Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Would that it were true..............
Obama forces GM chief out, puts Reid, Pelosi on leave
By Scott Ott
Examiner Columnist 3/30/09
News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher
Just hours after firing General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner for mismanaging the giant firm which has thus far received $26 billion in taxpayer cash to stay afloat, President Barack Obama announced that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into similar allegations.
"We cannot give the appearance of using tax dollars to reward leaders who have done a poor job," said Obama. "The message is clear. If you take billions from the taxpayers you answer to a new boss -- the chief executive. In November, I inherited a failed banking system, a failed auto industry and a failed Congress. Americans demand action. Heads will continue to roll."
The president said Reid and Pelosi have "overseen an unprecedented spending binge, while some of their major brands have nearly collapsed through mismanagement, malfeasance and plain old stupidity."
"Their insurance products -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- are actually elaborate Ponzi schemes," he said, "paying early investors with cash from later investors without creating an ongoing insurance fund. Bernie Madoff is behind bars for doing the same thing."
Obama said at least two other divisions have created "no measurable positive results" and yet continue to consume billions of dollars annually.
"The Energy Department was created in the 1970s to decrease dependence on foreign oil which then accounted for 20 percent of domestic consumption," the president said. "They spend $25 billion per year, and now 60 percent of our oil is from other nations. Reid and Pelosi continue to pump money into this failed enterprise, and then come to taxpayers with hat in hand for a bailout."
The president also noted that the Education Department spends about $57 billion per year on public schools that continue to produce substandard, in many cases unmarketable, products.
"Harry and Nancy have failed to adapt their organization to economic reality," said Obama. "And yet, year after year, they demand increased prices for decreased quality. It's time for some drastic change."
Examiner columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com, the family-friendly news satire site, and anchor of ScrappleFace Network News (SNN), seen on YouTube.
By Scott Ott
Examiner Columnist 3/30/09
News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher
Just hours after firing General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner for mismanaging the giant firm which has thus far received $26 billion in taxpayer cash to stay afloat, President Barack Obama announced that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into similar allegations.
"We cannot give the appearance of using tax dollars to reward leaders who have done a poor job," said Obama. "The message is clear. If you take billions from the taxpayers you answer to a new boss -- the chief executive. In November, I inherited a failed banking system, a failed auto industry and a failed Congress. Americans demand action. Heads will continue to roll."
The president said Reid and Pelosi have "overseen an unprecedented spending binge, while some of their major brands have nearly collapsed through mismanagement, malfeasance and plain old stupidity."
"Their insurance products -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- are actually elaborate Ponzi schemes," he said, "paying early investors with cash from later investors without creating an ongoing insurance fund. Bernie Madoff is behind bars for doing the same thing."
Obama said at least two other divisions have created "no measurable positive results" and yet continue to consume billions of dollars annually.
"The Energy Department was created in the 1970s to decrease dependence on foreign oil which then accounted for 20 percent of domestic consumption," the president said. "They spend $25 billion per year, and now 60 percent of our oil is from other nations. Reid and Pelosi continue to pump money into this failed enterprise, and then come to taxpayers with hat in hand for a bailout."
The president also noted that the Education Department spends about $57 billion per year on public schools that continue to produce substandard, in many cases unmarketable, products.
"Harry and Nancy have failed to adapt their organization to economic reality," said Obama. "And yet, year after year, they demand increased prices for decreased quality. It's time for some drastic change."
Examiner columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com, the family-friendly news satire site, and anchor of ScrappleFace Network News (SNN), seen on YouTube.
I don't know about you Pilgrims.....
.....but it seems to ole' Pecoz, that Obamantion's honeymoon with the Euro's is running down faster than his numbers here at home.
(BTW, wonder why he didn't just hike over there instead of flying?")
Remember this time last year during the campaign? He was Euro's 'darlin', not a all like that narrow minded, America First 'W' feller. The O man is a 'one world - globalization' du
de. His ratings were higher in Europe last year than they were here at home.
de. His ratings were higher in Europe last year than they were here at home.Now, as he boards Air Force One, & Two, and a small fleet of Air Force cargo planes (to carry his entourage of 500 plus the ever present TOTUS of course) he is headed for a G-20 meeting in London that is already falling apart.
(BTW, wonder why he didn't just hike over there instead of flying?")
It seems that he and his joined at the hip spending twin, Gordon Brown, PM of England, had the plan all laid out to start cutting down forests in Europe to produce the paper to print zillions of Pounds Stirling and Euro Notes.
Not so fast says, President Zarkozy of France --- "You try to push that feeelth down our throats. and I will get up and walk out!" "Achderlieber!" Says Chancellor Merkel of Germany - "Ve leaked your secret plan to der press and ve will leak all over you if you try that printing press stuff. Ve haff vays, you know!!"
Should be an interesting week -- Hope the Euro's show more restraint than we have so far observed inside our own Beltway!
As an aside - I'd like to to mention how happy I am to see Obamanation get his little 8 day world wind tour and vacation. Poor baby spent 4 full days in Washington last week. How much can he handle before the strain get's him. Gotta wonder what the regular weekly Wednesday nite White House partiers are gonna do with him out of the country this week... maybe he left some McD coupons for them......
Monday, March 30, 2009
Constitutional Clouds on the horizon with latest spending tsunami?
Bailout Boundary Dispute
George Will
Sunday, March 29, 2009
WA
SHINGTON -- It is high time Americans heard an argument that might turn a vague national uneasiness into a vivid awareness of something going very wrong. The argument is that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) is unconstitutional.
By enacting it, Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law. Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize automobile companies -- well, whatever."
FreedomWorks, a Washington-based libertarian advocacy organization, argues that EESA violates "the nondelegation doctrine." Although the text does not spell it out, the Constitution's logic and structure -- particularly the separation of powers -- imply limits on the size and kind of discretion that Congress may confer on the executive branch.
The Vesting Clause of Article I says, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in" Congress. All. Therefore, none shall be vested elsewhere. Gary Lawson of Boston University's School of Law suggests a thought experiment:
Suppose Congress passes the Goodness and Niceness Act. Section 1 outlaws all transactions involving, no matter how tangentially, interstate commerce that do not promote goodness and niceness. Section 2 says the president shall define the statute's meaning with regulations that define and promote goodness and niceness and specify penalties for violations.
Surely this would be incompatible with the Vesting Clause. Where would the Goodness and Niceness Act really be written? In Congress? No, in the executive branch. Lawson says that nothing in the Constitution's enumeration of powers authorizes Congress to enact such a statute. The only power conferred on Congress by the Commerce Clause is to regulate. The Goodness and Niceness Act does not itself regulate, it just identifies a regulator.
The Constitution empowers Congress to make laws "necessary and proper" for carrying into execution federal purposes. But if gargantuan grants of discretion are necessary, are the purposes proper? Indeed, such designs should be considered presumptively improper. What, then, about the Goodness and Niceness Act, which, as Lawson says, delegates all practical decision-making power to the president? What about EESA?
Writing in The New Republic, Jeffrey Rosen of George Washington University Law School makes a prudential point: "The military-spending scandals during World War II, exposed by the Truman Committee, showed the risks for corruption and fraud when the executive branch is given a free hand to spend vast amounts of money." But even in the unlikely event that the executive branch exercises its excessive EESA discretion efficiently, the mere exercise would nevertheless subvert the principle of separation of powers which, as Justice Louis Brandeis said, was adopted "not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power."
As government grows, legislative power, and with it accountability, must shrink. The nation has had 535 national legislators for almost half a century. During that time the federal government's business -- or, more precisely, its busy-ness -- has probably grown at least twenty-fold. Vast grants of discretion to the executive branch by Congress, such as EESA, may be necessary -- if America is going to have constant governmental hyperkinesis. If Washington is going to do the sort of things that EESA enables -- erasing the distinction between public and private sectors; licensing uncircumscribed executive branch conscription of, and experimentation with, the nation's resources.
Since the New Deal era, few laws have been invalidated on the ground that they improperly delegated legislative powers. And Chief Justice John Marshall did say that the "precise boundary" of the power to "make" or the power to "execute" the law "is a subject of delicate and difficult inquiry." Still, surely sometimes the judiciary must adjudicate such boundary disputes.
The Supreme Court has said: "That Congress cannot delegate legislative power to the president is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution." And the court has said that properly delegated discretion must come with "an intelligible principle" and must "clearly delineate" a policy that limits the discretion. EESA flunks that test.
With EESA, Congress forces the country to ponder the paradox of sovereignty: If sovereign people freely choose to surrender their sovereignty, is this willed subordination really subordination?
It is. Congress has done that. A court should hear the argument that Congress cannot so divest itself of powers vested in it.
Hot damn, I'm beginning to think this copy of our US Constitution on my desk should be stamped "Oh Never Mind"! They ignore it every day in any way that it intereferes with their actions.........
George Will
Sunday, March 29, 2009
WA
SHINGTON -- It is high time Americans heard an argument that might turn a vague national uneasiness into a vivid awareness of something going very wrong. The argument is that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) is unconstitutional.By enacting it, Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law. Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize automobile companies -- well, whatever."
FreedomWorks, a Washington-based libertarian advocacy organization, argues that EESA violates "the nondelegation doctrine." Although the text does not spell it out, the Constitution's logic and structure -- particularly the separation of powers -- imply limits on the size and kind of discretion that Congress may confer on the executive branch.
The Vesting Clause of Article I says, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in" Congress. All. Therefore, none shall be vested elsewhere. Gary Lawson of Boston University's School of Law suggests a thought experiment:
Suppose Congress passes the Goodness and Niceness Act. Section 1 outlaws all transactions involving, no matter how tangentially, interstate commerce that do not promote goodness and niceness. Section 2 says the president shall define the statute's meaning with regulations that define and promote goodness and niceness and specify penalties for violations.
Surely this would be incompatible with the Vesting Clause. Where would the Goodness and Niceness Act really be written? In Congress? No, in the executive branch. Lawson says that nothing in the Constitution's enumeration of powers authorizes Congress to enact such a statute. The only power conferred on Congress by the Commerce Clause is to regulate. The Goodness and Niceness Act does not itself regulate, it just identifies a regulator.
The Constitution empowers Congress to make laws "necessary and proper" for carrying into execution federal purposes. But if gargantuan grants of discretion are necessary, are the purposes proper? Indeed, such designs should be considered presumptively improper. What, then, about the Goodness and Niceness Act, which, as Lawson says, delegates all practical decision-making power to the president? What about EESA?
Writing in The New Republic, Jeffrey Rosen of George Washington University Law School makes a prudential point: "The military-spending scandals during World War II, exposed by the Truman Committee, showed the risks for corruption and fraud when the executive branch is given a free hand to spend vast amounts of money." But even in the unlikely event that the executive branch exercises its excessive EESA discretion efficiently, the mere exercise would nevertheless subvert the principle of separation of powers which, as Justice Louis Brandeis said, was adopted "not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power."
As government grows, legislative power, and with it accountability, must shrink. The nation has had 535 national legislators for almost half a century. During that time the federal government's business -- or, more precisely, its busy-ness -- has probably grown at least twenty-fold. Vast grants of discretion to the executive branch by Congress, such as EESA, may be necessary -- if America is going to have constant governmental hyperkinesis. If Washington is going to do the sort of things that EESA enables -- erasing the distinction between public and private sectors; licensing uncircumscribed executive branch conscription of, and experimentation with, the nation's resources.
Since the New Deal era, few laws have been invalidated on the ground that they improperly delegated legislative powers. And Chief Justice John Marshall did say that the "precise boundary" of the power to "make" or the power to "execute" the law "is a subject of delicate and difficult inquiry." Still, surely sometimes the judiciary must adjudicate such boundary disputes.
The Supreme Court has said: "That Congress cannot delegate legislative power to the president is a principle universally recognized as vital to the integrity and maintenance of the system of government ordained by the Constitution." And the court has said that properly delegated discretion must come with "an intelligible principle" and must "clearly delineate" a policy that limits the discretion. EESA flunks that test.
With EESA, Congress forces the country to ponder the paradox of sovereignty: If sovereign people freely choose to surrender their sovereignty, is this willed subordination really subordination?
It is. Congress has done that. A court should hear the argument that Congress cannot so divest itself of powers vested in it.
Hot damn, I'm beginning to think this copy of our US Constitution on my desk should be stamped "Oh Never Mind"! They ignore it every day in any way that it intereferes with their actions.........
Pssst Buddy.... Have I got a deal for you.....
Following atheist trend, Britons seek 'de-baptism'
Mar 29 11:41 PM US/Eastern
More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.
The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God."
"We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (4.35 dollars, 3.20 euros) a pop," said NSS president Terry Sanderson, 58.
John Hunt, a 58-year-old from London and one of the first to try to be "de-baptised," held that he was too young to make any decision when he was christened at five months old.
The male nurse said he approached the Church of England to ask it to remove his name. "They said they had sought legal advice and that I should place an announcement in the London Gazette," said Hunt, referring to one of the official journals of record of the British government.
So that's what he did -- his notice of renouncement was published in the Gazette in May 2008 and other Britons have followed suit.
Michael Evans, 66, branded baptising children as "a form of child abuse" -- and said that when he complained to the church where he was christened he was told to contact the European Court of Human Rights.
The Church of England said its official position was not to amend its records. "Renouncing baptism is a matter between the individual and God," a Church spokesman told AFP.
"We are not a 'membership' church, and do not keep a running total of the number of baptised people in the Church of England, and such totals do not feature in the statistics that we regularly publish," he added.
So, for 3£, or $4.35, 1500 Brits received 'parchment' certificates de-baptizing them.. I wonder if they bought some of those Deeds for small land parcels on the Moon, or had a Star named after them as well........
Old PT Barnum was right: One is born every minute!!!
Mar 29 11:41 PM US/Eastern
More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.
The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God."
"We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (4.35 dollars, 3.20 euros) a pop," said NSS president Terry Sanderson, 58.
John Hunt, a 58-year-old from London and one of the first to try to be "de-baptised," held that he was too young to make any decision when he was christened at five months old.
The male nurse said he approached the Church of England to ask it to remove his name. "They said they had sought legal advice and that I should place an announcement in the London Gazette," said Hunt, referring to one of the official journals of record of the British government.
So that's what he did -- his notice of renouncement was published in the Gazette in May 2008 and other Britons have followed suit.
Michael Evans, 66, branded baptising children as "a form of child abuse" -- and said that when he complained to the church where he was christened he was told to contact the European Court of Human Rights.
The Church of England said its official position was not to amend its records. "Renouncing baptism is a matter between the individual and God," a Church spokesman told AFP.
"We are not a 'membership' church, and do not keep a running total of the number of baptised people in the Church of England, and such totals do not feature in the statistics that we regularly publish," he added.
So, for 3£, or $4.35, 1500 Brits received 'parchment' certificates de-baptizing them.. I wonder if they bought some of those Deeds for small land parcels on the Moon, or had a Star named after them as well........
Old PT Barnum was right: One is born every minute!!!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
So here it is.... what have we learned in 2,064 years?
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." - Cicero - 55 BC
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Speaking in quiet general terms on a Sunday --
I was thumbing through the headlines, and came across many like these!
Russia plans to create Arctic military force
Mar 27 08:19 AM US/Eastern
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is planning to create a dedicated military force to help protect its interests in the disputed Arctic region.
The presidential Security Council has released a document outlining government policy for the Arctic that includes creating a special group of military forces. The report was released this week and reported by Russian media on Friday.
Russia, the United States, Canada and other northern countries are trying to assert jurisdiction over the Arctic.
The dispute has intensified amid growing evidence that the shrinking polar ice is opening up new shipping lanes and allowing natural resources to be tapped.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Chinese Navy Has Global Potential As Economic Interests Expand
From the perspective of Chinese military strategists, China no longer has any national interest frontier, because all corners of the planet have established ties with China through trade. Chinese merchant ships are already navigating the waters of the four great oceans and have reached all parts of the five continents. This is an advantage that the Soviet Union did not have in earlier years.
In the future, wherever Chinese merchant ships go, that area may be taken as China's national interest frontier and the trace of the "Chinese Aegis" class DDG may appear. Moreover, this theory gives the People's Republic of China a more convincing rationale for building its own aircraft carriers.
Japan OKs deployment of missile defense system
By MARI YAMAGUCHI,
TOKYO – Japan took the rare step Friday of ordering battleships and missile interceptors to protect its northern coast in case a rocket launch by North Korea goes awry.
Still, Tokyo urged calm and said the likelihood of rocket debris falling on Japan was low.
North Korea says it plans to launch its Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite April 4-8 and has designated a zone near Japan's northern coast where debris is likely to fall.
Japan, South Korea and the United States suspect North Korea will use the launch to test the delivery technology for a long-range missile capable of striking Alaska. Amid heightened regional tensions, the communist nation has warned any attack on its satellite could be an act of war.
Then I turn to our US National news and find that Obamanation is off to Camp David again this weekend. What's that you say? 4 long weekends and he has only been POTUS for six? But then there was the weekend 'date' in Chicago - and the trip to LA to schmooze with Leno - and the 60 Minutes Infomercial with Steve Kroft...
Ahh yes, he does have the TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) filling in for him, doesn't he. Seems to me Pilgrims, that this lad that has only been POTUS for six weeks and no experience prior to that -- ought to be keeping that nose a little closer to the grindstone.
Big G-20 in London this week, his secret plans with Prime Minister Brown to pour a few trillion more worthless pounds, dollars and Euro's into the worlds economy was leaked to the front pages before the meeting even started and looks DOA!
My My, folks wanted Hope & Change. They Changed to a non-working president and now better Hope that those folks behind the scenes that are pulling the strings and really running this great ole' country don't have true evil in their hearts.........
Keep the faith Pilgrims -- it may be all we have left!
Russia plans to create Arctic military force
Mar 27 08:19 AM US/Eastern
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is planning to create a dedicated military force to help protect its interests in the disputed Arctic region.
The presidential Security Council has released a document outlining government policy for the Arctic that includes creating a special group of military forces. The report was released this week and reported by Russian media on Friday.
Russia, the United States, Canada and other northern countries are trying to assert jurisdiction over the Arctic.
The dispute has intensified amid growing evidence that the shrinking polar ice is opening up new shipping lanes and allowing natural resources to be tapped.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Chinese Navy Has Global Potential As Economic Interests Expand
From the perspective of Chinese military strategists, China no longer has any national interest frontier, because all corners of the planet have established ties with China through trade. Chinese merchant ships are already navigating the waters of the four great oceans and have reached all parts of the five continents. This is an advantage that the Soviet Union did not have in earlier years.
In the future, wherever Chinese merchant ships go, that area may be taken as China's national interest frontier and the trace of the "Chinese Aegis" class DDG may appear. Moreover, this theory gives the People's Republic of China a more convincing rationale for building its own aircraft carriers.
Japan OKs deployment of missile defense system
By MARI YAMAGUCHI,
TOKYO – Japan took the rare step Friday of ordering battleships and missile interceptors to protect its northern coast in case a rocket launch by North Korea goes awry.
Still, Tokyo urged calm and said the likelihood of rocket debris falling on Japan was low.
North Korea says it plans to launch its Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite April 4-8 and has designated a zone near Japan's northern coast where debris is likely to fall.
Japan, South Korea and the United States suspect North Korea will use the launch to test the delivery technology for a long-range missile capable of striking Alaska. Amid heightened regional tensions, the communist nation has warned any attack on its satellite could be an act of war.
Then I turn to our US National news and find that Obamanation is off to Camp David again this weekend. What's that you say? 4 long weekends and he has only been POTUS for six? But then there was the weekend 'date' in Chicago - and the trip to LA to schmooze with Leno - and the 60 Minutes Infomercial with Steve Kroft...
Ahh yes, he does have the TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) filling in for him, doesn't he. Seems to me Pilgrims, that this lad that has only been POTUS for six weeks and no experience prior to that -- ought to be keeping that nose a little closer to the grindstone.
Big G-20 in London this week, his secret plans with Prime Minister Brown to pour a few trillion more worthless pounds, dollars and Euro's into the worlds economy was leaked to the front pages before the meeting even started and looks DOA!
My My, folks wanted Hope & Change. They Changed to a non-working president and now better Hope that those folks behind the scenes that are pulling the strings and really running this great ole' country don't have true evil in their hearts.........
Keep the faith Pilgrims -- it may be all we have left!
Friday, March 27, 2009
As Obamanation continues stirring the 'class warfare' pot ... here is Michelle Malkin's take ...
The New Vigilantes and their Unaccountable Enablers
Michelle Malkin
Friday, March 27, 2009
If you think there are no consequences to hysterical, anti-corporate grandstanding in Washington, pay attention to what's happening across the pond: "This is just the beginning."
So warned a public letter signed this week by a vigilante group called "Bank Bosses are Criminals." The thugs claimed responsibility for vandalizing a former fin
ancial executive's home and car in Edinburgh, Scotland. The bank official, Sir Fred Goodwin, was excoriated by U.K. politicians for refusing to give up company pension benefits dubbed "obscene," "grotesque," "unjustifiable and unacceptable." The vigilantes were stoked by a former newspaper editor, one Max Hastings, who wrote a diatribe exhorting citizens to violence:
"The time has come to address the entire robber banker culture. Investment banks have been run not for the benefit of society, customers or even shareholders, but exclusively for the advantage of the bankers themselves. … This is why we must stand outside their homes throwing rocks through the windows until they do."
This is no marginal movement. Some 3,000 protesters from around the world are expected to wreak havoc on the G20 summit next week in London. What happened at Sir Fred's house is a mere dress rehearsal. Bankers are being told to dress down to disguise themselves and avoid becoming riot targets.
Demonstrators are threatening to hang effigies. Protest organizer and university professor Chris Knight vowed worse: "We are going to be hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred from lampposts on April Fools' Day, and I can only say let's hope they are just effigies. To be honest, if he winds us up any more, I'm afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts, and let's hope that that doesn't actually have to happen."
How soon before we see this same kind of anarchic domestic terrorism on this side of the Atlantic? It's already here.
Animal-rights terrorists have firebombed researchers' homes, Molotov cocktail-bombed their cars, and been convicted of inciting threats, harassment and vandalism against employees of a private company engaged in animal research. Environmental terrorists have set private real estate developments on fire. Self-proclaimed "bank terrorist" Bruce Marks of the government-supported Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, whom I reported on last March, has been threatening bank employees in their homes and harassing their children for years. And last weekend, of course, the radical ACORN mob and its corporate shakedown allies chartered a bus -- with twice as many outrage-stoking mainstream media photographers in tow -- to menace AIG executives at their homes.
Democratic Rep. Barney Frank shrugged off testimony from AIG CEO Edward Liddy concerning death threats leveled against the company's employees. GOP Sen. Charles Grassley recklessly called on executives who accepted retention bonuses to commit hara-kiri. Left-wing billionaire George Soros' ground troops in the ANSWER coalition waved signs decrying, "CAPITALISM IS ORGANIZED CRIME! STOP AIG!" And 85 House Republicans, led by Minority Whip Eric Cantor, abetted the demagoguery by voting for the retroactive 90 percent bonus tax.
Pundits on both sides of the aisle demonized the business people whose sin was continuing to work for a company that accepted taxpayer funding from Chicken Littles in Washington who forked it over in a blind frenzy. Washington scribe Mort Kondracke joked about boiling the execs in oil. But the families who received the following threats through AIG's website can't afford to be so glib. Among the vile messages disclosed this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Hearst Newspapers:
-- All you motherf***ers should be shot. Thanks for f***ing up our economy then taking our money.
-- I don't hope that bad things happen to the recipients of those bonuses. I really hope that bad things happen to the children and grandchildren of them! Whatever hurts them the most!!
-- If the bonuses don't stop, it will be very likely that every CEO @ AIG will have a bull's-eye on their back.
-- We will hunt you down. Every last penny. We will hunt your children and we will hunt your conscience. We will do whatever we can to get those people getting the bonuses. Give back the money or kill yourselves.
-- All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks -- my greatest hope.
-- Watch your backs because someone will come to get you, you can be sure.
Federal authorities are investigating and will take action against warped vigilantes. But when will the enablers on the Hill, in newsrooms and on TV sets be held to account
Usually, mobs are lead by zealots, not the POTUS, Congress and news anchors....!
Michelle Malkin
Friday, March 27, 2009
If you think there are no consequences to hysterical, anti-corporate grandstanding in Washington, pay attention to what's happening across the pond: "This is just the beginning."
So warned a public letter signed this week by a vigilante group called "Bank Bosses are Criminals." The thugs claimed responsibility for vandalizing a former fin
ancial executive's home and car in Edinburgh, Scotland. The bank official, Sir Fred Goodwin, was excoriated by U.K. politicians for refusing to give up company pension benefits dubbed "obscene," "grotesque," "unjustifiable and unacceptable." The vigilantes were stoked by a former newspaper editor, one Max Hastings, who wrote a diatribe exhorting citizens to violence:"The time has come to address the entire robber banker culture. Investment banks have been run not for the benefit of society, customers or even shareholders, but exclusively for the advantage of the bankers themselves. … This is why we must stand outside their homes throwing rocks through the windows until they do."
This is no marginal movement. Some 3,000 protesters from around the world are expected to wreak havoc on the G20 summit next week in London. What happened at Sir Fred's house is a mere dress rehearsal. Bankers are being told to dress down to disguise themselves and avoid becoming riot targets.
Demonstrators are threatening to hang effigies. Protest organizer and university professor Chris Knight vowed worse: "We are going to be hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred from lampposts on April Fools' Day, and I can only say let's hope they are just effigies. To be honest, if he winds us up any more, I'm afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts, and let's hope that that doesn't actually have to happen."
How soon before we see this same kind of anarchic domestic terrorism on this side of the Atlantic? It's already here.
Animal-rights terrorists have firebombed researchers' homes, Molotov cocktail-bombed their cars, and been convicted of inciting threats, harassment and vandalism against employees of a private company engaged in animal research. Environmental terrorists have set private real estate developments on fire. Self-proclaimed "bank terrorist" Bruce Marks of the government-supported Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, whom I reported on last March, has been threatening bank employees in their homes and harassing their children for years. And last weekend, of course, the radical ACORN mob and its corporate shakedown allies chartered a bus -- with twice as many outrage-stoking mainstream media photographers in tow -- to menace AIG executives at their homes.
Democratic Rep. Barney Frank shrugged off testimony from AIG CEO Edward Liddy concerning death threats leveled against the company's employees. GOP Sen. Charles Grassley recklessly called on executives who accepted retention bonuses to commit hara-kiri. Left-wing billionaire George Soros' ground troops in the ANSWER coalition waved signs decrying, "CAPITALISM IS ORGANIZED CRIME! STOP AIG!" And 85 House Republicans, led by Minority Whip Eric Cantor, abetted the demagoguery by voting for the retroactive 90 percent bonus tax.
Pundits on both sides of the aisle demonized the business people whose sin was continuing to work for a company that accepted taxpayer funding from Chicken Littles in Washington who forked it over in a blind frenzy. Washington scribe Mort Kondracke joked about boiling the execs in oil. But the families who received the following threats through AIG's website can't afford to be so glib. Among the vile messages disclosed this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Hearst Newspapers:
-- All you motherf***ers should be shot. Thanks for f***ing up our economy then taking our money.
-- I don't hope that bad things happen to the recipients of those bonuses. I really hope that bad things happen to the children and grandchildren of them! Whatever hurts them the most!!
-- If the bonuses don't stop, it will be very likely that every CEO @ AIG will have a bull's-eye on their back.
-- We will hunt you down. Every last penny. We will hunt your children and we will hunt your conscience. We will do whatever we can to get those people getting the bonuses. Give back the money or kill yourselves.
-- All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks -- my greatest hope.
-- Watch your backs because someone will come to get you, you can be sure.
Federal authorities are investigating and will take action against warped vigilantes. But when will the enablers on the Hill, in newsrooms and on TV sets be held to account
Usually, mobs are lead by zealots, not the POTUS, Congress and news anchors....!
Pilgrims! I finally found a explanation of the Derivative Markets I can understand.....
DERIVATIVE MARKETS .... an understandable explanation:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. In order to increase
sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are
unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of
the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around about Heidi's drink now pay later marketing strategy
and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar
and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit.
By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands,
Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices
for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume
increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these
customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's
borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the
debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate
headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into
DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities
are then traded on security markets worldwide.
Naive investors don't really understand the securities being sold to
them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities
become the top-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage
houses.
One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at
the bank (subsequently fired due his negativity), decides that the time
has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar.
Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed,
they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot
fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90 %. PUKEBOND
performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The decreased
bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new
loans.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment
extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing
off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds. Her wine supplier claims
bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who
immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.
The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following
dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political
parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax
levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.
Now then, what I need to do, Pilgrims, is find out where Heidi is opening her new bar!!!
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. In order to increase
sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are
unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of
the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around about Heidi's drink now pay later marketing strategy
and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar
and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit.
By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands,
Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices
for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume
increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these
customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's
borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the
debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate
headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into
DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities
are then traded on security markets worldwide.
Naive investors don't really understand the securities being sold to
them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities
become the top-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage
houses.
One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at
the bank (subsequently fired due his negativity), decides that the time
has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar.
Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed,
they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot
fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90 %. PUKEBOND
performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The decreased
bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new
loans.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment
extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing
off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds. Her wine supplier claims
bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who
immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.
The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following
dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political
parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax
levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.
Now then, what I need to do, Pilgrims, is find out where Heidi is opening her new bar!!!
(Thanx and a 'Tip o' The Stetson' to my friend Pat of Long Island NY)
At long last - The Truthalot about Camelot??? We'll see Pilgrims!
'Kennedy' mini: View from the right
Joel Surnow takes on political family
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
Why do I believe I'll actually believe this series will make it to the small screen only when I see it? Or that it will actually be an accurate, truthful series with all the warts? Or an airbrushed version of what Surnow really wants to show?
Joel Surnow takes on political family
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
"24" co-creator Joel Surnow is taking on the Kennedy clan, penning a 10-hour miniseries about the political family. 
"The Kennedys," which Canadian distributor Muse Entertainment plans to shop this weekend at the MIP TV conference in Cannes, is sure to stir up controversy back here in the States.
Surnow, who's politically active in conservative politics, is drawing up a longform that will "unveil secrets" about the liberal-minded family.
According to Muse -- which sent out a press release Wednesday -- "The Kennedys" will explore "the soiled and crooked steps" the family took to get to the White House.
"It also tells the historical stories that are associated with the Kennedy era -- the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis, the civil rights struggle, the mob connection -- each one told in the context of personal, Kennedy-family dramas."
Muse is in talks with at least one cable network to air the history-minded drama.
According to Muse, the project has a budget of $30 million. Surnow will exec produce with Stephen Kronish, as well as Muse's Michael Prupas and Asylum Ent.'s Jonathan Koch and Steven Michaels.
Surnow most recently exec produced the satire series "The ½ Hour News Hour" for the Fox News Channel. Beyond "24," his credits include "La Femme Nikita," "Nowhere Man" and "The Commish."
Surnow, who's politically active in conservative politics, is drawing up a longform that will "unveil secrets" about the liberal-minded family.
According to Muse -- which sent out a press release Wednesday -- "The Kennedys" will explore "the soiled and crooked steps" the family took to get to the White House.
"It also tells the historical stories that are associated with the Kennedy era -- the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis, the civil rights struggle, the mob connection -- each one told in the context of personal, Kennedy-family dramas."
Muse is in talks with at least one cable network to air the history-minded drama.
According to Muse, the project has a budget of $30 million. Surnow will exec produce with Stephen Kronish, as well as Muse's Michael Prupas and Asylum Ent.'s Jonathan Koch and Steven Michaels.
Surnow most recently exec produced the satire series "The ½ Hour News Hour" for the Fox News Channel. Beyond "24," his credits include "La Femme Nikita," "Nowhere Man" and "The Commish."
Why do I believe I'll actually believe this series will make it to the small screen only when I see it? Or that it will actually be an accurate, truthful series with all the warts? Or an airbrushed version of what Surnow really wants to show?
Thursday, March 26, 2009
A simple analogy.............
An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little.. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that....
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little.. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that....
Big Tobacco -- our True Patriots?
VPOTUS Joltin' Joe Biden says that it is our patriotic duty to pay taxes. Not trying to lessen the true patriotism of Gold Star Families --- but copying that formula -- doesn't it seem like maybe Tobacco Shops should be allowed to fly some kind of flag - with a red cross or $ sign circled with the words - "Collector of Taxes - by Appointment of the US Gob'mint" circled around. Oh, here's one suggestion for the flag -- The Smoke Taxin'Devil!Every time there is a need - kids health, poor folks, unemployed civil servants -- a new tax is imposed on tobacco -- the gob'mint wants us to quit but depends on the tax income.......
In case you are a recovered smoker like myself and haven't priced them lately -- here is the tax income they generate...... (NOTE: doesn't include the price of the cigarettes or the $1.01 Fed tax)
Most counties and cities do not have their own cigarette tax rates, but there are major exceptions. More than 460 local jurisdictions have their own cigarette tax rates, bringing in more than half a billion dollars in annual revenue and working effectively to reduce smoking rates, especially among youth. The following are the highest cigarette tax jurisdictions taking all state and local cigarette taxes into consideration.
1. New York City ($1.50 per pack) plus New York State ($2.75) $4.25 per pack
2. Chicago ($0.68) plus Cook County ($2.00) plus Illinois ($0.98) $3.66 per pack
3. Evanston ($0.50) plus Cook County ($2.00) plus Illinois ($0.98) $3.48 per pack
4. Anchorage ($1.402) plus Alaska ($2.00) $3.402 per pack
5. Cicero ($0.16) plus Cook County ($2.00) plus Illinois ($0.98) $3.14 per pack
6. Rosemont ($0.05) plus Cook County ($2.00) plus Illinois ($0.98) $3.03 per pack
7. Barrow ($1.00) plus Alaska ($2.00) $3.00 per pack
8. Matanuska-Susitna Borough ($1.00) plus Alaska ($2.00) $3.00 per pack
9. Sitka ($1.00) plus Alaska ($2.00) $3.00 per pack
10. Cities with no tax in Cook County ($2.00) plus Illinois ($0.98) $2.98 per pack
11. New York state ($2.75), excluding New York City $2.75 per pack
12. New Jersey ($2.575), with no local cigarette taxes $2.575 per pack
13. Massachusetts ($2.51), with no local cigarette taxes $2.51 per pack
14. Rhode Island ($2.46), with no local cigarette taxes $2.46 per pack
15. Juneau ($0.30) plus Alaska ($2.00) $2.30 per pack
16. Fairbanks ($0.20) plus Alaska ($2.00) $2.20 per pack
17. Washington ($2.025), with no local cigarette taxes $2.025 per pack
18. Maine ($2.00), with no local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
19. Michigan ($2.00), with no local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
20. Arizona ($2.00), with no local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
21. Alaska ($2.00), excluding areas with local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
22. Connecticut ($2.00), with no local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
23. Maryland ($2.00), with no local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
24. Hawaii ($2.00), with no local cigarette taxes $2.00 per pack
25. Washington, DC ($2.00) $2.00 per pack
26. Vermont ($1.99), with no local cigarette taxes $1.99 per pack
27. Wisconsin ($1.77), with no local cigarette taxes $1.77 per pack
28. U.S. Territory Northern Marianas ($1.75), with no local cigarette taxes $1.75 per pack
29. Montana ($1.70), with no local cigarette taxes $1.70 per pack
30. Cuyahoga County ($0.345) plus Ohio ($1.25) $1.595 per pack
31. South Dakota ($1.53), with no local cigarette taxes $1.53 per pack
32. Minnesota ($1.504), with no local cigarette taxes $1.504 per pack
33. Texas ($1.41), with no local cigarette taxes $1.41 per pack
34. Iowa ($1.36), with no local cigarette taxes $1.36 per pack
35. Pennsylvania ($1.35), with no local cigarette taxes $1.35 per pack
36. New Hampshire ($1.33), with no local cigarette taxes $1.33 per pack
37. Ohio ($1.25), other than Cuyahoga County $1.25 per pack
These combined cigarette tax rates do not include the federal cigarette tax ($1.01 per pack, effective 3/31/09) or any state or local sales taxes that apply to cigarettes.
Shucks, they make the IRS look redundant......... wonder how many of these tobacco tax dollars actually help the kids, or the poor -- and how many end up in that trough all them gob'mint hogs be swillin' in?
Annie sees the Dems 'Shell Game of Misdirection' for what it is.......
GORDON GEKKO IS A DEMOCRAT
by Ann Coulter
March 25, 2009
How did Republicans get saddled with Wall Street? Obama just got the biggest campaign haul from Wall Street in world history, and Republicans still can't shake the public perception that they are tied at the hip to Wall Street bankers who hate them.
It's as if National Rifle Association members conspired with Republicans to bankrupt the country and everyone blamed the Democrats for being shills of the NRA.
Maybe if the financial capital of the nation were located in Salt Lake City, rather than Manhattan, the financial community would support Republicans. But Wall Street is a street located in New York City.
No one in the top echelons of the financial industry who has a weekend place in the Hamptons is a Republican.
No, there is one. Teddy Forstmann. He has to throw his own parties and fly guests in. Otherwise, if they want to go to any half-decent parties, bankers must be Democrats. At their income bracket, multimillionaires will trade a little extra tax money for good cocktail parties.
Even the "Republicans" on Wall Street don't care about national defense or social issues. They just want to trade with China and hire illegal aliens.
Last September, The New York Times reported that individuals associated with the securities and investment industry had given $9.9 million to the Obama campaign, $7.4 million to the Hillary Clinton campaign and only $6.9 million to the McCain campaign. Either they're all Democrats or some commodity named "hope" was going through the roof last year.
Employees of Lehman Bros. alone gave Obama $370,000, compared to about $117,000 to McCain. (No wonder Bush let them go under.)
According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Responsive Politics, the top three corporate employers of donors to Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel were Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan. Six other financial giants were in the top 30 donors to the White House Dream Team: UBS AG, Lehman Bros., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Group.
Since 1998, the financial sector has given a total of $37.6 million to Obama, compared to $32.1 million to McCain. But Obama ran for his first national office only in 2004. So McCain got less from the financial industry in a decade that included two runs for president than Obama did in four years.
As we've seen in recent weeks, Wall Street gets what it pays for. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd included language in the stimulus bill allowing executives of the bailed-out banks to collect million-dollar bonuses.
And yet the Democrats' endless favors for their Wall Street friends never sticks to them because everyone treats Democrats' shilling for their own contributors as if it's a Nixon-goes-to-China moment.
On the March 23 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," The Nation's David Corn said: "Remember -- What was it? A year or two back when there was talk about taxing hedge fund managers at the rate that the rest of us pay? Who intervened in that? Chuck Schumer."
But Corn then quickly added that this "got a lot of Democrats really mad. Here was a Democrat, you know, getting in the way of a populist issue at a time when the economy was already heading in the wrong direction."
Which Democrats got "really mad"? Chris Dodd? George Soros? Warren Buffett? Jon Corzine? Tim Geithner? Roger Altman? Bob Rubin? Jamie Dimon? Lloyd Blankfein?
Corn's formulation was wonderfully subtle: Admit that a Democrat preserved a sweetheart deal for hedge fund managers -- but then claim that his fellow Democrats were furious with him.
People are more likely to believe something if they think they came to it themselves. Hearing a liberal muse on TV that it was an aberration for Chuck Schumer to intervene to protect hedge fund managers -- risking the wrath of other Democrats -- the average person thinks: So Democrats must be the party of the people. I always thought George Soros was a Democrat, but he must be a Republican.
Democrats take care of the financial industry -- and the financial industry takes care of Democrats. After honing his financial skills as the bagman for Bill Clinton's White House, Rahm Emanuel was hired by the investment bank Wasserstein Perella, where he worked for 2 1/2 years.
For that, Emanuel was paid more than $18 million. (Maybe Rahm Emanuel was the Democrat livid at Schumer for preserving a sweet tax deal for hedge fund managers!)
Democrats have a beautiful system: They're showered with Wall Street money, but they also get to pillory Republicans for being the party of "Wall Street." The bankers don't care if Democrats attack them. They still get their bailout money.
by Ann Coulter
March 25, 2009
How did Republicans get saddled with Wall Street? Obama just got the biggest campaign haul from Wall Street in world history, and Republicans still can't shake the public perception that they are tied at the hip to Wall Street bankers who hate them.
It's as if National Rifle Association members conspired with Republicans to bankrupt the country and everyone blamed the Democrats for being shills of the NRA.
Maybe if the financial capital of the nation were located in Salt Lake City, rather than Manhattan, the financial community would support Republicans. But Wall Street is a street located in New York City.
No one in the top echelons of the financial industry who has a weekend place in the Hamptons is a Republican.
No, there is one. Teddy Forstmann. He has to throw his own parties and fly guests in. Otherwise, if they want to go to any half-decent parties, bankers must be Democrats. At their income bracket, multimillionaires will trade a little extra tax money for good cocktail parties.
Even the "Republicans" on Wall Street don't care about national defense or social issues. They just want to trade with China and hire illegal aliens.
Last September, The New York Times reported that individuals associated with the securities and investment industry had given $9.9 million to the Obama campaign, $7.4 million to the Hillary Clinton campaign and only $6.9 million to the McCain campaign. Either they're all Democrats or some commodity named "hope" was going through the roof last year.
Employees of Lehman Bros. alone gave Obama $370,000, compared to about $117,000 to McCain. (No wonder Bush let them go under.)
According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Responsive Politics, the top three corporate employers of donors to Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel were Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan. Six other financial giants were in the top 30 donors to the White House Dream Team: UBS AG, Lehman Bros., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Group.
Since 1998, the financial sector has given a total of $37.6 million to Obama, compared to $32.1 million to McCain. But Obama ran for his first national office only in 2004. So McCain got less from the financial industry in a decade that included two runs for president than Obama did in four years.
As we've seen in recent weeks, Wall Street gets what it pays for. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd included language in the stimulus bill allowing executives of the bailed-out banks to collect million-dollar bonuses.
And yet the Democrats' endless favors for their Wall Street friends never sticks to them because everyone treats Democrats' shilling for their own contributors as if it's a Nixon-goes-to-China moment.
On the March 23 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," The Nation's David Corn said: "Remember -- What was it? A year or two back when there was talk about taxing hedge fund managers at the rate that the rest of us pay? Who intervened in that? Chuck Schumer."
But Corn then quickly added that this "got a lot of Democrats really mad. Here was a Democrat, you know, getting in the way of a populist issue at a time when the economy was already heading in the wrong direction."
Which Democrats got "really mad"? Chris Dodd? George Soros? Warren Buffett? Jon Corzine? Tim Geithner? Roger Altman? Bob Rubin? Jamie Dimon? Lloyd Blankfein?
Corn's formulation was wonderfully subtle: Admit that a Democrat preserved a sweetheart deal for hedge fund managers -- but then claim that his fellow Democrats were furious with him.
People are more likely to believe something if they think they came to it themselves. Hearing a liberal muse on TV that it was an aberration for Chuck Schumer to intervene to protect hedge fund managers -- risking the wrath of other Democrats -- the average person thinks: So Democrats must be the party of the people. I always thought George Soros was a Democrat, but he must be a Republican.
Democrats take care of the financial industry -- and the financial industry takes care of Democrats. After honing his financial skills as the bagman for Bill Clinton's White House, Rahm Emanuel was hired by the investment bank Wasserstein Perella, where he worked for 2 1/2 years.
For that, Emanuel was paid more than $18 million. (Maybe Rahm Emanuel was the Democrat livid at Schumer for preserving a sweet tax deal for hedge fund managers!)
Democrats have a beautiful system: They're showered with Wall Street money, but they also get to pillory Republicans for being the party of "Wall Street." The bankers don't care if Democrats attack them. They still get their bailout money.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
TOTUS's Press Conference a yawner......
Last night, the TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States) held one of the most 'say nothing' press conferences in history. The lack of substance in TOTUS's prepared speech was surpassed only by the lack of substance in the Softball and Answer portion.
I guess the only thing we learned is that the POTUS didn't get mad about the AIG bonuses for several days until the TOTUS told him he should speak that way!!
............and this is the 'great orator'??
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
It was bound to happen Pilgrims, even yours truly predicted it on another site just the other day!!!
Senator proposes nonprofit status for newspapers
AP News
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Struggling newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., proposed Tuesday.
Cardin introduced a bill that would allow newspapers to choose tax-exempt status. They would no longer be able to make political endorsements, but could report on all issues including political campaigns.
Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage could be tax deductible.
Cardin said in a statement that the bill is aimed at preserving local newspapers, not large newspaper conglomerates.
"We are losing our newspaper industry," said Cardin. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."
Cardin said his proposal may not be the best choice for some major newspapers, but "should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat."
Speaking on the Senate floor, Cardin added, "As local papers are closing, we're losing a valuable tradition in America _ critically important to our communities, critically important to our democracy."
Reports of layoffs and furloughs at newspapers around the country have become common in recent months. Gannett Co., which publishes 85 daily newspapers, announced Monday that it was asking most of its 41,500 employees to give up a week's pay for the second time this year. The same day, Advance Publications, which publishes daily papers in nearly two dozen cities, said it was ordering 10-day furloughs and a pension freeze at nearly all its daily newspapers.
AP News
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Struggling newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofits similar to public broadcasting stations, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., proposed Tuesday.
Cardin introduced a bill that would allow newspapers to choose tax-exempt status. They would no longer be able to make political endorsements, but could report on all issues including political campaigns.
Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage could be tax deductible.
Cardin said in a statement that the bill is aimed at preserving local newspapers, not large newspaper conglomerates.
"We are losing our newspaper industry," said Cardin. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."
Cardin said his proposal may not be the best choice for some major newspapers, but "should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat."
Speaking on the Senate floor, Cardin added, "As local papers are closing, we're losing a valuable tradition in America _ critically important to our communities, critically important to our democracy."
Reports of layoffs and furloughs at newspapers around the country have become common in recent months. Gannett Co., which publishes 85 daily newspapers, announced Monday that it was asking most of its 41,500 employees to give up a week's pay for the second time this year. The same day, Advance Publications, which publishes daily papers in nearly two dozen cities, said it was ordering 10-day furloughs and a pension freeze at nearly all its daily newspapers.
I reckon we all know just how politically unbiased newspapers will be with this tax free status. We have ample experience with that bastion of unbiased reporting -- National Public Radio and Public Broadcast System TV.....
Watch out for this stealth bomber Pilgrims!!!
As opposed to his usual intellectual but reserved writing, I think George Will is issuing a call to action!!
CONGRESS GONE WILDBy GEORGE F. WILL
March 24, 2009 --
WITH the braying of 328 yahoos House mem bers who voted for retro active and punitive use of the tax code to confiscate legal earnings of a small unpopular group still reverberating, the Obama administration Monday invited private-sector investors to become business partners with the capricious and increasingly anti-constitutional government.
This latest plan to unfreeze the financial system came almost half a year after Congress shoveled $700 billion into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, $325 billion of which has been spent without purchasing any toxic assets.
TARP funds have, however, semi-purchased, among many other things, two car companies (and, last week, some of their parts suppliers), which must amaze Sweden. That unlikely tutor of America regarding capitalist common sense has said, through a Cabinet minister, that the ailing Saab automobile company is on its own: "The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories."
Another embarrassing auditor of US misgovernment is China, whose premier has rightly noted the unsustainable trajectory of America's high-consumption, low-savings economy. He has also expressed sensible fears that his country's $1 trillion-plus of dollar-denominated assets might be devalued by America choosing, as banana republics have done, to use inflation for partial repudiation of improvidently incurred debts.
Congress, with the approval of a president who has waxed censorious about his predecessor's imperious unilateralism in dealing with other nations, has shredded the North American Free Trade Agreement. Congress used the omnibus spending bill to abolish a program created as part of a protracted US stall regarding compliance with its obligation to allow Mexican long-haul trucks on US roads. The program, testing the safety of Mexican trucking, became an embarrassment because it found Mexican trucking at least as safe as US trucking. Mexico has resorted to protectionism tariffs on many US goods in retaliation for Democrats' protection of the Teamsters union.
NAFTA, like all treaties, is the "supreme law of the land." So says the Constitution. It is, however, a cobweb constraint on a Congress that, ignoring the document's unambiguous stipulations that the House shall be composed of members chosen "by the people of the several states," is voting to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state. Hence it supposedly can have a Democratic member of the House and, down the descending road, two Democratic senators.
Congress rationalizes this anti-constitutional willfulness by citing the Constitution's language that each house shall be the judge of the "qualifications" of its members and Congress can "exercise exclusive legislation" over the District. What, then, prevents Congress from giving House and Senate seats to Yellowstone National Park, over which Congress exercises exclusive legislation? Only Congress' capacity for embarrassment. So, not much.
Jefferson warned that "great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities." But Democrats, who trace their party's pedigree to Jefferson, are contemplating using "reconciliation" a legislative maneuver abused by both parties to severely truncate debate and limit the minority's right to resist to impose vast and controversial changes on the 17 percent of the economy that is health care.
When the Congressional Budget Office announced that the president's budget underestimates by $2.3 trillion the likely deficits over the next decade, his budget director, Peter Orszag, said: All long-range budget forecasts are notoriously unreliable so rely on ours.
This is but a partial list of recent lawlessness, situational constitutionalism and institutional derangement. Such political malfeasance is pertinent to the financial meltdown as the administration, desperately seeking confidence, tries to stabilize the economy by vastly enlarging government's role in it.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Where's that damned teleprompter.....
In his first public appearance in two years without a teleprompter telling him what to say, Obamanation slipped and fell over his tongue while hitting softballs pitched by Jay Leno last week.
Discussing his bowling ability and bragging that he had rolled a 129 on the White House alley, he quipped that his bowling was like the 'Special Olympics'!!
Oooops, his bad --- the phones and the blogs are still ringing loudly.... even quotes by young Special Olympians that have been hurt by his unthinking comments.
Never leave home without your teleprompter O-man!
For you Pilgrims that have direct dial and sound, this'll knock your socks off!
Santa Fe NM loses track of 'Time'
Santa Fe time capsule from 1960 never buried
The Associated Press
Posted: 03/20/2009
SANTA FE, N.M.—Santa Fe's 400th anniversary celebrations won't include opening a time capsule from 1960 after all.
The capsule never got filled and never got buried.
The 400th Anniversary Committee had been looking for where the time capsule was buried on the Santa Fe Plaza.
But according to 1960 editions of The New Mexican, the 150-pound steel tube that served as the time capsule wasn't to be buried on the plaza, but rather at what was then City Hall. It was to be filled with items "pertinent to Santa Fe's 350th anniversary celebration."
At the time, the capital city was believed to have been founded in 1610. Historians three decades later discovered evidence it was founded in 1607 or earlier.
The 350th anniversary was front-page news in June 1960 editions of The New Mexican.
One edition carried a photograph of Mayor Leo Murphy being handed, according to the caption, a box of "information which went into the cylinder scheduled to be buried right after the anniversary celebration."
Then in April 1964, reporter Mack Barly figured out the time capsule was gathering dust in a back room of an office machines business, being used "as a shelf for empty plastic bottles and other useless objects."
The business owner wound up with the capsule because he was in charge of a committee that was to gather things to go in it. The project was abandoned when the souvenirs failed to turn up, he said.
Murphy told Barly the time capsule never got filled because he was too busy trying to cover bills from the 350th anniversary.
"Those were days of confusion, days of chaos," he said. "I was more interested in getting some friends to sign a note with me to cover the deficit the celebration ran up than I was in what happened to the capsule."
Maybe next time guys????
The Associated Press
Posted: 03/20/2009
SANTA FE, N.M.—Santa Fe's 400th anniversary celebrations won't include opening a time capsule from 1960 after all.
The capsule never got filled and never got buried.
The 400th Anniversary Committee had been looking for where the time capsule was buried on the Santa Fe Plaza.
But according to 1960 editions of The New Mexican, the 150-pound steel tube that served as the time capsule wasn't to be buried on the plaza, but rather at what was then City Hall. It was to be filled with items "pertinent to Santa Fe's 350th anniversary celebration."
At the time, the capital city was believed to have been founded in 1610. Historians three decades later discovered evidence it was founded in 1607 or earlier.
The 350th anniversary was front-page news in June 1960 editions of The New Mexican.
One edition carried a photograph of Mayor Leo Murphy being handed, according to the caption, a box of "information which went into the cylinder scheduled to be buried right after the anniversary celebration."
Then in April 1964, reporter Mack Barly figured out the time capsule was gathering dust in a back room of an office machines business, being used "as a shelf for empty plastic bottles and other useless objects."
The business owner wound up with the capsule because he was in charge of a committee that was to gather things to go in it. The project was abandoned when the souvenirs failed to turn up, he said.
Murphy told Barly the time capsule never got filled because he was too busy trying to cover bills from the 350th anniversary.
"Those were days of confusion, days of chaos," he said. "I was more interested in getting some friends to sign a note with me to cover the deficit the celebration ran up than I was in what happened to the capsule."
Maybe next time guys????
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Here is some advice for all you Pilgrims to heed.....
Never anger a guy who owns a backhoe!!Never - never - never!
!!!!!!!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Rhode Island stimulus package stripped.....bare?
Rhode Island strip club to host job fair
Jockeying for pole position: Rhode Island strip club to host job fair for dancers, staff
Jockeying for pole position: Rhode Island strip club to host job fair for dancers, staff
Eric Tucker, Associated Press Writer
March 20, 2009,
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Here's a job opportunity you won't need to buy a new wardrobe for.
Hoping to take advantage of Rhode Island's floundering economy, owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence plan to hold a job fair on Saturday.
They say they're looking to fill around 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts.
"I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now," said co-owner Tom Tsoumas.
The naked truth is that Rhode Island's economy is among the worst in the nation, with an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent in January.
The Providence club isn't immune from the recession but is still drawing customers willing to drink and pay for lap dances, said manager Bob Travisono.
"It's taken a hit," he said. "It's not as bad as restaurants and stuff like that. In times like this, they seem to drink their sorrows away."
Tsoumas said he hopes some who might shun strip clubs when the economy is good might consider shedding their clothes now -- or at least working as a floor host or bartender.
March 20, 2009,
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Here's a job opportunity you won't need to buy a new wardrobe for.
Hoping to take advantage of Rhode Island's floundering economy, owners of the Foxy Lady strip club in Providence plan to hold a job fair on Saturday.
They say they're looking to fill around 30 positions, from strippers and waitresses to disc jockeys and bartenders, at that club and two others in Massachusetts.
"I need more managers, I need more competent staff, and I need more attractive waitresses to go along with the ones I have right now," said co-owner Tom Tsoumas.
The naked truth is that Rhode Island's economy is among the worst in the nation, with an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent in January.
The Providence club isn't immune from the recession but is still drawing customers willing to drink and pay for lap dances, said manager Bob Travisono.
"It's taken a hit," he said. "It's not as bad as restaurants and stuff like that. In times like this, they seem to drink their sorrows away."
Tsoumas said he hopes some who might shun strip clubs when the economy is good might consider shedding their clothes now -- or at least working as a floor host or bartender.
Apparently, Obamantion's Stimulation Starts at home.......
EXCLUSIVE: Obama's $500,000 book bonanza
Jim McElhatton and Christina Bellantoni, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
As he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows.
The terms of the book deal were disclosed in a Senate financial disclosure report filed Tuesday.
Analysts say there don't appear to be any rules that would bar such transactions after a president takes office, but it's unclear whether an incoming or sitting president has ever signed a book deal upon entering the White House.
"I don't recall any sitting president entering into a book deal," said campaign finance lawyer Jan Baran, former general counsel to the Republican National Committee. "They all have historically done that after they leave office.
"I recall the only ones who did sign book deals while living there were first ladies, and my recollection is they gave it to charity."
Mr. Obama approved the $500,000 advance on Jan. 15. The advance is against royalties under a deal with Crown Publishing, a division of Random House. The project calls for an abridged version of his book "Dreams From My Father" for middle-school-aged children, according to the disclosure.
A White House aide said that the deal had been in the works for weeks and that the publisher will abridge the book. The aide, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said the publisher will get half of the money while Mr. Obama will sign off on the final version.
In addition, the financial disclosure showed Mr. Obama brokered an amendment to an existing book deal with Crown Publishing to put off writing a nonfiction book until after he leaves office.
The book deal came on top of nearly $2.5 million in book royalties paid to Mr. Obama last year for "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," according to the Senate report, which was filed by Robert F. Bauer, who served general counsel to Mr. Obama's presidential campaign.
Jim McElhatton and Christina Bellantoni, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
As he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows.
The terms of the book deal were disclosed in a Senate financial disclosure report filed Tuesday.
Analysts say there don't appear to be any rules that would bar such transactions after a president takes office, but it's unclear whether an incoming or sitting president has ever signed a book deal upon entering the White House.
"I don't recall any sitting president entering into a book deal," said campaign finance lawyer Jan Baran, former general counsel to the Republican National Committee. "They all have historically done that after they leave office.
"I recall the only ones who did sign book deals while living there were first ladies, and my recollection is they gave it to charity."
Mr. Obama approved the $500,000 advance on Jan. 15. The advance is against royalties under a deal with Crown Publishing, a division of Random House. The project calls for an abridged version of his book "Dreams From My Father" for middle-school-aged children, according to the disclosure.
A White House aide said that the deal had been in the works for weeks and that the publisher will abridge the book. The aide, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said the publisher will get half of the money while Mr. Obama will sign off on the final version.
In addition, the financial disclosure showed Mr. Obama brokered an amendment to an existing book deal with Crown Publishing to put off writing a nonfiction book until after he leaves office.
The book deal came on top of nearly $2.5 million in book royalties paid to Mr. Obama last year for "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," according to the Senate report, which was filed by Robert F. Bauer, who served general counsel to Mr. Obama's presidential campaign.
Once again, the Messiah shows feet of dollar bill paper mache`!!!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Well, finally an image that significantly defines the Democratic stimulus package. I'm sure you and millions of Americans will agree
“Perhaps I’m jaded, but I believe that the gush of taxpayer dollars issuing forth from Washington is not driven by compassion, but from an unspoken belief that Americans are not smart enough to govern their own lives, strong enough to take some risk or compassionate enough to help neighbors in need.”–Texas Governor--- Rick Perry
(Gov'nor Perry BTW, told the 'O' man and the feds to stick the stimulus unemployement dollars where the sun don''t shine, 'cause it is a one time thing but requires changing Texas long term unemployment laws and taxes)
Borrowed for you from Peace & Freedom Global Future...
Obama On Geithner Sounds Like “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”
By arturoafc54
Just like FEMA Director Michael D. Brown had to be fired after Katrina, just after the President of the Uited States said, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner also has to be fired.
He was head of the New York Federal Reserve when AIG got into real trouble and needed a federal bailout. He apparently has amnesia or slept through meetings where the AIG bonus money was discussed and allowed. And as Tresury Secretary his performance has been lackluster. He did know about the stimulus bonus exceptions early on and did nothing to stop them — which allowed AIG to pay the stimuluses in good faith, allowed a preventable presidential “outrage” moment and a congressional lynching on TV of AIG’s top man: who took the job last year when Treasury asked him and only accepts $1 a year in pay.
Geithner is the one man most responsible for voter lack of confidence in this economy. And as the president has been saying: without confidence the economy may last a lot longer.
Yesterday, when President Obama likened Geithner to Alexander Hamilton all I could think about was Mike Brown and “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
Presidents have been wrong before. The good presidents admit it.
Geithner also heads the IRS which has failed to collect from businesses getting lots of bailout money without paying their taxes? Well, Geithner couldn’t figure how to pay his taxes correctly so what the heck. He’s using everything in his means to solve these economic woes and as President Obama said, Geithner has been making “all the right moves.”
Time for a Mayflower Move for Turbo Tax Tim, Mister President….
“I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team.”
My confidence is shot, Mister President.
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
By arturoafc54
Just like FEMA Director Michael D. Brown had to be fired after Katrina, just after the President of the Uited States said, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner also has to be fired.
He was head of the New York Federal Reserve when AIG got into real trouble and needed a federal bailout. He apparently has amnesia or slept through meetings where the AIG bonus money was discussed and allowed. And as Tresury Secretary his performance has been lackluster. He did know about the stimulus bonus exceptions early on and did nothing to stop them — which allowed AIG to pay the stimuluses in good faith, allowed a preventable presidential “outrage” moment and a congressional lynching on TV of AIG’s top man: who took the job last year when Treasury asked him and only accepts $1 a year in pay.
Geithner is the one man most responsible for voter lack of confidence in this economy. And as the president has been saying: without confidence the economy may last a lot longer.
Yesterday, when President Obama likened Geithner to Alexander Hamilton all I could think about was Mike Brown and “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
Presidents have been wrong before. The good presidents admit it.
Geithner also heads the IRS which has failed to collect from businesses getting lots of bailout money without paying their taxes? Well, Geithner couldn’t figure how to pay his taxes correctly so what the heck. He’s using everything in his means to solve these economic woes and as President Obama said, Geithner has been making “all the right moves.”
Time for a Mayflower Move for Turbo Tax Tim, Mister President….
“I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team.”
My confidence is shot, Mister President.
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
How many times have we heard Presidents use that 'full confidence' comment the day before firing somebody...... or for that matter, George Steinbrenner or Jerry Jones, as well!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Annie says: Ron Silver, RIP!!!
SILVER'S BRAVERY NOT AN ACT
by Ann Coulter
March 18, 2009
I wish I could ask Ron Silver what he thinks of the AIG bonuses. He'd have some original take -- maybe propose re-opening the bonuses paid to Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick for their yeoman's work running Fannie Mae into the ground and then collecting bonuses of $90 million and $24.7 million, respectively. Or maybe he'd just make a joke.
But I can't ask him anymore because Ron died of a rare esophageal cancer last Sunday.
So now there i
s one less person in the world who never chooses his positions to feed a pompous ego or to stroke his self-image as a thinking person. There was no point to posturing for Ron: His social standing in Hollywood was revoked the moment he supported Bush and the Iraq War.
Perhaps Ron always spoke his mind, but I didn't know him when he was "brave"; I only knew Ron when he was actually brave.
I've noticed that words like "brave" and "courageous" are mostly used nowadays to mean "left-wing.." We're constantly asked to admire the monumental courage of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo and the Dixie Chicks -- sometimes even by other people.
But for my younger readers, what courage traditionally meant was risking the disapprobation of people you know. It was about losing friends, losing work and losing status where you live -- not alienating people you will never meet. Insulting people in Kansas when you live in Los Angeles is not speaking truth to power; it's speaking anything to serve power.
One thing you cannot say about Ron's magnificent speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention is that he did it to go with the flow in Hollywood, to take the path of least resistance, to win easy applause. Ron did lose work, lose friends and lose his entire social apparatus.
Ron didn't say what he said to get any kind of reaction, but because he believed it. He was an intellectual trapped in an actor's body.
Amid the antiques at his beautifully appointed Park Avenue pre-war, there were piles and piles of magazines and newspaper articles on topics ranging from Sunni Muslims to Darwinism. Nearly every room was lined with books, most of them dog-eared.
When I needed to stay with Ron for a few weeks once, he'd get up hours before I did, read all the major newspapers and leave the interesting articles circled at the foot of my bed.
This might be the nicest thing a man could ever do for me. Hey, skip the bagel and fresh coffee -- bring me that op-ed page and a pair of scissors! It was like a fabulous Park Avenue hotel with a clipping service.
During his long-shot chemo treatments at "the spa," as he called Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Ron turned his chemo rooms into Command Central. Most people doze off during chemo; Ron would be sitting upright, watching the news, checking his laptop and making cell phone calls, seemingly oblivious to the poison being injected into his arm.
He'd often come to church with me on Sundays -- while insisting he favored the "Original Testament," as if the New Testament were an act of judicial activism. He just liked to hear an intellectual lecture on the Bible -- and always perked up when the minister began discussing the "Original Testament."
On Sundays when we had communion, Ron would pop the host in his mouth as soon as the tray passed him, approvingly observing that matzo was served at church.
No ideas frightened him, which is part of the reason why we were always laughing, even when we were arguing.
Ron sometimes told me of the cruelty directed at him by his former friends, but never with bitterness or for publication -- although I'm tempted to get it off my chest even if he didn't want to get it off his chest. You know who you are.
As with his impending death, Ron mostly joked about his banishment from the plutocracy. When I off-handedly mentioned in December 2004 that I had to get a Christmas tree, he told me he'd like to help, but having recently spoken at the Republican National Convention, the last thing he needed was to be seen walking through the streets of New York carrying a Christmas tree.
After an aborted operation on his cancer in July 2007, as soon as I saw Ron in his hospital bed, I told him I had Christians across the country praying for him. He said, "That's good, because the Jews are praying for me to die."
Here he was joking only hours after being told his cancer was inoperable and he had mere months to live. Nearly two years later, he was gone. Luckily for him, he now faces a Maker who rewards bravery, but despises "bravery."
by Ann Coulter
March 18, 2009
I wish I could ask Ron Silver what he thinks of the AIG bonuses. He'd have some original take -- maybe propose re-opening the bonuses paid to Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick for their yeoman's work running Fannie Mae into the ground and then collecting bonuses of $90 million and $24.7 million, respectively. Or maybe he'd just make a joke.
But I can't ask him anymore because Ron died of a rare esophageal cancer last Sunday.
So now there i
s one less person in the world who never chooses his positions to feed a pompous ego or to stroke his self-image as a thinking person. There was no point to posturing for Ron: His social standing in Hollywood was revoked the moment he supported Bush and the Iraq War.Perhaps Ron always spoke his mind, but I didn't know him when he was "brave"; I only knew Ron when he was actually brave.
I've noticed that words like "brave" and "courageous" are mostly used nowadays to mean "left-wing.." We're constantly asked to admire the monumental courage of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo and the Dixie Chicks -- sometimes even by other people.
But for my younger readers, what courage traditionally meant was risking the disapprobation of people you know. It was about losing friends, losing work and losing status where you live -- not alienating people you will never meet. Insulting people in Kansas when you live in Los Angeles is not speaking truth to power; it's speaking anything to serve power.
One thing you cannot say about Ron's magnificent speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention is that he did it to go with the flow in Hollywood, to take the path of least resistance, to win easy applause. Ron did lose work, lose friends and lose his entire social apparatus.
Ron didn't say what he said to get any kind of reaction, but because he believed it. He was an intellectual trapped in an actor's body.
Amid the antiques at his beautifully appointed Park Avenue pre-war, there were piles and piles of magazines and newspaper articles on topics ranging from Sunni Muslims to Darwinism. Nearly every room was lined with books, most of them dog-eared.
When I needed to stay with Ron for a few weeks once, he'd get up hours before I did, read all the major newspapers and leave the interesting articles circled at the foot of my bed.
This might be the nicest thing a man could ever do for me. Hey, skip the bagel and fresh coffee -- bring me that op-ed page and a pair of scissors! It was like a fabulous Park Avenue hotel with a clipping service.
During his long-shot chemo treatments at "the spa," as he called Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Ron turned his chemo rooms into Command Central. Most people doze off during chemo; Ron would be sitting upright, watching the news, checking his laptop and making cell phone calls, seemingly oblivious to the poison being injected into his arm.
He'd often come to church with me on Sundays -- while insisting he favored the "Original Testament," as if the New Testament were an act of judicial activism. He just liked to hear an intellectual lecture on the Bible -- and always perked up when the minister began discussing the "Original Testament."
On Sundays when we had communion, Ron would pop the host in his mouth as soon as the tray passed him, approvingly observing that matzo was served at church.
No ideas frightened him, which is part of the reason why we were always laughing, even when we were arguing.
Ron sometimes told me of the cruelty directed at him by his former friends, but never with bitterness or for publication -- although I'm tempted to get it off my chest even if he didn't want to get it off his chest. You know who you are.
As with his impending death, Ron mostly joked about his banishment from the plutocracy. When I off-handedly mentioned in December 2004 that I had to get a Christmas tree, he told me he'd like to help, but having recently spoken at the Republican National Convention, the last thing he needed was to be seen walking through the streets of New York carrying a Christmas tree.
After an aborted operation on his cancer in July 2007, as soon as I saw Ron in his hospital bed, I told him I had Christians across the country praying for him. He said, "That's good, because the Jews are praying for me to die."
Here he was joking only hours after being told his cancer was inoperable and he had mere months to live. Nearly two years later, he was gone. Luckily for him, he now faces a Maker who rewards bravery, but despises "bravery."
Chapter 9 of the Redneck Language Primer for Yankees
It's come to my attention that not all you Pilgrims are up on the latest medical terms (or Turms) as we call 'em in the South. Here is a little Primer to study afore your next visit in case you git ill!
Redneck Medical Terms
Redneck Medical Terms
Benign- What you be after you be eight.
Bacteria- Back door to cafeteria.
Barium- What you do with dead folks.
Cesarean Section- A neighborhood in Rome.
Catscan- What mice do before coming out of their holes.
Cauterize- Made eye contact with her.
Colic- A sheep dog.
Coma- A punctuation mark.
D&C- Where Washington is.
Dilate- To live longer than your kids do.
Enema- Not a friend.
Fester- Quicker than someone else.
Fibula- A small lie.
G.I.Series- World Series of military baseball.
Hangnail- What you hang your coat on.
Impotent- Distinguished, well known.
Labor Pain- Getting hurt at work.
Morbid- A higher offer than I bid.
Nitrates- Cheaper than day rates.
Medical Staff- A Doctor's cane, sometimes shown with a snake.
Node- I knew it.
Outpatient- A person who has fainted.
Pap Smear- A fatherhood test.
Pelvis- Second cousin to Elvis.
Post Operative- A letter carrier.
Recovery Room- Place to do upholstery.
Secretion- Hiding something
Tablet- A small table to change babies on.
Seizure- Roman emperor who lived in the Ceasarean Section.
Terminal Illness- Getting sick at the train station.
Tumor- More than one.
Urine- Opposite of mine.
Varicose- Near by
Hospital- The biggest building in town, other than Joe's feed warehouse or Franks lumber mill
Welcome to Oz, Russ!
Wow, is it ever hard to keep up!!
Yesterday, I left in the mid-morning and returned this morning. Tuned-in to catch up on the latest news, and found it's been another ordinary news day. Just one more day, and one more barrage of things nobody could make up without drinking lots of tequila.
Items:
1. The AIG disaster. Congressional Democrats are talking like conservatives or Republicans. It's the old "Cover your ass" game unfolding right before my eyes. I see they know the right words, so why can't they serve in such a sincere capacity when their cheeks aren't exposed? Phony, hypocritical, crooks.
2. The threat to veteran's insurance has made it to the front burner, and rightfully so. Even if this movement dies on the vine, the very consideration or attempt to do such a thing is an unbelievable shame and a slap in the face to everything this country stands for. And we have elected representatives who want free health care for illegal aliens!!! Oh, My God!!
3. Pelosi has publicly made the statement that our illegal immigration laws and enforcement of those laws are "UNAMERICAN". The laws were passed by our congress. Wait a minute!! Isn't that where she works and votes?
4. ACORN is in the process of recruiting 1.4 million employees to assist in conducting the 2010 census. Is somebody kidding me? Everyone has finally learned what ACORN is all about. They are under investigation in at least 14 states for voter fraud. That doesn't count the 2 states where they've already been convicted in voter fraud cases.
5. Sec of Treasury, Geithner declined to attend and testify in today's Congressional Sub Committee hearings on AIG. Yes, that would be the same Geithner who had all the inside info about the $165 million bonuses which is the prime point of the hearings.
6. While a U.S. Senator, Obama voted for the AIG bonuses, then as POTUS, he signed the stimulus bill which authorized the bonuses. Oh, even though it's possibly a trivial matter, Obama himself received in excess of $100, 000 from AIG. Today he spoke before heading to California and express his anger about this horrible AIG mess. Hmmm!
7. Homeland Security Chief, Janet Napolitano went on record to say she'll no longer use the term "Terrorism". It will be replaced by "Man caused disaster".
"Self", I said, "insurgent replaces terrorist, detainee replaces enemy combatant, man caused disaster replaces terrorism" Hot damn, bubba, I'm feeling safer and safer!
Recently I wake up and wonder where the hell I am, and how do I get back home to America. It's not funny, and I'm not laughing. What the hell is going on back there?
Remember that famous line when Dorothy woke up in Oz? " Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Welcome to Oz Russ..
Or maybe we fell through the looking glass with Alice.......
(Thanks and a Tip O' the stetson to an ole' Air Force Vet, Russ, in Utah!!)
Yesterday, I left in the mid-morning and returned this morning. Tuned-in to catch up on the latest news, and found it's been another ordinary news day. Just one more day, and one more barrage of things nobody could make up without drinking lots of tequila.
Items:
1. The AIG disaster. Congressional Democrats are talking like conservatives or Republicans. It's the old "Cover your ass" game unfolding right before my eyes. I see they know the right words, so why can't they serve in such a sincere capacity when their cheeks aren't exposed? Phony, hypocritical, crooks.
2. The threat to veteran's insurance has made it to the front burner, and rightfully so. Even if this movement dies on the vine, the very consideration or attempt to do such a thing is an unbelievable shame and a slap in the face to everything this country stands for. And we have elected representatives who want free health care for illegal aliens!!! Oh, My God!!
3. Pelosi has publicly made the statement that our illegal immigration laws and enforcement of those laws are "UNAMERICAN". The laws were passed by our congress. Wait a minute!! Isn't that where she works and votes?
4. ACORN is in the process of recruiting 1.4 million employees to assist in conducting the 2010 census. Is somebody kidding me? Everyone has finally learned what ACORN is all about. They are under investigation in at least 14 states for voter fraud. That doesn't count the 2 states where they've already been convicted in voter fraud cases.
5. Sec of Treasury, Geithner declined to attend and testify in today's Congressional Sub Committee hearings on AIG. Yes, that would be the same Geithner who had all the inside info about the $165 million bonuses which is the prime point of the hearings.
6. While a U.S. Senator, Obama voted for the AIG bonuses, then as POTUS, he signed the stimulus bill which authorized the bonuses. Oh, even though it's possibly a trivial matter, Obama himself received in excess of $100, 000 from AIG. Today he spoke before heading to California and express his anger about this horrible AIG mess. Hmmm!
7. Homeland Security Chief, Janet Napolitano went on record to say she'll no longer use the term "Terrorism". It will be replaced by "Man caused disaster".
"Self", I said, "insurgent replaces terrorist, detainee replaces enemy combatant, man caused disaster replaces terrorism" Hot damn, bubba, I'm feeling safer and safer!
Recently I wake up and wonder where the hell I am, and how do I get back home to America. It's not funny, and I'm not laughing. What the hell is going on back there?
Remember that famous line when Dorothy woke up in Oz? " Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Welcome to Oz Russ..
Or maybe we fell through the looking glass with Alice.......
(Thanks and a Tip O' the stetson to an ole' Air Force Vet, Russ, in Utah!!)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Eleven States stand up to Obamanation and say - Read the constitution!!!!
Eleven States Declare Sovereignty Over Obama’s Action
by A.W.R. Hawkins
Posted on Human Events
State governors -- looking down the gun barrel of long-term spending forced on them by the Obama “stimulus” plan -- are saying they will refuse to take the money. This is a Constitutional confrontation between the federal government and the states unlike any in our time.
In the first five weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama has acted so rashly that at least 11 states have decided that his brand of “hope” equates to an intolerable expansion of the federal government’s authority over the states. These states -- "Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, [Minnesota]...Georgia," South Carolina, and Texas -- "have all introduced bills and resolutions" reminding Obama that the 10th Amendment protects the rights of the states, which are the rights of the people, by limting the power of the federal government. These resolutions call on Obama to “cease and desist” from his reckless government expansion and also indicate that federal laws and regulations implemented in violation of the 10th Amendment can be nullified by the states.
When the Constitution was being ratified during the 1780s, the 10th Amendment was understood to be the linchpin that held the entire Bill of Rights together. The amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
[.....]
This time around, in 2009, appeals to the 10th Amendment are not based on tariffs but on unfettered government expansion in Obama’s “stimulus bill,” federal mandates on abortion that violate state laws, and infringements on the 1st and 2nd Amendments, among other things.
For example, Family Security Matters reports that Missouri’s “House Concurrent Resolution 0004 (2009) reasserts its sovereignty based on Barack Obama’s stated intention to sign into law a federal ‘Freedom of Choice Act’, [because] the federal Freedom of Choice Act would nullify any federal or state law ‘enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment’ and would effectively prevent the State of Missouri from enacting similar protective measures in the future.”
The resolution in Montana grew out of concerns over coming attacks on the 2nd Amendment, thus its preface describes it as, “An Act Exempting From Federal Regulation Under The Commerce Clause Of The Constitution Of The United States A Firearm, A Firearm Accessory, Or Ammunition Manufactured And Retained In Montana.”
New Hampshire’s resolution actually references certain federal actions that would be nullified within that state were they pushed by Obama’s administration, according to americandaily.com. Among these are “Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press, [and any] further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition.
Regardless of the specific reason behind each of the resolutions in the 11 states, all of them direct the federal government to “cease and desist” in its reckless violation of state’s rights. In this way, South Carolina’s resolution is typical of the others issued to date:
“The General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, by this resolution, claims for the State of South Carolina sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution…
Be it…resolved that this resolution serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as South Carolina's agent, to cease and desist immediately all mandates…beyond the scope of the federal government's constitutionally delegated powers.”
What these state assemblies and congresses have hit upon here is key to our entire conservative interpretation of the Constitution, for these states understand that the Constitution limits the federal government, not the people. Or to put it another way, it guarantees the freedom of the people by limiting the government.
Every conservative should relish the call for the federal government to “cease and desist all mandates that are beyond the scope of [its] constitutionally delegated powers.” In this way, we honor the Constitution that enumerates a number of our liberties yet also guarantees us other liberties that are neither enumerated nor denied in the document.
Liberals don’t respect the Constitution, and liberals in Congress don’t hesitate to propose legislation that would clearly violate it. The current push to give Washington, D.C. a voting representative in the House of Representatives is a good example; even liberal Prof. Jonathan Turley told a Congressional hearing that this bill is patently unconstitutional. But they press on with it.
Our Constitutional system of checks and balances is always thought of as enabling two of the three branches of the federal government to keep the third within its constitutional bounds. But there is a fourth check, the states, which also have a Constitutional function. It is to them this burden now falls. The states can choose between allowing the federal government to impose untenable conditions on them if they accept the stimulus money, or to reject it.
These eleven states have the right to reject the stimulus plan. And they must.
There is no other option. For this federal expansion will not stop unless we stand in its way with courage in our hearts and the Constitution in our hands.
Since this article was posted, several of the named State's legislatures are trying to figure out a way to overrule the Governor (Texas is one example) and take the money as well as the new fed control --- this story continues!!
by A.W.R. Hawkins
Posted on Human Events
State governors -- looking down the gun barrel of long-term spending forced on them by the Obama “stimulus” plan -- are saying they will refuse to take the money. This is a Constitutional confrontation between the federal government and the states unlike any in our time.
In the first five weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama has acted so rashly that at least 11 states have decided that his brand of “hope” equates to an intolerable expansion of the federal government’s authority over the states. These states -- "Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, [Minnesota]...Georgia," South Carolina, and Texas -- "have all introduced bills and resolutions" reminding Obama that the 10th Amendment protects the rights of the states, which are the rights of the people, by limting the power of the federal government. These resolutions call on Obama to “cease and desist” from his reckless government expansion and also indicate that federal laws and regulations implemented in violation of the 10th Amendment can be nullified by the states.
When the Constitution was being ratified during the 1780s, the 10th Amendment was understood to be the linchpin that held the entire Bill of Rights together. The amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
[.....]
This time around, in 2009, appeals to the 10th Amendment are not based on tariffs but on unfettered government expansion in Obama’s “stimulus bill,” federal mandates on abortion that violate state laws, and infringements on the 1st and 2nd Amendments, among other things.
For example, Family Security Matters reports that Missouri’s “House Concurrent Resolution 0004 (2009) reasserts its sovereignty based on Barack Obama’s stated intention to sign into law a federal ‘Freedom of Choice Act’, [because] the federal Freedom of Choice Act would nullify any federal or state law ‘enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment’ and would effectively prevent the State of Missouri from enacting similar protective measures in the future.”
The resolution in Montana grew out of concerns over coming attacks on the 2nd Amendment, thus its preface describes it as, “An Act Exempting From Federal Regulation Under The Commerce Clause Of The Constitution Of The United States A Firearm, A Firearm Accessory, Or Ammunition Manufactured And Retained In Montana.”
New Hampshire’s resolution actually references certain federal actions that would be nullified within that state were they pushed by Obama’s administration, according to americandaily.com. Among these are “Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press, [and any] further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition.
Regardless of the specific reason behind each of the resolutions in the 11 states, all of them direct the federal government to “cease and desist” in its reckless violation of state’s rights. In this way, South Carolina’s resolution is typical of the others issued to date:
“The General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, by this resolution, claims for the State of South Carolina sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution…
Be it…resolved that this resolution serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as South Carolina's agent, to cease and desist immediately all mandates…beyond the scope of the federal government's constitutionally delegated powers.”
What these state assemblies and congresses have hit upon here is key to our entire conservative interpretation of the Constitution, for these states understand that the Constitution limits the federal government, not the people. Or to put it another way, it guarantees the freedom of the people by limiting the government.
Every conservative should relish the call for the federal government to “cease and desist all mandates that are beyond the scope of [its] constitutionally delegated powers.” In this way, we honor the Constitution that enumerates a number of our liberties yet also guarantees us other liberties that are neither enumerated nor denied in the document.
Liberals don’t respect the Constitution, and liberals in Congress don’t hesitate to propose legislation that would clearly violate it. The current push to give Washington, D.C. a voting representative in the House of Representatives is a good example; even liberal Prof. Jonathan Turley told a Congressional hearing that this bill is patently unconstitutional. But they press on with it.
Our Constitutional system of checks and balances is always thought of as enabling two of the three branches of the federal government to keep the third within its constitutional bounds. But there is a fourth check, the states, which also have a Constitutional function. It is to them this burden now falls. The states can choose between allowing the federal government to impose untenable conditions on them if they accept the stimulus money, or to reject it.
These eleven states have the right to reject the stimulus plan. And they must.
There is no other option. For this federal expansion will not stop unless we stand in its way with courage in our hearts and the Constitution in our hands.
Since this article was posted, several of the named State's legislatures are trying to figure out a way to overrule the Governor (Texas is one example) and take the money as well as the new fed control --- this story continues!!
That P.C. crowd don't ever give up.....
From St. Patrick's Day to Shamrock Day?
Monday, March 16, 2009
By Terri Jo Ryan
Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer
Faith and begorrah, is nothing sacred?
Some folks are trying to transform the name of Tuesday’s holiday from St. Patrick’s Day to “Shamrock Day.”
Card shops have banners proclaiming the occasion; the Disney Channel is using the term; and some places in this country have changed the name of their community celebrations of Celtic heritage to the “nonoffending” terminology.
And that offends some folks.
“I’m afraid I could use all kinds of expressions that wouldn’t be principled to describe this trend,” said Monsignor Mark Deering, 88, senior-most Catholic cleric in these parts.
Deering, retired pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church of Waco, came here from Ireland in 1953 as a freshly minted missionary priest and never left.
“I don’t think that would ever be a success to call it Shamrock Day,” he said.
People the world over, of every culture and race, enjoy being Irish for the day, he added. And he said he’s heard no one take great umbrage before at having a Christian saint’s name attached to the day of merriment.
“In fact, in New York City, when the parade comes down Fifth Avenue, the Jews take more joy in it than almost anyone,” Deering said.
But the organizers of Shamrock Day celebrations, such as the Habitot Children’s Museum in California, cite the need for “cultural diversity to our audience without broaching religious boundaries.”
“A number of modern-day celebrations have their origins in religious holidays but have become broadly celebrated by everyone. Halloween and Mardi Gras are prime examples,” the Habitot spokeswoman said, as reported on CustosFidei.blogspot.com on March 14, 2007.
But according to Robert Flynn, a novelist and 1954 Baylor University graduate, that’s a lot of blarney.
“I don’t see what is so wrong about having a saint’s name in the holiday. It has no real religious connotation anymore, especially in this country, where it’s entirely a secular celebration,” Flynn said. “I mean, what will these people do with Rosh Hashana or some other Jewish holiday? Call it Mitzvah Day?”
Flynn, a retired Trinity University professor who lives in San Antonio, said he likes to claim all religions and their holidays as his own.
“It gives you more days off,” he said. “Definitely, all Irish need to take the day off Tuesday.”
By Terri Jo Ryan
Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer
Faith and begorrah, is nothing sacred?
Some folks are trying to transform the name of Tuesday’s holiday from St. Patrick’s Day to “Shamrock Day.”
Card shops have banners proclaiming the occasion; the Disney Channel is using the term; and some places in this country have changed the name of their community celebrations of Celtic heritage to the “nonoffending” terminology.
And that offends some folks.
“I’m afraid I could use all kinds of expressions that wouldn’t be principled to describe this trend,” said Monsignor Mark Deering, 88, senior-most Catholic cleric in these parts.
Deering, retired pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church of Waco, came here from Ireland in 1953 as a freshly minted missionary priest and never left.
“I don’t think that would ever be a success to call it Shamrock Day,” he said.
People the world over, of every culture and race, enjoy being Irish for the day, he added. And he said he’s heard no one take great umbrage before at having a Christian saint’s name attached to the day of merriment.
“In fact, in New York City, when the parade comes down Fifth Avenue, the Jews take more joy in it than almost anyone,” Deering said.
But the organizers of Shamrock Day celebrations, such as the Habitot Children’s Museum in California, cite the need for “cultural diversity to our audience without broaching religious boundaries.”
“A number of modern-day celebrations have their origins in religious holidays but have become broadly celebrated by everyone. Halloween and Mardi Gras are prime examples,” the Habitot spokeswoman said, as reported on CustosFidei.blogspot.com on March 14, 2007.
But according to Robert Flynn, a novelist and 1954 Baylor University graduate, that’s a lot of blarney.
“I don’t see what is so wrong about having a saint’s name in the holiday. It has no real religious connotation anymore, especially in this country, where it’s entirely a secular celebration,” Flynn said. “I mean, what will these people do with Rosh Hashana or some other Jewish holiday? Call it Mitzvah Day?”
Flynn, a retired Trinity University professor who lives in San Antonio, said he likes to claim all religions and their holidays as his own.
“It gives you more days off,” he said. “Definitely, all Irish need to take the day off Tuesday.”
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