...how else can you justify Vice President Biden - who has spent the last 39 years of his life in Washington, DC - criticizing the accounting of private-sector multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg?
Both Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly put the estimate at $200 million a year for five years, saying it would be an expensive proposition for the City.
Biden, however, disputes the numbers.
"The mayor came along and said the cost for providing security to hold this trial is x-hundreds of millions of dollars which I think is much more than would be needed," Biden said.
City officials are irked at Biden's assertion.
"I will leave the security of New York City up to the mayor and police commissioner. I think Joe Biden should have talked to City officials. No city should have to put up with the burden and risk of the trial so the administration can have a terroristic pony show," said City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens).
Yeah, that's a Democrat snapping back at Little Joe, belittling his own party's #2 man for his all-to-obvious incompetence. When the back-benchers feel safe enough to throw tomatoes at the King's Men from the bleachers, you know that a complete breakdown of political authority is right around the corner.
Seems like even the president realizes his #2 is no more than...a pile of #2:
As for the mayor, sources point out that the federal officials never questioned his cost estimates. In fact, the president put $200 million in the budget to pay for the first year's costs.
Is it a wonder no one takes these guys seriously anymore?
วันจันทร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 15, 2553
วันอาทิตย์, กุมภาพันธ์ 14, 2553
"I'm A Gas Guzzler And I'm Proud!"
(Editor's note: this morning I hand over blogging duties to my 2003 Jeep Renegade, at his insistance)
As I wake up today, the sun is brighter, the air is crisper, and the world has more possibilitites than it's ever had in my lifetime. For the joyful sound of confession came to my ears, a confession from one of the most influential scientists of the study of "global warming", one in which he recants his past heresies against me and my kind:
Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.
The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.
Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
FInally. After years of derision, scorn, and dirty looks, I can drive down Route 9, blow my horn, flash my lights, and shriek, "I get 14 MPG/City and 19 MPG/Highway, and I am proud!"
It's been a tough seven years, to be sure. The uppity attitude from Prius owners, the looks of disgust from the college crowd, and the holier-than-thou upturned nose of the compact car driver (except the one who crushed her little box while flying a full speed into my rear bumper; I suffered a few scratches while she was "accordioned") - it was all hard to take, believe me. I questioned myself constantly, and lived in self-doubt and denial - was it the color of my skin? My wide stance and ample girth? "I was made like this, I cannot change who I am!", I tried to explain to the haters, but despite their superior intellect and morality, they all seemed curiously uninterested in listening to reason.
By my owner - the one you know as the JerseyNut - never wavered in his belief. He loved me, and mocked the naysayers. He refused to "refine" me in any way that would increase my "green power" while decreasing my horsepower. He whispered to me, as he polished my steel wheels, that we would win this fight, and to stay strong, and never be ashamed of who we were.
So alone we relished what we had, whether it was driving offroad, moving thru waist-deep snow with ease, or packing up the roof rack and hitting the Jersey Shore. And I began to notice that there were those who believed as we did, who looked upon us with admiration rather than loathing, and who occasionally would come to chat with us, to confess to us their secret shame, and their lust for strength and torque. And the Jerseynut whispered to me to stay strong, that our time was about to come.
And so it is here. After a winter where my unique capabilities were needed more than ever, comes a spring where my oppressors have been exposed as the frauds and liars which me & the Jerseynut always called them out for. And I'm free, so free! I can let the sunshine sparkle off by blackness, let the glare reflect off my thick wheels, let my engine growl with joy as it leaps from gear to gear, and I can flash my bling -my six additional halogen lights - with pride.
I am a 2003 Jeep Liberty, with special badging that the Jerseynut always polished last. He said it spoke of both of us, and that it made us brothers of a type, as it described us both. It is a name usually given to outlaws, but I was told that this name can also be applied to someone who "express opposition through action or words; "dissent to the laws of the country"
Apt. For I am a 2003 Jeep Liberty Renegade, limited to one year production. There are few like me, and I have been scorned since my birth to the gifts I have received.
As I wake up today, the sun is brighter, the air is crisper, and the world has more possibilitites than it's ever had in my lifetime. For the joyful sound of confession came to my ears, a confession from one of the most influential scientists of the study of "global warming", one in which he recants his past heresies against me and my kind:
Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.
The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.
Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
FInally. After years of derision, scorn, and dirty looks, I can drive down Route 9, blow my horn, flash my lights, and shriek, "I get 14 MPG/City and 19 MPG/Highway, and I am proud!"
It's been a tough seven years, to be sure. The uppity attitude from Prius owners, the looks of disgust from the college crowd, and the holier-than-thou upturned nose of the compact car driver (except the one who crushed her little box while flying a full speed into my rear bumper; I suffered a few scratches while she was "accordioned") - it was all hard to take, believe me. I questioned myself constantly, and lived in self-doubt and denial - was it the color of my skin? My wide stance and ample girth? "I was made like this, I cannot change who I am!", I tried to explain to the haters, but despite their superior intellect and morality, they all seemed curiously uninterested in listening to reason.
By my owner - the one you know as the JerseyNut - never wavered in his belief. He loved me, and mocked the naysayers. He refused to "refine" me in any way that would increase my "green power" while decreasing my horsepower. He whispered to me, as he polished my steel wheels, that we would win this fight, and to stay strong, and never be ashamed of who we were.
So alone we relished what we had, whether it was driving offroad, moving thru waist-deep snow with ease, or packing up the roof rack and hitting the Jersey Shore. And I began to notice that there were those who believed as we did, who looked upon us with admiration rather than loathing, and who occasionally would come to chat with us, to confess to us their secret shame, and their lust for strength and torque. And the Jerseynut whispered to me to stay strong, that our time was about to come.
And so it is here. After a winter where my unique capabilities were needed more than ever, comes a spring where my oppressors have been exposed as the frauds and liars which me & the Jerseynut always called them out for. And I'm free, so free! I can let the sunshine sparkle off by blackness, let the glare reflect off my thick wheels, let my engine growl with joy as it leaps from gear to gear, and I can flash my bling -my six additional halogen lights - with pride.
I am a 2003 Jeep Liberty, with special badging that the Jerseynut always polished last. He said it spoke of both of us, and that it made us brothers of a type, as it described us both. It is a name usually given to outlaws, but I was told that this name can also be applied to someone who "express opposition through action or words; "dissent to the laws of the country"
Apt. For I am a 2003 Jeep Liberty Renegade, limited to one year production. There are few like me, and I have been scorned since my birth to the gifts I have received.
But no longer.....our time has come...
วันเสาร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 13, 2553
Tea-Partying In New Jersey
New Jersey, the home of sane governance (yes, you read that correctly), is leading the way in righting the good ship America. First we elect Republican Chris Christie, despite his being outspent 4-1 by Crooked Jon Corzine. Then Christie came out swinging, and both the Democrats and the media were shocked, shocked to see a politician actually taking on the interest groups and making the hard calls:
Then there is Chris Christie. He’s also doing what he promised. He appointed a school-choice advocate to the howls of the teachers’ union. And he has announced a real spending freeze....
Announcing the freeze on $1.6 billion of unspent money, Mr. Christie was blunt: “Today, we come to terms with the fact that we cannot spend money on everything we want. Today, the days of Alice in Wonderland budgeting in Trenton end.”
But Jersey has just begun to rise up. Just days after a blizzard, with no purpose except to remind a certain Congressman that "we're still out there", a Tea Party broke out:
LONG BRANCH — Twenty-seven people who have been pretty unhappy with the way things have been going since the Obama Administration took over — some perhaps from before then — demonstrated outside the Broadway office of Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-N.J., Friday afternoon.
There were no good words for President Barack Obama or Pallone or any New Jersey Democrat now serving in Washington.
"We want to start over on health care and stop big government spending," said Bayshore group president Barbara Gonzalez, a 52-year-old Middletown resident who owns a small payroll service and describes herself as a conservative. "(Pallone) didn't listen to us last summer, and we want them to listen."
Now here comes the "party"!
The demonstrators said they were looking to give a "pink slip" to Pallone, who is running for re-election this year.
After standing along Broadway outside his office for an hour and a quarter, holding signs expressing anger and some derision, they took a large retirement sheet cake into Pallone's office, where five or six staffers greeted them and gave them constituent forms to fill out. Pallone was in Washington.
It was friendly at first, but then a sort of showdown started, with Tea Party members wanting to eat the cake inside the office with Pallone's staffers...
How much of a partisan hack is Pallone?
Frank Pallone has voted with a majority of his Democratic colleagues 99.2% of the time during the current Congress.
And a cap & trade hypocrite, to boot:
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) is known as a supporter of everything green -- so why is he driving a huge Cadillac SUV around Denver? During the Democratic National Convention, when energy independence will take center stage?
Pallone snarked about yesterday's tea-party demonstration -through a spokesman, from his cozy DC digs. Don't get too comfortable, Frank....you never know who's sneaking up behind you:
State Republicans are taking a serious look at Monmouth County GOP Vice Chair Diane Gooch to run against U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch...
Gooch, who lives in Rumson and publishes the Two River Times in Red Bank, is married to Michael Gooch, the CEO of the New York-based brokerage firm GFI group who is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars....
Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean Twp.) confirmed last week that she has been mulling a possible challenge to Pallone, but she could get edged out if the GOP finds a challenger with considerable personal financial resources.
Two challengers, Frank?
Maybe - just maybe -you're not representing the people of your district very well after all...
Then there is Chris Christie. He’s also doing what he promised. He appointed a school-choice advocate to the howls of the teachers’ union. And he has announced a real spending freeze....
Announcing the freeze on $1.6 billion of unspent money, Mr. Christie was blunt: “Today, we come to terms with the fact that we cannot spend money on everything we want. Today, the days of Alice in Wonderland budgeting in Trenton end.”
But Jersey has just begun to rise up. Just days after a blizzard, with no purpose except to remind a certain Congressman that "we're still out there", a Tea Party broke out:
LONG BRANCH — Twenty-seven people who have been pretty unhappy with the way things have been going since the Obama Administration took over — some perhaps from before then — demonstrated outside the Broadway office of Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-N.J., Friday afternoon.
There were no good words for President Barack Obama or Pallone or any New Jersey Democrat now serving in Washington.
"We want to start over on health care and stop big government spending," said Bayshore group president Barbara Gonzalez, a 52-year-old Middletown resident who owns a small payroll service and describes herself as a conservative. "(Pallone) didn't listen to us last summer, and we want them to listen."
Now here comes the "party"!
The demonstrators said they were looking to give a "pink slip" to Pallone, who is running for re-election this year.
After standing along Broadway outside his office for an hour and a quarter, holding signs expressing anger and some derision, they took a large retirement sheet cake into Pallone's office, where five or six staffers greeted them and gave them constituent forms to fill out. Pallone was in Washington.
It was friendly at first, but then a sort of showdown started, with Tea Party members wanting to eat the cake inside the office with Pallone's staffers...
How much of a partisan hack is Pallone?
Frank Pallone has voted with a majority of his Democratic colleagues 99.2% of the time during the current Congress.
And a cap & trade hypocrite, to boot:
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) is known as a supporter of everything green -- so why is he driving a huge Cadillac SUV around Denver? During the Democratic National Convention, when energy independence will take center stage?
Pallone snarked about yesterday's tea-party demonstration -through a spokesman, from his cozy DC digs. Don't get too comfortable, Frank....you never know who's sneaking up behind you:
State Republicans are taking a serious look at Monmouth County GOP Vice Chair Diane Gooch to run against U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch...
Gooch, who lives in Rumson and publishes the Two River Times in Red Bank, is married to Michael Gooch, the CEO of the New York-based brokerage firm GFI group who is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars....
Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean Twp.) confirmed last week that she has been mulling a possible challenge to Pallone, but she could get edged out if the GOP finds a challenger with considerable personal financial resources.
Two challengers, Frank?
Maybe - just maybe -you're not representing the people of your district very well after all...
วันศุกร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 12, 2553
Patrick Kennedy: The Last Scion Falls On His Sword
Just a week ago, I went off on the Last Kennedy, shortly after his blindside attack on the just-sworn-in Scott Brown:
It's over for the Kennedys, and based on his behavior, Patrick seems to be dimly aware of it. The castle is smoldering, the enemies are mounting a counterattack, the theology has lost its magic, and the peasants are searching out their next victim. With recent polling showing only 35% of voters in his district would vote to re-elect him, while while awarding him with a 56% unfavorable rating, it seems as if Patrick will be the next - and last - Kennedy to lose his head in the great 2010 Tea Party.
And he goes out not with class, but with rage and confusion at the sudden loss of the magic that his last name has always given him; and he spits bile and invective at the new order of things, as he prepares vainly for a final battle, ready to draw as much blood as he can on the way (back) down.
And so it appears that Patrick saw the troops amassed against him, holding the banners of the Right, The Center, the Tea Party, and Legal Insurrection, and decided, for better or worse, that the principles he was shrieking about a mere seven days ago were no longer worth fighting for, and that the Kennedy line would die with him:
Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is "taking a new direction" just months after the death of his father and mentor, Sen. Edward Kennedy. (video here)
Very Spinal Tap-ish, if you ask me ( "You are witnesess at the new birth of Spinal Tap Mark II, hope you enjoy our new direction... "). But much more interesting is this:
When he leaves office, it will be the first time a Kennedy has not sat in Congress or the White House since future President John F. Kennedy entered the House in January 1947.
Mick Jagger famously sang, in Sympathy for the Devil:
I shouted out
"Who killed the Kennedys?"
When after all
It was you and me...
Well, the Kennedys are, finally, a spent political force. And who "killed" them? No, not "you and me", but it was fratricide, murder by his own philosophical family. Who killed the the Kennedys? Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid did, by creating a firestorm where the middle class had no choice but to rise up in revolt against the political elite, and what greater symbol, and therefore target, is there than a Kennedy?
And Patrick goes down running, not fighting - offering little in defense of his policies or behavior, instead simply fleeing the battle which he helped ignite, in order to preserve what little riches he still retains. Let us hope his new direction is one that leads him far, far away from public life, now and forever...
It's over for the Kennedys, and based on his behavior, Patrick seems to be dimly aware of it. The castle is smoldering, the enemies are mounting a counterattack, the theology has lost its magic, and the peasants are searching out their next victim. With recent polling showing only 35% of voters in his district would vote to re-elect him, while while awarding him with a 56% unfavorable rating, it seems as if Patrick will be the next - and last - Kennedy to lose his head in the great 2010 Tea Party.
And he goes out not with class, but with rage and confusion at the sudden loss of the magic that his last name has always given him; and he spits bile and invective at the new order of things, as he prepares vainly for a final battle, ready to draw as much blood as he can on the way (back) down.
And so it appears that Patrick saw the troops amassed against him, holding the banners of the Right, The Center, the Tea Party, and Legal Insurrection, and decided, for better or worse, that the principles he was shrieking about a mere seven days ago were no longer worth fighting for, and that the Kennedy line would die with him:
Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is "taking a new direction" just months after the death of his father and mentor, Sen. Edward Kennedy. (video here)
Very Spinal Tap-ish, if you ask me ( "You are witnesess at the new birth of Spinal Tap Mark II, hope you enjoy our new direction... "). But much more interesting is this:
When he leaves office, it will be the first time a Kennedy has not sat in Congress or the White House since future President John F. Kennedy entered the House in January 1947.
Mick Jagger famously sang, in Sympathy for the Devil:
I shouted out
"Who killed the Kennedys?"
When after all
It was you and me...
Well, the Kennedys are, finally, a spent political force. And who "killed" them? No, not "you and me", but it was fratricide, murder by his own philosophical family. Who killed the the Kennedys? Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid did, by creating a firestorm where the middle class had no choice but to rise up in revolt against the political elite, and what greater symbol, and therefore target, is there than a Kennedy?
And Patrick goes down running, not fighting - offering little in defense of his policies or behavior, instead simply fleeing the battle which he helped ignite, in order to preserve what little riches he still retains. Let us hope his new direction is one that leads him far, far away from public life, now and forever...
วันพฤหัสบดี, กุมภาพันธ์ 11, 2553
No Relief For Haiti...
....well, I should say "no relief from celebrities willing to embarrass themselves in order to burnish their liberal street cred by exploiting the Haitian tragedy".
The wife of Rapper Ice-T is the latest to beclown herself, although if you're a fan of the back view, there is at least some redeeming value:
Ice T's model wife Nicole 'Coco' Austin pastes on a pair of leggings, take photo in a mirror and commands her legion of adolescent fans: “Get this shirt & lets start a Haiti movement! WE GO HARD! WE DON’T PLAY!"
In case you miss the subtleties of the message, the big Haiti push is illustrated by Coco shoving her backside to the lens. Nothing like a smutty pun and a T-shirt to improve the lot of the dispossessed and the hundreds of hacks and film crews shooting the same bit of road by the airport and broadcasting pictures of people too sick to get out of the way…
It sure seems as if Coco's brains are in her....
Ah, but then again:
The wife of Rapper Ice-T is the latest to beclown herself, although if you're a fan of the back view, there is at least some redeeming value:
Ice T's model wife Nicole 'Coco' Austin pastes on a pair of leggings, take photo in a mirror and commands her legion of adolescent fans: “Get this shirt & lets start a Haiti movement! WE GO HARD! WE DON’T PLAY!"
In case you miss the subtleties of the message, the big Haiti push is illustrated by Coco shoving her backside to the lens. Nothing like a smutty pun and a T-shirt to improve the lot of the dispossessed and the hundreds of hacks and film crews shooting the same bit of road by the airport and broadcasting pictures of people too sick to get out of the way…
It sure seems as if Coco's brains are in her....
Ah, but then again:
Indeed, is this not the very definition of Rule 5?
In New York, Doubling Down on Stupid
So what happens when a tax hike, imposed on the private sector strictly to cover the cost of pay raises for the public sector, does not deliver the funds that were expected?
Well, one can come to the realization that raising taxes in a recession is likely a primary cause in deflating government revenues, and thus cut other areas of the budget in order to provide funds for an ill-advised pay raise, or force the the public union back to the table in order to renegotiate the deal in light of the current economic crisis.
Or you can do what the Democratic governor of New York is doing, and double-down on stupid by dramatically increasing the tax that is helping to crush businesses and reduce state revenue in the first place:
The levy was 0.34 percent, or $3.40 for each $1,000 of payroll, including government payrolls, in the five boroughs and seven suburban counties. It was supposed to raise $1.3 billion a year, but revenues are coming up far short.
No doubt the recession has something to do with that. So raising the rate is akin to squeezing a stone to get more blood. Even if the Legislature foolishly goes along, it won't work.
Paterson wants to raise the rate in the city to 0.54 percent...
It's also impossible to ignore the thought the tax reflects Paterson's campaign calculations. He looks to be trying to balance the state's books on the back of Gotham's taxpayers in the hopes of sparing other voters and gaining their favor...
Using the force of government to extort monies from private sector businesses and individuals in order to pay of the raises of poorly-managed public sector businesses and individuals, all so that the governor can maintain power for another four years. Welcome to governance, Democratic-style...
Is it any wonder that the sales of tar, feathers, and pitchforks are climbing thru the roof?
Well, one can come to the realization that raising taxes in a recession is likely a primary cause in deflating government revenues, and thus cut other areas of the budget in order to provide funds for an ill-advised pay raise, or force the the public union back to the table in order to renegotiate the deal in light of the current economic crisis.
Or you can do what the Democratic governor of New York is doing, and double-down on stupid by dramatically increasing the tax that is helping to crush businesses and reduce state revenue in the first place:
The levy was 0.34 percent, or $3.40 for each $1,000 of payroll, including government payrolls, in the five boroughs and seven suburban counties. It was supposed to raise $1.3 billion a year, but revenues are coming up far short.
No doubt the recession has something to do with that. So raising the rate is akin to squeezing a stone to get more blood. Even if the Legislature foolishly goes along, it won't work.
Paterson wants to raise the rate in the city to 0.54 percent...
It's also impossible to ignore the thought the tax reflects Paterson's campaign calculations. He looks to be trying to balance the state's books on the back of Gotham's taxpayers in the hopes of sparing other voters and gaining their favor...
Using the force of government to extort monies from private sector businesses and individuals in order to pay of the raises of poorly-managed public sector businesses and individuals, all so that the governor can maintain power for another four years. Welcome to governance, Democratic-style...
Is it any wonder that the sales of tar, feathers, and pitchforks are climbing thru the roof?
วันพุธ, กุมภาพันธ์ 10, 2553
Michelle Obama to Help "Confused" Parents!
Gee, thanks, Michelle. You're the one that parents have been waiting for...because we are all incapable of rearing our children without government guidance, interference, and eventually control:
"So many parents desperately want to do the right thing, but they feel like the deck is stacked against them,” Obama said. “They know their kids’ health is their responsibility but they feel like it’s out of their control.”
“They are bombarded by contradictory information at every turn, and they don’t know who to believe,” she said.
A child's health is out of a parent's control? How, exactly? Even most families with two working parents can supervise breakfast and dinner. And as far as "contradictory information" is concerned, most of it is put out by "government science" promoting some agenda (no trans-fats, no salt) or another. Every parent knows kids need a variety of foods to stay healthy and develop properly, and that the occasional snack will not kill them. All the rest is minutia for the obsessed and the radical foodies.
Another Obama, another huge spoonful of condensation to the middle class. Too dumb to feed their kids with the government stepping in to instruct them. But hey - the government has every right to step in between you and your kids, don't you know:
“A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.”
Like the Obamas ever cared about taxpayer money, or the readiness of the military...
Listening to our nanny in chief, one wonders how the human species ever survived, what without a liberal government to raise our young and all...
"So many parents desperately want to do the right thing, but they feel like the deck is stacked against them,” Obama said. “They know their kids’ health is their responsibility but they feel like it’s out of their control.”
“They are bombarded by contradictory information at every turn, and they don’t know who to believe,” she said.
A child's health is out of a parent's control? How, exactly? Even most families with two working parents can supervise breakfast and dinner. And as far as "contradictory information" is concerned, most of it is put out by "government science" promoting some agenda (no trans-fats, no salt) or another. Every parent knows kids need a variety of foods to stay healthy and develop properly, and that the occasional snack will not kill them. All the rest is minutia for the obsessed and the radical foodies.
Another Obama, another huge spoonful of condensation to the middle class. Too dumb to feed their kids with the government stepping in to instruct them. But hey - the government has every right to step in between you and your kids, don't you know:
“A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.”
Like the Obamas ever cared about taxpayer money, or the readiness of the military...
Listening to our nanny in chief, one wonders how the human species ever survived, what without a liberal government to raise our young and all...
วันอังคาร, กุมภาพันธ์ 09, 2553
New Jersey Gays Turn On Democratic Party
Independant voters leaving the Democratic party is old news already, but if they can't hold on to the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community, who will be left besides a few race-hustlers and union thugs?
Smarting over the state Senate's refusal to pass marriage equality and disillusioned at the moment with the Democratic Party majority, Garden State Equality’s 85-member Board of Directors unanimously decided against giving financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees. Under the new policy, Garden State Equality will make financial contributions only to individual candidates and to non-party organizations that further equality for the LGBT community, according to a release issued this morning by the organization.
Garden State Equality estimates that since 2005 they have given $500,000 to Democratic Party candidates, while giving only minimally to Republicans.
"Is this a broadside at the Democratic Party?" asked Goldstein. "Of course, it is."
"...Other than organized labor, which is in its own league, no other constituency has been as loyal to the party..."
Well, I sympathize, to a certain extend - the LGBT community thought it was buying votes, and instead got screwed when the Democratic party got cold feet when the "marriage equality" vote came up, especially with Jon Corzine's stunning defeat still fresh in their minds.
But if Jersey Democrats really thought that gay marriage was a winning issue, they would have run with it. If it's not - and even the most liberal jurisdictions have voted against it - then aren't the Democrats in this case actually representing the will of the people, or in other words - doing their job? Or is the LGBT community telling the Dems that their money should speak louder than representative democracy?
Both sides are doing the right thing - Democrats by acting as representatives, and gays by pulling their campaign contributions. Maybe instead of whining and picking legislative and court fights, the LGBT community ought to continue to bring its case to the people. After all, New Jersey has traditionally been a blue state, meaning we are more enlightened, intelligent, kind and caring than your average American, for sure.
Or did all that change when we voted in Chris Christie?
Smarting over the state Senate's refusal to pass marriage equality and disillusioned at the moment with the Democratic Party majority, Garden State Equality’s 85-member Board of Directors unanimously decided against giving financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees. Under the new policy, Garden State Equality will make financial contributions only to individual candidates and to non-party organizations that further equality for the LGBT community, according to a release issued this morning by the organization.
Garden State Equality estimates that since 2005 they have given $500,000 to Democratic Party candidates, while giving only minimally to Republicans.
"Is this a broadside at the Democratic Party?" asked Goldstein. "Of course, it is."
"...Other than organized labor, which is in its own league, no other constituency has been as loyal to the party..."
Well, I sympathize, to a certain extend - the LGBT community thought it was buying votes, and instead got screwed when the Democratic party got cold feet when the "marriage equality" vote came up, especially with Jon Corzine's stunning defeat still fresh in their minds.
But if Jersey Democrats really thought that gay marriage was a winning issue, they would have run with it. If it's not - and even the most liberal jurisdictions have voted against it - then aren't the Democrats in this case actually representing the will of the people, or in other words - doing their job? Or is the LGBT community telling the Dems that their money should speak louder than representative democracy?
Both sides are doing the right thing - Democrats by acting as representatives, and gays by pulling their campaign contributions. Maybe instead of whining and picking legislative and court fights, the LGBT community ought to continue to bring its case to the people. After all, New Jersey has traditionally been a blue state, meaning we are more enlightened, intelligent, kind and caring than your average American, for sure.
Or did all that change when we voted in Chris Christie?
Obama Creates "Ministry of Global Warming"
...if there is any further proof necessary of the isolation and ideological nature of the Obama administration, they have chosen this day - just after a massive winter storm, and just before a second massive winter storm - to announce the creation of a "Ministry of Global Warming", a one-stop propaganda center filled with every lie you need to know in order to support the government takeover of the carbon industry. And, of course, an easy shopping center for lazy mainstream journalists who need talking points and punchy graphics to fill out their scare article on the front page...of section C-1....
All done with your taxpayer dollars, of course.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has proposed the creation of an NOAA Climate Service, an office of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration that would unify all the agency's climate science and data.
Locke said the office would integrate the agency's climate science and services and make them more accessible.
"By providing critical planning information that our businesses and our communities need, NOAA Climate Service will help tackle head-on the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change," said Locke. "In the process, we'll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create new jobs." [sigh... - ed.]
The office would coordinate data collected by NOAA researchers throughout the world, including predictions about both short- and long-term global changes and information on how U.S. resources can best be used to adapt to climate change and produce renewable energy.
Carol Browner, President Obama's energy and climate advisor, said NOAA's research is already crucial to U.S. business and government leaders, and the new service would make it even more valuable.
"Businesses, communities and governments will rely even more on its expertise and the critical information it provides to make informed decisions based on the best science available, " she said. "We will be better able to confront climate change, and the many challenges it presents for our environment, security, and economy." ["rely even more"??? Saying so doesn't make it so... - ed]
No balance of opinion, no questioning of the science, even as the snow piles up around us to record heights. Just all of the government's so-called data , homogenized into one neat harmonious shriek about the doom that faces us all! if we don't toe the green line.
Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the top news stories on the government's site:
NOAA's Sea Grant Awards Eight 'Climate Engagement' Mini-Grants
Wed, 03 Feb 2010
Coastal residents, businesses and decision-makers around the country will consider how their communities can adapt to climate change through eight newly awarded NOAA National Sea Grant College Program grants.
Stratospheric Water Vapor is a Global Warming Wild Card
Thu, 28 Jan 2010
A 10 percent drop in water vapor ten miles above Earth’s surface has had a big impact on global warming, say researchers in a study published online January 28 in the journal Science. The findings might help explain why global surface temperatures have not risen as fast in the last ten years as they did in the 1980s and 1990s.
Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gas Increase Despite Reduction Efforts
Wed, 27 Jan 2010
Despite a decade of efforts worldwide to curb its release into the atmosphere, NOAA and university scientists have measured increased emissions of a greenhouse gas that is thousands of times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide and persists in the atmosphere for nearly 300 years.
NOAA: December Global Ocean Temperature Second Warmest on Record
The global ocean surface temperature was the second warmest on record for December, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C
Oh no! Doom awaits us all, unless we fall in line with Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner, and Barack Obama and ditch our SUVs, lower our thermostats to 62 degrees, tax our gas and oil, and move back into the cities!
This site, and the timing of its release, begs the question: Just how stupid do Barack Obama and the Democrats think we Americans are?
All done with your taxpayer dollars, of course.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has proposed the creation of an NOAA Climate Service, an office of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration that would unify all the agency's climate science and data.
Locke said the office would integrate the agency's climate science and services and make them more accessible.
"By providing critical planning information that our businesses and our communities need, NOAA Climate Service will help tackle head-on the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change," said Locke. "In the process, we'll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create new jobs." [sigh... - ed.]
The office would coordinate data collected by NOAA researchers throughout the world, including predictions about both short- and long-term global changes and information on how U.S. resources can best be used to adapt to climate change and produce renewable energy.
Carol Browner, President Obama's energy and climate advisor, said NOAA's research is already crucial to U.S. business and government leaders, and the new service would make it even more valuable.
"Businesses, communities and governments will rely even more on its expertise and the critical information it provides to make informed decisions based on the best science available, " she said. "We will be better able to confront climate change, and the many challenges it presents for our environment, security, and economy." ["rely even more"??? Saying so doesn't make it so... - ed]
No balance of opinion, no questioning of the science, even as the snow piles up around us to record heights. Just all of the government's so-called data , homogenized into one neat harmonious shriek about the doom that faces us all! if we don't toe the green line.
Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the top news stories on the government's site:
NOAA's Sea Grant Awards Eight 'Climate Engagement' Mini-Grants
Wed, 03 Feb 2010
Coastal residents, businesses and decision-makers around the country will consider how their communities can adapt to climate change through eight newly awarded NOAA National Sea Grant College Program grants.
Stratospheric Water Vapor is a Global Warming Wild Card
Thu, 28 Jan 2010
A 10 percent drop in water vapor ten miles above Earth’s surface has had a big impact on global warming, say researchers in a study published online January 28 in the journal Science. The findings might help explain why global surface temperatures have not risen as fast in the last ten years as they did in the 1980s and 1990s.
Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gas Increase Despite Reduction Efforts
Wed, 27 Jan 2010
Despite a decade of efforts worldwide to curb its release into the atmosphere, NOAA and university scientists have measured increased emissions of a greenhouse gas that is thousands of times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide and persists in the atmosphere for nearly 300 years.
NOAA: December Global Ocean Temperature Second Warmest on Record
The global ocean surface temperature was the second warmest on record for December, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C
Oh no! Doom awaits us all, unless we fall in line with Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner, and Barack Obama and ditch our SUVs, lower our thermostats to 62 degrees, tax our gas and oil, and move back into the cities!
This site, and the timing of its release, begs the question: Just how stupid do Barack Obama and the Democrats think we Americans are?
วันจันทร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 08, 2553
Congressman John Murtha, R.I.P.....
Let's salute him for his service in the Marine Corps (that's "core", not "corpse", Mr. President!), if nothing else...
Military service was in Murtha's blood. He said his great-grandfather served in the Civil War, his father and three uncles in World War II, and his brothers in the Marine Corps.
He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.
Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.
....In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.
Of course, he turned against the Corps by using his high-profile bully pulpit to spread leftist disinformation about the Marines' work in Iraq:
Murtha's criticism of the Iraq war intensified in 2006, when he accused Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by a roadside bomb.
Critics said Murtha unfairly held the Marines responsible before an investigation was concluded and fueled enemy retaliation. He said that the war couldn't be won militarily and that such incidents dimmed the prospect for a political solution.
"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," Murtha said. "And we're set back every time something like this happens."
The AP article doesn't admit to - and nor did Murtha, unless he did on his death bed - the fact that all charges against the Marines "involved" in the Haditha incident were dropped. Nor was there ever any admission of the fact - by Murtha or the AP - that there was a military solution to the Iraq war, and George W. Bush delivered it.
Unfortunately, despite his fine service to the nation, Congressman Murtha was a trend-setter as far as sacrificing truth, justice, and the safety of American soldiers engaged overseas in exchange for political expediency. Semper Fi for me and not for thee, I guess. Still, if his aim was to overthrow Bush and the Republicans, he succeeded, although at the current time his victory appears to have a quite limited lifespan.
And speaking of which -
Murtha's Pennsylvania 12th District is the only one in the country to have been won in 2004 by John Kerry and in 2008 by John McCain...
According to state law, the governor has ten days once the vacancy is officially declared to decide on the date for the special election, which can come no sooner than 60 days following that proclamation.
That likely means the special election will be held on May 18, which is the date already set for federal primaries around the state.
...Cook Political Reports now rates the race for Pennsylvania's 12th a toss-up....
So the residue of Mutha's final, ugly years will likely be a Republican takeover of his seat. Expect to see ex-serviceman Bill Russell win this seat; in 2008, Russell ran against Murtha and got 42 percent of the vote holding Murtha to 58 percent. That was the smallest percentage for Murtha since 1974.
Rest in peace, Congressman. And I will rest easier, knowing you will be doing no further harm to Americans in uniform, and that your pork-sucking liberalism will be (hopefully) replaced with some common-sense conservatism...
Military service was in Murtha's blood. He said his great-grandfather served in the Civil War, his father and three uncles in World War II, and his brothers in the Marine Corps.
He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.
Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.
....In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.
Of course, he turned against the Corps by using his high-profile bully pulpit to spread leftist disinformation about the Marines' work in Iraq:
Murtha's criticism of the Iraq war intensified in 2006, when he accused Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by a roadside bomb.
Critics said Murtha unfairly held the Marines responsible before an investigation was concluded and fueled enemy retaliation. He said that the war couldn't be won militarily and that such incidents dimmed the prospect for a political solution.
"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," Murtha said. "And we're set back every time something like this happens."
The AP article doesn't admit to - and nor did Murtha, unless he did on his death bed - the fact that all charges against the Marines "involved" in the Haditha incident were dropped. Nor was there ever any admission of the fact - by Murtha or the AP - that there was a military solution to the Iraq war, and George W. Bush delivered it.
Unfortunately, despite his fine service to the nation, Congressman Murtha was a trend-setter as far as sacrificing truth, justice, and the safety of American soldiers engaged overseas in exchange for political expediency. Semper Fi for me and not for thee, I guess. Still, if his aim was to overthrow Bush and the Republicans, he succeeded, although at the current time his victory appears to have a quite limited lifespan.
And speaking of which -
Murtha's Pennsylvania 12th District is the only one in the country to have been won in 2004 by John Kerry and in 2008 by John McCain...
According to state law, the governor has ten days once the vacancy is officially declared to decide on the date for the special election, which can come no sooner than 60 days following that proclamation.
That likely means the special election will be held on May 18, which is the date already set for federal primaries around the state.
...Cook Political Reports now rates the race for Pennsylvania's 12th a toss-up....
So the residue of Mutha's final, ugly years will likely be a Republican takeover of his seat. Expect to see ex-serviceman Bill Russell win this seat; in 2008, Russell ran against Murtha and got 42 percent of the vote holding Murtha to 58 percent. That was the smallest percentage for Murtha since 1974.
Rest in peace, Congressman. And I will rest easier, knowing you will be doing no further harm to Americans in uniform, and that your pork-sucking liberalism will be (hopefully) replaced with some common-sense conservatism...
The Fruits of Obama's Foreign Policy...
....are beginning to fall from the tree, and it looks like an ugly, dangerous harvest that he has wrought. The Chinese, after a year, know exactly what they are dealing with, and are now quite aware that there is little to fear from aggression against the United States:
An independent survey of Chinese-language media for The Sunday Times has found army and navy officers predicting a military showdown and political leaders calling for China to sell more arms to America’s foes. The trigger for their fury was Obama’s decision to sell $6.4 billion (£4 billion) worth of weapons to Taiwan, the thriving democratic island that has ruled itself since 1949.
“We should retaliate with an eye for an eye and sell arms to Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela,” declared Liu Menxiong, a member of the Chinese people’s political consultative conference.
He added: “We have nothing to be afraid of. The North Koreans have stood up to America and has anything happened to them? No. Iran stands up to America and does disaster befall it? No.”
So prostrating ourselves before our enemies does not inspire them to love us, to be more like us, and to blindly follow our lead? Who would've thunk it? Besides everyone outside of Obama's inner circle, that is....
The Chinese, when faced with an Insane Cowboy President armed to the teeth and itchin' for a brawl, seemed to be quite interested in detente. Now, when across the table sits a naive peacenik, one whose primary concern is to stay out of a fight at whatever cost, their attitude has become a bit more...aggressive towards the United States:
“This time China must punish the US,” said Major-General Yang Yi, a naval officer. “We must make them hurt.” ...And a PLA strategist, Colonel Meng Xianging, said China would “qualitatively upgrade” its military over the next 10 years to force a showdown “when we’re strong enough for a hand-to-hand fight with the US”.
And why not? A huge Communist nation finally has a chance - perhaps a once-in-history opportunity - to knock down and possibly eliminate their largest market and military competitor. Why should we think they won't? It's the Marxist dream of a lifetime...
And the bumbling continues from the Obama administration:
As a crescendo of strident nationalistic rhetoric swirls through the Chinese media and blogosphere, American officials seem baffled by what has gone wrong and how fast it has happened....
“The truth was that the atmosphere was cold and intransigent when the president went to Beijing yet his China team went on pretending that everything was fine,” the diplomat said.
Diplomats say they have been told that there was “frigid” personal chemistry between Obama and the Chinese president, with none of the superficial friendship struck up by previous leaders of the two nations.
Yet after their meeting Obama’s China adviser, Jeff Bader, said: “It’s been highly successful in setting out and accomplishing the objectives we set ourselves.”
Ideologues usually have trouble seeing the failures of their policies, although this case is particularly appalling...American strength was literally being sapped away before the eyes of the Obama team and they either choose not to see it, or choose to lie to the American people about it.
Either way, something wicked this way comes. The fields of foreign policy have been ill-tended by Barack Obama, and foul and fetid things are growing out of what was once magnificent soil. Will the strike come from Iran? China? Russia? Or someplace that we are not even expecting, as happened on an autumn day in a September back some years ago?
Abroad, we are beyond hope. All we have left is prayer...
An independent survey of Chinese-language media for The Sunday Times has found army and navy officers predicting a military showdown and political leaders calling for China to sell more arms to America’s foes. The trigger for their fury was Obama’s decision to sell $6.4 billion (£4 billion) worth of weapons to Taiwan, the thriving democratic island that has ruled itself since 1949.
“We should retaliate with an eye for an eye and sell arms to Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela,” declared Liu Menxiong, a member of the Chinese people’s political consultative conference.
He added: “We have nothing to be afraid of. The North Koreans have stood up to America and has anything happened to them? No. Iran stands up to America and does disaster befall it? No.”
So prostrating ourselves before our enemies does not inspire them to love us, to be more like us, and to blindly follow our lead? Who would've thunk it? Besides everyone outside of Obama's inner circle, that is....
The Chinese, when faced with an Insane Cowboy President armed to the teeth and itchin' for a brawl, seemed to be quite interested in detente. Now, when across the table sits a naive peacenik, one whose primary concern is to stay out of a fight at whatever cost, their attitude has become a bit more...aggressive towards the United States:
“This time China must punish the US,” said Major-General Yang Yi, a naval officer. “We must make them hurt.” ...And a PLA strategist, Colonel Meng Xianging, said China would “qualitatively upgrade” its military over the next 10 years to force a showdown “when we’re strong enough for a hand-to-hand fight with the US”.
And why not? A huge Communist nation finally has a chance - perhaps a once-in-history opportunity - to knock down and possibly eliminate their largest market and military competitor. Why should we think they won't? It's the Marxist dream of a lifetime...
And the bumbling continues from the Obama administration:
As a crescendo of strident nationalistic rhetoric swirls through the Chinese media and blogosphere, American officials seem baffled by what has gone wrong and how fast it has happened....
“The truth was that the atmosphere was cold and intransigent when the president went to Beijing yet his China team went on pretending that everything was fine,” the diplomat said.
Diplomats say they have been told that there was “frigid” personal chemistry between Obama and the Chinese president, with none of the superficial friendship struck up by previous leaders of the two nations.
Yet after their meeting Obama’s China adviser, Jeff Bader, said: “It’s been highly successful in setting out and accomplishing the objectives we set ourselves.”
Ideologues usually have trouble seeing the failures of their policies, although this case is particularly appalling...American strength was literally being sapped away before the eyes of the Obama team and they either choose not to see it, or choose to lie to the American people about it.
Either way, something wicked this way comes. The fields of foreign policy have been ill-tended by Barack Obama, and foul and fetid things are growing out of what was once magnificent soil. Will the strike come from Iran? China? Russia? Or someplace that we are not even expecting, as happened on an autumn day in a September back some years ago?
Abroad, we are beyond hope. All we have left is prayer...
วันอาทิตย์, กุมภาพันธ์ 07, 2553
Sarah Palin's Act of Rebellion
Why do I have a special place in my heart for Serendipitous Sarah? Check out this photo of her from her speech last night at the Tea Party convention:
I'm not too hot with the photo software, so I'll let this bit from the WaPo explain what made me swoon:
In her lapel, a small pin with two flags -- for Israel and the United States.
At a time in the world where anti-Semitism has brazenly returned to heights not seen since the 1930's, where an American president routinely equalizes Israel's actions of self-defense with the nonstop offensives launched by her enemies, and where the United Nations - emboldened by Barack Obama - goes further and further in its attempt to de-legitimize and destroy the Jewish homeland, Palin's simple act of support for Israel is a rebel stand.
It's a poke in the eye of the Left, whose feckless fear of a fight leads them to demand that Israel roll over and die so that they might not have to witness the bloodshed of a nation trying to survive, and so that they might not be need forced to take a moral stand that would concede that some things - including one's life - are worth fighting for. It's also a slap in the face to Barack Obama- while he declares "daylight" must be forced between the United States and Israel, Sarah intertwines our fates together, and wears it on her lapel.
She's right, as usual. If Israel falls, it will not be the end of a war, but merely the beginning of a radical Islamist uprising that will engulf the world in a maelstrom. Who could believe that the mullahs of Iran and the foul Orcs of Hamas and Hezbollah would stop their aggression against the West once they have won such a magnificent victory, and are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons? Well, besides Barack Obama, the New York Times editorial staff, and most of the elected Democrats in Congress?
Sarah's pin creates another type of daylight, one that shines a bright light on the contrast between herself and the president: One is willing to take a stand for what is right and good, and realizes that there may be a price for such moral clarity, while the other will do anything to avoid passing such a judgement, even with the risk that the evil he leaves unchecked will eventually come to devour him and all he is sworn to protect.
Which of these two carries the banner of American morality? Check the lapels...
วันเสาร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 06, 2553
Barack Obama: "Tune Out Everybody...Except Me"
From the president's little give-and-take with the Democratic Senators the other day:
"You know what I think would actually make a difference, Michael? I think if everybody here -- excuse all the members of the press who are here -- if everybody here turned off your CNN, your Fox, your blogs," Obama said, before being interrupted by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, who piped up, "And MSNBC!"
Obama, appropriately reminded of the network with shows more friendly to liberals, continued, "Just turn off the TV -- MSNBC, blogs -- and just go talk to folks out there, instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics...."
In other words - stop listening to, and responding to, the feedback of the American people, and go forth with a strong hand and spread my gospel; get out of the echo chamber of politics and stay within the echo chamber of my words, my agenda, and my goals. Scorn the unbelievers and seek out the enlightened who understand you, believe in you, and are fit to breathe the same ratified air we breath...
Gee, if I didn't know better, I'd say the president fancies himself as the messiah of some twisted religious movement...
"You know what I think would actually make a difference, Michael? I think if everybody here -- excuse all the members of the press who are here -- if everybody here turned off your CNN, your Fox, your blogs," Obama said, before being interrupted by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, who piped up, "And MSNBC!"
Obama, appropriately reminded of the network with shows more friendly to liberals, continued, "Just turn off the TV -- MSNBC, blogs -- and just go talk to folks out there, instead of being in this echo chamber where the topic is constantly politics...."
In other words - stop listening to, and responding to, the feedback of the American people, and go forth with a strong hand and spread my gospel; get out of the echo chamber of politics and stay within the echo chamber of my words, my agenda, and my goals. Scorn the unbelievers and seek out the enlightened who understand you, believe in you, and are fit to breathe the same ratified air we breath...
Gee, if I didn't know better, I'd say the president fancies himself as the messiah of some twisted religious movement...
Barack Obama Burial Shrouds Now Available !
The president, finally, embraces the messianic status that his followers have anointed him with, and crows about how his devotees will be taking his likeness to the grave with them.
Last night, at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Washington, Barack Obama choose to tell the following story:
I got a letter -- I got a note today from one of my staff -- they forwarded it to me -- from a woman in St. Louis who had been part of our campaign, very active, who had passed away from breast cancer. She didn't have insurance. She couldn't afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she insisted she's going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt...
He then goes on to demagogue about health care, of course, which is either dead or not dead, depending on which side of his mouth the president is speaking from. And as usual, the whole story is not being told here, only the part which suits the president's agenda. The Aggressive Progressive, while lionizing the Left's first "martyr for Obama", says more than he should about his hero's dubious decision-making:
Melanie had health insurance coverage. Sort of. Back in 2005 she was an entrepreneur struggling to grow her small business. She could only afford a catastrophic health insurance policy with co-pays and deductibles nearing $10,000.
So when the lump came, denial seemed the most pragmatic option...
Ah...denial is never a good option, especially when, as Gateway Pundit points out, there were local hospitals in her metropolitan areas that provide free services for women just like her. Almost as if the free market had figured out a way to help the uninsured without government help! But we can't have that, oh no, and most martyrs will blow themselves up no matter how easily they can take a different path to a desired end (because the battle is often more about the path than the end result)...
Nice of Obama to exploit her, though, for his own ends, whether they be socialized medicine or self-aggrandization. Does Obama believe that the desire of one woman to use his visage as a burial shroud (she was cremated, actually ) will make the rest of us succumb to his cult status and finally - finally - stop questioning his radical restructuring of American society and allow him to destroy this nation in peace?
Unlikely. Instead, I think he is making more and more people very...nervous. About his abilities, about his goals, and about his sanity...
Last night, at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Washington, Barack Obama choose to tell the following story:
I got a letter -- I got a note today from one of my staff -- they forwarded it to me -- from a woman in St. Louis who had been part of our campaign, very active, who had passed away from breast cancer. She didn't have insurance. She couldn't afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she insisted she's going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt...
He then goes on to demagogue about health care, of course, which is either dead or not dead, depending on which side of his mouth the president is speaking from. And as usual, the whole story is not being told here, only the part which suits the president's agenda. The Aggressive Progressive, while lionizing the Left's first "martyr for Obama", says more than he should about his hero's dubious decision-making:
Melanie had health insurance coverage. Sort of. Back in 2005 she was an entrepreneur struggling to grow her small business. She could only afford a catastrophic health insurance policy with co-pays and deductibles nearing $10,000.
So when the lump came, denial seemed the most pragmatic option...
Ah...denial is never a good option, especially when, as Gateway Pundit points out, there were local hospitals in her metropolitan areas that provide free services for women just like her. Almost as if the free market had figured out a way to help the uninsured without government help! But we can't have that, oh no, and most martyrs will blow themselves up no matter how easily they can take a different path to a desired end (because the battle is often more about the path than the end result)...
Nice of Obama to exploit her, though, for his own ends, whether they be socialized medicine or self-aggrandization. Does Obama believe that the desire of one woman to use his visage as a burial shroud (she was cremated, actually ) will make the rest of us succumb to his cult status and finally - finally - stop questioning his radical restructuring of American society and allow him to destroy this nation in peace?
Unlikely. Instead, I think he is making more and more people very...nervous. About his abilities, about his goals, and about his sanity...
วันศุกร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 05, 2553
The Last Gasp of The Kennedys
First it was Teddy Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, slipping away into the Great Beyond just before his dream of socializing the nation's medical system could come to fruition. Then it was Caroline Kennedy, the darling of the New York elite, who either was spurned by Governor David Patterson in her attempt to be appointed to Senator Clinton's former seat, or who scatted away in fear at the last moment (depending on whose story you wish to believe).
And then it was Massachusetts 2010, and an election that by all rights should have been nothing more than a formality instead turned into something quite different. Despite Vicki Kennedy's heartfelt attempts on behalf of the heir apparent, the "Kennedy Seat" was given by the people of the state to a truck-driving Republican, as opposed to the candidate who swore to carry on Teddy's liberal legacy.
And that brings us to Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, perhaps the last scion of a once-elite political family. And like the last of many lines, his blood may still run liberal, but it is filled with gross impurities (as befits a Kennedy) - he's abused cocaine, alcohol, and Oxycotin, he was at the scene of the infamous William Kennedy Smith rape, he's abused women, wrecked yachts, taken and refused to return money from corrupt Democratic financiers such as Norman Hsu, he's been denied Holy Communion by his local Bishop, and of course crashed his 1997 Ford Mustang convertible into a barricade in Washington DC while under the influence of drugs (Kennedy's confession) or alcohol, as per witnesses. And, when asked, once brazenly spat out the following statement: "I have never worked a fucking day in my life".
The Last Scion, having seen the gates of Camelot fall and is watching with horror and disbelief as the castle is stormed by a peasantry ungrateful for all he and his family has done for it, thus turns to the last refuge of a man stripped of all pretense of honor or power: Hatred. And so Patrick Kennedy directs it today at Scott Brown, the man who dared to usurp the throne and claim the mantle in the name of the people:
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) castigated Brown for having pushed to be sworn in ahead of schedule to permanently fill the Senate seat left vacant by the congressman's father's death in August."Brown's whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama's appointment to the NLRB," Kennedy said Thursday.
"Seven out of ten of Brown's voters were labor households and he stressed that he was independent and while he was originally scheduled to be sworn in next week, they moved it up to today so he could cast his first vote, the most anti-labor, the most anti-what his constituents thought they were voting for when they voted for him," Kennedy said.
Brown, for his part, has denied trying to move up his nomination to block Becker's nomination. "This is where he shows that when they need him, he's in the tank for the Republicans," Kennedy said.
We all have a lot to learn about Scott Brown, but Patrick Kennedy has decided, rather to wait and see, to launch a pre-emptive, partisan attack against the man by claiming to know his mind and motivations, and declaring them to be evil in intent.
It's over for the Kennedys, and based on his behavior, Patrick seems to be dimly aware of it. The castle is smoldering, the enemies are mounting a counterattack, the theology has lost its magic, and the peasants are searching out their next victim. With recent polling showing only 35% of voters in his district would vote to re-elect him, while while awarding him with a 56% unfavorable rating, it seems as if Patrick will be the next - and last - Kennedy to lose his head in the great 2010 Tea Party.
And he goes out not with class, but with rage and confusion at the sudden loss of the magic that his last name has always given him; and he spits bile and invective at the new order of things, as he prepares vainly for a final battle, ready to draw as much blood as he can on the way (back) down.
The last of the Kennedys. Thanks God...
UPDATE 2/6: For some, it will be a crusade...
And then it was Massachusetts 2010, and an election that by all rights should have been nothing more than a formality instead turned into something quite different. Despite Vicki Kennedy's heartfelt attempts on behalf of the heir apparent, the "Kennedy Seat" was given by the people of the state to a truck-driving Republican, as opposed to the candidate who swore to carry on Teddy's liberal legacy.
And that brings us to Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy, perhaps the last scion of a once-elite political family. And like the last of many lines, his blood may still run liberal, but it is filled with gross impurities (as befits a Kennedy) - he's abused cocaine, alcohol, and Oxycotin, he was at the scene of the infamous William Kennedy Smith rape, he's abused women, wrecked yachts, taken and refused to return money from corrupt Democratic financiers such as Norman Hsu, he's been denied Holy Communion by his local Bishop, and of course crashed his 1997 Ford Mustang convertible into a barricade in Washington DC while under the influence of drugs (Kennedy's confession) or alcohol, as per witnesses. And, when asked, once brazenly spat out the following statement: "I have never worked a fucking day in my life".
The Last Scion, having seen the gates of Camelot fall and is watching with horror and disbelief as the castle is stormed by a peasantry ungrateful for all he and his family has done for it, thus turns to the last refuge of a man stripped of all pretense of honor or power: Hatred. And so Patrick Kennedy directs it today at Scott Brown, the man who dared to usurp the throne and claim the mantle in the name of the people:
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) castigated Brown for having pushed to be sworn in ahead of schedule to permanently fill the Senate seat left vacant by the congressman's father's death in August."Brown's whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama's appointment to the NLRB," Kennedy said Thursday.
"Seven out of ten of Brown's voters were labor households and he stressed that he was independent and while he was originally scheduled to be sworn in next week, they moved it up to today so he could cast his first vote, the most anti-labor, the most anti-what his constituents thought they were voting for when they voted for him," Kennedy said.
Brown, for his part, has denied trying to move up his nomination to block Becker's nomination. "This is where he shows that when they need him, he's in the tank for the Republicans," Kennedy said.
We all have a lot to learn about Scott Brown, but Patrick Kennedy has decided, rather to wait and see, to launch a pre-emptive, partisan attack against the man by claiming to know his mind and motivations, and declaring them to be evil in intent.
It's over for the Kennedys, and based on his behavior, Patrick seems to be dimly aware of it. The castle is smoldering, the enemies are mounting a counterattack, the theology has lost its magic, and the peasants are searching out their next victim. With recent polling showing only 35% of voters in his district would vote to re-elect him, while while awarding him with a 56% unfavorable rating, it seems as if Patrick will be the next - and last - Kennedy to lose his head in the great 2010 Tea Party.
And he goes out not with class, but with rage and confusion at the sudden loss of the magic that his last name has always given him; and he spits bile and invective at the new order of things, as he prepares vainly for a final battle, ready to draw as much blood as he can on the way (back) down.
The last of the Kennedys. Thanks God...
UPDATE 2/6: For some, it will be a crusade...
Heads, The Goverment Takes Your Money. Tails...
...the government still takes your money. The New York Daily News:
CONSERVING WATER is typically a good thing - except when you're penalized for your frugality.
Elected officials are urging people to speak out against the Water Board's potential double-digit water rate hike at a public hearing in St. Albans on Feb. 16.
The rate hike is needed, officials have said, because people are using less water, which means less revenue.
The agency is holding public hearings in each borough to discuss water rates, which could climb as much as 14.3%, according to documents obtained by the Daily News. That's on top of the 12.9% increase in 2009 and 14.5% hike in 2008.
Learn this lesson well. The government taxes many personal items on the basis of, say, "sin", and makes plans to spend that money well into the future. When the inevitable decline in usage prompts the inevitable decline in revenues, the government must then choose between limiting its spending or creating more "sins" for them to tax. And we all know how this works out...
Of course, water usage is not a sin. But conservation of our natural resources is supposed to be a good deed, in fact a virtual moral imperative to those now in power. But the consequences of such a policy are declines in revenues from fees on resource usage, and that brings us back to the point made above: Cut back at the "water-board", or continue to "soak" the taxpayer. And we can see where this is heading as well...
Remember this, when Obama and the Democrats tell you that their taxes on the "sin usage" of income, carbon and health-care plans are going to easily cover their trillion-dollar expansion of government...
CONSERVING WATER is typically a good thing - except when you're penalized for your frugality.
Elected officials are urging people to speak out against the Water Board's potential double-digit water rate hike at a public hearing in St. Albans on Feb. 16.
The rate hike is needed, officials have said, because people are using less water, which means less revenue.
The agency is holding public hearings in each borough to discuss water rates, which could climb as much as 14.3%, according to documents obtained by the Daily News. That's on top of the 12.9% increase in 2009 and 14.5% hike in 2008.
Learn this lesson well. The government taxes many personal items on the basis of, say, "sin", and makes plans to spend that money well into the future. When the inevitable decline in usage prompts the inevitable decline in revenues, the government must then choose between limiting its spending or creating more "sins" for them to tax. And we all know how this works out...
Of course, water usage is not a sin. But conservation of our natural resources is supposed to be a good deed, in fact a virtual moral imperative to those now in power. But the consequences of such a policy are declines in revenues from fees on resource usage, and that brings us back to the point made above: Cut back at the "water-board", or continue to "soak" the taxpayer. And we can see where this is heading as well...
Remember this, when Obama and the Democrats tell you that their taxes on the "sin usage" of income, carbon and health-care plans are going to easily cover their trillion-dollar expansion of government...
วันพฤหัสบดี, กุมภาพันธ์ 04, 2553
Barack Obama Imagines There's No Religion...Except His
...because as any liberal sophisticate will tell you, it's only those backwoods rubes who cling to God...
The Washington Post tries to make ex uses for Obama's utter lack of interest in his (or any) religious faith:
Every morning, sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m., a short religious passage comes across President Obama's BlackBerry, sent by one of his aides....
Yeah, and I have followers on Twitter that send them too. I'm unimpressed.
At other moments, Obama prays privately, his advisers said.
So do we all. I'm unimpressed
More than a year into his presidency, Obama has not chosen a church in Washington, and has attended services just four times...
...Asked why the public did not hear much about his faith during his first year in office, she [Valerie Jarret] nodded and said, "He's had a lot on his plate."
Too busy for a little bit of God?
Look - plenty of folks don't have religion, the national average is about 15% with the progressive Northeast standing tall with a 33% rejection of God. So while Obama's disdain of the church is well within the norm of his selected peer group (godless liberals), he is well outside the norm of everyday Americans, the ones who, ironically, have been deserting him in ever-increasing numbers.
For the average American, religion plays a greater role in their lives than four "major-holiday" visits to church a year. It informs their decisions (to a certain degree), it gives them guidance on the dark and winding path that is daily life, and it infuses the "everyday routine" with more meaning and emotion than it might have in a world where chaos rules our lives, where morality is fleeting, and our bodies are mere soulless sacks of flesh.
Is this another reason why Obama cannot connect with his nation anymore? Because while the people commune with their souls and their God on weekends, their president meditates on furthering his left-wing agenda, as much an article of faith to him as the bible is to others?
His lack of religion - and respect for it - was on display today at the National Payer Breakfast this morning in Washington:
The president pushed immigration, Obamacare, gay marriage, cap and trade, etc...
To the president, political liberalism is a religion. Unfortunately, it is one that is rejected by at least 2/3rds of all Americans.
And maybe this is the key to the big "falling out" we are seeing between the president and the American people. In a free country, nobody wants religion pushed down their throats, especially one which insists that the High Priests - the federal government - receive a larger and larger share of your paycheck, in return for which they will involve themselves in every aspect of your life - dictating behavior, commodity usage, and access to health care. All for the common good, of course.
And perhaps Obama sees himself as nothing more than the leader of this new religion, and thus troubles himself with little more than being a charismatic, leaving the details of control to his minions.
If this is the key to the developing rift between The Party and the people, the differences may be irreconcilable. Obama appears to be clutching tightly to the tenets of liberalism, while the rest of us cling on to...well, you know the rest...
The Washington Post tries to make ex uses for Obama's utter lack of interest in his (or any) religious faith:
Every morning, sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m., a short religious passage comes across President Obama's BlackBerry, sent by one of his aides....
Yeah, and I have followers on Twitter that send them too. I'm unimpressed.
At other moments, Obama prays privately, his advisers said.
So do we all. I'm unimpressed
More than a year into his presidency, Obama has not chosen a church in Washington, and has attended services just four times...
...Asked why the public did not hear much about his faith during his first year in office, she [Valerie Jarret] nodded and said, "He's had a lot on his plate."
Too busy for a little bit of God?
Look - plenty of folks don't have religion, the national average is about 15% with the progressive Northeast standing tall with a 33% rejection of God. So while Obama's disdain of the church is well within the norm of his selected peer group (godless liberals), he is well outside the norm of everyday Americans, the ones who, ironically, have been deserting him in ever-increasing numbers.
For the average American, religion plays a greater role in their lives than four "major-holiday" visits to church a year. It informs their decisions (to a certain degree), it gives them guidance on the dark and winding path that is daily life, and it infuses the "everyday routine" with more meaning and emotion than it might have in a world where chaos rules our lives, where morality is fleeting, and our bodies are mere soulless sacks of flesh.
Is this another reason why Obama cannot connect with his nation anymore? Because while the people commune with their souls and their God on weekends, their president meditates on furthering his left-wing agenda, as much an article of faith to him as the bible is to others?
His lack of religion - and respect for it - was on display today at the National Payer Breakfast this morning in Washington:
The president pushed immigration, Obamacare, gay marriage, cap and trade, etc...
To the president, political liberalism is a religion. Unfortunately, it is one that is rejected by at least 2/3rds of all Americans.
And maybe this is the key to the big "falling out" we are seeing between the president and the American people. In a free country, nobody wants religion pushed down their throats, especially one which insists that the High Priests - the federal government - receive a larger and larger share of your paycheck, in return for which they will involve themselves in every aspect of your life - dictating behavior, commodity usage, and access to health care. All for the common good, of course.
And perhaps Obama sees himself as nothing more than the leader of this new religion, and thus troubles himself with little more than being a charismatic, leaving the details of control to his minions.
If this is the key to the developing rift between The Party and the people, the differences may be irreconcilable. Obama appears to be clutching tightly to the tenets of liberalism, while the rest of us cling on to...well, you know the rest...
John Edwards: Cheater, Wife Beater?
How does a liberal prove his manhood? By cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, denying the affair and paternity of his bastard child (fortunately, Edwards has the cash to cover the psychiatric bills), and then beating aforementioned wife for daring to complain about it:
Disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards reportedly beat his cancer-stricken wife during a horrific marriage-ending fight.
"John lost his temper big time," a close friend of Elizabeth's revealed to the National Enquirer. "She has the divorce papers drawn up, but she can amend them to charge John with domestic violence."
The couple's furious confrontation was the "final straw" in Elizabeth's decision to end their 32-year marriage after it was revealed that he had fathered a child out of wedlock with his ex-mistress Rielle Hunter, the newspaper revealed today in a bombshell report on its Web site.
Well, it's the New York Post channelling the National Enquirer, so...I believe it. Hey, they were right about Edwards all along. Now if it were a story from the New York Times - like their front-pager on John McCain's non-existent affair with a staffer - then I wouldn't have shamed myself by posting on it....
And John doesn't have much to worry about, really. If he wants to run for office, NOW and Emily's List will still support him...after all, what's the alternative? Supporting a Republican? They would sooner submit to genital mutilation....
Regardless, the pattern of recent liberal icons is pretty clear, even to the most dim-witted amongst the Left, and it goes like this:
John Edwards: Phony. Hillary Clinton: Phony. Barack Obama: Mega-phony.
What is it with these liberal icons? Is there an honest man (or women) among them? Besides Joe Lieberman, of course, who has been ostracised from the Democratic party for his honesty and independence.
And even worse...how sad is it that our self-appointed "intellectual elite" don't have the common sense to see through these self-centered charlatans, and keep falling in love with them every single time....?
Disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards reportedly beat his cancer-stricken wife during a horrific marriage-ending fight.
"John lost his temper big time," a close friend of Elizabeth's revealed to the National Enquirer. "She has the divorce papers drawn up, but she can amend them to charge John with domestic violence."
The couple's furious confrontation was the "final straw" in Elizabeth's decision to end their 32-year marriage after it was revealed that he had fathered a child out of wedlock with his ex-mistress Rielle Hunter, the newspaper revealed today in a bombshell report on its Web site.
Well, it's the New York Post channelling the National Enquirer, so...I believe it. Hey, they were right about Edwards all along. Now if it were a story from the New York Times - like their front-pager on John McCain's non-existent affair with a staffer - then I wouldn't have shamed myself by posting on it....
And John doesn't have much to worry about, really. If he wants to run for office, NOW and Emily's List will still support him...after all, what's the alternative? Supporting a Republican? They would sooner submit to genital mutilation....
Regardless, the pattern of recent liberal icons is pretty clear, even to the most dim-witted amongst the Left, and it goes like this:
John Edwards: Phony. Hillary Clinton: Phony. Barack Obama: Mega-phony.
What is it with these liberal icons? Is there an honest man (or women) among them? Besides Joe Lieberman, of course, who has been ostracised from the Democratic party for his honesty and independence.
And even worse...how sad is it that our self-appointed "intellectual elite" don't have the common sense to see through these self-centered charlatans, and keep falling in love with them every single time....?
วันพุธ, กุมภาพันธ์ 03, 2553
Barbara Boxer, As In Dumber Than A Box Of...
This video below, taken today at the Obama/Democratic Caucus lovefest, has to be seen to be believed. Senator "don't call me ma'am" Boxer is seen to ask the president whether he can, by authoritative fiat, order banks to loan to small businesses. And if not, she wonders...can we?
Via Snark and Boobs, who invokes John Galt. And so will I. Galt's most important line in Atlas Shrugged is spoken to a TV audience who has just spent an unknown amount of time listening to how the government was coming up with a plan (allegedly in co-operation with Galt) that would solve all of their financial and social problems. When it is Galt's turn to speak (with a gun stuck in his ribs), he says simply and firmly:
"Get out of my way!"
And this is what the American public, and all small businesses, need right now. Not more government involvement, but less. Not higher taxes and fees, but lower, much lower, and no offers of "trade-offs" in the form of $5000 tax credits to add employees - which, incidentally, is an idea only a bureaucrat who has never operated a business or met a payroll could propose with a straight face. See Boxer, Barbara or Obama, Barack Hussein as examples.
Businesses do not hire based on a one-time savings of $5K, they hire based on expectations of future market conditions and government regulations. When markets are in upheaval, and the government is grabbing cash from its prospective customers as well as from its own coffers while proposing thousands of regulatory burdens, what businessman in his right mind would add salaries?
Well, if Boxer and Obama believe they can force banks to lend, maybe they can force businesses to hire as well. It wouldn't be democracy, it wouldn't be capitalism, but since when has the Senator and the Emperor cared much about either?
Incidentally, Ayn Rand, prophetic as always, predicted Barbara Boxer's intent in Atlas Shrugged, and made it the primary motive in the "strike" of two of the book's key characters, Midas Mulligan and Judge Narragansett. Read the analogy here...
Via Snark and Boobs, who invokes John Galt. And so will I. Galt's most important line in Atlas Shrugged is spoken to a TV audience who has just spent an unknown amount of time listening to how the government was coming up with a plan (allegedly in co-operation with Galt) that would solve all of their financial and social problems. When it is Galt's turn to speak (with a gun stuck in his ribs), he says simply and firmly:
"Get out of my way!"
And this is what the American public, and all small businesses, need right now. Not more government involvement, but less. Not higher taxes and fees, but lower, much lower, and no offers of "trade-offs" in the form of $5000 tax credits to add employees - which, incidentally, is an idea only a bureaucrat who has never operated a business or met a payroll could propose with a straight face. See Boxer, Barbara or Obama, Barack Hussein as examples.
Businesses do not hire based on a one-time savings of $5K, they hire based on expectations of future market conditions and government regulations. When markets are in upheaval, and the government is grabbing cash from its prospective customers as well as from its own coffers while proposing thousands of regulatory burdens, what businessman in his right mind would add salaries?
Well, if Boxer and Obama believe they can force banks to lend, maybe they can force businesses to hire as well. It wouldn't be democracy, it wouldn't be capitalism, but since when has the Senator and the Emperor cared much about either?
Incidentally, Ayn Rand, prophetic as always, predicted Barbara Boxer's intent in Atlas Shrugged, and made it the primary motive in the "strike" of two of the book's key characters, Midas Mulligan and Judge Narragansett. Read the analogy here...
Haiti's $8.3 Billion
I'm pulling that figure from USA Today, which gives an inadvertent lesson on how not to disburse foreign aid:
After receiving $8.3 billion in foreign aid since 1969, Haiti is 25% poorer than it was in 1945, according to statistics compiled by Nicholas Eberstadt, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute. Even before the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed at least 100,000 people, three-quarters of Haiti's 9 million people lived on less than $2 a day, the United Nations says.
Where did that money go? USA Today is not specific, but makes general noises about the corruption that permeates every level of officialdom in Haiti. Regardless, precious little of this fortune has made it thru to the Haitian people; and based on the devastation wrought by January's earthquake, it seems as if very little was invested in civilian infrastructure, medical facilities, and transportation routes.
It is heartbreaking what happened in Haiti, and it does point out the huge gulf between the rich and the poor: mainly, that rich nations survive such seismic events with minimal death and damage, while poorer nations can lose hundreds of thousands of lives and be set back decades in development.
But this is not an argument for wealth transfer; we've already moved over $8 billion from the rich (and not so rich) to Haiti, and it couldn't save them. What failed them was not the West, but their own corrupt government, who enriched themselves on the West's largess and left their countrymen to die in last month's rubble.
Any future aid to Haiti must be done around, not with, the Haitian government. In no uncertain terms, we must tell them that we will set up the necessary agencies, we will oversee the disbursement of aid, and we will demand accountability and results. No doubt it is an infringement upon the sovereignty of the Haitian government, but without the West (preferably the US and not the UN) stepping in and taking charge, we can expect that the next $8.3 billion will go where the first $8.3 billion went.
Liberals will howl, but that's to be expected. Aid for them is about feeling good about themselves - "hey, we sent money, it's not our fault it didn't get into the right hands" - and not about results, and their squeamishness about reaching out to Haiti with an open but firm hand will be rejected in the name of their feelings.
The result of liberal aid? Projects such as:
....the five German-built windmills that overlook the bay of Port-de-Paix, says American anthropologist Timothy Schwartz, a fluent Creole-speaker who spent eight years living in rural Haiti. The windmills were never hooked up and quickly stripped for parts...
But they meant well. And still, they bury the dead in Haiti.
The United States is planning spending close to $400 million for Haitian relief - for openers.
Let's disperse it with kindness...and moral strength.
After receiving $8.3 billion in foreign aid since 1969, Haiti is 25% poorer than it was in 1945, according to statistics compiled by Nicholas Eberstadt, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute. Even before the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed at least 100,000 people, three-quarters of Haiti's 9 million people lived on less than $2 a day, the United Nations says.
Where did that money go? USA Today is not specific, but makes general noises about the corruption that permeates every level of officialdom in Haiti. Regardless, precious little of this fortune has made it thru to the Haitian people; and based on the devastation wrought by January's earthquake, it seems as if very little was invested in civilian infrastructure, medical facilities, and transportation routes.
It is heartbreaking what happened in Haiti, and it does point out the huge gulf between the rich and the poor: mainly, that rich nations survive such seismic events with minimal death and damage, while poorer nations can lose hundreds of thousands of lives and be set back decades in development.
But this is not an argument for wealth transfer; we've already moved over $8 billion from the rich (and not so rich) to Haiti, and it couldn't save them. What failed them was not the West, but their own corrupt government, who enriched themselves on the West's largess and left their countrymen to die in last month's rubble.
Any future aid to Haiti must be done around, not with, the Haitian government. In no uncertain terms, we must tell them that we will set up the necessary agencies, we will oversee the disbursement of aid, and we will demand accountability and results. No doubt it is an infringement upon the sovereignty of the Haitian government, but without the West (preferably the US and not the UN) stepping in and taking charge, we can expect that the next $8.3 billion will go where the first $8.3 billion went.
Liberals will howl, but that's to be expected. Aid for them is about feeling good about themselves - "hey, we sent money, it's not our fault it didn't get into the right hands" - and not about results, and their squeamishness about reaching out to Haiti with an open but firm hand will be rejected in the name of their feelings.
The result of liberal aid? Projects such as:
....the five German-built windmills that overlook the bay of Port-de-Paix, says American anthropologist Timothy Schwartz, a fluent Creole-speaker who spent eight years living in rural Haiti. The windmills were never hooked up and quickly stripped for parts...
But they meant well. And still, they bury the dead in Haiti.
The United States is planning spending close to $400 million for Haitian relief - for openers.
Let's disperse it with kindness...and moral strength.
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