On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Pakistan as you mark your National Day on March 23rd. Almost seventy years ago, men who would become the Founding Fathers of Pakistan met in Lahore and helped shape the birth of your nation.
Pakistan is close to my heart, and I have been privileged to make five visits over the years. And I have seen firsthand how special your country is — rich with history and culture, blessed with natural beauty, and home to people of unforgettable warmth and strength.
This week I am honored to welcome Foreign Minister Qureshi and other Pakistani officials to Washington for our first Ministerial-level U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue. The United States is supporting Pakistan’s efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, foster economic development, expand opportunity, and defeat the extremist groups who threaten Pakistan, the region, and even our own country. Our broad partnership is based on mutual respect and mutual interest, and this dialogue will be an opportunity to forge even closer ties between our nations.
Today, your country is suffering from terrorism and your security forces and civilians are making great sacrifices to fight extremists. The people of the United States will stand by and support Pakistani efforts to build a peaceful and prosperous future. We wish you a happy Pakistan Day.
SECRETARY DUNCAN RELEASES APPLICATION FOR $650 MILLION TO SUPPORT INNOVATION
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the Department of Education’s final priorities and the grant application for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). The fund, which is part of the historic $5 billion investment in school reform in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will support the development of pathbreaking new ideas, the validation of approaches that have demonstrated promise, and the scale‐up of the nation’s most successful and proven education innovations.
“Many of our generation’s greatest breakthroughs occur when people are willing to invest in small scale projects with big scale potential,” said Duncan. “We need to identify these pockets of promise in the education community and give them the resources they need to grow.”Individual school districts or groups of districts can apply for the i3 grants, and entrepreneurial nonprofits can join with school districts or a consortium of schools to submit applications. To qualify for the competitive grants, applicants will need to address one of the four areas that are driving the Obama administration’s school reform agenda: supporting effective teachers and principals; improving the use of data to accelerate student achievement; complementing the implementation of standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and careers; and turning around persistently low‐performing schools.
Applicants will receive a competitive preference if their project addresses one or more of the following priorities: improving outcomes for young children; expanding students’ access to college and preparing them for success in college; addressing the unique needs of students with disabilities and of limited English proficient students; and serving schools in rural areas.
Unlike other federal grant programs where evidence is a selection criterion, in the i3 program evidence is a formal eligibility requirement. The i3 regulations also include specific definitions for what constitutes strong evidence, moderate evidence and a reasonable hypothesis and will award three types of grants based on these three levels of evidence. Development grants will require a reasonable hypothesis and will be aimed at helping develop fresh ideas, Validation grants will require moderate evidence and will be aimed at validating and spreading promising programs to regional scale, and Scale Up grants will require strong evidence and will be aimed at bringing proven programs to national scale. The Department expects to make Development grants of up to $5 million each; Validation grants of up to $30 million each; Scale Up grants of up to $50 million each.
“This fund awards three different grants to programs at three different stages of development that all share one thing in common‐ evidence of success,” said Duncan. “We will award modest grants for new ideas, more for programs with moderate levels of evidence and significant funds to those with the strongest track records of success. There is no argument for investment more powerful than a program that is making a difference in the lives of our kids.”
Once identified as an award recipient, successful applicants will need to demonstrate how their programs will be sustainable after their federal grants are completed as well as find a 20 percent cash or in‐kind match of the federal award from the private sector. To assist recipients in their efforts to find private matches and to serve the larger purpose of creating an innovation community, the Department of Education has launched an online community, the Open Innovation Portal. This is the first national forum within which entrepreneurs, education stakeholders of all types, and funders can partner to develop and fund innovative ideas in the education sector.
Through this portal, the Department will hope to facilitate partnerships by convening like‐minded individuals to accelerate the development, identification, and broad use of innovative products, practices, and processes to improve education in schools. Applications will be due in mid‐May and grants will be awarded in September. In the coming weeks, officials from the Department’s Office of Innovation and Improvement will hold informational workshops in Atlanta, Baltimore and Denver that will be web‐accessible. President Obama has proposed an additional $500 million of the i3 program in his fiscal 2011 budget.
President Obama is pushing for a controversial Healthcare reform system that will entitle every American to proper healthcare. Republicans have criticized the initiative, stating that it is based on the communism ideal that everyone works together for the benefit of everyone else. I understand that conservative views are against communism as a whole, but this specific ideal (related to the well-being of the people) is not only very fair to everyone, but should also be considered a basic right of humanity.
Living in Canada, where we have a healthcare system, I can say it is very beneficial.
The main opponents of the health care reform seem to be right-wing, white, upper class and upper-middle class people. Why? Because they happen to be the ones who benefit from the lack of a health care system (as in the case of hospital owners / pharmaceutical companies / investors), and if not, they happen to be people well enough that they can afford the best without any waits; good for them, but what about the other 80% of the people in the country?
I’m not rich, but I make enough money that I could afford the heavy doctor and hospital bills should I need to pay in case of an emergency; however, I much prefer paying my monthly premium (which comes right out of my pay cheque along with other taxes) and knowing that no matter what happens, no matter the cost, my healthcare system will take care of me without making a huge negative financial impact from which I may never recover. Seeing as how so many people are not in the same financial situation as I am, I am proud to live in a country where everyone will have proper access to healthcare simply by being a citizen who contributes to this society.
Does a healthcare reform have a bad side? Yes.
The main issue is that, since everyone will have access to doctors and hospitals, waits will become longer; this is why people who have more money than they will ever spend in their lifetime are so opposed to a healthcare reform: because they rather spend the money, selfishly keeping all attention to themselves, while those who are not as well-off die and suffer, not being able to afford the outrageous bills of the current healthcare system in the USA.
The reality now is that millions of Americans go though life without treating or even addressing any health problems, ranging from basic sicknesses and injuries to life-threatening diseases, because they do not have coverage they need through work or otherwise.
What you need to ask yourself is: What kind of society have we become, if we are unwilling to allow everyone the opportunity to take care of their health and LIVE, based on the amount of money they have?
If we have lost all disregard for the well-being and life of others, then we have bigger issues to consider.
The decision is now not only in the hands of the politicians. Every American individual has the power to call their government representatives and speak their minds on this issue, and hopefully make a difference in the shaping of their country.
I strongly believe that healthcare is everyone’s basic right, not just that of the rich and powerful. I personally will be very disappointed if the American public chooses to reinforce the stereotype of Americans being selfish and unintelligent, by choosing to deny a healthcare reform that is fair to everyone.
Has a sitting U.S. President EVER been disrespected like this by a domestic reporter? ..let alone on a national news network? Real talk, fuck Brett Baier. I dont even know why Obama even started communicating with the Fox News Network. Its COMPLETELY obvious that that network and the vast majority of their viewers have an agenda. The agenda – to disagree and fuck over ANYTHING the president proposes. What’s interesting is how Obama ALWAYS handles his business when confronted by bias opposition. Here is Baier’s Twitter @SpecialReport . Ole Hunchback Of Notre Dame lookin ass dude..
With the Democrats poised to pass a $1 Trillion Dollar overhaul of the U.S. Healthcare system, I still have not heard how we are going to pay for it.
Until Now!!!
Why doesn’t the U.S. implement a Windfall Tax on political campaign contributions? Instead of trying to tax healthcare plans to pay for healthcare, lets look to where the big money is.
President Obama spent almost $1 Billion Dollars on his bid for the White House. The average Senatorial Campaign costs around $200 Million Dollars and to become a State Representative can cost upwards of $75 Million Dollars.
So let’s do some simple math on just the Federal Campaigns. Ever four years, two (sometimes more) candidate go head to head for the White House. So let’s adjust for differences in donations and estimate $1.5 Billion Dollars spent in the Presidential Race. There are 100 Senators and 100 challengers in the Senatorial Race so that is another $40 Billion Dollars spent on ridiculous ads and buying votes. Now, we have 435 State Representatives and including their challengers, that is 870 campaigns out spending money to the tune of $65.2 Billion Dollars. So every fours years, there is over $106 Billion Dollars received and spent by our politicians in attempts to get jobs that pay less then $250,000 per year.
I will not get into State Campaigns but that could easily double or triple the total amount spent every four years.
So I propose a 50% Tax on all campaign contributions for every political campaign!!!
This tax will bring in approximately $53 Billion Dollars every four years just in Federal Campaign money and almost $50 Billion from all of the state and local campaigns. And why not, the money was not earned by the candidate! It was a windfall, just like Banker Bonuses and Cadillac Insurance Policies!!
Sunday, March 21, 2010 is likely the end of the road for America.
The Democrats will likely “deem” the Senate bill pass in the greatest act of political cowardice and underhanded chicanery in American History.
And The President is worried.
President Obama is not worried about the “procedural” debate over whether House Democratic leaders should go ahead with a plan to approve health care reform without a traditional vote, he told Fox News on Wednesday.
Why should he be.
Though the Senate will still have to vote for the Reconciliation package (and additional 2,300 pages bringing the monster to 5,000 pages!!) it will be by simple majority, which should be no real problem.
So Obama will get enshrined in the Liberal Socialist Hall of Fame and raised up amongst their Gods.
The mere mortals, The American People, who are not for it, get stuck with a terminal cancer that will eat away at them forever.
Democracy in action.
“I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or Senate,”
<>
Obama said. “What I can tell you is that the vote that’s taken in the House will be a vote for health care reform. And if people vote yes, whatever form that takes, that is going to be a vote for health care reform. And I don’t think we should pretend otherwise. And if they don’t, if they vote against it, then they’re going to be voting against health care reform and they’re going to be voting in favor of the status quo.
<<>>
“So Washington gets very concerned with these procedures in Congress, whether Republicans are in charge or Democrats are in charge,” he said.
Indeed, House lawmakers would be going on record for health care reform. But they wouldn’t be casting a vote for the Senate bill alone.
Instead, under a process called a “self-executing rule,” the House could simultaneously approve the Senate bill while voting on a package of changes to it. This would “deem” the Senate bill to be passed, without compelling members to vote for it directly.
They vote for the rule, not the bill.
Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” has just been murdered! :0
But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. (Article 1 Section 7).
But the Orwellian bastards will try and sell that pile of crap all summer and the Liberal media (aka The Ministry of Truth) will go along with it when it comes up.
There is no “Fourth Estate” to protect you, they are a Fifth Column.
Asked to respond to a viewer’s e-mail question about why he has to “bribe Congress to pass it,” Obama said, “I’ve got the same exact e-mails that I could show you that talk about why haven’t we done something to make sure that I, a small business person, am getting as good a deal as members of Congress are getting, and don’t have my insurance rates jacked up 40 percent?”
Obama later added, “I’ve got to say to you, there are a lot more people who are concerned about the fact that they may be losing their house or going bankrupt because of health care.”
Obama expressed confidence that the health care bill will pass.
“And the reason I’m confident that it’s going to pass is because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“And yes, I have said that this is an ugly process,” he said. “It was ugly when Republicans were in charge. It was ugly when Democrats were in charge.”
“But they did it too Mommy!!” is Obama’s basic answer for everything these days.
But if it passes (or is “deemed” more likely) he gets to ascend to Liberal Socialist Godhood and nothing else matters.
Except, attempting to rig future elections that is.
Remember, the White House took control of the Census data that can be used to gerrymander legislative districts.
Also, you have 12-20 million new socialist Democrats and ACORN chomping at the bit to get them registered.
They are called Illegal Aliens.
Obama won by 10 million last time.
But he has so pissed off many Americans he would need more voters to replace them.
So in come the Illegals, most from socialist countries to the south.
Most can’t speak much English.
Many are very undereducated.
And virtually all will be grateful to their new God, Obama and The Democrats for giving them Amnesty.
But that won’t stop the Illegals.
They’ll still keep coming.
And with Former Arizona Governor and lover of all things Non-American Janet Napalitano cutting funding for Border Security you have a never ending supply of new Democrats to bring in to use as electoral weapons.
And with Cap and Trade (which they will try and pass before November) they can effectively run your life for you.
As Obama said, it’s the right thing to do.
They “deem” it so. So mote it be.
So enjoy your weekend, as Americans, it’s probably our last.
Health Insurance Premiums Will Rise Under Obamacare
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) last Wednesday contradicted socialist Barack Hussein Obama on whether the health care reform bill will lead to a decrease in health care premiums. Durbin claimed that rates would go up, while Obama said the rates would go down..continued…
Moms, Dads, Grandparents we started a forum just for you!! Visit MomsandDadsBeHeard soon! 2010 is a MUST year to be involved. No longer can we sit back and allow our rights to disappear. The 2010 elections will be the deciding factor. Get involved, speak out!
So the Telegraph is reporting that President Obama is threatening to withdraw support for Democrats that don’t vote for the Healthcare bill. In light of the news today, that this might get passed by some sort of procedural shenanigans, who knows what that means. But for the sake of simplicity and so that dummy-dumb-dummies like myself can understand let’s assume that we are taking about a “straight up or down” vote on the Senate Healthcare bill.
In this context we are hearing that the President is threatening members of his own party that if they don’t support him on this he won’t support them for re-election. Traditionally the presence of the President has meant a huge fund raising opportunity. The President can bring in tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single event. This would normally take a small army of volunteers and months of time to accomplish. So having the President as a member of your party and being willing to come support you, has been a traditional political trump card. So normally this would be a huge deal, however is it this year?
Thus far in the past twelve months every race that Obama has shown up to “help” has failed. His appearances have seemed more like the grim reaper rearing his ugly head instead of the cavalry there to save the day. I believe Greta Van Susteren called Obama appearances “the kiss of death.” Granted there haven’t been that many of them but two major Governorships and a Senate seat from Massachusetts are hardly anything to guff at.
Now to a simple minded man like me, it would seem that were I a democrat in congress and I was worried about what this vote might mean for my reelection chances. I would think that voting no and not having the President show up would be a good thing. In fact that might be reason enough to vote no. However in the world of Washington politics, up is often down. So, I can understand many members of congress missing this miniscule trend and its implications. That said, in the world of midterm elections they may find that this point might have been what would have saved them their political careers.
Just a comment on our current health care issues……. since I’ve not been well enough to do a full post for a while but despite the political problems with our health care system I hope to be feeling better sooner than later and be back with both my environmental work and my critter tales…….until then enjoy the lighter side…… of the dark and slightly twisted world of mine until our paths cross again……… Lila
WSJ – It’s been more than a year now since President Obama began seeking engagement with rogue regimes the world over. Last week, his own State Department tallied up the benefits of that effort to human rights. There appear to have been none.
Around the world, human rights deteriorated markedly over the past year, according to the 2009 Human Rights Report, released Thursday.
Above: Brazilian blogger Angelo of the C.I.A, “A Manual of Anti-Ahmedinejad Protest.” A strongly worded manifesto against hate speech.
As prefab scandal rocks the Sambodian republic of print and online media, the president of Brazil embarks on a remarkably audacious diplomatic initiative.
Do you think maybe the two are related?
Also related: Joe Biden’s trip to the Arab-Israeli conflict zone and Hillary’s recent and notably under-reported domestically visit to Brazil.
Brazil’s principal foreign policy goal since the Lula government took office has been a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Can they pull it off?
With John “I Am The Walrus and You, Sir, Are a Nazi” Bolton out of the way?
Recent headline here:
Ahmedinajad is not a Nazi: Lula
The Estadão (remixed, with a new site designed by Innovation International, I believe) reports.
Com uma oferta de mediação brasileira apresentada em 2003 e ressuscitada agora no fim do mandato, o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva inicia amanhã uma visita oficial a Israel e aos territórios palestinos em um momento especialmente delicado para as negociações de paz, que os Estados Unidos desejam mediar.
With an offer to mediate first presented in 2003 and revived now at the end of his mandate, President da Silva begins an official visit tomorrow to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The trip comes at a particularly delicate moment in the peace negotiations, which the U.S. wants to mediate.
Ao desembarcar hoje em Tel-Aviv, Lula chegará com uma bagagem potencialmente explosiva: sua insistência em levar mais interlocutores para esse difícil diálogo, entre os quais o Brasil, e em interferir nas discussões internas entre a Autoridade Palestina (AP) e os radicais do Hamas.
When he lands in Tel Aviv today, Lula will arrive with something potentially explosive in his luggage: …
“Lula is a suicide bomber.”
Is it just me, or do metaphors matter?
…. his insistence upon bringing more participants to the table in this difficult process, Brazil among them, and interfering in internal talks between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas radicals.
“Lula insists on interfering.”
How can talks between the PA and Hamas be described as “internal”?
They shoot each other, don’t they?
No auge das pretensões, o Brasil quer até mediar diretamente o diálogo entre o Fatah e o Hamas, que tomou o controle da Faixa de Gaza em junho de 2007, após derrotar as forças de segurança do movimento laico.
The height of Lula’s pretension is for Brazil to directly mediate the talks between Fatah and Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after defeating the security forces of the secular movement.
See?
Territorially separate and governed by opposing secular and theocratic, though ethnically homogeneous, actors.
Meddling in internal affairs?
Also, with the verb pretender, I hear a note of “Lula is a wannabe.”
Or is it just me?
Ontem, o vice-presidente dos EUA, Joe Biden, partiu de Israel, encerrando seu esforço para fazer avançar as negociações indiretas entre palestinos e israelenses. Sua visita foi prejudicada pelo anúncio de Israel de que pretende construir 1.600 casas em Jerusalém Oriental.
Yesterday, U.S. VP Biden left Israel, closing his effort to advance indirect talks between Palestinians and Israelis. His visit was marred by the announcement that Israel plans to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem.
O argumento básico de Lula em favor de novos interlocutores é embalado pelo fracasso da mediação dos EUA. Um ministro próximo a Lula esmiuçou assim, na semana passada, a crítica à atuação de Washington: os EUA são parte interessada, estão atrelados ao ponto de vista de Israel.
Lula’s basic argument in favor of bringing new parties to the table received a boost from the failure of U.S. mediation. Last week, a cabinet minister close to Lula detailed the criticism of U.S. policy as follows: The U.S. is an interested party, handcuffed to the Israeli position.
A mesma fonte lembrou que, apesar dos avanços iniciais nas negociações que mediou, a Casa Branca não conseguiu fechar um acordo capaz de permitir a convivência pacífica e segura entre os dois lados.
The same source recalled that in spite of inicial progress, the White House failed to close a deal that would make possible the peaceful, secure coexistence of both sides.
Forget those Riotur videos with endless black and tan and generically Latin hotties in microbikinis: ethnically, the prominent Arab and Jewish communities here have contributed enormously to Brazilian cultural identity, even as Brazil has tropicalized those communities.
(Some of the rest Syrian restaurants outside Damascus are here in São Paulo. Also, the McDonald’s of Middle Eastern cuisine: Habbib’s.)
They are not necessarily polarized along the same lines as the dyad CAIR-AIPAC, I think.
Also, despite its many shortcomings in terms of governance, Brazil fields professional career diplomats almost exclusively — rather than, oh, say, e-commerce moguls who are also top-bundling Bush Pioneers from GOPAC.
Persons of the same quality and culture as, for example, the great poet Vinicius de Morães.
Earlier this week, President Obama addressed a crowd of gushing students and selected guests at Arcadia University in a suburb of Philadelphia to promote his final push for healthcare reform. It was a beautiful day for late winter, magnifying the gathered group’s existing enthusiasm and after the usual “I/we love you(s)” from the crowd the President wasted little time before turning to his usual tones of demagoguery.
A moment or two into the speech, the President characteristically accused the Insurance Companies of arbitrarily causing the extra inflationary costs of healthcare coverage and for other ills of our healthcare system:
See, these Insurance Companies have made a calculation. Listen to this. The other day, there was a conference call that was organized by Goldman Sachs. You know Goldman Sachs. You’ve been hearing about them, right? (Laughter.) So they organized a conference call in which an insurance broker was telling Wall Street investors how he expected things to be playing out over the next several years, and this broker said that Insurance Companies know they will lose customers if they keep on raising premiums, but because there’s so little competition in the insurance industry, they’re okay with people being priced out of the insurance market because, first of all, a lot of folks are going to be stuck, and even if some people drop out, they’ll still make more money by raising premiums on customers that they keep.
This statement is absurd and disheartening because it clearly shows that the President is willing to make any claim and accentuate any fact in order to pull his healthcare reform hopes from the nosedive it is in. He’s not alone. For years the left and some on the right have accused the big Insurance Companies of inconsiderately raising the costs of insurance premiums in order to pad their pockets. The President proposes and some unwittingly agree that we would be better off if the government controlled the types of healthcare insurance provided and the cost for such coverage.
What this overly simplified argument leaves out is that the premium increases by the Insurance Companies are to offset the rising “benefit expenses” that they payout. Premium increases are the Insurance Companies attempt to stay in business.
In the same speech the president cited an example of the exorbitant increases to premiums that effect everyday Americans:
Every year, they drop more people’s coverage when they get sick right when they need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher and higher.
Just last month, Anthem Blue Cross in California tried to jack up rates by nearly 40 percent — 40 percent. Anybody’s paycheck gone up 40 percent?
Perhaps most people’s paychecks haven’t gone up 40% but if the government runs healthcare coverage it will further reduce competition or eliminate it all together. Anybody saved a ton of money on car insurance by switching companies lately? Competition is good because it forces companies to be honest and as was seen in Hawaii, government intervention greatly reduces competition. It already has greatly reduced competition.
Anthem Blue Cross’s parent company is WellPoint (the second largest insurance company in the country) and what the President won’t tell you is that WellPoint’s net income dropped 30% from 2007-08 to 4.2% of revenue according to the 2008 annual report. This drop was the result of several factors including higher claims payouts; people are getting older and new medicines cost more. In 2008, the largest 100 companies in the country averaged a profit margin of 5.6%.
It has been increasingly noted lately that insurance companies aren’t the hugely profitable corporations they are made out to be and we might benefit from digging into the numbers. According to Fortune, the ten largest healthcare insurance providers saw an average profit decrease of 52% in 2008 (the latest year for which information is available) from the year prior. In fact, the entire “Healthcare: Insurance and Managed Care” sector of the SP500 stock index ranked 33rd of 51 total sectors for total profitability in 2008.
The profit level observed in the healthcare insurance industry in 2008 wasn’t from just a bad year. In fact the five-year average profitability numbers shows that the “healthcare insurance industry” was only the 23rd most profitable.
There is something at stake today greater than just the nationalization of the healthcare insurance industry, as dire as that is. If the government is able to successfully argue that the 23rd most profitable industry in our country is too profitable they might easily argue that the 22 more profitable industry groups are too profitable. And at least eight of the top ten most profitable industries are in some way vital to our well being and as ripe for government take over. Historically, nationalization is a slippery slope.
One of the problems with government takeovers of private industry is that the government cannot create an efficient solution like we are led to believe they can. A company like WellPoint spends roughly 80-85% of its premiums on paying for medical expenses incurred by participants, leaving the rest for administrative costs and profit.
If the government is to effectively drive down premiums they would have to cover less participant expenses (which they have promised time and again not to do), pay less for the procedures or drugs than the insurers are paying now (which might cause a lower supply of physicians willing to take government insurance, more lines for care like in parts of Europe or a reduction in the quality of care) or manage more efficiently the administrative costs to something less than the 15-20% the insurance companies have. We should note that no example exists of a government organization running more efficiently than a private competitor. We should instead be aware of the sleight of hand where the government keeps health insurance premiums the same but raises taxes to pay for it.
In the end, the healthcare insurance providers are certainly not gouging their policyholders anymore than the food services industry is (which was the most profitable industry in 2008). It appears that as the left becomes more desperate to save their pet project they are moving even further away from substantive arguments and using even more misleading perversions of the truth, exactly the opposite of what they promised earlier this year. But what did we expect.
Brent Stransky is a co- author of “The Young Conservative’s Field Guide” which is scheduled for release by Nimble Books on April 1st, 2010. The authors can be contacted through their website at www.aHardRight.com.
I find the timing of J-Wright’s reappearances interesting. Obamacare is on the ropes, and his “son”’s approval rating is dipping at 43%. Rev. Jeremiah Wright discusses Obama controversy, history of the church.
And much to my surprise, the Census envelope I received in the mail was not the actual Census form, but a letter informing me to expect the form in the mail within the next week. My tax dollars at work. Can you say, redundancy and waste? I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so: Did the U.S. Census waste millions sending 2-paragraph letters?
And the tragedy of Chelsea King’s murder keeps uncovering further negligence and misses by the California criminal justice and parole systems. Her killer (I’m not a lawyer or a journalist, so I don’t have to say “alleged”), John Albert Gardner III was discovered to have violated parole back in 2007 because he was living near a college day-care center; but they did not re-arrest him because he moved within two weeks, avoiding a parole hearing that would have landed him back in jail. Gardner is also a “person of interest” in the murder of Amber DuBois, who went missing a year ago. Had someone towed a harder line, two lives might have been saved. Sex offender violated parole, but wasn’t sent back to prison.
In an act of locking the chicken coop after the foxes have already visited, Governor Schwarzenegger reversed the recordkeeping policy of the parole board. Instead of immediately purging records of paroled sex offenders, they will now hold on to them indefinitely. Schwarzennegger reverses state policy on parole records.
The left told us that Obama’s was a historic presidency. And they were right: he just smashed his own record for massive and totally unsustainable deficits.
Budget deficit sets record in February
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER (AP)
WASHINGTON — The government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year’s record for the full year.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year.
The deficit through the first five months of this budget year totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.
The Obama administration is projecting that the deficit for the 2010 budget year will hit an all-time high of $1.56 trillion, surpassing last year’s $1.4 trillion total. The administration is forecasting that the deficit will remain above $1 trillion in 2011, giving the country three straight years of $1 trillion-plus deficits.
The administration says the huge deficits are necessary to get the country out of the deepest recession since the 1930s. But Republicans have attacked the stimulus spending as wasteful and a failure at the primary objective of lowering unemployment. [Editorial note: The Republicans are right, and the American people know it. The stimulus is a gigantic porker which was recently upgraded as costing a massive $862 billion from the previous estimate of $787 billion. But the real cost is actually $3.27 TRILLION!!! And contrary to Obama's utterly false claims, only SIX PERCENT of Americans believe that the stimulus has created any jobs at all].
The administration defends the economic stimulus bill that Congress passed in February 2009 with a pricetag at the time of $787 billion as the right medicine to get the economy back on its feet. President Barack Obama has said even more is needed to battle an unemployment rate that remained stuck in February at 9.7 percent. [Editorial note: When Obama was elected, unemployment was at 6.6%. He promised that his stimulus would prevent unemployment from reaching 8%. The stimulus failed by Obama's own standard. To try to explain away the failure of his policy, Obama created the nonexistent category of "saved jobs." But economists point out the following: “One can search economic textbooks forever without finding a concept called `jobs saved.’ It doesn’t exist..."]
The White House says that job creation will remain a top priority, hoping to convince voters that Obama did not spend too much time during his first year in office trying to get Congress to pass health care reform. [Allow me to editorially interrupt this spin to point out that ObamaCare is the top priority, with Obama hoping to convince liberals that they need to pass this incredibly unpopular bill no matter how many Democrats lose their seats in order to "maintain a strong presidency." And in point of fact, they have done little else this entire year].
The government’s monthly budget report showed the record $220.9 billion deficit for February reflected outlays of $328.4 billion and revenues of $107.5 billion. The February receipts marked the first time that revenues are up compared with the same month a year ago since April 2008. Revenues had fallen for 21 straight months as the recession cut into both individual and corporate income tax payments. [Editorials note: And yet Obama is selling his healthcare takeover as "deficit neutral" on the incredibly risky assumption that tax revenues will miraculously massively increase. So Obama is explaining away his deficits by pointing to the frighteningly low revenues even as he bases his health care on the assumption that those same revenues will massively increase. And if Obama is wrong, the trillions of dollars of new spending will implode our economy].
Deficits normally shoot up in February because it is a month when the government makes large refund payments to individuals and corporations as part of the tax filing process. Those payments were boosted this year by various tax credits that were expanded or added as part of the government’s stimulus efforts including the “Making Work Pay” tax credit and the first-time home buyers tax credit. [Editorial note: Which doesn't in any way change the fact that this February's frighteningly low revenues continues a 21-consecutive month trend. That in addition to the fact that the stimulus is contributing to our deficit crisis].
Through the first five months of the budget year, government revenues totaled $800.5 billion, down 7 percent from a year ago, while outlays totaled $1.45 trillion, up a slight 0.1 percent from a year ago.
The deficit of $651.6 billion through February is up by 10.5 percent from the $589.8 billion deficit run up during the first five months of the 2009 budget year. The government’s budget year begins on Oct. 1.
The budget that Obama sent to Congress in February projects that the deficits over the next decade will total $8.53 trillion. But the Congressional Budget Office last week put the 10-year total even higher at $9.8 trillion. Part of the reason for the $1.2 trillion difference is that the CBO is projecting slower economic growth and thus less tax revenues than the administration over the next decade. [Editorial note: Number one, this proves we can't trust the Obama administration or the government's cost estimates to do anything other than be lowball figures. Number two, passing trillions in new spending via ObamaCare is hardly the thing to do given the fact that we will have LOWER revenues rather than higher ones].
The administration has maintained that the country must run large budget deficits until the economy has begun to grow at a sustainable pace that is bringing the unemployment rate down. Only then, the administration says, should the government focus on getting control of the deficits. [Editorial note: So I'm flat broke and deeply in debt. Clearly the thing I need to do is go on a massive spending spree on my credit card in order to get out of debt!!!].
Obama has created by executive order an 18-member fiscal reform commission that has been charged with coming up with a plan to shrink the deficit to 3 percent of the economy within five years. The plan is scheduled to be unveiled in December, after the midterm congressional elections. [Editorial note: What Obama has in fact created is a tool to weasel out of his repeated campaign promise not to raise taxes on "95% of Americans" by so much "as one dime"].
With the economy so weak, the interest rates that the government has to finance the flood of red ink have remained low. However, economists are worried that the favorable outlook on interest rates could change quickly if investors, including foreign investors, start to worry about the government’s commitment to restraining future deficits. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities. [Editorial note: First of all, the Associated Press is factually wrong: Japan is now our largest holder, as China is jumping off the proverbial sinking ship. And to make things even worse, China is preparing to abandon the dollar altogether. Second, just to clarify, what this paragraph means is that the moment our interest rates go up - which they have to do in order to deal with our debt/deficits - we will have a double-dip recession. And the second dip may well be worst than the first].
Through the first five months of this budget year, net interest payments totaled $86.5 billion, up 15.3 percent from a year ago. [Editorial note: this is exactly what happened to Greece; and we are not far away from the same sort of implosion occurring here. Obama's "solution" is to borrow more money in more unsustainable spending which will ultimately push our interest payments rates up and up].
In its report last week, the CBO predicted that the government debt held by investors would climb from $7.5 trillion at the end of last year to $20.3 trillion in 2020. CBO forecast that interest payments would more than quadruple from a projected $209 billion this year to $916 billion annually by the end of the decade. [Editorial note: So let's just keep spending and spending and spending until we fly off a cliff to our deaths].
Congratulations on your historic presidency, Mr. Obama. Congratulations on your new record as the biggest spender in the history of the human race.
Obama promised hope and change. And he’s delivering.
A second Great Depression will be “change.” And there are plenty on the left – who embrace the Cloward-Piven strategy – who are “hoping” for it.
« It’s Time for Moderate House Democrats to Stand Up to Obama | HorseRaceBlog Home Page
March 10, 2010
Bart Stupak Has Problems
Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak has problems.
Big problems.
Here’s the situation. He and his bloc of pro-life Democrats want Stupak’s pro-life language in the final health care bill. The talk of late is that this might be done by inserting the Stupak language into the reconciliation bill that is currently being negotiated. Here’s how this scenario would go down: the House votes for the Senate bill, which does not have the Stupak language; then it votes for the reconciliation “fixer,” which does have the Stupak language; then the Senate votes for the reconciliation fixer; in the end, the Stupak language becomes law.
That’s a mess.
via RealClearPolitics – HorseRaceBlog – Bart Stupak Has Problems.
3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—
Released: 4/10/2008 2:25:36 PM
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communication
119 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
Read FAQs about the Bakken Formation.
Listen to a podcast with the lead scientist on this topic.
Reston, VA – North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency’s 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.
Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.
New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.
The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.
The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest “continuous” oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A “continuous” oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest “continuous” oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.
“It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil – the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today’s technology?” said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. “To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation.”
The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.
USGS worked with the North Dakota Geological Survey, a number of petroleum industry companies and independents, universities and other experts to develop a geological understanding of the Bakken Formation. These groups provided critical information and feedback on geological and engineering concepts important to building the geologic and production models used in the assessment.
Five continuous assessment units (AU) were identified and assessed in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana – the Elm Coulee-Billings Nose AU, the Central Basin-Poplar Dome AU, the Nesson-Little Knife Structural AU, the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and the Northwest Expulsion Threshold AU.
At the time of the assessment, a limited number of wells have produced oil from three of the assessments units in Central Basin-Poplar Dome, Eastern Expulsion Threshold, and Northwest Expulsion Threshold.
The Elm Coulee oil field in Montana, discovered in 2000, has produced about 65 million barrels of the 105 million barrels of oil recovered from the Bakken Formation.
Results of the assessment can be found at http://energy.usgs.gov.
For a podcast interview with scientists about the Bakken Formation, listen to episode 38 of CoreCast at http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/.
Just a question, why are we not drilling here instead of sending money to countries that don’t really like us very much? Now onto some more assinine, environmental, political restrictions.
A few excerpts. For the entire article click here.
WASHINGTON, May 8 — In 1977, the United States and Cuba signed a treaty that evenly divided the Florida Straits to preserve each country’s economic rights. They included access to vast underwater oil and gas fields on both sides of the line.
Now, with energy costs soaring, plans are under way to drill this year — but all on the Cuban side.
“This is the irony of ironies,” Charles T. Drevna, executive vice president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, said of Cuba’s collaboration with China and India. “We have chosen to lock up our resources and stand by to be spectators while these two come in and benefit from things right in our own backyard.”
At a recent trade conference in Mexico City arranged by Mr. Jones, Cuban officials invited American oil companies to bid for the other leases on the Cuban side of the Florida Straits even though drilling in Cuban waters would violate the United States’ longstanding trade embargo against Cuba.
Any politician that opposes domestic offshore and/or onshore drilling should be voted out of office. This is completely assanine as are the restrictions on drilling in Anwar and other regions within the continental Unites States. Rules and regulations must be tempered with a little common sense. Unfortunately there is a toll booth set up for politicians and bureaucrats that enter Washington and state capitals. The toll is common sense and so they enter office without any.
There’s a lot of commotion and clamoring outside the gorilla exhibit at the zoo. People are buzzing about something this REPORTER is going to tell us about:
REPORTER
Thanks, Sally. People are buzzing about the ground-breaking news I’m about to share with you. A gorilla, at the zoo, is a painter. Yes, that’s right, a fucking gorilla. I shit you not.
The Reporter probably doesn’t really talk like this, but I thought it’d be funny. Anyway.
REPORTER
And this isn’t like an elephant painting or a horse or a chimpanzee. This gorilla is actually good. I’m talking Grandma Moses good. Or Monet good. But not Manet, that dude was a hack.
Great art history joke.
REPORTER
Anyway, let’s take a look at this dude do his thing…
We angle on the gorilla enclosure. One gorilla paints. He’s happy as fuck. The other gorilla is sad. Mainly because he can’t paint, but also because he has to take a dump and all these people are here. He’s too nervous to go. So he waits.
The painting gorilla has a GREY SPLOTCH on his head. Pay attention to that last part: the painting gorilla has a GREY SPLOTCH on his head. That shit’s gonna come into play later.
The painting gorilla just paints and then reveals his masterpiece. (Note: we should get a person to do the actual painting because I just made up this painting gorilla shit and actually finding one will probably be impossible. But I guess casting should give it a shot. It would be cool if it was a real painting gorilla.)
Anyway, the painting is awesome. Better than anything you could do, trust me.
CUT TO:
EXT. FAKE FORESTY AREA AT ZOO – LATER
Suddenly we cut to an interview set-up thing with the reporter, the painting gorilla and the TRAINER (A super hot chick. Think of a super hot chick. Any hot chick. That’s who this is.)
REPORTER
So this is some pretty impressive shit.
TRAINER
Yes, it is. Popono loves painting.
Apparently the painting gorilla is named POPONO.
REPORTER
We hear he does American Sign Language.
TRAINER
Yes, he does. You can totally ask him anything you want.
REPORTER
Popono, we hear your paintings are selling for a lot of money and people with a lot of money are buying your paintings. What are you going to do with the money?
POPONO
(subtitled from his American Sign Language)
Well, I don’t have any real dreams but to just paint. My cage-mate Fofofo wants to buy a boat and sail around the world, but he’s talentless. So I will steal his dream.
REPORTER
That’s a great story, Popono.
What? That’s a terrible story. Whatever.
Music swells because we’re doing a montage.
REPORTER (VO)
And paint Popono did…
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Tom Cruise gives Popono cash for the painting.
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Justin Timberlake gives Popono cash for the painting.
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Glenn Close gives Popono cash for the painting.
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Tom Cruise gives Popono cash for the painting again!!!
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Lil Wayne gives Popono cash for the painting.
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Obama gives Popono cash for the painting.
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–A bank robber gives Popono cash for the painting. Everyone laughs and the cops arrest him.
–Popono paints an awesome painting.
–Tom Cruise gives Popono cash for the painting again! He can’t get enough Popono paintings!
EXT. ZOO – DAY
The media is there and they are having a field day or whatever they have when they are excited about something. It’s so serious that journalists are coming back from the dead to cover this. Not really. That’s not right for this movie tonally.
REPORTER
Popono has raised enough money to buy not only his freedom, but also a yacht to sail around the world.
Popono smiles, then hands a giant check to the zookeeper. No one really understands this part.
POPONO
(subtitled from his American Sign Language)
I’m totally ready to live out my cage-mate’s dream of sailing around the world!
Fuck. No way did he just dis his cage-mate like that. Well, he did.
Fofofo just fumes like, “You gotta be kidding me with this shit.”
But no one is joking about any of this. Especially Tom Cruise, who is going nuts about the paintings still! He has pictures of them in his wallet like they’re his kids! Maybe the weirdest thing he’s ever done.
CUT TO:
EXT. OCEAN – DAY
People wave as Popono sails away on his yacht.
REPORTER
And thus ends an empowering tale of a gorilla that’s probably more talented than anyone alive right now.
CUT TO:
EXT. ZOO – DAY
We’re at the gorilla enclosure and Fofofo looks downtrodden. The Trainer tries to console him, but she’s for shit at comforting gorillas.
TRAINER
It’s okay, Fofofo. You just weren’t born with any talent. Kinda like me. You know my sister plays in the WNBA? Yep. She got all the talent. And all the women.
There’s a long beat where Fofofo just wants her to leave. Their situations aren’t alike at all.
TRAINER
Welp, I’m out of here. Peace.
She gets up and leaves. Fofofo is like, “About time.”
He them looks over in a mirror and notices a lighter splotch on the top of his head.
He quickly pulls out a marker and colors it black.
You know why?
Because it’s ACTUALLY POPONO!
THE GORILLAS TRICKED EVERYONE AND POPONO, WHO JUST WANTED TO STOP PAINTING PRETENDED TO SAIL OFF INTO THE SUNSET, BUT IT WAS REALLY FOFOFO, WHO JUST WANTED TO SAIL OFF INTO THE SUNSET!
THEY’RE BOTH LIVING THEIR DREAMS!
NOBODY SAW THAT COMING!
That took a lot longer to write than I thought it would.
Note Some text below did not fit into the video above.
The cross is a universal symbol of tremendous significance, which dates back to prehistory; the original understanding has been hidden from the current technologically advanced Common Era human population. The first step in uncovering the fundamental meaning of the 2,000 year old Christian cross symbol, is figuring out what it evolved from, its origins. It is well accepted that the Christian cross was influenced by the ankh circle or bulbous cross, interpreted as the “key of life” or “eternal life” symbol. The ankh dates to before the Old Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, well over 4,500 years ago and must have evolved as a bi-product of the prehistoric Stone Age culture. Since the cross is a universal symbol of human prehistoric struggle, other forms of the cross appear everywhere independently.
The Celtic / sun cross or Bolgar cross, basically a cross inside a circle is also a prehistoric artifact but it developed in Stone Age Europe, independent of Mediterranean / Egyptian influences. Here is proof that a bulbous type cross is a universal symbol and has no, one linked cultural influence. As such, it developed independently in separate regions as a key to human development, as a reflection of the epic struggle.
The only physical difference between the early prehistoric cross symbols, ( ankh, Celtic or Bolgar cross) and the 2,000 year old Christian cross is that the bulbous circle disappeared. In the Christian cross, the circle has been replaced with a sacrificial man, a demi-god, son of god.
The real scary thing is that Common Era, re-interpretations of the bulbous cross continue to be re-developed, re-worked and are always associated with groups that spawn evil, death, destruction or intellectual / social repression. Hitler / the Nazi’s modified a bulbous cross by bending the straight lines, in half to fabricate the Swastika. Groups like the KKK, neo-Nazi’s, Knights templar’s, knights of Columbus and the Freemasons have all modified the circle cross into their mystic symbology. So here is the evidence that a bulbous cross remands universally important regardless of time; time, time, time, time.
To the Egyptians, the ankh, was considered the key of life and in hieroglyphic character it reads “eternal life”. Yet the origin and meaning of the ankh symbol remains a mystery to Egyptologists and no single hypothesis has been widely accepted by the educational community, ruling elitists or media. Can humans really consider themselves advanced if no one accepted meaning is concluded for the earliest, most primitive and exceedingly significant human symbol, literally defined as the “key to Life”?
If the Ankh is a “key of life”, as suggested by the ancient Egyptians, modern humans better be smart enough to figure out what this symbol meant or their own lives might be threaten in the future. If the education community / system refuses to answer why the Ankh was measured as the key to life, then they must represent an organization of death and human destruction.
Since the cross is an object of symbology, it is impossible to completely remove the original meaning from the current interpretation. A partial, similar, modified understanding must be carried through from ancient to current times. It is undisputed that the Christian cross symbol was derived from the earlier ankh, so pretty simple if we solve the circle, knot or bulbous object in the ankh “bang, bang” we solve the mystery to the true meaning of the cross.
In Egyptian hieroglyphic images, the Ankh loop or knot is often held, as a handle of some sorts. This might be an important feature to resolving its meaning. The modern interpretation of the circle cross has the knot moving from the top, to descend down to a center line position. This means that the physical structures in the circle cross must represent a movable, extendable or retractable structure. All crosses are wildly accepted as phallic symbols and erectile tissue does swell and de-inflate.
To solve the bulbous circle, we will be force to go prehistoric and look through the eyes of primitive humans. 5,000, 10,000 and even 20,000 years ago humans had two primary threats, other humans and wild animals. In fact, 5,000 years ago, humans were not yet on the top of the food chain. The top predators were most likely the big cats.
In ancient times the Big cats, Tiger, Lion, Jaguar, Leopard, Cougar and Cheetah were everywhere and dangerous. The Siberian Tiger still obtains a length of 11 ft and weight of up to 660 pounds but 10,000 years ago the American cave lion or saber-tooth tiger could reach 1,000 pounds. Also these cats were everywhere and might have even been following human migration, as land sharks relentlessly farming and harvesting their human pray. The big cats were the top consumers because humans had no substantial protection and at anytime, anyplace could be eaten.
Stone Age weapons consisted of sticks, spears, simple bow, torch and maybe a shield. The Stone Age spear was essentially a piece of broken glass attached to the tip of a stick. The other primary weapon would be a very primitive and weak bow only useful for birds or small prey. The torch might just be the best defense against the big cats but it took precious seconds to get ignited and useful.
Just imagine attaching a broken piece of glass to the end of a stick with the intention of entering the lion’s cage at the zoo. Even with a broken glass spear in one hand and a torch in the other, it is suicide to face down even a 200 pound cat, let alone, a 800 pound beast. Ankh ☥”’key of life symbol must represent protection from the big cats, the top predators, because protection from this threat at that time period would represent the true key to life.
The Ankh cross, appears to always be associated with Anubis, one of the oldest deity, from the oldest periods of ancient Egypt, the Old Kingdom period. In appearance, Anubis has the body of a man with the head of a black jackal; the name Anubis is the Greek name for jackal. He is often associated with mummification and in the Egyptian Book of the Dead Anubis determines if a sole should enter the afterlife (underworld).
The Jackal belongs to the Canidae biological family of mammals that includes the wolf, fox, jackal, coyote and man’s best friend, the domesticated dog. The black jackal is an interpretive problem because no jackal is black and Anubis is clearly represented in black face. So Anubis must represent an early domesticated dog, not a jackal.
Anubis was fluidly migrated into Greek and Roman Pythian as a gods that controls life, death and, or the after-life. In Greek mythology the three headed dog Cerberus appears to be a primary example of a dog that is associated with an afterlife. Also Charon, the Greek ferryman of the underworld is said to have worn wolf ears. The God Mars has an animal identity as a dog / wolf and decides death or life in times of War. Read the H2onE2 Wolf man movie review, to find out much more. The ancient deity Anubis, has distinct features of raised elongated ears and snout. It is starting to look obvious that the key to life might have something to do with hearing and smelling out danger.
In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Anubis is often depicted holding two sacred objects, one the ankh bulbous cross, the other a Was-sceptre, the staff of life and death. What is quite interesting is that the Was-sceptre staff is a penis bone also called an os penis or baculum. And, the top of the Was-sceptre staff is the carved head of a jackal, suggesting this staff represents a penis bone of a Canidae; wolf, fox, jackal, coyote, or domesticated dog.
The baculum or penis bone / os penis is found in mammals but is absent in humans, although present in our nearest biological relative the chimpanzee. The os penis is prominent in all Canidae; wolf, fox, jackal, coyote and dog’s. It has been speculated by many intellectuals that Adam’s removed “rib” mentioned in the Eden narrative of Creation, refers to the removal of the baculum bone from the human penis.
One commonality between prehistoric and the Christian cross is that the perpendicular line, the line that affixes the arms of Christ are not anatomically set to a specific location. The line seems to float or is movable, able to almost play hide and seek along the length of the main symbolic shaft. The horizontal line appears under the bulbous object in the Egyptian cross, near the top in the Christian cross, anatomical appears in the center when connecting it to the swatskicter or Celtic sun cross and at the bottom when the devil adopts the imaged of the cross.
Studding mammal penises a very distinct element stands out, which could explain why the horizontal line moves along the length of the main shaft in symbology. In mammals the penis is commonly covered by an outer skin called a sheath. When examining or studding the dog penis an extremely import feature can be seen and is significant. All canid mammals have this uniquely strange physical structure on their penis called a bulbourethral Cowpers gland, which is rather rarely seen in the animal kingdom.
The bulbus glandis (also called a knot) is an enlarged circle, made out of erectile tissue and it is distinct to canid mammals. During mating, tissue at the back of the penis shaft swells up into a big fat ball and this ball locks or ties the male’s penis, to the female bitch dog. The knot apparently swells and locks the female dog to the male dog so the ejaculation is insured to occur inside the female dog and pull out does not occur. For domestic dogs the tie may last even up to half an hour, so a memorable element of dog reproduction. The dog also has the os penis which produces a partial erection and is required for early penetration, utilized prior to the knot locking, nut busting bang bang ejaculation.
So in conclusion the Christian cross and all references of an archtypical cross refer to a dog’s penis because when humans domesticated dogs they moved to the top of the food chain. With the dog, big cats could be hunted down and regional threats could be removed. This stopped human migration and they quickly evolved from gatherers, roamers and prey, to settled hunters which claimed territory.
It’s getting to be a little like a ‘Price is Right’ scheme. Behind this window we have… and behind window #2… The difference is that no one knows how to score this one yet. There’s a bunch of hype going on, primarily by a not-quite-panicky Democratic leadership. But the Republicans aren’t that far behind in taking advantage of the situation either.
With President Obama telling his Democratic membership to pay no attention to your jobs… you must sacrifice your careers for the greater good… makes you wonder how many judgeships he has to give out? I want my bill and I want it now. Uh, ok Barry, but just how motivated do you think these folks actually are in following you to Valhalla?
There’s a bunch of political experts and pundits wading in on this one. With the count, and the amount, ratcheting up from day to day. That is the count: the price that this monstrosity is threatening to cost you and your children, and their children, and their children. The number: those politicians who are actually going to be bold enough to sign away the freedom of choice of the entire populace of this country for a very bad piece of legislation on a straight party line reconciliation (there’s that word that Obama won’t use anymore, it’s no longer newspeak) vote of 51 lawmakers.
As tone deaf, elitist and arrogant as these people are they do know by now that the consequences of passage of this horrible major piece of legislation, by what amounts to legislative sleight of hand, can only further infuriate an already up-in-arms electorate, and result in a political bloodletting of historical proportions. Maybe they don’t care, maybe they are willing to slit their bellies on the Capitol steps in the Democratic version of ‘taking the big one for the Ogipper’.
But not according to the count that I’ve been able to put together… not enough of them anyway.
There are a few votes that can go either way, Nancy and her smiling eyes and the White House are threatening and cajoling with unremitting pressure to bring the numbers around. At the same time the Republican leadership is cultivating as many no votes as they can manage, while the country is going out of their minds with outrage and shutting down Representatives’ and Senators’ phone lines and burning up the internet with faxes and emails, flat-out letting these people know that if they vote for this bill they won’t be around come November.
My count of Democrats is 34 for a definite yes, 32 most likely or definitely no, and 27 scared witless.
This is not a complete list, but it is indicative of the rocks and shoals that are looming out of the darkness to sink the health care garbage barge.
Ms. Bachmann (R-Minn), was just on the Larry King show, where she asked some excellent questions about how Snowbama goes about appointing judges… it would appear that becoming a judge is now about who you are related to…and what those relatives can do to advance health care.
Let’s follow the dots on this one.
A) WH summons ten democrats who are going to vote NO on HC
B) John Matheson (D-Utah) is one of the ten
C) Scott Matheson is appointed to 10th Circuit of Appeals
D) Both A and C happen on same day.
Is there any connection? The WH says any connection is “absurd”. Sure, it’s absurd, but that doesn’t qualify as a denial. It’s absurd for the WH to think the American People won’t see the connection. It’s absurd that we’ve dropped to a point where even our justice system can be sold in order to advance this. It’s absurd to watch the WH use Third World Dictatorships as a model on how to govern – what’s next? Arresting dissenters?
One look at the Corn Husker kickback, and the Louisiana Purchase, it’s clear this WH is willing to accept, tolerate and even encourage out and out bribery in order to advance their agenda. This should be a clear indication this socialized medicine is corrosive to our country. Bankrupt the country – that’s ok. Sacrifice integrity, ethics and even our justice system – that’s ok.
Well…it’s not. And it’s time we kill this health bill once and for all.
Folks, you have to let your friends know about this one. If they weren’t interested in politics, then get them interested. This is one more indication of how much the WH is willing to destroy America, just to get their way. We have to raise our voices even louder. Get a megaphone. Get serious about it.
Sometimes I wonder why I even bother doing this show anymore. Is it really having an impact? Are people really waking up, or are we seeing more of the same crap thrown at us every single day.
In all honesty, this has got to be one of the most frustrating time periods in our country. We have a radical progressive movement that is fast tracking the rapid expansion of government and very few republicans in the house to stop it. If that weren’t bad enough, we have these morons on the fringe who think everything they see is a conspiracy threatening our national sovereignty, personal freedoms and individual well-being. In many cases these wing nuts are just as bad if not worse than some of the people on the left.
On a typical news day we have some one like Harry Reid making some obscure comment about how we should celebrate the fact that we only lost 36,000 jobs in a month, or we have Pelosi dropping a line about how honest and ethical her congress are. These two individuals are examples of some of the most arrogant self-centered agenda-driven individuals in power today. It is an agenda that must be defeated via election before too much damage can be done.
Having to fight the information battle against many on the left would not be so bad if it weren’t for the borderline anarchist separatists that disguise themselves among the independents in our voting demographic. The most recent act of violence was by a man who released a chilling video about his grievances with the establishment before attempting failed attack (fortunately for the pentagon officials). Already the lefty scream machine has tried to paint this guy as a conservative. The problem is, having grievances with government is not an inherently conservative viewpoint and people must understand this. The point is not to rebel against the establishment but to help vote people in with the proper leadership skills to take care of this country.
As conservatives it is paramount that you distance yourselves from anyone calling for revolution and anyone who won’t rebuke violent acts. That is not what we are about and is not a recipe for taking back this country. I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been to sit and listen to people try and come up with an explanation passing blame on the government for why this citizen would have acted in the way he did. It’s unacceptable, yet some people do it.
It’s important to make sure that we keep the overall message in tact and focused. We live in the greatest country in the world, with some of the greatest people the the world that live here. Remember the key to 2010 is getting united. Hang the third party ideas and get out of here if your res presenting a tater wedge self interest. It’s time to restore constitutional principal to this land once again. People do hear you, it may not be as loudly as you may wish, but they do hear you. Every little bit helps and we can all make a difference.
So call me crazy if you want to but i don’t believe it for a second considering many of those same blue dogs crumbled below promises of new jobs and previously a version of the health care bill was rammed through. This time around i don’t buy it either they can say they are against it blah blah blah but really in the end they only care about there jobs and hell if they get a promise of money or a better position in there state they will vote for it
Lieberman is a classic example of one that as many of you know came out backing McCain and it really appeared like he was dead set against battling this health care bill but when the time came to vote he folded and voted anyways to pass it
Those in power right now ala the democrats are nothing more than a Mafia of there own with Obama being the Don. Let’s his most recent words, “We will consider a few republican ideas” okay that sounds wonderful but what he is really saying is we will “consider” a few but guess what folks were not starting over and we are shoving this thing through and i have no doubt they will shove it through either
At the end of the day these “blue dogs” need to find a new job because they are not representing anything but themselves and the money for a new project in there state
In the words of my liberal friend Corey when talking to him about a month ago he had this to say about the president whom he voted for, “This is not change this is bullshit Chris”
Another take on the situation as i see it feel free to comment and i welcome a discussion if you agree with me wonderful and on the same hand if you don’t then tell me why and we can talk about it
I think a big problem with what is going on in the US Government today is that most people don’t really understand what’s happening. That’s because it’s complicated and because lots of jargon (technical language from different fields) is used that further complicates things.
One issue that is going on today is that of Government Intrusion– the government getting involved with things in the wrong ways. I’d like to use the recent financial bailouts in the US and the issue of “deregulation/regulation” to explain why this matters.
Understanding “Regulation” and “Deregulation” (Big Government Intrusion)
Whereas Republicans and Libertarians and many Independent voters are in favor of SMALLER government, Democrats and Socialists are for BIGGER government—that is a crucial distinctive to understand. Let’s first look at Capitalism.
Capitalism and Deregulation in Plain English
In Free Market Capitalism, the government allows supply-demand (business) to govern whether companies win or lose—whether they succeed or fail. In other words, in Free Market Capitalism, the government’s job is to create laws that ENABLE businesses to succeed and that “deregulate” them so no artificial barriers cause businesses to fail. That way, if a business fails it is because the idea was wrong or the leadership was poor, or the timing for the business idea was wrong: They win or lose on their own, and they bear that responsibility for their success or failure.
Socialism and Regulation in Plain English
On the other hand, in a more Socialist approach, Marxist ideas of economics are used. What happens is a few things.
(Photo: Karl Marx)
First, the Government chooses winners and losers. Instead of allowing businesses to fail, government decides who fails and who does not. So it chooses who will and who won’t get bailed out. So, instead of allowing businesses to fail or to force them to make hard decisions to change course and become successful, the government uses tax payer money to bail the business out. The companies it bails out then essentially become INCAPABLE of failing because they are funded with limitless supplies of printed money. But other businesses don’t get that bailout money, and are in danger of going under. That’s the problem with government bailouts.
Second, the Government begins to control private businesses by ‘owning’ them. When federal financial bailouts occur, businesses become (partially or entirely) publically-owned (owned by taxpayers or the government). And when government controls them, because a company needs capital/money, the government gets ‘shares’ of that company and may then have a “controlling interest” in the company. That’s another way of saying they get to call the shots.
One recalls when the US Government bailed out General Motors recently. Rival companies Ford, Toyota, Honda, and others got no money—and could have failed. But then, since the government bailed GM out, the President of the United States was able to fire the GM C.E.O., set salary limits, and help decide which brands (Buick, Pontiac, Saturn) died—affecting thousands of US Workers. So the government chose winners and losers. It controlled businesses by owning them. And one wonders—no matter HOW BAD General Motors might perform in the future, now that it is essentially owned by the government, almost without question there is no circumstance under which the government would even ALLOW GM to fail, but no other car companies have that same guarantee.
The Point? Government was never supposed to get into the business of owning private industries. When it does, it becomes unfair to other private businesses and the government ends up using taxpayers money to help some taxpayers and to hurt others, which affects persons, families and their futures. That’s not right.
Friends of Refugees’ presented a list of recommendations to the National Security Council for President Obama’s comprehensive review of the U.S. refugee resettlement program (here).
Here are the specific recommendations for the State Department:Funding increase — The only circumstances under which the government should provide a substantial increase in the public’s already huge share of the funding for refugee resettlement is if there is a guarantee from the resettlement agencies and the PRM that “minimum required” services of the PRM contracts will be provided to the refugees, with appropriate and comprehensive mechanisms to ensure this. The PRM must also guarantee that a firm set of penalties will be enforced against any resettlement agency caught failing to meet the minimum terms of their contracts, and that PRM inspections of resettlement agencies will now be done on a more frequent basis (not once every 8-13 years as currently practiced). The PRM must also promise that inspections will not be pre-announced (advance notice of inspection as is currently practiced allows resettlement agencies to clean up and cover-up), that PRM monitors will speak with any refugees that community members have reported being neglected by their resettlement agencies, and that PRM monitoring reports will be made public in a timely basis (instead of the current three-year FOIA delays). The reports should be posted on the PRM website as soon as practical after completion. They must also promise that there will be no more continued efforts to shield refugee resettlement agency failures from public scrutiny by failing to include vital information in the monitoring reports. They must also promptly returns calls from members of the media.
Revolving door — In addition, the problem of refugee resettlement agencies’ inner influence of the PRM via the revolving door needs to be seriously addressed. Almost all of the Refugee Admissions Office officials and monitors are former refugee resettlement agency employees, with corresponding interests and sympathies. This is not healthy for a truly objective oversight relationship with the resettlement agencies, whom they are entrusted to monitor from a neutral, critical vantage point.
For example, our group regularly forwards, to the PRM, refugees’ reports of neglect at the hands of their resettlement agencies, reports that involve agencies failing even to provide the minimum required services. We never ask for any confidential information about refugees clients, but we do ask to be told what the PRM has done to address the problems in general. Yet, the PRM does not even bother to respond. There is so little accountability in the current system that the PRM has considerable capacity to do nothing without any significant risk that they will be held accountable. The “public/private partnership” arrangement, which pairs mostly public funding with a tiny amount of private funding, has been expanded in thinking to neutralize the necessary government authority to oversee and enforce even basic rules of the program. The near familial relationship they have with the VOLAGS and resettlement agencies must come to an end.
- The PRM must start reform by finally beginning to enforce all minimum requirements.
- Increase frequency of monitoring visits to resettlement agencies to at least once very 2-4 years, instead of the current once every 8-13 years.
- Monitoring visits must no longer be pre-announced, but should be surprise visits, so that real, typical conditions at those agencies may be observed.
- They must stop forwarding to resettlement agencies details of specific refugee cases that have been reported as neglected or abused before government oversight agencies have first had a chance to look at the case files for those cases.
- Resettlement agencies are allowed to have anchor relatives and sponsors perform core refugee resettlement services, yet are still paid for providing these services. This encourages the agencies to dump as much work as they can on anchor relatives and sponsors. In monitoring reports we repeatedly see that resettlement agencies must be continually warned by monitors that core services are ultimately the responsibility of resettlement agencies, not anchor relatives. The resettlement agencies should transfer R&P money to anchors after resettlement agencies have verified core services and material items have been provided, instead of keeping the money as they currently do.
- The PRM must provide an action plan on how they will address the weaknesses of the programs, and then post these on their website for the public to view.
- VOLAGS investigating themselves (their affiliates) does not work. The PRM must investigate immediately when problems are reported by the media and the public. VALAGS will still be required to monitor their affiliates and report problems before they reach these crisis level.
- Add to Operational Guidance list: Irons, curtains, wallets, phones and phone service, stamps & envelopes, dictionaries, umbrellas, vacuums (an LSSND refugee’s Fargo apartment with children was heavily infested with roaches because there was no vacuum for a mostly carpeted apartment), phones & phone service, high-chairs for children, watches. (We wrote to Theresa Rusch, Director/Refugee Admissions, on August 13, 2005 about the need for these items to be in the Operational Guidance. She never responded)
- In addition, the Operational Guidance has no specific requirements for basic children’s items, e.g. cribs, toddler beds, play pens, car seats, boosters, high chairs, strollers, diapers, blankets, bottles, sippy cups, etc. (Our case study of LSSND shows that these items are rarely provided to refugees with children. The PRM does not consider LSSND as out of the ordinary, as the agency was not admonished for any serious deficiencies in the PRM’s most recent monitoring report).
- Competency standards for community/cultural orientation, with periodic tests of refugees’ knowledge. Add more necessary basics, e.g. teach how to address envelopes, American bills and coinage, need for filing income taxes, rights when dealing with the police, basic Constitutional rights, understnding their apartment leases and what the rules are for moving out, how to deal with a hostile landlord, how to change address at post office, need to turn off utilities when moving, van tours of town to show refugees where things are (not just pointing to places on a map), where to gets quarters for laundry, etc.
- Performance rewards and punishments for refuge workers to incentivize work, since they have no paying customers. (Safe jobs for refugee workers are bad news for refugees.)
- Religion-affiliated refugee resettlement agencies should not ask potential volunteers from the community about their religious or “spiritual” status or views, or asking volunteers to be committed to their religious or spiritual values, e.g. a dedication to the mission of Jesus. All interested members of the community should be welcomed without having to submit to a religious interrogation in person or on an application. (Some cities and towns in the U.S. only have faith-based refugee resettlement organizations, e.g. Spokane, which has World Relief and Catholic Charities. Why should any member of the community who wishes to help this public refugee program be discriminated against by these private contractors?)
- Refugee clients should rate the work of their resettlement agencies, and their feedback should be posted on the PRM website for the public to read. The PRM should tie those ratings to numbers of refugees to be placed with the agencies., i.e. unhappy refugees means less refugees assigned to the resettlement agency.
- The PRM must require that refugee resettlement agency caseworkers give their business card to each refugee case, listing their name, phone number, and hours they may be contacted. Voice mail messages left by refugees must be returned within 24 hours. An emergency after-hours phone number must also be listed.
- Refugees must never be required to sign any forms, including apartment leases, without an thorough explanation of what they are signing and with an interpreter present if they have limited English, as the majority of refugees have.
- Travel loan repayment letters must be provided in English as well as written in the refugee’s language.
- Posting PRM refugee resettlement agency monitoring reports on the State Dept. website, and timely.
- Opening up funding increase considerations to the public, instead of just relying on the resettlement agencies to decide how much government funding they should receive.
- Allowing the public from local communities to give their input into local refugee resettlement efforts.
- Establishing a hotline for the public to report “hotspots” in the program, and posting those comments where the public can view them.
- Requiring resettlement agencies to show how much of their funding for refugee resettlement is from various government agencies, and how much is from truly private sources (990 forms since 2008 no longer have this simple disclosure), including what percentage comes from each (in-kind donations and donated labor must be subtotaled). Posting this information on the PRM website.
- Providing email addresses or a web form for the public to reach employees of the PRM’s Office of Admissions.
- Disclose in detail all PRM funding for each VOLAG and resettlement agency, and make it easily accessible to the public.
- Reduce number of refugees being resettled to states that community groups and members of the public report as having a state refugee coordinator and/or other state officials who are un-responsive and/or ineffective at resolving refugee abuse and neglect. (Evidence such as emails may be requested that demonstrate non-responsive or ineffective state officials, regardless of whether or not this evidence comes from state residents or non-residents.)
Subject: Read what a White Reporter wrote about President Obama ==>
All I can say is AMEN!!!! AMEN!!!!
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good!
This article should be shared with all people.. it proves that we must continue to pray for President Obama and the first family.
This is a MUST read which resonates with at least 90% of the world. Please, please pass this one on, even if you have to print it and mail it to your “computer challenged” friends and relatives. Don’t forget your Caucasian friends and “relatives”.
Read what a White Reporter wrote in a Georgia Newspaper (YESS)
Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in
Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.
Andrew M. Manis:
When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America “fixed” its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, “When are African Americans finally going to get over it?
Now I want to ask:
“When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color? Recent reports that “Election Spurs Hundreds’ of Race Threats, Crimes” should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in “Bombingham,” Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of
comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than “talk the talk.”
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent.
Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his
agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of
presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes.
Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator
was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we’re back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we’ve proven
what conservatives are always saying — that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president.
But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to “assassinate Obama.”
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, “How long?” How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less
the whole world, look like us?
How long until we white people can – once and for all – get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?
How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?
How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners?
How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to
edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we start “living out the true meaning” of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that “red
and yellow, black and white” all are precious in God’s sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn’t believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don’t believe I’ll live long
enough to see us white people get over our racism problem.
But here’s my three-point plan:
First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him
and his family from us white people.
Second, I’m going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President
Obama.
Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can “in spirit and in truth” sing of our
damnable color prejudice, “We HAVE overcome.”
**************************************
It takes a Village to protect our President!!!
============================================================
Just a comment on our current health care issues……. since I’ve not been well enough to do a full post for a while but despite the political problems with our health care system I hope to be feeling better sooner than later and be back with both my environmental work and my critter tales…….until then enjoy the lighter side…… of the dark and slightly twisted world of mine until our paths cross again……… Lila
(Photo: Karl Marx)