Bad Behavior
Obama Weakness Lead to Chicago Massacres, Group Says
Floyd Brown, a longtime conservative strategist who heads the conservative National Campaign Fund, said he is target="_blank">launching an ad to expose Obama’s weakness on gang violence. See it here.
Chicago is a war zone with 32 Shot, 2 Stabbed, and 6 Dead – last weekend. One incident involved a man with an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle in a shootout with police. Friday night two teens were gunned down in front of a church. Police helicopters routinely patrol so-called “hot zones” where gang infestation is worst. The greatest of the mostly ethnic gang provoked and inflamed by hate mongering and is largely on Chicago’s south side exceeding anything experienced during the mob violence of the Al Capone era. It is a St. Valentine’s Day massacre every weekend.target="_blank">
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Houston, we have a problem in Obama’s own words…
“Houston, we have a problem.’ In Barack Obama’s own published words.
From Dreams of My Father: ‘I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.’From Dreams of My Father: ‘I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.’
From Dreams of My Father: ‘There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.’
From Dreams of My Father: ; ‘It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.’From Dreams of My Father: ‘I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, Dubois and Mandela.’
From Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’
Exaplaination please. No demanded…
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
There’s no rest for the wicked. Let’s see what wickedness is afoot in today’s Ten Post Round-Up:
1: Pentagon threatens soldier’s pay over emergency war funding bill….
2: Maybe Iraq could help pay for its reconstruction with their oil revenues?…
With House Poised to Spend $163 Billion, More Argue Iraq Should Use Oil Money to Pay for Reconstruction–AlterNet
3: Looks like GWBs “surge” strategy is being put to the test…
4: China is helping to fund GWBs presidential library…
Let’s See Who’s Funding The Bush Presidential Library–duckplops
5: Nevada governor is fighting to get back in the Governor’s mansion and oust his wife, in divorce dispute…
Governor wants back in mansion: Court battle brewing as Gibbons seeks to oust wife from official residence–Elko Daily Free Press
Less Affluent Favor Gas Tax Holiday.
According to a rasmussen Poll released Thursday forty-six percent (46%) of America’s Likely Voters favor a federal gas tax holiday this summer. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 42% are opposed and 12% are not sure. Most voters who earn more than $75,000 a year oppose the gas tax holiday. Most who make less than $60,000 a year favor that policy change. Among those make less than $20,000 a year, 62% favor the gas tax holiday while only 11% are opposed.
McCain proposed suspending the 18 cents a gallon federal tax and Hillary supports it. Obama opposes it.
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
There’s no news like good news. Sadly, there is no good news in today’s Ten Post Round-Up:
1: A serious drug ring was busted up at San Diego State University….
2: Whites and Blacks use drugs at the same rate, yet Blacks are far more likely to be arrested for drug offenses…
3: The offices and home of Special Counsel, Scott J. Bloch, who oversees protection for federal whistleblowers, have been raided…
FBI Searches Office of Special Counsel Building–Crooks and Liars
4: The “Robbins” half of Baskin-Robbins, has passed away (the other half - Baskin, died awhile back). Both left behind more than 1000 flavors enjoyed by ice cream lovers the world over…
5: They saved the school and were served with pink slips…
Wright Hurting Obama More and More
Rev Wright hurt continuing to grow for OBama says a new Rasmussen Poll. Only 4% of American adults believe that comments made by Barack Obama’s former Pastor have helped Obama’s bid for the White House. Sixty-six percent (66%) believe that the comments made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright have hurt Obama’s chances of winning.
However, just 24% say that Obama’s denunciation of his former Pastor make them more likely to vote for him. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say it makes them less likely to support the Illinois Senator. As you would expect, these results break sharply along partisan lines. Democrats, by a 35% to 20% margin say they are more likely to vote for Obama because he publicly denounced Wright. Republicans, by a 38% to 15% margin, say the opposite. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 17% are more likely to vote for Obama, 25% less likely.
Clinton lead OBama in Indiana 46-41% and OBama leads Clinton in North Carolina 49-40%according to polling released Tuesday morning.
CENSUS BOONDOOGLE RAISES COSTS TO $14 BILLION
UPS can put thousands of delivery-drivers on the streets everyday each carrying a hand held gadget to track millions of packages but the U. S. Census Bureau failure to build an effective hand-held computer will cost taxpayers an extra for $1.3 billion – no, you are not seeing things that’s a $1,300,000,000,000 boondoogle.
So, it is turning instead to 600,000 temporary workers to do a paper and pencil census in 2010 just like 1910. Another massive federal bureaucracy run amuck. The $1.3 billion hi-tech gadget glitch will add $2.2 to $3 billion to the 2010 census costs that are now expected to total a mind numbing $13.7 to $14.5 billion.
Obama’s Judgement Flawed by Oprah Disclosures
Newsweek’s Allison Samuels writes in the May 11 Issue of NEWSWEEK that Oprah Winfrey joined Barack Obama’s Church to be with Chicago’s movers and shakers and left it in part because Rev Jeremiah Wright ‘incendiary’ rhetoric made her uncomfortable and that could hurt her professionally and because of her disquiet with organized religion. Oprah, says Samuels, was “blindsided” by Wright’s assault on Obama because she says Wright was a father figure. to Obama.
The article describes Obama as a man in search of his identity as a Black-American, and more importantly as a Black-American man. Samuels contends Wright and other men in the church helped him understand the Black-American experience.
Winfrey says Samuels had been around black churches all her life and was used to anger-filled messages. But, she decided her mainstream audience and doing anything to offend them ( including being around Wright) wouldn’t be smart.
Samuels’ article begs the question : If staying around Wright wouldn’t be smart in the judgment of an entertainer why would it be otherwise judged by a man desiring to be President with the greatest audience of all to answer to - the entire American people?
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Be forewarned. You might find some things in today’s Ten Post Round-Up a little shocking:
1: Teen who kept pregnancy secret, delivers healthy baby and walks to the hospital with the umbilical cord still attached….
California teen gives birth in shower, walks to hospital–The Associated Press
2: 38 years ago, 4 students were gunned down by National Guardsmen for standing up against an escalation of the Vietnam War…
Remember Kent State during Convention Protests–Colorado Confidential
3: While the media is dissecting Obama and his spiritual relationship with Rev. Wright, why is McCain being ignored despite his spiritual relationship with Pastor Hagee? The answers could be as simple as “black” and “white”…
Rangel blasts Blitzer: Brings up Bizarre beliefs of Falwell and Robertson–Crooks and Liars
4: The same chemicals used to make nonstick cookware are showing up in nursing mothers’ breast milk…
Moving up the food chain: PFCs present in nursing mothers’ breast milk–Flesh and Stone
5: Having plenty of trees on your block, could cut kids’ rate of asthma…
GM CEO Predicts Bankruptcy
In a letter to shareholders General Motors’ Chairman and CEO Porter Stansberry says he sees light at the end of the tunnel but it is a GM bankruptcy and that a company cannot suffer 40 years of bad decisions, bad ideas, and bad debts and expect to compete with the rest of the world’s automakers.
He says, “what’s killing us is a legacy of debts and obligations we cannot possibly repay.” Stansberry says, “nor do we have any pleasant way to repudiate our promises. The only answer is bankruptcy.” He likens it to promises made under Social Security saying, “we cannot make enough money selling cars to afford the service on our $33 billion debt load, ” and “or the $11 billion we owe in cash pensions. These debts are killing us.” He thinks, “we’ve finally entered the end stage – the death spiral.”
“Given our current burn rate, I estimate we will declare bankruptcy in a little more than three quarters, “he predicted.
Toyota pays workers $43 an hour to make cars in the U. S. but the United Auto Workers demand $67 an hour from GM, Ford and Chrysler. Plus, they make cars that consumers judge to be inferior. Turn out the lights the party is over in Detroit, and Dearborn.
Liar, Liar Pants On Fire - Obama’s Self-Immolation
Just 30% of the nation’s Likely Voters believe Barack Obama denounced his former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, because he was outraged. Most—58%–say he denounced the Pastor for political convenience according to a Rasmussen Poll released Friday. Only 33% of voters believe that Obama was surprised by the views Wright expressed at Monday’s press conference. Fifty-two percent (52%) say he was not surprised.
Fifty-six percent (56%) say it’s at least somewhat likely that Obama “shares some of Pastor Wright’s controversial views about the United States.” Just 7% of the nation’s voters agree with Wright’s views of the United States. African-American voters, by a 64% to 12% margin, disagree with Wright. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans believe it’s somewhat or very likely that Obama shares some of Wright’s views. That assessment is shared by 48% of Democrats and 49% of those not affiliated with either major party.
In Indiana Clinton attracts 46% of the Democrat votes while Obama earns 41%. With just a week to go before Election Day, 13% remain undecided. Clintonleads by nineteen percentage points among White voters. Obama leads 90% to 4% among African-Americans.
In North Carolina Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 49% to 40%. Earlier this week, Obama led by fourteen, 51% to 37%. A month ago, Obama led by twenty-three percentage points. Clintonleads by twenty-three points among White voters while Obama leads 74% to 10% among African-Americans. Clintonleads among senior citizens, the candidates split those in the 50-64 age range, and Obama leads among younger voters.
Crack Down On Credit Card Issuers.
The Federal Reserve and banking regulators are cracking down on the credit card industry, prohibiting practices such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on outstanding balances.
The so-called crack down is said to be in an effort to ban an array of unfair and even predatory practices. Some card issuers have jacked up rates on credit cards to over 30% to cover their losses in other areas such as non-performing subprime mortgages.
Critics say the whole effort is political as regulators and banks engage in a CYA campaign and in any case it is too little too late to help struggling consumers. Observers say there are simply too many banking industry sponsored loopholes to allow the reform to be effective, and only a flood of lawsuits and class actions by outraged consumers can punish an industry running amuck.
McCain’s 12th Amendment Mêlée - Maybe, Maybe not.
Imagine the disruption if McCain is elected, and sworn in as President and then he is declared ineligible because of the 12th Amendment, and Hillary Clinton finagled her way to the Democrat nomination, and demands to be seated – what a fracas.
Wednesday night the Senate unanimously declared John McCain a natural-born citizen, eligible to be president of the United States. But, the resolution has no legal standing and is only opinion. At least three pending cases are challenging McCain’s right to be sworn in as president. McCain was born to U. S. parents in a U. S. military hospital, on a U. S. base while serving in the U. S. Navy assigned to the then U. S. Panama Canal Zone.
Article II of the Constitution states that “no person except a natural born citizen . . . shall be eligible to the office of president.” The problem is that the Founding Fathers never defined exactly what they meant by “natural born citizen,” and the matter has never been fully tested in court. The same question bubbled up in 2000 but when he failed to get the GOP nomination it fizzled and disappeared.
According to an article in the May 2nd Washington Post, “Curiously enough, there is no record of McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone Health Department’s bound birth registers, which are publicly available at the National Archives in College Park. A search of the “Child Born Abroad” records of the U.S. consular service for August 1936 included many U.S. citizens born in the Canal Zone but did not turn up any mention of John McCain.” There is a copy of a birth certificate citing his birth in the Coco Solo “family hospital.” Coco Solo was where his Dad’s submarine was based.
McCain’s case hasn’t been the only one. Hoover’s Vice President Charles Curtis was born in the territory of Kansas in 1860, a year before it became a state. The 12th Amendment requires that vice presidents possess the same qualifications as presidents. Barry Goldwater, who was born in the territory of Arizona in 1909, three years before it became a state was nominated but didn’t win. Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney, ran for President in 1968, even though he was born in Mexico. Since neither Goldwater nor Romney won the presidency, the “natural born” clause was never tested.
A 1986 Supreme Court ruling states that the United States “exercised sovereignty” over the 10-mile-wide area between 1904 and 1979, when it was handed back to the Panamanians and most think that settles the issue. But, not everybody agrees.
Separation of Church and State Really of Religion and Politics.
Separation of church and state was really about separating religion from politics. Before mass media and the internet most Americans heard the news at church and then disseminated it to friends and neighbors. To have someone in a pulpit espouse an idea was tantamont to approval from on high.
The English tradition was originally a church inhabited by the nitwit siblings with less knowledge or ability than an alder brother, and virtually no theological training or even intent. The Puritans, as odd as they may have been, resisted mixing political ideology with what they saw as theology.
Now comes the personal resurrection campaign of Rev. Wright that has put a political expedient Barack Obama who used that church when it was convenient for his ambitions in a tight spot. Irrespective of the relative narcissism of that pair it underscores separation of the religious and the political.
Republicans and Hillary Clinton are giddy watching this brace of monumental egos make the other look hypocritical. Obama tossed Wright overboard Tuesday, and looks all the more duplicitous and disingenuous.