Arizona Bill Protesters In Phoenix : Socialism/Fascism on Parade

The march against the Arizona immigration bill in Phoenix was like something that one might have seen in a news reel back in the early 40's as the war started to wind up. I'm old enough to I remember them and now it's here.

Very scary and very real -



http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/immigrants-and-socialists-march-against.html

Unemployment Recorded As A Video - Terrifying

Amazing! Bring this up and then click on the prompt to see a Youtube of how unemployment went from 4.6% in 2007 to 9.8% or so today.

Maybe amazing isn't the right word here, maybe horrendous or terrifying would suit the situation better.


http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Obama's Mentors Direct His Agenda of "Change"

"To whom we listen determines the course of our lives" mentors

Author unknown but the truth is lost on our president -

How many years did he sit in a pew and listen to hate from his preacher? How many years did he live under tutorage of his father, a committed communist? How many years did he study in universities that believed our way of life is wrong? How many years did he befriend a committed terrorist?

You decide -

Mark 4: 23/24
"If any man his ears to hear, let him hear. Take care what you listen to."

Prince of Fools - Who Voted for Who?

I have always maintained we have a huge number of voters that are willing to give up their personal freedom for just a 'promise' of a free hand out. They will do anything necessary to have others tell them what to do and when to do it. Making personal decisions is just to much work.

Security is walking in lock step.

Prince of Fools

Some people have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way you can understand them. We have a lot of work to do!“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.

It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president."

"The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.“The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”

Chris Dodd/Barney Frank/Fannie/Freddie = Economic Collapse

Is Chris Dodd or Barney Frank the best that we can come up with to help us run this country? Can we safely say the Chris Dodd and Barney Frank live in a world that is completely different from the one that we live in? I believe the answer is YES!

Is it time to vote out these people and replace them with people that come from a universe that is closer to where we live? Again, the answer is YES!


Democrats Vote Down 5 Percent Rule

In a bid to stem taxpayer losses for bad loans guaranteed by federal housing agencies Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) proposed that borrowers be required to make a 5% down payment in order to qualify.

His proposal was rejected 57-42 on a party-line vote because, as Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) explained, "passage of such a requirement would restrict home ownership to only those who can afford it."

High Taxes - Big Spending - Busted Economies

How can so many of our citizens turn a blind eye to what is happening to our friends in foreign lands as their socialist economies collapse.

Are these people ready to be enslaved? Is this what they long for - someone to tell them how to live and or when to die? Is living your own life really that difficult?

You decide.

HIGH-TAX, HIGH-SPEND MODEL STILL DOES NOT WORK

Source: Alex Adrianson, "High-Tax, High-Spend Model Still Does Not Work," Heritage Foundation, April 8, 2010.

State government finances are in bad shape because too many states went on spending binges in the early part of the decade when revenue was rolling in. However, the states did not leave enough in reserve to handle the collapse in revenues caused by the 2008-2009 recession, according to the latest edition of "Rich States, Poor States," published by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

For example:
If states had just kept their spending growth the same as population growth plus inflation between 2002 and 2007, they could have maintained all their services and still provided a $500 billion tax cut.

Political pressure, especially from government employee unions, is a big part of the reason why states do not have anything in reserve; state legislatures, for instance, have lavishly enhanced pension benefits, but state employees should have little confidence that the states will ultimately make good on those promises. Only 9 percent of state pension plans have enough assets to be considered safe according to government standards.

Many state legislatures, unwilling to take on the well organized lobbies for government spending, have resorted to raising taxes on the rich. However, that will only exacerbate the boom and bust budget cycles, as Maryland's experience demonstrates, says ALEC: Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income tax rate to 6.25 percent.

Already, Maryland has seen a one-third decline in tax returns from millionaire households; the rich have literally disappeared from the state tax collectors' sights. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $107 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $257 million less in taxes than they did last year.

States like Utah, Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota and Florida are the top five ranking states in the ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index for 2010, and have policies that include lower taxes and less labor regulation. Such states have had population growth of 18.5 percent over the decade 1998-2008, while the ten lowest ranking states had population growth of only 5.2 percent over that period, says ALEC.

Life's Philosophy : Live with Truth, Honor And Integrity

Life is about knowing who we are and then being satisfied with the result. Walk to the edge - play with abandoned - laugh - choose with no regret are just a few things we can do to make out lives livable.

Understand that living a life with truth, honor and integrity means taking a stand for what you know is right no matter the consequences. If you do, others will follow.

Quote from Tao Te Ching - #44
"Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you."

Priceless

Obama Skips Memorial At Arlington for Chicago Vacation!

Any questions? Again, I have to ask, who is this person? Where did he come from and why is he our President? Who voted for this person? Do all the people that voted for him still believe he is "the one"?

Goodness, what next. More importantly, how can this happen in America?


Absent-in-Chief: Obama MIA for Memorial Day, Vacationing as Spill Worsens
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 12:58 PM - Newmax

Already under increasing fire for his handling of an oil spill that many experts now say will be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, President Barack Obama is riling conservatives and veterans with his decision to skip the traditional Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. Instead, he will vacation in Chicago.

The decision not only has angered conservative pundits such as Glenn Beck but also has riled military families and others who expect the president to follow tradition on the day reserved for honoring the sacrifice of America’s soldiers. On Jacksonville.com, run by the Florida Times-Union newspaper, a blogger who identified himself as a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy blasted Obama for being missing in action.“He is not only MIA for Memorial Day,” wrote Luke Memminger, identified as a professional pilot. “The economy is faltering. The stock market is ready to enter a worldwide dive. North Korea is precipitating a war with South Korea that will involve us. Iran will destabilize the Mideast by developing a Nuclear weapon soon. “The coastline of Louisiana is being contaminated through inaction and inept leadership from the government,” he continued.

“A mosque will be dedicated at Ground Zero on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 massacre. We still have military deployed and fighting in two war zones. “Where is Obama? Chicago,” Memminger wrote. “Where are those brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Freedom and Liberty? Arlington Cemetary.”

Traditionally on Memorial Day, the president lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington. But Obama plans to speak at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Chicago instead.Vice President Joe Biden intends to take the president's place at the Arlington Cemetery. Obama will convene a press conference on Thursday at which he is expected to announce stringent new offshore oil regulations, as political pressure mounts amid the gulf disaster.

Obama will take questions from reporters in the East Room of the White House, an official said. The media appearance will take place a day before the president's next visit to the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, The Associated Press reported.The White House has insisted it has done all it can to mitigate the spread of the massive oil slick, which is beginning to clog the southern U.S. coast.

Officials will watch closely on Wednesday as BP makes a fresh attempt to plug the gushing oil well, more than a month after an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon Rig that set off an environmental catastrophe.

At KSLA News 12, which covers a region including parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, Web posters also were angry at Obama’s decision to skip Arlington.“I am a black woman, and I feel this is so wrong for the president to do,” one commented. “There is no excuse not to do this. This country already doesn't do enough to help or take care of people who serve in the military and this is just an additional slap in the face. The United States is more than capable of taking better care of those who serve and who have served.

“It's not all President Obama's fault about not taking care of veterans, this has been going on for years in this country,” the poster continued. “Yet you still have men and women who continue to serve, bless them all.”

Beck blasted Obama over skipping the wreath laying, saying he is "sick and tired of people believing the lie" that Obama "has respect for the soldiers." “Obama is skipping out on a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington Cemetery because he'll be in Chicago on vacation, I'm sorry, I don't ever, ever question the president's vacation,” Beck said Tuesday on his nationally syndicated radio show. “I didn't under Bush, I didn't under Clinton, I don't under Obama . . . “I have no problem with the man taking a vacation. But I am sick and tired — sick and tired — of people believing the lie that this administration has respect for the police or has respect for the soldiers of our country. I'm tired of it."

"Obama skipping the Tomb of the Unknowns this weekend for Chicago is offensive," added Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator for the RedState blog and CNN. In a Twitter post he wrote, “Obama skipping the Tomb of the Unknowns this weekend for Chicago is offensive. Chicago can wait. The Commander-in-Chief has a job to do." Erickson did acknowledge that a president's missing a wreath laying is not unprecedented. But in the most recent examples in modern times, President Ronald Reagan was involved in a contentious economic summit in 1983, and George H.W. Bush was on the campaign trail in 1992. He instead spoke at an American Legion event.“Barack Obama wants to go on vacation — the second vacation he has had since oil began spilling out of the gulf,” Erickson noted. “That’s okay though because the oil spilling is George W. Bush’s fault, just like all the new dead soldiers are George Bush’s fault, too. Why should he care?

“The problem for Barack Obama is simple,” Erickson continued. “The troops don’t like him no matter how much the White House propaganda machine tries to gin up staged pictures of Obama voting soldiers fawning all over him. But see the tepid response from cadets at West Point or talk privately with lots of soldiers and sailors and you get something else — they fundamentally do not respect their commander in chief.“There was no question they respected and loved Ronald Reagan. Same with George H.W. Bush, the last veteran of World War II to serve as president.”© Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Obama to Skip Memorial Day At Arlington Cemetary

How is this possible? Never in the history of our country has one man been so anti-American. Worst of all, he is the President of our country. He is not one of us!


Obama to Skip Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 03:43 PM

In a highly unusual move, President Barack Obama is going to skip the traditional Memorial Day event at Arlington National Cemetery to return home to Chicago for the long holiday weekend.Obama sees it as addressing one of the great broken promises of his administration: his early pledge to return home to Chicago every six weeks or so, according to The Washington Post.

On Monday, Obama will make remarks at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and miss the usual tradition of presidents speaking at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

Instead, Vice President Biden and his wife will appear in Obama's place, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, as well as holding a breakfast for Gold Star families -- families whose loved ones died in military service -- at the White House earlier that day.

"Sixty to Zero" GM - New Book by Alex Taylor

Good insight and history of GM being driven into the ground. Author and writer, Taylor relates how he gave GM every benefit of the doubt for years but in the end found nothing would stop the downward slide into bankruptcy.


Sixty to Zero -
a Company Loses Power
Reporters, in their hearts, rooted for GM, for all the good it did.
May 24, 2010 (a book review)
By PAUL INGRASSIA

Many of the journalists who covered the long decline of General Motors that led to last year's bankruptcy were, in their hearts, rooting for the company. Such reporters—I among them—would seize on the occasional piece of good news about GM to write something upbeat. It would be a journalistic coup, after all, to be the first writer to call the company's turnaround. In any case, no one who grew up during GM's heyday, in the 1950s and 1960s, wanted to see an American icon self-destruct.

Insights into the journalistic mindset, as well as keen observations about GM itself, are what make "Sixty to Zero" an enlightening and engaging read. Alex Taylor III, a longtime auto writer for Fortune magazine, doesn't hesitate to tell one on himself, so to speak. He reveals repeated instances where he bent over backward to be nice to the company in print, only to be dismayed at the GM glitch, snafu or outright disaster that followed. Media skeptics say that reporters revel in negativity. "Sixty to Zero" shows that the opposite is true.

Not that Mr. Taylor was always upbeat. In January 1992 he wrote a cover story that questioned CEO Bob Stempel's ability to fix the mounting problems at GM. An irate Mr. Stempel summoned Mr. Taylor and his boss to Detroit for a dressing down. But 10 months later GM's board reached the same conclusion, and Mr. Stempel was out. In 1996, Mr. Taylor raised hackles at Ford. His scoop about management- succession prompted an internal witch hunt, with lawyers poring over phone records. The search never found Mr. Taylor's sources.

View Full Imagebkrv.sixtybkrv.sixtybkrv.sixtySixty to Zero/By Alex Taylor III/(Yale, 254 pages, $26)

The title "Sixty to Zero" is a clever play on words. Cars can be rated by the time they take to accelerate from a standing start to 60 miles per hour, but during much of Mr. Taylor's career GM was decelerating, from corporate success to financial collapse. The process took about three decades, from 1979 to 2009. Mr. Taylor's book is partly a history of Detroit in this period and partly a memoir.

The narrative begins with Mr. Taylor's 1950s boyhood in Greenwich, Conn., where he grew up with private schools and sailing lessons, got a radio internship in college, and decided to become a journalist. His younger brother, John, was the family's car nut. It was only when Mr. Taylor headed to Detroit to take a job at the Free Press that he became fascinated with cars and the companies that made them. He worked in Detroit for a few years and then headed to New York and Time magazine, and eventually Fortune.

As he continued to cover the car industry, Mr. Taylor showed a knack for capturing the human side of Detroit's larger-than-life executives. GM Chairman Roger Smith volunteered in a 1987 interview that the blotchy rash on his face was due "99% to stress." The admission surprised Mr. Taylor and knocked down GM's stock.

Mr. Taylor recounts an article a decade later headlined "My Life as a Gay Executive" about Allan Gilmour, Ford's former chief financial officer. During his career Mr. Gilmour had been discreet about his private life, though it was widely assumed within Ford that he was gay. By the time the article appeared he had retired and made his sexual orientation known. It would have been easy for Mr. Gilmour, once the front-runner to become Ford's CEO, to claim that his orientation caused him to be passed over. But he took the high road. "Whether being gay hurt my chances," he told Mr. Taylor, "I honestly don't know. I've heard some people say it did, but I doubt it."

In his book Mr. Taylor writes: "Like everything else Gilmour did, the story was related with thoughtfulness and feeling."Another classic was Mr. Taylor's 1996 cover story about Lee Iacocca's trouble adjusting to retirement in Los Angeles. "If you go to somebody's house for dinner, everybody looks at each other's clothes," Mr. Iacocca complained. "There are a lot of guys you never heard of with these young girls, and it's showtime."

The chronology of "Sixty to Zero" jumps back and forth, but Mr. Taylor's efforts to come to grips with GM's decline provide a unifying thread. In a 1990 article, "The New Drive to Revive GM," he described the company's mounting problems and added: "No one—not even its competitors—can take any pleasure in the plight of General Motors." A year later he wrote an over-optimistic piece about GM's iconic but fading Buick brand, claiming that its new models might well produce a revival. In the end, the cars flopped. He now confesses: "I was anxious to write a positive GM story, and this one looked easy to pull together."

In 1994 he wrote another "glowing story" (his words) about GM, saying the company was finally turning the corner thanks to financial discipline and some promising models. Alas, the story was undermined within days by the company's sub-par financial report and glitches in launching the new cars. Pressed by Fortune's editors to write an explanation for the difference between his gush and the company's performance, he did, though it wasn't his best story. "Rereading it fourteen years later," he writes, "I didn't find it very convincing."

In February 2006, Fortune carried a prescient piece predicting GM's bankruptcy, but the author wasn't Mr. Taylor. "I was too close to [CEO Rick] Wagoner and GM to think the unthinkable," he confesses. In early 2008, Mr. Taylor wrote "that a real turnaround was at hand at GM." But it never happened. "I had swallowed GM Kool-Aid for the last time," he says. As GM deteriorated further, "I ratcheted up my criticism of Wagoner." Within a year Mr. Wagoner was gone, and GM was bankrupt.

As for the future, Mr. Taylor says that "success is a long way off." He states that GM, with the rest of Detroit, must improve its products and "appeal not just to red-state customers but to more critical buyers on the coasts." But Mr. Taylor, who recently retired from Fortune but still writes for the magazine, doesn't conceal where his heart lies: "The United States needs a domestic auto industry for its jobs, technology, wealth creation, trading balances and prestige. But it isn't entitled to one—every day it needs to earn the right to keep one."

/Mr. Ingrassia, former Detroit bureau chief for the Journal, is the author of "Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road From Glory to Disaster."/

Marriage In Heaven Problem - Good Humor

Time to lighten up - laugh a little.


On their way to get married, a young Catholic couple was involved in a fatal car accident. The couple found themselves sitting outside the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into heaven.

While waiting they began to wonder; could they possibly get married in heaven?

When St. Peter arrived, they asked him if they could get married in heaven. St. Peter said, "I don't know. This is the first time anyone has ever asked. Let me go find out,” and he left.

The couple sat and waited and waited for an answer.... for a couple of months!.

While they waited, they discussed the pros and cons or their question. If they were allowed to get married in heaven, should they get married, what with the eternal aspect of it all? "What if it doesn't work? Are we stuck in heaven together forever?

Another month passed and St. Peter finally returned, looking somewhat bedraggled. "Yes," he informed the couple, "You can get married in heaven."
"Great!" said the couple. "But we were just wondering; what if things don't work out? Could we also get a divorce in heaven?"

St. Peter, red-faced with anger, slammed his clipboard on the ground. "What's wrong?" asked the frightened couple.

"OH, COME ON!!!” St. Peter shouted, "It took me 3 months to find a priest up here! Do you have ANY idea how long it'll take to find a lawyer???"

Illegal's Highway Route In AZ Destroys Enviroment

This is just a little part of the highway in Arizona that illegals use on their way to all parts of our country. Why should the people of AZ care about this? And where are the Eco Fascists in all this mess?

- - and just who is it that says we must leave the boarders open for all to come to our country?

-- - and who is it that is standing in the way of state's rights to protect their own boarders from invasion?

- - - and who is it that is standing in the way of a state that has a moral obligation to protect it's citizens from attack from foreign power? Oh wait, isn't that the job of the federal government?

Okay, I see, the federal government doesn't care what happens to the states' population or that the boarder is over-run by a foreign power. The federal government is only concerned with it's new agenda of "fundamental" change.

A more simple term here is ' the government wins, we lose".

Immigrate Illegally to China : Shot As A Spy

Obama and the socialists, Facists in our government demand that the boarder remain open to all comers, even by the millions. The more the better. Obama and his administration think that giving citizensship to 20, 30 even maybe 50 million illegals in the next four years is a plus to the voting rolls. That it would destroy our way of life is of no consequence.

Remember, the cry of the modern liberal is "pull up the rope, I aboard."

But wait Obama says - we have to do this so the world will love us again, and according other liberals socialists on the left. That is, more to the point, the mass killers of the world will love us again.

Poeple that love freedom have always loved us and will continue to do so as long as we stand firm. We are the last best hope for freedom in the world. We go down, the world is lost.


LET ME SEE IF I GOT THIS RIGHT.

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A> SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE MEXICAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET ARRESTED, DETAINED, FINED, DEPORTED ETC.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET

A JOB,
A DRIVERS LICENSE,
SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,
WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS,
CREDIT CARDS,
SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,
FREE EDUCATION,
FREE HEALTH CARE,
A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT AND, IN MANY INSTANCES, YOU CAN VOTE.

I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION - IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!!!

Big Government + Big Unions = America Lost

Why do some politicians believe that they can do what ever they want to get reelected no matter how ruinous their actions. If they, the politicians and union bosses, know their plans are destructive to the general public, and they do know, what drives them to do it anyway?

All this is very hard to comprehend for most of us that must live within our means. They are apparently not like the rest of us, they are different people, somehow changed, altered along the way.


Bankrupting of America - We have a ruinous collaboration of elected officials and unionized public workers.

WSJ 5-21-10
By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN
Mr. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.

The American public feels it is drowning in red ink. It is dismayed and even outraged at the burgeoning national deficits, unbalanced state and local budgets, and accounting that often masks the extent of indebtedness. There is a mounting sense that taxpayers are being taken for an expensive ride by public-sector unions.

The extraordinary benefits the unions have secured for their members are going to be harder and harder to pay. The political backlash has energized the tea party activists, put incumbents at risk in both parties, and already elected fiscal conservatives such as Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Over the next fiscal year, the states are looking at deficits approaching hundreds of billions of dollars. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, estimates that this coming year alone states will face an aggregate shortfall of $180 billion. In some states the budget gap is more than 30%. How did we get into such a mess?

States have always had to cope with volatility in the size and composition of their populations. Now we have shrinking tax bases caused by recession and extra costs imposed on states to pay for Medicaid in the federal health-care program. The straw (well, more like an iron beam) that breaks the camel's back is the unfunded portions of state pension plans, health care and other retirement benefits promised to public-sector employees. And federal government assistance to states is falling—down by roughly half in the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Martin Kozlowski zuckerman zuckerman

It is galling for private-sector workers to see so many public-sector workers thriving because of the power their unions exercise. Take California. Investigative journalist Steve Malanga points out in the City Journal that California's schoolteachers are the nation's highest paid; its prison guards can make six-figure salaries; many state workers retire at 55 with pensions that are higher than the base pay they got most of their working lives. All this when California endures an unemployment rate steeper than the nation's. It will get worse. There's an exodus of firms that want to escape California's high taxes, stifling regulations, and recurring budget crises. When Cisco CEO John Chambers says he will not build any more facilities in California you know the state is in trouble.

The business community and a growing portion of the public now understand the dynamics that discriminate against the private sector. Public unions organize voting campaigns for politicians who, on election, repay their benefactors by approving salaries and benefits for the public sector, irrespective of whether they are sustainable. And what is happening in California is happening in slower motion in the rest of the country. It's no doubt one of the reasons the Pew Research Center this year reported that support for labor unions generally has plummeted "amid growing public skepticism about unions' power and purpose."

In New York, public-service employees have received gold-plated perks for much of the 20th century, especially generous health-insurance benefits. Indeed, where once salaries were lower in the public sector, the salary gaps in the public and private sectors have disappeared or even reversed.

A Citizens Budget Commission report in 2005 showed that for most job categories in the greater New York City region, public-sector workers received higher hourly wages than private-sector workers. And according to a 2009 survey by the same group, this doesn't even count the money that New York City pays in full premiums for comprehensive health-insurance policies for workers and their families. Only 8% of workers in private firms enjoy that subsidy. In virtually all cases, the city also pays the full health-care premium costs for retirees and their spouses. And city pensions are "defined benefit" plans, which are more expensive since they guarantee specific benefits on retirement.

By contrast, private-sector workers in the survey were mostly in "defined contribution" plans, which means that, unlike their cushioned brethren in the public sector, they do not have a predetermined benefit at retirement. If New York City were to require its current workers to pay contributions toward health insurance equal to the amounts paid by the employees of local private-sector firms, the taxpayer savings would be $628 million a year. In New Jersey, Gov. Christie says government employee health benefits are 41% more expensive than those of the average Fortune 500 company.

What we suffer is a ruinously expensive collaboration between elected officials and unionized state and local workers, purchased with taxpayer money. "Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." No wonder the Service Employees International Union has become the nation's fastest-growing union: It represents government and health-care workers. Half of its 700,000 California members are government employees. More and more, it wins not on the picket line but at the negotiating table, where it backs up traditional strong-arming with political power. It spends vast amounts of money on initiatives that keep the government growing and the gravy flowing.

The state's teachers unions operate in a similar fashion—with the result that California's various municipalities, especially Los Angeles, face budget shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars. California can no longer rely on a strong economy to support this munificence. Its unemployment rate of 12.5% runs several points higher than the national rate and its high-tech companies are choosing to expand elsewhere. Why stay in a state with such higher taxes and a cumbersome regulatory environment?

California is a horrible warning of how dreams can turn to dust. In most states, politicians face a contracting local economy and shortfalls in tax receipts. Naturally, they look to cut expenses but run into obstruction from politically powerful unions that represent state and local government employees, teachers and health-care workers who have themselves caused pension and health-care insurance costs to soar.

It is not an accident that in framing the national stimulus program in 2009 Congress directed a stunning $275 billion of the $787 billion as grants to the states to support public-service employees in health care, education, etc.

The lopsided subsidies for pension and health costs are a large part of the fiscal crises at the state and local levels. The subsequent squeeze on education and infrastructure investment is undermining the very programs that have made it possible for our economy to grow. Between New York and California, the projected deficits run about $40 billion—and that doesn't account for projected billions of dollars in the operating deficits in the states' mass transit systems or the multibillion-dollar unfunded liability in many of the state pension plans.

New York would be badly hit because it is on the verge of being deprived of tax revenues by Washington's increased regulations on the financial industry, especially the hugely profitable, multitrillion-dollar market in derivatives—an industry that is critical to the economy of New York state and the country.

City government was developed to serve its citizens. Today the citizenry is working in large part to serve the government. It is always hard to shrink government spending. It is particularly difficult when public-sector unions have such a unique lever of pressure.

We have to escape this cycle or it will crush us. One way is to take labor negotiations out of the hands of vulnerable legislators and assign them to independent commissions. They would have a better shot at achieving a fair balance between appropriate salary increases and the revenues and services of local municipalities. The electorate won't swallow any more red ink.

ObamaCare Adds Chaos to Emergency Rooms

It seems that the best examples that we have to help understand what will transpire with the new health care bill are totally absent from reality. These examples, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Tennessee's 'Tencare', have proved that a system that is totally free of responsibility for one's own health care will not work. And yet our leaders continue down the same path of all of these failed programs.

Again, why is this so clear to me and many others but totally lost on virtually all liberal Democrats in and out of public service, and the president. Is this their intent? Comprehension of this is very difficult.

Luckily, much of the general public is slowly coming to recognize what we are headed for and are taking action to prevent this catastrophic event. The people demanding accountability.


HEALTH REFORM THREATENS TO CRAM ALREADY OVERWHELMED EMERGENCY ROOMS
Source: Jay Heflin, "Health reform threatens to cram already overwhelmed emergency rooms," The Hill, May 15, 2010.

A chief aim of the new health care law was to take the pressure off emergency rooms by mandating that people have insurance coverage. The idea was that if people have insurance, they will go to a doctor rather than putting off care until they faced an emergency.

However, the new health care law will pack 32 million newly insured people into emergency rooms already crammed beyond capacity, according to experts on health care facilities. People who build hospitals say the newly insured people will still go to emergency rooms for primary care because they don't have a doctor.

Some Democrats agree with this assessment. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) suspects the fallout that occurred in Massachusetts' emergency rooms could happen nationwide after health reform kicks in:

In 2006 Massachusetts created near-universal coverage for residents, which was supposed to ease the traffic in hospital emergency rooms. But a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that nearly two-thirds of the state's residents say emergency department wait times have either increased or remained the same.

A February 2010 report by The Council of State Governments found that wait times had not abated since the law took effect. "That is not an unrealistic question about what's going to happen in the next four years as you bring all these people on; who are they going to see?" McDermott said.

Richard Foster, Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told The Hill that the current dearth of primary care physicians could lead to greater stress on hospital emergency rooms.

The Academy of Architecture for Health predicts hospitals will need at least $2 trillion over the next 20 years to meet the coming demand.

Andy Rooney on Common Sense

This has been around awhile but, at the same time, I hope this is true as it reflects the America that I have known for all my life, and I want it back! And what is truly wonderful, it is just common sense, and not 'feel good' rhetoric used to convince others that they don't have to feel guilty that they live in the greatest country in the world.

Take a stand for common sense - make a decision on right and wrong. We have a lot of history we can use to decide these questions and it's made us what we are. The last best country in the world.


Andy Rooney said on '60 Minutes' a few weeks back:

'I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers.. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America ; and see what happens..Jesse Jacksonwill be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer.. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.. I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, which is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE ? I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.. I have the right 'NOT' to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off. When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling; it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English! My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours. I think the police should have every right to shoot you if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word 'freeze' or 'stop' in English, see the above lines....

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business. We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich I don't pity the poor I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them. I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say 'NO!' I think tattoos and piercings are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of 'Political Correctness.' I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa so how can they be 'African-Americans'? Besides, Africa is a continent... I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe . I am proud to be from America and nowhere else. And if you don't like my point of view, tough.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

THIS IS GREAT and CBS didn't stop him. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God.. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having 'In God We Trust' on our money and having 'God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the 14% to BE QUIET!!!

Free Trade Will Slow Take-Over of Economy : Obama Waits

What good insight from IBD - the talk is about winning free trade for our country, but in truth it's not about free trade and jobs at all, it's about "fundamentally changing America". To do this one must first destroy the old ways and then rebuild using the new agenda and philosophy.

Spreading the wealth and leveling the playing field - everyone will be the same, everyone enjoying the fruits of other peoples labors, except those in power. It's the old game made new once again - Socialism.


YES, FREE TRADE HAS ITS DEADLINES
Source: Editorial, "Yes, Free Trade Has Its Deadlines," Investor's Business Daily, May 17, 2010.

President Obama's failure to go to bat for three pending free-trade agreements, in deference to Big Labor, is becoming a problem, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).

According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study released Friday - Free trade pacts have created 5.4 million American jobs, and additional agreements could help create more.
Some 17.7 million American jobs depend on the 14 countries with which the United States has existing pacts.

All this trade adds $1 trillion to the economy.

Yet the U.S. has been miserably absent from new pacts as the world moves on, signing only 14, its last one in 2007 with Peru. By contrast, Chile has 57 free trade agreements under its belt and has gone from a Third- to First World country as a result. Mexico has 52 pacts and has risen too. More than 100 broader trade-opening measures are on the table around the world, and the United States is involved with just one of them.

As for the shunned pact countries -- Colombia, Panama and South Korea -- they are getting tired of this and taking their business elsewhere. These pacts represent lost markets for U.S. companies and evaporating job opportunities for Americans. It's a train pulling out of the station, and it shows there are limits to how long pacts can languish before other nations move on.

If this was President Obama's aim all along, it doesn't serve U.S. interests and will be a negative mark on his legacy. He can't win by holding back free trade, nor can we, says IBD.

Census Bureau's New Poverty Measure -SPM- Bogus?

Please explain - how can reasonable people spend their lives figuring our how to divide the country into haves and havenots knowing full well that chaos will follow? Why would they do this? Who are these people? Where do they come from?

EXPERTS PREDICT HIGHER SPENDING ON ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
Source: Cheryl Wetzstein, "Reaction mixed on proposed poverty measure; Critics see higher spending on anti-poverty programs," Washington Times, May 14, 2010.

The Census Bureau's formal release of an alternative way to measure poverty in the United States is 16 months away, but the rumblings of unease can already be heard about the politically sensitive indicator, says the Washington Times.

The bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which will be released September 2011, is "a bogus and dishonest propaganda device," Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told a Brookings Institution briefing recently.

"It's a Trojan horse," introduced under the name of poverty, but designed to find endless "income inequality" that must be fixed with even more spending on anti-poverty programs, Rector said. The government will spend $900 billion on means-tested aid to poor and low-income persons this year alone, he added.

Policy experts have been working for at least 15 years on a new poverty standard to supplement -- or eventually replace -- the measure that has been used since the 1960s, a measure that many critics say does not reflect contemporary realities and needs.

The problem: some experts think the current measure overstates the number of poor Americans, while another group argues it vastly understates the number. "Call me cynical, but I can see this [measure] as an attempt to redistribute more wealth further down the road," said Pamela Villarreal, who studies tax issues at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

"I think that what is going to happen is that, even though this is an alternative measure [today], there's going to be a lot of political pressure to make this alternative measure the standard measure. And then you're going to see a lot more money devoted to fighting poverty," said Ms. Villarreal.

ObamaCare Medicaid Promises To Crush States' Economies

This is one more item that is coming to light AFTER the ObamaCare bill has been passed - many saw this coming but their voices were lost in the whirlwind of ignorance in congress and the main stream media.

Well now we have to redefine our agenda to stop this nightmare before it can take hold in 2014. We must not allow it to be redefined or just changed - this most be stopped and started over. We do have a great alternative. It can be seen on one page of paper!

Vote in November to take back America. Vote in November for common sense.

AS MEDICAID ROLLS RISE, STATE BUDGETS WILL SOAR, ACCESS WILL SINK
Source: John C. Goodman, "As Medicaid Rolls Rise, State Budgets Will Soar, Access Will Sink," Heartland Institute, May 14, 2010.

Despite assurances the Medicaid expansion included in the health care legislation signed into law by President Obama in March is not an unfunded mandate foisted on the states, many states will find their budgets bloated with new Medicaid spending, says John C. Goodman, President, CEO, and the Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

The new reform is projected to cover the insurance costs of 32 million previously uninsured U.S. residents. Almost half this number will be enrolled in Medicaid, the public coverage program for the poor. ObamaCare expands Medicaid eligibility to virtually all legal U.S. residents with incomes under 133 percent of the federal poverty level, around $30,000 per year for a family of four.

To make the legislation more palatable to the states, the federal government has promised to cover all costs until 2016 and 90-95 percent of Medicaid expansion costs beginning in 2017, in addition to sweetheart deals for selected states as an inducement to garner their representatives' support.

Although the federal government will cover much of the cost of the expanded eligibility, those already eligible but not yet enrolled (estimated nationally at 10 million plus) will be the responsibility of the states under the original federal matching program.

A good case in point is Texas: Just over four million people, mostly pregnant mothers and children, are enrolled in the Texas Medicaid Program. Under the new laws expanding eligibility, 2.1 million additional adults and children are expected to enroll.

Of these, 655,000 were already eligible but not enrolled; this group is likely to be swept up and enrolled when the individual mandate takes effect.

The cost of expanding Medicaid enrollment in Texas is estimated to be $191 billion over 10 years. Of this, Texas' share comes to $27 billion, according to recent testimony by Thomas Suehs, executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Medicaid currently accounts for about 27 percent of Texas' state spending, or $862 dollars per Texas resident. A simple, back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests it is likely Medicaid will consume nearly one-third of Texas' budget when the expansion begins in 2014 and perhaps four-in-ten dollars by 2023.

This amounts to about $3,500 per Texas resident, depending on future patterns of population growth. And Texas is likely to grow at rates faster than other states, so this estimate is probably too conservative, says Goodman.

Health Care Bill True Nature : Higher Costs - Less Care

I don't know why this comes as a surprise to anyone that has been paying attention. Of course, if all you read or hear is the main stream media, you will not know about the destructive nature of ObamaCare. The lettered channels and main stream newspapers go to extreme lengths to hide the truth from the general public. Does this make much sense? Why would they do this?

Unfortunately, a large portion of the population is ignorant of this or they just don't care what happens outside of their personal little world - that is, until it impacts them directly - then it's too late. But not to worry, these people will always finds others to blame. It's their fall back position on most everything.

The real sad part is, of course, there are so many people that believe the 'free lunch' will never end. Maybe, with luck, they will wake up before it too late for all of us. We are all in this together and together we can make a difference.

WE FOUND OUT WHAT'S IN IT
Source: Joe Pitts, "We found out what's in it," Daily Caller, May 10, 2010.

Just before the House passed the health care reform bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi infamously remarked "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it." It has been nearly six weeks now and we are finding out that what is in it is not necessarily good for health care, says Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.).

We are finding that medical costs will rise nationwide:

According to a report from the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid, national health expenditures will increase by $311 billion over 10 years because of the new law. This same report indicated that individuals who purchase health insurance on their own can expect to pay an additional $2,100 a year (the individual market was already pricing out many consumers, but now costs will rise even faster).

Premiums are not the only area where expenses are projected to rise; because of new taxes and fees on prescription drugs and medical devices, the agency report states that costs would be "passed through to health consumers." We are finding that it will affect Medicare Advantage programs detrimentally:

Medicare Advantage programs were established to introduce market reforms to the Medicare program.

The flexibility of the Medicare Advantage programs have made them popular with seniors, especially lower income beneficiaries; nearly 30,000 seniors in Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District elect one of these plans.

Because of deep cuts in the program, Republicans estimate that one in four seniors could see their Medicare Advantage plan cancelled; these estimates were wrong -- now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate that half of seniors will lose the coverage that they currently have.

Seniors on Medicare Advantage are not the only ones who could see changes to Medicare. The law cuts $575 billion out of Medicare over the next 10 years.

It is difficult to clearly identify how this will change the program, but many doctors warn that they may not be able to continue seeing Medicare patients if the cuts are too severe.

Already, Medicare reimbursement rates are far below those paid by private insurers, says Pitts.

Obama's Energy Agenda : Wind Power - Pay More Get Less

This is just another shot to control everything that effects our lives - wind power is not in our best interests. It is in the best interests of those that feed on the idea of "fundamentally changing America" - that is " we know what is best for you, no matter what it will cost you."

Obama said that electrical rates will "sky rocket" under his energy plan. Was anyone listening to him that voted for him?

There is no price to high to accomplish Obama's agenda of total control. America is under attack from within and from outside our boarders.

THE PRICE OF WIND
Source: Editorial, "The Price of Wind," Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2010.

The ferocious opposition from Massachusetts liberals to the Cape Wind project has provided a useful education in green energy politics. And now that the Nantucket Sound wind farm has won federal approval, this decade long saga may prove edifying in green energy economics too, says the Wall Street Journal:

Namely, the price of electricity from wind is more than twice what consumers now pay. ( hilite - Slickster)

On Monday, Cape Wind asked state regulators to approve a 15-year purchasing contract with the utility company National Grid at 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour, starting in 2013 and rising at 3.5 percent annually thereafter. Consumers pay around nine cents for conventional power today. The companies expect average electric bills to jump by about $1.59 a month, because electricity is electricity no matter how it is generated and Cape Wind's 130 turbines will generate so little of it in the scheme of the overall New England market, says the Journal:

That works out to roughly $443 million in new energy costs and doesn't count the federal subsidies that Cape Wind will receive from national taxpayers. (hilite - Slickster)

It does, however, include the extra 6.1 cents per kilowatt hour that Massachusetts utilities are mandated to pay for wind, solar and the like under a 2008 state law called the Green Communities Act. Also under that law, at least 15 percent of power company portfolios must come from renewable sources by 2020.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved Cape Wind, placing it in the vanguard of "a clean energy revolution." A slew of environmental and political outfits have since filed multiple lawsuits for violations of the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, certain tribal-protection laws, the Clean Water Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act.

There's comic irony in this clean energy revolution getting devoured by the archaic regulations of previous clean energy revolutions. But given that taxpayers will be required to pay to build Cape Wind and then required to buy its product at prices twice normal rates, opponents might have more success if they simply pointed out what a lousy deal it is, says the Journal.

Liberals AND Liberlism : A losing Combination For Los Angeles

What more can one say then 'we told you so'. More and more people are coming to this same conclusion that liberals are the problem and not the solution.

The real frightening part is a lot of people still close their eyes to reality. They choose not to see things that they don't want to see.


THE MONSTER THAT CONSUMED LOS ANGELES: LIBERALISM
Source: George F. Will, "Trickle-Down Misery in L.A.; Mayor Villaraigosa's nightmare numbers," Newsweek, May 17, 2010.

Los Angeles is chin-deep in California's trickle-down misery, and last week Richard Riordan, who was L.A. mayor from 1993 to 2001, coauthored with Alexander Rubalcava -- an investment adviser -- a Wall Street Journal column declaring the city's fiscal crisis "terminal." They say Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa should "face the fact" that "between now and 2014 the city will likely declare bankruptcy."

Riordan and Rubalcava say two numbers -- 8 percent and 5,000 -- define the city's crisis:
L.A. has conveniently but unrealistically assumed 8 percent annual growth of the assets of the city's pension funds.

Over the last decade, the growth of the two main funds has been 3.5 percent and 2.8 percent.
And Villaraigosa added 5,000 people to the city's payroll in his first term. Nationwide, government employees are most of what remains of "defined benefit" America, says columnist George F. Will:

More than 80 percent of government workers have defined benefits -- as opposed to defined contribution -- pension plans. Only about 20 percent of private sector workers have defined benefit plans.

California's parlous condition owes much to burdensome health care and pension promises negotiated with public employees' unions; these promises are suffocating the state's economic growth. (Slickster Hilite)

Riordan and Rubalcava suggest replacing defined benefit pensions with 401(k) accounts for new public employees. But when another product of America's immigrant culture, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, tried to do that, public employees' unions squashed the idea.

Riordan and Rubalcava say the retirement age for public employees should be raised from 55 to 65, employees should pay more than the maximum of 9 percent of their salaries for pensions, and the city should end subsidies of up to $1,200 a month for health insurance for those who retire before becoming eligible for Medicare. But even his ideas for nibbling at the edges of the fiscal problem by privatizing the zoo, the convention center, and city parking lots are opposed by the unions.

They are government organized as an interest group to lobby itself for ever-larger portions of wealth extracted by the taxing power from the private sector, says Will.

Increasingly, government workers are the electoral base of the party of government.

So Villaraigosa must live with the arithmetic of interest-group liberalism.

Budget Crash Obama Style ; New York City Crashes

What will it take for the city managers in New York to wake up and make real life changes in policy? Maybe when the people are storming city hall with pitch forks like Greece.

Oh wait, I know, a Republican mayor and city council! Nah - won't happen.

A BIG, FAT "GREEK" BUDGET
Source: Nicole Gelinas, "A big, fat 'Greek' budget," New York Post, May 10, 2010.

As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled his updated $66.2 billion city budget last week, Greek protesters were terrorizing their compatriots and global markets. In other words, the West's economic crises are far from over, says Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute.

Greece is in trouble because markets have made it admit that its finances are impossible, says Gelinas: Athens will spend 13.9 percent more than it can expect to take in this year -- and that's no one-time thing.

For years, Greece has spent more on its public workers and retirees than it could afford - because membership in the "safe" euro allowed it to borrow cheaply. New York City isn't Greece, but its numbers are disturbing, says Gelinas:

In fiscal year 2009 (which started in July 2008), New York City spent 6.1 percent more than it took in via tax collections and other recurring local revenues -- a $2.5 billion gap.

In 2010, the city spent 5.2 percent more -- $2.2 billion.

For the new year, 2011 -- which starts this July -- the city will spend 7.6 percent more than it takes in, or $3.3 billion.

By 2014, the city will cross an important line, with an 11.3 percent gap; like Greece did, New York City is approaching scary double digits.
Everyone, says Gelinas, knows the problem is being caused by public-sector retiree costs. It's not simply that taxpayers have to make up for declines in the stock market portfolios that fund public workers' guaranteed pensions, it is worse: Even as taxpayers must pour more cash in, more is pouring out, too:

Pension and health payments to retirees are now $13.1 billion a year, up from $7.5 billion in 2002.

The cash drain is accelerating as more uniformed workers retire on lucrative disability pensions and others live longer.

Cutting library hours, closing senior centers and shutting pools down early will save just $36 million -- one day's worth of payments to state public-sector retirees.

Obama Care Damage : Doctors Stop Taking New Patients

But wait, Obama said all this will be taken care of, right? Reality Check time - Obama and the liberal Democrats lied, mislead the public, just to get the bill past so millions of people that currently have coverage can get free coverage and vote for liberal Democrats for more hand outs.

Who will pay for all this? The CBO now says the health care bill will cost more then stated - surprise - surprise - and the tax payers will pick up the tab, again. Do the Democrats and the media hacks care, nah! It's passed and we take no responsibility for any problems that come up.

The plan is to have the Republicans repeal this monster, vote in a plan that really works, but blame them, the Republicans, for not making it all free and for delays. Ah, read this as 'rationing of care'.

The media hacks and the Democrats will love this. The liberal Democrats commit the crime, but the public pays the fine and does the time. Shameless!

DOCTORS SHORTAGE WILL SPELL DELAYS
Source: Greg Bordonaro, "Doctors Shortage Will Spell Delays," Hartford Business Journal, May 3, 2010.

The Connecticut State Medical Society is warning of a major shortage of primary care physicians in the state that, if not addressed soon, will lead to longer waiting periods for patients or a lack of access to doctors for the newly insured, says the Hartford Business Journal.

According to a survey by the medical society, which polled 498 doctors:

Some 28 percent of internists and 26 percent of family physicians said they already are not accepting new patients.

New patients have to wait an average of 18 days for a routine office visit, while existing patients have to wait 16 days to see a pediatrician or 15 days for an internist.

The addition of thousands of newly insured patients will make the problem worse, especially in rural areas, if structural issues are not addressed, officials said:

In Hartford County, it is estimated that 13.4 percent of the 544,000 individuals between the ages of 18 to 64 are uninsured and are expected to get coverage under both state and federal health care reform initiatives.

That means of the approximately 531 physicians in the region that currently provide primary care, they will each need to add at least 137 new patients.
But since nearly 23 percent of those doctors aren't adding patients, the average physician that is would need to add 179 patients.

The primary care shortage is a result of many factors. According to Matthew Katz, executive vice president of the state medical society, fewer medical students are going into the field because primary care doctors are paid less than specialists. The huge debt load medical students carry after they graduate also adds pressure to go into the highest paying practice areas.

Jews Open Website for Palin

Opposition to Obama is coming from all sides, and Palin's popularity is gaining much faster than anyone thought.

Jews for Sarah Palin Website Launched

With American Jews concerned about President Barack Obama’s stance on Israel, a new Jewish group has been formed to express support for Sarah Palin, an outspoken backer of Israeli policy.
While Obama has protested Israel’s construction in annexed East Jerusalem, Palin has said she opposes a freeze on settlement growth.

“I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand,” the former Alaska governor told Barbara Walters.
Now Benyamin Korn, a former editor of the Jewish Exponent, has founded Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin, “and his efforts are part of some recent Jewish support that has been trickling in the direction of the hockey mom from Wasilla,” the Jewish publication Forward observed.

Korn has also launched a website, JewsforSarah.com. According to the site, “Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is an independent group of academic, religious, and political leaders, dedicated to promoting consideration of Sarah Palin’s political positions in the wider Jewish community.”
The site went live in mid-April, shortly after Obama suggested the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian dispute was endangering American troops in the Middle East.

Jewish support for Palin is gaining traction. Shortly before the 2008 election, Republican vice presidential candidate Palin garnered an approval rating of just 37 percent among Jewish voters in one poll. But Forward observes: “Even though American Jews have repeatedly disapproved of her in large numbers in poll after poll, giving her abysmally low approval ratings, her recent high-profile jabs at the president have earned her support from some of the most prominent Jewish conservatives today.”

One of those conservatives, Norman Podhoretz — former editor of Commentary — went so far as to say in a March Op-Ed piece for The Wall Street Journal that he would “rather have Sarah Palin sitting in the Oval Office than Barack Obama.”
Korn faces a tough challenge in gathering support for Palin among American Jews, considering that she has referred to the United States as a “Christian nation” and questioned the separation of church and state.

But Forward notes that “with an increasing number of American Jews anxious about what they see as the undue pressure that Obama is applying to Israel, Korn thinks that more of them will come to see Palin’s value.”

Fannie AND Freddie Totally Corrupted by Democrats

The failure of Fannie and Freddie are well known, but allow them to continue to flourish is insanity. The liberal Democrats will continue to support these corrupt institutions as they provide a large voter base and an influx of taxpayer money to their campaigns.

In the last 6 years, Fannie and Freddie gave salaries and bonuses in the amounts of 216 million to Democrats. This is a good reason not to regulate. Right? Vote Democrat -


FANNIE AND FREDDIE FAILURE FOREVER
Source: Conn Carroll, "Fannie and Freddie Failure Forever," Heritage Foundation, May 6, 2010.

Earlier in the week Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told reporters about his financial regulation bill, "We've ended the 'too big to fail' debate. So no longer do I expect any argument to be made that this bill exposes the American taxpayer."

Sen. Dodd's statements are inaccurate, says the Heritage Foundation:

Freddie Mac announced this week that it lost another $6.7 billion in the first quarter of 2010 and therefore needed another $10.6 billion in cash from U.S. taxpayers.

Since formally nationalizing Freddie in 2008, the federal government has already spent $50.7 billion bringing the Freddie bailout total to $61.3 billion so far.

Combined with Fannie Mae's raid on the Treasury, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the American people will spend $389 billion bailing out the two government sponsored entities by 2019.

So much for American taxpayers no longer being exposed to "too big to fail," says Heritage. In fact, nothing in the Dodd bill does anything to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This despite the fact that Fannie and Freddie were key components in causing the very financial crises Dodd claims his bill will forever prevent.

Fannie and Freddie were both created for the specific purpose of making it easier for Americans to buy more expensive housing, says Heritage:

Starting in 1993, political forces pushed Fannie and Freddie to loosen their once strict loan purchasing requirements.

By 1996, regulations required that 40 percent of all Fannie and Freddie-bought loans must come from individuals with below median incomes.

In 1995, Fannie and Freddie began buying subprime securities originally bought and bundled by private firms; one of these firms was Countrywide Financial who, thanks to their status as Fannie Mae's biggest customer, delivered investors a 23,000 percent return between 1985 and 2003.

By 2004, Fannie and Freddie were purchasing $175 billion worth of subprime securities per year from Countrywide and their brethren -- a 44 percent share of the entire market.

There are other factors that helped contribute to the 2008 financial crisis, but Fannie and Freddie's use of their "too big to fail" status to create and grow the subprime security market was essential, says Heritage.

The problems with the Dodd bill go beyond its failure to let Fannie and Freddie wither into extinction, says Heritage.

Immigration Laws Mexico Enforces : A Video

Rush Limbaugh has a great way of telling us just what direction we can go to solve our immigration problem. Mexico has the right idea on how we should set up our law.

Little wonder they have no problem taking care of illegals crossing their southern boarders.

Immigration Laws Need Update : Mexico IS Right

Give this some thought and then decide who is right and who is work headed in this debate over national security. Make no mistake though, protecting the boarder is important to our national security.

(author unknown)
MEXICO IS ANGRY !
Three cheers for Arizona - Read all the way to the bottom to find the prize!

The shoe is on the other foot and the Mexicans from the State of Sonora, Mexico doesn't like it. Can you believe the nerve of these people? It's almost funny. The State of Sonora is angry at the influx of Mexicans into Mexico . Nine state legislators from the Mexican State of Sonora traveled to Tucson to complain about Arizona 's new employer crackdown on illegals from Mexico .

It seems that many Mexican illegals are returning to their hometowns and the officials in the Sonora state government are ticked off. A delegation of nine state legislators from Sonora was in Tucson on Tuesday to state that Arizona 's new Employer Sanctions Law will have a devastating effect on the Mexican state. At a news conference, the legislators said that Sonora, - Arizona's southern neighbor, - made up of mostly small towns, - cannot handle the demand for housing, jobs and schools that it will face as Mexican workers return to their hometowns from the USA without jobs or money.

The Arizona law, which took effect Jan. 1, punishes Arizona employers who knowingly hire individuals without valid legal documents to work in the United States . Penalties include suspension of, or loss of, their business license. The Mexican legislators are angry because their own citizens are returning to their hometowns, placing a burden on THEIR state government.

'How can Arizona pass a law like this?' asked Mexican Rep Leticia Amparano-Gamez, who represents Nogales .'There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona ,' she said, speaking in Spanish. 'Mexico is not prepared for this, for the tremendous problems it will face as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and who were sending money to their families return to their home-towns in Sonora without jobs,' she said. 'We are one family, socially and economically,' she said of the people of Sonora and Arizona .

Wrong!

The United States is a sovereign nation, not a subsidiary of Mexico , and its taxpayers are not responsible for the welfare of Mexico 's citizens. It's time for the Mexican government, and its citizens, to stop feeding parasitically off the United States and to start taking care of its/their own needs. Too bad that other states within the USA don't pass a law just like that passed by Arizona .

Maybe that's the answer, since our own Congress will do nothing! New Immigration Laws are needed - these that follow seem to work well:

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.

2. All ballots will be in this nation's language..

3.. All government business will be conducted in our language.

4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.

5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office

6 Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.

7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

8. If foreigners come here and buy land... options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

9. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.

10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted and when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.> * * * * * * * * * Too strict ? The above laws are current immigration laws of MEXICO!

Immigration Law Breakers Defended by Stupidity

Little do we know that our country would come under assault from people that are breaking the law and supported by people that WANT them to break the law. The president of our country doesn't support the federal laws on immigration! What? Is the defense of out boarders just more politics? Is national security just more politics?

Who else supports the law breakers other then the law breakers? Other state governments - basketball teams - news media - universities - foreign countries that have immigration problems of their own. It seems the deranged are everywhere - they know no bounds. They have no grip on what is real and what is wishfull.

This article well illustrates the derangement that exists in our leaders and others that find it necessary to display their personal ignorance on the national stage.


*Where No One Locks The Door*
By Doug Patton
May 4, 2010

Imagine you are a child growing up in a small town. You have always felt safe there. The crimes of big cities seem distant from your serene world, where no one ever locks the door.Then one night your next-door neighbors are murdered in their home, which is burned to the ground. Drawings of the suspects are printed in the newspaper. The sheriff says they speak a foreign language. No one in your town looks or sounds like that.Your parents gather the family together for a reassuring pep talk. "The men who did this will be brought to justice," your father assures you. "Until they are caught, I will protect you."

Then your parents announce that the front and back doors of your home will not only remain unlocked; they will be left standing wide open.You are astonished. Murderers are out there -- loose! Why don't we just bolt the doors? Why doesn't the sheriff just stop people who look like them? Your mother says that would be "profiling."

You don't understand what she means, but the way she says the word, it must be worse than what the murderers did. Miraculously, nothing happens for five nights. On the sixth night, you hear a noise downstairs. You wake your parents and follow your father down to the kitchen, where you discover a suspicious-looking man rummaging through your trash. He is mumbling in a foreign language.Your father opens the refrigerator and tells the man to take what he wants and to turn out the lights when he is finished.

Amazed, you ask why he doesn't just throw this man out and lock the doors. He tells you that locked doors are not the way of your town. "Besides," he says, "do you want him to hate us?" Angry and confused, you go back to bed and listen to the sounds of the man in your family's kitchen.

Over the next fourteen nights, six men wander into your house and take what they want. One night, you open your eyes to find one of them standing over your bed. In answer to your screams, your father simply puts his arm around the man and escorts him downstairs to the refrigerator. The next morning, your family discovers their home theater system is missing. Your mother shakes her head, while your father simply shrugs.

On the second night of the third week, just before you fall asleep, you smell something that sends chills over every inch of your body. Gasoline! This time you don't wake your father. You reach for the phone and call the sheriff, who arrives just before one of the strange looking men in your living room lights a match. The men are arrested and taken to jail.

The next morning, your father tells you that you were right all along. He announces that he is having a security system installed in your home immediately, which he does. That night, you hear someone trying to open the back door. When they are unsuccessful, they start yelling and pounding on the house. When you open the door to go to school the next day, your back yard is filled with angry people carrying signs expressing how unfair your family is for locking their doors and installing an alarm system.

They scream at you, saying that you and your family are bigots, that you hate people who are different, that you are a "racist." You don't know what that means, but you know that life in your town will never be the same again.---

Doug Patton is a former speechwriter and public policy advisor who now works as a freelance writer. His weekly columns appear in newspapers across the country and on various Internet websites, including Human Events Online and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers can e-mail him at http://webmail.hughes.net/webmail/driver?nimlet=deggetemail&fn=INBOX&page=1&degMid=14950&folderSelected=INBOX&uidValidity=null&sfield=Num&sorder=descending&reqReceipt=false#.

Obama's 'Post American World' View

If this image is factual and not photo shopped, we are seeing the true motivation behind the Obama agenda.

I still find it difficult to believe that our president could be this far left.

You decide -

(Author unknown)

The name of the book Obama is reading is called: The Post-American World, and it was written by a fellow Muslim.

"Post" America means the world After America ! Please forward this picture to everyone you know conservative or liberal. Seems the majority of the press is worshiping at his feet. If each person sends this to a minimum of twenty people on their address list, in three days, all people in The United States of America would have the message. I believe this is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Sniper Record Set In Afghanistan - 1.54 Miles!

Super Sniper Kills Taliban 1.5 Miles Away·
10:57am UK, Monday May 03, 2010
Adam Arnold, Sky News Online

A British army sniper helped save his commander and set a newsharpshooting record after killing two Taliban machine gunners in Afghanistan from a mile-and-a-half away.

Sniper- Craig Harrison Cpl of Horse Harrison sealed his place in military history.

Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison fired his consecutive shots from such a long distance that they took almost three seconds to reach their targets.This was despite the 8.59mm bullets leaving the barrel of his rifle at almost three times the speed of sound. The distance to his two targets was 8,120ft, or 1.54 miles - according to a GPS system - and about 3,000ft beyond the weapon's effective range.

The 35-year-old beat the previous sniper kill record of 7,972ft, set by a Canadian soldier who shot dead an al Qaeda gunman in March 2002. Speaking about the incident, Cpl of Horse Harrison said: "The first round hit a machine gunner in the stomach and killed him outright. He went straight down and didn't move."The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and turned as my second shot hit him in the side. He went down, too. They were both dead."The serviceman then fired a third and final round to ensure the machine gun was out of action.

Sniper- Craig Harrison - The sniper being treated after a later attackHe said: "Conditions were perfect, no wind, mild weather, clear visibility. I rested the bipod of my weapon on a compound wall and aimed for the gunner firing the machine gun."He killed the two insurgents as he protected his troop commander, whose vehicle became trapped in a field in Helmand Province and started coming under fire.

Cpl of Horse Harrison, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was using the British-built L115A3 Long Range Rifle, the army's most powerful sniper weapon. It is only designed to be effective at up to 4,921ft - just less than a mile - and capable of only 'harassing fire' beyond that range. To compensate for the spin and drift of the bullets as they flew the length of 25 football pitches, Cpl of Horse Harrison reportedly had to aim 6ft high and 20ins to the left.In a remarkable tour of duty, he cheated death a few weeks later when a Taliban bullet pierced his helmet but was deflected away from his skull. soldier400

British snipers are continuing to fight in Afghanistan

During the Taliban ambush, his patrol vehicle was hit 36 times. He said: "One round hit my helmet behind the right ear and came out of the top."Two more rounds went through the strap across my chest. We were all very, very lucky not to get hurt."He later broke both arms when his army vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.

Cpl of Horse Harrison was sent back to the UK for treatment, but insisted on returning to the front line after making a full recovery.He said: "I was lucky that my physical fitness levels were very high before my arms were fractured and after six weeks in plaster I was still in pretty good shape. It hasn't affected my ability as a sniper."

Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen : It's Do Now or Die Later

There is a lesson to be learned here and that is we have to believe that America is the last best country in the world and she must be defended. We can not depend on others to take the responsibility to do the job.

If we really believe the meaning of "Freedom means having nothing else to lose", then we must stand up and be counted on the side of 235 years of success in defending the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.

We all must make the decision one way or the other. Will we be glade to accept the loose of freedom to choose our own destiny, and be glade to accept the heavy hand of control by others, or decide to take responsibility for the inheritance handed down to us by countless others that gave their full measure to preserve the Union.

You choose! Freedom now or subservience later.



"I want to explain why SB 1070 is needed"http://tinyurl.com/24vbex2

I’m Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen.

I want to explain SB 1070 which I voted for and was just signed by Governor Jan Brewer. Rancher Rob Krentz was murdered by the drug cartel on his ranch a month ago. I participated in a senate hearing two weeks ago on the border violence, here is just some of the highlights from those who testified.

The people who live within 60 to 80 miles of the Arizona/Mexico Border have for years been terrorized and have pleaded for help to stop the daily invasion of humans who cross their property .

One Rancher testified that 300 to 1200 people a DAY come across his ranch vandalizing his property, stealing his vehicles and property, cutting down his fences, and leaving trash. In the last two years he has found 17 dead bodies and two Koran bibles. Another rancher testified that daily drugs are brought across his ranch in a military operation. A point man with a machine gun goes in front, 1/2 mile behind are the guards fully armed, 1/2 mile behind them are the drugs, behind the drugs 1/2 mile are more guards. These people are violent and they will kill anyone who gets in the way.

This was not the only rancher we heard that day that talked about the drug trains. One man told of two illegal’s who came upon his property one shot in the back and the other in the arm by the drug runners who had forced them to carry the drugs and then shot them. Daily they listen to gun fire during the night it is not safe to leave his family alone on the ranch and they can’t leave the ranch for fear of nothing being left when they come back.

The border patrol is not on the border. They have set up 60 miles away with check points that do nothing to stop the invasion. They are not allowed to use force in stopping anyone who is entering. They run around chasing them, if they get their hands on them then they can take them back across the border. Federal prisons have over 35% illegal’s and 20% of Arizona prisons are filled with illegal’s.

In the last few years 80% of our law enforcement that have been killed or wounded have been by an illegal. The majority of people coming now are people we need to be worried about. The ranchers told us that they have seen a change in the people coming they are not just those who are looking for work and a better life. The Federal Government has refused for years to do anything to help the border states. We have been over run and once they are here we have the burden of funding state services that they use.

Education cost have been over a billion dollars. The healthcare cost billions of dollars. Our State is broke, $3.5 billion deficit and we have many serious decisions to make. One is that we do not have the money to care for any who are not here legally. It has to stop. The border can be secured. We have the technology we have the ability to stop this invasion. We must know who is coming and they must come in an organized manner legally so that we can assimilate them into our population and protect the sovereignty of our country.

We are a nation of laws.

We have a responsibility to protect our citizens and to protect the integrity of our country and the government which we live under. I would give amnesty today to many, but here is the problem, we dare not do this until the Border is secure. It will do no good to forgive them because thousands will come behind them and we will be over run to the point that there will no longer be the United States of America but a North American Union of open borders.

I ask you what form of government will we live under? How long will it be before we will be just like Mexico, Canada or any of the other Central American or South American countries? We have already lost our language, everything must be printed in Spanish also. We have already lost our history it is no longer taught in our schools. And we have lost our borders.

The leftist media has distorted what SB 1070 will do. It is not going to set up a Nazi Germany. Are you kidding. The ACLU and the leftist courts will do everything to protect those who are here illegally, but it was an effort to try and stop illegal’s from setting up businesses, and employment, and receiving state services and give the ability to local law enforcement when there is probable cause like a traffic stop to determine if they are here legally. (Slickster Emphasis)

Federal law is very clear if you are here on a visa you must have your papers on you at all times. That is the law. In Arizona all you need to show you are a legal citizen is a driver license, MVD identification card, Native American Card, or a Military ID. This is what you need to vote, get a hunting license, etc.. So nothing new has been added to this law. No one is going to be stopped walking down the street etc…

The Socialist who are in power in DC are angry because we dare try and do something and that something the Socialist wants us to do is just let them come. They want the “Transformation” to continue. Maybe it is too late to save America. Maybe we are not worthy of freedom anymore. But as an elected official I must try to do what I can to protect our Constitutional Republic.

Living in America is not a right just because you can walk across the border. Being an American is a responsibility and it comes by respecting and upholding the Constitution the law of our land which says what you must do to be a citizen of this country. Freedom is not free.

Respectfully, Sylvia Allen Arizona State Senator

Voters For Obama Identified / Intelligence Questioned

Who Knew? A little humor on Monday morning is good.


A guy goes into a bar, where there's a robot bartender.The robot says, "What will you have?"The guy says, "Martini." intelligence

The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "168."The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration, and medical technology.

The guy leaves, but he is curious, so he goes back into the bar.The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"The guy says, "Martini."Again, the robot makes a great martini, gives it to the man, and says, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "100."

The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser, and John Deere tractors.The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time and goes back into the bar.The robot says, "What will you have?"The guy says, "Martini," and the robot brings him another great martini.

The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "Uh, about 50."The robot leans in real close and says, "So, you still happy you voted for Obama?"

Health Care Opt Out : States Push Back on ObamaCare

This is a good way to start the fight against the federal government's take-over of everything. Maybe it is high time that states take more responsibility for their own people rather than rely on the fed.

It should be clear by now that the federal government can't do anything with out taking more than it's share from all of us. This is a wake-up call to get back to basics.


STATES FACE THEIR FIRST OBAMACARE TEST
Source: Grace-Marie Turner, "States Face Their First ObamaCare Test," Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2010.

States have until tomorrow to let Washington know if they plan to participate in one of the first government programs to be launched under ObamaCare -- new high-risk pools for the uninsured. According to Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, the question states should be asking is: Why would we participate?

The high-risk program is essentially insurance for individuals who have pre-existing conditions and are expensive to insure, explains Turner: The new health law allocates $5 billion for insuring them until 2014 when enrollees would be transferred to new health-insurance exchanges.

But Richard Foster, chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, reported last week that the high-risk program will run out of money next year or in 2012.
Therefore, if states sign up for the program, they'll end up shouldering the burden for about two years after it runs out of federal money.

This will be a heavy lift considering the other costs ObamaCare is foisting onto states, one of which is the expansion of Medicaid, a joint federal-state program originally designed to cover low-income Americans, says Turner. Under ObamaCare, Medicaid will be expanded to cover 84 million people by 2019, up from about 50 million today, putting pressure on states' budgets.

Georgia, Nebraska and other states have already taken a pass. The federal government will likely set up these risk pools without their participation. In a letter to federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Georgia's insurance commissioner John W. Oxendine said he feared the high-risk pools would "ultimately become the financial responsibility of Georgians in the form of an unfunded mandate." Kansas, Sebelius's home state, among many others, is considering opting out as well.

If more states opt not to join the federal program, Congress will have to acknowledge that there has been a public repudiation of the federal program. That could create pressure to give states what they want-- block grants to increase their existing high-risk pools or, for states that don't have them, money to set up new ones.

Deciding whether to sign up for the high-risk program is an important early test for states to tell Washington who is in charge, says Turner.