Somalia was a pastoral economy based on "exchange" between nomadic herdsmen and small agriculturalists. Nomadic pastoralists accounted for 50 percent of the population. In the 1970s, resettlement programs led to the development of a sizeable sector of commercial pastoralism. Livestock contributed to 80 percent of export earnings until 1983. Despite recurrent droughts, Somalia remained virtually self-sufficient in food until the 1970s.

The IMF-World Bank intervention in the early 1980s contributed to exacerbating the crisis of Somali agriculture. The economic reforms undermined the fragile exchange relationship between the "nomadic economy" and the "sedentary economy" - i.e. between pastoralists and small farmers characterized by money transactions as well as traditional barter. A very tight austerity program was imposed on the government largely to release the funds required to service Somalia's debt with the Paris Club. In fact, a large share of the external debt was held by the Washington-based financial institutions.' According to an ILO mission report:

[T]he Fund alone among Somalia's major recipients of debt service payments, refuses to reschedule. (...) De facto it is helping to finance an adjustment program, one of whose major goals is to repay the IMF itself. Read article:

This morning, when discussing the House Republicans affiliated with the Tea Party movement and commenting on Senator John McCain’s floor speech where he chided these same Republicans as hobbits who think they are on a quest in the Lord of the Rings, the professional commentators on MSNBC’s Morning Joe said that the Tea Party members were “crazy” and “irrational.”  Examine the record.

During the Bush presidency,  the President racked up the debt and the Republicans and Democrats in Congress went along happily.  President Bush passed a prescription drug benefit that was not paid for.  His administration funded the nation’s two wars with supplemental funds.  Few today can tell us if these funds are real and count towards the debt.  I suppose if they did, the debt would be even higher than it is today.  Finally, in the throes of the 2008 financial crisis, President Bush passed the troubled asset relief program (TARP) and established a reckless precedent for bail-outs.

As President Obama entered the Oval Office, the nation’s finances were perilous.  Historic budget surpluses had vanished and the economy was shocked and uncertain.  Following in President Bush’s footsteps, he too failed to “fund” the wars and just changed the “defense emergency relief funds” (DERF) supplementals into “overseas contingency operations” (OCO) supplementals.  The Republicans and Democrats in Congress went along happily.  More bail-outs followed for AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, and Chrysler.  Then he charted a new course with hundreds of billions in new spending for rural internet connections, shovel-ready infrastructure projects, and job training, all in the name of boosting the economy, and all unpaid for.  While the Senate did not pass a budget that first year, it did pass a new healthcare law that both raided Medicare and also was unpaid for.  The President signed it and a strange thing happened when the members of Congress went home: they were confronted by crazy, irrational hobbits who yelled at them in town halls, and the Tea Party movement was born.

In the November election, a number of incumbents were thrown out of Congress and the fiscally-minded Tea Party members were thrust onto the national stage.  The hobbits had been charged with their quest.  Meanwhile, the establishment in Washington had clearly heard the message, and in the waning hours of the lame duck session of Congress, the Republicans and the Democrats passed an extension to the “Bush-era” tax cuts (for the wealthy), and President Obama signed it, adding another $800 billion to the debt. 

In 2011 every lost soul with a cause -- immigration reform, legalized drugs, libertarianism, anti-Federal Reserve, and other fringe groups -- either attempted to join the Tea Party movement or were unfairly associated with it to demonize the fiscal threat it represented to the tax, borrow, borrow again, and spend establishment in Washington.  Never mind that serious fiscal problems remained.

The President delivered his budget to Congress and projected more than a trillion dollars in borrowed spending.  The House attempted to pass a similar bill and then a funny thing happened.  The hobbits told newly-elected Speaker of the House John Boehner that they were not going to pay for the second, extraneous fighter jet engine that too many viewed as pork spending.  Next the continuing resolution for the federal government came onto the floor.  A continuing resolution is the duct tape Congress applies to the budget when there is no budget.  Speaker Boehner barely held his caucus together as he and Senator Harry Reid struck the first “grand compromise” of $300 billion in spending cuts that, when scored by the independent Congressional Budget Office, really only turned out to be 30 billion in cuts.  Two points for the establishment!  Fuming, the hobbits vowed to not be fooled again.  Recognizing a political opportunity, Speaker Boehner turned over the House budget to Representative Paul Ryan who designed and passed a budget with actual, though controversial, numbers.  The Senate did not pass it; nor could it pass its own budget. 

When it came time to pass the debt ceiling that would free the US government to go borrow more money and drive up the debt even further, the hobbits put on their magic ring, drew their elf sword and said, “No.”  They would not pass the increase in the budget ceiling until someone passed a plan that would begin to seriously tackle the nation’s 14 trillion dollar debt and its one trillion dollar annual deficits.  The White House and Treasury Department immediately threatened that such an irrational act would bring about financial Armageddon, which would happen around May or June; wait, make it August 2^nd.  Then the House and Senate went to work producing one gimmicky plan after another, and spent more time on coming up with cute names to call their opponent’s plan: the Republicans “cut, cap, and balance” plan became “duck, dodge, and dismantle.” Republicans countered with their own retort of “beg, borrow, and steal.”  It is a wonder neither decided to charge the other with "fiscal terrorism."

In the meantime, across the Atlantic, the European Union got a first-hand glimpse of what sovereign debt insolvency might look like in quaint, little, back-water economies like Iceland, Greece, Ireland, and Spain.  How could the creditors of these tranquil places like Greece suddenly become so unforgiving, charging high interest rates and demanding harsh austerity measures before additional loans could be granted?  It all seemed so, irrational.  Insolvency; it is a tricky thing.  Is borrowing 60% of your income insolvency?  70%?  120%?  You never know you are insolvent until, one day, unexpectedly, the bank finally says, “No.”

No one in our government is talking about insolvency.  They talk about financial Armageddon and the unfairness of people not paying a fair share.  They do not want to talk about the long-term situation, only the crazy, “here and now,” scare tactics they need to bully the American people into two horrible “solutions”: the Boehner plan and the Reid plan.  Both plans, if passed, will add more than 8 trillion dollars to the debt over the next decade, taking us ever closer to, what was that word, oh yes, insolvency.

Those who are calling the hobbits irrational and crazy are just as deluded.  They promise a path to prosperity, and what they do not admit is they really only want a road to reelection.  They just want the debt passed one more time; everyone else has done it, they say like an addict.  In their irrationality, they fail to see that they are really on a road to perdition with a detour to insolvency.

Prediction:the Reid plan and the Boehner plan will both fail.  The House will pass a $50 billion debt ceiling increase and go into recess, saving the long-term fight for September.  The Senate and President will have to go along.  It is the only irrational thing to do.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in regards to Individual Mandate:

In some current active threads on the Internet, people are still spewing out conservative talking points or as I like to call it...blatant bulls**t... about the PPACA and how it got passed.

Here is the fact of the matter on the Individual Mandate Proposal:

HOUSE BILL:

Liberals and Moderates wanted Universal Health Care or Expansion of Medicare...a Public Option... Pelosi and her assistants had to spend months hammering out difficult compromises to satisfy the Liberal, Moderate and Conservative wings of both parties.

The House Bill had the Public Option, and the Individual Mandate was added as an appeasement to Republicans in the House.

The exact same individual mandate proposed in the 90's by Republicans...BOB DOLE, RICHARD LUGAR, CHARLES GRASSLEY, ORIN HATCH, JESSE HELMS and TRENT LOTT. Exactly the same, Word for Word...

Individual Mandate was and is a Republican proposal added on in negotiations for Republican support prior to the bill being sent to the Senate. The legislation was passed 220-215 shortly after House members added an additional provision that prohibits federally subsidized insurance plans from offering abortion services. Only one House Republican, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana, voted for the bill. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against it.

SENATE BILL:

The Individual Mandate was part of the agreement required for the Republicans to support the Health Care Bill...and still they 99% voted against the updated bill... (Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, was not present and did not vote.) This also was a way for the Republicans to continue to fight the bill, citing it as unConstitutional to force citizens to purchase insurance from a private company...Just as the Democrats cited in the 90's. Which is one of the reasons it did not pass the first time the Republicans attempted passing the Individual Mandate.

In the Senate, only one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, voted for either of two committee bills being merged by Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.

To carry the bill forward, Democrats needed to appease DINO's, Social Conservatives, and the two Independent senators. One point of contention: abortion funding. a final hour agreement was made with some 40 social conservatives to exclude public funding of abortions. The amendment passed, 240 to 197, with 64 Democrats voting with Republicans on the measure. 

The Senate Republicans then Stripped the Public Option out in negotiations prior to the final vote; saying they would "consider" voting for the bill, if it did not contain the Public Option... Harry Reid agreed to the removal of the Public Option to get Health Care passed...but of course, the Republicans reneged and still voted 99% against...

The PPACA passed the Senate on December 24, 2009, by a vote of 60–39 with all Democrats and two Independents voting for, and all Republicans except one voting against. Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky was the lone senator to miss voting on the bill. 

The PPACA passed the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010, by a vote of 219–212, with 178 Republicans and 34 Democrats voting against the bill.

President Obama did not Veto the PPACA bill  containing the Individual Mandate but, no Public Option because; even a partial bill gave additional coverage to millions of men, women and children.

Pretty slick on the Republicans part! You have to admire how they keep moving the central goal post further and further to the extreme Right and never capitulate on anything in negotiations...

It is time to stop blaming President Obama for the Republicans duplicity in the Health Care Bill in regards to the Individual Mandate and the Public Option.

If we just have to blame a Democrat rather than the Republicans for the way the bill came out...blame the one in charge...Harry Reid.

We should praise Obama for getting any health care passed, and instead of complaining, help Democratic Moderates and Liberals retake the House and strengthen the Senate, Dump the DINO's! in both the House and Senate and demand Democrats Fix This Bill!

We need to repeal the Individual Mandate and reinstate the Public Option Now!

Addendum:

VA and Florida conservative high courts have already handed down opinions that it is unconstitutional vs the commerce clause and there are currently 10 cases headed to the Supreme Court on this issue...so I would not unequivocally claim individual mandate is constitutional. 

The conservative states are using these decisions currently to not implement the PPACA in their states and holding it hostage until it gets through the "conservative" Supreme Court. Where they are hoping, as was their original intent by adding the individual mandate, the bill is unconstitutional and we will have to start over...a "win" against Obama...or...it is constitutional and they get to bleed the entire populous via private insurance companies...this is a WIN WIN for the Republicans and the private sector...

The mandate as written HAS a financial penalty of pay a tax penalty of the greater of $695 per year up to a maximum of three times that amount ($2085). 

Here are links to a NYT article on Health care states rights and fights and a PDF of the specific policies and procedures contained in the entire PPACA as it was passed....

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/health_care_reform/index.html

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf

 Bibliography:

http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/step_3/

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1108/us-house-of-representatives-votes-to-approve-healthcare-reform

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-health-care-congressnov08,0,7158692.story

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/08/us/politics/1108-health-care-vote.html

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&vote=00396

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/health_care_reform/index.html

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

Several months ago you came in and rented a table.  Apparently it is the table you are trying to put everything on (e.g., "everything is on the table.") 

You recently missed a payment.  We are going to have to raise your interest rate to 36% per your rental agreement.  If you fail to pay again, we will be coming to take the table back and will turn your debt over to a collection agency.

Sincerely,

China, the Social Security Trust Fund, the Federal Reserve, several federal, state, and local pensions, and your grandchildren

Dear Chairman Bernanke:

I am writing on behalf of Generation-X.  Until recently, I had been sitting around listening to It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I feel fine) since the death of Kurt Cobain.  You may remember he was the lead singer for Nirvana; you know, back when Nancy Reagan was President.  I used to love when she would tell us to not do drugs.  Whatever happened to her?

Anyway, that’s not the point of my letter. The reason why I am writing is to seek your assistance.  I finished my degree, got a job, and have settled down with a new family.  Now that I have kids, I started thinking about the future for the first time.  Correct me if I am wrong, but as I look around, I think we have some financial problems. 

First of all, it seems we have hit the credit limit on our national credit card.  Wow, $14 trillion goes by so quickly!  I was going to suggest that we just borrow some money from the Social Security Trust fund—you know, like using a home equity line of credit—but it looks like we already did that (to the tune of $4.5 trillion!)  Next, I wrote my senators and representatives, but they just keep sending me automated form-letter responses that talk about how tough they are being on Wall Street or how hard they are working to cut fraud, waste, and abuse.  Bottom line, they look like a total dead-end.  Then, I wrote to some of our foreign creditors, you know, to see if they could give us a break or something.  No dice.

So, that brings me to you.  I note that in the March 2011 Treasury Bulletin on the Public Debt that we owe the Federal Reserve about $1.1 trillion in treasuries, bonds, and other debt instruments.  It would be totally awesome if you could give us a little debt forgiveness.  I mean, if we did not have to pay you back that would completely take care of our credit limit problem.  Don’t worry, this is just a one-time thing.  I am sure that Congress will be much more careful about its spending in the future. 

Well, I guess that is about it.  This has been fun. I feel really grown up now. 

Take care.

On Jan. 1, 1985, Stanley Ann Dunham, better known as Barack Obama’s mother, was living in Honolulu, where she had recently returned after years in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. That New Year’s Day, she recorded the following list of hopeful resolutions:

...

When she died a decade later, after receiving a diagnosis of Stage 4 uterine cancer, Dunham left many of these goals unaccomplished. And yet, the life she left behind at age 52 was much richer and more complex than this catalog could reveal.

Over the last few years all of us in the Western World have been regularly regaled with dire predictions of another major “Al Qaeda” attack either in Europe or the United States. In 2003 at the Lisbon Security Conference over 400 “experts”, a mix of senior politicians, government officials, and top corporate CEOs came to the conclusion that it was more than likely that an even more devastating terrorist attack than the one on 09/11 would occur either in the US or in Europe by 2004, and this time involving a weapon of mass destruction.

It didn’t!

Recently the world celebrated the demise of Osama Bin Laden, killed in a covert Commando operation, brilliantly executed by the American Seal’s team and deep inside Pakistan. Bin Laden was living quietly in a compound right under the noses of the Pakistani Government, and the world yesterday saw Gilani trying to explain this to his own Parliament in Islamabad. Now with Bin Laden dead, and buried at sea, a very wise move by the American Government, as it takes away the inevitable shrine effect had this man been buried normally, and from what I have read he was even granted a Muslim death service befitting his faith. There is no doubt that it took guts on the part of President Obama to authorize such an operation, as its success or its failure hanged in a precarious balance. No matter how carefully planned these operations are always have a 50-50 chance of success or failure as the enemy doesn’t always react as planned. I know this from direct experience.

Now that Bin Laden is dead what next? What about Al- Qaeda?

First of all what is Al-Qaeda? Most people even those who are better informed will describe it as a deadly terrorist organization founded about 15 ago by a wealthy Muslim zealot of Saudi nationality that has developed into a highly skilled and organized military force. In my view, nothing could be further away from the truth, and as far as terrorist go and if compared to other real terrorist groups such as the Vietcong, the IRA (Irish Republican Army), Italy’s Red Brigades, or the ANC in South Africa under a white minority rule, they are messy, out focus in their military objectives and not very strategically minded.

If we look at the word itself “Al-Qaeda” its true meaning comes the Arabic root qaf-ayn-dal. It has multiple meanings and interpretations as it can be translated as a base, a home, a foundation as the one that is under a building or a pedestal that supports a column. It can be translated to describe the lowest, broadest layer of a large cumulonimbus-type cloud. And, interestingly enough it can also be used to describe a precept, a rule, a principle, a maxim, a formula, a method or a model or pattern.

No doubt the word Al-Qaeda was used by the Islamic Radicals in the 80s that flocked from all over the Muslim world to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, and being a common Arabic word it should not be surprising if they used it to identify their bases of operation.

Abdallah Azzam, one of Bin Laden’s early spiritual mentors used the word in a different sense, and in 1987 he wrote:

“Every principle needs a vanguard........................This vanguard constitutes a strong foundation – Al-qaeda al-sulbah – for the expected society.”

There is almost certainly no terrorist organization that really calls itself Al-Qaeda. This term was adopted by the West to give an identity to the enemy. That there are Islamic radicals and terrorists, there is no doubt, that they potentially are a threat to all is a fact, and I am certainly not disputing that at all. What I put into question is their ability to fulfil their strategic aims and their military strategy.

Hence the question how real or perceived is the overall threat they represent?

Since 9/11 we have all been bombarded with expert’s predictions of Al-Qaeda attacks. No doubt that the events of 9/11 shocked us all and even the most seasoned military or intelligence officer tended to set aside logic and react emotionally to the event. I remember that day well, I was in Vienna that day and when I saw those passenger jets fly into the Towers my heart cringed. Now, when I look at the overall operation, its execution and organization there is no point to deny that as far as military operations go, it was brilliantly thought-out and executed. From the military standpoint of the strategists who thought out and organized such an operation, it was a great success and all the military objectives of the operation were reached.

The enemy (Us) was caught by surprise; the psychological effect on the US citizen was immense, as unlike us in Europe, America notwithstanding two World Wars had never been touched so directly by an enemy and the knee-jerk reaction almost immediate: drastic new civilian security measures, new powers to Law enforcement and Federal organizations, the passage of new anti-terrorist legislation, and all this culminating in the invasion of Afghanistan. So looked at from this perspective the operation was a success for the terrorists.

Paradoxically it is the very success of the operation in 9/11 that really constitutes the problem! And raises questions as to the real military ability of the terrorists, as there really was no immediate follow-up to 9/11; there was no consolidation of the advantage gained by the chaos and disarray that the enemy was in after the attack.

Why the planners of 9/11 didn’t follow up the initial advantage gained by the collapse of the Twin Towers? After all whether in the USA or in Europe we live in highly structured urban societies, and they all depend on symmetrical order and as such are very fragile and vulnerable once that order is subverted.

But if we look at their overall strategy, then their military thinking is at best amateurish.  The train bombing in Madrid was in 2004, well coordinated and executed and yet as with 9/11 self-defeating, as there was no follow-up; same happened with the 2005 London bombings.

In all three major cases of active terrorism within our midst we have to acknowledge a lack of pure military thinking on the part of the organizers. After all if pulling off such operations is so easy, and if – according to our politicians and so called anti-terrorist experts – these terrorist are so skilled and well trained why did do so much and yet so little?

Nothing is more coordinated and yet fragile as our cities, be it New York, London, Madrid, etc, etc. Why not follow-up attacks like 9/11, Madrid, or London with a logical military follow-up; sniping at people in the streets, employ multiple units of suicide bombers in normally crowded areas (subway stations, airports, shopping centres, etc.), attacking power stations, derailing trains, and exploiting the countless vulnerabilities present in our social structures. After all it would be so easy to exploit them, and yet none of these terrorists ever thought that far. On the contrary they commit spectacular acts of terrorisms and then nothing! They actually allow us (their enemy) to get organized and retaliate. Not really a smart strategy in war or combat as it is when your enemy is at its lowest ebb that you have to finish it.

Why?

On the other hand, the political and legal response on the part of our governments has been an almost manic increase in airport security measures, which not only has cost billions but is of little value from a strictly anti-terrorist point of view. Biometric and retina scans, fingerprinting of entire populations, racial profiling with an end and real result that it has made air travel an absolute nightmare. Actually by adopting all these absurd and senseless measures they have rendered most airports less secure than before. The great lines of passengers that have to wait tightly grouped to pass through the X-ray machines,  metal detectors, the time wasted by the security personnel in checking for liquids containers create, as it happened with the suicide bombing at Moscow’s airport last year, an ideal target for the terrorist.

Furthermore anyone who is a private pilot, and has a plane on a private airfield, and there are thousands in Europe and the US alone, knows that one can fly with almost no checks of any worth into any private airport. Therefore only an absolute moron would try and smuggle explosives or weapons through mainstream airports.

The political and legal response on our part has been to allow Governments to more and more curtail our individual freedoms, through a series of laws and decrees that allow an almost unchecked liberty to authorities to detain, stop and search, enter our homes using some very “fluidly interpreted” anti-terrorist legislation.

Year after year we hear announcements of possible terrorist attacks in either the US or in Europe, attacks that never materialize; and year after year laws are passed to restrict individual and personal freedoms.

It does make one think!

One possible reasonable explanation is that there are no real terrorists either in the US or Europe, or that at best that they are much disorganized and a bunch of amateurs. And few have the means or the inclination to strike us from abroad, as they too busy killing each other. But this explanation is rarely considered.

If these Al-Qaeda operatives are determined and inventive as we have been led to believe, and with the massive Muslim immigration communities present both in the US and in most European countries, they should be here and now. We have just killed their leader, their much beloved Bin Laden so what are they waiting for to strike back? Even by sending a couple of suicide bombers to blow themselves up in the centre of Paris during the rush hour, would be a tragic but understandable reaction. The fact that nothing as happened, and if they are not here it means that they can’t be as determined and dedicated as the common image painted in our collective minds by our politicians or security experts would suggest.

What’s your opinion on all this?

It comes as no surprise that the notorious David Koch has recently jumped on the partisan bandwagon in denying President Obama any credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Billionaire Republican financier David Koch told New York magazine he doesn't think President Obama "contributed much at all" to the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, and the military and intelligence agencies deserve all the credit.

"[A]ll that Obama did was say 'yea' or 'nay,' we're going to take him out or not," Koch said, while attending the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Spring Ball on Wednesday evening. He went on:

He just made the decision, it was obvious where the guy is. He was one of the worst terrorists organizing attacks on the United States. I mean, no president in his right mind would not approve that decision to go eliminate him. So he's getting a lot of recognition and his polls have jumped up, but his decision was the easiest of them all. The real hard work was done by the intelligence and the SEALs.

Are we to assume David Koch would have expressed the same contempt for President Bush had he actually killed Osama bin Laden? I would think not.

Apparently Koch is oblivious to the fact that from 2002 onward, Bush summed up his desire to hunt bin Laden down as follows:

    (I'm) Truly not concerned about bin Laden.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPTwsMEiI0g

At least Obama had the integrity and perseverance to resurrect the mission to track down bin Laden. The mission that Bush all but abandoned after his administration allowed bin Laden to escape at Tora Bora. Obama was determined that justice would be served, knowing the symbolic nature of bin Laden's death would help our nation heal.

Also note that Obama required no ego stroking political grandstanding. No need for a "mission accomplished" banner, even though, this time, the mission actually was accomplished.

With the death of bin Laden, Obama has achieved a milestone against the so called war on terror. When Koch and others refuse to acknowledge Obama's leadership in the termination of Osama, they dishonor the memory of the victims of September 11th.

There was a time in America when such a historical event would have brought our nation closer. Unfortunately, that era is all but forgotten.

Does it surprise anyone that George W. Bush is not at Ground Zero today?

Does it surprise anyone that he is not even in New York City?

Does it surprise anyone that he lacks the courage to admit that he was nothing more than a liar who destroyed two nations-America and Iraq?

Does it surprise anyone that he is a petty little boy, just like he was on Election Night nearly eleven years ago when he cried to his lawyers and to his brother to fix the election in Florida in his favour?

This is the pettiness that is the modern conservative movement. 

They cannot celebrate with America because they do not care about America-at least not as much as they care the oil which flows under Texas and Saudi Arabia.

Well, okay.  Peter King of New York did serve as an example for those in his party.  It's too bad that Republicans-especially one of their biggest names who wanted to play the role of president-cannot behave like Americans.

That's because Bush and his friends do not know how to do that.

As incredibly and obviously biased a political machine as is the propaganda channel called Fox News, and as used to their spin and their almost supernatural ability to create new histories out of whole cloth, today I saw a story that absolutely floored me.

In this report of the death of Osama Bin Laden, there were 7 images shown during the story of George Bush, and not one image shown of Barack Obama. The credit for the action is obviously and completely due to President Obama, but not if you watch Fox News. No, if you are a Fox News loyalist, you are left with the impression that George W. Bush is responsible for this success, and should receive the praise and thanks of the American people. Forget the FACT that George W. Bush said Bin Laden was no longer a priority to his administration. Forget the fact that Bush failed to keep his promise to bring him to justice. Forget the fact that Bush's gaggle of cronies couldn't have kept a secret if their lives, or ours, depended on it.

Forget the Fact that George W. Bush did everything he could to extend the war, not end the war. forget the fact that he dropped the ball and through sheer ineptitude allowed the 9/11 attack to be carried out successfully, in fact, without even a normal response from our defense department that an off course airplane would normally have seen.

For Fox to show 7 images of George Bush, and not one image of Barack Obama while they tried their best to take credit where credit was not due makes this a day to remember. The day when rewriting history was done the day after the story became history.

As if that spin were not bad enough....their chirons had Obama Bin Laden Killed written out, which of course was just another typographical error....it cwertainly wasn't intentional. Forget about the fact that Fox commonly refers to bin laden as Usama, not Osama, so the error of putting in Obama Bin Laden is even more of an inside wink to their twisted viewer base.

Shame on Fox for even pretending to be a News program.

I must tell you, there are two subjects that I am utterly worn out on.  They have both commanded headlines for many months prior to this date, but the press has recently stepped up coverage to the point that I cannot turn on my TV or radio without listening to some news on one of the two subjects.

The first is Obama's birth certificate.  I don't care if it was released in long form, short form, as a deposition or by personal witness.  Obama has been President for two years.  Give it a rest already.  Why don't you people obsessed with the time, place and circumstances of Obama's birth use your energy for another pressing problem of this country?  We have an unbalanced budget, sky-high gas prices, unrest in the Middle East and hate crimes happening everywhere.  Stop your war against Obama and start one against one of these causes instead.  Then you might earn my respect as a possible future leader of this great nation.  Yeah, I'm talking to you, Donald Trump.

Second is the Royal Wedding.  Notice how I capitalized the words.  You can hear it in peoples' voices when they speak of it.  The Royal Wedding.  See, I don't give a darn about that either.  I like Prince William and Kate Middleton just fine, or at least I did until the press got ahold of them.  Now I just want to puke when I see them.  Again, there are more pressing issues going on in the world besides what hat to wear to the wedding.  It is just a wedding, folks. 

The difference is that the Royal Wedding will be over on Friday.  Obama's birth certificate seems to be endless fodder for "birthers" whom I would like to thank for wasting taxpayer time and money on researching this issue.  Now, get back to work, lol!

In his closing argument for the Enron case, prosecutor Sean Berkowitz reminded the jury, "These men did not try to put the company into bankruptcy. They felt if they could just hold on, if they could just lie a little bit longer and get to the next quarter and the next quarter and the next year, everything would be fine."[1] Thus Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, were added to what would become a growing roster of infamous leaders who engineered a financial fiction that would sustain their position, their wealth, and their power. Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom), Dennis Kozlowsi (Tyco), and Bernie Madoff had maneuvered their firms to ever higher heights through slights of hand, smoke, mirrors, and millions of dollars in fees to lawyers, accountants, and consultants.

These leaders taught us how to use "off-the-books" legal entities called special purpose vehicles to hide their debt. Through them we came to believe that it was appropriate for a firm to be both the producer and the consumer, a witting party in both sides of a transaction, in order to achieve the desired and illusory effects of more transactions, more revenues, and more profits. If the right hand is empty, take from the left hand; if the left hand is empty, take from the right. Keep moving the money around and around through more artificial investments, until $300 million dollars looks like $38 billion. It is silly to think that anyone would fall for such behavior as good governance or responsible stewardship, but thousands did, including those sophisticated financial experts on Wall Street and around the country in state pension funds, mutual funds, and university endowments. They became willing and complicit participants in these "income streams" until the streams dried up. Brilliant financial products from "the smartest guys in the room" were unmasked as Ponzi schemes and accounting scandals.

Armed with this critical eye formed from the sharp lessons of the financial frauds of the 2000's, what do we see when we examine the US federal financial system? Are the two wars we are fighting, which are not included in the federal deficit, off-the-book transactions? Is the fact that the Federal Reserve is printing money and using it to buy (and prop up?) our treasuries "quantitative easing" or a Ponzi scheme on our descendants? By filling the Social Security trust fund with these same treasuries, are we astutely "leveraging-up" our economy or stuffing our national mattress with paper no more valuable than that ultimately of Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers? Will our dear friends in the Chinese communist party happily bail-out our little sovereign company the way the Obama Administration helped General Motors? They would never force us to sell-off assets, limit our pay, trim our retirement and healthcare benefits, and wipe out our previous stock issues. Surely America could be exceptional in financial default too.

Over the last two years, our political leaders have promised an ability to defy the laws of physics and compounding interest: two trillion in government revenues will become almost four trillion in spending and interest rates can be held in check with financial ramparts that would awe the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans.[2] Through adult-sounding speeches and tough, even brilliant negotiations they are shoring up the economy in our minds, and offering us golden castles in the sand, backed by the full faith and credit of our grandchildren. We adolescents, we happy citizens, fall asleep at night to the warm comfort of these promises. Thankfully the fictions of this young layman are not built on the same foundation as those dreams.

Notes
[1] McLean, Bethany, and Peter Elkind. 2006. "The Guiltiest Guys in the Room." Fortune 153, no. 11: 26-28. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 17, 2011).
[2] Government Printing Office. 2011. Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2010. Table 1.1 — Summary of Receipts, Outlays, and Surpluses or Deficits (-): 1789–2014. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/hist.html (accessed April 17, 2011).

tag line : politics, obama, military, patriotic republicans, usa, communist democrats, budget, wedding, white, pelosi, reid, socialist, communist, rebel, yell against sanctuary cities , sanctuary states and phoney illegal democrat party voting tactics using illegal immigrants in USA...
By Derrufo

(alternate Title : SILENCE OF THE BIRDS

Before I left home today in Maryland to take a drive I was in my kitchen and the window was open and I heard the call of the Ringed-Necked Pheasant. This was a bird that was common in my state in the brief past. But not ever seen or heard in the new day and age of suburbs eating up the countryside of Md/Del,W VA, Penn State, Va . (aka DelMarVa) .
I was sure it was just my own mistake as I turned on the faucet at the sink, surely it was just some creaking of the knobs . But 5 minutes later I heard it again and more distinctly this time. I was quite surprized since the Pheasant has a distinctive call...and here I was living in the crowded 'Burbs near a city. I was sure it was some kind of a mistake. It was.

The sound repeated again in 10 minutes as I prepared to leave the home and I knew what it was this time when I heard it . It was an electronic alarm system sounding that was in error and was due for repair at the car dealership behind my home. Yet still the reminder every 5 to 10 minutes of the bird calls that mimicked what I had heard all my young life growing up on a farm in northern Md did cause me to reflect on modern Life, as well as my own place in it. I knew soon I would be in my car and gone and would not hear the sound again, that, although metallic in tone, was still genuine in its call of that great bird. It moved me to wonder aloud to myself about the explanation in one of the great sci-fi author phillip k dick's books about mechanical birds and lions or sheep...( title : BLADERUNNER ) and I had to smile. Once again old Phil had guessed about the future in the right way with his own story's version of a future unseen yet that at once beguiled and entertained the reader. Here I was, as well, being entertained by a robot sound code in a car in my own era, chirping out its repeating call...awk! awk! awk!...over and over, every 5 to 10 minutes...Eventually I said to myself the mechanic will come out of the garage to the parking lot and stop it. But by then I ll be long gone on my trip around town. The memories it brought to the surface however would stay with me as I made my drive. It led me to write this report to you All . I actually laid down the words at my first stop. When the time allowed I started writing and here it is :

I heard the sound of the pheasant bird and it made me think of the Past. A lot has changed since the Past we all grew up in , those of us 45 years old and older. Myself I am 58. When I use to hear these big game birds living in the brush/ tall grasslands of rolling meadows /long cornfields in northern Md it had been when I was quite young.
It was occasional and sometimes you would hear a pheasant doing the awk awk awk as it flew across from one field to another. The flight usually didnt last very long. If you looked soon enough you could see where they started their flight and where they landed...150 - 300 ft away...When you grow up around some part of Nature that is constant you never imagine any thing can take it away. You ( Myself ) just could never imagine any thing that could be Big Enough or omnipresent enough to take something away from the natural world I had grown up in . But it did happen. I saw it with my own eyes...

The big bird was part of this land and it had been there before my family had moved to that valley and had been there when the original people of this Land , American Indians, had lived and hunted /fished these grounds long ago . I never imagined it could just simply one day disappear but the big bird did. Now that I think of it the American Indians as well likely didnt see the new white settlers being the reason they also one day would no longer be part of this Land but that as well did happen. In the case of the bird, it was arrival of many city people moving out to the country that destroyed the ability of the Pheasant to survive whole and healthy from one year to the next. I didnt know how the bird lived in my region but I knew it was able to survive the hunts of the fox and the very rare Lynx wildcat. There were always numbers of pheasants seen or heard every spring and into summer.

But when the new settlers arrived in my time, the city people, This was to change and sadly the end of the Ring-Necked Pheasant in the large valley I walked in often happened quite rapidly. We all started to see a new type of movement at the edge of woods or in the cornfields. It was a new kind of predator and it was clear to see the animal was not use to the areas but wasnt shy or too fearful of People...It was the simple average domestic housecat. Before long the more city people that came also brought their pets and it was the cat that destroyed the pheasants. It didnt take long for entire nesting populations of the birds to die as they sat on eggs on the ground in tall weeds. The wildlife of north america was not use to the housecat and had little defense to it. In as little as 5 or 6 years I would hear my dad tell me that "it is all over " for the pheasant. They were gone from the big valley where my Dad had a small farm at one end of it. We knew they were all gone. We listened for them sometimes to hear if they flew from field to field making the usual awk awk call... we never heard it again...

Why am I telling you this story ? Well for one reason it is a true story. There was a reason for what happened to northern Md. No one knew it would happen til it was too late. New people living in the country had come from cities and towns far from here with their pets and those animals had destroyed the natural wildlife in the area. Sadly most of the city people moving up there never knew of the pheasants and didnt mind letting their cats run free.They never even saw the birds since they rapidly began to disappear. They had been the major cause of a destruction to nature and most of them never even knew it. But I knew it.

And I never forgot the Lesson it taught me about Life and about People. It taught me that in Life nothing is a sure thing no matter what you see right in front of you it doesnt mean it will be there tomorrow. About People it taught me that people can be very selfish or that just by being unaware of what is going on around them some People can do great harm to my Land , to my State, even to my Nation . That is what I learned as I saw the sad look on my Father's face as he explained it was the housecats running around, even multiplying in the wild that was leading to the end to some of the nature we knew and loved .
My Dad had mumbled to me : " Its been going on for years ..."

I was young at the time, about 16 but I did remember when the birds were plentiful and I recalled never hearing another one for the times I was in that valley as I grew older in to my 20s and 30s...Sometimes it is the silence of what is gone or missing that can haunt a man as much as the monster or evil that is standing right in front of you.

You just never imagine any thing that could be Big Enough or omnipresent enough to take away the world we all have grown up in . But it is happening. I and others have seen it with our own eyes...The increasing numbers of
"strangers" in my state who do not even speak English. In some areas of towns they have grown in large numbers and there is no attempt by Immigration Law officers or Maryland Police officials to stop this madness... ( I have heard the illegals are encouraged to get voting cards and to vote democrat in elections. But this is illegal...)

But did it guarantee the recent Maryland elections victories for the Democrat Party ? One has to wonder at such issues and what the ideas represent. For one thing, illegal voting would mean the democrats are illegally running the state of Maryland right now. It is not the type of issue a freedom loving true patriotic American can stomach for long. Illegal foreigners helping stupid democrats win elections they cannot win fairly...my my . It can make a man have a stroke thinking on it too long.

I intend to try to stop the threats of such disasters occurring to my own Nation, where the next threat that may grow in the future being my own national identity as a white man. I am a man who is a conservative about politics and devoted to the history of the USA, I have studied its wars and I have read books of the intellectuals. I will not allow the mocking scorn of Liberals and pseudo-intellectuals tell me the USA and its past is no longer important. I wont allow someone to tell me the USA is " over " ...

I wont let go of my memories of the Time I grew up in or my own past. I wont disappear from my Land without a fight. This story is of a bird that didnt have a way to know what was happening or any way to fight back. It couldnt even fly very far to escape the cats in the fields...The national identity of the white man is not some big bird waiting to be plucked and killed by those who are not of the white race. There are many ways to defeat or silence a foe...obviously if the white man ignores the dangers or fears being called a "racist" by those trying to destroy the white culture in the USA. If you will not stand up for what is right , in that case, the democrat liberals have already won because they have defeated that person who is afraid to be smeared with the Lies of stupid Liberals who call us names without just cause. Let us show the world what Justice is truly made of, what America is truly made of...Obama and his fool friend eric holder have caused the world to laugh at us. Vote them out of office. Ignore them when they talk to the news media, a group who show they love obama every chance they get. The news media are mostly cowards and want to be always in a position of never challenging the opposition.

I doubt the intelligent, aware white man will let the USA fall into social chaos and economic ruin due to the work of dedicated liberals in the USA, like Obama and Pelosi and Reid, who enter politics not to help us but to seal the fate of the white man finally as second class citizens. It doesnt seem like it can happen but it can. To give you an idea of it, when people commit suicide sometimes it is because they are giving up, because Society has turned them away, ignored them, or wouldnt hire them for a job. ( there are no quota systems or affirmative action policies for white people trying to locate a job ) .

So the next time you hear about some white man or white family ending up dead in their home from some type of suicide, dont pooh pooh tsk tsk the facts...see it for what it really is sometimes...it is a battle that ended badly. But just because some white people mistreated died by their own hand from depression and despair, because Society abandoned them doesnt mean you and I have lost the war. No. Some will lose a battle and die. But we must not lose the war.

What War ?
Some families and some workers who are white are being discriminated against every day...Maryland and some other USA states openly allow illegal foreigners here because they will work for cheaper wages and since its all undocumented the managers who hire them are making profits. American workers cost more to pay for labor and for benefits. So in order to damage the white man , many types of businesses are involved.And making money.

All so they can make more money.They make more money in Businesses that are working with the Democrat Party in Maryland...hand in hand in an evil game that has to end soon , or we all will perish... I guess if those Bosses and Businesses one day get rich enough from their deceit and lies they will sell the business and move to a state where illegals are not allowed...They know they will be safe there. But we know we are not so safe in Maryland. No. we are not safe in any state where the democrat liberals are running the government, whether it be at state level or city level. We can change it but to do so we must organize. You must do it. I cannot do it for you.

You know it is kind of scarey in states like Maryland with all these strangers walking around. Some of the so-called "sanctuary" cities and states also let the illegal visitors here in USA get drivers licenses, so they are also driving around but they dont have to get auto insurance and if they have an accident they just run away from the scene...Remember most of them do not speak any english...The police say they can do nothing about it... This is your nation that is being ruined by the democrat- liberal political leaders.

Remember this report next time you hear a phone recorded message from a store or lawyer office being repeated in english and then in spanish. Your politicians who are Liberals//Progressives are behind this attempt to re-design a society where you no longer matter much white man . You assumed life was okay but we saw a black man elected president who isnt even qualified and people still wonder if he is even born in the USA...amazing... I am from the old school where if a bridge is going to be built that I need to use for my car, I want it built by the best qualified engineers and not because some company had many minorities working in it. Get the picture ?

You really need to deal with this issue...It is affecting every part of our Lives today... This first week of April 2011, I saw 2 females standing behind men who were FireMen. They were all taking the physical qualifications testing...These women were 2/3rds the size of the Men. Their posture was stooped. They were not even in what is called "good physical condition" but they were on the payroll as firemen...wake up people...your society is becoming politically correct (PC) and socially destructive of effectiveness at the same time right before your eyes...Stop This Madness...Stop the PC BS going on Everywhere !!

Protest what the ACLU is trying to do to work against our laws. Get mad every time you hear an Obama aide talk pure crap. Get angry when Eric Holder shows again and again he has no purpose as Attorney General that can help the USA . Be involved on all levels of society where you see problems...dont ignore it. We can no longer afford hiring people to be president just because we want to say :
-- look what a great People we are, we hired a Black Man as a President of the USA--

Select the most qualified person for a job,who ever he or she is...enough said.They are killing us slowly just the way housecats killed the beautiful bird known as the Ring-Necked Pheasant. You and I can still save ourselves but you have to organize and stop this insanity. I dont really care what method you use to stop it but we must stop the loss of our society that we all grew up in long ago. If not for ourselves then we must stop the democrat liberals for all the children. Its not fair they should suffer in a chaotic world. We can turn it around...I declare the group Ringed-Neck Republicans to be the name of the group I hope my story will inspire and that you will organize and stop the madness and take back your nation. Take back what is yours . Do it for the memories you have of a normal and sane Past we all remember. Do it for all the soldiers who have died in wars fighting for that sacred Past we all remember...

Finally organize yourselves to stop the democrat - liberals (progressives, socialists, community organizers, whatever they call themselves ) do it for the children. Oh and this report is different from the april 05th version in this way , you and I both know the news media in the USA is slanted to the Left and is aiding the democrats every day. It is beyond sin that news orgs online and on TV often LIE about the Republicans and constantly aid the Democrat Party.It is a crime .

Also It is a crime to aid public service unions by lettting legal loopholes to exist that allow Washington DC govt to send these State Org unions govt money so that the unions can then send some of that money to the democrat party in each state. This is wrong...This has to stop . The circus in Wisconsin will not alter reality, Scott Walker is doing the right thing to stop the unions of public employees from constantly getting increases in aid or awards of cash under the guise of one program or another. Unions that threaten or harm people who disagree with certain union bosses and are murdered is more than just a crime. These heinous acts will have to be eventually totally shut down and if necessary investigations of public employee unions could end up in their removal from the political / economic / social landscape of the United States.

May God Bless Us All in our Fight for Justice in modern America . -- DERR UFO

If any of you that read this feel its not the way to think in 2011 and in the Future, then just recall one thing, all of you in your own way have also stood up in the past for your own culture or Race. None of us can ever say we are above the need for personal identity and a feeling of self-worth. Some call it Pride. Those of you reading this who agree and have stood up before for your Race or Culture, if you are from another Nation and not American Citizens, go the Hell home.

( ps : for my devoted followers -- about the Pheasant Bird Call robot , the mechanic never came out of the garage to the parking lot all day to stop the bird call alarm and 3 hours later as I pulled in my driveway I heard the awk awk awk again as I opened my car door and of course I had to smile. ) -- DERR UFO

Barack Obama’s primetime address – in which he announced that the U.S. military will hand NATO allies enforcement of the no-fly zone and arms embargo in the North African nation – was roundly applauded by GOP moderates and conservatives alike.

House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) said Obama offered “surprising details” about America’s strategy and greatly clarified the question of how large a supporting role the U.S. military will play in Libya.

The Presidents speech satisfied concerns about his handling of America’s involvement in Libya,” Price said. “It provided a substantive plan for the future and that it has provided the type of clear, coherent leadership need.”

Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said it was helpful for Americans to hear from Obama and they were very pleased to get satisfying answers to their questions on Libya.

“Whether it’s the American resources that will be required, our standards and objectives for engaging the rebel opposition, or how this action is consistent with U.S. policy goals, the speech provided Americans much clarity to our involvement in Libya,” Steel said in a statement. “Only nine days into this military intervention, and Americans can see the answer to the fundamental question: what does success in Libya look like?”

During his nearly half-hour address, Obama pledged to seek the ouster of Libya dictator Muammar Qadhafi through diplomatic efforts, but said using military force to remove him would be a “mistake.”

America had already gone down that road in a costly war in Iraq, Obama said.

“Of course, there is no question that Libya – and the world – will be better off with Gaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means,” Obama said. “But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.”

His 2008 presidential rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), characterized Obama’s comments as “powerful,” adding that “Qadhafi must be very unnerved by that.”

“If we end up in a situation where Qadhafi is able to cling to power, then we could easily see a reenactment of the first Gulf War: stalemate, a no-fly zone that lasted for 10 years that didn’t bring Saddam Hussein out of power, I can see where President Obama is not going to allow that to happen.” McCain said during an interview on CNN.

Other GOP senators expressed similar confidence about improbability of a long-term military campaign in Libya.

“When our men and women in uniform are sent into harm’s way, Americans and troops deserve a clear mission from our commander-in-chief, like the one the President gave on Monday night,” said Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas.

Freshman Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Obama defined the goals and mission of U.S. involvement in Libya weeks ago, and called the president’s response to the Libya conflict “steady and certain.”

“I’m hopeful our efforts in Libya are met with quick success,” he said, “and at this time I remain deeply committed to the President’s strategy which I know will result in great respect for America in the region and throughout the world.”

Democratic leaders also lauded the speech, saying that he laid out a clear vision for Libya’s freedom. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emphasized that the U.S. acted alongside a broad coalition of international partners.

“America and its allies stand alongside the Libyan people as they determine their future,” Reid said in a statement. “While I support the president’s decision not to commit ground troops to this mission, I share the president’s determination to see this tyrant removed from power.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also commended the president adding that members of Congress will receive classified briefings later this week about the U.S.’s role in the Libya conflict.

“Tonight, President Obama spoke to the nation about limited American participation in international efforts to protect innocent Libyans from the ‘show no mercy’ threat by Qaddafi,” she said. “Action was taken to stave off a humanitarian crisis saving thousands of lives.”

A handful of House Democrats said Obama’s speech still left them with unanswered questions.

“Tonight the president stated his rationale for the military action in Libya, but I still have significant questions about our involvement in that country,” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Co.) said in a statement. “I remain eager to hear additional details regarding the causes for and the scope of our continued engagement in Libya on Wednesday, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates will provide a classified briefing to Congress.”

And Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) said he remained concerned “we didn’t get a clear and accurate accounting from the president” about the cost of the Libya conflict.

“We’ve got two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – and Americans deserve to hear from our President what this third conflict is going to cost us,” he said.

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who himself is entertaining a run for president, accused Obama of overstepping his executive authority by failing to seek Congress’s approval before ordering military strikes on Libya.

“If President Obama had consulted Congress, as our Constitution requires him to do, perhaps we could have debated these questions before hastily involving ourselves in yet another Middle Eastern conflict,” Paul said in a pre-taped video response to Obama’s speech.

“While the President is the commander of our armed forces, he is not a king. He may involve those forces in military conflict only when authorized by Congress or in response to an imminent threat. Neither was the case here.”

But then that's just Rand Paul ...... he's an ass hole, ........ everybody knows that!

(I suppose I should have put a note at the top of the article saying this article should only be read on April 1st.) 8^)}

As more and more Americans begin to make their voices heard regarding the current state of affairs in our nation some very interesting statistics begin to come to light. The landing gear of Air Force One had barely been locked down before Speaker of the House John Boehner was releasing the details of a letter lambasting President Obama for his recent actions in Libya. Boehner’s chief complaint seems to be that Obama didn't properly consult with congress before the recent military strikes against Libyan tyrant Moammar Gadhafi. Boehner did however; take part in a conference call Friday with other congressional leaders at which time Obama discussed the Libyan mission. John Boehner went on to say that issues with the call made it difficult for him to hear during this discussion. My guess is issues with selective hearing on Boehners part had more to do with this than call quality. The speaker would do well to understand before calling out the president that the majority of America supports Barack Obama on his actions in Libya.

A recent Gallop Poll shows a majority of Americans approve of the current military actions in Libya. These statistics are supported by CNN and ABC News research that shows as much as 70 percent of the American public is in favor of the established no-fly zone and its enforcement by U.S. military air strikes. So even while Mr. Boehner stands on the steps of Congress and calls the president wrong, most of Americans still say he is correct in his decisions. It is becoming more and more obvious that Boehner and company are not listening to the American public.

John Boehner’s comments about Libya come on the heels of another subject that has shown just how out of touch the GOP/TEA has become with America’s priorities and concerns. The Republican Congress has used the one year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act to renew efforts to repeal and/or defund this important legislation. However, The Speaker and his crew seem to be unable or unwilling to recognize their direction on health care seems to be opposite of what America considers important. Both CNN and Kaiser Family Foundation indicate that a majority of Americans attitude toward the health care law is either supportive or not supportive because it does not go far enough.

In addition to health care, Americas concerns about the budget and federal deficit seem to be falling on the deafened ears of Congress. Polls show more than seven in ten Americans say that deficit reduction is important but not as important as preventing cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education programs and veterans' benefits. Further, a majority of the public is willing to cut federal pensions, welfare, and foreign aid rather than programs such as defunding NPR or Planned Parenthood. Add to this the public’s willingness to cut defense spending and the programs that the public may be willing to cut goes up to somewhere around thirty percent of the government’s budget. Yet Congress continues to make votes on repeal and defunding efforts that have no real hope of effectively addressing deficit reduction.

Certainly the recent behavior of the GOP/TEA Congress leads me to believe that America is quickly losing confidence in their ability to meet the needs of this country. And the country seems to agree. A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll of 50 Congressional districts across the nation shows that 45% of voters will not be voting for the Republican/TEA incumbent in those districts. These incumbents have been shown to have an average approval rating of only 35 percent across the 50 districts. Add to this, the research that shows the American public has more confidence in the President than Republicans in Congress by a margin of 44 to 39 percent and it is easy to see why the majority of the public believes the GOP/TEA is moving our country in the wrong direction. I wonder if John Boehner understands that current numbers indicate Barack Obama would take the Speakers home state of Ohio over any Republican candidate in the next presidential election.

As John Boehner stands on the steps of the Capitol and spouts about the short comings of President Obama he would do well to recognize one very important fact. When it comes to the current GOP/TEA agenda, America has more confidence in Barack Obama’s mission in Libya than the Speaker’s mission in Congress.

Rush has decided to unleash his vitriol against the First Lady Michelle Obama about her diet and appearance. What is that about? I am a guy about lets say 50 years old.

This is a positive question, with extra points for those who can cross party lines. Who are your favorite presidents, and why? Please refrain from negative commentary. We have so many different presidents to choose from, let's focus on who we liked and why. OK?

Here's a start: Abraham Lincoln, who on the night that he signed the "Emancipation Proclamation" announced it at Ford's Theater by introducing a very tiny person in the audience, "This is Harriett Beecher Stowe, who started this war." Ms. Stowe was the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Then there was Teddy Roosevelt, who read a book by a socialist, "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, and created the Food and Drug Administration.

And I liked Woodrow Wilson, who the Bosses of his times thought that they had somehow bought, as a kind of 'chum' president, and instead he fought gallantly for a better America and a new League of Nations, proclaiming that, "once you begin the dance of legislation, it never really ends."

our first president, George Washington, was quite genuine and honorable in his intentions, declaring in his first inaugural address that that this country was "an Experiment in Democracy...founded by Divine Providence..." Who can disagree with that?

So which presidents do you like the most over time?

You might not knowm but my favorite US President of al time is the current resident at 1600 Penn Ave in DC, with signs broadcast on TV tonight in Bahrain declaring, "Yes We Can." ( Where'd they cme up with 'dat, I wonders... :)

Which president or presidents did you admire? They don't even have to be US presidents. They just have to be great.

Any president will do.

Let's keep this positive or allow the community to delete negativity on this question.

Thank you and God bless the presidents and people who inspired them here and around the world.

What say you? Et tu...

You know what I think about guns, the NRA and the imbeciles like Heston, Nugent, Palin and the other irresponsible stinkpottie right wing wonders in the NRA's tax free murder incorporated that is the social conservative/republican/NRA gun lobby?

Its just past 6pm on the east coast and a dictator, a miserable stain on humanity and the earth, a dishonor to America for supporting him, is gone. He is overthrown by a free people.

"His teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement," Obama said on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

For decades, now, our three readers, here, at the Pigeon Report have been sending us telepathic requests to use our extra-ordinary skills as a "seer" to answer some very pressing questions that have been weighing heavily on their little minds, which are the size of a small walnut.

So, I have finally agreed, after much badgering, and, a really good beating, to asked Edgar Jaycees, III to join us for a combined seance and mind meld. Edward, aka, Edgar, give his mysterious Atlanta's reading while a deep sleep, or, drunk on the couch. I, am the only unbiased and "civil" member of "The Newsvine Community" and it is my role to ask a question of him while he is in a trance and he telepathically answers through me, and, of course, because I am incapable of keeping a secret, I immediately, tell you.

However, at the moment, Edgar is giving a reading to a really "dense" client that is so enamoured with with Edgar Jaycees, III that the questionable client actually brings him a wagon load of turnips which he share (when not drunk) with the entire staff who devour them ravenously before they Flock off!

So, for that one "special - very, very special" reader, the really odd one, Vlad's dog, one of our more enlightened read that is alleged to be able to read our post without the aid of a tutor. I am please to say, that of our total readership of three, two nearly literate newsviners and one blind mouse, he, Vladamir Dogjinkencowski, is the most promising and the least likely to succeed.

I am making an exception, therefore, and, doing something that I will probably regret in the morning. But, what the heck, it isn't as if I hadn't done that several hundred times before and since there is no more bird seed, here, at the Bird Droppings Institute, and, I have lots of chores to do, I have decided, (after a considerable amount of reflections, approximately 7 seconds), to enter into a deep sleep and a mind meld with Edgar Jaycees, III, and, to answer, "to the best of our limited ability, in as truthful manner, as much, or as little, as we are capable of, when not sober"), to Devin these answers - that some will love - but, based on past experiences, most of you will vehemently despise.

Are you ready, Edgar? He signals, "Yes," by snoring loudly and giving me the finger. The question our reader wants to know is: "WHO IS GAY & WHO IS NOT?"

Instantly, and still in a deep trance, Edgar Jaycees, III, replies in a rapid, rabid manner not unlike that epileptic chicken and fellow Trance Talker, Glenn Beck, on his nightly Fox TV Network News & Delusional Fantasies Show, soon to be available "Free" to the "criminally insane", Conservative Right Wing Evangelical, Born Up-sided Down Republicans and their ill-legitimate Off-off springs the Tea Patriots.

Anwers, the great Jaycees, Who is gay and Who Is Not?

TRAVOLTA? Are You Kidding Me, You Don't Know By Now?

TOM CRUISE? My attorney says that I can't answer that question!

SARAH PALIN? No! - But, she is a "gay bash-er," according to our journalistic Bible,The National Enquirer, which I know that a lot of you cannot afford anymore since your jobs were shipped off to China, or India or Mexico, by your Republican friends, so, that they could get a little extra money from "kick backs" from their corporate lobbyists buddies. Try getting by on a measly Congressional salary of $187,000, plus the best benefits that government money can buy, and, I think, that you, too, would agreed that is "not enough" these days. So, if an enterprising Congressional person has an opportunity to sell their country out, why shouldn't they take it, especially, if they are Right Wing, Conservative Republicans that can shield their activity from the general public by embracing their Christian faith every 5 seconds on national TV? Why shouldn't they do a little "consulting" on the side? Anyways, our Journalistic Bible, the National Enquirer reported that Sarah Palin never corrects her daughter, Bristol, and, that other tramp, what's her face, when they make "inappropriate gay bashing remarks on their Face Book accounts,". Therefore, after careful consideration, I think that means that we are going to have to put her name in the "Gay Bather" column, don't you, Edgar?

MICHAEL JACKSON? Dead. But, the evidence is not all in to make a definitive determination between Child molester and Gay Banging, Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Leader. We are, however, beaning towards gay, child day care provider, occasional molester and terrific rock singer.

Mac CAULAY CULKIN? He slept with Michael, do you have to ask?

GLENN BECK? Says That He Is "Not" - But, Those Big, Pig Lips Are Saying Something Else.

DICK CHENEY? I KNOW THAT THIS IS GOING TO DISAPPOINT A LOT OF YOU, BUT, NO! He is an avowed and happy married "sadist", thank you."

GEORGE W BUSH? Wanted to, but, when he was a Cheerleader in college, but no one would take him up on his offer, so, he gave it up and married one.

OBAMA? "No, and, Hell No," said Michelle Obama, when we contacted her at the White-house through our special correspondent, Liberal Lefty, who is assigned to cover that "perch." Lefty ( a liberal leaning reporter) stated, after he regained consciousness and after he picked himself up off the floor, where The First Lady had ceremoniously thrown him. "Liberal Lefty" noted that he continued with the interview in a little less direct fashion - out of range of her right hook, and, she allegedly retorted, "Hell No, and No, you, little Contaminated Bird Bath!" In a slightly less hostile tone, The First Lady added, "I have two kids and the stretch marks to prove it! Do you want to see them," she asked, jerking upward her designer blouse. "No, thanks, that wouldn't be necessary," retorted our highly professional carrier pigeon, "Liberal Left, reporting, nearly dead from the Righteous-house, Washington, DC.

Hillary Clinton? Who Cares? Would you "do" her if she where face up on a barroom floor and you were really, really drunk? I think not!

And, thus, concluded the trance bringing, Edgar Jaycees, III abruptly to his feet. "When do we eat?" he inquired ever the paid professional and former Richard Simmons drop out, at 685 pounds and holding - holding every bit of fun he can get.

So, folks, just a friendly reminder, if you, or your loved ones, have a pressing issue and you can't book the Dr. Phil Show, and, you need an answer within 60 days, or so, please, feel free to contact us, well, its not exactly, "free,". . . just drop your wallet into the mail to us - make sure you have included all your credit cards and proper IDs and send it to us, here, at the less than prestigious Bird Dropping Institute, % A Right Wing, Left of Centered, Fundamentally Flawed, Conservative Conspirators THINK TANK For Smart Alec's, By Smart Alec's, So Help Me God, Vacated in Mildew, Ohio - "right dab" in the middle of Congressman, John A. Boner's, 8Th Congressional District, where there are no jobs, and, we like it that way, cause we just love that "free" government cheese!

The truth can be measured not by the questions asked, but by the willingness to investigate matters honestly from start to finish.

Happy new year and congratulation to the new house speaker John Boehner,"NOW WHAT"? How are you going to pass bills, to better the economy? How are you going to work with the democartic party, against foreign investments and interest? How are you going to work against corporate  …

Over the last few years, we have seen a process that was begun some three decades ago reach the height of frenzy and energy; it is the process of slandering and debauching and corrupting and distorting in the wildest ways what the word liberal means.

“Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multinational corporation to economic viability?” – U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio When the Democrats run everything, yes.

Here's some fun polls for this gorgeous fall weekend. Have fun!

Inevitably I will have left out someone -but I'm sticking mostly with the players in this

coming election.

I've left out the comedians since they would win hands down!

Vote and encourage others to vote - it should be interesting if we get enough

people to participate in the poll.

There's a few notables I overlooked Hillary and Bill - so I made a poll of husband & wife combos

Nominations for anyone I left out are welcomed as well.

Cheers.

I have decided to take a much needed break from Newsvine until March 2011.

I have much to do on writing my poetry, and the winter season .

But, before I go I have a question:

What is a good reason to vote for a political party?

I guess things like getting results counts, popularity, political philosophy, I guess these things count.

One thing that counts for me is what you stand for, and whether or not the party acts rational. It disturbs me that some political parties thinks it is OK to malign a sitting president over and beyond the results they get, like the use of racial slurs and wild false claims, things that speak of hatred. (Yeah, this includes how George W. Bush was treated too.).

I can not for the life of me understand why any sane person would vote for Republican or Tea Party. A vote for them would support these very things I’ve mentioned and waters down any fiscal policy, or foreign policy they bring to the table.

It is silly to simply vote what your wallet tells you to vote.
What about results and principles?

The Democrats are only better because they don’t have those distracting trash in their front yard.
Nice job Dems, but you will have to try harder.

Personally, I think our country would be better off if we had stronger third parties.

I think I’ll check out my ol’ pals the libertarians and see what they have going.

Sincerely,

The Merchant

Welcome to ELECTION YEAR THEATRE, your 24/7 fact-free fear fest!

Now Playing (over and over and over again)...

"MUSLIM MANIA!"

Thrill to the chills as brazen Muslims dare to… exist!

“MUSLIM MANIA!”...produced by the GOP, Fox News, assorted wingnuts, and rightwing billionaires with too much money and time on their hands—the same folks that gave us...

“Homo Hysteria!”…

“Migrant Mayhem!”…

“Tax Tweak Terror!”…

“Health Care Horror!”…

“OBAMAnation!”…

"Night of the Living Debt!"

PLUS the enduring epic, “Iraqnophobia!”

AND that all-time favorite...

"Dude, Where's My Constitution?!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

RAVE REVIEWS for "Muslim Mania!"...

Boffo Socko! Better than my three marriages!--Newt Gingrich

A-OK, you betcha! I can see terrorists from my private jet!--Sarah Palin

Thoszzhh peobble haf a bedder tan 'an I do [hic]!--John Boehner

Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!!!--Glenn Beck

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rated "R" for RIDICULOUS

COMING SOON...

"Social Insecurity (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Wall Street)"

Dick Cheney once said that Ronald Reagan proved deficits don't matter. That being said, why do Republican voters fall for the same old lie every two years when they hear the RNC pretend to gripe about the deficit? Could we afford to initiate hostilities in Iraq in 2003?

Sharron's a Self-Righteous Angle - But the WRONG ANGLE for United States.

Sorry, No Tea For Me, Please!

Where do the Teapublicans dig these Nutcases up? With Halloween coming, perhaps we can re-bury them.

It is one thing to be upset with the status quo - but Teapublicans should be upset at the Republicans whose policy of Free Trade with Communist China enabled International and American Companies to jump ship at the first chance they got to make an extra dime.

China does not have America's best interest at heart - then, neither does the Republican Party! They have always been for Wall Street and "the hell" with Main Street.

Use your head, don't vote "Mad!" Vote with your mind and vote Republicans and crazy right-wing, nutty tea baggers out - not in.

It is always easier to tear down than to build up. President Obama is trying to build from the ruins of the Republican Bully Rule (Cheney, Rove & that damn, dumb Bush).

It's a lot harder to roll up your sleeves, pitch in and help solve the complex problems that face us on every front: city, county, state and national.

It is easy going to "rallys "instead to your job, shouting re-cycled Fox News "slogans "or sitting on the sidelines condemning everthing that is being done by others.

That is not a political movement - that a bowel movement!

Think with your head and not your ass like a bunch of "nanmy pamby" jerkwads fired up by Fox Network 's Right Wing rhetoric and too stupid to know where to direct it.

"All incumbents must go! Spending OUT OF CONTROL!" (That's original.)

Morons, look $700,000,000,000 IS FOR THE MILITARY.To fight wars that Republicans started. There were no weapons of Mass Destruction. The War with Iraq was a shame to get that dumb ass George W. Bush re-elected to a second term that he did not deserve.

"America Must Get Back to the Original Constitution." Really, HOW FAR BACK? - to slavery?

Read the damn thing instead of letting drop-out and long term drug addict Glenn Beck tell you what it means.

Hey, airheads, these are not programs - they are "SLOGANS"!

NOT PROGRAMS, NOT PRINCIPLE, NOT POLICY. They are slogans, like "Where the meat?" It's not in any of these slowwwwwgans. CHILL OUT, meatheads.

LOOK YOU ARE OUT OF WORK BECAUSE OF REPUBLICANS.

YOUR RETIREMENT FUND WAS ROBBED BY WALL STREET PIRATES.

YOUR JOBS ARE IN CHINA - Because, REPUBLICANS WANTED TO MAKE MORE MONEY FOR STOCKHOLDERS NOT EMPLOYEES , so they promoted "Global Market" and opposed "Global Warming."

Now, you have no job and can't breathe the air.
IF YOU MUST HATE - Hate Republicans or Conservative Nutjobs - but help the people that are helping you: DEMOCRATS.

Republicans want to give Billionaires a Tax Break and cut minimum wages.

Stop being so damn emotional - this isn't the FRENCH REVOLUTION!

It will be if you screaming, out of control, "off with their heads" nutcases get in control of anything.

You are a mob. Not a Revolution, not a Party. An Angry Out of Control White Only MOB. AND, A DUMB MOB.

I know that this is your first time getting involved - you been asleep for a long time, dopey.

But, don't try to kill the first thing you see when you wake up. You're a bit foggy headed. Clear your head. THINK. I know that that is difficult for someone that isn't use to thinking, but, now that you don't have a JOB because of REPUBLICANS, you are going to have to start.

This is America where Big Business Buys and Sells Your Congressman. Beside, idiots, Perry and Murdoch are funding the TEA baggers.

Get your head out of your anus - there are no answers up there. . . only a Republican foot PRINT.

WAKE UP AMERICA!

THE TEA POT IS BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE - NOT CURING THE COMMON COLD.

Damn are you folks, dumb. Don't let me have to tell you this again: Republicans are the BAD GUYS.

Thank you, acidrain, Thank you most of all for the invitation to pass it on.

I am posting it as an article on my page-and on the vine.

Obama Will Triumph — So Will America

By Frank Schaeffer

Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President. Why?-- because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.

Obama's steady supporters will be proved right. Obama's critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition – from both the right and left.

As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.

The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy"-- snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was his fault:

# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries

# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral

# The worst economic crisis since the depression

# America's standing in the world at the lowest point in history

# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war

# A health care system in free fall

# An educational system in free fall

# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)

# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left

# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration…

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!

"Help" from the Right?

What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to "help" our new president (and our country) succeed?

1. They claimed that he wasn't a real American,
2. didn't have an American birth certificate,
3. wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim,
4. was white-hating "racist",
5. was secretly a communist,
6. was actually the Anti-Christ, (!)
7. and was a reincarnation of Hitler and
8. wanted "death panels" to kill the elderly!

• They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through
• the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and
• even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8.
• They organized "tea parties" to sound off against imagined insults
• and all government in general
• and gathered to howl at the moon.
• They were led by insurance industry lobbyists
• and deranged (but well financed) "commentators" from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.

The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"

In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right,combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

"Help" from the Left?

What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history!

Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minuets of the President taking office, they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president's has been. Never that mind he signed a new hate crimes law!)

Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals!

And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond… "Governing"?! What the hell does that world, uh, like mean?"

The President's critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren't as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn't consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!

The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas—say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office… twice!

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community – in just 12 short months -- President Obama:

#Continued the draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Restored America's image around the globe
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Banned torture of American prisoners
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of the American economy
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stood up for educational reform
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Won a Nobel peace prize
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of job losses
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty"…
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR -- President Obama "failed"! Other than that he didn't "live up to expectations"!

Who actually has failed...

...are the Americans that can't see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.

Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!

The Future Looks Good

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling.

Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays, depending on your point of view) to everyone!

PS. if you agree that Obama is shaping up to be a great president please pass this on and hang in there!

• #40.1 - Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:38 AM EDT

The Republican have sold out America to China and India and we need to change this. I Have an HP Computer and I have called for my warranty help, I did not get an American worker because of the Corporate sell out of American jobs.

As the Cultural Health Guy, I love my Chinese and Indian brothers and sisters however, I want American jobs at home first, then we can help others. Bush and the forty thieves and the corporate Democrats have caused us to become an underdeveloping nation. Think about it, the world had developed nations, developing nations and undeveloped or underdeveloped nations. Bush Republicans have invented a new category of Nation, and it was not a good invention. The cultural anti-humanist, that just say no, to middle class tax cuts and extending unemployment benefits to the Bush caused 99ers must be stopped in November.

Corporations which, in many cases, are transnational corporate governments that employ to the lowest standard (near slave labor) must be stoped. The disgraced Republican loaded Supreme Court has ruled that these corporations which, in many ways are like foreign citizens, have the same rights as human beings. No they don't, the distinction between citizen and corporations must be restored.

Those of us in Technology who are normally focused on our bits and bytes stood up in 2008, and we were heard loud and clear. We are needed again to stand up in Nov. No more exporting technology job's without a penalty. We must protect American jobs and Buy American.

Will you help us protect and create American jobs by supporting the One Nation March?

Right-wing opportunist, Glenn Beck, said on February 5, 2009 that Barack Obama is taking us down the road to socialism. He then reversed course nearly two months later and declared that the president was taking us down the road to fascism.

When a pro-life Republican congressman who wants to repeal the health care law gets money from the tobacco lobby, it only means that the RNC wants children to suffer from lung cancer with no hope of their parents being able to afford a trip to the doctor.

'So why again the above rant about academics?

We are presently governed by academics. In an era in which university people proliferate in this administration and seem to make things far worse for the rest of us, we need to be reminded why we should not look to the university for answers. What I hear coming out of Washington reminds me a lot of what I once heard coming out of the philosophy or English department. And that is a scary thing indeed.

You see, that tribe is more likely to embody the illness rather than the cure, and this time 300 million are paying the price.'

I found this article to support the claim Obama is a Muslim.

Just before noon on Aug. 28, 1963, John Lewis locked arms with other leaders of the civil rights movement and marched to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

"When we got to the top of the steps, I looked out and it was just a sea of humanity," says Lewis, the Georgia congressman who was then the 23-year-old chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

This could come from his Muslim environment when a child. He never comes out strongly in support of Israel. Do you think that is because he is afraid of offending Muslims? Do you think Obama would go as far as being a Holocaust denier to pander to the Muslims?

What do you think?

The right: There once was a Muslim from IndonesiaWho stole the presidency and decieved ya'He said "Yes we can!"And erected a planTo build a mosque that would insult the grievers! The left:

Well right up front, In my mind this has absolutely nothing to do with partisanship. I am equally disgusted with all the Local, State and United States, elected officials that are hiding from this issue (regardless of political affiliation). Although including my opinion of the Presidents leadership on this certainly opens some discussion of Presidential politics...But, only on this issue.

I did not need the "President & Chief Professor" to lecture me on the law. I still have not earned a college degree, but I did not need the first words out of the President's mouth to be an intellectual law dissertation. Obliviously the laws of a free society with property rights and private ownership (with the heavy stench of Freedom To Worship any nutty fairy you wish)......you get.. Well.....it is perfectly legal here..and that is what our Founders wanted! Really??? I cannot think of any Founding Fathers I would feel comfortable with having their finger on the button. If for no other reason, I have no frame of reference as to what their policy may be. I can think of a couple that might burn the Mosque down. Fortunately the majority of us have evolved and have learned to debate and decide these things in the public marketplace of ideas. This in my humble opinion is a classic case of "Just because it is legal, doesn't make it right".

This is a "New York Issue". Well then the reasonable train of thought is the Japanese bombed Hawaii, not the U.S. On 9/11, I kept hearing in the news coverage..."we are all New Yorkers, we are all Americans"....now it is a local issue? Hog-wash! Now, the laws that allow it are mainly local, but our absolute Freedom of Speech Rights allow every American to have an opinion and the ability to publish it. Try that in Iran.

If this Imam was the least bit interested in Inter-Faith dialogue, he would prove he could hear a clear message and move it a few more blocks away. If this is a real effort to flip the United States the bird, then he will not reconsider, it may be built and I fear the real tension will only have begun. The fact is when moderates and reasonable people fail, the extremes tend to rush in. Just an observation.

As usual, I could always be wrong.

Just My Opinion,

Maddad

By sacking Sherrod on the strength of a doctored video posted by a blogger on the Obama-bashing right, the White House seemed afraid of offending conservative media critics - and white voters who helped elect an African-American President.

But I dont believe he can ever do right for the group that revel in wallowing in Fox ginned up manipulations of their emotions, the doctored tapes against ACORN and Sherror, the false racial stories on dismissal of charges against the stick holding, guant irrelevant blacks in front of a black pollinig booth one that was actually sentenced, and on and on.

They play on the hearts of real people but for them it is about votes and returning to their position of power as in most of the past decades when the country careened towards disaster.

Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent pressed his fellow journalists to deflect attention from Obama's relationship with Wright by shifting topics to one of Obama's conservative critics, the Daily Caller reported.

"Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares – and call them racists," Ackerman wrote.

The article claims "new health coverage for uninsured Americans with health problems won't be cheap" - but compared to what?

The article failed to point that this was the stop gap for those with pre-existing conditions who usually would not get covered anywhere else or have to pay premiums more than three times that declared "not cheap" in the article!!!

I currently am quoted, in New York, about $1200 for coverage. And the article claims those plans are not cheap because they have "premiums averaging $300 to $600 a month in the largest states"

Isnt "cheap" a relative word? $5 health insurance could be cheap or $250, or $0 compared to what one could get it at? IS it not cheap in comparison to Canada or the UK or CURRENT PRIVATE HEALTH INSURACE or FREE health insurance?

SHAME ON THE JOURNALIST AND HIS EDITOR FOR PANDERING TO SENTIMENTS AND ARRIVING AT AN ARTICLE TITLE THAT FITS PUBLIC OPINION.

News websites from across the country struggle to maintain civility in their online comments forums. But given their anonymous nature and anything-goes ethos, these forums can sometimes feel as ungovernable as the tribal lands of Pakistan.

Our caveman ancestors were Liberals. How do I know this, you ask? It's quite simple really.

"A month after a BP drilling operation began hemorrhaging crude into the Gulf of Mexico, company executives and White House officials are still volleying the blame and the responsibility for what will be the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Article VI - Debts, Supremacy, Oaths All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

excerpt: When he came in, the stock market was in free fall. Today, it has completely recovered and is setting records.

December 14, 2011 OCE (Obama Care Era): My shoulders are chafed and raw underneath the nylon straps of my camping satchel. I shift the uncomfortable burden and shiver against the bitterly cold gust of wind that comes swirling down the street.

This is the gist of Rush's evolving interpretation on the oil spill in the gulf. The conspiracy has even included an acknowledgement of Obama sending a Federal swat team there immediately (which kinds of contradicts the Katrina angle) to cover up the fact that North Korea may have been involved. You cant make this stuff up and yet folks who are supposed to have IQs at least higher than single digits listen to this ex or maybe current drug addict (hate will make fools of men).

For the normal folks in the real world, look at the materials consumed by our fellow countrymen so you can more patiently understand the absurd and incredulous comments you get here dripping with hate and misinformation.

Management by crisis, just in time - these terms lead to one simple thing less costs and more profit but also taking on more risk.

It's been a growing trend in news in america - to sensationalize bad news - one has to think that anything that goes bad in America brings an inner sense of glee to the major stock owners of media giants.

Anyway - that's yet another subject.

What we have here is a failure to anticipate failure - ONCE AGAIN - and it always comes down to a choice between the cost of safeguards and profit.

A bet.

One that the oil industry and regulators made but the people of Louisiana lost.

I have been an avid lifetime aquarium hobbyist and as a result have become a strong supporter of the need to protect nature from humans.

It seems that when we humans do something wrong - the focus is on me - not on us - and that us should include everything that lives on this planet. You know - the stuff us humans need to stay alive!

Nature can live without humans -but humans can't live without nature.

While we get caught up in the media inspired drama of this oil spill - we lose sight of the cause.

Do we have to do things wrong to be forced to do things right?

There are steps that could have been taken to perhaps prevent or mitigate the damages. Steps that some European nations have taken.

Yes - the same European nations it has become politically popular to criticize - certainly America doesn't want to "Europeanize"!

How ironic that BP would have had more stringent (and costly) requirements to meet had the rig been within the boundaries of the UK.

The marshes are the hidden cost of oil spills - not as obvious as the impact on human lives and livelihoods.

Marches are where baby marine life begin to grow into adult marine life - fish, crustaceans, mollusks etc

Humans do not have a natural place in the cycle of life on earth - except perhaps in the food chain of some extraterrestrial creatures.

This again is yet another subject.

But for now the simple solution to all of this - is less profit and all the safeguards necessary to protect us and nature from US!.

What do you think? Poll.

EVER wondered why it is the case that in reading biographies of great and minor figures, the name of the father is almost always mentioned first than that of the mother? Not counting the cases of one of the parents being lopsidedly famous and powerful or influential over the other, the general trend has been that the father is almost always mentioned first. Notwithstanding if the father is a scum and it is the mother who served as major breadwinner. Even in the case of United States President Barack Obama whose father deserted them, his biographical page in the White House website cites his father first: “With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.”

Is such really the natural course to follow? Perhaps, because most human beings carry the surname of the father* it is deemed to be a most natural thing to mention the father first. Or, maybe, it is thought that God of some patriarchal religion decrees it that way. Perhaps in the days of old when outdated thinking and stiff patriarchy ruled the world, citing the father’s name first was understandably standard operating procedure for historians and biographical writers. Today in a world enlightened by science and humanist philosophy, should fathers still come first?

If it is “natural,” we should abide by, is it not logical that the name of the mother–who carried the infant in her womb for 9 months and risked her life giving birth to the child–instead come first in the biographies of noted humans of this planet? Why should the father, whose paternity is not obvious or readily verifiable be mentioned first?

In the olden times when it was exclusively the men who eked out a living and financially supported the wife and child, such practice of crediting the paternal roots first over the maternal can be justified. But even that is arguable from an objective, non-patriarchal viewpoint.

In the modern times when women also work, if not actually serve as the family’s main breadwinner, should it not be fair SOP to mention first the mother over the father. I mean, it is the woman, after all, who is the biological source of the child, notwithstanding the genetic contribution of the man. So long as there’s a (valid) witness to the pregnancy and the delivery, the fact of motherhood is always undeniable. It is the woman who suffers the discomfort and extreme pains of pregnancy/labor, and, usually, the responsibility of nurturing the child in the critical early stages of infancy. So why prioritize giving credit to the father whose paternity cannot be perfectly guaranteed unless the mother was under fool-proof eunuch-guarded house arrest for a few months before the estimated date of conception.

In the Philippines, there is a saying that ‘the grandparents can only be certain that a grandchild is theirs if it is the mother who is their offspring.’ Indeed, the marriage of, say, a son to his wife will not guarantee that any grandchild such a union produces carries the grandparents’ genes. The context of the saying is, of course, the traditional setup where DNA paternal testing was not yet available. However, even such DNA testing does not provide 100% accurate confirmation of paternity. Unless, perhaps, the procedure is repeated multiple times.

I say it is high time that humankind flow with the biological and reverse the patriarchal viewpoint of biography writing. Let the naming of mothers come first before that of the fathers. Mothers not only deserve first credit for all their pregnancy woes but, also, such a practice should provide more accurate, biologically founded biographical information.

*At least one exception is Sweden, as a Swedish friend informed me that couples have the option of choosing which surname (the wife or the husband) they wish to legally carry.

_________

Photo credits

www.filart.com:

Mother and Son – Fruit and Flower Background
by Norma Belleza – 1996

Mag-Inang Nagpipili ng Bigas
by Cesar Amorsolo – 1983

Reference:

President Barack Obama. White House website. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama

One of the many important things OUR President is placing emphasis on - to those who are so concerned about their children and grand children having bills too pay - I say how about leaving them a planet they can live on!!!!

I agree with Sen. Joe Lieberman it is Dishonest.

I don't normaly repost the E-mails I get but this one was to good not to share.

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel "pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the promised land".

Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a camel, this "is" the promised land".

Now Obama has stolen your shovels, taxed your asses, raised the price of camels, and mortgaged the promised land!

I was so depressed last night thinking about health care plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc... I called Lifeline, the suicide help line. I got a freakin' call-center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck...

"Regular exchanges of information." With Countries that could become our enemy that's the problem.

It's Nice to see that the Roses will go to people in the Hospital.

Now we have Herr obama saying we no longer have the Freedom of Speech. Thank you Mr./Mrs Liberal for not opening your eyes before it was to late. Now don't come crying to the rest of the Country because you have no rights. Welcome to the Country you helped form National Socialist States of America.

Throughout its entire time as a nation — 52 years — Israel has been struggling to keep its tiny nation.

I found this article and I wanted to share it with all of you. Some of you will not like it but I feel there is alot of Truth in it and I give a big thumbs up to Mr. David Jolly.

A reply I made to a guy living in Florida who thinks I'm a pawn of the Liberal agenda, that evolved into an article I decided to post:

Go on thinking that, Richard in Florida-809880 - I'm not the one living in hurricane alley... :) (jk - stay safe, last year was a break, this year might be back to the norm)

As for being a pawn, lol, I weigh the information, check all sides of the story and choose my options carefully... and the facts I see are that this administration has accomplished in a little over one year what the previous 20 years of US administrations have not - regardless of which party has been in charge.

We are getting out of Iraq, and Afghanistan has a tentative timetable too. The economy took bad hits from years of off-shoring, down-sizing and unfair free trade agreements, coupled with irresponsible financial practices to get in the condition it is today.

Our foreign relations fared no better during those years. We supported some at the expense of others. We played countries off on each other and exploited the ones who had the resources we wanted while ignoring the plight of the ones who have problems, but no economically advantageous reason for us to help them.

Do you know why we play nicey-nicey with China? Here is a huge country controlled by a Communist government well known to have a history of treating their citizens like slaves, AND they don't have to worry about the cost of environmental regulations over there either, because there isn't any!

Oops, I just answered my own question.

Our corporations re-discovered how profitable it is to use slave labor and not have to pay for regulatory compliance! Ahhhh, the American way. We did that up until the Civil War then saw the light of equality and made some changes... To sweeten the corporate deal with China, they don't have to worry about the cost of environmental regulations over there either, because there isn't any. No matter that the air pollution produced blows this way and the products made from toxic substances are shipped to our store shelves... It's all good, because it's a free market, baby!

The fact has been aptly demonstrated, over the past decade or so, that

"Economic advantage at the expense of American labor is part of the Conservative's answer to a free market economy."

You can quote me on that.

Ummm... it didn't work out so well for most of us, did it? (except the 2% who made out like rich plantation owners, that is.)

So, lets try something else...

Now, I'm not saying lets trash the whole system! Oh, please let's not do that!

I like some Conservative beliefs, and I do hold them dear. I don't want a heavy-handed Federal Government. I like my freedom of choice in everything from speech to uncensored information, but I don't mind paying a little more to ensure my kid isn't eating poison and that's what Federal Regulations are good for; to ensure that all corporate entities and citizens of these States of the Union are operating under a set of agreed upon standards to ensure, or at least, have some expectation of general health and safety while we go about being the most productive country on this planet. (and the band plays on)

But... Can we just tweek it a little so we can have a better economy for MORE of us, not just the elite few?

Ignoring, or shelving an on-going problem with excuses of cost, trouble for some, and the idea that change in the status quo is not good is not the answer.

Change and the willingness to move out of our comfort zone is what brought us from a bunch of colonies clinging to shores and harbors of a new land (filled with Native Americans to exploit and overcome, but we won't get into that right now...), to a country that is arguably still the lone superpower that all other countries look to as THE world leader.

But, if we don't make some positive changes soon we may lose that position... greed has got to be brought under control!

Associations with strange bedfellows has to be handled with consideration to how it affects all of our citizens, not just the few benefiting from the warmth of a Chinese bed.

Pardon my shifting of gears... griind, clank, clunk (grrrr, stupid Japanese car!)

Some problems cannot be fixed overnight, others take going through a little pain to implement a solution. If you don't like the job the POTUS and staff has done so far it's likely because you are swallowing the rhetoric of people like Limbaugh who stated "I want him to fail" - the day BEFORE Obama and crew even began their term! LOL

Now, is that how we treat an incoming President who won the election fair and square? The actions and ideologies of certain Republican politicians and pundits are similar to what George Wallace was like when he was a political contender, and HE was a Democrat! Racism is not the domain of just one faction, anyone can be one.

Although certain factions this time around are capitalizing on all the pawns with racist tendencies to do their dirty work for them, but that's just dirty politics as usual...

So really, is one party better than another? They seem to take turns being the class clown and sometimes everybody is jammed inside that little clown car all at once.

So please don't label me anything but a person who believes in Larry the Cable Guy's sage advice:

"Git 'er done!"

Further, party affiliation and beliefs in either the Conservative or Liberal philosophies don't guarantee a firm position on the side of right or wrong. There is no totally right side, nor is there a totally wrong side, (unless you happen to be trying to push me off my side of the bed... ;)

'nuff said there...

What matters is the accomplishment of tasks that have gone far too long sitting on the back burner. If it takes elements of a little of this and that ideology to solve a problem then, so be it. As long as something is tried it's better than letting things slide into a total mess like they have, don't you think?

I do agree with you, we need to wait long enough to see how all this washes out, and if it doesn't work out, then it can be changed again. Just like they did back when the prohibition amendment was repealed after they realized all it did was grow and nurture organized crime and make it dangerous to walk the streets with all those Tommy gun toting hoodlums running around.

Anyways, take care, and buy some plywood before the price goes up, facts tell me nothing about the weather, but my intuition is saying something about a hurricane fun filled summer for the folks on the southern side of my home in the mountains.

When I seeded this, I got some feedback asking me to do a song for the left. Here it is:

This is meant to be sung to the tune of "Barbara Ann".

Ah, ba ba ba ba Obama ran

Ba ba ba ba Obama ran

Obama man, shook the land

Obama ran

You got us a fillbusterin'

Stompin' and a screamin'

Obama ran baba

Ba Obama ran

Takin' a chance, screw the fat cats

Saw Obama ran, so I thought we could dance

Whoa Obama ran, Obama ran

Shook the land

You got us stompin' and a screamin'

Oh, Oh,

Filbusterin'

Obama ran ba ba

Ba ba ba ba Obama ran

Ba ba ba ba Obama ran

Obama ran shook the land

Obama ran

You got us a filbusterin'

Stompin' and a screamin'

Obama ran ba ba

Tried John McCain

Tried Sara Palain

Tried Bush again

But I knew they couldn't do

Obama ran

Shook the land

Obama ran

You got us filbusterin'

Stompin' and a screamin'

Obama ran ba ba

Ba Obama ran

Suspected drug gang "hit teams" killed two Americans and a Mexican linked to a US consulate in coordinated shootings that marked an ominous turn in Mexico's drug war.

US President Barack Obama said he was "outraged" by the latest killings in the notorious border city Ciudad Juarez on Saturday night.

Construction of single-family homes near Luke Air Force Base in Glendale Arizona is null and so should any plans you might have to move to this city because you will rights to own property and do with it as you wish as been limited in Arizona after a battle between the state, cou …