Today is my fav day of the year. It is also my parents 54th wedding anniversary. WOW 54 years togther. My little brother is getting old.
Some of my best Halloweens were in OKC in my grade school years. Dad worked for the FAA and when he needed to get certified on a new piece of equipment we packed up and went to Okey Dokey for however long the school was.
We always lived in Parkview Village, about 200 units in a U shape with 7 apartments in each section. Halloween was heaven for a kid living there. I don't ever remember what costumes we had but I think my brother went as Huckleberry HOund one year. But I do remember the candy. We took grocery sacks and that was the good old days when we got candy apples, popcorn balls, and tons of SAFE candy. What happened, why did sick bastards have to ruin a happy day for kids. We had parties at school, lots of sugar, cupcakes, candy, kool-aid (It was safe to drink kool-aid when I was a kid). We had to walk past a decrepit factory onthe way to school and there was a creek along beside it. Sometimes it was foggy and creepy, we always pretended there were trolls in the creek especially around Halloween.
So if you are middle aged like me you probably what a great time Halloween was and if not I am sorry some very sick people ruined a great day for you.
HAPPY Trick or Treating
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
My Funeral
I was reading the book "It Itches" and the last joke made me realize I need to rethink my funeral package. I have bought my funeral already, it made sense I got a 30% deduction so I said yes let's do it. I am going to be cremated after my body has done it's two year tour as a medical school corpse. The last joke in the book has the grave with a mausoleum that says Yarn Stash. I have my post office box for my urn but I am thinking I need to make an adjustment and add a vault to store my yarn.
BTW mom please make sure I have enough yarn in my post office box to knit on til I get to heaven. Make sure you put my Knit Pick Harmony sock needles in as well.
BTW mom please make sure I have enough yarn in my post office box to knit on til I get to heaven. Make sure you put my Knit Pick Harmony sock needles in as well.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Ten Can Nots
“The Ten Cannots”
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
~William J. H. Boetcker, 1916
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. ”
~Abraham Lincoln
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
~William J. H. Boetcker, 1916
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. ”
~Abraham Lincoln
Sarah Palin
I had the honor and privilege to see Sarah Palin on Saturday. What an amazing woman she is, I am so glad my niece has her for a role model as she becomes an adult. I got up at 4:30am and left the house at 6am. I got to Des Moines around 9am and got my tickets and yard signs, got my parking spot and got in line at 9:30am. She was to speak at 1:30pm. They let us in at 11 and I got right up front. If you are going make sure you stand in front of the steps closest to the podium she comes donw them first. I got to shake her hand first, she loved my shirt and got her autograph and some pictures that I will post later. Aaron Tippin sang a few songs prior to her arrival. His wife has a beautiful voice. We did have the Star Spangled Banner and Pledge of Allegiance (another reason Nobama is not an American). Piper and Willow came out with her. Piper grabbed a mike and said a few words ending with "Don't forget to vote for my mom." To which Governor Palin replied I did not tell her to say that. I have to say this was one of the best days of my life to think I got to meet the next Vice President of the US.
What bothered me most about the day was the fact that two families had Down Syndrome children. They used these children to be absolutely rude like having a child with needs gives them special privilege to be rude and mean. I was watching Sarah go down the line meeting people and someone was pushing at me and swearing. I turned around and saw a small child yelling at the top of her lungs screaming Sarah. She was swearing and telling me to move she had a right to see Sarah. Then one man had a child less than a year old and demanded I move so he could see Sarah. Well if you had been nice I would have tried to move but since you were downright rude and mean, I stood my ground. Having a special needs child does not give you the right to be rude and mean.
What bothered me most about the day was the fact that two families had Down Syndrome children. They used these children to be absolutely rude like having a child with needs gives them special privilege to be rude and mean. I was watching Sarah go down the line meeting people and someone was pushing at me and swearing. I turned around and saw a small child yelling at the top of her lungs screaming Sarah. She was swearing and telling me to move she had a right to see Sarah. Then one man had a child less than a year old and demanded I move so he could see Sarah. Well if you had been nice I would have tried to move but since you were downright rude and mean, I stood my ground. Having a special needs child does not give you the right to be rude and mean.
American is Grieving
I did not write this but it sure expresses how I have been feeling lately. I do not understand why anyone would vote Democrat this year after this campaign and what Peliso/Reid/Frank have done to us.
Over the past several days, while I have been purposefully alone with my thoughts, I have felt a heaviness of heart and have been filled with an overwhelming sense of nothing but pure, unadulterated shock and dismay at what I have been seeing in our country. In those quiet moments, away from the television and internet, I’ve been overcome, at times, with a deep sense of pain and hurt that’s almost indescribable. The closest I can come to explaining what I feel is Grief. I am grieving for our country.
I am grieved when the national media is concerned about Sarah Palin dropping her g’s when she talks, is completely unmoved by the fact that the man who would lead our country hasn’t been made to tell the American people why he chose to be friends with, write blurbs for, attend panels with, sit in a church pew, for 20 long years listening to, took money from, represented in court, and paid campaign cash to all kinds of people who have either hated America all of their known lives or have actually bombed its symbols. That grieves me.
I’m grieved when I hear well-known Republicans cast aside all of their supposedly core convictions in order to jump on a bandwagon of popular feeling…even though they share not one single viewpoint.
I’m grieved when I hear of upstanding conservative leaders in my community saying they’re voting for Obama out of spite because they don’t like McCain…or not voting at all. These are people I have looked up to and admired. I wonder what they would tell their children about their decision. I wonder what kind of lesson they are teaching them, what kind of legacy they think they are leaving or what kind of example they think they are setting. Didn’t they always teach their children that no matter what the crowd might go along with, if it’s wrong, you take a stand for what’s right? Didn’t they teach them about honor and integrity? I no longer admire these people…and that grieves me.
I’m also grieved when innocent, good people I’ve known all my life are afraid to put a sign in their yard or a bumper-sticker on their car….and I wonder what kind of country we have become when the citizens who pay their taxes, work hard, own their homes and give to charity to help their fellow Americans, have to feel afraid in neighborhoods they’ve lived all their lives.
I’m grieved that a man who is looked up to by millions, doesn’t feel a responsibility to ask his own supporters and campaign workers to appeal to their better natures. I’m grieved that he has been given a national platform to make speeches to millions of Americans and, instead of calling for peace, goodwill and morality in a long campaign, he chooses to remind Americans of a tormented time in our past for his own personal gain. If that isn’t shameless evil, I don’t know what is.
I’m grieved that well-educated, well-read, worldly intellectuals in our country look down their nose on a woman who decided to run for public office to make her community better, a woman who they acknowledge ran for governor for that same reason; for the sake of her constituents. The fact that these same constituents, the ones whose opinion really matters, overwhelmingly approve of how she’s done that job for them. I’m grieved that these intellectuals don’t have the intellect to understand what a governor does to affect real people’s lives. It’s certainly not by writing a piece in the New York Times or appearing on CNN to share your knowledge of what you think “real people” need to know. I’m grieved that these people are allowed a 24/7 platform from their ivory Manhattan towers to demean millions of Americans who feel they have finally found a politician who speaks their language….g’s dropping and all.
I’m grieved that true journalism, which is the foundation of maintaining free speech in America, is dead.
I’m grieved that a man in middle America gets more scrutiny and investigation for asking Obama a straight-up question, than Obama has ever gotten about his economic plans since he started running for president. I’m grieved that there have been satellite trucks parked outside Joe the Plumber’s house since he asked that question, when Americans have nothing to fear from Joe at all, while there are no satellites outside Obama’s patrons Khalid Al-Mansour and/or Bill Ayers.
I’m grieved that pundits of the mainstream media have become the public relations arm of a national political campaign and that they daily, and incessantly, infer that normal Americans who want to know who a man is before they vote for him has to be somehow “racist”. I am grieved that that word is flung far and wide at anyone who expresses their decision not to vote for a man, for the legitimate reasons of his lack of the basic experience, achievement, record and judgment, that person in that position, and who aspires for the highest office in the land, should posses.
I’m grieved that, 12 days out, there are still so much that the American people haven’t been told, and that its been a concerted effort by people in places of authority and responsibility to conceal that information.
I’m grieved that Piper Palin, an innocent little girl who simply just loves her mother, would be subjected to such vile, sadistic, mocking treatment of her mother by adults who are supposed to set an example for children. I’m grieved at what Piper is seeing of America and what it must be telling her innocent little heart.
I’m grieved that Trig Palin, who can’t even talk or walk yet, has been the subject of more questions than a known, unrepentant domestic terrorist who is not ashamed of bombing and killing Americans.
If I were Jewish, I would be renting my garments now. As a Christian, I can only fall on my knees and pour my grief out in prayer.
Note: Substitute grieve(d) with indignant or angry and my resolve to act on behalf of a better America will be shown in it’s glory.
Over the past several days, while I have been purposefully alone with my thoughts, I have felt a heaviness of heart and have been filled with an overwhelming sense of nothing but pure, unadulterated shock and dismay at what I have been seeing in our country. In those quiet moments, away from the television and internet, I’ve been overcome, at times, with a deep sense of pain and hurt that’s almost indescribable. The closest I can come to explaining what I feel is Grief. I am grieving for our country.
I am grieved when the national media is concerned about Sarah Palin dropping her g’s when she talks, is completely unmoved by the fact that the man who would lead our country hasn’t been made to tell the American people why he chose to be friends with, write blurbs for, attend panels with, sit in a church pew, for 20 long years listening to, took money from, represented in court, and paid campaign cash to all kinds of people who have either hated America all of their known lives or have actually bombed its symbols. That grieves me.
I’m grieved when I hear well-known Republicans cast aside all of their supposedly core convictions in order to jump on a bandwagon of popular feeling…even though they share not one single viewpoint.
I’m grieved when I hear of upstanding conservative leaders in my community saying they’re voting for Obama out of spite because they don’t like McCain…or not voting at all. These are people I have looked up to and admired. I wonder what they would tell their children about their decision. I wonder what kind of lesson they are teaching them, what kind of legacy they think they are leaving or what kind of example they think they are setting. Didn’t they always teach their children that no matter what the crowd might go along with, if it’s wrong, you take a stand for what’s right? Didn’t they teach them about honor and integrity? I no longer admire these people…and that grieves me.
I’m also grieved when innocent, good people I’ve known all my life are afraid to put a sign in their yard or a bumper-sticker on their car….and I wonder what kind of country we have become when the citizens who pay their taxes, work hard, own their homes and give to charity to help their fellow Americans, have to feel afraid in neighborhoods they’ve lived all their lives.
I’m grieved that a man who is looked up to by millions, doesn’t feel a responsibility to ask his own supporters and campaign workers to appeal to their better natures. I’m grieved that he has been given a national platform to make speeches to millions of Americans and, instead of calling for peace, goodwill and morality in a long campaign, he chooses to remind Americans of a tormented time in our past for his own personal gain. If that isn’t shameless evil, I don’t know what is.
I’m grieved that well-educated, well-read, worldly intellectuals in our country look down their nose on a woman who decided to run for public office to make her community better, a woman who they acknowledge ran for governor for that same reason; for the sake of her constituents. The fact that these same constituents, the ones whose opinion really matters, overwhelmingly approve of how she’s done that job for them. I’m grieved that these intellectuals don’t have the intellect to understand what a governor does to affect real people’s lives. It’s certainly not by writing a piece in the New York Times or appearing on CNN to share your knowledge of what you think “real people” need to know. I’m grieved that these people are allowed a 24/7 platform from their ivory Manhattan towers to demean millions of Americans who feel they have finally found a politician who speaks their language….g’s dropping and all.
I’m grieved that true journalism, which is the foundation of maintaining free speech in America, is dead.
I’m grieved that a man in middle America gets more scrutiny and investigation for asking Obama a straight-up question, than Obama has ever gotten about his economic plans since he started running for president. I’m grieved that there have been satellite trucks parked outside Joe the Plumber’s house since he asked that question, when Americans have nothing to fear from Joe at all, while there are no satellites outside Obama’s patrons Khalid Al-Mansour and/or Bill Ayers.
I’m grieved that pundits of the mainstream media have become the public relations arm of a national political campaign and that they daily, and incessantly, infer that normal Americans who want to know who a man is before they vote for him has to be somehow “racist”. I am grieved that that word is flung far and wide at anyone who expresses their decision not to vote for a man, for the legitimate reasons of his lack of the basic experience, achievement, record and judgment, that person in that position, and who aspires for the highest office in the land, should posses.
I’m grieved that, 12 days out, there are still so much that the American people haven’t been told, and that its been a concerted effort by people in places of authority and responsibility to conceal that information.
I’m grieved that Piper Palin, an innocent little girl who simply just loves her mother, would be subjected to such vile, sadistic, mocking treatment of her mother by adults who are supposed to set an example for children. I’m grieved at what Piper is seeing of America and what it must be telling her innocent little heart.
I’m grieved that Trig Palin, who can’t even talk or walk yet, has been the subject of more questions than a known, unrepentant domestic terrorist who is not ashamed of bombing and killing Americans.
If I were Jewish, I would be renting my garments now. As a Christian, I can only fall on my knees and pour my grief out in prayer.
Note: Substitute grieve(d) with indignant or angry and my resolve to act on behalf of a better America will be shown in it’s glory.
Friday, October 24, 2008
I am an Ornery American
We aren’t impressed by your credentials, Dr. This or Senator That. We aren’t going to take your word for it, we’re going to think it through for ourselves.
We don’t like being spun. That doesn’t mean we aren’t sometimes fooled by the way reporters slant their stories, but when we find out how we’ve been manipulated, we get a little mad and we refuse to trust that writer, commentator, that magazine, that newspaper, that news network, or that politician again.
We think America is larger and more important than our self-interest. You can’t buy our integrity with a boomtown economy, and we won’t let you shame our country just to avoid risking American lives. We Americans have never been afraid to make sacrifices for a worthy cause.
We believe that character matters – our own character, the character of our leaders, and the character of our nation as a whole. We don’t like bullies and cowards, liars and hypocrites, and we don’t appreciate it when our leaders make our nation behave as if that were what Americans are.
We’ll forgive your misdeeds, but only if you apologize sincerely and never do it again. Our trust, once betrayed, is not lightly restored.
We vote.
We know that good, wise people sometimes disagree. So we listen to the views of others, and have no patience with those who shout others down or use ridicule or coercion to silence serious arguments. Only fanatics and dictators assume that anyone who disagrees with them must be evil or stupid.
We believe in right or wrong. Individual cases may merit compassion, but the law must be respected. Along with individual freedom must come responsibility for others. Along with compassion for the minority’s needs must come respect for the majority’s will.
We believe in representative government, with the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution. Judges do not have the right to create law. Presidents do not have the right to lie to, conceal information from, or ignore the prerogatives of Congress. Congressmen must act first for the good of the nation, and only secondarily for the benefit of their constituents.
We reject violence except in self-defense or to protect the weak against aggression.
We don’t like being spun. That doesn’t mean we aren’t sometimes fooled by the way reporters slant their stories, but when we find out how we’ve been manipulated, we get a little mad and we refuse to trust that writer, commentator, that magazine, that newspaper, that news network, or that politician again.
We think America is larger and more important than our self-interest. You can’t buy our integrity with a boomtown economy, and we won’t let you shame our country just to avoid risking American lives. We Americans have never been afraid to make sacrifices for a worthy cause.
We believe that character matters – our own character, the character of our leaders, and the character of our nation as a whole. We don’t like bullies and cowards, liars and hypocrites, and we don’t appreciate it when our leaders make our nation behave as if that were what Americans are.
We’ll forgive your misdeeds, but only if you apologize sincerely and never do it again. Our trust, once betrayed, is not lightly restored.
We vote.
We know that good, wise people sometimes disagree. So we listen to the views of others, and have no patience with those who shout others down or use ridicule or coercion to silence serious arguments. Only fanatics and dictators assume that anyone who disagrees with them must be evil or stupid.
We believe in right or wrong. Individual cases may merit compassion, but the law must be respected. Along with individual freedom must come responsibility for others. Along with compassion for the minority’s needs must come respect for the majority’s will.
We believe in representative government, with the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution. Judges do not have the right to create law. Presidents do not have the right to lie to, conceal information from, or ignore the prerogatives of Congress. Congressmen must act first for the good of the nation, and only secondarily for the benefit of their constituents.
We reject violence except in self-defense or to protect the weak against aggression.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Election Day Socks
I wanted to knit something for election day and I found some red/white/blue Regia sock yarn, so I made a pair of socks. You can not wear any party stuff so I figured the socks would work. There is however a story here as well. I took the socks to Italy with me. Finished the second sock during the flight from Rome to NYC. The yarn had dropped on the floor, so I let it lay there, you know where this is going. I finished the sock, sewed up the toe and put everything away forgetting all about the yarn. As I was sitting in the NYC airport starting on another sock I wondered where the other half of my skein was, yep still on the airplane. I hope someone who found it either knits or gave it to a knitter, I would hate to think it got tossed.
An Honest Reporter
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card
Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.
An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:
I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.
Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?
I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."
Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.
As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.
If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.
There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)
If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.
Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.
So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?
Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.
That's where you are right now.
It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.
Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.
You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.
You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.
This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission
By Orson Scott Card
Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.
An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:
I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.
Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?
I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."
Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.
As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.
If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.
There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)
If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.
Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.
So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?
Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.
That's where you are right now.
It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.
Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.
You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.
You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.
This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission
Is there no end to what the libertards wont do to cheat us out of this election?
Dead Goldfish Offered the Vote in Illinois
Voter registration material was sent to Princess Nudelman, a dead goldfish
AP
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The only "agent of change" Princess ever supported was the person who freshened the water in her fishbowl.
So election officials in Chicago's northern suburbs want to know why voter registration material was sent to the dead goldfish.
"I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process," said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year.
Beth Nudelman, who owned the fish, said Princess may have landed on a mailing list because the family once filled in the pet's name when they got a second phone line for a computer.
"There was no fraud involved," said Nudelman, a Democrat who supports Barack Obama. "This person is a dead fish."
The paperwork sent to a "Princess Nudelman" likely came from the "Women's Voices, Women Vote" project, which sent nearly 1 million mailings to Illinois households in August using a list that mistakenly included some pets, said Sarah Johnson, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit group that encourages single women to vote.
The mailing list, purchased from a vendor, included names from warranties, magazine subscriptions and other sources, Johnson said. The group attempted to screen out obvious pet names.
"Fido's not going to be left on there, but if a cat is named is Polly, she may be," Johnson said. Princess could be a person's name, she insisted. "I went to high school with two Princesses."
Nudelman said the only address on the registration card was the Lake County clerk's office. She said she wrote election officials a humorous note explaining why the fish was ineligible to vote.
The Illinois mailing generated 63,500 returned voter applications, Johnson said. Applicants were instructed to fill in a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number so election officials would be able to validate their identity.
"We obviously don't want to add more work for any election official," Johnson said. "At the end of the day, our goal is same as theirs: To give as many people as possible the chance to make voices heard in our democracy."
Steve Sturm, legal counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said the mailing generated numerous complaints from residents throughout the state.
Lake County election officials contacted Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office Monday afternoon, said spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler. The sheriff's office and state's attorney's office were "already working on it," she said.
The McCain-Palin campaign has lately raised questions about the voter registration practices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN is accused of submitting false registration forms for some of the voters it has registered. The FBI has joined nearly a dozen states in investigating.
Voter registration material was sent to Princess Nudelman, a dead goldfish
AP
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The only "agent of change" Princess ever supported was the person who freshened the water in her fishbowl.
So election officials in Chicago's northern suburbs want to know why voter registration material was sent to the dead goldfish.
"I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process," said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year.
Beth Nudelman, who owned the fish, said Princess may have landed on a mailing list because the family once filled in the pet's name when they got a second phone line for a computer.
"There was no fraud involved," said Nudelman, a Democrat who supports Barack Obama. "This person is a dead fish."
The paperwork sent to a "Princess Nudelman" likely came from the "Women's Voices, Women Vote" project, which sent nearly 1 million mailings to Illinois households in August using a list that mistakenly included some pets, said Sarah Johnson, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit group that encourages single women to vote.
The mailing list, purchased from a vendor, included names from warranties, magazine subscriptions and other sources, Johnson said. The group attempted to screen out obvious pet names.
"Fido's not going to be left on there, but if a cat is named is Polly, she may be," Johnson said. Princess could be a person's name, she insisted. "I went to high school with two Princesses."
Nudelman said the only address on the registration card was the Lake County clerk's office. She said she wrote election officials a humorous note explaining why the fish was ineligible to vote.
The Illinois mailing generated 63,500 returned voter applications, Johnson said. Applicants were instructed to fill in a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number so election officials would be able to validate their identity.
"We obviously don't want to add more work for any election official," Johnson said. "At the end of the day, our goal is same as theirs: To give as many people as possible the chance to make voices heard in our democracy."
Steve Sturm, legal counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said the mailing generated numerous complaints from residents throughout the state.
Lake County election officials contacted Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office Monday afternoon, said spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler. The sheriff's office and state's attorney's office were "already working on it," she said.
The McCain-Palin campaign has lately raised questions about the voter registration practices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN is accused of submitting false registration forms for some of the voters it has registered. The FBI has joined nearly a dozen states in investigating.
Nobama Scare Tactics
The Democratic plan on election day. 10-20-08 By Mike Moseley
Posted by MikeMoseley on Monday, October 20, 2008 12:00:00 AM
The MSM, the entire Democratic party, and the Pumas know that the polls are fake. They will try to advance Obama any way they can and try to dishearten every single person that will vote for McCain/Palin. Obama already knows this election is going to the supreme court. They are, and will plant the seeds of racism at any cost. Acorn has added millions of false votes into the system for the purpose for taking this election after the polls are closed. When the counting starts the fascism will be in full display primarily to GOP election officials. They will be literally shoving people into the backroom and away from the ballots. The fascists will add the fake Acorn ballots to the pile and start counting. The same acorn people will be out on the streets screaming that they have been disenfranchised. The Democrats and the Main Stream Media can not accept another loss and clearly have made plans to steal this election.
The puma, or Clinton supporters, know what's going to happen. http://wewillnotbesilenced2008.com/video/index.htm Because they have lived this nightmare before. Clinton supporters were disenfranchised by the Obama camp and the Democratic party.
The Obama team will attack innocent people and people will be hurt or killed, if necessary. They have been trained for this exact moment in time for one reason alone. Terrorist William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Maoist hardliner Mike Klonsky, Acorn’s co-founder Wade Rathke, and the many radicals in the United States have there entire belief system staked on this election. Not only do the Marxist radicals have everything on the line, but the entire Chicago political mob does too. http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/757340,CST-NWS-watchdog24.article. Add to this exciting lineup of Communist and Marxist radicals and criminal elements the unapologetic voice of black radical anti-white racist Rev Jeremiah Wright and his cohorts. These are the people that have “God Damned America” for this moment in time.
The Muslim's messiah, as Louis Farrakan describe Barack Obama, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77539 knows that they can't win this election on the votes alone. No less than terrorist Hamas and Hezbolla have voice words of support for Obama-Biden. Campaign funds from the middle east have poured into the Obama teams coffers despite American election laws that say it is an illegal activity. Obama traveled to Kenya and openly campaigned for violent radical Muslim Raila Odinga, Barack’s alleged cousin. Expect any and everything that a third world country could experience. I would expect riots that start in Chicago to spread nation wide and to spread throughout the world.
Every Communist and Marxist radical will see their lives work at this pinnacle of time play out, this is the moment they have been waiting for. Every black power anti-white radical knows that this moment is what they have been waiting for. Every radical Muslim worldwide knows THIS could be the great day of Allah and the moment they have been waiting for. The main stream media have their entire future and their history at stake in this election. Nothing less than complete victory by America’s enemies will be accepted. To say that this could be an explosive situation seems to be an understatement.
Posted by MikeMoseley on Monday, October 20, 2008 12:00:00 AM
The MSM, the entire Democratic party, and the Pumas know that the polls are fake. They will try to advance Obama any way they can and try to dishearten every single person that will vote for McCain/Palin. Obama already knows this election is going to the supreme court. They are, and will plant the seeds of racism at any cost. Acorn has added millions of false votes into the system for the purpose for taking this election after the polls are closed. When the counting starts the fascism will be in full display primarily to GOP election officials. They will be literally shoving people into the backroom and away from the ballots. The fascists will add the fake Acorn ballots to the pile and start counting. The same acorn people will be out on the streets screaming that they have been disenfranchised. The Democrats and the Main Stream Media can not accept another loss and clearly have made plans to steal this election.
The puma, or Clinton supporters, know what's going to happen. http://wewillnotbesilenced2008.com/video/index.htm Because they have lived this nightmare before. Clinton supporters were disenfranchised by the Obama camp and the Democratic party.
The Obama team will attack innocent people and people will be hurt or killed, if necessary. They have been trained for this exact moment in time for one reason alone. Terrorist William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Maoist hardliner Mike Klonsky, Acorn’s co-founder Wade Rathke, and the many radicals in the United States have there entire belief system staked on this election. Not only do the Marxist radicals have everything on the line, but the entire Chicago political mob does too. http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/757340,CST-NWS-watchdog24.article. Add to this exciting lineup of Communist and Marxist radicals and criminal elements the unapologetic voice of black radical anti-white racist Rev Jeremiah Wright and his cohorts. These are the people that have “God Damned America” for this moment in time.
The Muslim's messiah, as Louis Farrakan describe Barack Obama, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77539 knows that they can't win this election on the votes alone. No less than terrorist Hamas and Hezbolla have voice words of support for Obama-Biden. Campaign funds from the middle east have poured into the Obama teams coffers despite American election laws that say it is an illegal activity. Obama traveled to Kenya and openly campaigned for violent radical Muslim Raila Odinga, Barack’s alleged cousin. Expect any and everything that a third world country could experience. I would expect riots that start in Chicago to spread nation wide and to spread throughout the world.
Every Communist and Marxist radical will see their lives work at this pinnacle of time play out, this is the moment they have been waiting for. Every black power anti-white radical knows that this moment is what they have been waiting for. Every radical Muslim worldwide knows THIS could be the great day of Allah and the moment they have been waiting for. The main stream media have their entire future and their history at stake in this election. Nothing less than complete victory by America’s enemies will be accepted. To say that this could be an explosive situation seems to be an understatement.
Thank You Stephen Fortunato
The following is a blog entry written on Aug. 30, 2008, by Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato, who was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was blown up by an improvised explosive device. This entry was forwarded to the Globe by his mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Crawford.
If I may …
I’d like to say something….Just to get it out there so it is clear.
To all the pampered and protected Americans who feel it is their duty to inform me that I am not fighting for their freedom, and that i am a pawn in Bush’s agenda of greed and oil acquisition: Noted, and [expletive deleted] You.
I am not a robot. i am not blind or ignorant to the state of the world or the implications of the “war on terrorism.” i know that our leaders have made mistakes in the handling of a very sensitive situation, but do not for one second think that you can make me lose faith in what we, meaning America’s sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in uniform are doing.
I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaida, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life. Unless you believe the events of 9/11 were the result of a government conspiracy, which by the way would make you a MORON, there is no reasonable argument you can make against there being a true and dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with. i don’t care if there are corporations leaching off the war effort to make money, and i don’t care if you don’t think our freedom within America’s borders is actually at stake. i just want to kill those who would harm my family and friends. it is that simple. Even if this is just a war for profit or to assert America’s power, so what? Someone has to be on top and I want it to be us. There’s nothing wrong with wishing prosperity for your side.
I am a proud American. i believe that my country allows me to live my life more or less however i want to, and believe me, i have seen what the alternative of that looks like. i also believe that our big scary government does way more than it has to to help complete [expletive deleted]-ups get back on their feet, a stark comparison to places where leaders just line their own pockets with gold while allowing the people who gave them their power and privilage to starve. I have chosen my corner. I back my country, and am proud to defend it against aggressors. Also, if you dare accuse us of being inhumane, or overly aggressive because we have rolled into someone else’s country and blown some [expletive deleted] up and shot some people, let me remind you of just how inhumane we COULD be in defending ourselves. Let me remind you that we have a warhead that drops multiple bomblets from the stratosphere which upon impact, would turn all the sand in Iraq to glass, and reduce every living thing there to dust. Do we use it? No. Instead we use the most humane weapon ever devised: the American soldier. We send our bravest (and perhaps admitably craziest) men and women into enemy territory, into harms way, to root out those whom we are after and do our best to leave innocent lives unscathed.
…One last thing…a proposal. i know it has been stated time and time again but i just think it is worthy of reiteration. If you find yourself completely disgusted with the way America is being ran, and how we handle things on the global stage, you can leave. Isn’t that amazing? No one will stop you! If you are an anarchist, there are places you can go where there is no government to tell you anything. That’s right…you are left solely to your own devices and you can handle the men who show up at your door with AKs in any way that you see fit. Just don’t try good old American debate tactics on them because you will most likely end up bound and blind-folded, to have your head chopped off on the internet so your parents can see it. However if you insist on staying here and taking advantage of privilages such as free speach and WIC, keep the counter-productive [expletive deleted] to a minimum while the grown ups figure out how to handle this god-awful mess in the middle east.
If I may …
I’d like to say something….Just to get it out there so it is clear.
To all the pampered and protected Americans who feel it is their duty to inform me that I am not fighting for their freedom, and that i am a pawn in Bush’s agenda of greed and oil acquisition: Noted, and [expletive deleted] You.
I am not a robot. i am not blind or ignorant to the state of the world or the implications of the “war on terrorism.” i know that our leaders have made mistakes in the handling of a very sensitive situation, but do not for one second think that you can make me lose faith in what we, meaning America’s sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in uniform are doing.
I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaida, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life. Unless you believe the events of 9/11 were the result of a government conspiracy, which by the way would make you a MORON, there is no reasonable argument you can make against there being a true and dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with. i don’t care if there are corporations leaching off the war effort to make money, and i don’t care if you don’t think our freedom within America’s borders is actually at stake. i just want to kill those who would harm my family and friends. it is that simple. Even if this is just a war for profit or to assert America’s power, so what? Someone has to be on top and I want it to be us. There’s nothing wrong with wishing prosperity for your side.
I am a proud American. i believe that my country allows me to live my life more or less however i want to, and believe me, i have seen what the alternative of that looks like. i also believe that our big scary government does way more than it has to to help complete [expletive deleted]-ups get back on their feet, a stark comparison to places where leaders just line their own pockets with gold while allowing the people who gave them their power and privilage to starve. I have chosen my corner. I back my country, and am proud to defend it against aggressors. Also, if you dare accuse us of being inhumane, or overly aggressive because we have rolled into someone else’s country and blown some [expletive deleted] up and shot some people, let me remind you of just how inhumane we COULD be in defending ourselves. Let me remind you that we have a warhead that drops multiple bomblets from the stratosphere which upon impact, would turn all the sand in Iraq to glass, and reduce every living thing there to dust. Do we use it? No. Instead we use the most humane weapon ever devised: the American soldier. We send our bravest (and perhaps admitably craziest) men and women into enemy territory, into harms way, to root out those whom we are after and do our best to leave innocent lives unscathed.
…One last thing…a proposal. i know it has been stated time and time again but i just think it is worthy of reiteration. If you find yourself completely disgusted with the way America is being ran, and how we handle things on the global stage, you can leave. Isn’t that amazing? No one will stop you! If you are an anarchist, there are places you can go where there is no government to tell you anything. That’s right…you are left solely to your own devices and you can handle the men who show up at your door with AKs in any way that you see fit. Just don’t try good old American debate tactics on them because you will most likely end up bound and blind-folded, to have your head chopped off on the internet so your parents can see it. However if you insist on staying here and taking advantage of privilages such as free speach and WIC, keep the counter-productive [expletive deleted] to a minimum while the grown ups figure out how to handle this god-awful mess in the middle east.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Hey Nodopey
I did not write this, it came from a member of my McCain Ravelry group but I felt it was sooooo good I have posted it.
I implore you to review the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, etc. Revisit the intentions and words of our Founders (Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Adams, Mason, Washington, etc.). What makes the United States so different from other countries is that citizens are assumed to be able to discern for themselves the best way to educate their children, take care of the needy, and spend their own hard-earned money. It is incumbent upon the citizens of the U.S. to take care of themselves, to take prudent decisions in order to truly enjoy the blessings of liberty. To assume that a large number of people are unable to support themselves and incapable of improving their situations is to do an enormous disservice to those people. Are they not men? Do they not have the same dignity, drive, and desire that others do to fulfill the human need to feel productive and to be independent? A large overbearing government that levies and forcibly collects punitive and confiscatory taxes to the extent that hard-working, law-abiding people are unduly constricted economically sounds the death knell for a free nation of independent people. A government that extracts the lawfully and hard-earned income from some citizens in order to subsidize the unproductive and often illegal behavior of other citizens is the killer of liberty, self reliance, invention, and decency. You must understand the immorality of socialism and communism, that it is the murderer of the American Dream because it is incompatible with human nature. Please, do not kill that dream for those who might achieve it if the incentives were there; don’t steal that dream from those of us who attained it through hard work, economic responsibility, and diligence; and don’t delete the potential for achieving the American dream from the futures of our children. When unhindered and unfettered from gratuitous government intervention, representative democracy works, the free market works, and an electorate comprised of citizens who know that they ultimately are responsible for themselves, their families, and their communities, works.
I implore you to review the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, etc. Revisit the intentions and words of our Founders (Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Adams, Mason, Washington, etc.). What makes the United States so different from other countries is that citizens are assumed to be able to discern for themselves the best way to educate their children, take care of the needy, and spend their own hard-earned money. It is incumbent upon the citizens of the U.S. to take care of themselves, to take prudent decisions in order to truly enjoy the blessings of liberty. To assume that a large number of people are unable to support themselves and incapable of improving their situations is to do an enormous disservice to those people. Are they not men? Do they not have the same dignity, drive, and desire that others do to fulfill the human need to feel productive and to be independent? A large overbearing government that levies and forcibly collects punitive and confiscatory taxes to the extent that hard-working, law-abiding people are unduly constricted economically sounds the death knell for a free nation of independent people. A government that extracts the lawfully and hard-earned income from some citizens in order to subsidize the unproductive and often illegal behavior of other citizens is the killer of liberty, self reliance, invention, and decency. You must understand the immorality of socialism and communism, that it is the murderer of the American Dream because it is incompatible with human nature. Please, do not kill that dream for those who might achieve it if the incentives were there; don’t steal that dream from those of us who attained it through hard work, economic responsibility, and diligence; and don’t delete the potential for achieving the American dream from the futures of our children. When unhindered and unfettered from gratuitous government intervention, representative democracy works, the free market works, and an electorate comprised of citizens who know that they ultimately are responsible for themselves, their families, and their communities, works.
Florence
I went to Florence Italy October 4-12. It is a beautiful country and one I could easily see myself living in except for the Socialism and Communism springing up. I would have to live about an hour outside of Florence in the Tuscany countryside.
I often wish I was Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched so when I have these long ass plane rides I could wiggle my nose and be there and wiggle away the jet lag.
October 4 and 5: Started with breakfast at mom's house (thanks mom cos breakfast after that sucked big time). We had coffee, juice, fruit and muffins. Plane ride to Chicago was uneventful. There was a lady in the Chicago airport with hair to the floor and she did not hit 5'. PLane ride from Chicago to Brussels. Does American Airlines think I am a side of beef to hang in a meat locker, cos the plane sure felt like one. Note to self always get bulk head row when traveling to other countries. I was by the door and when I saw it was -60C when we crossed the ocean at night I understood partly while I froze to death. We did have chicken and rice around 6pm for dinner followed by the Mrs Pettigrew movie, it was ok. Then I watched Enchanted, nothing else to do and got my fill of sugar for the day. I tried to sleep but no, then at 10pm we got breakfast, it was really 7am in Brussels. Landed at Brussels with lots of cold wet wind from the rain, there was someone at our ramp so we unloaded in the middle of the ramp and were bussed to the back door of the airport. Through customs and security again. They don't post the gate until 45 minutes before departure (not a smart thing considering how large the airport is). I was so tired and hot I felt sick. Got on the plane to Brussels, laid out and slept as best as I could. The brat behind me and his mother were screaming the whole flight but I must have been tired. I missed the Alps but I needed the sleep. The little creep finally shut up when we landed. Death taxi ride to the hotel past a Blockbuster, where was Wal-Mart? Room is nice, and had a nap before we were to meet at 3pm in the lounge. Met the tour guide and rest of the group, we got rules for the week, no politics. Tell that to the Italians. We saw David first thing, this is one of 3 Davids we will see this week. We then wandered around and got acquainted with Florence. Group dinner was bruschetta, wine/water, pumpkin and gorgonzola pasta, stew and tiramisu. Oh my tummy was one happy camper. The government regulates public utilities, so no heat in the room. There was a towel heater but it did not work either.
October6: up for breakfast of bitter coffee (last coffee I had for the week), juice, dinner rolls, and yogurt. They think coffee is all you need for breakfast. Wandered around the city and ended up at the Duomo Museum. LUnch was pizza which is only thin crust and I dont care for the taste of their tomato sauce on their pizza. They put corn in their salad but it is good. There was a large protest while we were at the Bapistry. We got our train tickets to Rome for Saturday and went to the outlet store for yarn. It is behind the Duomo Museum. The city closes down from about 12/12:30-2:30 for lunch and siesta. Their store hours are odd, how on earth can you shop if you work there? I could have bought tons of yarn but no room in the suitcase. I did pick up some, pictures will be posted later. I then went to a yarn store I had seen online and recommended by our tour guide, who was also a knitter. Beatrice did not speak much English and I only know quanto costa (how much) but I had a great time talking to her. When I left she gave me a needlepoint canvas of the river we crossed to get to her shop, I was touched. Will post a picture of the canvas later. We were close to the Point Vecchio bridge and on the bridge there are jewelry stores that close up to look like a jewelry box at night, very cool. Sat on the bridge and people watched and then off to Happy HOur with the group. My first taste of gelato, pistachio, oh my I could become addicted. At their gelato stores they sell one square of waffle with nutella, I always though waffles were for breakfast but here they are like cookies. Dinner was at Nella's around the corner of the hotel, after that we walked to Groms for caramel gelato.
October7: Breakfast if you can call it that was late, so grabbed some bread and off we went. Walked to a monastery with a beautiful garden, could have sat inthe garden all day away from the city life. Had lunch at a cafeteria and had to have a salad. Then off to the market, they eat every scrap of meat here, brain, tongue, tripe, intestines, etc etc etc, I was grossed out. Afternoon was the Ufizzi Museum, I was more intriqued by the paintings on the ceiling than all the hundres of pieces of art, there were way too many people and it was hot. If I see one more painting of Mary/Jesus. Tried to get in the Feragammo museum but it is closed on Tuesdays, the lady actually ushered us out the door. Had chicken and potatoes with rosemary for dinner. The rosemary grows wild here like a tumble weed and is a huge bush.
October 8: Our tour guide took us across the river to an open air market. YOu see the little old Italian ladies arm in arm with their dress, sweaters on and their red and beige plaid bags to carry their groceries for the day back home. We also went to a palace. After the market we went to a chapel. Wandered around the other side of the river for awhile and then went to the Feragammo Museum. He made shoes for lots of movie stars and many of his shoes were just plain hideous. Group dinner was bruschetta, wine/water, 3kinds of pasta, roasted rosemary potatoes and pork, chicken, roast beef and pork ribs, tiramisu and puff creme pastry.
October 9: I have caught a cold and today was the one day I most wanted to experience of the trip, a bus ride to the Tuscany countryside. We trekked to the train station to catch our bus. We went about an hour outside of Florence, lots of vineyards, olive tree groves and rosemary. Our first stop was San Gimignano, it was market day. Walked all the day through the city and sat for awhile looking at the beautiful scenery. Off in the distance you can hear children playing, must be recess. There are people on cell phones which seems odd to me because I don't picture them as normal everyday people like me. Smack dab in the middle is a yellow cream Bentley, way cool. If I was going to pick a country to live in other than America, it would be here away from the major cities in the little cities in the country. I picture myself sitting on my veranda sipping a glass of Chianti knitting or reading or spinning. I would have a pashmina around my shoulder listening to the quiet of the evening. I envision getting up in the morning reading the paper, having my coffee and working in the garden, spinning wool for market day and picking tomatoes for lunch for bruschetta with mozarella. In the afternoon I would nap and perhaps spin more wool for market day. What a life of luxury it would be and a simple life at that. Meals here are a social event, they last 2-3-4 hours with several courses of people just sharing food and life. At home we scarf down our food in 30 minutes and never really take the time to enjoy it or our companions. Sad isn't it? We left San Gimgnano and went to a B&B for lunch. The lady there is a Countess and the winery has been in her family for over 400years. They make wine and olive oil there. We had bruschetta/white wine, cheeses/red wine, pancetta/red wine, and salami/brunella, and for dessert a very sweet wine with biscotti. We also went to a very teeny city behind a wall of stone that would take 5 minutes to walk from end to end. It was a beautiful day with just a light breeze and good drugs from the Pharmicia.
October 10: I stayed in and slept. I have not slept but the first night we have been here. The room is like a meat locker and the noise, oh my it is way too much. The rest of the group went to the Bargello Museum to see the queer David. The fake David is in a square that is being reworked. This was our last group dinner: Ribolatti(bread and bean soup), gnocchi and ravioli, beef flamed in cognac and rosemary roasted potatoes and caramel flan.
October 11: On the train to Rome, the first part of the trip was in a tunnel but the countryside was beautiful. I never saw what I could call a residential area, tons of apartments and small at that. They put their washer/dryers on the decks, I guess if you don't have room inside put them outside, heck they do in Arkansas, so...This hotel is smaller but nicer and much quieter. There was a protest just outside the train station, apparently the Communist party is trying to take over Italy again. Took the metro to the Coliseum. Ate McDonalds for lunch, I needed some American food, not all the heavy pasta I have consumed for the week. Wandered around Rome and then came back and went to dinner around the corner. I had a pear, parmesan cheese salad, that was one of the best meals I had or I was just hungry for some greens.
October 12: This was a 31 hour day with the 7 hour gain from Italy to America. The plane ride from Rome to NYC was 10 hours with Speed Racer and August Rush for the movies. I was beginning to feel claustrophobic about hour 5. Had two meals and finally got off the plane at NYC. A four hour layover and then to Chicago and then home about 11pm.
All in all it was a great trip but very tiring and the cold on top of that. If you ever get a chance to go to Italy do so, I loved Florence, Rome was ok but not first choice. I will post pictures later when I get them all sorted out.
I often wish I was Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched so when I have these long ass plane rides I could wiggle my nose and be there and wiggle away the jet lag.
October 4 and 5: Started with breakfast at mom's house (thanks mom cos breakfast after that sucked big time). We had coffee, juice, fruit and muffins. Plane ride to Chicago was uneventful. There was a lady in the Chicago airport with hair to the floor and she did not hit 5'. PLane ride from Chicago to Brussels. Does American Airlines think I am a side of beef to hang in a meat locker, cos the plane sure felt like one. Note to self always get bulk head row when traveling to other countries. I was by the door and when I saw it was -60C when we crossed the ocean at night I understood partly while I froze to death. We did have chicken and rice around 6pm for dinner followed by the Mrs Pettigrew movie, it was ok. Then I watched Enchanted, nothing else to do and got my fill of sugar for the day. I tried to sleep but no, then at 10pm we got breakfast, it was really 7am in Brussels. Landed at Brussels with lots of cold wet wind from the rain, there was someone at our ramp so we unloaded in the middle of the ramp and were bussed to the back door of the airport. Through customs and security again. They don't post the gate until 45 minutes before departure (not a smart thing considering how large the airport is). I was so tired and hot I felt sick. Got on the plane to Brussels, laid out and slept as best as I could. The brat behind me and his mother were screaming the whole flight but I must have been tired. I missed the Alps but I needed the sleep. The little creep finally shut up when we landed. Death taxi ride to the hotel past a Blockbuster, where was Wal-Mart? Room is nice, and had a nap before we were to meet at 3pm in the lounge. Met the tour guide and rest of the group, we got rules for the week, no politics. Tell that to the Italians. We saw David first thing, this is one of 3 Davids we will see this week. We then wandered around and got acquainted with Florence. Group dinner was bruschetta, wine/water, pumpkin and gorgonzola pasta, stew and tiramisu. Oh my tummy was one happy camper. The government regulates public utilities, so no heat in the room. There was a towel heater but it did not work either.
October6: up for breakfast of bitter coffee (last coffee I had for the week), juice, dinner rolls, and yogurt. They think coffee is all you need for breakfast. Wandered around the city and ended up at the Duomo Museum. LUnch was pizza which is only thin crust and I dont care for the taste of their tomato sauce on their pizza. They put corn in their salad but it is good. There was a large protest while we were at the Bapistry. We got our train tickets to Rome for Saturday and went to the outlet store for yarn. It is behind the Duomo Museum. The city closes down from about 12/12:30-2:30 for lunch and siesta. Their store hours are odd, how on earth can you shop if you work there? I could have bought tons of yarn but no room in the suitcase. I did pick up some, pictures will be posted later. I then went to a yarn store I had seen online and recommended by our tour guide, who was also a knitter. Beatrice did not speak much English and I only know quanto costa (how much) but I had a great time talking to her. When I left she gave me a needlepoint canvas of the river we crossed to get to her shop, I was touched. Will post a picture of the canvas later. We were close to the Point Vecchio bridge and on the bridge there are jewelry stores that close up to look like a jewelry box at night, very cool. Sat on the bridge and people watched and then off to Happy HOur with the group. My first taste of gelato, pistachio, oh my I could become addicted. At their gelato stores they sell one square of waffle with nutella, I always though waffles were for breakfast but here they are like cookies. Dinner was at Nella's around the corner of the hotel, after that we walked to Groms for caramel gelato.
October7: Breakfast if you can call it that was late, so grabbed some bread and off we went. Walked to a monastery with a beautiful garden, could have sat inthe garden all day away from the city life. Had lunch at a cafeteria and had to have a salad. Then off to the market, they eat every scrap of meat here, brain, tongue, tripe, intestines, etc etc etc, I was grossed out. Afternoon was the Ufizzi Museum, I was more intriqued by the paintings on the ceiling than all the hundres of pieces of art, there were way too many people and it was hot. If I see one more painting of Mary/Jesus. Tried to get in the Feragammo museum but it is closed on Tuesdays, the lady actually ushered us out the door. Had chicken and potatoes with rosemary for dinner. The rosemary grows wild here like a tumble weed and is a huge bush.
October 8: Our tour guide took us across the river to an open air market. YOu see the little old Italian ladies arm in arm with their dress, sweaters on and their red and beige plaid bags to carry their groceries for the day back home. We also went to a palace. After the market we went to a chapel. Wandered around the other side of the river for awhile and then went to the Feragammo Museum. He made shoes for lots of movie stars and many of his shoes were just plain hideous. Group dinner was bruschetta, wine/water, 3kinds of pasta, roasted rosemary potatoes and pork, chicken, roast beef and pork ribs, tiramisu and puff creme pastry.
October 9: I have caught a cold and today was the one day I most wanted to experience of the trip, a bus ride to the Tuscany countryside. We trekked to the train station to catch our bus. We went about an hour outside of Florence, lots of vineyards, olive tree groves and rosemary. Our first stop was San Gimignano, it was market day. Walked all the day through the city and sat for awhile looking at the beautiful scenery. Off in the distance you can hear children playing, must be recess. There are people on cell phones which seems odd to me because I don't picture them as normal everyday people like me. Smack dab in the middle is a yellow cream Bentley, way cool. If I was going to pick a country to live in other than America, it would be here away from the major cities in the little cities in the country. I picture myself sitting on my veranda sipping a glass of Chianti knitting or reading or spinning. I would have a pashmina around my shoulder listening to the quiet of the evening. I envision getting up in the morning reading the paper, having my coffee and working in the garden, spinning wool for market day and picking tomatoes for lunch for bruschetta with mozarella. In the afternoon I would nap and perhaps spin more wool for market day. What a life of luxury it would be and a simple life at that. Meals here are a social event, they last 2-3-4 hours with several courses of people just sharing food and life. At home we scarf down our food in 30 minutes and never really take the time to enjoy it or our companions. Sad isn't it? We left San Gimgnano and went to a B&B for lunch. The lady there is a Countess and the winery has been in her family for over 400years. They make wine and olive oil there. We had bruschetta/white wine, cheeses/red wine, pancetta/red wine, and salami/brunella, and for dessert a very sweet wine with biscotti. We also went to a very teeny city behind a wall of stone that would take 5 minutes to walk from end to end. It was a beautiful day with just a light breeze and good drugs from the Pharmicia.
October 10: I stayed in and slept. I have not slept but the first night we have been here. The room is like a meat locker and the noise, oh my it is way too much. The rest of the group went to the Bargello Museum to see the queer David. The fake David is in a square that is being reworked. This was our last group dinner: Ribolatti(bread and bean soup), gnocchi and ravioli, beef flamed in cognac and rosemary roasted potatoes and caramel flan.
October 11: On the train to Rome, the first part of the trip was in a tunnel but the countryside was beautiful. I never saw what I could call a residential area, tons of apartments and small at that. They put their washer/dryers on the decks, I guess if you don't have room inside put them outside, heck they do in Arkansas, so...This hotel is smaller but nicer and much quieter. There was a protest just outside the train station, apparently the Communist party is trying to take over Italy again. Took the metro to the Coliseum. Ate McDonalds for lunch, I needed some American food, not all the heavy pasta I have consumed for the week. Wandered around Rome and then came back and went to dinner around the corner. I had a pear, parmesan cheese salad, that was one of the best meals I had or I was just hungry for some greens.
October 12: This was a 31 hour day with the 7 hour gain from Italy to America. The plane ride from Rome to NYC was 10 hours with Speed Racer and August Rush for the movies. I was beginning to feel claustrophobic about hour 5. Had two meals and finally got off the plane at NYC. A four hour layover and then to Chicago and then home about 11pm.
All in all it was a great trip but very tiring and the cold on top of that. If you ever get a chance to go to Italy do so, I loved Florence, Rome was ok but not first choice. I will post pictures later when I get them all sorted out.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Rallies
On television today a Democratic operative pointed out that when Obama holds a rally 25,000-30,000 people show up, whereas when McCain holds one he only draws 10,000-15,000.
The Republican spokesman replied,
"That's because McCain's supporters are at work."
The Republican spokesman replied,
"That's because McCain's supporters are at work."
Sheeple-Quit Drinking the Kool-Aid
Obama and the “Professional Black-Victims Cartel”
By Tom Deweese Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Americans beware. In the future, should you disagree with “President” Obama, apparently you will be labeled a racist.
As has been highly reported, Democrat Representative John Lewis of Georgia said McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin were “sowing the seeds of hatred and division...” In the same breath, Lewis then made a comparison to George Wallace. The reference to Wallace can only mean one thing - racism.
It seems the attacks were made because McCain and Palin have started to comment on known associates of Obama who have questionable backgrounds. Obama has tried to get people off the trail of these associates by saying it was a long time ago, not relevant, and so on. When that didn’t work, Obama’s troops played the race card even though John McCain has made no reference to Obama’s race.
The fact is Obama’s relationships to known communists do matter. They speak to his character. They show who influenced him in his political choices. And they tell us something about what an Obama Administration may be interested in pursuing as policy.
Could Obama, himself, be a communist? Is it a fair question when discussing his qualifications and deciding how to cast a ballot? Obama says no - it’s racist.
Is it fair to look at the statements and records of those around Obama - those who openly support him, those being paid by his campaign? Obama says no - racist. But that doesn’t prevent Obama and his group to look at who surrounds and supports John McCain - right wing fringe - they tell us. Isn’t that another term for racist, according to them?
There are lots of questionable characters in Obama’s immediate circle, including Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers still travels to communist countries in support and praise of policies which rob individuals of their rights and personal possessions. For instance, in November, 2006, Ayers traveled to Venezuela to attend an education forum. That’s a nation quickly falling behind a new curtain of tyranny under President Hugo Chavez. With the great dictator by his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share this belief that education is the motor-force of revolution… I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane...”
Is it fair to wonder if Obama might consider Ayers’ ideas on education and Capitalism as his own? And if they share those ideas, would it be too far fetched to wonder if perhaps Obama could even consider Ayers, or someone like him, to be his Secretary of Education? Personal relationships matter.
Obama is upset that McCain crowds are calling him a terrorist. How absurd, says his campaign. Just mean spirited. But Ayers was/is a true-life terrorist. He was a founder of the Weather Underground. They planted bombs in the Capitol Building. They killed cops. They called for the overthrow of the United States as they sided with our enemy in Vietnam - the same communists who, at the time, were holding John McCain prisoner. And Ayers held a fund raiser for Barack Obama. Does it matter?
How about Obama’s relationship with ACORN. Obama’s campaign paid them some $800,000 to register voters. Fraud has been found in several states as ACORN has turned in voter registration forms with multiple addresses and social security numbers for the same name. ACORN has endorsed Obama. But to question the possible connection to ACORN’s vote fraud and Obama’s campaign is just racist.
Finally, there is Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam and one of the most documented white-haters in the nation. Farrakhan, by the way, is associated with Obama’s minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but that would be racist to point out.
But let’s look at what Farrakhan said on February 24, 2008 to a Nation of Islam Savior’s Day gathering. “You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. That’s a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.” Farrakhan had earlier suggested he would keep a low profile in the campaign, despite his enthusiasm for Obama. Does it matter that Obama attracts the support of the man who openly hates whites more than any other? What does Farrakhan know about Obama’s positions that attract him?
Here is something that may provide some insight into Obama supporters’ use of the race card. In 2007, it was learned that the University of Delaware has a mandatory program that requires residence hall students to acknowledge that “all whites are racist.” The program went on to offer misguided whites “treatment” for incorrect attitudes regarding class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality they might hold upon entering a school.
Now, why did the school think all whites are racist? Because this is their definition of racism: “A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture, or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. System, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination.” The school’s policy deserves mention because it is advocated by most self-appointed black leadership.
There you have it. Blacks can’t be racist, because they don’t have power over anyone. Only whites can be racists. So for Obama and his people to call McCain or anyone racist is simply a way of saying “Hey, Whitey!”
Pity the struggling middle class black Americans who simply work to better themselves with nice homes in the suburbs, nice schools for their kids, nice cars and clothes - all the things any of us want. Unfortunately for them, the “Professional Black Victims Cartel” run by the Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons and Barack Obamas accuse them of selling out - indicating they are “Uncle Toms” who are just trying to be white - turning their back on their ghetto brothers. There is no win for these folks. By their definition of racism, they become racist themselves, oppressing their own kind. And for lower income blacks who may have dreams of their own, the “Cartel’s” message is clear: their destiny is to be victims for life.
For the record, before we completely lose the English language to such gibberish, the true definition of a racist is one who hates another simply because of the color of his skin. Funny, wasn’t it Martin Luther King who dreamed of the day when people would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character? Apparently Barack Obama is no Martin Luther King.
So get ready America. If we get “President” Obama, any opposition we voice against his “compassionate” policies to redistribute our possessions to the “victims” will be met with charges of racism. As Louis Farrakhan has told us, the Messiah has spoken.
By Tom Deweese Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Americans beware. In the future, should you disagree with “President” Obama, apparently you will be labeled a racist.
As has been highly reported, Democrat Representative John Lewis of Georgia said McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin were “sowing the seeds of hatred and division...” In the same breath, Lewis then made a comparison to George Wallace. The reference to Wallace can only mean one thing - racism.
It seems the attacks were made because McCain and Palin have started to comment on known associates of Obama who have questionable backgrounds. Obama has tried to get people off the trail of these associates by saying it was a long time ago, not relevant, and so on. When that didn’t work, Obama’s troops played the race card even though John McCain has made no reference to Obama’s race.
The fact is Obama’s relationships to known communists do matter. They speak to his character. They show who influenced him in his political choices. And they tell us something about what an Obama Administration may be interested in pursuing as policy.
Could Obama, himself, be a communist? Is it a fair question when discussing his qualifications and deciding how to cast a ballot? Obama says no - it’s racist.
Is it fair to look at the statements and records of those around Obama - those who openly support him, those being paid by his campaign? Obama says no - racist. But that doesn’t prevent Obama and his group to look at who surrounds and supports John McCain - right wing fringe - they tell us. Isn’t that another term for racist, according to them?
There are lots of questionable characters in Obama’s immediate circle, including Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers still travels to communist countries in support and praise of policies which rob individuals of their rights and personal possessions. For instance, in November, 2006, Ayers traveled to Venezuela to attend an education forum. That’s a nation quickly falling behind a new curtain of tyranny under President Hugo Chavez. With the great dictator by his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share this belief that education is the motor-force of revolution… I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane...”
Is it fair to wonder if Obama might consider Ayers’ ideas on education and Capitalism as his own? And if they share those ideas, would it be too far fetched to wonder if perhaps Obama could even consider Ayers, or someone like him, to be his Secretary of Education? Personal relationships matter.
Obama is upset that McCain crowds are calling him a terrorist. How absurd, says his campaign. Just mean spirited. But Ayers was/is a true-life terrorist. He was a founder of the Weather Underground. They planted bombs in the Capitol Building. They killed cops. They called for the overthrow of the United States as they sided with our enemy in Vietnam - the same communists who, at the time, were holding John McCain prisoner. And Ayers held a fund raiser for Barack Obama. Does it matter?
How about Obama’s relationship with ACORN. Obama’s campaign paid them some $800,000 to register voters. Fraud has been found in several states as ACORN has turned in voter registration forms with multiple addresses and social security numbers for the same name. ACORN has endorsed Obama. But to question the possible connection to ACORN’s vote fraud and Obama’s campaign is just racist.
Finally, there is Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam and one of the most documented white-haters in the nation. Farrakhan, by the way, is associated with Obama’s minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but that would be racist to point out.
But let’s look at what Farrakhan said on February 24, 2008 to a Nation of Islam Savior’s Day gathering. “You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. That’s a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.” Farrakhan had earlier suggested he would keep a low profile in the campaign, despite his enthusiasm for Obama. Does it matter that Obama attracts the support of the man who openly hates whites more than any other? What does Farrakhan know about Obama’s positions that attract him?
Here is something that may provide some insight into Obama supporters’ use of the race card. In 2007, it was learned that the University of Delaware has a mandatory program that requires residence hall students to acknowledge that “all whites are racist.” The program went on to offer misguided whites “treatment” for incorrect attitudes regarding class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality they might hold upon entering a school.
Now, why did the school think all whites are racist? Because this is their definition of racism: “A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture, or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. System, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination.” The school’s policy deserves mention because it is advocated by most self-appointed black leadership.
There you have it. Blacks can’t be racist, because they don’t have power over anyone. Only whites can be racists. So for Obama and his people to call McCain or anyone racist is simply a way of saying “Hey, Whitey!”
Pity the struggling middle class black Americans who simply work to better themselves with nice homes in the suburbs, nice schools for their kids, nice cars and clothes - all the things any of us want. Unfortunately for them, the “Professional Black Victims Cartel” run by the Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons and Barack Obamas accuse them of selling out - indicating they are “Uncle Toms” who are just trying to be white - turning their back on their ghetto brothers. There is no win for these folks. By their definition of racism, they become racist themselves, oppressing their own kind. And for lower income blacks who may have dreams of their own, the “Cartel’s” message is clear: their destiny is to be victims for life.
For the record, before we completely lose the English language to such gibberish, the true definition of a racist is one who hates another simply because of the color of his skin. Funny, wasn’t it Martin Luther King who dreamed of the day when people would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character? Apparently Barack Obama is no Martin Luther King.
So get ready America. If we get “President” Obama, any opposition we voice against his “compassionate” policies to redistribute our possessions to the “victims” will be met with charges of racism. As Louis Farrakhan has told us, the Messiah has spoken.
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