Ok. Time for a change...

... (From the post above you can tell that this is a work in progress.)

I am going to try taking this blog in a "kinder, gentler" direction. Please pray that I can overcome my tendencies to see the dark and sarcastic, as I try to be more true and effectively loving.

I'd like to start with a few quotes from one of the few truly honest men I have met, Rich Mullins.

"There are all kinds of things that are pushed on us and we have no say over. And they shape the way we see everything. Because I grew up in Indiana, in the Protestant tradition, in fact in the Quaker tradition-that had a lot to do with biasing me. That's going to have an effect on the way that I interpret the Scriptures; that's going to give me my perspective. And I need to be aware of what my perspective is, so I can both appreciate it and be a little distrustful of it."

"For me the greatest joy that I have is knowing that I do have a Father who loves me, and that He doesn't love me in a passive way. That He loves me so much that He sent Christ to take away the guilt of my sin, and that it is a real thing, that it really did happen. If I will experience joy in this life, it will be when I let other people know that there is a God who loves them, and He has taken away the sin that separates them. There is no greater joy than just that proclamation."

"The Christian faith is not about mere intellectual assent to a set of doctrines, but about a daily walk with this person Jesus. It's about living in awareness of Christ risen, resurrected, and living in my life. Even though doctrine is important, wisdom in the Bible has more to do with character, and the art of living Christianity is about living out the will of God, and living abundantly."

"If my life is motivated by an ambition to leave a legacy, what I would probably leave is a legacy of ambition. But, if my life is motivated by the power of God's spirit in me and the awareness of the indwelling Christ, if I allow His presence to guide my motives, that's the only time I think we really leave a great legacy."

More quotes from Rich.

Rowdy Roddy Parsley commemorates Oral Roberts in his own, special way...

... and guess what? Rod needs money. What a shocker!

Rowdy Roddy is just giving a little tip of the ceremonial collection plate to Oral Robby, his hero.

Some of this is due not to his extravagant lifestyle, but to an unlawful corporal punishment lawsuit the "church" lost.

And the answer to his plea?

Well, several hundred thousand C-bus residents chant in unison: "Spank me", "Spank me", "Please Spank me!"

The 0-Man's Nobel speech...

I was fairly impressed with the speech. Thought it better written than delivered. It was clear that he was speaking to US voters and not the crowd of elites in the auditorium.

BUT, I think we should have either sent the original 80K troops that McChrystal wanted or get out.

Half ass jobs are what create MORE war, kill unprepared young men and bankrupt nations that THINK they are empires.

How many troops did the Russians orginally bring to Afghanistan? I think it was well over 100K and a lot more artillary. And they were willing to go further on every front.

The odds were with him. The 0-Man had a choice between Two Rights and One Wrong, and he chose the Wrong. Waffling as usual, and hoping on some random occurance to save his/our bacon? If so, Hope&Change ain't got much hope left in the skillet.

Bad, bad, very bad mistake.

Tiger...

... Turns out that Mr. Woods is just another guy who thought he was way too smart.

And, like most guys who think that -- he thunk wrong.

But beyond this, is a more disturbing trend:

In my office, women that never paid attention to golf can now quote chapter and verse of the sordid saga, along with a list of the s---s reportedly involved. And they do so with such salacious attention to detail that I wonder if their values don't more closely correspond with Tiger's paramours than these supposedly normal women would have you think.

Dubai a look into our future...

From The Agonist:

Is Dubai a look into our future?


"...there is no one – absolutely no one – who can come to the United States’ rescue. And if you want to believe that the US would never, ever ask for a little extra time to pay back its debt, or ask for it to be restructured in some way, or debase its currency with inflation in order to throw its debt burden on to those who have financed it, that is your affair. Just remember there are millions of individuals, funds, corporations, and governments around the world who have bought US Treasuries. It only takes a few to wonder long and hard enough about just how safe and secure these Treasuries are to cause a stampede out of them, at which point the US is exposed like Dubai as a naked supplicant in the global market, begging for alms and a little forgiveness for past sins."

Stefanie Spielman...

Stephanie Spielman 1967-2009

Here is a wonderful slide-show.

Afghanistan

Here we go, "nation-building" again. Not gonna work.

We have a very moral purpose in hunting down terrorists, killing them and publicizing the fact that we will continue to do so. Problem is, we don't have a handle on "righteous anger" anymore. We assign blame to ourselves based on what terrorists say their reasons for attacking us were. We psychoanalyze to the point of national Stockholm Syndrome. And the result is that not only does it give rise to the perception that we are weak, it self-fulfills, and we are weak. And we become an even easier target.


“Fearsome acts. A man steals from me, I cut off his hand. If he offends me, I cut out his tongue. If he stands up against me, I cut off his head, stick it on a pike and lift it up for all to see. A spectacle of fearsome acts. That's what maintains the order of things. Fear.” - Bill The Butcher

Disappointed & Pissed...

Issues 2 & 3 are examples of the majority of voters not doing ANY research at all, passing two amendments written by the very owners of the interests those amendments purport to control.

Frighteningly, it may be a sign that most voters can't do the research, and even when things are spelled out to them, they either can't understand, or more likely, are ignorant through wilful stupidity.

It looks like they just gave their rights away (Issue 2 - a board now makes their decisions for them), followed by their wallet (Issue 3 - they sold something for less than a 10th of its market value).

The state just lost 450,000 million in license fees, and the farmers just took the right of the rest of us to vote on our food away.

Ignorance begets dangerous decisions.

Now the only way you can change it is through another public vote, either to amend the amendment or repeal it, which will cost the Taxpayer even more money -- on top of what they lost in the deal.

Now, we'll still have to deal with the Humane Society, as Issue 2 does nothing to stop that. And I think the average voter lost what control they have over the quality of our general food supply.

The only thing Issue 2 did was place the farmer under even more control from Big-Ag.

In the end, the farmers will find out they hurt their own pocket-book; and the real result will be that this board will be against everything from organic, free-range farming to Truth in Labelling. Big-Ag and the "Harm" Bureau don't want us to know where food comes from, how livestock are fed, and how many steroids and antibiotics are in the livestock they market.

More importantly, they don't want the voters to have a say about what types of farming and farm pollution will be allowed to expand in Ohio. This lack of voter power will really hurt all of us down the road.

It's disgusting how much trust the public puts in TV ads.

Corruption loves an uninformed populace.

NO on Issue 2 -- Again...

Issue 2

Issue 2 is a run-around to take power out of the voter’s hands.

We don't need a constitutional amendment that takes power out of the voters and their elected representative's hands and puts it in the hands of an appointed board -- no matter who is doing the appointing.

Does anyone think that a board appointed by a governor advised by a farm bureau that is indebted to and in the pockets of Big-Ag is going to approve things like "truth in labeling” that help people know where their food comes from and how it is processed?

If you don't care to know where your food comes from, and you don't care what added ingredients are in it, or what processing standards are applied, then this amendment, and the resulting loss of personal control and responsibility is for you.

Big-Ag and the money (follow the money -- look at who's spending like the dickens on TV and Radio) are trying to make this a Liberal vs. Conservative thing. The PETA, Humane Society thing is a totally fake scare tactic being broadcast by the Farm Bureau, and paid for by Big-Ag.

Now here's the real scare: If you want several gigantic messes like The Croton Egg Farm polluting the air, water and soil, run-off from giant hog and chicken farms ruining water supplies and beautiful Ohio streams and creeks, and large, single crop farms damaging soil with nitrate accumulation and leaching it into your water supply and NOT be able to stop the damage because you foolishly gave away your right to vote on it, then this amendment is for you.

Here is a message from Snowville Creamery's Warren Taylor:

http://snowvillecreamery.wordpress.com/

Vote NO on Issue 3...

This is an amendment to the state Constitution. Once done, we can't change it.

If we don't get it right this time, we are screwed worse than we are now.

This is a BAD proposal. It also creates a monopoly that is anti-free trade/anti-Capitalism. It buys our future and doesn't pay us enough for the deal. We are screwing ourselves if this is approved.

One of the really bad things is that the police unions, groups supposedly interested in the welfare of Ohioans, are supporting their own little slice of the pie, while knowing that this is a bad deal.

From BallotPedia:

The Columbus Dispatch is opposed, saying, "The Ohio Constitution is no place for such detailed, self-interested amendments. If Ohioans wish to bring casino gambling to the state, the proper way would be to approve a succinct amendment granting the governor and General Assembly the authority to draft statutes, rules and regulations for such enterprises. In this way, the state would retain leverage to properly license, govern and tax casinos. As times and circumstances changed, the state would be able to respond. If State Issue 3 is approved by voters, the amendment would be unalterable by any action of this or future governors and legislatures. Only another statewide vote could change the amendment."[15]

The Toledo Blade is opposed, saying that a gambling casino monopoly should not be enshrined in Ohio's Constitution. "Voters should also remember that the reason it is difficult to amend the state constitution is to avoid having short-term concerns or passions result in wholesale changes that harm the state in the long run. What is given away in haste, such as control over gambling, may be regretted at leisure."[16]

The Youngstown Vindicator is opposed to Issue 3, saying, "We have said before when commenting on other casino gambling issues in Ohio: Gambling is the most successful scheme for the redistribution of wealth ever devised. It takes from the poor and gives to the rich. That’s because, as any gambler can tell you, the house never loses. Don’t be taken in by the promises of easy money being made by Issue 3 proponents. Vote no on Issue 3"[17]

The Akron Beacon Journal is opposed to Issue 3. In an editorial, the board said, "The state estimates the casinos would generate $643 million in annual tax revenue, slightly less than the $651 million claimed by Issue 3 proponents. But studies of gambling's economic impact on communities show that most of the money wagered comes from local residents who quit spending on nearby bars, restaurants and the like. Studies also show an overall negative impact, once the social costs of gambling are included, among them, increased crime, broken homes, bankruptcies and addiction treatment. In other words, casinos are not an engine of economic growth."[18]

In an opinion column published by the Toledo Free Press, Tim Higgins writes that his opposition to the measure is not related to immorality, amount of revenue brought in, or the jobs that may or may not be created for Ohioans. However, Higgins writes: “My objection to Issue 3 is much like it was to Issue 6 before it from the 2008 ballot. It is that both proposed Amendments limit gambling in Ohio by creating a casino monopoly, something that should never be considered in Constitutional politics. As we would never place such a monopoly in the hands of a utility company or a corporate media outlet, neither should we do so for a group operating casinos. Penn National may be a great corporation, but so was the group who failed to get Issue 6 last year; and it does not make them more deserving of such a monopoly.”[19]

Buckeyes vs. Purdue...

"Giving Tressel Pryor is like giving me a helicopter. I don't know what to do with it, and it's going to end in a fiery crash."

This is indefensible. Sick. Unpardonable.

Blow the whole thing up and start over.

Bad O-Line, bad QB and very, very bad coaching.

This makes USC's loss to WA look like a minor upset.

Tressel needs a new O-Line coach and an offensive coordinator NOW. Those should be the requirements to keep his job.

The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner...

[Pause for Applause] “I am so humbled.” [Look lovingly at wife - DO NOT make Eye Contact with SecState Clinton]...

Vote NO on Issue 2, the Livestock Care Standards Board...

I am opposed to Issue 2.

First of all, it's a Constitutional Amendment to create a Board -- and no one seems to be sure what this Board's powers will be, or what limits will be set.

Secondly and more importantly to me, this Amendment is supported by the Farm Bureau -- which means that it is in the best interests of Agra-giants like ADM, Tyson, Cargill and other food manufacturers and buyers -- not necessarily the small, LOCO-producer/seller that I prefer to buy stuff I EAT from.

The Farm Bureau is heart-and-soul in the pocket of these big, corporate interests. Seems to me that they don't need help.

They are trying to cast it as an anti-"Peta"/Humane Society legislation, which their lobby hopes is supposed to strike a chord with conservatives, but from what I have heard, it's the big, corporate owned farms that already treat their product badly who are supporting it -- not the small, free-range, organic farmers.

Right now, I think that it is a vaguely worded attempt to put all farms under the same State bureaucratic control -- a bureaucracy that is already owned, lock/stock/barrel by somebody other than the voters/taxpayers.

Because it’s designed to favour large factory farms, not family farmers, Issue 2 is opposed by the Ohio Farmers Union, the Ohio Environmental Stewardship Alliance, and the Ohio Sierra Club. The editorial boards of Ohio’s major newspapers—including the Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal, and Dayton Daily News—all oppose this effort to enshrine the agribusiness lobby’s favoured oversight system in the state’s constitution.

Folks, Issue 2 are more important than people realize.

The proposed oversight board would strip the Ohio Legislature of its ability to act as the defacto oversight agency that represents the people of Ohio and gives that responsibility to a group of 13 individuals that have no accountability to the citizens of Ohio. Based on this observation, I have decided that I do not want another government agency in this state that cannot be held accountable to the wishes of its residents through their vote.

I will be voting NO on Issue 2. Not because I support the Human Society or Peta, as the Pro-2 Lobby would have you believe, BUT because the people behind the Pro-2 Lobby (The Ohio Farm Bureau and large farms backed by industry giants like Cargill, Tyson and ADM) are trying to modify the Constitution to suit their needs, not ours. If this passes expect all kinds of political pressure to stack this board by people who want to put independent co-ops and family farms out of business.

Please vote NO on Issue 2.

Health Care -- Selfishness Is Good...

The Bottom Line:

It would be wonderful if we had a Single-Payer Health Care System that worked for everyone, with no waiting, no rationing and no decisions made that are not in the best interest of THE PATIENT.

But the reality is that we all see "Health Care" through our particular lens.

Our opinions and preferences are grown from our reactions to our experiences, driving the resulting decisions affecting both our lives and the lives of others. In the end we all want what is best for our loved ones and ourselves and everyone else is secondary. This is why "Capitalism" is true and at least partially works, and why the tyranny of the few manifested in any form of "Collectivism" is false and never works well enough to sustain for any appreciable time.

In relation to all of the so-called "facts" flowing from those supporting a single National Health Care System: I think the statistics are skewed. The EU/UK/UN way of keeping stats doesn't match up with the way health stats are kept in the US (see the easy example in natal care), so the comparisons are difficult.

I don't want my loved one to wait 2-3-4 months for a test my Doctor says my loved one needs to have. And I don't want my loved one to wait for a test because my loved one is not in the particular cohort segment deemed eligible for that test.

Heck, I want to be able to go to the doctor I choose -- If the one in my locale or town is not up to my standards, I want to have the choice to go elsewhere -- and, I want to do so immediately, without waiting for some government entity to give me clearance.

Driving this reasoning is that I believe hospitals in the US are better at emergency, high-risk, and extreme trauma care than anywhere else in the world. And that belief causes me to doubt the stories I hear, especially those put forth by supporters of "National Health Care" that tell me how much better other health care systems are, especially when their claims don't in the least jive with my personal experience.

If a health care system is not at its best when I need it most, then everything else, including cost, is secondary and possibly irrelevant.

The "My Favorite Band Sucks And I'm A Lemming" T-Shirt...

"My Favorite Band Sucks" or Crap Seeks It's Own Level.

It should be a T-Shirt. And I am convinced that the majority of you lemmings should be wearing it. Send me my money now.

If you listen to pop/country radio and worship at the feet of mega-record company made and marketed "stars" created in studios then you should be wearing that shirt.

Here's a test: go to the credits of your favorite "musician's" latest cd and check to see how many songs they "co-wrote".

Some of these "stars" never see the songs they supposedly wrote until time to rehearse for the recording.

It's a common practice for the publishing company for these created "stars" to buy songs outright - then list the "star" as the writer. An even more common practice is for the publisher for these "stars" to mine available pitched songs and then offer the real songwriter a conditional deal to get the song published: add the "star" as co-writer. Adding the "star" as co-writer often cuts the take of the publishing rights in half, effectively giving the real writer half what he or she deserves.

Most people listen to what the mainstream media and record companies provide -- although that is slowly getting better. In short, they listen to what they know, which is crap (most popular culture), and without "enlightenment" their taste stays at the level of crap. And, for some strange reason, people who will put up with JW's and Mormans calling at the door don't like it when you are honest about something as personal as their taste in music. It's like you called their baby butt-ugly.

You call 'em like you see 'em.

Your music is crap and your baby's butt-ugly.

One of those you can fix through the enlightenment of education.

Call me an elitist, I guess. Been called worse.

LEAP

Leap, by Brian Doyle


A couple leaped from the south tower, hand in hand. They reached for each other and their hands met and they jumped.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them falling, hand in hand.

Many people jumped. Perhaps hundreds. No one knows. They struck the pavement with such force that there was a pink mist in the air.

The mayor reported the mist.

A kindergarten boy who saw people falling in flames told his teacher that the birds were on fire. She ran with him on her shoulders out of the ashes.

Tiffany Keeling saw fireballs falling that she later realized were people. Jennifer Griffin saw people falling and wept as she told the story. Niko Winstral saw people free-falling backwards with their hands out, like they were parachuting. Joe Duncan on his roof on Duane Street looked up and saw people jumping. Henry Weintraub saw people "leaping as they flew out." John Carson saw six people fall, "falling over themselves, falling, they were somersaulting." Steve Miller saw people jumping from a thousand feet in the air. Kirk Kjeldsen saw people flailing on the way down, people lining up and jumping, "too many people falling." Jane Tedder saw people leaping and the sight haunts her at night. Steve Tamas counted fourteen people jumping and then he stopped counting. Stuart DeHann saw one woman's dress billowing as she fell, and he saw a shirtless man falling end over end, and he too saw the couple leaping hand in hand.

Several pedestrians were killed by people falling from the sky. A fireman was killed by a body falling from the sky.

But he reached for her hand and she reached for his hand and they leaped out the window holding hands.

I try to whisper prayers for the sudden dead and the harrowed families of the dead and the screaming souls of the murderers but I keep coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love.

Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and death. It is what makes me believe that we are not craven fools and charlatans to believe in God, to believe that human beings have greatness and holiness within them like seeds that open only under great fires, to believe that some unimaginable essence of who we are persists past the dissolution of what we were, to believe against such evil hourly evidence that love is why we are here.

No one knows who they were: husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell. Maybe they didn't even reach for each other consciously, maybe it was instinctive, a reflex, as they both decided at the same time to take two running steps and jump out the shattered window, but they did reach for each other, and they held on tight, and leaped, and fell endlessly into the smoking canyon, at two hundred miles an hour, falling so far and so fast that they would have blacked out before they hit the pavement near Liberty Street so hard that there was a pink mist in the air.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them holding hands, and Stuart DeHann saw them holding hands, and I hold onto that.

Copyright 2002 by Brian Doyle.

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland in Oregon. He is the author of three collections of essays: Credo, Saints Passionate & Peculiar, and (with his father Jim Doyle) Two Voices. Doyle's essays have been reprinted in the Best American Essays anthologies for 1998 and 1999.

"Inglourious Basterds" reviewed. Sort of...

Quentin Tarantino seems to be a not-so-unusual combination of 12yr.old boy, 23yr.old Master's student, and 40-something Director.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems obvious that outside the film-buff references and spaghetti western theme he used this baseball bat of a movie to show - in this case, not necessarily to the audience - that the leap from movie patron to Nazi really IS just a dose of Pepsi, popcorn, pigotry and politics away...

The movie patrons at the Athena Grand in the supposedly the enlightened educational rose of Diversity that is Athens, Ohio made Tarantino's job very easy. Some of them were flat-out cheering with every scalping and bat-blow, and most were noticeably amused.

I get what he's trying to do, I think. I hope. He's pointing out the "They did it, so if we do it back, it's ok." mob-mentality that creates Nazis out of ordinary movie-goers, while still playing to those popcorn peons by glorifying the violence he uses to make his point. I do believe that there is a time and place for violence, but what he is doing is the movie equivalent of people taking turns blowing up each others school buses.

Is it okay to out-Nazi the Nazis, as long as it's on the silver screen, to show how easily it will happen again?

Christoph Waltz was fantastic, probably an Emmy nomination performance, although his part makes you wonder just how good a German accent James Woods could have pulled off. The French farmer at the beginning of the film was great. The rest of the individual performances were weak - probably because the writing was weak, even for someone trying to imitate spaghetti western dialog.

I’m not a fan of either, but I would have replaced Brad Pitt with George Clooney. Pitt's role seemed written for Clooney.

The older I get...

"The older I get, the more I see politics as nothing more than theater intended to cover up a good old-fashioned smash-and-grab."

Conservative Anarchism...

Great article via Old Hop.


http://oldhop.blogspot.com/2009/08/finally-towards-synthesis.html

The Guy on the Corner with the Offensive T-Shirt....

The guy on the corner with the offensive t-shirt….

This is a very interesting debate. When does “free speech” become a public nuisance? When does personal and public safety come into play?

A person was observed, on a street corner in Athens, wearing a t-shirt that said something that I cannot bring myself to say here, or anywhere.

Someone complained, with these results:

"...Discussion with the local police revealed that in Athens people and animals like that one can say, parade on a sign, or wear any words they choose without limits...."

I'm pretty sure that is not true that there are no limits to “free speech” in Athens. I can think of several religious or non-religious slogans that would have the wearer arrested as a nuisance or threat to public safety.

It really depends on WHO you are offending....

When is "hate speech" mislabeled as "free speech", and who gets to do the labeling?

Are there any lines left to cross? Is all speech "free speech", or can some speech be considered assault?

For instance: that guy on the corner of Court Street can get away with wearing the t-shirt that says "Jesus is a ----", and probably gets quite a few - unfortunate - snickers of approval from some of our populace.

But put the same guy in a "Mohammed is a ----" t-shirt, and he probably gets physically assaulted. Say his shirt is saying "All ---- go to ----", or "Kill all the (whoever)". He would definately be confronted.

Is one part of the populace so cowed that they won't stand up for their beliefs, while another group feels empowered by the fact that minority status can be a pass to say literally anything? Is this to be considered a double-standard, or just desserts - the 21st century version of "Stickin' it to The Man"?

You can boldly wear a shirt that proclaims "Police LIE". I've seen it, and I don't disagree with the statement... BUT, if you put on a shirt that accuses a popular politician/public figure of the same offense, and do it in Athens, you are gonna get your --- kicked.

I could go on with even more obnoxious examples, but it's pretty clear that in Athens, as in many other and diverse communities, you can get away with certain publically expressed opinions - in fact, they kinda blend in... - BUT, reverse those opinions and they not only draw a crowd, it would become both a personal and public safety issue.

Proof abounds that we, as a nation and a culture(s) have lost any sense of common decency - and we have lost it to the point that we really can't find it, or even know when we have crossed any line.

When did we begin to believe that in order to make a "point" we have to shock and offend? It seems we don't enough command over our language to express ourselves without resorting to intellectual shortcuts.

These shortcuts continue to work their effect on any public discourse.

Right now we're reduced to TV spouting one-line sound bites that totally disregard truth. Indeed, our elite, educational tribe views truth as pretty much subjective in all contexts. So much so that a large portion of our "intelligencia" regard the oaf on the corner with the offensive t-shirt as enlightened, and his vile statement a wonderfully insightful observation. Not, the sick, twisted offront to civilization that it actually is....

Budget troubles will mean more Cops on the road...

The worse the budget situation gets, the more patrols there will be. For a while this will be both traffic enforcement and DUI/OMVI patrols.

As the economy moves more toward total break-down, the police will move more toward their original purpose: to protect the State's interests, which government refers to as "keeping the peace".

No matter how bad the situation gets, be it for revenue purposes or just to control the populace, there will be more patrols of all kinds in the future.

And anybody who has done the math knows that there is a whole culture of jobs and dependent economy built on both Traffic and OMVI tickets. Just look at the cost of your speeding fine on your ticket and compare that to the add-on of court costs that you pay even when admitting guilt and mailing in your payment. Look at the fines, court costs, schooling/rehab and long-term insurance costs associated with just a first-time OMVI offense.

Ohio is ranked the forth worst state for speed traps in the US. To reiterate, it will get worse as the times do...

I drove to WVa the other day, spent 35 miles on 33 in Ohio and saw 10 troopers and 2 sheriffs. That's one every 2.9 miles. In 145 miles through WVa on Rt.77, I saw one trooper and one sheriff.

Mikey (I'm a man!) Coleman, Users vs. Suppliers, and the C-bus Tax Increase....

Mayor Mikey (I’m a man!) Coleman threatened his city with chaos if his 25% income tax increase was not approved in the sneak election yesterday-- a sneak election where the minority gets to decide for the majority, again.

Yep, we the minority in numbers, are actually the majority of tax dollars for the wunnerfull city of C-bus.

Whose police and fire “protection” are we paying for? Yessiree, it’s the guy or gal who tries to panhandle us downtown or in the Short North, or the thousands of non-citizens and welfare junkies living in the too-numerous tax supported projects.

And why are we the ones paying? A city estimate of 55% of C-bus income tax is paid by non-residents. And since that is the number supplied by the city Auditor’s office, I am betting that the reality is much higher; probably 65% or more.

Those people who work in the restaurants and shops we frequent and where we frequently get hasseled by said panhandlers? Why, they don't live in C-bus either! More and more of the people who work in C-bus are commuters; the result being that those on the teat and with the resident vote decide things, not the reluctant suppliers.

With fewer people working and paying the problem is fast reaching the critical mass of users overbalancing producers.

More people on the teat. Suckling piggies. On The Dole.

While the welfare junkie that is C-bus is trying to hold the dealer up, that works only once, and then the supply is gone. The junkie doesn’t have the wherewithal to do his own supplying. If more and more jobs and taxpayers move out of the city limits, bye-bye city. And maybe that’s a good thing...? Then mebbe Mayor Mikey I’m-a-man! will get a look at real chaos – not the pretend stuff he threatens us with.

Mikey told you that the gangs and panhandling problems will spin out of control if he didn't get his money. Rrriiiiiiight. Like they've been in control, while he adds more "Freeway Police" and tries to convince us that writing speeding tickets and helping set up DUI checkpoints is really fighting crime.

As for we Worker-Bees, we are paying city income tax and a separate school tax where we live, and now another tax increase on top of the C-bus tax we now pay, and the chunk of state and federal taxes with which we supply more public services and one form or another of government assistance for said non-citizens and welfare junkies.

Mayor Mikey I'm-a-man! scheduled the vote for August. Not November. August. Even though it costs more than twice as much to hold a special election than to put the rape…errrrr issue on the general ballot. That’s so he can get his bunch of “users” out while any city-dwelling “producers” are at work. It wouldn't surprise me if the “get out da vote” effort was just Free Cigs and 40s fer everbuddy.

As it stands right now, I might be bending over, but it is so Mikey (I’m a man!) Coleman and his scum-sucking scam artist pan handling welfare grubbing constituency can kiss my ***.

It is a day for whining....

I hate my 178 mile commute. And, I very much dislike Columbus. It has no soul - at least to this country boy. I doubt I could live here. And I hate being away from my beautiful home and my much-much better half.

I dislike my job, not necessarily the mechanics of it, but I hate having to interact with shallow and insincere people to whom office politics, gossip and rumor is the only spice of the day. I wonder if their souls look and act like rats in a sinking ship?

It is my own fault, as a chronic underachiever, that I am only qualified for the job I do. I am very good at it, but the company where I work is the only place within 150 miles of where I want to be that has a job for me...

Yep, it is a day for whining.

The Beer Summit: Oh, the Beers that should have been....

The final word on the beers that should have been served at the historic but meaningless "Beer Summit".

Sergeant Crowley could have been drinking a number of beers, from Carling “Black Label” to Saranac “Black Forest”, to Boston’s own Sam Adams “Black Lager”.

Only one Cerveza fits Professor Gates: Mexico’s own "Carta Blanca". That way he can be drinking the “White Card” in lieu of playing the Race Card.

There are many beers suggested for our President, from “Arrogant Bastard”, which is only half true, to “Blithering Idiot”, which really should have been Joe (Plugs) Biden's beer of choice in lieu of Buckler.

Only one American made beer REALLY FITS, though:

LOST NATION PALE ALE

The Beer for people who have Lost Their Nation, NOT Their Taste.

LOST NATION PALE ALE from Willoughby Brewing Company, 4057 Erie Street Willoughby Ohio.

http://www.willoughbybrewing.com/beer.htm

Amateurism and Incompetence....

Amateurism and incompetence spell disaster.

And when it's from the person holding the most important job in the world...?

Then the disaster moves on up the Richter scale.

The Peasant Plan....

(From "Shot In The Dark" Blog)

The Peasant Plan
July 31st, 2009 by Mitch Berg

John Edwards, in a line that may well top off his political epitaph one day, famously said that there are “Two Americas”. He was referring to the literal and metaphorical gulf between America’s “Haves” and “Have Nots”. He didn’t note that there are also two Indias, two Phillipines, two Frances and two Argentinas, but Edwards has never been one to let eternal truths of the human condition get in the way of a sound bite.

Conservatives accept these gulfs, recognizing that talent, innate applied intelligence, hard work and just-plain-luck and the lack of them will put people in one America or the other. At the same time, most see a moral obligation to cut down the hurdles and obstacles between the two - especially the (creating more) exits from “Have Not” America.

The left, on the other hand, has always sought to make life in “Have Not” America at least superficially less onerous, all the while making “Have” America a refreshing oasis for those who spend their days dwelling on the plight of the “Have Nots”. Their rationale isn’t much different from the one that royalty accepted in years past; the responsibilities of taking care of ones’ inferiors justified life’s little luxuries, and the big ones as well. In big ways (the USSR’s kommissars shopped at special stores and lived in special housing while the proles waited in line for bread and crammed entire families into studio apartments) and little (count the number of anti-Second-Amendment celebs who’ve used their connections to get themselves and/or their bodyguards concealed carry permits), the left constantly squirrels away perks for their fellow “haves”.

Since the bloom is finally coming off Obama’s electoral rose, it’s time to catalog the Administration’s, and the Democrats’, attempts to make “Have” America a nicer place for those who take care of all of us peasants....

(Read the rest at "Shot In The Dark")

State Run Media Lies On Severity of Recession (Depression)....

All the news outlets were Obamatized today with stories that said the "recession" was "lessening in severity" or "the economy is recovering" or "economic indicators" are improving.

Notice how most of them are all on the same page when it comes to the The 0-Man's press releases, errrrr... "news"?

The economic data (You know, the actual math involved?) says different.

My Beer and My Civil Rights....

So, we're all agreed then:

All cops drink.

And... all black men break and enter.

Cool. The national referendum on that is over.

Long as we got it straight.

Btw, the Cerveza should have been Carta Blanca.

That way the Beer Summiters could drink the "white card" in lieu of playing the race card.

Think I'll go stand on my front porch and yell at cops for a while. It's fun, but not very profitable.

But I'm well within my rights....

A Parable of Beer at The White House....

The Ethnic Stereotyping Parable of Beer

So...

Maybe if we were to consider the whole "beer at the White House" (Breaking and entering) thing from Sgt. Crowley's (Prof. Gates) point of view?

You never know, he might feel a little put upon, having someone of another ethnic background automatically assuming he liked to drink (break and enter) because he was Irish (Black)? Maybe even if he is standing in a bar (In the foyer of a house with a broken front door) when he gets the invite?

I mean, especially if he knows in the depths of his very soul and through the personal experience of generations of his ethnic group that there is a history of societal-wide biased belief that the majority of Irishmen (Blacks) abuse alcohol (Break and enter)?

What if the invite was really only an innocent one - the kind of invite that someone might extend to a working acquaintance (Perp) or customer (Taxpayer) while in the course of their job?

But what if then, as Sgt. Crowley (Prof. Gates) has been conditioned to look at such pleasantries as an insult to his heritage and his intelligence, he takes offense at the invitation to “have a beer” (Show some I.D.)?

Are we to then blame Sgt. Crowley (Prof. Gates)?

Of course not – blame the inviter, not the invitee.

And The Tax Circle Will Be Unbroken....

... by and by, Lord. By and by.

From the continuing saga entitled "Bend Over To See How Taxes Work".

The Revenue Circle

I'll bet that it will get to the point that it has with Federal monies for roads: States will have certain laws they must enact and enforce, as well as certain benchmarks or metrics they have to meet, or the Federal dollars (actually the state's dollars to begin with) will be taken away.

Lessee, we are taxed to pay for citizen penalizing "safety" programs (ClickItOrTicket, Traffic Cameras, etc...) that are mandated by Federal law, states collect the revenue from these "programs". Then the Feds raise the number of such mandates, and states have to figure how to make more revenue to fund the mandates, just so they can qualify for more Federal monies, taxes go up to provide more Federal monies... on and on and on....

President guilty of ethnic profiling....

One of them thar thangs that jus' make ya wanna go "hummm" just occurred to me -- According to the 0-Man, this is supposed to be a "teaching moment" about racism.

So why is it that he invited Crowley over for, of all things, a beer? To talk about racism? Why not a White House dinner? Why not tea? 'cause everbuddy knows the working class can't be trusted to behave at a proper White House din-din. Prolly never seen a salad fork before.

Is it because, you know, Crowley is an Irish name, and hey, you know about those Irish and their alcohol?! Give 'em a little likker and everythang'll be ok. Heck, just 'cause he's Irish don't mean he ain't got sum Injun in him.

What The 0-Man did here is the equivalent of a white President inviting a person of color to the White House to share some watermelon, fried chicken, and listen to some drivin' while black stories. Jolly time.

Unbelievably (or not) oblivious.

Proving the 0-Man's point though, is that Gates does have better taste in beer, preferring Red Stripe or Becks over Crowley's Blue Moon.

Uh, weak wheat beer made by Coors. Almost as bad as ethnic profiling by the 0-Man.

Now, all of us know (or we should) that The 0-Man is 1/2 Irish. But he's in denial of his Irish "roots". That's why he's called the first (2nd?) Black President instead of the 11th partially Irish President.

Plus, it just sounds better.

Now here's a way for him to keep sounding good: Get the facts first... when you're President, that's important.

What IS happening...

"Let us face reality. The framers [of the Constitution] have simply been too shrewd for us. They designed separate institutions that cannot be unified by mechanical linkages, frail bridges, tinkering. If we are to "turn the founders upside down" we must directly confront the constitutional structure they erected....

...Others might press for major constitutional restructuring but I doubt that Americans under normal conditions could agree on the package of radical and "alien" constitutional changes that would be required. They would do so, I think, only during and following a stupendous national crisis and political failure."

From: The Power to Lead by James Macgregor Burns, Presidential Biographer and Member of The Council on Foreign Relations.

Wow. We are really in trouble.


Here's what's happening, folks. (From a web-poster aliased "JustPassinThru")

Everybody needs to brush up on Saul Alinsky.

Destroying what IS is a necessary prerequisite for building their New Utopia. They ARE destroying our structure - BY DESIGN. So that when the people get panicked; and with church and community rendered impotent, they will, Liberals hope, turn to GOVERNMENT.

It's reminiscent of the Three Stooges short, where they were exterminators trying to hype business by planting vermin in an expensive house. - JustPassinThru

Here are some Alinskyisms:

"Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing."

"A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism."

"An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth -- truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing.... To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the widely different situations...."

"By 1985, the influence of traditional Christian philosophy in the West was weak and negligible.... Humanly speaking, it was no longer too tall an order to strip large majorities of men and women in the West of those last vestiges that remained to them of Christianity's transcendent God."

"The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody."

"The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the means used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search themselves as to their real political position. In fact, they are passive — but real — allies of the Haves…. The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means... The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be...."

"The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means...."

"The seventh rule... is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics...."

"The tenth rule... is you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.... It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the circumstances at any given time... Who, and how many will support the action?... If weapons are needed, then are appropriate weapons available? Availability of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether you will move quickly or slowly..."


"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

Health Care Reform Rhetoric vs. Reality....

From the NY Post:

Rhetoric: The president insisted in his news conference last night that "the bill I sign must also slow the growth of health-care costs in the long run."

Reality: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad asked the man who is the top authority on the subject -- Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf -- if the bills before Congress would "bend the long-term cost curve" in health care.

"No, Mr. Chairman," Elmendorf said, adding, "the legislation significantly expands" health costs.

Strike one.

Rhetoric: Obama said last night his plan "will keep government out of health-care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it."

Reality: The Lewin Group, a respected economics-consulting firm, estimates in a new study for The Heritage Foundation that more than 80 million people would lose the coverage they have today if the Obama plan is implemented.

Strike two.

Rhetoric: President Obama has traveled the country extolling the virtues of the Mayo Clinic and other integrated health systems, saying they offer "the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm" and should be a model for the nation.

Reality: The Mayo Clinic and 12 other top health-care-delivery outlets just sent Congress a letter, warning that the bill that already has passed two committees in the House would put them out of business.

If the government creates its own health-insurance plan paying at Medicare rates, as the administration and Congress propose, the organizations say the result will be "unsustainable for even the nation's most efficient, high-quality providers, eventually driving them out of the market."

Strike three.

Obama and his False "Fact" of 46 Million...

President Obama and his minions are continually throwing this very deceptive figure out: that according to the Census Bureau, there were 46 million uninsured Americans in 2007—about 15.3 percent of the population. It’s actually about 16 million, or about 5 percent of the population.

Those carefully chosen few privileged to interview him (see the recent Jim Lehrer interview on News Hour which prompted this letter), never call him on it.

The difference between 16 million and 46 million: the millions of people who qualify for but do not take government insurance benefits already offered, the population making more than $50,000 a year who are uninsured, and uninsured non-citizens.

The majority of people (59.3 percent) purchase plans through their employer and forgo direct purchases. Plans provided by private insurers directly to consumers only account for about 8.9 percent of total purchases; a very small percentage of the overall private market.

Over 27 percent of Americans are covered by taxpayer financed public insurance. These Americans are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, State-Child’s Health Insurance Programs, military health care, and sometimes a combination of these options.

Through war, an influx of immigration, and a number of recessions the uninsured rate has stayed relatively constant, moving between 12 and 16 percent since 1987.

Of the 46 million people without insurance 12.4 million were foreign born, of which 9.7 million were non-citizens. According to the Census Bureau, the number of illegal immigrants without insurance is difficult to calculate accurately, but it is believed to be the largest factor contributing to climbing uninsured rates in recent years.

Of the 46 million uninsured, 17.5 million had a household income greater than $50,000 per year in 2007 and 9.1 million had incomes over $75,000. These Americans did not qualify for public insurance, given their incomes, and have elected to stay out of the private insurance market. This correlates with the fact that about 40 percent of all uninsured Americans are between the ages of 25-44.


Ref. Sources of insurance analysis: http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/the-sources-of-insurance-issue-analysis-126

Ohio's Gambling Revenue Is A Pipe Dream...

The projected gambling "revenue" that is supposed to prop up the back end of all of the Social Services in Governor Strickland's lazy-man's budget will end up just so much smoke.

As is the norm for most State-run projects (see lottery as funding for education????), it will be full of cost overruns, bad purchasing choices, kick-backs and loopholed contracts.

West Virginia revenue from slot machines is off 7 percent for the current year. And projections for this coming fiscal year are worse.

If a state that is experienced is missing their projections, what will happen to Ohio's rookie projections?

Wanna guess?

Gov. Strickland's projections for Keno profits for the Ohio Lottery Commission were at $73 million of the budget for the current fiscal year. Now those "revenues" are running off $40 million at a pace that projects to only $33 million.

That's a lotta red ink and a pretty big difference, doncha think?

When the slot machines were first proposed back in March by racetrack owners to “save their businesses”, they estimated the revenue to the state to be $600 million. Now, when Governor Ted wants slots to balance the budget, they're supposed to make $933 million.

Jimi was right: If 6 were 9, well, wishes still ain't horses, after all.

The solution to a healthy budget is a better business environment with better tax structures, NOT A SHELL GAME where the only winners are a couple of outdated gambling ventures and an out-of-state slot machine manufacturer.

That is, unless your whole economic plan is a shell game. Then it makes sense because you are trying to scam the citizenry. Just. One. More. Time.


Instead of helping prop up his lazy man's budget, Gov. Strickland will be looking at an ultra-costly fiasco. The state will count on the $933 million of projected revenue, which will fail to materialize, and at that point they will have another deficit built on those faulty expectations, ending up with even more job cuts, and as they usually do, an end result worse than an honest days work at effective budget cuts and a revamped tax system would have been.

To simplify, here are the steps involved:

1-The assumption (see "projected revenues") that a government program, especially one designed to raise money, is going to be badly run, is a pretty safe one.

2-Being off on projected revenue hurts budget plans. Ohio sees what is happening with other gambling states, and blithely ignores those results when making its own plans. Pretty smart, huh?

3-The problem is that they plan their spending and make the budget based on the false assumption that they are getting $73 million in revenue, when it is actually $33 million. At this point we don't even know if that is gross or net - we don't know the formula they used - although you can wade through the 1000+ pages and presumably find out. It probably changes based on political expediency.

Can we assume, given the record on Keno, that things will be the same with slots? I think so.

The result is a LOSS as the budget is in deficit because, using Keno as the example -- Slots will be worse, they have already spent the $73 million, additional jobs and programs have to be cut, and the cycle of deficit spending goes on and on...

America's Deathbed....

(Exerpted from World Net Daily)

"...That government is best that governs least is an Americanism. When "Silent Cal" Coolidge went home in 1929, the U.S. government was spending 3 percent of gross domestic product.

And today? Obama’s first budget will consume 28 percent of the entire GDP; state and local governments another 15 percent. While there is some overlap, in 2009, government will consume 40 percent of GDP, approaching the peak of World War II.

The deficit for 2009 is $1.8 trillion, 13 percent of the whole economy. Obama is pushing a cap-and-trade bill to cut carbon emissions that will impose huge costs on energy production, spike consumer prices and drive production offshore to China, which is opting out of Kyoto II. The Chinese are not fools.

Obama plans to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take the income tax rate to near 40 percent. Combined state and local income tax rates can run to 10 percent. For the self-employed, payroll taxes add up to 15.2 percent on the first $106,800 for all wages of all workers.

Medicare takes 2.9 percent of all wages above that. Then there are the state sales taxes that can run to 8 percent, property taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and "sin taxes" on booze, cigarettes and, soon, hot dogs and soft drinks.

Comes now national health insurance from Nancy Pelosi's House. A surtax that runs to 5.4 percent of all earnings of the top 1 percent of Americans, who already pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes, has been sent to the Senate. Included also is an 8 percent tax on the entire payroll of small businesses that fail to provide health insurance for employees.

Other ideas on the table include taxing the health benefits that businesses provide their employees.

The D.C.-based Tax Foundation says New Yorkers could face a combined income tax rate of near 60 percent.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called George III a tyrant for having "erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."

What did George III do with his Stamp Act, Townshend Acts or tea tax to compare with what is being done to this generation of Americans by their own government?

While the most productive are bled, a third of all wage-earners pay no U.S. income tax, and Obama plans to free almost half of all wage-earners of all income taxes. Yet, tens of millions get Medicaid, rent supplements, free education, food stamps, welfare and an annual check from Uncle Sam called an Earned Income Tax Credit, though they never paid a nickel in income taxes.

Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than in even the recent past, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.

Latina women have more babies north of the border than they do in Mexico and twice as many here as non-immigrant women.

Almost all immigrants qualify for ethnic preferences in hiring and promotions and admissions.

All of this would have astounded the Founding Fathers, who, as they declared in the Constitution – created this country "for ourselves and our posterity."

China saves, invests and grows at 8 percent. America, awash in debt, has a shrinking economy, a huge trade deficit, a gutted industrial base, an unemployment rate surging toward 10 percent and a money supply that's swollen to double its size in a year. The 20th century may have been the American Century. The 21st shows another pattern.

"The United States is declining as a nation and a world power with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event," writes Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in CFR's Foreign Affairs magazine. "Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious."


GAME OVER.

The BIGGEST Rip-Off. Goldman-Sachs and the fleecing of the Taxpayer....

The Bubble Machine - How to profit from disaster. Goldman-Sachs and the fleecing of the American Taxpayer....

This is a great audio interview from the program "Here and Now", on WBUR, Boston public radio

Goldman-Sachs has people throughout our government, and that enabled it, through Henry Paulson and others, to game the system.

They control both the Federal Reserve Bank System and our government oversight programs.

http://www.hereandnow.org/stand-alone-player/?fileUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fwbur%2Fstorage%2F2009%2F07%2Fhereandnow_0715_1.mp3&fileTitle=Goldman%20Sachs%20the%20"Bubble%20Machine


Guess who owns the Chicago Climate Exchange, the firm that will be handling the majority of Trade Cap sales?

Thaaaaaat's right, folks. It's our good old buddy Goldman-Sachs. The people who rigged the rape, errrrr "Bailout".

Yessiree, G-S, the company that right now controls most of our nation's monetary policy, through their former employees that head up the FED and parts of government, and now they are in charge of selling our 21st Century INDULGENCES.

Our Manifest Debtstiny....

Reduce the size of Government? Reduce the size of Government?

Why oh why would anyone want to reduce the size and influence of the Ultimate Source of Goodness, gifts from which in multiplicities the Holy and Blessed Federal Reserve spews out of its cavernous mouth, drowning us in the wonderful destiny of inherited debt manifested as the Heavenly Manna of Inalienable Rights to Unlimited Social Services and Inflated Dollars?

What, you say you believe in personal responsibility and "savings"????

Oh, I pity you your ancient and naive little provincial view. You are close to heresy.

Repent before The One (Pbuh) issues a fatwa on your ass.

The Teleprompter in Chief™ defies reality....

(Courtesy of Mitch Berg's "Shot In The Dark". This is an edited version. Visit the blog for the rest.)


The Teleprompter in Chief™ defies reality, regurgitating well-worn propaganda that flies in the face of reality as revealed in real numbers.

The 0-Man said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.
“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession”.

…which is a good thing, and probably all the “Stimuless” spending package should been enacted to do; provide a safety net. The rest of the plan is a combination of deferred liberal agendas and political payback.

Meanwhile, unemployment continues to rise, oil prices are falling (which believe it or not is bad), and the stock market has fallen four weeks in a row in anticipation of an extended worldwide recession as global government borrowing digs an ever-deepening crevasse.

Oil prices and the stock market are accepted leading indicators. The 0-Man’s rhetoric has no or predictive value whatsoever. Where are even some of our 2-3 Million New Jobs? - a number The 0-Man pulled from his backside some time ago - why is unemployment above 8% and still rising? If this is not a free fall….

…the bill “was designed to spur demand and get people spending again and cushion those who had borne the brunt of the crisis,” The 0-Man’s said.

Both missions: Unaccomplished.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the media displayed a little scepticism towards The 0-Man’s stimulus plans? If nothing else I would like to see some mainstream journalist note that The 0-Man’s training is in the law, not economics, and that he has no history of managing an economy bigger than an office budget, and that we don’t even know how he did on that.

The 0-Man has already saved (or created?) 600,000 jobs. He says so! I dare you to disprove him, because God knows, Obama can’t prove it.

Obligatory Palin Post....

Added note:

Lately I've heard a couple people comparing Sarah Palin's current situation to Richard Nixon in '62, when he famously said "... you won't have Nixon to kick around any more...."

This is all said with the point seeming to be that a comeback is in the offing.

Difference being: Tricky Dick was educated, prepared and a diabolical genius. Then the genius part took a vacation and he was left with just the evil.

Palin is nothing but a few memorized catch phrases that she can’t define; but this is combined with the misplaced hopes of someone else’s disappointed constituency, a lot of seriously reaching wishful thinking, and what very well may be an Adderall overdose. All of this is completed (and complicated) by a bunch of hubris sprinkled on top to form a quite probably insane and definitely unstable mix.

We already have one couple in the White House right now who don't know how to act in public (Do they have any competent advisors?). Why would we want to do this again on top of all the rest of our troubles?

Conservatives need to find a serious/real candidate or two and quit messing around with this weird glorification of someone who doesn't deserve consideration.

-------
Org. Post:

Any sane person who listened to Sarah Palin's news conference has to say she at least sounded shaken and almost unhinged.

I wonder what McCrazy thinks about this?

Do you think he feels like giving Cheney a free shot at his face?

If not for his incredibly egotistically niave view of the VP selection process, this probably slightly unbalanced person would not have had a sniff at a ticket and would have eventually just faded and floated away on some ice flow....

I still can't get over the fact that McCrazy had KBH available and (even better) CTW possibly available, and he picked Palin.

That will go down as one of the worst political moves... ever.

Ad.note:

All you hear from the Neo-cons (a la "Conservatives Lite") is their normal Palin-talk ("Elitists bla bla, Elitists bla bla, Elitists…") as they continue to get in their own way.

I require my leaders - on a national level anyway - to be obviously intelligent, well-versed in every possible facet of policy and ready to stand on the world stage and command respect if not fear.

Who qualifies? The 0-Man doesn’t, Joe Plugs surely doesn’t, McCrazy doesn’t… and yet Neo-cons all over (Yep folks, they haven't gone away.) are glorifying Palin when she is obviously proven to be unqualified and unready for any kind of national exposure or pressure.

Palin was a huge mistake and Neo-cons continue to try to defend it instead of calling it what it is: McCrazy’s foolish conceit.

Ohio -- Raising taxes in bad times....

The question is not "... why would you ever want to raise taxes during a time of prosperity?", but why would you spend the increased revenues from those more prosperous times so frivolously?

The fastest way to eliminate helpful state programs is to continue the course of making Ohio one of the least business-friendly states. Inacting a sales tax increase, especially one that increases taxes on business-to-business purchases, will result in another flood of jobs leaving Ohio (for states like Indiana, with much better tax climates), as well as businesses (as my employer has done) choosing to expand in other states rather than open in new markets in Ohio.

This welfare first/business last environment will result in more unemployment, more reliance on support-starved state programs, speeding our state toward that point where the critical mass of users overbalances producers, crashing what is left of our economy and bancrupting both State and taxpayers.

Our government, on all levels, and much like the people it "serves", will never learn to live with a budget that saves money during good times, so that the bad times will not be so bad.

Recycling comes in handy....

Recycling comes in handy...

... when the PO-liceman pulls you over and "in the course of human events" happens to ask why there is a case of open beer bottles in the jeep....

The Worst Public TV Guest Ever....

The evening of May 27th, I watched "State of the State" show on WOUB, the local public channel in Athens, Ohio.

One of the guests on the forum type show dealing with multiple aspects of the unemployment problem in Southeastern Ohio was Mark Tatge, some sort of visiting professor at Scripps College of Journalism, Ohio University.

Tom Hodson is the moderator, and the other members of the forum were:

Angie Hawk Maiden: President and CEO of Appalachian Center for Economic Networks;
Perry Varnadoe: Director of the Meigs County Economic Development Office; and
Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) State Representative for the 92nd Ohio House District is also home to Ohio University.

"Mr." Tatge was the most unprepared, impolite and offensive guest I have ever seen on any real public forum/information show. My wife wondered if he thought he was auditioning for a bit on Colbert. I thought that he thought he was on the Bill "Blowhard" O'Reilly set and in some sort of gruesome competition with Ann Coulter.

I am a Libertarian, and I really tried, but I could find absolutely nothing redeeming about his appearance on a show that usually has a thoughtful and well-meaning discourse that seeks practical solutions to problems in our State and in our local area.

With his reckless, unfocused, arrogant "Faux News" style of blathering bloviation, he alienated the other guests on the show, and probably everyone watching as well. The other guests and the moderator were noticably shocked and embarrassed as they tried to politely interact with this pretentious fool.

Mr. Tatge had done no research, spoke in offensive and outlandish generalities throughout, frustrated and discomfited the moderator and belittled the efforts of the other guests by his lack of knowledge and interest in the causes, applicable questions and possible working solutions to the problem of local unemployment. It was a shameful example of ego combined with ignorance by a person who touts himself as an expert and is rumored to teach a class in professionally reporting on financial matters at Ohio University.

Mr. Tatge's one answer to everything (when he wasn't offending literally every single resident of Southeastern Ohio) seemed to be "You people need more help from State Government", which seems a strange proposition for a "Conservative" to espouse. He had the air of someone whose dog ate the homework and who has chosen feigned superiority and attacking in ignorance as his method of defense.

But that is not the worst. The worst is that for anyone watching the show that was still on the political fence, he singlehandedly did his best to make any low tax, small Government, Libertarian leaning political world-view as unsavory and unsympathetic as possible. Mr. Tatge was the onscreen epitome of that generalized view of the Big Business, money-grubbing, unsympathetic, me-first Conservative that the Far Left loves to put out there.

In short, Mr. Tatge is either a stone idiot or he cannot be a real Conservative, but some actor hired by the Far Left to spoof the good intentions of people who want lower taxes and less government, more individual freedom and responsibility.

This may be not giving some enterprising Liberal jokester enough credit, but I'm betting that Mr. Tatge is a stone idiot.

SCOTUS Pick: Obama goes for Demographic over Scholarship....

Noted lefty constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley thinks Sotomayor tends toward the lightweight edge of the scale of the available talent:

“She is not the intellectual powerhouse that many academics had hoped for.”

and,

“Advocates have struggled to cite a single opinion that could be viewed as a brilliant or extraordinary treatment of the law.”

And,

“Looking objectively at the body of opinions by Judge Sotomayor, one is not overwhelmed by their depth. There is nothing in this body of work that would scream out for the elevation of the author to the Court.”

Read the whole article here:

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/05/26/white-house-to-announce-court-pick-at-10-am/#more-11301

I probably wouldn't agree with Turley on anything. Especially individual rights, making law from the bench and US subjugation to International Law. But he seems to be quoted an awful lot by MSNBC, which is the Faux "News" opposite number in the war for the lemming mind -- and by NPR. So....

On the other hand, what the 0-Man has got going for him is the Harriet Miers nomination. That and Clarence Thomas.

But apart from Thomas, the rest of the SCOTUS, when nominated, seems to have been much more qualified than Sotomayor.

Consensus of those who worked with Sotomayor is that she’s intelligent, but an intellectual lightweight and not patient enough to take the time to understand complex issues.

One wonders whether there will be a shock to the court's system, giving up a quiet, very polite Justice who is known for listening, for one who often comes across as rude, pushy and domineering of discussion from the bench, and who's opinions often are viewed as overly simplified, short and dismissive.

In an added note, three out of the five Sotomayor ruled cases that have been accepted on appeal to the SCOTUS have been reversed, and they are working on what may be another right now.

That does not speak well of her ability to get it right -- or at least right enough for the SCOTUS. It also brings up the question of how many of her rulings were probably wrong, but SCOTUS chose not to hear them... and it amounts to a lotta "bad justice" out there.

GM = Government Motors....

Does this mean that I have to pick sides when the UAW goes on strike and the 0-Man calls in his Brownshirt strike-breakers?

Whew… tough call.

Nothing more deserving or entertaining than Union Thugs beating and getting beaten by Government Thugs!

It also means that Chevy will have to change its ad tune from “Like A Rock” to Neil Young’s “Welfare Mothers (Make Better Lovers)".

Much, much better song anyway....

The Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine....

You know, looking back on it, the incredible, interwoven web of deceit and corruption that was the Halliburton/KBR/Cheney/War/Money Machine, may go down as the costliest bit of political and economic deception (that term does not do credit) ever foisted on America's conscience and wallet.

Remember, the "cost" of the War was not included in the Bush Jr. era budgets, so we really have no way to grasp the size of the scam and how much was siphoned away like so much stolen gas -- but if we really could see it, I bet it could make AIG and Madoff look like one fall purse-snatchers.

Oh, and one more thing: I wonder, did Halliburton/KBR execs get little happy chills all over every time an IED blew up a HumVee, knowing full well that the deaths of our soldiers were providing the smokescreens for their robbery?

Things must be made Right.

How do you not believe in a Righteous and Vengeful God?

Cops Lie...! Surprised?

The very idea of "probable cause" has been eroded so far that it is a joke. LEOs lie all the time. If they are looking to pull someone over, there will definitely be some judgment for probable cause, real or not.

A lot of "solid" arrests for other crimes start with a suspicion -- NOT real probable cause. If any charges go to court, many LEOs don't have a problem lying under oath. It's "part of the job", and also well referenced under the term "testilying".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319367364627211.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testilying

Biden and Pelosi....

Joe Plugs don't lie!

He's always reaching out with both versions of the truth, what didn't happen and what he said!

The truth is shorter than Joe and he just has to stoop a little!"

Hey, wadda-ya expect from a proven exaggerator and a thief (plagiarist)?

I have always said that Biden was a dumber version of John Kerry. Remember Kerry's war stories, especially about his hat?

Only in just deserts for his poor judgment does the 0-man deserve every bit of diarrhea that gushes out Joe Plugs' mouth.


As for Pelosi, we get what California deserves.

As usual.

What's new.