Dick Cheney stands up against media gloss that is covering Obama and his lack of basic understanding of what we face from Muslim terrorists. Lucky for us there are more and more people taking a stand against the none sense that is Obama agenda of socialist intervention and power redistribution.
Interestingly enough, this article is in the media gloss to some extent as the author tries to find reason why Obama was so laid back and unconcerned about the Christmas attack. Little wonder why the main stream media has become so irrelevant.
Are we making progress toward common sense? It seems so, but it's definitely an up hill battle.
HONOLULU, Hawaii – Republican heavyweights steered a political storm toward Barack Obama's Hawaiian beachside retreat Wednesday, branding the US president soft on terror after a Christmas Day airliner attack.
Obama foes seized on the aftermath of the thwarted plot to attack Obama's entire national security policy and closing Guantanamo Bay, escalating a fight sparked as the president faces his first big test in confronting terrorism. The row juxtaposed Obama's measured crisis management and capacity to overcome an early administration misstep on the attack with Republican assaults that painted Democrats weak on national security -- a potent past tactic.
It also raised the question of whether Republicans had rebuilt credibility with the public on national security, which appeared to hurt the party in the 2008 elections after grinding years of war and challenged US power. "In the Obama administration, protecting the rights of terrorists has been more important than protecting the lives of Americans," said Newt Gingrich, a former Republican House speaker and possible 2012 presidential candidate."That must now change decisively," Gingrich said in a letter to supporters.
John Boehner, current Republican leader in the House of Representatives issued a statement criticizing Obama for treating suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a criminal rather than a mortal enemy of the United States."We're fighting a war on terror, and this was a terrorist act," Boehner said, striking a Republican theme critical of Obama's use of a mix of civilian courts and military tribunals to try terror suspects.
Former vice president Dick Cheney also weighed in, with a hard hitting statement to the Politico website."(We) are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe," Cheney said."Why doesn't he want to admit we're at war? It doesn't fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office."
The White House has sparred with Cheney before, and given he left office with approval ratings of below 30 percent, appears to relish the fight."It is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the administration than condemning the attackers," said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer in a blog post." This President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action," Pfeiffer said."Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from Al-Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country."It seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President."
Republicans pounced on an early misstep on the Christmas Day attack on a Northwest jet, after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the "system worked" -- apparently referring to aviation security measures following the attack. But given the fact a known extremist was able to board a US airliner with high explosives concealed in his underwear, the comment appeared jarring.
Obama's denunciation on Tuesday of "systemic failures" in the intelligence system seemed partly aimed at squelching controversy over Napolitano's comment and to show he was in charge of fixing the problems. With advanced telecommunications technology, a president can conduct his job anywhere in the world at any time. But the fact Obama has been relaxing in his native Hawaii, and not in Washington, may also have helped Republicans.
Obama broke his silence on the attack with a televised statement on Monday, attempting to portray calm and urgency. But when Obama made a second statement on US intelligence glitches on Tuesday there was not time to rig up the Marine base hosting the appearance for live television. As a result, the president's voice was broadcast on television at first using an audio feed -- contributing to an impression he was far away from the action in Washington.
Democrats cried foul when Republicans complained at the weekend that Obama, enjoying an energetic holiday of golf, tennis and workouts was guilty of a presidential vacuum over the attacks.But they used identical tactics when former president George W. Bush retreated to his ranch during a presidency punctuated by national security crises -- though Obama has so far had much less vacation time.Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved
Friday, January 01, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Muslim Philsophy / Theology Versus The American Constitution
This is something to think about. It isn't political correct to even write about this kind of thing these days but nonetheless, the situation still exists. The problem is what is the truth? And how can we ever come to a conclusion if it is never debated or at least discussed.
It seems to me some of the problems that we are facing with terrorism in this country is because we refuse to face reality. The reality is that millions of people want to destroy our way of life for no other reason then we are different. We look different, think differently and live differently. Does this sound familiar? And how did we handle that problem for the last sixty years?
You decide! The author is unknown
Can a Muslim be a real American or Canadian?
In light of the murders at Ft. Hood by a Muslim Officer (who had sworn to defend the people, our Constitution and the United States) this article becomes more timely and real than ever.
Can a good Muslim be a good American or Canadian?
I sent that question to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. The following is his reply:
Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia .
Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah except Islam.
Scripturally - no. Because his allegiance is to the five pillars of Islam and the Quran (Koran).
Geographically - no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
Socially - no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.
Politically - no. Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America, the great Satan.
Domestically - no. Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him.
Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
Philosophically - no. Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran do not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
Spiritually - no. Because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names.
Therefore after much study and deliberation....perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both "good" Muslims and good Americans. Call it what you wish....it's still the truth. What's the answer?
It seems to me some of the problems that we are facing with terrorism in this country is because we refuse to face reality. The reality is that millions of people want to destroy our way of life for no other reason then we are different. We look different, think differently and live differently. Does this sound familiar? And how did we handle that problem for the last sixty years?
You decide! The author is unknown
Can a Muslim be a real American or Canadian?
In light of the murders at Ft. Hood by a Muslim Officer (who had sworn to defend the people, our Constitution and the United States) this article becomes more timely and real than ever.
Can a good Muslim be a good American or Canadian?
I sent that question to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years. The following is his reply:
Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, the moon god of Arabia .
Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by his Allah except Islam.
Scripturally - no. Because his allegiance is to the five pillars of Islam and the Quran (Koran).
Geographically - no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
Socially - no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.
Politically - no. Because he must submit to the mullah (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and Destruction of America, the great Satan.
Domestically - no. Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him.
Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
Philosophically - no. Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran do not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
Spiritually - no. Because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names.
Therefore after much study and deliberation....perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. They obviously cannot be both "good" Muslims and good Americans. Call it what you wish....it's still the truth. What's the answer?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
ACORN Ruled Legimate by Courts : Liberal Congress Agrees
With all of the evidence that we have seen and heard concerning this corrupt organization, how is it possible that a court could decide that it was a legitimate organization worth more tax dollars.
Even as ACORN is under investigation in 15 states for voter fraud and other crimes against the people of this country, yet the Obama administration sees fit to continue to support them with more money and legal status.
Now even the courts are ruling in favor of the political criminals, but then, really, this isn't something new. Liberal Marxist activists are everywhere in our society only now they have come out of hiding.
This is so outrageous as to become incomprehensible. Where does this end? Who are these people? illegitimate
Rep. King: ACORN ‘Bigger Than Watergate’
Newmax -
Rep. Steve King says the ACORN saga is “the largest corruption crisis in the history of America” — yet he predicts Congress and the Obama administration won’t take action against the scandal-plagued community organizing group.
"It's thousands of times bigger than Watergate because Watergate was only a little break-in by a couple of guys," the Iowa Republican said in an interview with The American Spectator.
"By the time we pull ACORN out by its roots, America's going to understand just how big this is."
Hidden camera videos emerged in September showing ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) employees advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute how to establish a brothel and finance it with government grants.
But it also is accused of political corruption, election fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and countless other violations of the law, according to the American Spectator article written by Matthew Vadum, senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Rep. King, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Committee Chairman John Conyers will not investigate ACORN and a probe of the group is “not going to come out of” Chairman Charles Rangel’s Ways and Means Committee or Chairman Barney Frank’s House Financial Services Committee “or from anybody in the Senate. They're going to protect ACORN.
“Congress is deliberately dragging its heels on ACORN,” and Democrats in Congress are “using everything to protect ACORN because that's the machine that keeps them in office,” said King.
The congressman is especially angry over U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon's ruling in favor of ACORN on Dec. 11.
Gershon issued a temporary injunction prohibiting Congress from cutting off funding for ACORN, ruling that the funding ban ordered by Congress was unconstitutional in that it singled out ACORN for punishment without trial. The Department of Justice has reluctantly filed an appeal.
Gershon's ruling is "sweeping and far-reaching, and she even opined that ACORN has some kind of an implicit right to future contracts because they've succeeded in bidding on contracts that were similarly competitive," King said in the interview.
He added that he doesn't hold out much hope that the Obama administration or Congress will decide to investigate ACORN, saying: "This is one-party gangster government and they know what they're doing.”
Even as ACORN is under investigation in 15 states for voter fraud and other crimes against the people of this country, yet the Obama administration sees fit to continue to support them with more money and legal status.
Now even the courts are ruling in favor of the political criminals, but then, really, this isn't something new. Liberal Marxist activists are everywhere in our society only now they have come out of hiding.
This is so outrageous as to become incomprehensible. Where does this end? Who are these people? illegitimate
Rep. King: ACORN ‘Bigger Than Watergate’
Newmax -
Rep. Steve King says the ACORN saga is “the largest corruption crisis in the history of America” — yet he predicts Congress and the Obama administration won’t take action against the scandal-plagued community organizing group.
"It's thousands of times bigger than Watergate because Watergate was only a little break-in by a couple of guys," the Iowa Republican said in an interview with The American Spectator.
"By the time we pull ACORN out by its roots, America's going to understand just how big this is."
Hidden camera videos emerged in September showing ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) employees advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute how to establish a brothel and finance it with government grants.
But it also is accused of political corruption, election fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and countless other violations of the law, according to the American Spectator article written by Matthew Vadum, senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Rep. King, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Committee Chairman John Conyers will not investigate ACORN and a probe of the group is “not going to come out of” Chairman Charles Rangel’s Ways and Means Committee or Chairman Barney Frank’s House Financial Services Committee “or from anybody in the Senate. They're going to protect ACORN.
“Congress is deliberately dragging its heels on ACORN,” and Democrats in Congress are “using everything to protect ACORN because that's the machine that keeps them in office,” said King.
The congressman is especially angry over U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon's ruling in favor of ACORN on Dec. 11.
Gershon issued a temporary injunction prohibiting Congress from cutting off funding for ACORN, ruling that the funding ban ordered by Congress was unconstitutional in that it singled out ACORN for punishment without trial. The Department of Justice has reluctantly filed an appeal.
Gershon's ruling is "sweeping and far-reaching, and she even opined that ACORN has some kind of an implicit right to future contracts because they've succeeded in bidding on contracts that were similarly competitive," King said in the interview.
He added that he doesn't hold out much hope that the Obama administration or Congress will decide to investigate ACORN, saying: "This is one-party gangster government and they know what they're doing.”
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
America Facing A Bloodless Coup?
This a little long but a must read. Please take the time as it is so important to all of us that live in a state of reality and are horrified by what is happening to our country.
This is a powerful article and so to the point that I can't add anything to it - a sad commentary though on the state of some of our people and our country. But there is hope for our survival. The people in general are taking notice of how the "freight train has taken a gravel road" and recognize the proles of such a catastrophe.
I'm not sure who wrote this but she is good. Sorry.
*THE ART OF THE PAINLESS COUP*/*PART I**
Peggy Noonan wrote a piece [October 27, 2005] <http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110007460>* in the WSJ that made many people unhappy; some found it defeatist, some found it reminiscent of Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech, some found it downright paranoid and semi-hysterical. I found it to be none of those things. My impression, as one Long Island Irish Catholic Girl reading another, was that Noonan is on to something, but she’s /not quite there/ with it. Perhaps that is because the next step to “there” is a step any successful and credible public figure would be very cautious about taking; it is a step toward the Eternal, toward things seen and unseen. To take such a step is to risk reputation and a life-time of work.
I don’t blame her for not taking it. I however, am not a successful and credible public figure, and I have no reputation to risk. Like Groucho, I have no wish to belong to any club that would have me, and so I can dare to walk where Ms. Noonan could not.*Noonan expressed her belief that,*/* subconsciously*/*,* Americans are wandering through their days with a sense of things being, “Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination.”/Everything…A sense of unreality in our courts so deep that they think they can seize grandma’s house to build a strip mall; our media institutions imploding…Senators who seem owned by someone, actually owned, by an interest group or a financial entity.
Great churches that have lost all sense of mission, and all authority. Do you have confidence in the CIA? The FBI? I didn’t think so./A sense of unreality…yes…and illusions, too.*Some might argue that what is coming “off the tracks” are the easy illusions of 20th century America:* The perhaps naive notions that our elected leaders actually seek office to /serve/ the public good. That the press is interested only in presenting the/ truth/, no matter what. That our courts are peopled with lofty higher beings and geniuses who know better than the rest of us. That our churches are both safe havens and by-ways to heaven.
There was a time in America when all of those statements would have been accepted at face value. In our nation’s babyhood we believed and we trusted all the parent figures – the governments, the courts, the press, the churches.
Now, past infancy, we have come to look upon those institutions with the glare of adolescent angst. We’ve observed enough to understand that those in authority over us are not the paragons of perfection we’d so looked up to as toddlers. We see them flawed, weak, seducable, wholly human and fallible, and like good adolescents who have caught Mom and Dad lying or stumbling drunk, we at first sneered about it and gave some voice to our sense of betrayal. Now, we’re merely numb. Since our “parents” in these authoritative roles have proven themselves to be mere /creatures/, and not heroes, well, we’ve turned up the volume on our ipods, buried ourselves in our trendy lambskin coats and shut our doors to them.*
Our older siblings are observing this behavior with a measure of satisfaction.* I am not talking about our cousins across the Atlantic. I mean the “elites” whom Noonan writes have decided to find their “seperate peace” in all of this. She writes://I suspect that history…will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble…//You’re a lobbyist or a senator or a cabinet chief, you’re an editor at a paper or a green-room schmoozer, you’re a doctor or lawyer or Indian chief, and you’re making your life a little fortress. That’s what I think a lot of the elites are up to.*
Here is where I think Noonan falls a little short.* These elites are not simply milling about waiting for “the next chapter of trouble.” I think in too many cases they -like troubled eldest siblings, the “first children” who have never quite gotten over the subsequent additions to the family- have been actively fomenting chapter after chapter of trouble, for some 40 years. They /are/ complacently building little fortresses, but they are doing so for a reason.
Having written all of these chapters of trouble, they are feeling quite confident that their story is solidly structured, and they are ready for the /dénouement/ they have planned. The anticipation of their surprise ending is making them almost giddy.The ending, of course, is the /coup d’état. /Believing that the rest of us, now /disillusioned/, are no longer clinging to romantic ideals of honor, or truth or nobility, these always-restless First Children, devoted to deconstruction, believe they are about to take down the presidency, the churches, the “old” government and even the “old” media.
They expect to put into place something “brand new.” But believe me when I tell you what they are building is older than dirt. And up from it. Which is why they will need their fortresses. Castro lives in one, too.They’ve been practicing all of this, by the way, perfecting the Art of the Painless Coup so thoroughly that most ordinary folks do not even realize what has occured.*Over the past 40 years these hyperactive First Children have been pulling off small scale coups* with varying levels of success. They managed to deconstruct the academies, so that education is less a broadening of knowledge than a narrowing of perspective <http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/6255.html>.
They have deconstructed the liturgy to insist that a pantomime in clownface <http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2005/05/27/clown-eucharist-at-trinity-episcopal/> is a vast improvement over 2000 year-old sacrament and liturgy.
They have deconstructed government by constructing something so huge and unwieldy that nothing coming out of it is reliable or dependable <http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/>, and almost no one is accountable, either.
They have deconstructed the press to the point where the truth of a story is less important <http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=080305E> than how it may be framed and spun.
They have deconstructed the idea of fascism to mean “those democracies in Israel and America” <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4384264.stm> rather than the freedom-suppressing regimes which surround them.
And all the while they have been busily pulling things apart, they have kept the rest of the family distracted with the /television/, with the /radio/, with the /cinema/ – any or all of which have instantly been called into service whenever someone got a little bored and looked around, wondering what these kids were up to.
“Abortion?” said Aunt Sally, “Abortion is a /terrible/ thing!” Suddenly every news story is about the grim circumstance of illegal abortion. Suddenly sitcoms are showing the way. “Well, if /Maude/ had an abortion…maybe sometimes it’s a good thing…”“Free love,” sputtered Uncle Jim, “it’s immoral! It’s damaging to the family!” Suddenly every film hero or heroine is having free, uncomplicated, undamaging sex <http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2005/10/22/in-praise-of-square-ness-self-respect-is-not-prudery/>, and flashing some gratuitous T and A at Uncle Jim in the process. “I dunno,” he smiles to Aunt Sally as he settles back, “maybe it’s not all that bad…”
*Except that Aunt Sally, having been spoon-fed her enlightenment by media* overrun with these busy First Children and their co-horts, is not around to hear him. She has taken off her bra, taken the pill and several dozen lovers, she has “found herself,” lost her children and moved in with her newest partner, Charlene. They own cats and attend drum circles. They protest whenever possible, because a good protest can validate almost any life-choice by pinpointing and naming an enemy, and declaring that enemy an oppressor and a villain, even if that villain is liberating men, women and children and trying to create a safer world.
“An illusion!” They shout. “There is no liberation, there is no safer world, there is no nobility, no honor, no truth! All lies!” I will spare you the part where they strip down to their birthday suits and dance around, their sagging, pendulous breasts swaying out of sync with the drums.*
PART II**
The First Children applaud Aunt Sally.* They love the distraction she causes as they work feverishly on their coup.I think Ms. Noonan’s sense of things being “off-kilter,” is her own gut understanding that the painless coup is near, and perhaps she is not quite sure what might be done to prevent it.
*Well, one way to prevent the coup is to be utterly fearless and authentic* in pronouncing the things we believe. Pope John Paul II (and now Pope Benedict XVI) made enormous headway against the Painless Coup, which had gone so far as to turn our beautiful churches into bare concrete monstrosities <http://thecrescat.blogspot.com/2009/02/can-you-tell-difference.html> (ready-made for quick-conversion into temples to secular reason) and he managed to reclaim the liturgy and renew appreciation for the Eucharist by repeating the truth over and over, with the reminder, /“do not be afraid!”/Thus so, we must repeat, over and over, that while illusions may well be all around us, some amorphous notions, like honor and freedom and truth, are still real. They are not just real, they are /Eternal/.
*We must repeat again and again that America’s honor is no illusion.*
Imperfect as it may be this is still the land to which – in large or small ways – every free nation owes its current liberty. This is the nation that has routinely sent its idealistic young men off to foreign lands -to die there- not for empire, not for real-estate, but for the protection and advancement of that unseen thing that is freedom, the strengthener of the human spirit, the burnisher of human potential. First Children and their motley co-horts aside, this is still the nation to which millions of creative or industrious people wish to come, it is the nation to which the oppressed call out for rescue and relief.
*We must repeat, over and over, that the American Presidency* is, like a papacy or a monarchy, larger than the person who occupies the office, and that it is /noble./ The American President freed slaves when too many would not entertain the notion. The American President has carried the big stick used to overthrow tyrants and bullies both foreign and domestic. The American President has put his airmen to use to keep his vanquished enemies in Berlin from starving in a brutal winter, he has used his navy to bring aid after tsunami. The American President has dreamed great space voyages into reality, has opened closed markets, has encouraged a people to tear down walls. The American President has envisioned tens of millions of people raising purple fingertips to the sky, and made it so.
*We must repeat, over and over,* that Liberty is the means by which we created creatures are meant to live and to grow and be. That Liberty lives in the Truth. That Liberty lives where people can speak freely, without fear of injury or reprisals. That Liberty lives /only/ when the press is free and unencumbered – when it is /detached/ from events instead of entwined in them.
That Liberty lives when people refuse to be intimidated into silence or acquiescence, whether in the workplace or within the community. That Liberty is the fragile thing that diminishes whenever one refuses to acclaim it for oneself. In between all of those repetitions, we must do something else, if we are to stave off the Painless Coup. We are going to have to turn away from our distractions – the television, the radio, the magazines, the talkshows, the films, the fashions, the escapist entertainment, even the internet. We will have to turn away from these empty things – to make them smaller in our lives, where they and the popular culture now loom so large – and we are going to have to get quiet.
*A good musician knows that music is not created only by playing notes,* but by understanding the spaces between the notes, and their value. Just so, it will not be enough to simply repeat what is true – if that is all we do, it will only add to the din – there must also be silence, in which to do our other, more powerful work.
It is a cacophony of noise that fuels so many illusions, and allows those “chapters of trouble” to be so deftly written. The overstimulation of our senses has severely dulled our internal sensors. We have lost our bearings and our boundaries so profoundly that we are no longer guarded, interiorly, against scam-artists and tricksters.We have to get those bearings back – to find our centers and get back in touch with our “gut instincts,” which are there for a reason. And the way to get back to the center – to /our/ center, our “gut” – is through prayer and meditation and contemplation. /Prayer has power./ No force can stand against it. Not even the force of a generation bearing down and driving hard against everything that came before itself.
*CONCLUSION:*
It is true that there are many illusions in the world. And on the world stage there stride some masters of the sleight-of-hand and the misdirection – you can recognize them because they are all of a mind, and of a piece, and they are all working different parts of the same trick.But if you can recognize a trick for what it is, you can prevail against it.And this is where the Eternal comes in – the things seen and unseen, which I mentioned earlier. An illusionist, no matter how masterful, is still peddling /an illusion/. He has nothing behind him but his crossed fingers.
Prayer is no illusion, and one needn’t be a master to tap into its tremendous force. Even a novice may use it, although one does get stronger with practice and growth comes, for prayer is never stagnant. Aunt Sally has no idea how disposable she is, or how her raised consciousness has been a mere means to an end, another illusion. In the coming denouement, she and Charlene and poor old, befuddled Uncle Jim will be equally expendable, or useful only for /keeping the foodlines and the medical lines straight./ They will all be outside the “fortresses” of the elites, with the rest of us, if the Coup is permitted, if the First Children achieve their goal.
So, it is time for the rest of us to turn off the ipods, shed the lambskin coat and come out of our self-imposed exile, ready to do battle. Things are indeed messed up and off-kilter. But no matter how much our parent figures in the government or the courts, or the churches or even the few grown-ups left in the press may embarrass us or disappoint, they’re still ours. They belong to us, and the bond is forever. And it is time to get busy.
This is a powerful article and so to the point that I can't add anything to it - a sad commentary though on the state of some of our people and our country. But there is hope for our survival. The people in general are taking notice of how the "freight train has taken a gravel road" and recognize the proles of such a catastrophe.
I'm not sure who wrote this but she is good. Sorry.
*THE ART OF THE PAINLESS COUP*/*PART I**
Peggy Noonan wrote a piece [October 27, 2005] <http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110007460>* in the WSJ that made many people unhappy; some found it defeatist, some found it reminiscent of Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech, some found it downright paranoid and semi-hysterical. I found it to be none of those things. My impression, as one Long Island Irish Catholic Girl reading another, was that Noonan is on to something, but she’s /not quite there/ with it. Perhaps that is because the next step to “there” is a step any successful and credible public figure would be very cautious about taking; it is a step toward the Eternal, toward things seen and unseen. To take such a step is to risk reputation and a life-time of work.
I don’t blame her for not taking it. I however, am not a successful and credible public figure, and I have no reputation to risk. Like Groucho, I have no wish to belong to any club that would have me, and so I can dare to walk where Ms. Noonan could not.*Noonan expressed her belief that,*/* subconsciously*/*,* Americans are wandering through their days with a sense of things being, “Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination.”/Everything…A sense of unreality in our courts so deep that they think they can seize grandma’s house to build a strip mall; our media institutions imploding…Senators who seem owned by someone, actually owned, by an interest group or a financial entity.
Great churches that have lost all sense of mission, and all authority. Do you have confidence in the CIA? The FBI? I didn’t think so./A sense of unreality…yes…and illusions, too.*Some might argue that what is coming “off the tracks” are the easy illusions of 20th century America:* The perhaps naive notions that our elected leaders actually seek office to /serve/ the public good. That the press is interested only in presenting the/ truth/, no matter what. That our courts are peopled with lofty higher beings and geniuses who know better than the rest of us. That our churches are both safe havens and by-ways to heaven.
There was a time in America when all of those statements would have been accepted at face value. In our nation’s babyhood we believed and we trusted all the parent figures – the governments, the courts, the press, the churches.
Now, past infancy, we have come to look upon those institutions with the glare of adolescent angst. We’ve observed enough to understand that those in authority over us are not the paragons of perfection we’d so looked up to as toddlers. We see them flawed, weak, seducable, wholly human and fallible, and like good adolescents who have caught Mom and Dad lying or stumbling drunk, we at first sneered about it and gave some voice to our sense of betrayal. Now, we’re merely numb. Since our “parents” in these authoritative roles have proven themselves to be mere /creatures/, and not heroes, well, we’ve turned up the volume on our ipods, buried ourselves in our trendy lambskin coats and shut our doors to them.*
Our older siblings are observing this behavior with a measure of satisfaction.* I am not talking about our cousins across the Atlantic. I mean the “elites” whom Noonan writes have decided to find their “seperate peace” in all of this. She writes://I suspect that history…will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble…//You’re a lobbyist or a senator or a cabinet chief, you’re an editor at a paper or a green-room schmoozer, you’re a doctor or lawyer or Indian chief, and you’re making your life a little fortress. That’s what I think a lot of the elites are up to.*
Here is where I think Noonan falls a little short.* These elites are not simply milling about waiting for “the next chapter of trouble.” I think in too many cases they -like troubled eldest siblings, the “first children” who have never quite gotten over the subsequent additions to the family- have been actively fomenting chapter after chapter of trouble, for some 40 years. They /are/ complacently building little fortresses, but they are doing so for a reason.
Having written all of these chapters of trouble, they are feeling quite confident that their story is solidly structured, and they are ready for the /dénouement/ they have planned. The anticipation of their surprise ending is making them almost giddy.The ending, of course, is the /coup d’état. /Believing that the rest of us, now /disillusioned/, are no longer clinging to romantic ideals of honor, or truth or nobility, these always-restless First Children, devoted to deconstruction, believe they are about to take down the presidency, the churches, the “old” government and even the “old” media.
They expect to put into place something “brand new.” But believe me when I tell you what they are building is older than dirt. And up from it. Which is why they will need their fortresses. Castro lives in one, too.They’ve been practicing all of this, by the way, perfecting the Art of the Painless Coup so thoroughly that most ordinary folks do not even realize what has occured.*Over the past 40 years these hyperactive First Children have been pulling off small scale coups* with varying levels of success. They managed to deconstruct the academies, so that education is less a broadening of knowledge than a narrowing of perspective <http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/6255.html>.
They have deconstructed the liturgy to insist that a pantomime in clownface <http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2005/05/27/clown-eucharist-at-trinity-episcopal/> is a vast improvement over 2000 year-old sacrament and liturgy.
They have deconstructed government by constructing something so huge and unwieldy that nothing coming out of it is reliable or dependable <http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/>, and almost no one is accountable, either.
They have deconstructed the press to the point where the truth of a story is less important <http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=080305E> than how it may be framed and spun.
They have deconstructed the idea of fascism to mean “those democracies in Israel and America” <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4384264.stm> rather than the freedom-suppressing regimes which surround them.
And all the while they have been busily pulling things apart, they have kept the rest of the family distracted with the /television/, with the /radio/, with the /cinema/ – any or all of which have instantly been called into service whenever someone got a little bored and looked around, wondering what these kids were up to.
“Abortion?” said Aunt Sally, “Abortion is a /terrible/ thing!” Suddenly every news story is about the grim circumstance of illegal abortion. Suddenly sitcoms are showing the way. “Well, if /Maude/ had an abortion…maybe sometimes it’s a good thing…”“Free love,” sputtered Uncle Jim, “it’s immoral! It’s damaging to the family!” Suddenly every film hero or heroine is having free, uncomplicated, undamaging sex <http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2005/10/22/in-praise-of-square-ness-self-respect-is-not-prudery/>, and flashing some gratuitous T and A at Uncle Jim in the process. “I dunno,” he smiles to Aunt Sally as he settles back, “maybe it’s not all that bad…”
*Except that Aunt Sally, having been spoon-fed her enlightenment by media* overrun with these busy First Children and their co-horts, is not around to hear him. She has taken off her bra, taken the pill and several dozen lovers, she has “found herself,” lost her children and moved in with her newest partner, Charlene. They own cats and attend drum circles. They protest whenever possible, because a good protest can validate almost any life-choice by pinpointing and naming an enemy, and declaring that enemy an oppressor and a villain, even if that villain is liberating men, women and children and trying to create a safer world.
“An illusion!” They shout. “There is no liberation, there is no safer world, there is no nobility, no honor, no truth! All lies!” I will spare you the part where they strip down to their birthday suits and dance around, their sagging, pendulous breasts swaying out of sync with the drums.*
PART II**
The First Children applaud Aunt Sally.* They love the distraction she causes as they work feverishly on their coup.I think Ms. Noonan’s sense of things being “off-kilter,” is her own gut understanding that the painless coup is near, and perhaps she is not quite sure what might be done to prevent it.
*Well, one way to prevent the coup is to be utterly fearless and authentic* in pronouncing the things we believe. Pope John Paul II (and now Pope Benedict XVI) made enormous headway against the Painless Coup, which had gone so far as to turn our beautiful churches into bare concrete monstrosities <http://thecrescat.blogspot.com/2009/02/can-you-tell-difference.html> (ready-made for quick-conversion into temples to secular reason) and he managed to reclaim the liturgy and renew appreciation for the Eucharist by repeating the truth over and over, with the reminder, /“do not be afraid!”/Thus so, we must repeat, over and over, that while illusions may well be all around us, some amorphous notions, like honor and freedom and truth, are still real. They are not just real, they are /Eternal/.
*We must repeat again and again that America’s honor is no illusion.*
Imperfect as it may be this is still the land to which – in large or small ways – every free nation owes its current liberty. This is the nation that has routinely sent its idealistic young men off to foreign lands -to die there- not for empire, not for real-estate, but for the protection and advancement of that unseen thing that is freedom, the strengthener of the human spirit, the burnisher of human potential. First Children and their motley co-horts aside, this is still the nation to which millions of creative or industrious people wish to come, it is the nation to which the oppressed call out for rescue and relief.
*We must repeat, over and over, that the American Presidency* is, like a papacy or a monarchy, larger than the person who occupies the office, and that it is /noble./ The American President freed slaves when too many would not entertain the notion. The American President has carried the big stick used to overthrow tyrants and bullies both foreign and domestic. The American President has put his airmen to use to keep his vanquished enemies in Berlin from starving in a brutal winter, he has used his navy to bring aid after tsunami. The American President has dreamed great space voyages into reality, has opened closed markets, has encouraged a people to tear down walls. The American President has envisioned tens of millions of people raising purple fingertips to the sky, and made it so.
*We must repeat, over and over,* that Liberty is the means by which we created creatures are meant to live and to grow and be. That Liberty lives in the Truth. That Liberty lives where people can speak freely, without fear of injury or reprisals. That Liberty lives /only/ when the press is free and unencumbered – when it is /detached/ from events instead of entwined in them.
That Liberty lives when people refuse to be intimidated into silence or acquiescence, whether in the workplace or within the community. That Liberty is the fragile thing that diminishes whenever one refuses to acclaim it for oneself. In between all of those repetitions, we must do something else, if we are to stave off the Painless Coup. We are going to have to turn away from our distractions – the television, the radio, the magazines, the talkshows, the films, the fashions, the escapist entertainment, even the internet. We will have to turn away from these empty things – to make them smaller in our lives, where they and the popular culture now loom so large – and we are going to have to get quiet.
*A good musician knows that music is not created only by playing notes,* but by understanding the spaces between the notes, and their value. Just so, it will not be enough to simply repeat what is true – if that is all we do, it will only add to the din – there must also be silence, in which to do our other, more powerful work.
It is a cacophony of noise that fuels so many illusions, and allows those “chapters of trouble” to be so deftly written. The overstimulation of our senses has severely dulled our internal sensors. We have lost our bearings and our boundaries so profoundly that we are no longer guarded, interiorly, against scam-artists and tricksters.We have to get those bearings back – to find our centers and get back in touch with our “gut instincts,” which are there for a reason. And the way to get back to the center – to /our/ center, our “gut” – is through prayer and meditation and contemplation. /Prayer has power./ No force can stand against it. Not even the force of a generation bearing down and driving hard against everything that came before itself.
*CONCLUSION:*
It is true that there are many illusions in the world. And on the world stage there stride some masters of the sleight-of-hand and the misdirection – you can recognize them because they are all of a mind, and of a piece, and they are all working different parts of the same trick.But if you can recognize a trick for what it is, you can prevail against it.And this is where the Eternal comes in – the things seen and unseen, which I mentioned earlier. An illusionist, no matter how masterful, is still peddling /an illusion/. He has nothing behind him but his crossed fingers.
Prayer is no illusion, and one needn’t be a master to tap into its tremendous force. Even a novice may use it, although one does get stronger with practice and growth comes, for prayer is never stagnant. Aunt Sally has no idea how disposable she is, or how her raised consciousness has been a mere means to an end, another illusion. In the coming denouement, she and Charlene and poor old, befuddled Uncle Jim will be equally expendable, or useful only for /keeping the foodlines and the medical lines straight./ They will all be outside the “fortresses” of the elites, with the rest of us, if the Coup is permitted, if the First Children achieve their goal.
So, it is time for the rest of us to turn off the ipods, shed the lambskin coat and come out of our self-imposed exile, ready to do battle. Things are indeed messed up and off-kilter. But no matter how much our parent figures in the government or the courts, or the churches or even the few grown-ups left in the press may embarrass us or disappoint, they’re still ours. They belong to us, and the bond is forever. And it is time to get busy.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Al Franken Shows True Nature During Senate Clashes
Al Franken is just showing us all who he is - a far left bitter, malignant Marxist progressive liberal Democrat that cares for nothing but to hear or see his own insanity reproduced. He is truly insane! But most of us have known this for years.
Sadly, the voters in Minnesota didn't care about his lack of humanity or civility, much less his total inability to cope with reality or self control. What information could the voters have used to make the decision to vote for Franken?
Sharp-Tongued Franken Clashes With Republicans
After a quiet first few months in the Senate, Al Franken has begun to show the sharp-tongued confrontational style he displayed as a comic and author, clashing with Republicans behind the scenes and on the Senate floor.
Franken was sworn in on July 7 after a vote recount and lengthy court battle gave him a victory over Republican rival Norm Coleman, and Franken initially avoided the limelight to the extent that rumors circulated that the Democratic leadership had told him to keep a low profile.
But on Dec. 14, the Minnesota Democrat battled Sen. John Thune in the Senate after the South Dakota Republican claimed that healthcare reform legislation would levy new taxes immediately but not provide benefits for several years.
Franken implied that Thune had fabricated some of his facts, “a more personal confrontation than usual in the clubby Senate,” The Hill newspaper reported.
Franken disclosed a private conversation he had with Thune on the topic, and the angry Republican stormed off the Senate floor. “We are entitled to our own opinions; we’re not entitled to our own facts,” Franken loudly declared.
He later apologized to Thune.
Then during a later debate on healthcare legislation, Franken cut off Sen. Joe Lieberman during his speech on the Senate floor. Lieberman, an independent Democrat who opposed the Democrats’ healthcare reform bill, asked for an additional moment to finish his remarks.
But Franken, who was presiding over the Senate, refused the routine request.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., later complained that Lieberman’s request was “objected to by the newest member of the United States Senate in a most brusque way . . . We’ve got to stop this kind of behavior. I have never seen anything like that.”
Behind the scenes, Franken had a clash with an aide to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Franken went to Corker’s office to discuss an amendment Franken offered to a defense bill, which would bar the government from doing business with contractors who required workers to settle rape and sexual assault charges through arbitration instead of the courts.
“The meeting quickly deteriorated when Franken began berating one of Corker’s aides,” according to The Hill. “Franken’s sally was so harsh that Corker told Franken to lay off his aide and direct the comments at him instead.”
Franken, a former Air America radio host, also tongue-lashed an aide to a Republican leader at a recent Senate reception, grilling the aide over what Franken viewed as the failings of the GOP.
“The Al Franken head tells him to steer away from the limelight and build his reputation,”
Lawrence Jacobs, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, told The Hill. “Then there is his heart, which is quite fiery.” Jacob warned that engaging in political brawls could reinforce the unfavorable view that Franken is “a hot-headed partisan.”
Sadly, the voters in Minnesota didn't care about his lack of humanity or civility, much less his total inability to cope with reality or self control. What information could the voters have used to make the decision to vote for Franken?
Sharp-Tongued Franken Clashes With Republicans
After a quiet first few months in the Senate, Al Franken has begun to show the sharp-tongued confrontational style he displayed as a comic and author, clashing with Republicans behind the scenes and on the Senate floor.
Franken was sworn in on July 7 after a vote recount and lengthy court battle gave him a victory over Republican rival Norm Coleman, and Franken initially avoided the limelight to the extent that rumors circulated that the Democratic leadership had told him to keep a low profile.
But on Dec. 14, the Minnesota Democrat battled Sen. John Thune in the Senate after the South Dakota Republican claimed that healthcare reform legislation would levy new taxes immediately but not provide benefits for several years.
Franken implied that Thune had fabricated some of his facts, “a more personal confrontation than usual in the clubby Senate,” The Hill newspaper reported.
Franken disclosed a private conversation he had with Thune on the topic, and the angry Republican stormed off the Senate floor. “We are entitled to our own opinions; we’re not entitled to our own facts,” Franken loudly declared.
He later apologized to Thune.
Then during a later debate on healthcare legislation, Franken cut off Sen. Joe Lieberman during his speech on the Senate floor. Lieberman, an independent Democrat who opposed the Democrats’ healthcare reform bill, asked for an additional moment to finish his remarks.
But Franken, who was presiding over the Senate, refused the routine request.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., later complained that Lieberman’s request was “objected to by the newest member of the United States Senate in a most brusque way . . . We’ve got to stop this kind of behavior. I have never seen anything like that.”
Behind the scenes, Franken had a clash with an aide to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Franken went to Corker’s office to discuss an amendment Franken offered to a defense bill, which would bar the government from doing business with contractors who required workers to settle rape and sexual assault charges through arbitration instead of the courts.
“The meeting quickly deteriorated when Franken began berating one of Corker’s aides,” according to The Hill. “Franken’s sally was so harsh that Corker told Franken to lay off his aide and direct the comments at him instead.”
Franken, a former Air America radio host, also tongue-lashed an aide to a Republican leader at a recent Senate reception, grilling the aide over what Franken viewed as the failings of the GOP.
“The Al Franken head tells him to steer away from the limelight and build his reputation,”
Lawrence Jacobs, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, told The Hill. “Then there is his heart, which is quite fiery.” Jacob warned that engaging in political brawls could reinforce the unfavorable view that Franken is “a hot-headed partisan.”
Saturday, December 26, 2009
I Love Guns - The Best Love Song Of The Decade!
Hey, this is really great - this guy sings about his guns and how he loves them - a very catchy tune and a super display of weapons. This song will warm the heart of even the coldest liberal Democrat. - heh -
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=steveleeilikeguns#p/u/0/-TC2xTCb_GU
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=steveleeilikeguns#p/u/0/-TC2xTCb_GU
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Massachusetts Health Care System Tanking
With the Massachusetts health care system going into the tank as this article points, and the fact that the desaster that is approaching us from the 'nutjob' liberals in Congress is based on this failure, little has to be spoken to warn us that we are going to get the bone crushing health care failure that Massachusetts has.
I can't see how it can be any different than all the other failed government run programs that have brought higher taxes and run-away spending. Let's see, the Post Office, Social Security, Medicade and Medicare - Fanne and Freddy - well just name anything associated with the federal government and you will find a 'failure to deliever as promised'.
The most frustrating part of all this is with over 60% of the population against this bill, the liberal left is going ahead anyway. Why? Is it just for power and control or just so they can say that they have finally brought America to it's collective knees?
Now that's something that the liberal Democrats can be proud of and they are!
December 18, 2009
HEALTH REFORM: BLAME MITT
If -- and it is still a big "if" -- Democrats pass a health bill, that bill will owe as much to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. In fact, with the so-called "public option" out of the Senate health bill, the final product increasingly looks like the failed Massachusetts experiment, says Michael Tanner, a Senior Fellow with the Cato Institute.
Consider that the final bill will likely include:
An individual mandate
A weak employer-mandate
An Exchange (Connector)
Middle-class subsidies
Insurance regulation (already in place in Massachusetts before Romney's reforms)
When Massachusetts passed its pioneering health care reforms in 2006, critics warned that they would result in a slow but steady spiral downward toward a government-run health care system. Three years later, those predictions appear to be coming true, says Tanner.
Although the state has reduced the number of residents without health insurance, 200,000 people remain uninsured, says Tanner:
Moreover, the increase in the number of insured is primarily due to the state's generous subsidies, not the celebrated individual mandate.
Health care costs continue to rise much faster than the national average; since 2006, total state health care spending has increased by 28 percent.
Insurance premiums have increased by eight to 10 percent per year, nearly double the national average.
New regulations and bureaucracy are limiting consumer choice and adding to health care costs.
Program costs have skyrocketed despite tax increases, and the state is considering caps on insurance premiums, cuts in reimbursements to providers, and even the possibility of a "global budget" on health care spending -- with its attendant rationing.
A shortage of providers, combined with increased demand, is increasing waiting times to see a physician.
Overall, the program has failed in its main goal of achieving universal coverage. It has failed to restrain the growth in health care costs. And it has greatly exceeded its initial budget, placing new burdens on the state's taxpayers.
With the "Massachusetts model" frequently cited as a blueprint for health care reform, it is important to recognize that giving the government greater control over our health care system will have grave consequences for taxpayers, providers, and health care consumers. That is the lesson of the Massachusetts model, says Tanner.
Source: Michael D. Tanner, "Health Reform: Blame Mitt," Cato Institute, December 17, 2009; and "Massachusetts Miracle or Massachusetts Miserable: What the Failure of the "Massachusetts Model" Tells Us about Health Care Reform," Cato Institute, Briefing Paper, No. 112, June 9, 2009.
For text:
I can't see how it can be any different than all the other failed government run programs that have brought higher taxes and run-away spending. Let's see, the Post Office, Social Security, Medicade and Medicare - Fanne and Freddy - well just name anything associated with the federal government and you will find a 'failure to deliever as promised'.
The most frustrating part of all this is with over 60% of the population against this bill, the liberal left is going ahead anyway. Why? Is it just for power and control or just so they can say that they have finally brought America to it's collective knees?
Now that's something that the liberal Democrats can be proud of and they are!
December 18, 2009
HEALTH REFORM: BLAME MITT
If -- and it is still a big "if" -- Democrats pass a health bill, that bill will owe as much to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. In fact, with the so-called "public option" out of the Senate health bill, the final product increasingly looks like the failed Massachusetts experiment, says Michael Tanner, a Senior Fellow with the Cato Institute.
Consider that the final bill will likely include:
An individual mandate
A weak employer-mandate
An Exchange (Connector)
Middle-class subsidies
Insurance regulation (already in place in Massachusetts before Romney's reforms)
When Massachusetts passed its pioneering health care reforms in 2006, critics warned that they would result in a slow but steady spiral downward toward a government-run health care system. Three years later, those predictions appear to be coming true, says Tanner.
Although the state has reduced the number of residents without health insurance, 200,000 people remain uninsured, says Tanner:
Moreover, the increase in the number of insured is primarily due to the state's generous subsidies, not the celebrated individual mandate.
Health care costs continue to rise much faster than the national average; since 2006, total state health care spending has increased by 28 percent.
Insurance premiums have increased by eight to 10 percent per year, nearly double the national average.
New regulations and bureaucracy are limiting consumer choice and adding to health care costs.
Program costs have skyrocketed despite tax increases, and the state is considering caps on insurance premiums, cuts in reimbursements to providers, and even the possibility of a "global budget" on health care spending -- with its attendant rationing.
A shortage of providers, combined with increased demand, is increasing waiting times to see a physician.
Overall, the program has failed in its main goal of achieving universal coverage. It has failed to restrain the growth in health care costs. And it has greatly exceeded its initial budget, placing new burdens on the state's taxpayers.
With the "Massachusetts model" frequently cited as a blueprint for health care reform, it is important to recognize that giving the government greater control over our health care system will have grave consequences for taxpayers, providers, and health care consumers. That is the lesson of the Massachusetts model, says Tanner.
Source: Michael D. Tanner, "Health Reform: Blame Mitt," Cato Institute, December 17, 2009; and "Massachusetts Miracle or Massachusetts Miserable: What the Failure of the "Massachusetts Model" Tells Us about Health Care Reform," Cato Institute, Briefing Paper, No. 112, June 9, 2009.
For text:
Monday, December 21, 2009
Rush Limbaugh - Personality of The Decade/America's Real Anchor Man
Little wonder he draws as many listeners as he does. I believe the audience is far larger than 14 million or 20 million for that matter. These are the ones that admit they listen - there must be twice this many that listen but can't bring themselves to tell anyone that they do.
Mediaweek: Limbaugh Personality of the Decade
Monday, 21 Dec 2009 03:51 PM
By: Jim Meyers
Rush Limbaugh has been named Radio Personality of the Decade by Mediaweek, a leading industry magazine and Web site.
In the December issue’s Best of the Decade feature, Mediaweek observed:“No radio host or personality comes close to Rush Limbaugh in size of audience or volume of political discourse. The man manages to stay in the headlines no matter who’s in the White House or who’s gunning for him.”
Special: Get Sarah Palin’s New Book – Incredible FREE Offer – Click Here Now.
The publication noted that when Sen. Harry Reid sent a letter to Limbaugh’s syndicator criticizing a remark by Rush, Limbaugh auctioned the letter on eBay and donated the proceeds to charity.“As Rush would say, it’s his opposition that is elevating him,” Mediaweek stated, adding: “Limbaugh remains cleared on 600 radio stations, his audience falls somewhere between 14 million and 20 million weekly listeners, and syndicator Premiere Radio Networks pulls in an estimated $50 million in annual ad revenue.
A recent CBS/Vanity Fair poll found that he’s the most popular conservative voice — no politician comes close.” Mediaweek also named Apple’s Steve Jobs as Marketer of the Decade, “The Sopranos” the TV Show of the Decade, Rupert Murdoch the Media Executive of the Decade, YouTube the Web Site of the Decade, Wired the Magazine of the Decade, Apple the Brand of the Decade, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google the Media Entrepreneurs of the Decade, and Google the Media Company of the Decade.© Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Just think about it for a minute - if a liberal admitted they listened to Rush, they wouldn't be liberals anymore.
How would they explain this to their friends that they have 'heard the truth and now they are free"?
Mediaweek: Limbaugh Personality of the Decade
Monday, 21 Dec 2009 03:51 PM
By: Jim Meyers
Rush Limbaugh has been named Radio Personality of the Decade by Mediaweek, a leading industry magazine and Web site.
In the December issue’s Best of the Decade feature, Mediaweek observed:“No radio host or personality comes close to Rush Limbaugh in size of audience or volume of political discourse. The man manages to stay in the headlines no matter who’s in the White House or who’s gunning for him.”
Special: Get Sarah Palin’s New Book – Incredible FREE Offer – Click Here Now.
The publication noted that when Sen. Harry Reid sent a letter to Limbaugh’s syndicator criticizing a remark by Rush, Limbaugh auctioned the letter on eBay and donated the proceeds to charity.“As Rush would say, it’s his opposition that is elevating him,” Mediaweek stated, adding: “Limbaugh remains cleared on 600 radio stations, his audience falls somewhere between 14 million and 20 million weekly listeners, and syndicator Premiere Radio Networks pulls in an estimated $50 million in annual ad revenue.
A recent CBS/Vanity Fair poll found that he’s the most popular conservative voice — no politician comes close.” Mediaweek also named Apple’s Steve Jobs as Marketer of the Decade, “The Sopranos” the TV Show of the Decade, Rupert Murdoch the Media Executive of the Decade, YouTube the Web Site of the Decade, Wired the Magazine of the Decade, Apple the Brand of the Decade, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google the Media Entrepreneurs of the Decade, and Google the Media Company of the Decade.© Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Health Savings Accounts (HSA) Work / Save Money
Health Savings Accounts (HSA) work and they save money. As this article points they are an effective way for the general public to use these accouts to purchase health care as they deem necessary, and at the same time, save money in this account for when they really need it.
It's like the School Voucher system for education that allows family to chose the best schools for their kids, especially where the local public schools are corrupt and in poor neighbor hoods, the government won't allow these school chooses to continue as they interfer with the public school unions, a huge support for the Obama administration.
HSA's fall into the same catagory. The federal government can't allow these to go on as they allow freedom of the individual to make health care choices as they are needed. This doesn't allow the government to make all of the health care decisions and, of course, contoll all of the health care money. Trillions of tax payer dollars.
December 18, 2009-->
OBAMACARE'S HSA PROMISE -- AND PERIL
Health savings accounts (HSAs) are one of the few truly innovative developments in health insurance markets in recent years, forcing consumers to make smarter choices about the health care resources they use. Created as part of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, they combine a savings account with a high-deductible insurance plan, giving consumers more control over routine health care expenses while still providing them with financial protection from catastrophic illness.
Since 2006, enrollment in HSAs and other high deductible health care plans (HDHPs) has more than doubled -- from 3.2 million to 8 million, says Paul Howard, Director of the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute. Critics allege that these plans only cater to the healthy and wealthy, but data suggests otherwise:
According to a May 2009 survey from AHIP, an insurance trade group, 53 percent of all HSA enrollees in the individual market were age 40 or older.
A 2007 survey found that 33 percent of HSA account holders in the individual market were formerly uninsured.
In another study of over 1 million HSA accounts, AHIP found that 46 percent of account holders lived in lower-middle income neighborhoods, with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000.
In total, 83 percent lived in neighborhoods where the income was at or below $75,000.
A February 2009 study from the Manhattan Institute also found that HSA account holders spent less than half of the money in their accounts in 2007, showing that HSAs can be an effective savings vehicle for offsetting future healthcare costs.
But the biggest attraction for HSA-qualified health plans is clearly their lower cost, says Howard:
The MI study also found that premiums for HSA plans are much less expensive - by ten to 40 percent - than more traditional insurance options.
The vast majority of these plans (86 percent) also offered generous "first-dollar" coverage for preventive care services like infant/child well care, colonoscopies, immunizations, mammograms and pap smears.
Unfortunately, obscure details buried deep in the Democrats' health care reform legislation -- or left up to the future discretion of bureaucrats in the Department of Health and Human Services -- could easily kill HSAs with the stroke of a pen, says Howard.
Source: Paul Howard, "ObamaCare's HSA Promise -- and Peril," Townhall.com, December 17, 2009.
For text: http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulHoward/2009/12/17/obamacare%E2%80%99s_hsa_promise_%E2%80%93_and_peril
It's like the School Voucher system for education that allows family to chose the best schools for their kids, especially where the local public schools are corrupt and in poor neighbor hoods, the government won't allow these school chooses to continue as they interfer with the public school unions, a huge support for the Obama administration.
HSA's fall into the same catagory. The federal government can't allow these to go on as they allow freedom of the individual to make health care choices as they are needed. This doesn't allow the government to make all of the health care decisions and, of course, contoll all of the health care money. Trillions of tax payer dollars.
December 18, 2009-->
OBAMACARE'S HSA PROMISE -- AND PERIL
Health savings accounts (HSAs) are one of the few truly innovative developments in health insurance markets in recent years, forcing consumers to make smarter choices about the health care resources they use. Created as part of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, they combine a savings account with a high-deductible insurance plan, giving consumers more control over routine health care expenses while still providing them with financial protection from catastrophic illness.
Since 2006, enrollment in HSAs and other high deductible health care plans (HDHPs) has more than doubled -- from 3.2 million to 8 million, says Paul Howard, Director of the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute. Critics allege that these plans only cater to the healthy and wealthy, but data suggests otherwise:
According to a May 2009 survey from AHIP, an insurance trade group, 53 percent of all HSA enrollees in the individual market were age 40 or older.
A 2007 survey found that 33 percent of HSA account holders in the individual market were formerly uninsured.
In another study of over 1 million HSA accounts, AHIP found that 46 percent of account holders lived in lower-middle income neighborhoods, with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000.
In total, 83 percent lived in neighborhoods where the income was at or below $75,000.
A February 2009 study from the Manhattan Institute also found that HSA account holders spent less than half of the money in their accounts in 2007, showing that HSAs can be an effective savings vehicle for offsetting future healthcare costs.
But the biggest attraction for HSA-qualified health plans is clearly their lower cost, says Howard:
The MI study also found that premiums for HSA plans are much less expensive - by ten to 40 percent - than more traditional insurance options.
The vast majority of these plans (86 percent) also offered generous "first-dollar" coverage for preventive care services like infant/child well care, colonoscopies, immunizations, mammograms and pap smears.
Unfortunately, obscure details buried deep in the Democrats' health care reform legislation -- or left up to the future discretion of bureaucrats in the Department of Health and Human Services -- could easily kill HSAs with the stroke of a pen, says Howard.
Source: Paul Howard, "ObamaCare's HSA Promise -- and Peril," Townhall.com, December 17, 2009.
For text: http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulHoward/2009/12/17/obamacare%E2%80%99s_hsa_promise_%E2%80%93_and_peril
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