Veteran's Day Scattershot Blasts November 11, 2013

First, THANK YOU to all of our Veterans, for your sacrifice, service, and standards of excellence. 
God bless you and yours on this Veterans Day!

Sadly, We Don't Do Enough for Our Veterans....
Forty Percent of our Vets are on/need food assistance....

Some Good News....Paralyzed Vet to Walk Again....
Amazing what God's gift of technology and invention can do.  Check it out!

Hundreds Attend Funeral for "Unknown" WWII Vet....
Glad to see some folks showing respect for the Greatest Generation...

Debbie Delusional At it Again....
DNC Chair Debbie WasAMan Shultz, er, Wasserman Shultz said that she believes that the Democrats will run and win on Obamacare in 2014.  She also had said earlier that she didn't think the President told a lie to the American people with "if you like your plan, you can keep it."

I Guess Everyone in Oregon Likes What They Have....
Because NO ONE has enrolled in the exchanges in Oregon!

Like Rats, Many Obamacare Fans Are Jumping Ship....
Will they use the "I was actually against Obamacare as I voted for it?" Defense?  Will they use the "well, you couldn't have expected me to read the whole bill?" idea?  The Senators up for re-election in competitive states in 2014 are starting to panic, though they still aren't offering solutions for anything other than their own growing political jeopardy.  But, didn't they hear Debbie WasAMan Shultz?  They should embrace voting for this fiscal black hole....

Mental Health Mandate Will Drive You Nuts!
From Forbes: 
So while Obamacare is driving up the cost of a policy for many Americans by 50 percent to 100 percent, the new mental health rules will make coverage even more expensive—though it’s difficult to know by how much.
The state-based mental health mandate usually operated in an environment where health insurers could deny coverage for a preexisting condition.  Obamacare is eliminating that practice.  Now people with mental health, substance abuse and behavioral issues can sign up—well, if the bureaucrats ever get the website fixed—for subsidized coverage with very few limits.
Evidence is already emerging that those who have signed up are older than average, and they will surely be sicker—because they are the uninsureds most motivated to get coverage.
Furthermore, the mental health mandate could mean that millions of additional health policies will be canceled because Obama just expanded what’s considered qualified coverage.
If the past few weeks haven’t convinced you the Obama administration never understood how the law would affect health insurance, this new effort should do it.

Bold Prediction:  Obamacare Will Be Repealed Before 2014!?!
Steven Hayward says:
Prediction: even if HealthCare.gov is fixed by the end of the month (unlikely), Obamacare is going to be repealed well in advance of next year’s election.  And if the website continues to fail, the push for repeal—from endangered Democrats—will occur very rapidly.  The website is a sideshow: the real action is the number of people and businesses who are losing their health plans or having to pay a lot more.  Fixing the website will only delay the inevitable.
Check out his rationale here....some interesting theories....

Democrat Dictatorship Disease on the March....
Days after a Republican was elected mayor of Annapolis, City Council members say they will revisit legislation that would strip the mayor’s office of much of its power.  What a bunch of sore losers!!!

Free Speech for Anyone...But Christians!
A Man was arrested in a mall for passing out tracts and talking to people...despite having done it many times before and court cases assuring him he has the right.....Read the chilling report here...

Harry Reid Shows Imperial Progressive/Statist Attitude to CNN Reporter

The big news from this blurb was Harry Reid saying why would we want to save one child who has cancer, but there is far more to this than that.  But, it also shows you the way liberals engage in changing arguments and premises and no one calls them on that.  Here are the relevant quotes.  There is a video clip but it appears to be malfunctioning....From the Blaze:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was asked during a press conference Wednesday why he opposes a House bill that would fund the National Institutes of Health during the partial government shutdown if it could “help one child who has cancer.”

And he was apparently unprepared for the question from CNN’s Dana Bash.

“You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH,” Bash began. “Given what you’ve said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren’t you playing the same political games that Republicans are?”

Her question is in reference to several House appropriations bills that would keep certain institutions funded during the partial government shutdown. Senate Democrats say they will not negotiate with the House on anything until it passes a “clean” continuing resolution, ending the shutdown completely and leaving Obamacare untouched.

“What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It’s obvious what’s going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible,” said Sen. Reid. “[T]hey have no right to pick and choose.”

Bash persisted: “But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?”

“Why pit one against the other?” Sen. Chuck Schumer said off microphone, avoiding the the main question.

“Why would we want to do that?” Reid said with a confused look on his face after stuttering. “I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.” 

Now, first of all, Dana Bash is referring to statements by Progressive Democrats that if we can only save one person with obamacare, or with gun control, as well as similar comments by Dick Durbin on the Senate floor where he lied about his own deceased daughter's eligibility for healthcare, where Dems were saying one life is precious (hmmm....wonder what all the aborted babies think about that?).  The House appeared to be saying, sure, let's fund these important things while we discuss Obamacare...but Harry Reid is having none of it...

 

First, Mr. Senator, the US Constitution gives the House the right to pick and choose what parts of government are funded.  You may have forgotten how this works since your chamber hasn't passed an active budget in over five years, but the process of budgeting and funding government is about picking and choosing what and how much gets funding.  See Article One, Section 9.  The House can pick and choose what gets funded.  You see, you senile old bastard, it is not what has been going on where your dictator in chief gets a blank check to throw around.  The process is supposed to work this way, not like the banana republic system you and Barry-cade Obama have set up.  So, since we have now shown you are incompetent to hold office, why don't you step down.  But wait, there is more. 

 

Notice how Reid changes the premise and the argument.  We go from "every life is sacred" to the good of the community.  In other words, who cares about one sick kid suffering from cancer?  I got some folks at Nellis Air Force Base sitting home furloughed.  They have their own problems. 

 

Seriously, Mr. Reid?  You are going to play that game?  Sad part is most of the reporters in the room let this senile, insane, stuttering bastard get away with the comment.  But it is not even the most telling. 

 

“This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible and reckless,” he added. 

 

Now he goes after the reporter.  This is what they do.  They attack any who question them.  He goes after and basically threatens the reporter with the veiled idea of "well, I would think someone as smart as you would understand...." which means, if you don't tow the line, we won't dignify your questions with answers. 

 

Leftists/Statists are like this.  Dana Bash just is the latest to learn the lesson that the Statist Progressives only respect you as they are using you, and if you show any initiative, then you will be put in line.  And it is worse if you are just a regular citizen.

Libs: It was All ______'s Fault Regarding Poor Obama Debate Showing

Al Gore:  It was the altitude's fault.  No Kidding.  That is what he said. 


Stephanie Cutter:  It was all Jim Lehrer's Fault! 


Michael Moore:  It was all John Kerry's Fault!
Here is a tweet he sent:  This is what happens when u pick John Kerry as your debate coach."


Bill Maher:  Lehrer sucked!  (from his twitter)

Others who blamed Lehrer via twitter were the View's Sherri Sheppard (upset Moochelle may not be able to have the View gals over to the White House next year for tea), ABC news Dan Abrams, Daily Beast writer Michael Tomasky, and the host who nobody watches because she is ugly, a liar, and boring--Rachel Maddow.

The fact of the matter, people, is that it is Obama's fault.  He can't live without the prompter.  We have seen that the Wizard of O is not so big and bad behind the curtain without his props.  It is liberalism's fault and the media's fault for not vetting and propping up this clown for the last four years.  Liberalism is full of lies, and when it faces real conservatism and articulation of the ideas like Romney engaged in, it always loses. 

But, as usual, the liberals have to blame someone else....As my friend Tom Blumer at bizzyblog says...BooHooOuch!

Ultimate Sacrifice Earns Ultimate Snub from President

Imagine, folks, if George W. Bush sent fallen soldiers' families, especially Navy SEALS, who have been the edge of the spear for the last 12 years, condolence letters that were simply form letters with autopen signatures. You would hear the media screaming about how he really didn't care about the families, about how he just viewed the military as tools for taking back his Daddy's failures in Iraq, etc... But, where except on WMD and Drudge and Gateway Pundit do you hear that IN FACT we have a President in Barack Obama who is sending form letters with autopen signatures to the families of the best and brightest who have given the last full measure of their devotion under his command?
DISGUSTING....

From Gateway Pundit:

On August 6, 2011, 30 US service members were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter they were being transported in crashed in Wardak province, Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs were killed in the crash.

Yesterday, Karen and Billy Vaughn, parents of Aaron Carson Vaughn, spoke at the Defending the Defenders forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots outside the RNC Convention in Tampa. Karen brought a copy of the form letter they were sent following their son’s death.

It’s a form letter.

It was signed by an electric pen.

That’s not all.
Karen Vaughn reached out to the parents of the other SEALs killed in that crash.
Their letters were all the same.
Form letters – signed by an electric pen.

But, as the post notes, His The Oneness did take time out from golfing and campaigning and stealing from Medicare to write the family of rapper Heavy D a letter of condolence when he passed away....

So at least he has some priorites....just the wrong damn ones!

Stalag High School: Liberal Teachers Keep Jobs, Conservatives Can't Get a Foot in the Door

This really hacks me off. As a teacher myself, much less one trained in the area of Social Studies, I find the behavior of this teacher offensive. When I taught, I allowed for classroom debate. I even played devil's advocate for both sides so as not to bias the debates. I tried, even when pressed, to keep my personal politics out of teaching history and the government. How was I rewarded? Due to the fact that I was politically active as a conservative, despite my positive yearly assessments, I was shown the door after two years of instruction. Since then, I have substituted, put in applications, had interviews. Have not been able to get my foot in the door again. I have even subbed in social studies classes where the students say I know more and am a better teacher than their regular one. But still, I can't get in because I am not a kool aid drinker. Well, here is what our educational system has come to when we don't allow for diversity of opinion and we just let liberal ideology decide who should have a job:



This type of ignorance and blind hatred are what causes our society to crumble. It further illustrates that liberals are the intolerant ones. When I had debates, I listened to the points, and then argued my position. I didn't scream down students or show my own lack of knowledge about my subject by saying things like people were arrested for talking about this President or that one. That hasn't happened since John Adams. Sad and pathetic, but this is the type of stalag/gulag we are putting our kids in, because the establishment of education is liberal indoctrinators who are trying to turn our children into quiet little robots, and not truly free thinkers. The local media is picking up the story in NC:

The teacher at the center of a controversy over a classroom video has now been suspended with pay, according to the Rowan Salisbury School System.

Tonya Dixon-Neely teaches Social Studies at North Rowan High. She is heard on the video telling a student that he could get arrested for being critical of President Obama, and that people were arrested for being critical of President Bush.

"Effective today, Tanya Dixon-Neely has been suspended with pay while a thorough investigation is being conducted," school officials told WBTV when asked about Dixon-Neely's status.

The link to the video first showed up at WBTV on Tuesday of last week.

It came from a man who said he was a former teacher in the Rowan Salisbury School System. He claimed that a student inside a classroom at North Rowan High School was being verbally abused in a debate over President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

"This video is circulating the internet. It is about a North Rowan High School social studies teacher that is verbally abusing a student regarding a question about the President and Mitt Romney," he told WBTV in his email.

"Please watch and listen to the actions of the teacher in this video and bring this type of bullying of students by the staff of RSS to light. As a former social studies teacher in the RSS system, I can tell you that this type of behavior is commonplace," his email continued. "This should not be allowed to be covered up by RSS, as they nearly always do."

The video was shot on the student's cell phone as it sits on a desk, staring up at the fluorescent light on the ceiling, capturing the often out of control conversation between the teacher and several students.

When one student begins criticizing President Obama, the teacher seems to go on the defensive, telling the student at one point that he can be arrested for being critical of the President.

WBTV contacted the Rowan Salisbury School System last week about the video.

Public Information Officer Rita Foil said she was not aware of it and WBTV forwarded the video to her.



On Thursday, the video was discussed on WSTP Radio, generating several angry calls over the teacher's handling of the situation.

The Rowan-Salisbury School System expects all students and employees to be respectful in the school environment and for all teachers to maintain their professionalism in the classroom," a statement from the school system stated on Friday. "This incident should serve as an education for all teachers to stop and reflect on their interaction with students. Due to personnel and student confidentiality, we cannot discuss the matter publicly."

I can tell you that this is commonplace among students. Obama stickers by teachers are ok, but if a student wears something political they are told to turn it inside out or to get rid of it. I have witnessed it. Also, many social studies teachers engage in this type of indoctrination and then get quiet when students show they have been paying attention to the lessons on rights and responsibilities. Listen to what this school board member says:

School board member Kay Wright Norman calls the incident "unfortunate." She says that educators have an obligation to speak fact. Norman feels the teacher was baited from the beginning but said a teacher can't let let personal interest interfere with classroom discussions.

No, the student tried telling his parents about the situation, tried telling others. They didn't believe him. So he did this to prove his point. Baiting? Give me a break. If a teacher can be so easily baited by a student, they are in the wrong business.

Completely pathetic that this indoctrinator still is getting paid.

Teachers who actually teach and not indoctrinate (like me) are left out in the cold because we engage in our freedom of expression. However, that expression is unacceptable if it is not liberal. This teacher got schooled by the student. The student should be teaching the class. And the teacher needs to put the kool aid, bong, or dirty pictures of Obama down and get a clue.

1984 in 2012: Dems Seeking to Buy Press

Remember when Rush Limbaugh wasn't allowed to buy into the Saint Louis Rams because it would make a "political statement"? All the Left screamed and hollered that Rush involved in the NFL would lead to a new platform for conservatism and it wasn't fair. Remember how the Left said that Fox was the Republican channel, and that it was totally slanted? Shouldn't these same people be upset about this:

Philadelphia’s two daily newspapers have long been accused of liberal bias, but critics say a group of potential buyers led by former Gov. Ed Rendell would turn the papers into mere mouthpieces of the Democratic Party in a 2012 swing state.

Mr. Rendell, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is teaming with George Norcross, the Democratic Party boss of southern New Jersey, and others in an effort to purchase the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and the company’s website, philly.com. “The prospect of Rendell’s group owning the newspapers is like the foxes watching the henhouse and all of the sacred cows,” said Paul Davies, former deputy editorial page editor at the Inquirer. “Essentially, the Inquirer will cease to exist as a legitimate newspaper. It will become the insiders’ house organ.”

And no way they would try to slant all their coverage, would they? Seriously, this is disturbing...but typical of liberals.

Even the liberal journalists are worried that Easy Eddie is going to try to create his own echo chamber:

Journalists at both papers are so concerned that nearly 300 of them signed a public statement last week calling on the current and any future owners to protect the integrity of their reporting. They said the current owner, Philadelphia Media Network (PMN), has censored their coverage of the sale.

“As The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com have gone up for sale once again, we watched with dismay as our own coverage of the process was compromised and censored,” the statement says.

Obama Doesn't Like Nor Want White Working Class Folks

The Dems are trumpetting how now they just want to focus on white elitists and low income minorities. What about the white working/middle class folks? Forget about em. Shows you how bad things are for the Bamster, since he now has to actually be honest. From the NY Times:

For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

First, I take issue that the Dems were ever FOR the white working class/middle class. In fact, look at a lot of even FDR's policies, and who did they favor? Big business. Who are Obama's policies favoring? Crony big businesses. Where is the help for the small working class guy? Nowhere. So, for all you union types who think the Bamster still loves ya, what do you think now? He has used you and played you. Maybe a bit of wising up is in order.

Daniel Hannan Tells it Right: You Are Not Protesting Capitalism, Occupiers

Daniel Hannan gets it right again. The Occupiers keep talking and moaning about the ills of capitalism with its bailouts, etc. Heck, some hack in the WSJ today said we needed to go to a Command and Crush economy like the Chicoms. Mr. Hannan is right. We haven't had capitalism in this country since January of 2009, heck, even late 2008 when GWB betrayed the free market system. It is not the free market system that is broken and is causing this; rather, it is all the government attempts at intervention and redistribution and picking winners and losers that is causing this. Mr. Hannan in the Telegraph:

I was struck by how wide of the mark were the beliefs they attributed to me as a Right-winger. In the interests of deeper understanding, here are ten things which – trust me – most of the Tory scum I hang around with think. Obviously, I don’t expect to turn my Leftie readers in a single post; still, they might get a clearer idea of what we actually believe.

1. Free-marketeers resent the bank bailouts. This might seem obvious: we are, after all, opposed to state subsidies and nationalisations. Yet it often surprises commentators, who mistake our support for open competition and free trade for a belief in plutocracy. There is a world of difference between being pro-market and being pro-business. Sometimes, the two positions happen to coincide; often they don’t.

2. What has happened since 2008 is not capitalism. In a capitalist system, bad banks would have been allowed to fail, their profitable operations bought by more efficient competitors. Shareholders, bondholders and some depositors would have lost money, but taxpayers would not have contributed a penny (see here).

3. If you want the rich to pay more, create a flatter and simpler tax system. This is partly a question of closing loopholes (mansions put in company names to avoid stamp duty, capital gains tax exemption for non-doms etc). Mainly, though, it is a question of bringing the tax rate down to a level where evasion becomes pointless. As Art Laffer keeps telling anyone who’ll listen, it works every time. Between 1980 and 2007, the US cut taxes at all income levels. Result? The top one per cent went from paying 19.5 per cent of all taxes to 40 per cent. In Britain, since the top rate of income tax was lowered to 40 per cent in 1988, the share of income tax collected from the wealthiest percentile has risen from 14 to 27 per cent.

4. Those of us who believe in small government are not motivated by the desire to make the rich richer. We’re really not. We are, in most cases, nowhere near having to pay top rate tax ourselves; our most eloquent champions over the years have been modestly-paid academics. We believe that economic freedom will enrich the country as a whole. Yes, the wealthy might become wealthier still, but we don't see that as an argument against raising living standards for the majority.

5. We are not against equality. We generally recognise the benefits in Scandinavian-style homogeneity: crime tends to be lower, people are less stressed etc. Our objection is not that egalitarianism is undesirable in itself, but that the policies required to enforce in involve a disproportionate loss of liberty and prosperity.

6. Nor, by the way, does state intervention seem to be an effective way to promote equality. On the most elemental indicators – height, calorie intake, infant mortality, literacy, longevity – Britain has been becoming a steadily more equal society since the calamity of 1066. It’s true that, around half a century ago, this approximation halted and, on some measures, went into reverse. There are competing theories as to why, but one thing is undeniable: the recent widening of the wealth gap has taken place at a time when the state controls a far greater share of national wealth than ever before.

7. Let’s tackle the idea that being on the Left means being on the side of ordinary people, while being on the Right means defending privileged elites. It’s hard to think of a single tax, or a single regulation, that doesn’t end up privileging some vested interest at the expense of the general population. The reason governments keep growing is because of what economists call ‘dispersed costs and concentrated gains’: people are generally more aware the benefits they receive than of the taxes they pay.

8. Capitalism, with all its imperfections, is the fairest scheme yet tried. In a system based on property rights and free contract, people succeed by providing an honest service to others. Bill Gates became rich by enriching hundreds of millions of us: I am typing these words using one of his programmes. He gained from the exchange (adding fractionally to his net worth), and so did I (adding to my convenience). In a state-run system, by contrast, third parties get to hand out the goodies.

9. Talking of fairness, let’s remember that the word doesn’t belong to any faction. How about parity between public and private sector pay? How about being fair to our children, whom we have freighted with a debt unprecedented in peacetime? How about being fair to the boy who leaves school at 16 and starts paying taxes to subsidise the one who goes to university? How about being fair to the unemployed, whom firms cannot afford to hire because of the social protection enjoyed by existing employees?

10. Let’s not forget ethics, either. There is virtue in deciding to do the right thing, but there is no virtue in being compelled. Choosing to give your money to charity is meritorious; paying tax is morally neutral (see here). Evidence suggests that, as taxes rise, and the state squeezes out civic society, people give less to good causes.

Well, there you go, comrades. I don’t expect the tents outside St Paul’s to fold overnight. But perhaps we might at least engage honestly on some of these issues rather than talking past each other. ¡Hasta la victoria siempre!

Best Clips of the Weekend...God bless NASCAR fans and Newt

Unlike you, Mrs. Obama, NASCAR fans have always been proud of their country and don't appreciate our Armed Forces and families being used for photo ops:




Newt tells it like it is re: Occupy Degenerates, aka the Give Fleas a Chance, Pro-Lice Movement:

Video of Occupy Wall Street Rabble?

No, but based on what I have seen of them in the media, these are kindred tabula rasas to the goofballs who have nothing better to do.....



These people are so sad and pathetic and have no sense of self worth that they want to matter so much, but don't know what in the heck is true, false, or even what they are doing....Sad and pathetic. Not to mention dangerous.

Obama: Cant Think Without TelePrompter, or is First Lady Really a Man?

I mean, he says he has a wife named Michael. Yes, you heard that right! Barack Obama confirms what has been said on internet radio: Michelle Obama is a man. I don't know which is funnier, that Obama may be married to a man or that the man is too stupid and slow to self edit what is on a teleprompter? I mean, seriously, are you that much of a tabula rasa, Mr. President, that you just say whatever anyone types? Come on now. Here is the video along with the article from the American Thinker:

There's no fool like a teleprompter fool.

If anyone needs any further proof that Barack Obama merely says what the teleprompter tells him to, the remarks delivered at yesterday's ceremony marking the new chairman of the joint chiefs provides it. The President of the United States refers to his wife as "Michael."This gaffe can only be because there was a typo on the teleprompter. The alternative explanations are far-fetched:

1. He doesn't remember his wife's name and doesn't realize that Michael is predominantly a male name in this country.

This can't be true. Whatever else you say about Michelle Robinson Obama, she is a memorable person.

2. He has sceretly been carrying on a gay relationship, and his real partner in life is a dude named Michael.

Highly unlikley. If it were true, his current strategy of playing to the base would lead him to proudly proclaim the love that these days not only dares to speak its name, but doesn't know how to stop talking about itself. Donations from the gay, lebian, transgendered, bicurious, etc. community would skyrocket.

3. Michelle has changed her name to Michael.

This hypothesis has some possibility of being true, but wouldn't a First Lady so proud of her fashion sense be eager to proclaim her trendy new name?

Which leaves us with the dominant hypothesis:

4. When reading a teleprompter, Obama's conscious mind checks out, so that he can refer to his wife as "Michael" and never even notice. Those jokes about TOTUS now apply not just to the Oval Office, but the the personal living quarters of the White House.

Let's hope no one hacks the teleprompter, because maybe next time he just blindly checks out he might surrender us to China or something.

Or, maybe the hypothesis that you never see Michelle and her brother at the same place and time may just be onto something....

Michelle's Target Visit More Staged than WWE

Some people were taken in by the visuals of Michelle Obama shopping at Target taken by the AP this week. OOOOH, look, she is like us. She is in disguise and hanging at Target. Ninja, Please! This was a faked, staged, scripted photo op. It was meant to soften the image of Michelle "Antoinette", the Queen who goes around boozing it up on private jets and wasting your tax dollars. The Queen who eats and eats and eats junk food while lecturing you and your kids on eating a candy bar. She must want all the cake and junk food for herself, as much as she gripes. Well, now we have proof of just how cynical the Obamas are and how gullible they think we are. Check this out:

Another staged moment in the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Michelle Obama just had to get out to Target to do a little shopping last week. But, before the shopping run the White House tipped off AP photographer Charles Dharapak so that he would be at the store to memorialize the moment.

How stupid do they think we are? If we reelect this clown Obama and his family, their views on our stupidity and gullibility will be confirmed. Say no to Obama in 2012 and prove we aren't a nation of coddled, easily fooled morons.

It's Really All About the Kids, Right? Update: Teachers Defy Court Order, Kids Suffer

From KIRO 7 in Washington:

The Tacoma School District has canceled school today because teachers have returned to the picket line, defying a judge's order that they return to class.

Yep, the unions really care about educating the kids, don't they? Not so much. And, they are violating a judge's court order. Great example!

Clueless: Labor Secretary Honors US Workers By Buying Car...Made in Canada!!!

Sometimes, the comedy writes itself. This is just sad but overly indicative of the cluelessness of the so-called "smartest people in the room." These liberals have no clue and think people are just stupid rubes impressed by empty gestures. Check this out:

To show her support for American workers, President Obama's labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has junked the standard black limo and purchased a new Chevrolet Equinox to ride around Washington in. The problem: the crossover SUV is built and assembled in Canada from parts also made in Canada.

Solis proudly arrived at a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor today in the shiny silver vehicle, which she has dubbed the "bullet." She was asked about why she traded the standard-issue limo for the SUV. "What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we're for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well," she told the Monitor's Dave Cook, who provided this video of her answer. Solis added that she was inspired to buy the Chevy because of the pride she saw in American auto workers during trips to U.S. car and truck plants. She said that she was wowed by "the pride that they take making our automobiles here in America."

Duoh!

Seriously, could this woman buy a clue? This woman is supposed to be in charge of Labor, you know, working and stuff, and she has no clue that her car is made in Canada? Yes, I know, the profits come back to Government Motors pockets. But, no new US jobs are being created by buying up the Equinox. If you read in the article, GM is hiring more Canadians to meet demand. So, how is this really helping spur job growth in the private sector, although with GM one is hesitant to call a company still owned by the Feds and the Unions part of the private sector.

I wonder if the Labor Secretary is related to Joe Biden, the idiotic gaffe machine?

"Federal Family" Term for Government Smacks of Totalitarian/Orwellian/Mafia Ideas

This is really disturbing. We are not to think of the government as the government in DC but rather as our "federal family." Um, no. This smacks of Mao, and other dictators inserting themselves into the family unit. This is a disgusting but subtle mind screw done to get us to trust the government more than ourselves and each other. Here is the story:

Don’t think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.”

In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath of Hurricane Irene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has repeatedly used the phrase “federal family” when describing the Obama administration’s response to the storm.

The Obama administration didn’t invent the phrase but has taken it to new heights.

“Under the direction of President Obama and Secretary Janet Napolitano, the entire federal family is leaning forward to support our state, tribal and territorial partners along the East Coast,” a FEMA news release declared Friday as Irene churned toward landfall.

The G-word — “government” — has been nearly banished, with FEMA instead referring to federal, state and local “partners” as well as “offices” and “personnel.”

“'Government’ is such a dirty word right now,” says Florida State University communication professor Davis Houck. “Part of what the federal government does and any elected official does is change the terms of the language game into terms that are favorable to them.”

“Family” can evoke favorable thoughts of motherhood and security. But it can also conjure images of Big Brother and organized crime.

The phrase “federal family” has been used in connection with FEMA at least as far back as 1999.

Under President George W. Bush, FEMA officials sprinkled the alliterative euphemism into congressional testimony and statements. When former FEMA Director Michael Brown promised help to hurricane-battered Floridians in 2004, he vowed that “the federal family is dedicated to staying for as long as it takes.”

During the Clinton administration, Vice President Al Gore responded to 1999 flooding in Iowa by pledging that “the federal family is committed to providing the necessary resources to comfort every person and family devastated by this disaster and to help them return to their normal way of living as fast as possible.”

A Google search shows the phrase appearing 10 times on FEMA’s website during the Bush years. Since Obama took office, “federal family” has turned up 118 times on fema.gov, including 50 Irene-related references.

Among them: statements that the Obama administration “is committed to bringing all of the resources of the federal family to bear” for storm assistance and that “the entire federal family continues to lean forward to support the states in their ongoing response efforts.”

Don't fall for this attempt at rebranding. Remember the axiom about the most frightening words:

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

So, I wonder, what happens if we disobey the "family?" Are we going to be turned into reeducation camps? Are we going to be disciplined by our great father, Barry Soetero? I wonder....

Shelby Steele: Obama Wants to Make A Virtue of Decline

Excellent article by Shelby Steele on Obama, 60s radicals, and American Exceptionalism. Some excerpts:

Mr. Obama came of age in a bubble of post-'60s liberalism that conditioned him to be an adversary of American exceptionalism. In this liberalism America's exceptional status in the world follows from a bargain with the devil—an indulgence in militarism, racism, sexism, corporate greed, and environmental disregard as the means to a broad economic, military, and even cultural supremacy in the world. And therefore America's greatness is as much the fruit of evil as of a devotion to freedom.

Mr. Obama did not explicitly run on an anti-exceptionalism platform. Yet once he was elected it became clear that his idea of how and where to apply presidential power was shaped precisely by this brand of liberalism. There was his devotion to big government, his passion for redistribution, and his scolding and scapegoating of Wall Street—as if his mandate was somehow to overcome, or at least subdue, American capitalism itself.

Anti-exceptionalism has clearly shaped his "leading from behind" profile abroad—an offer of self-effacement to offset the presumed American evil of swaggering cowboyism. Once in office his "hope and change" campaign slogan came to look like the "hope" of overcoming American exceptionalism and "change" away from it.

So, in Mr. Obama, America gained a president with ambivalence, if not some antipathy, toward the singular greatness of the nation he had been elected to lead.American exceptionalism is, among other things, the result of a difficult rigor: the use of individual initiative as the engine of development within a society that strives to ensure individual freedom through the rule of law. Over time a society like this will become great. This is how—despite all our flagrant shortcomings and self-betrayals—America evolved into an exceptional nation.

Yet today America is fighting in a number of Muslim countries, and that number is as likely to rise as to fall. Our exceptionalism saddles us with overwhelming burdens. The entire world comes to our door when there is real trouble, and every day we spill blood and treasure in foreign lands—even as anti-Americanism plays around the world like a hit record.

At home the values that made us exceptional have been smeared with derision. Individual initiative and individual responsibility—the very engines of our exceptionalism—now carry a stigma of hypocrisy. For centuries America made sure that no amount of initiative would lift minorities and women. So in liberal quarters today—where historical shames are made to define the present—these values are seen as little more than the cynical remnants of a bygone era. Talk of "merit" or "a competition of excellence" in the admissions office of any Ivy League university today, and then stand by for the howls of incredulous laughter.

Our national exceptionalism both burdens and defames us, yet it remains our fate. We make others anxious, envious, resentful, admiring and sometimes hate-driven. There's a reason al Qaeda operatives targeted the U.S. on 9/11 and not, say, Buenos Aires. They wanted to enrich their act of evil with the gravitas of American exceptionalism. They wanted to steal our thunder.

So we Americans cannot help but feel some ambivalence toward our singularity in the world—with its draining entanglements abroad, the selfless demands it makes on both our military and our taxpayers, and all the false charges of imperial hubris it incurs. Therefore it is not surprising that America developed a liberalism—a political left—that took issue with our exceptionalism. It is a left that has no more fervent mission than to recast our greatness as the product of racism, imperialism and unbridled capitalism.

But this leaves the left mired in an absurdity: It seeks to trade the burdens of greatness for the relief of mediocrity. When greatness fades, when a nation contracts to a middling place in the world, then the world in fact no longer knocks on its door. (Think of England or France after empire.) To civilize America, to redeem the nation from its supposed avarice and hubris, the American left effectively makes a virtue of decline—as if we can redeem America only by making her indistinguishable from lesser nations.

Since the '60s we have enfeebled our public education system even as our wealth has expanded. Moral and cultural relativism now obscure individual responsibility. We are uninspired in the wars we fight, calculating our withdrawal even before we begin—and then we fight with a self-conscious, almost bureaucratic minimalism that makes the wars interminable.

America seems to be facing a pivotal moment...

Go read the whole thing...Quite profound....

Kudos to Speaker Boehner for Standing up to Classless Obama

John Boehner has been taking a lot of heat lately, from both sides of the aisle (and some would say deservedly so). The left will always hate the guy, but lately the Right (along, at times, with yours truly) has been criticizing Boehner for the debt deal and some other things. Well, the fighter I respected and admired is back. President Obama, in an amateurish, pathetic, and juvenile move, tried to take all the spotlight away from the GOP Debates by putting out an announcement saying he would speak to a joint session of Congress Wednesday, Sept. 7. That happens to be the date of the GOP Presidential Debate, and the first one with current frontrunner Rick Perry participating. Well, the speech is not happening on that day...Thanks to Speaker Boehner:

The dust-up underscored Obama’s dilemma as he attempts to show progress on the economy while distancing himself from a dysfunctional Washington.

The speech before a joint session of Congress, one of the grand symbols of the presidency, reflects a calculated attempt by Obama to regain an advantage in his bitter battle with Republicans over the economy, restore fast-eroding public confidence in his leadership and, perhaps, turn around a presidency with less than 15 months before he faces the voters.

White House officials said Obama would lay out a much-anticipated package of new proposals to stimulate job growth, a package expected to include spending programs for roads, bridges, school repair and training for the long-term unemployed.

Yet simply scheduling the address quickly turned into another partisan spit-fest.

It began around lunchtime Wednesday, when Obama sent a letter to congressional leaders requesting an 8 p.m. speech next Wednesday — a time that coincided with a previously scheduled Republican presidential debate.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), citing parliamentary and logistical “impediments,” sent a letter back that urged the president to come instead on the next night.

Democrats charged that the speaker was out of line and that presidents are always given deference in scheduling speeches to Congress. A Boehner spokesman countered that the White House “ignored decades — if not centuries — of the protocol of working out a mutually agreeable date and time before making any public announcement.”

Hours later, the White House capitulated, saying the president “welcomes the opportunity” to address lawmakers next Thursday.

This President is a punk. He acts like he is the grand king of the cosmos, and all shall bow before him. He has no respect for the office or prestige or honor of the Presidency. All he cares about is ratings and polls and trying to win another term to destroy the United States economy and way of life.

I am proud that Speaker Boehner once again found his fighting spirit and stood up to the boy President. Maybe now that he has won, he might be able to do it more often and not end up with crap sandwiches like the debt deal...I'm just sayin'.....