITLED, and ABOVE” the law, AND we the people, our dollar has finally tanked!

NO MORE FREE MONEY, no more money period. No more entitlements, except for the truly entitled…the powers that be! Our leaders will have in fact brought you down to the level of…TRUE SOCIAL JUSTICE, or EQUALITY!

Welcome to the New World Order!

Our leaders will have accomplished their goal. They will have become…the power, and through this power, they will now be very rich, excessively rich, and all the very things they told you they were against, and what made America evil! They were looking out for YOU!

So you’ll soon see it wasn’t about big business, Wall Street, or the greed and corruption of the capitalist system.

Yes, IT WAS about greed and corruption, but the greed and power of our politicians own corruption, and their destroying our economic system through taxation, government regulation, and unionization.

It is coming to us people, if we don’t snap out of this funk DC has lulled us into. Honestly my friends, do you REALLY believe that what your friend or neighbor has worked, and slaved for to better his own way of life is part yours too?

How and what, could possibly convince you of that? I know, I know, this has been taught to you through our politicians, but search your own souls, I mean seriously, you HAVE to see this is wrong, don’t you? If not, then put in into another perspective for a moment.

What if Deb and I showed up on YOUR doorstep the day you receive your “entitlement check?” What if we demanded that you give part of your check to us? Would you? Would our demand for “our part” anger you? Why?

Would our getting part of your “entitlement” cut you short in purchasing the things you and your own family need? Is that right of us in doing so? Of course not.

You can’t find a job? How come? You think it just MIGHT be the fault of your leaders whom you vote for, time and again, and their agenda in not supplying jobs to Americans, but getting more and more Americans onto government aid?

So in reality, the loss of our jobs here in the US, and OUR jobs going overseas, is once again, not because of capitalism as they lead you to believe, but simply because of THEIR OWN GREED. Actually, they couldn’t give a “hoot in he..,” for you, or your family. It is ALL about them!

Please, wake up America…the time is fast approaching when yes, it will be too late to set things right. Vote this year, not with your “what will I get out of this mentality,” but with…your heart! Let’s take our Country back. Let’s hold not one party accountable…let’s hold ALL parties accountable!

A quick joke, but with a moral, from our friends Bill, and Sandy!

Speaking of Church:

A Preacher finished the service one morning by saying, Next Sunday, I am going to preach on the subject of liars. As a preparation for my sermon, I would like you all to read Mark Chapter 17.
On the following Sunday, the preacher rose to begin.

Looking out at the congregation, he said, Last week I asked you all to read Mark Chapter 17. If you have read the chapter, please raise your hand.

Nearly every hand in the congregation went up. Smiling, the preacher said … You are the very people I want to talk to today… Mark has only 16 chapters!

“A man never knows how long a shadow he’ll cast till he gets up off his knees”

In closing, we wish you guys a great weekend. God Bless you and yours, and God Bless America!

As Deb says, please keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Well, here’s our good friend AP once more with… “The Revolution!”

If you would, how about wishing AP a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I believe AP just turned…93 years young!

“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, and fellow citizens. I accept with humility the honor which the American has conferred upon me. I accept it with deep resolve to do all that I can for the welfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world.
“Almost a year ago, in company with 16 free countries of Europe, we have launched the greatest cooperative economic program in history. The purpose of that unprecedented effort is to invigorate and strengthen democracy in Europe, so that free people of that continent can resume their rightful place in the forefront of civilization and can contribute once more to the security and welfare of the world.
“Our efforts have brought new hope to mankind we have beaten back despair and defeatism. We have saved a number of countries from losing their liberty. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world agree with us, that we need not have war, that we can now have peace…….The initiative is ours”……..

President Harry S. Truman…January 20th, 1949

FAMED CBS JOURNALIST MIKE WALLACE DIES AT AGE OF 93….Wallace, who won his 21st and final Emmy Award at the age of 89 was a veteran newsman who built a reputation as a fearless interviewer, known for his follow up questions, after researching his subject thoroughly………The “60 Minutes” journalist’s reputation was so fearsome that it was often said the words “Mike Wallace was here to see you” were the most dreaded in the English language…… “He’d seen everything. He’d done everything. He’d been everywhere and, you know, he retired late in life because he had the magic ingredient. He still found things interesting, and he still had the passion for the things he covered”, said Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst.

“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.”

DICK CLARK DIES AT THE AGE OF 82……..Dick Clark might have been Hollywood’s shrewdest business man, but for many Americans his lesser known role as a stroke survivor determined to live a normal life likely will be a more lasting legacy. This Entertainment ICON became a hero to all stroke victims. He had a debilitating stroke in 2004, and had to learn how to talk and walk again….often with great difficulty. Some people thought this was in bad taste. “This New Year was to be a celebration. I don’t want to see someone in that condition.“ So said the Director of the Blier Center for Television at Syracuse University. Dr. Larry Goldstein of Duke University said Dick was a teaching tool for stroke victims. He missed the 2004 New Year’s celebration, but was back for the 2005 celebration, along with is appointed heir apparent, Ryan Seacrest.

Evening news is when they start off with good evening, then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

THE HMS TITANIC SANK 100 YEARS AGO THIS PAST APRIL 10th, MOST AMERICANS AND THOSE OF THE BRITISH SEA WORLD REMEMBER THIS TRAGEDY. On its maiden voyage the ship that was supposed to be unsinkable struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Over 1,500 people died; most records indicate that only those 712 who were in lifeboats survived. They survived because of a heroic captain and crew who were hours away from the point where the Titanic went down. The story about the rescue ship and its crew is one that I never knew about. Once I read it, the event became so courageous. The millions of people who have seen the movie would be interested in the event that took place when a startling message was received by the RMS Carpathian’s only radio operator, Harold Coltam, who had been working longer than his normal shift: “SOS Titanic calling. We have struck ice and request immediate assistance.” The Carpathian’s first officer burst into Captain Arthur Rostrum’s cabin, who had just retired for the night. In seconds Rostrum was in the chart room, plotting a course to race to the side of the stricken Titanic. Normally, Carpathian could make 14 knots; by diverting every particle of steam, it might make 17 knots, and even so it would take hours to catch up. Rostrum ordered the crew to prepare to receive passengers from the Titanic. It was important that the Carpathian’s 700 passengers would not panic when they were sent to various cabins, and to try to keep warm as possible. If the orders given by Captain Rostrum were not carried out, the Titanic disaster could have ended more tragically. But it didn’t. The 712 Titanic passengers in the life boats were all saved; all those seamen with life jackets were dead. Had those in the life boats been exposed to the frigid weather for another hour they, too, would have perished. Captain Rostrum received the Gold Congressional Medal from a grateful America. Home in England he was knighted.

WOULD LOVE TO SEE THIS IN THE MOVIE THEATERS…

“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research “

WHITE MALES FADING AMONG HOUSE DEMOCRATS…………..House Democrats will make history in the 2012 election, sending to Congress next January the first woman as Minority Leader in U.S. history. In 1950, white men constituted 98 % of House Democrats, a figure that fell to 53% following the 2010 elections. Predictions for the 2012 elections indicate that the House Democratic Caucus will be 46% to 48% white males. Congress is already polarized, with fewer common threads uniting the two parties. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told a group, “When you have two parties so divergent in views, regions, and genders, the culture wars could escalate from conventional to nuclear weapons.”…..Signs of the changing times, for the good, or not, for the future of the United States?

“A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.”

GEORGE W. BUSH: BARACK OBAMA’S BEST FRIEND IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS…….Politico reports that George W. Bush is laying low these days, avoiding the spotlight that recently shone on his father and brother Jeb as they endorsed Mitt Romney. This relationship between the post-Bush GOP is quite fascinating. It is like a crazy, drunk uncle shooting an epileptic dog because he had fleas. The Democrats will be spending time and money talking about Bush, “in his self-imposed political exile.” They continue to promote Roosevelt’s jobs creation that went from 24% unemployed to near zero at the height of the war……………..Watch out Democrats, Obama’s job record is the worse in history, based on his programs, will probably continue, compounded by the huge spending and debt programs, without any signs of improving, unless one believes his “lies“, and there is a new one every day the sun rises.

A STABLE AFGhANISTAN IS STILL POSSIBLE [are you kidding?...ed.]…………There is no easy victory in sight in Afghanistan, but we are closer to accomplishing our goals than many assume. By late 2014, it will no longer be necessary to keep significant numbers of combat troops there. The good news is that the Obama appears unlikely to waiver any time soon. (Now, that is refreshing news.) U.S. officials have declared that no further drawdowns are anticipated until the current one which will bring U.S. troops down to 68,000 from 100,000 by the end of September. In particular, we must see what develops in the east, where this year’s anti-insurgency efforts will most likely occur. However, this is a political year; a steady White House should not be assumed to last indefinitely into the future. There is no question that NATO and the Afghan governments have plenty of problems, with the Taliban still hanging around. President Karzai’s government is a corrupt puppet that will fail once the NATO troops depart. Mr. Karzai is still a problem. We cannot afford a repeat of 2009 undemocratic presidential election; Mr. Obama’s handling this situation was his biggest mistake in “his” war, to date. If we had no business being in IRAQ, we should be mad as hell over why we are in this s—t hole of a country that has fought the Russians to a standstill for over 10 years.

OBAMA’S SUPER-CZAR IS ON THE LOOSE…………in keeping with the dark and defiant habits of this administration, the new head of the half-billion dollar Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was sworn in behind closed doors. The nomination of former Democrat Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to serve as Dodd-Frank regularity enforcer had been soundly beaten in the Senate just before Christmas. As reported by Michelle Malkin last month, progressive zealots funded by George Soros goaded Obama to ignore the Senate’s constitutional grounded advice and consent role. The GOP knew in advance what Obama planned on doing a month ago, and is now scrambling to respond. Republicans will get clobbered with the class warfare card again, unless they forcefully counter the Democrat’s narrative of the President’s “bold action for middle class Americans.” As Senate Republicans have been pointing out for months, Dodd-Frank threw out judicial review, removed CFPB from the congressional appropriations process, provided five-year tenure protection for the director, and transferred the Agency from the Treasury Department to the opaque and unaccountable Federal Reserve. This maneuver is about consolidating bureaucratic authority and granting unprecedented immunity to a single Super-Cop from congressional and public oversight.

REID ELECT MITT ROMNEY?…………..Will the Senate Democrats’ leader, a Mormon as is Romney, be the inadvertent shield for the religious bigotry card liberals, in particular MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, who are itching to turn it into the ultimate election weapon?…….Unbelievable as you would think it to be, MSNBC has now seen another of its hosts ramp up on religious bigotry…O’Donnell is on a tear about Romney’s Mormon faith…not Harry Reid’s Mormon faith, just Romney’s. Do the two men belong to the same Mormon faith? Doubtless it is because Reid’s membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is largely unknown to the American electorate. An electorate that is about to have Romney’s membership in the very same Mormon faith as Reid’s, the man the Democrats have repeatedly chosen to be the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, will have his faith thrown in his face as a reason not to elect a President Romney. O’Donnell has raised the obvious question: if Harry Reid belonged to a racially exclusive club [note: the Mormon Church did not admit other races until Reid was 39 years old], why in the world has this man been elected by the Democrats to be their leader in the United States Senate?

“Whenever I fill out an application, in the part the part that says, “in case of emergency, notify______, I put DOCTOR.”

JACKIE ROBINSON DAY IS CELEBRATED EVERY YEAR ON APRIL 15……….Players, managers, umpires all wore No. 42 on their uniforms, which were duplicates of those worn 65 years ago, a date when the future Hall of Famer first appeared as the second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. This celebration was conducted in every ball park in the country. With the exception of Mariana Rivera, a future Hall of Famer, the number 42 was retired 15 years ago on the anniversary of Robinson’s debut as the first Negro to play in the Major Leagues. In 1975, 27% of major league players were African-Americans; today there are about 8%…Somewhere in the early ‘50s I saw Jackie steal home, which at the time was a very “daring” feat, and which is a rare event in today’s game.. In checking the records, I found that Ty Cobb led the league for those who stole home at least 10 times, with Ty Cobb at the top with 54, followed by Max Carey with 33, and Robinson had 19. Records show that a total of 38 batters, who hit more than 10 homers and who played more than 10 games, stole home 640 times, including Babe Ruth who stole home 10 times. Soon after Robinson, the pitchers changed their style of delivery; prior to that point in time, the pitchers used a full wind-up, giving the runner a lead time. Even Vince Scully, 84, who called the Dodger games for 7 years, got out of bed and showed why he was the voice of the Dodgers (after Red Barber) in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Well folks, this issue has been late getting out, so I will close now, wish you all well, and I’ll see ya’all in the funny pages………..AP