Fetching Jen

Cancer Research Ballot Boondoggle

2011-11-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

California is only four months into the new fiscal year and already the budget has sprung a sizable leak. As predicted, the much-touted revenue infusion that Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators relied on to close the budget gap in June, has failed to produce ongoing funds.

Responsible leaders would address the current shortfall before taking on additional burdens. However, expecting today’s politicians to do the right thing is naïve - especially politicians like those behind the suspiciously titled “California Cancer Research Act.”

There are 64 ballot proposals already filed with Attorney General Kamala Harris for the November 2012 ballot. If the California Cancer Research Act initiative is approved by voters, the tax on cigarettes in California will skyrocket by $1 per pack. Opponents of the measure say that the $1 per pack increase is a tax increase of nearly one billion dollars on California taxpayers, designed to pay for a new government-spending program, and create a new state bureaucracy to oversee it. The California Legislative Analyst's Office determined that the new cigarette tax revenues would generate of approximately $855 million annually by 2011- 12.

Budget Outlook Bleak

The Legislative Analyst’s Office released its 2012-13 fiscal outlook report this week, announcing that the education and social services spending trigger cuts are looming. However, the cuts are no surprise, as they were pre-determined by Democrats in the budget – to feign surprise is fallacious.

Unless California comes up with $2 billion dollars immediately, the state will be forced to make severe cuts to K-12 education. Round two of the trigger cuts will be following for community colleges and universities.

While the LAO is warning of severe education and social service cuts, others attached to state government are scheming to grow government.

Spending Money We Don’t Have

Politicians already have plans for the $885 million annual tax revenue.

Ballotpedia reported:

$75 million annually would maintain existing tobacco tax revenue streams to ensure that the Proposition 99, Proposition 10, General Fund and Breast Cancer programs funded by existing tobacco taxes are not negatively impacted by the new excise tax.

$468 million annually would to go research of cancer and tobacco-related disease "for the purpose of grants and loans to support cancer research.

$117 million annually would go to facilities and capital equipment for research.

$156 million annually would go to tobacco prevention and cessation to the state’s existing tobacco control program. These funds would be divided between the California Department of Public Health, and the California Department of Education, for their existing programs to prevent and reduce the use of tobacco.

$23 million annually would go to tobacco law enforcement.

Approximately $16 million annually would go to administration, including the collection, auditing, and distribution of revenue.

Who Is Behind The Cancer Cure Initiative?

Former Senate President pro Tem Don Perata authored the measure, which has opponents wary. Perata has been a controversial politician, tied to big labor, and linked to several scandals. More recently, Perata was was tied to Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who received a $25,000 consulting fee in August 2009 from "Hope 2010," a ballot measure committee controlled by Perata, the supporting campaign's co-chairman. De La Fuente was hired to contact 10 labor groups for petition signatures, and 10 business groups for campaign contributions in the Sacramento and Oakland areas.

Supporters of the measure created a coalition called "Californians for a Cure,” which hosts the website for the ballot measure.

Haven’t We Learned Anything?

Californians should have learned that emotionally charged ballot measures are usually a cover for another scheme. This boondoggle ballot measure will have much of the expected revenue going towards more administrative buildings, bureaucracies and salaries for an unelected governing committee.

And much of the budget for the new bureaucracies will duplicate the work of existing programs across the state.

That’s how it’s done in California.

Reckless spending programs such as this ballot measure got California into the mess it’s in today. High-Speed Rail, tribal gaming, Proposition 98, and similar ballot measures, cost Californians a fortune in government expansion, mandates and concessions.

Instead of creating more bureaucracy and another program taxpayers have to pay for, California politicians need to act like adults and find a way to pay for the programs we have, and make serious cuts to government bureaucracies.

- Katy Grimes

Blogging at Townhall

2008-08-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Please go to my Townhall Blog for the latest:

http://katygrimes.blogtownhall.com

Hello and Goodbye

2008-08-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

I just returned home from one week in Kauai with my husband and son. We have been planning this trip since last December as a kind of reward to our son for completing his first year at the Naval Academy. He only had a few weeks off this summer. While all of his friends were coming home from college for the entire summer, he was on a training exercise on YP boats, and then on a submarine somewhere in the pacific ocean experiencing his first "Summer Cruise."

Our Kauai trip was wonderful and true "R&R." We are tanned and rested and now back at work. Our son is now looking forward to his second year at the academy, free from the restrictions of being a first year "Plebe."

As difficult as it always is to let him go, nothing will ever compare with Induction Day last year, when we left him at the Naval Academy for the beginning of "Plebe Summer." Later this week, we will take him to the airport and not see him again until either we travel back east this fall, or wait until Thanksgiving when he comes home. We are fortunate to have had a few weeks together this summer. I got to be a mom, and he got to be my kid again. But on Saturday, he will put his uniform back on, stand a little straighter and taller, and immediately get back into academy mode. Our communications will be by email and short phone calls. My house will be quiet and tidy again. However, I've learned to love the mess for all it stands for.

"Abuse In Wicked Hands"

2008-07-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

from my column Friday July 25, 2008

Katy Grimes, Sacramento Union Columnist -
KatyG@SacUnion.com
Published: July 23, 2008

I strongly urge each member of the Sacramento City Council to read “The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson.” The wisdom and foresight in Jefferson’s writings should be mandatory training material for ambitious local politicians. Jefferson correctly declared, “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”

Sacramento’s elected officials spend most of their time worrying about getting re-elected and keeping power, making them the best example of power perverted into tyranny. Their focus is personal, and not for the good of the public they serve.

Members of the City Council have been recently quoted saying that our city budget deficit is the result of “the downturn in the economy.” Hogwash. The city of Sacramento has a spending problem, starting with Mayor Heather Fargo and the City Council. They long ago tossed out the books about citizen representation, and penned their own: “The Joy of Political Power and The Pleasures of Ambition and Omnipotence.” They are currently working on “Dodging Accountability in Ten Easy Steps.”

Custodian of Public Trust Thomas Jefferson believed that “Democracy would cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work, and give to those who would not.”
Today’s “leaders” see themselves as God-like, selflessly giving to the masses. What they are really “giving” is not of themselves but an endless supply of costly freebies, welfare and entitlements—food stamps, free rent, bus passes, “job training,” daycare, education, houses, medical care, don’t forget citizenship, rights, power, privilege, benefits and favors. With the numerous giveaways under the auspices of devotion to the welfare of others, our politicians are only plumping up their own ambitions and circumstances. By creating the dependence of citizens, politicians get subservience and submissiveness in return, but it completely kills morality and ethical conduct.

Jefferson predicted “future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

The allure of power to those who seek it is intoxicating. However, it is best to remember that it is not power that is alluring to pure minds. The idea of serving the people is lost on those who seek power such as our City Council and Mayor Fargo.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. Thomas Jefferson knew men who abused their political positions; he did not know that it would become a way of political life in America. The Sacramento City Council members are such an example: They use politics as a vocation, living off and profiting from politics, rather than being genuinely politically active—they are the very definition of weak people who abuse trust and power and cannot stand on their own.

Only with the silence of good people will tyranny and corruption continue. Jefferson’s wisdom rings true even today: When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

Katy Grimes is a longtime political analyst and Sacramento native. Read her blog at katygrimes.blogtownhall.com.

Obama's "Tour Of Duty"

2008-07-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, you heard correctly: "Obama's Tour of Duty." The liberal news media has single-handedly solved Barrack Obama's lack of military service: They have dubbed his current Middle East travels a "Tour of Duty."

Last night on NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt referred to Obama's trip as his "Tour of duty," as if this is real military service: newsbusters has this.

... Ironic word choice for the candidate who has opposed the Iraq was, said the surge would not work, wants to immediately withdraw our troops, and is now flip flopping and hedging. Will John McCain object and talk about his real Tour of Duty as well as the tours of duty of the real soldiers fighting for democracy and freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The three queasy networks sent along their top anchors to join Obama on his vacation to Europe and the Middle East. The desperation being shown by the media to get Obama elected is unbelievable. It appears they all get "thrills up their legs" when he speaks...(chrismatthews gets chills and thrills)

Obama's trip should be called a "Tour of Doody..."

Buck Up

2008-07-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote a column that has really angered a great number of "Generation X" readers. Frankly, it should have angered even more.

From ‘The Entitlement Generation’ to the ‘Look At Me’ Generation
irst, there were the Baby Boomers, the original “Me” generation (1946-1964). They produced the next “Me” generation: Generation X, also known as “The Entitlement Genera-tion” (1964-1984). Now, last century’s most self-absorbed generation have produced another “Me” generation, the “Look at Me” generation.

read my entire post at KATY GRIMES at Townhall.com.

The Deafening Minority

2008-07-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

The current column by Mike S. Adams - one of my favorite columnists - titled The Moral Minority, is about an issue I write of frequently:

From his Townhall column: The week after I finished laying my brick path I hopped on a plane heading to Colorado Springs, Colorado. After the flight attendant made her initial announcements, a young couple called her over to complain that she was speaking too loudly into the microphone. Her voice, they said, was hurting their ears. The flight attendant said she was talking into the microphone no louder than she was at that moment. The couple still protested – although no one else on board seemed to have a problem. read it here

Unfortunately, if Mr. Adams had made a big enough fuss about the rude and obnoxious passengers, he would have been tossed from the plane, instead of the jerks. Unless and until normal, decent people speak out against the Deafening, rude, self-absorbed, obnoxious minority, we have only ourselves to blame for having to live through all of their personal dramas and victimhood.

I am allergic to obnoxious people, and I let them know it.

Save the drama for your mama.

Wanna Be Popular!

2008-07-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

I remember junior and senior high school student body elections. The person "qualified" to be class president was not the candidate who ever won. The winner was usually some good looking, popular stud who immediately assigned the work to the groupie girls. These girls, who waited with baited breath to be spoken to by His Highness, squealed in delight at being able to plan dances, rallies and senior cut day, while the Pres made appearances and did interviews in the school newspaper. His campaign promises usually involved less homework, better cafeteria food, and new cheerleading uniforms, which made him very popular with the masses.

Barrack Obama's campaign rhetoric is about as substantive as the class president's. Except that Obama is offering lots of free stuff in the form of additional welfare programs to "the working man" at the cost of higher taxes for everyone - even that working man will pay more for his increased free stuff. And just like the class president who never accounted for the costs or ramifications of his absurd promises, Obama really doesn't care as long as it gets him elected.

His insatiable desire to be popular is pathetically apparent, even to his supporters. His flip flops on key issues are designed only to attract more voters, while counting on his ardent followers to not stray. His whining about being teased about his ears, or his dominant wife, or his verbal gaffes (57 states), show that he is more consumed by his image than even his image handlers are.

Obama is a carefully crafted image, and one that cannot take a hit of any sort. He is not lasting, nor enduring. He is not ready for prime time - which in American politics, is a little more involved than promising better cafeteria food to the voters.

California Youth Reprimanded For Singing National Anthem

2008-07-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

California youth Reprimanded For Singing National Anthem... in the State Capitol. Would they have preferred Songs of the Communist Youth?

From the Capitol Resource Institute:

Students attending a youth leadership conference were reprimanded by capitol security yesterday afternoon for singing the National Anthem and God Bless America in the state capitol rotunda. The patriotic expression was apparently so egregious that state troopers were called in to the rotunda to rebuke the students.

As the students ended their singing, several armed troopers entered the rotunda along with capitol sergeants-at-arms. They confronted conference staff and informed them that such singing is prohibited in the state capitol without a permit from the Rules Committee.

Undeterred by their shocking treatment at the hands of government officials, the students have applied for a permit to sing this Saturday, when they will visit the capitol for a mock legislative session on the Assembly and Senate floors.

The forty-five young people from all across California were at the capitol to attend the City on the Hill Youth Leadership Conference, where they learn the legislative and political processes. After spending the day meeting with lawmakers and their staff, the youth aged 14-18, engaged in a spontaneous expression of passion for their country by singing the National Anthem and God Bless America. Tourists walking through the capitol stopped to listen to the singing and clapped enthusiastically.

Among the students attending the conference were two young people whose father was held in a Communist prison in Romania. Another student is a Russian immigrant.

"This was a ghastly overreaction to some students expressing their patriotism in the seat of government," stated Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol Resource Institute and director of the youth conference. "These young leaders have sacrificed a week of their summer to come learn about our government system and this is the 'welcome' they receive from the government."

"I am deeply saddened by the treatment these young patriots received at our state capitol," stated Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Family Impact and a graduate of City on the Hill. "This invaluable program equipped me with the tools I use every day in my job working with lawmakers. Unfortunately, these future leaders have seen first- hand how we are losing our liberties-including simply expressing our patriotism in public."

Despite their treatment, the City on the Hill students have applied for a government permit to sing the National Anthem in the capitol rotunda this Saturday, July 12, at 1:15 p.m. Citizens are encouraged to attend the performance to encourage these fine young leaders' patriotism.

The following is a clip of the City on the Hill students singing the National Anthem (without a permit!) two years ago---

CIty on the Hill 2006

Read God Bless America-If You Have a Permit

Voting for Someone Who Despises you

2008-07-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

The next time someone asks me who I am voting for this fall for President, I am going to say, "The white guy."

Sounds really stupid, doesn't it - a dumb reason for voting for a President.

That's the reasoning behind most of Obama's followers: Vote for the black guy. And Hillary's followers were just as bad : Vote for the woman.

Using that logic, I should have voted for Hillary - a middle-age, educated, white chick. She was even a little blonde... that's good enough for me.

We all need to identify with our public figures. But we should be thinking a little more critically about their ability to lead, of their qualifications, their motives, ambition, and ideology.

I know some very intelligent persons of color - educated, experienced, talented - who gave me the "black guy" reasoning for wanting Obama as President.

Every person in America has been maligned, and discriminated against, typecast, generalized, stereotyped and the like. Black Americans were enslaved. Orientals were forced into labor camps. These are ancestors. My ancestors were persecuted and discriminated against, as were most peoples sometime during the course of history, and usually by their own people. Africans have been far more cruel to blacks than slave owners every were. The genocide that is still taking place in African countries is horrific.

however, victims will continue to be persecuted. Obama is playing on this. He keeps telling the media not to use the race card, when he is the one who keeps talking about being a black guy. What about his white mother and grandparents? Are they Irish? English? German? He's not only black, any more than most Americans are 100% of anything - except for being American.

I am an American first. I am of Irish and Welsh decent. So what. Thus far, my vote is predicated on the one guy who appears to be a leader with many years of experience. Not because he is caucasian, not because he's the same age as my dad or because his wife is a blonde - all dumb reasons.

Obama is an inexperienced politician. He's had only 146 days of elected experience. Do you want a surgeon with less than one year of experience operating on you? We are talking about the President of the United States.

And together with Obama's lack of practical experience, he has no horse sense, no common sense, no patriotism, no nationalism, no American identity. Why would we elect a President who shuns an American identity? Obama is embarassed to be associated with America - that's the change he's talking about. And people will be dumb enough to vote for him when he thinks that they are just a bunch of dumb hicks?

When is the time you supported someone who despised you?

Obama the Rocket Scientist

2008-07-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Speaking at a recent campaign event, Barrack Obama showed his liberal, socialistic, marxist, and stupid side once again:

I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English only." They want to pass a law, "We want just, uh, we want English only." Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But, but, understand this. Instead of worrying about whether, uh, immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language. You know, it's embarrassing, it's embarrassing when -- when, uh, Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, "Merci beaucoup."

He is just an embarassment. I find myself cringing everytime I hear him speak, for fear he will make yet another, stupid comment. His inferiority complex is coming through loudly and clearly. He wants to be more like the cool kids in Europe, who speak French and German. Could it be they speak French and German because they live in France or Germany? What a moron.

Imagine traveling Europe by car, and you drive as far north from Italy as you can, you will drive through Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Copenhagen, and Sweden. That's seven languages. Why do you think English is spoken in nearly every corner of the world including at all airports, on airplanes and in air traffic control towers?

Yes, being bilingual is interesting and useful. But we still live in America where our primary language is English. Still. Spanish will never take over as the primary language in America. Given that America has thousands of foreign countries represented in our immigrants, it is arrogant to think that hispanics are the only group worthy of having their language spoken.

Yet, Obama is such an idiot that he believes that we need to accomodate the languages of our immigrants. Does he speak Mandarin or Tagalog? His French doesn't sound very good. How about Swahili - isn't his father's family from Kenya?

With American students barely able to pass their high school exit exams, and American kids unable to even put a grammatically correct sentence together, how about we put more effort into learning English - our own language. Parents, don't teach your kids another language; make sure that can speak, read and write English correctly first.

Obama is an idiot. It seems that American's are finally waking up to his true colors.

Obama the User

2008-07-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote about bullies at work, and Democrat party bullies... a truly distasteful bunch.

Today, it's Users and specifically, Obama the User.

Waking up one day and realizing that you've been used by someone else is a disheartening feeling, even if it was only mild using. But being used is still being used, to any degree.

What will America do collectively when the Obama followers realized they've been royally used? I mean the biggest use of all uses. It's bad enough when someone uses you to get to someone else - a female friend used our friendship once to get to a guy friend I worked with. Very distasteful. We are no longer friends.

Famous people get used all of the time for their rock star status and access to star treatment and riches. Groupies are users. People who can't make it on their own or are just too lazy to lift a finger are users. Unfortunately, if they put the energy into succeeding instead of scheming and scamming, they might be something.

Obama is using the people of America to grab the brass ring. He has no plans to follow up on any of his promises - he's just another narcissist who craves the public spotlight so badly, he'll say and do anything to occupy the greatest office in America. He's using his faithful flock. He cares more for the people he rubs shoulders with than for any of the regular people in middle America he's scamming.

Obama is an elite. He values Europeans more than Americans. He apologizes for America and Americans wherever he goes, the way yur mom apologizes for the weird kid in your family. He blames the American people - the taxpaying American people - for what he perceives as American unpopularity around the world. He asks that Americans make more sacrifices - sacrifices that he is unwilling to make himself; driving an ugly tiny hybrid mini car, volunteering instead of taking a well-paying job, giving to charities, cutting back on our personal energy use in our homes, reduce your carbon footprint, do more with less - is Obama willing to do any of the things he's demanding that middle-America do? No. he lives in a big, beautiful home (that a criminal helped him lowball purchase), in the most beautiful part of Chicago, sends his kids to private schools and summer camps and music lessons, his wife accepted a very high paying job the moment he was elected Illinoois Senator, he doesn't volunteer his time or money to charities nor does his wife, they both went to Ivy League schools as part of affirmative action - (neither was a stellar enough student to have earned admittance), they benefitted from student loans and grants and now whine about having to pay them back, they both are attractive, well coifed and fit, they have beautitul orthodontic teeth, and beautiful clothing.

What's to hate about the country that made all of this possible? Nothing unless you are a horrific snob and feel that you are better than or embarassed by people who go to public schools, or to the University of North Dakota or Oregon State, or work on your own farm, or own your own small manufacturing business, or waitress, or drive a cab or work at an airport. Michelle and Barrack Obama think that they are the only people, together with other elites, who should be able to make $500,000 a year, travel to Europe and stay in Villas, rub shoulders with Tony Kennedy in France, and attend think tanks. And the American taxpayers should pay for all of it.

The snobbery of the Democrat Elites is telling: it tells a tale of people who can afford to be socialists because they want to rise to power on the heavily taxed backs of the waitresses, farmers and business owners in America. They are selling their souls by using their faithful followers to gain the ultimate power - leader (and co-leader) of the free world. What users.

But who is more pathetic? The users or those who are willingly being used?

Democrat Bullies

2008-07-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

Have you ever worked with someone who undermines you at every turn? Instead of working diligently at their own job, they do everything they can to make you look bad, or discredit your work, or get you in trouble with the boss?

I think we've all been exposed to this type of person; they gravitate to middle-management jobs and exercise power and control over rank and file employees - through cheating, lying, stealing. They are like a cancer in the organization; until the cancer is cut out, no one knows the extent of the damage done to people and/or the company.

The Democrats are this person. Instead of diligently working hard, they work only to undermine and discredit our country, and make us look bad, and do this through lying, cheating, and stealing for power, and control. The Democrats are just like the little workplace bully - insecure, obnoxious, rude, truth-challenged, self-absorbed, mean, self-aggrandizing little cheats who should be fired and denied unemployment benefits.

When backed up against a wall on specific issues, they lash out - call names, make personal attacks, try to hurt to disarm. Whether Democrats are on a neighborhood level, or running for national office, with few exceptions, they feel that whatever it takes is okay to get what they want - just like the middle-level power hungry manager, who will sacrifice an hourly employee, lie, cheat, and dish out personal attacks, to get what they want.

I know only a couple of Democrats who are not like this. Most however, will justify any behavior as a means to an end. Bullies. Cheaters. Mean, despicable behavior. What is this country coming to when these are the choices for leadership?

From "The Entitlement Generation" to the "Look At Me Generation"

2008-07-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

From ‘The Entitlement Generation’ to the ‘Look At Me’ Generation
Katy Grimes, Sacramento Union Columnist
Published: July 4, 2008

First, there were the Baby Boomers, the original “Me” generation (1946-1964). They produced the next “Me” generation: Generation X, also known as “The Entitlement Genera-tion” (1964-1984). Now, last century’s most self-absorbed generation have produced another “Me” generation, the “Look at Me” generation.

Why should we even care? Their kids are more self absorbed, self obsessed and desperate for attention than any previous people that ever walked the earth.

Don’t know what I am talking about? Open your eyes. The spoiled, hyper-sensitive, self-esteem children of the Baby Boomers are reproducing. The bratty, self-indulgent, spoiled and disloyal Gen Xers are now having kids. Today’s entertainment supports this, with YouTube videos, MySpace Web pages and “reality” TV shows where people act stupid, eat bugs, have sex and sing out of key in front of a camera and a live audience. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, there were no “reality” programs on TV. If you were stupid enough to make a fool of yourself in public, you went into hiding and prayed no one recognized you.

The “Me” generations of parents think that everything their kids do is worthy of a “wow” and a reward. Doing what used to be expected is exceptional today; eating one bite of dinner elicits clapping and immediate dessert. Getting in the car gets a high-five and a “good job.” Interrupting a conversation between adults by saying, “excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me” begets the child an excited “Thank you honey,” instead of a stern “shh.”

Parental guilt, shame and fear are driving today’s Gen X parents. Yet what do they have to be guilty about? Living well? Growing up spoiled? Spoiling themselves as adults? Today’s young parents fear responsibility; they deny themselves nothing, even if it means bankruptcy, because as children, they were denied nothing. They were never told that they could not have something because their parents couldn’t afford it—that would have been scandalous and shameful. Baby Boomer parents “afforded” whatever their kids wanted, resulting in resentment and guilt.

Sociologists have traced the “Me” phenomenon back to what they called the “self-esteem movement” that emerged in the 80s, asserting that the effort to build self-confidence has gone too far. Former Democratic Assemblyman John Vasconcellos established a task force on self-esteem and social responsibility in 1987 to get public funding for self-esteem research in California. He misguidedly thought that the state could “gift” self-esteem upon kids, instead of teaching them how to work for it. Consequently, the Self Esteem Police produced self-obsessed adults who resent authority.

Unfortunately, Gen X parents demonstrate that permissiveness is a component of their parenting style; most ignore the horrible behavior of their kids in public. When a correction is finally offered, it is over-analyzed and explained to the misbehaving child, instead of just saying “no.” More authoritative parenting and less indulgence in the child’s natural narcissistic behavior is called for; but that would require the Gen X parent to recognize that a parent’s primary duty is to raise a responsible and independent child.

Instead, Gen Xers have bad manners and think everyday is casual Friday. They whine incessantly, have contempt for authority, they show disrespect for elders and thrive on empty chatter about themselves in place of substantive communication.

A little advice to Gen X: Shave your stupid computer geek goatees, wash your greasy hair, replace the flip flops and skuzzy jeans with wrinkle-free appropriate work clothes and access some of that self-esteem you’re always whining about. Your kids are brats and so are you. Time to grow up—or we’ll cut off your allowance.

Stand Up For America

2008-07-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

With 4th of July tomorrow and families questioning whether they should purchase fireworks, this could be an opportunity instead to plan a patriotic celebration for kids and family.

The 4th of July, Independence Day is an excellent time to reflect on America's rich history and shut the liberal doom and gloomers up. When you stand up for America, you show what you are made of, you show the strangth this country was built on.

Today's convenient Americans buy in to everything America has to offer except American identity. Asian-Americans. African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, come to America, prosper, raise families and still shun calling themselves "American."

Teddy Roosevelt described this problem October 12, 1915: There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.

The liberal left in America stand for nothing. They complain, they criticize, the try to tear down and destroy, but they stand for nothing.

Today's children are bombarded at school by liberal, anti-American teachers. These teachers rewrite history, and tell our children that America is evil, bad, a bully, arrogant and must be neutralized. Parents can combat this by making sure that our children know American history, and are proud of America.

Misery loves company, so the liberals drag innocent children into their web of deceipt. And since they stand for nothing, they are so emotionally invested in anger, misery and hatred, that they cannot pull out now.

If your kids watch television this weekend, watch the History Channel. Take a look at the Military channel. Read Lynn Cheney's books America : A Patriotic Primer and A Time for Freedom.
Study up on the Constitution. Read everything Theodore Roosevelt wrote. A great book is Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. I am currently reading Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough.

We successfully raised two patriotic sons. One has chosen a military career. The other believes in the American free market and is in business with us. Both vote and are proud of their country. They grew up secure and proud to belong as Americans - they believe in America.

Do you believe in this country? Because liberals don't believe in anything and don't stand up for America, they are insecure and fearful. Patriotism and nationalism allows us to feel confident and secure in our confidence in the goodness and strength of America. Stand up For America and you are standing up for you, your family, and your friends and neighbors.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt

Girly Men and Girly Sons

2008-07-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have written a great deal about the feminization of America's boys. While Feminists have become more masculine with every passing year, men and boys have become wimpy, feminized and afraid of their own shadows.

About five years ago at a Boy Scout meeting for my son who had been recently promoted to Boy Scout from Weeblos, I looked around the room and shivered. I leaned over to my husband and whispered, "There's not a single male role model in this room." Shortly after that meeting, my son changed Boy Scout troops to another where men ran the troop - although many pushy mothers tried.

Between the teachers, pushy feminist mothers, lawyers and Hollywood depicting men as idiots, men have been relegated to the dufus category and boys are cry babies. On the playground, boys can't play chase - someone might get hurt. Boys can't fight - someone might get hurt. They can't play on the monkey bars or jungle gyms, or play King of the Hill, or tackle soccer, or anything that might involve getting roughed up. Even in dodge ball, boys get in trouble for throwing the ball too hard at girls.

In 1st grade, my son was asked not to return to the snooty school he attended. I wondered what egregious act he might have committed to elicit such a strong, negative response from the school. The only answer I got from his teacher is that he got in trouble for being squirrly in the PE line. This was a female-dominated school, where natural boyish behavior was supressed and they were made to learn French. Obviously, it was a blessing that my son did not continue attending such a female dominated, effeminizing, snob school. And today, he's at a Midshipman at the Naval Academy - manly stuff.

Feminists are miserable women - they want to dominate men, and then when they succeed at that, they hate the men they dominate. Feminists have become so masculine over the years, it's often difficult to differentiate between a "feminist" and a gender-bending woman. It used to be attractive to be feminine. Manly men liked us, and we where happy being pretty, wearing dresses and makeup, being good mommies and wives, and often managing work.

I heard a recent interview with columnist Kathleen Parker. Her new book, "Save The Males" is an accurate depiction of our anti-male culture and the ramifications. We are living the evidence.

In September 2006, I wrote The Selfish Pursuit of Feminism, and later turned it into a newspaper column here.
And in 2005, I wrote my first post on the Feminizing of Boys here.

It's a problem, and a big one. A boy with a feminist mother does not have a chance; he's been terrorized for years. When he realizes who he is, he's already married to a demanding, pushy wife.

Parents must take charge of their boys and refuse to allow schools and female teachers to dictate medications and treatments that render them docile.

I'd like your thoughts and experiences. And if you wear socks with your sandals, don't bother.

The Nip & Tuck Generation

2008-06-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Baby Boomers, the first of the self-absorbed generations - also called the "Me" generation, aren't aging well. I am a boomer, but at the very end of the group - sometimes called a "Tweener," between the Boomers and Gen X.
I thank GOD I was raised by a War generation father and not a Baby Boomer. Consequently, I have values that all don't involve my personal gratification and security.

The Boomers are obsessed with aging; most accurately, how it looks on them. It's not just women either; Baby Boomer men are having plastic surgery, going to tanning salons, getting their hair colored, getting Botox injections, waxing for hair removal, wearing invisible hearing aids, invisible braces, having vains stripped, getting manicures and pedicures, and shopping - like women.

Spare me. It's obnoxious enough that so many women are obsessed with their looks. I'm a little vain, I admit it. I get my hair highlighted. But other than expensive hair, I am pretty low maintenance - by choice. I don't get my nails and toes done, I don't wax or tan, or get skin peels, and I will never have plastic surgery, Botox injections or plumped up lip injections. I find it disgusting. It's a personal choice, I know. It's not how I want to spend my money. I prefer to focus on skin care, my health and fitness. I am aiming for being fit when I'm old. That's good looking.

All of this focus on "Me" by the "me generation," is not surprising however, the lengths to which they will go to keep youth, is. The money is usually a waste; you can usually tell if someone has had plastic surgery (not always), and for some people, it's such a boost for their self-esteem, that fixing a crooked nose or big ears or a turkey neck is understandable. Again, it's personal. But the men and women who get addicted to plastic surgery and constant "self-improvement," is tragic and sick. They never grew out of the "it's all about me" stage. The money spent on plastic surgery improvements should have been spent on good running shoes and a Therapist.

But it's the men I don't get... I don't think I'd like a guy who spends more time in front of the mirror than I do. The self-absorbed Baby Boomers take everything too far.

(sorry for the scary photo of Jocelyn Wildenstein - the Cat Woman)

Sneaky Senator Dodd

2008-06-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Communist Party hack Chris Dodd is up to it again. as long as he gets his low-cost mortgages, the little people can support Congresses spending crack habit:

Washington, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

read the entire story here: freedomworks

I Am Ashamed of Michelle Obama's America

2008-06-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

With Michelle Obama still defending her statements about "being proud of America for the first time in her life," I must say that with people like Michelle Obama rising to power, I've never been more ashamed of America. Conversley, up until recently, I've always been proud of my country.

With Liberals knowingly trying to defund the war in Iraq, handing out more government welfare, trying to take control of corporate oil companies, taking "windfall" profits from private business owners, increasing regulations on businesses, forcing business owners to provide company paid health insurance, voting to support gay marriage, allowing foreign terrorists access to our court system, Homeland Security employees terrorizing innocent Americans through airports, congress causing the rise in oil prices, congress refusing to address alternative energy exploration and drilling, unions runnning local elections, liberal-run schools not being able to graduate literate kids, 50% drop out rate in colleges the first year, affirmative action still being practiced in a state that voted to end it...

Must I keep going? These are all failed liberal programs, liberal ideas. With so many Americans abandoning the work ethic of our parents and grandparents, and instead, holding their hands out for freebies, I am ashamed of Michelle Obama's America.

While she is escorted around in limosines, wears designer clothing and jewelry, has makeup and hair stylists, whines about the cost of music lessons and summer camp, and tells regular Americans thast we need to work harder and not be so greedy...While Michelle Obama received a plush corporate job on the Board of a major hospital once her husband was elected to the Illinois senate, and tells tomorrow's college graduates to skip the corporate job and instead become a teacher or nurse, we need to remind each other of her words versus her how she lives.

Michelle Obama is as big of a hypocrite as is her husband. She's loving the fame, the fortune, the star treatment and status, but thinks that those of us who run businesses and work at 8-5 jobs should pay more taxes (because we are greedy), to support more welfare for those who don't work. She obviously isn't living in fear of her own tax status with her fame and wealth: she' got loopholes now and a bevy of lawyers and accountants to keep her taxes unnaturally low (think Theresa Heinz Kerry with her 5% tax rate). She's a phony and she's scary.

Michelle Obama makes me embarassed to have to share a national identity with her. She's militant, angry, and extremist and now she's the latest media darling. Who are the dummies that don't see Michelle and Barrack for the opportunistic phonies they are?

Visit My Townhall Blog

2008-06-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

I also blog at Townhall; please visit my Townhall Blog at http://katygrimes.blogtownhall.com/

Barrack Obama's Biggest Problem: Michelle Obama

2008-06-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I received this link Bob Beckel On Fox & Friends: 'Bombshell Heading Michelle Obama's Way' (Updated)..
with this explanation:
The Michelle Obama Rant Tape was filmed between June 26th - July 1st 2004 in Chicago, IL at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference at Trinity United Church: specifically the Women's Event.

Michelle Obama appeared as a panelist alongside Mrs. Khadijah Farrakhan and Mrs. James Meeks.
Bill Clinton spoke during the Conference, as did Bill Cosby and other speakers, but not at the panel Michelle attended.
Michelle Obama spoke at the Women's Event, but referenced Bill Clinton in her rant --- his presence at the conference was the impetus for her raving, it seems.
For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into a rant about the evils of America, and how America is to blame for the problems of Africa. Michelle personally blamed President Clinton for the deaths of millions of Africans and said America is responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis and other ethnic groups. She then launched into an attack on "whitey", and talked about solutions to black on black crime in the realm of diverting those actions onto white America. Her rant was fueled by the crowd: they reacted strongly to what she said, so she got more passionate and enraged, and that's when she completely loses it and says things that have made the mouths drop of everyone who's seen this.
The "tape" is a DVD that Trinity United sold on its website, and possibly offered free for download up until March 2008 when Trinity's site was scrubbed and the DVDs were no longer offered for sale.
This outburst happened just one month before the 2004 Democratic Convention, when Barack Obama delivered the keynote address.

Original Post:
The buzz about a tape surfacing of Michelle Obama ranting about "Whitey" together with Louis Farrakhan and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is interesting, if not a deal breaker. When it comes out, Barack will be permanently branded with the Nation of Islam - not a good tag when running for President of the United States.

There is no coincidence that Barrack Obama "quit" his controversial church yesterday, just as news of this tape hit.

But his ties with the Nation of Islam do not get cut just because he "quits" the church. "Barack hired two members of the Nation of Islam to work on his staff—Jennifer Mason and Cynthia K. Miller. If Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger (now placed on leave by the Cardinal of New York for his recent rant) had kept their yaps buttoned none of this would mean much. But the fact that both men have been—until scrubbed from the website in recent weeks—listed as spiritual advisors to Barack Obama and also are very close to Louis Farrakhan, forces the question about Barack’s faith and beliefs." (hat tip NoQuarter)

The word is that one of the Republican candidates no longer in the race (Rudy) acquired the tape. Republicans will most likely hold the tape until the fall. Because if Hillary had it, she'd let it out now to get rid of Obama.

Things will only get more interesting. Either way, Michelle Obama has using her own mouth, put her husband's foot in it.

Shameful Voter Turnout

2008-06-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

I stayed up late enough to watch the local news and results of the election. The coverage was embarrassingly "local." When the tree branch fell on the patio at the Heather Fargo party, the drama was unsurpassed. And embarrassing. A tree branch fell. No fireworks went off as was originally claimed by the news guy.

By 10:35 pm, I went to bed disgusted. Sam Shane on Channel 13 should not be allowed to speak without a cue card. The nonsensical and irrelevant comments he makes should be played back at him endlessly until he begs for more education.

This morning, I read that only 50,000 people in the City of Sacramento voted. We are a city of 475,000 residents.

Why don't people vote? I asked several people leading up to the election. The two standard answers were: "I am too busy," and "I am only one vote, and one vote doesn't count."

Only 10 days ago, I received a phone call from my son who was preparing to fill out his absentee voter ballot. He resides across the country at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. We walked through the issues, he voted and mailed his ballot. This morning I received a phone call from him inquiring about the election results. He is a 19-year old who voted absentee and called mom to find out the results from 3,000 miles away. So how is it that locals can't get themselves to the polling place or sign up for an absentee ballot?

People have become complacent and lazy in their prosperity. They also are not learning or caring about history and why every vote matters. Voting is a privilege, and honor. And unless we vote in every election, we don't deserve to whine about the way things are. And that is why Sacramento was stuck with Heather Fargo for so many years, and why she nearly became Mayor for a third inadequate, term.

USS Reagan and USS Clinton

2008-06-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

There are two new Navy ships.

USS REAGAN and the USS Clinton

Seeing the USS Reagan next to the Arizona Memorial really puts its size into perspective... ENORMOUS!BEAUTIFUL!

When the Bridge pipes 'Man the Rail' there is a lot of rail to man on this monster: shoulder to shoulder, around 4.5 acres.

Her displacement is about 100,000 tons with full complement.

CapabilityTop speed exceeds 30 knots, powered by two nuclear reactors that can operate for more than 20 years without refueling

1. Expected to operate in the fleet for about 50 years

2. Carries over 80 combat aircraft

3. Three arresting cables can stop a 28-ton aircraft going 150 miles per hour in less than 400 feet

Size1. Towers 20 stories above the waterline

2. 1092 feet long; nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall

3. Flight deck covers 4.5 acres4.

4 bronze propellers, each 21 feet across, weighing 66,200 pounds

5. 2 rudders, each 29 by 22 feet and weighing 50 tons

6. 4 high speed aircraft elevators, each over 4,000 square feet

Capacity 1. Home to about 6,000 Navy personnel

2. Carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days

3. 18,150 meals served daily

4. Distillation plants provide 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes

5. Nearly 30,000 light fixtures and 1,325 miles of cable and wiring 1,400 telephones

6. 14,000 pillowcases and 28,000 sheets

7. Costs the Navy approximately $250,000 per day for pier side operation

8. Costs the Navy approximately $25 million per day for underway operations (Sailor's salaries included).

...and US Navy welcomed the USS Bill Clinton Sunday, July 2, 2006 Vancouver , BC .

Headed for Seattle, WA., the US Navy welcomed the latest member of its fleet today.

The USS William Jefferson Clinton (CVS1) set sail today from its home port of Vancouver , BC.

The ship is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a standing legacy to President Bill Clinton 'for his foresight in military budget cuts' and his conduct while president.

The ship is constructed nearly entirely from recycled aluminum and is completely solar powered with a top speed of 5 knots.

It boasts an arsenal comprised of one (unarmed) F14 Tomcat or one (unarmed) F18 Hornet aircraft which, although they cannot be launched or captured on the 100 foot flight deck, form a very menacing presence.

As a standing order there are no firearms allowed on board.

The 20 person crew is completely diversified, including members of all races, creeds, sex, and sexual orientation.

This crew, like the crew aboard the USS Jimmy Carter, is specially trained to avoid conflicts and appease any and all enemies of the United States at all costs!

An onboard Type One DNC Universal Translator can send out messages of apology in any language to anyone who may find America offensive. The number of apologies are limitless and though some may seem hollow and disingenuous, the Navy advises all apologies will sound very sincere.

The ship's purpose is not defined so much as a unit of national defense, but instead in times of conflict, the USS Clinton has orders to seek refuge in Canada .

The ship may be positioned near the Democratic National Party Headquarters for photo-ops. The Clin-toons Should be very proud.

Great Quotes From Snobama and Wife

2008-05-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

I cannot take credit for this compilation of stupendous quotes.

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has put together a list of more than 50 quotes from Barack Obama, his wife, and Jeremiah Wright among others. You can read it here:

http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/05/barack_obama_in_quotes_version_1.php

Some of those quotes include:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen." -- Barack Obama

"...White folks' greed runs a world in need..." -- Jeremiah Wright

"(Obama) really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time." -- John McCain

California Supreme Court Re-Writing Constitution

2008-05-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today, the California State Supreme Court decided 4-3 to recognize same-sex marriages in California.

Once again, extremest activists have done what is best for them, for the adults, without any consideration to the wake of destruction left heaped upon the children of these selfish, self-indulgent relationships.

Men and women are not interchangeable. A marriage between a man and a woman is not the same as a marriage between two men or two women. Marriage between a man and a women is what brings the unique power of self-respect, self-confidence and security to children - two opposing viewpoints in one household is mentally healthier for children.

In this era of gross misinformation about the realities of homosexuality, Dawn Stefanowicz, author of Out From Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting, whose own father led an openly homosexual life, writes, “From a young age, I was exposed to explicit sexual speech, self-indulgent lifestyles, varied GLBT sub-cultures and gay vacation spots,” Stefanowicz says in a warning to those who would give the nod to same-sex adoptions. “Sex looked gratuitous to me as a child. I was exposed to all-inclusive manifestations of sexuality including bathhouse sex, cross-dressing, sodomy, pornography, gay nudity, lesbianism, bi-sexuality, minor recruitment, voyeurism and exhibitionism. Sado-masochism was alluded to and aspects demonstrated. Alcohol and drugs were often contributing factors to lower inhibitions in my father’s relationships.”

Understandably, such an environment contributed to pathology in her life as well. “Over two decades of direct exposure to these stressful experiences caused me insecurity, depression, suicidal thoughts, dread, anxiousness, low self-esteem, sleeplessness and sexuality confusion. My conscience and innocence were seriously damaged. I witnessed that every other family member suffered severely as well.”

She adds, “Government and judges need to advance and defend marriage as between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others for the sake of our children.” The tragic realities of the homosexual sub-culture have already affected the offspring dramatically. But because the very nature of much of the homosexual lifestyle is one of selfish, self-indulgent hedonistic pursuits, the children are a throw-away by-product, that apparently Judges and gay activists feel is acceptible.

ProtectMarriage.com wrote this about the decision: As over 1.1 million signatures are being validated for the qualification of constitutional marriage amendment for the November 2008 ballot, the California Supreme Court today overturned Proposition 22, the initiative passed in 2000 by more than 61% of California’s voters. The Court declared a right to “same-sex marriage” in direct opposition to the definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman, established by Proposition 22.

In the majority decision authored by Chief Justice Ronald George, he wrote “an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.”

"The Court’s rationale for its decision should prompt outrage from the majority of California’s citizens,” said Ron Prentice, chairman of the ProtectMarriage.com coalition. “The will of the people has been completely undermined by four individuals. In November, the people will have an opportunity to overrule the Court’s decision by passing a constitutional amendment – and California’s voters must respond by voting,” concluded Prentice.

ProtectMarriage.com is a coalition of grassroots organizations, churches and voters, formed in order to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2008 ballot. The Supreme Court’s ruling coincides with the submission of 1.1 million signatures to California’s 58 counties. Known as the California Marriage Protection Act, the initiative’s signatures are now undergoing a review for validation. Based on the current projection of valid signatures, it appears the initiative will qualify for the ballot.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Marvin Baxter stated, “…marriage is, as it always has been, the right of a woman and an unrelated man to marry each other.” Baxter added “…there is no deeply rooted tradition of same-sex marriage, in the nation or in this state.” Concurring, Prentice said, “Since time began, marriage between a man and a woman has served children and societies best. Today, the California Supreme Court dishonored marriage’s tradition and historic purposes, as well as the will of the people.”

The Court’s ruling will take effect in 30 days, unless a “stay” is requested. It is likely that legal representation for ProtectMarriage.com will seek a stay in order to allow the people to vote on the constitutional amendment in November.

The decision is outrageous and unconstitutional. I suspect that there will be backlash.

USNA Plebe Year Almost Over...

2008-05-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

For those who visit my blog regularly, you know that my son is in his first year at the United States Naval Academy - he's a Plebe.

Today, the class of 2011, the Plebes, participate in Sea Trials. U.S. Naval Academy Freshmen, known as plebes, participate in "Sea Trials" at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., May 17, 2005. "Sea Trials" is an 11.5 hour action-oriented event, modeled after the U.S. Marine Corps' 54-hour "Crucible" and the Navy's "Battle Stations" training tests, which requires plebes to use skills they have learned during their first year at the Naval Academy.

Sea Trials, which begins well before dawn, consists of six phases lasting approximately an hour and a half each. During these phases, the freshmen, or “plebes,” are tested physically and mentally in a variety of challenging scenarios.

Under the supervision of upperclassmen, senior enlisted leaders and company officers, the midshipmen navigated challenging obstacle courses, confronted realistic damage control scenarios, and motivated each other through long-distance runs. Squads of midshipmen also tackled riverine training, zodiac boat drills, and endurance courses. More than 1,000 plebes participate in the capstone event, modeled after the Navy’s “Battle Stations” and Marine Corps’ “Crucible."

My son Morgan has actually been looking forward to this day. He is ranked 79th out of 1142 Plebes militarily, and has outstanding scores of 96% in his PRT's (Physical training). He played on the Brigade Championship 6th Company Field Ball team and is described by his commanding officer as a "Warrior."

He is ending his first year having not just survived, but thrived. Academically, he is ranked 377, and overall, ranked 257 - the top 23% of the class. He has worked very hard academically; his grades are stellar, with a solid "B" average. This is how he spent his year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxi_hfRJHFI&NR=1

Click this to watch a short video of the USNA Sea Trials. You'll be glad you are already out of school.

And then The plebes will become third class midshipmen, or sophomores, upon graduation of the Class of 2008 on May 23.

What a Year. What an accomplishment. Three more years to go.

This summer he is assigned to a submarine, with three weeks off in August. Did I already say what a year?

Does your school let you do this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDk5s4WrKcI Great video about the USNA.

and for a quick video of the culmination of Plebe year, watch Plebes and the Herndon Monument Climb and become 'PLEBES NO MORE!" http://wjz.com/search/default.aspx?SearchString=annapolis&TabId=0&NoLog=1

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

photos: Winter Formal event, Snow for a California boy, C Company warriors

More Liberal Drivel

2008-05-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

The Sacramento Bee has done it again. This time they are advancing the cause for the "Fairness Doctrine" under the auspices of "it's not fair."

On the Forum page in Sunday May 11, 2008, former Capital Public Radio personality Sue Wilson penned an opinion piece whining about how conservative talk radio is unfair because it dominates talk radio. She complained that liberal local talk radio was "taken" off the air (unfairly).

Wilson prattles on to support her opinion: In the political realm, three local radio stations program 264 hours of partisan Republican radio talkers beating up on Democrats every week. Now, zero stations program any Democratic view whatsoever: 264-0. This follows the national trend revealed in the 2007 Free Press and Center for American Progress study, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio." Nationally, 90 percent of commercial talk radio is conservative; only 10 percent is liberal. (This study does not include Public Radio, which by statute is required to provide differing points of view. One is as likely to hear a Republican's views as a Democrat's. And NPR hosts don't beat up on anybody.)

Sue Wilson obviously never sat through a semester in Economics or even U.S. History. She does not understand that "if you build it they will come" only works in the movies. Basic economics tear her theory and whining apart. If not enough listeners tune in to a radio show to sell the advertising necessary to keep it on air, the owner of the radio station pulls the show. It's called supply and demand - not fair or unfair.

That's just the economic aspect. The political aspect is that people are obviously bored with the radio personalities and their liberal rhetoric. They spend entire shows whining, complaining, but never offer solutions or ideasIf we don't like it from our kids, why would we subject ourselves to it on the radio? They use foul language, they say horrible things about people, and it's pretty obvious why they do not have a listening audience capable of supporting the programming. What advertiser wants to have his company name associated with whining, anger, foul language, liberal rhetoric?

The Liberal agenda already controls most of our news and information sources: television news, newspapers, news shows, as well as the entertainment industry which slants almost all movies to the left and rewrites history. Additionally, educators indoctrinate students with the liberal agenda from elementary school through college.

And now liberals want to eradicate radio of any conservative thought. That's called censorship and is a violation of free speech rights guaranteed in our constitution - Amendment l to the Constitution, ratified December 15, 1791.

Ms. Wilson lives in a bubble. She needs to branch out and listen to some of the "conservative" radio she claims is dominating the air waves. But that's too much to ask. A differing opinion is unacceptible to most liberals. And don't bog them down with facts, research and history.

One aspect conservatives have over liberals: we are constantly bombarded with the liberal message everywhere we turn. Consequently, we are able to sort through both points of view and derive an educated opinion.

Sue Wilson cannot say that. Her opinion piece was an embarrassment - full of holes, a purely emotional argument, and used faulty, skewed research.

Read her opinion column for yourself: http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/927485.html The Sacramento Bee has exhibited an incredible lack of journalistic professionalism, judgment and once again demonstrated to readers that it is no longer a credible news source.

Pathetic Female Journalists Drool All Over Themselves

2008-05-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Watch this video: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/05/08/obama.jeans.cnn

As if the female journalists traveling with Obama were really enthralled with his jeans...

They should have stopped ooohing and ahhhing long enough to realized that they are forever compromised are journalists. And now they need to wipe the drool off their collective chins.

Pathetic.

Who Is Your Favorite Conservative?

2008-05-09T09:35:00.001-07:00

I participated in another of John Hawkins' rightwingnews right-of-center bloggers survey. The assignment this time was for us to compile a list of whom we considered to be the most influential people on the right.

Here are the very interesting results:

All bloggers were allowed to make anywhere from 1-12 unranked selections and were allowed to choose anybody on the right or generally perceived to be on the right that they liked: Republican, Conservative, Libertarian, politician, preacher, blogger, columnist, radio host, you name it!
Without further ado, here are their selections with the number of votes beside of each selection:

#25: Mark Levin: 6
#21) Hugh Hewitt: 7
#21) George Will: 7
#21) John Roberts: 7#
21) Ronald Reagan: 7
#20) Victor David Hanson: 8
#19) Antonin Scalia: 9
#18) John McCain: 10
#14) Glenn Beck: 11
#14) George W. Bush: 11
#14) Glenn Reynolds: 11
#14) Matt Drudge: 11
#13) Bill Kristol: 12
#10) Charles Krauthammer: 13
#10) Thomas Sowell: 13
#10) Laura Ingraham: 13
#9) Karl Rove: 14
#8) Jonah Goldberg: 15
#7) Bill O'Reilly: 17
#5) Newt Gingrich: 21
#5) Ann Coulter: 21
#3) Mark Steyn: 23
#3) Sean Hannity: 23
#2) Michelle Malkin: 24
#1) Rush Limbaugh: 49

Missing Geese Update

2008-05-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

I finally was able to get some signage in our city park to help deal with the hunting/poaching of the domestic geese.

All of the geese in these photos are now gone. I shot one of the photos in my front yard. That's how friendly they were.

Click & Clack, Mack, Gabby and Louie...

And before them, Jack, Frack, Zack, and Click & Clack's parents.

The human predator is despicable.

"Prisoner's Rights:" The Rest Of The Story

2008-05-06T10:19:00.001-07:00

If you haven't heard of Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you are missing a great American. Arpaio is a true law and order man. His practices and enforcement should be emulated by every police and sheriff department in the country instead of allowing the ACLU to dictate "prisoner's rights."

Even before he became Sheriff in 1993, Joe Arpaio was one tough lawman. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1950 to 1953, and as a Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, NV, police officer for almost five years, Arpaio went on to build a federal law enforcement career and a reputation for fighting crime and drug trafficking around the world.

He began his career as a federal narcotics agent, establishing a stellar record in infiltrating drug organizations from Turkey to the Middle East to Mexico, Central, and South America to cities around the U.S. His expertise and success led him to top management positions around the world with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He concluded his remarkable 32-year federal career as head of the DEA for Arizona.

In 1992 Arpaio successfully campaigned to become the Sheriff of Maricopa County. Since then he has been reelected to an unprecedented four 4-year terms. During his tenure as Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arpaio has consistently earned extraordinarily high public approval ratings.

Arpaio has over 10,000 inmates in his jail system. In August, 1993, he started the nation’s largest Tent City for convicted inmates. Two thousand convicted men and women serve their sentences in a canvas incarceration compound. It is a remarkable success story that has attracted the attention of government officials, presidential candidates, and media worldwide.
Of equal success and notoriety are his chain gangs, which contribute thousands of dollars of free labor to the community. The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, clean streets, paint over graffiti, and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.

Also impressive are the Sheriff’s get tough policies. For example, he banned smoking, coffee, movies, pornographic magazines, and unrestricted TV in all jails. He has the cheapest meals in the U.S. too. The average meal costs about 15 cents, and inmates are fed only twice daily, to cut the labor costs of meal delivery. He even stopped serving them salt and pepper to save tax payers $20,000 a year.

Another program Arpaio is very well known for is the pink under shorts he makes all inmates wear. Years ago, when the Sheriff learned that inmates were stealing jailhouse white boxers, Arpaio had all inmate underwear dyed pink for better inventory control. The same is true for the Sheriff’s handcuffs. When they started disappearing, he ordered pink handcuffs as a replacement. And later, when the Sheriff learned the calming, psychological effects of the color pink—sheets, towels, socks— everything inmates wear, except for the old-fashioned black and white striped uniform, were dyed pink.

(read more about this amazing man here.)

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay. The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows. The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. He was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.

Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all ''G" movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get Sued For Discrimination. He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order That Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again. Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel. When asked why the weather channel He replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working ON My Chain Gangs.

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value. When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton..If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), The Associated Press Reported: About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before. Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.' Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear, But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes, So Shut Your Damned Mouths!'

Finally, someone in law enforcement who cares more about the victims than the lifestyles of the criminals. And probably for the first time in many of their lives, because of Sheriff Joe, these men and women are learning how to work for something, how to care, which will translate well on the outside.

What don't the liberals understand about the success of Sheriff Joe's programs?

read this report from Judicial Watch on their support of Sheriff Joe's fight against illegal aliens.

This man is a true American hero. He's a real man who has the courage of his convictions to fulfill his duties as Maricopa County Sheriff. Sacramento's Sheriff John McGinnis could learn a thing or two from this guy. Isn't the Sheriff by definition, in law enforcement?

Hillary Meal Deal

2008-04-29T09:47:00.001-07:00

What Can I Say?

Yale Senior "Art" Projected Aborted

2008-04-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

From the Yale Daily News:

Art major Aliza Shvarts ’08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts’ project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock — saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for “shock value.”
“I hope it inspires some sort of discourse,” Shvarts said. “Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it’s not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone.”

Well, what a sweet child. Imagine how lovely her parents are, and how proud of her they must be.

And what did Yale have to say about this?

Statement by Yale spokesperson Helaine S. Klasky:
Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.
She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.
Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

...and then these two other statements from Yale faculty were published:

http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/08-04-18-05.all.html

Aliza Shvarts needs to have her head examined, perhaps with forceps.

I am glad that I am not paying $33,800 for my kid to attend such a dysfunctional place of "higher learning." From the same people who care about the treatment of animals...

And just when I thought it was over, Shvarts in an interview later Thursday afternoon, defended her work and called the University’s statement “ultimately inaccurate.” She reiterated that she engaged in the nine-month process she publicized on Wednesday in a press release that was first reported in the News: repeatedly using a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself, then taking abortifacient herbs at the end of her menstrual cycle to induce bleeding. Thursday evening, in a tour of her art studio, she shared with the News video footage she claimed depicted her attempts at self-induced miscarriages.
“No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,” Shvarts said, adding that she does not know whether she was ever pregnant. “The nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties.”

I believe someone described her as a malignant narcissist. I'll second that.

Barack The Elitist Snob

2008-04-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama is a horrific, elitist snob. And it is as painful watching him trying to bowl in middle America, as it was watching the haughty John Kerry walk into a hunting store and announce, "I gotta get me a gun." Barack and wife Michelle aspired, planned, strategized, and schemed their way to elitism. Now they have it and can practically taste the food on the White House china, think they can bluff their way into the hearts of the people they most disdain.

No state college was good enough for either of them. The blue-bloods with whom they were desperate to become friends with, would have turned their noses up in distaste.

If you read nothing else this week, please read the Townhall.com column by Mary Grabar, titled Yes, Barack Obama, We Are Bitter:

"We know who you’re talking about, Barack Obama, when you talk about Pennsylvania and the Midwest, about small towns where the jobs have left. We know who you’re talking about when you talk about those who “get bitter” and “cling to guns or religion.”
You’re talking about “those people.”

You’re talking about white people who have neither the family connections nor the racial credentials to gain entrance to the world that you inhabit. Many of the people you’re talking about are those whose parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe who came to these places to work in steel mills, coal mines, and factories. We know the code words.

You’re talking about people whose culture is little known. We have been pretty quiet. We never tried to impose our culture on everyone. We never insisted on putting pictures of ourselves in our native dress into schoolbooks or mandating that our stories and songs be part of the curriculums."

read the rest here

Stark Raving Mad Maher

2008-04-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Bill Maher, the bitter, angry little man who hosts Real Time With Bill Maher, really stepped in it this week.

In one of his usual tirades on his HBO show, he stated that the Pope "used to be a Nazi" and compared him to a cult leader. He then went on to call the Church a "child-abusing religious cult" and "the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia." "And that’s the Church’s attitude: 'We’re here, we’re qu**r, get used to it,' which is fine, far be it from me to criticize religion."

NewsBusters Mathew Balan reported: "Following a profanity-tinged one-liner concerning the raid on the Texas compound of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Maher quipped, "In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God’s infallible wingman here on Earth, lock away the kids. Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That’s right, the Pope is coming to America this week and ladies, he’s single!" At the "funny hat" line, Maher displayed a picture of Pope Benedict wearing a wide-brimmed hat called a saturno.

MAHER: Now I know what you’re thinking: "Bill, you shouldn’t be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult." For one thing, altar boys can’t even get pregnant. But really, what tripped up the little cult on the prairie was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands, all over the world. Cults get raided, religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? Volume, volume, volume!

If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If have a billion, they call you 'Pope.' It’s like, if you can’t pay your mortgage, you’re a deadbeat. But if you can’t pay a million mortgages, you’re BearStearns and we bail you out. And that is who the Catholic Church is: the BearStearns of organized pedophilia -- too big, too fat. When the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney, he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the Statute of Limitations ran out. And that’s the Church’s attitude: 'We’re here, we’re qu**r, get used to it,' which is fine, far be it from me to criticize religion. But just remember one thing: if the Pope was -- instead of a religious figure -- merely the CEO of a nationwide chain of day care centers, where thousands of employees had been caught molesting kids and then covering it up, he'd be arrested faster than you can say 'who wants to touch Mr. Wiggle?'"

Maher's tirade was disgusting, irreverent, obscene and not funny at all. But then, not much of what comes out of his filthy mouth is funny; the bitterness, anger, ridiculousness and short man complex always takes precedent.

HBO, which also has aired the fantastic John Adams series, needs to cancel Maher. Where's the outrage from decent people? Perhaps Don Imus can lead the cause.

Audio of the highlights from this rant are available here.

Controversial Obama Quotes

2008-04-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Right Wing News has compiled the most controversial quotes from Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, & Jermiah Wright along with some bonus quotes about Obama's agenda from conservatives and even a few Pro-Hillary lefties. You can take at "Barack Obama in quotes" here:
http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/04/barack_obama_in_quotes_version.php

Here are a few sample quotes from the article:

"And if that child should ever get the chance to travel the world and someone should ask her where is she from, we believe that she should always be able to hold her head high with pride in her voice when she answers, "I am an American." That is the course we seek. That is the change we are calling for." -- Barack Obama
---
"We started the AIDS virus. ...We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty." -- Jeremiah Wright
---
"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed." -- Michelle Obama
---
"I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002." -- Hillary Clinton
---
Once again, you can read them all at the following address:
http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2008/04/barack_obama_in_quotes_version.php

*****************
elitist, condescending, smug, arrogant, pompous... have I left anything out?

Obesity: A Protected Category?

2008-04-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

Massachusetts is trying to one-up California on crazy legislation. There is a movement by obese persons to pass legislation that would see the words "height" and "weight" added to the existing anti-discrimination laws.

Yes, obese persons are trying to declare that it's not their fault they are obese and they can't be discriminated against.

When denied elective surgery by her doctor, one woman decided to advance the fat cause. Gail Burns testified before the Massachusetts legislature how it wasn't fair. "This is decided solely on the basis of a number on the scale, not an examination of the patient. I was denied surgery," read Burns, a church secretary and theater reviewer.

According to Burns and "fat activist" Marilyn Wann, Massachusetts would not be the first state to adopt this type of legislation; a similar bill was approved in Michigan and several cities - including San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Calif., Madison, Wis., and Washington, D.C. - have instated their own variations.

A number on the scale? Do you think that her doctor was perhaps concerned that her size and physical condition made surgery a risk he was unwilling to take?

I remember writing a research paper in the 6th grade on obesity and the condition, "overweight." Even in 1973, before the health and exercise "industry" and awareness began, doctors recognized the need for self-discipline, diet, and exercise.

Ask anyone who has had to lose weight, how difficult, but possible it is. I've had four back surgeries - all within six years. I never had a weight problem before back surgery, but after my physical routine was dramatically altered because of a ruptured disc years, I slowly put on extra pounds. However, after the 4th and final surgery, with careful diet discipline, and power walking, the weight came off and stayed off. No excuses - even rutpured discs are not an excuse.

That's exactly what it becomes - an excuse. Ms. Burns who was denied elective surgery, is looking for excuses and reasons for her hurt feelings because a doctor told her that she was too fat and consequently unhealthy for him to do surgery. I see that. I understand. But stop with the legislation. Look in the mirror and decide what you can or are willing to do about it.

Work or blame. Accept, or deny. Can you do something about it, or not? And if not, why do we need to legislate for obese guilt? Obese persons' poor health is not something that everyone should have to pay for, any more than we should have to pay for smokers, or drug users health problems.

The health issues that accompany overweight as too numerous to list. From bad knees, ankles, and feet to heart problems and even glaucoma, obese people are walking heart-attacks. And unlike a handicapped person with no legs or Cerebral Palsy, obese people can change their condition and situation.

Obesity is no handicap. If is a self-imposed condition (in most cases). When doctors issue handicapped license plates to the obese, they should be challenged. What the obese person needs is more opportunities for exercise, not coddling and legislation.

"I hope people in Massachusetts will take a courageous step. If we establish civil rights for height and weight, we're setting a standard for self-worth," Wann, of San Francisco, added. Wann also attended the hearing. (Of course she's from San Francisco)

Self- worth - now we are legislating self-worth. What next? Legislation against bad attitudes, or for people bad hair, bad skin, and ugly faces? If these people spent even half of the time exercising as they do sitting around and complaining how unfair life is and how they want to be accepted, they'd all be 100 pounds lighter.

The Apologists for the Hispanic family

2008-04-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Journalist Heather MacDonald together with a report in The Economist just confirmed what so many of us have feared: the Mexican culture in America is rapidly and dramatically entering a serious danger zone, with at exhorbanant illegitimatcy, poverty and gangs. For many conservatives, pushing to close the borders is about more than just illegal immigration. And it's not Xenophobic to say so.

***********

“The Hispanic Family: The Case for National Action” By Heather Mac Donald

Those of us who have documented the growing underclass culture among second- and third-generation Hispanic Americans have grown accustomed to being called bigoted “xenophobes” by open-borders conservatives. For some reason, these same conservatives don’t object to anyone decrying the consequences of black illegitimacy rates, or the toll of black gang culture on community life. But point out the high Hispanic illegitimacy and school drop-out rates, or the march of ever-younger Hispanics into gangs, and you can be sure of being accused of “anti-Hispanic cant” by people who work overtime to maintain the myth of the redemptive Hispanic.

read the rest here or continue below:

The apologists for the Hispanic family would have to add to their growing list of anti-Hispanic bigots teens like Liliana, an American-born senior at Manual Arts High School near downtown Los Angeles. “This year was the worst for pregnancies,” she told me in 2004. “A lot of girls got abortions; some dropped out.” There’s no stigma attached to getting pregnant, Liliana reported. The myth-makers might also talk to teachers, who say that for many Hispanic male students, being a “player” now includes fathering children out-of-wedlock.

I am unaware that any open-borders conservatives have taken up my suggestion, but the Economist somehow managed to get some sense of the culture. “Machismo” among young Latinos in Fresno, Ca., makes them less likely to use condoms in their teen trysts, the Economist learned. Cohabitation is seen as normal among the poor, and single parenthood merely regrettable, the magazine reports.

*****************
read the entire column The Hispanic Family: The Case for National Action

SNOB-ama

2008-04-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

Here’s the original SNOB-ama remark from Barry Obama:
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

I don't know. A comment as stupid and inflammatory as that makes me just want to go out to the shooting range for a little target practice. Or maybe go bowling instead. And at least I scored a 49 the last time I went bowling.

Get your SNOB-ama T-shirts and SNOB-wear here.

Read Lisa Schiffren's piece at NRO: What does Barack Obama, of the international upbringing and elite education actually know about ordinary Americans?

... and see how it came to be: Photoshop of the week: Typical liberal snob; Update: New Obama spin - “I didn’t say it as well as I could have”

and why: Snob-ama disses pro-gun, religious, anti-illegal immigration activists in Penn.

Who does he think he's kidding?

Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired Vice-President For John McCain

2008-04-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

I participated in the poll that Right Wing News performed. They polled more than 230 right-of-center bloggers (45 replied) on their favorite and least favorite choices for John McCain's VP. You can see who came out on top -- and on bottom. (here for the poll)

Specifically, we were asked to rank 1-5, people we would most like to see as John McCain's Vice-President and the 1-5 people we'd least like to see as John McCain's Vice-President.

All participating bloggers were provided with the following list of potential candidates although they were also allowed to select nominees who were not listed:

Haley Barbour: Governor, Mississippi
Marsha Blackburn: Congressman, Tennessee
Richard Burr: Senator, North Carolina
Jeb Bush: Former Governor, Florida
Tom Coburn: Senator, Oklahoma
Charlie Crist: Governor, Florida
Jim DeMint: Senator, South Carolina
Elizabeth Dole: Senator, North Carolina
Tommy Franks: Former General
Newt Gingrich: Former Congressman, Georgia
Rudy Giuliani: Former Mayor, New York
Lindsey Graham: Senator, South Carolina
Phil Gramm: Former Senator, Texas
Mike Huckabee: Former Governor, Arkansas
Duncan Hunter: Congressman, California
Kay Bailey Hutchison: Senator, Texas
Bobby Jindal: Governor, Louisiana
John Kasich: Congressman, Ohio
Joe Lieberman: Senator, Connecticut
Mel Martinez: Senator, Florida
Sarah Palin: Governor, Alaska
Tim Pawlenty: Governor, Minnesota
Mike Pence: Congressman, Indiana
Rick Perry: Governor, Texas
David Petraeus: General
Rob Portman: Congressman, Ohio
Colin Powell: Former Secretary of State
Condi Rice: Secretary of State
Tom Ridge: Former Governor, Pennsylvania
Mitt Romney: Former Governor, Massachusetts
Mark Sanford: Governor, South Carolina
Michael Steele: Former Lieutenant Governor, Maryland
Fred Thompson: Former Senator, Tennessee
John Thune: Senator, South Dakota
JC Watts: Former Congressman, Oklahoma
Christie Todd Whitman: Former Governor, New Jersey

The bloggers were allowed to make 1-5 ranked selections. Those selections were weighted as follows...
1) Worth 2 points
2 or 3) Worth 1.5 points
4 or 5) Worth 1 point

So, for example, a candidate who received two first place votes (4 points), a third place vote (1.5 points), & and three fifth place votes (3 points), would receive a grand total of 8.5 points.

Also, keep in mind that the scoring cut-off to be included in the lists below was 5 points. If a candidate received less than that, his/her score was not listed. Also keep in mind that not everyone put in 5 selections for each area.

Here are the selections that were made with the total number of points each candidate tallied following his/her name in parentheses...

The Most Desired Vice-President For John McCain

18) Rudy Giuliani: Former Mayor, New York (5.0)
17) Tim Pawlenty: Governor, Minnesota (5.5)
16) Jim DeMint: Senator, South Carolina (6.0)
15) Mike Pence: Congressman, Indiana (7.0)
14) Phil Gramm: Former Senator, Texas (7.0)
13) Elizabeth Dole: Senator, North Carolina (7.0)
12) Sarah Palin: Governor, Alaska (9.0)
11) David Petraeus: General (10.5)
10) Newt Gingrich: Former Congressman, Georgia (11.0)
9) JC Watts: Former Congressman, Oklahoma (12.0)
8) Haley Barbour: Governor, Mississippi (13.5)
7) Mark Sanford: Governor, South Carolina (16.5)
6) Duncan Hunter: Congressman, California (17.0)
5) Bobby Jindal: Governor, Louisiana (20.0)
4) Condi Rice: Secretary of State (22.0)
3) Fred Thompson: Former Senator, Tennessee (26.5)
2) Michael Steele: Former Lieutenant Governor, Maryland (28.5)
1) Mitt Romney: Former Governor, Massachusetts (29.5)

The Least Desired Vice-President For John McCain

15) Tom Ridge: Former Governor, Pennsylvania (5.0)
14) Tommy Franks: Former General (5.0)
13) Tim Pawlenty: Governor, Minnesota (5.5)
12) Rudy Giuliani: Former Mayor, New York (7.0)
11) Newt Gingrich: Former Congressman, Georgia (7.5)
10) Elizabeth Dole: Senator, North Carolina (7.5)
9) Mel Martinez: Senator, Florida (10.0)
8) Condi Rice: Secretary of State (16.5)
7) Christie Todd Whitman: Former Governor, New Jersey (19.5)
6) Joe Lieberman: Senator, Connecticut (19.5)
5) Charlie Crist: Governor, Florida (20.0)
4) Colin Powell: Former Secretary of State (23.0)
3) Jeb Bush: Former Governor, Florida (23.5)
2) Lindsey Graham: Senator, South Carolina (26.5)
1) Mike Huckabee: Former Governor, Arkansas (42.5)

poll by John Hawkins of Right Wing News

my choices?

Candidates I would most like to see McCain Choose as his VP:

1) Mitt Romney
2) Bobby Jindal
3) Duncan Hunter
4) Michael Steele
5) Tommy Franks - I love Tommy Franks

Candidates I would least like to see McCain choose to be his VP:

1) Mike Huckabee
2) Condoleeza Rice
3) Colin Powell
4) Jeb Bush
5) any gratuitous woman vote - Dole, Whitman, Snow, Blackburn, Hutchison

Lipstick On A Pig

2008-04-10T09:16:00.003-07:00

If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. I’m not picking on pigs so don’t send me emails. However, I am not a fan of Socialists, however you dress them up.

“New Progressives,” “Progressive Centrists,” “Progressive,” “Progressive Democrat,” it’s still lipstick on a pig. A Socialist is still a pro-government hack who believes in the redistribution of wealth (except their own), promotes welfare programs and other free stuff, believes in the nationalization of business and industry, and mostly is about people who deal in ideas, not reality.

I have a friend at work who originates from Canada. He’s always hard-timing me about how great Canada’s socialized healthcare system is. He is most vociferous during our health insurance annual open enrollment, at which time I have to announce to our employees the inevitable increase of health care premiums.

This year he got me thinking. Maybe he’s right. Maybe you can put lipstick on a pig, and enjoy a piggy-kiss. Maybe we conservatives should stop working so hard, and just sit back and enjoy all of the free stuff we already pay for.

Think about it; every level in government has Socialists fighting to give away free stuff; from our Mayor to the two Democratic Presidential candidates – they all believe in Socialism. In fact, they are trying to give us more welfare programs and “free” health care. So what am I fighting?

Socialists have a history of great ideas. Look at how well busing worked to integrate public schools. Or how lovely public housing is, and the high quality of life the residents of the HUD Section 8 high rise apartments and project housing have. And don’t forget the superior health care the socialists provide. Why pay for health insurance when for free, you can see the same doctor I see, receive the same prescriptions, and get treated in the same hospitals. Affirmative action was a great idea as well – nothing like affirmative action to boost the ole’ self-esteem of minorities and women.
The coercive power of the state does not improve the human condition. French Revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf thought that one must take by force through the power of the state to implement socialism. Babeuf came up with the idea of outlawing private property so that all could be "equal." "Liberty, equality, fraternity," said the French revolutionaries. The German Socialist Freiderich Engels came up with the idea that all private property is theft and that competition and capital leads to a concentration of wealth, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
It is fitting that Karl Marx is the most famous socialist of all. Objective biographers detail how much of a deadbeat he really was and how he spent his entire life mooching off others, like many socialists. They don’t want to work, but work at mooching for a living. Further, he had virtually no contact with, nor did he want anything to do with, the poor working-man he claimed to want to help. Does this sound at all familiar? Hillary Clinton comes to mind. And on a local level, Mayor Fargo, Councilpersons Rob Fong, and Sandy Sheedy, as well as the rest of the City Council, don’t want anything to do with the working-man they claim to want to help. It’s all for show, it’s all for votes and reelection. The majority of residents of Land Park, and Curtis Park, East Sac, The Sacramento Bee Publishers and Editorial Board, and Limousine Liberals talk about social programs, and wanting to “help” the little people, but think attending black-tie fundraisers is how it is done.
Author Joshua Muravchik (Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism) estimates that more than 100 million people were murdered in the name of socialism since 1917. Does that mean anything to these self-proclaimed socialist libs? Or do they not follow history? That would be too much work, after all.

So, it’s not just about the free stuff. Free health care, food stamps, rent, and education, all come with a hefty price. Besides losing any respect you may have had for yourself, Socialism will put you will be on par with everyone else – except for the fat-cat leaders who live exceedingly well. The “level the playing field” concept is always from a liberal. That’s why liberals tell their kids that they are all winners; no one is a loser.

Washington D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote on Socialism: “Instead of celebrating capitalism’s virtues, we offer it grudging acceptance, contemptuous tolerance, but only for its capacity to feed the insatiable maw of socialism. We do not conclude that socialism suffers from a fundamental flaw. We conclude instead that its ends are worthy of any sacrifice – including our freedom.”

Our Liberal Democrat-dominated state legislature as well as our own liberal, democrat-dominated city, is chipping away at personal responsibility, accountability, and our freedom.

Government derives its power from the consent of the governed, not the other way around. No amount of free stuff is worth losing more control and more liberty to the socialists. Pay attention city leaders. Your citizens are growing weary of your excesses.

Socialism appears to be a wonderful panacea to the naïve, to the physically and intellectually lazy… until the bodies start piling up.

Lying Liar, and More of Her Lies

2008-04-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

... as if anyone is surprised about Hillary getting fired for telling lies...

You know that experience she's always touting? That would probably be the past 37 years of perfecting her lies.
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Dan Calabrese’s new column tells the fabulous story:

As Hillary Clinton came under increasing scrutiny for her story about facing sniper fire in Bosnia, one question that arose was whether she has engaged in a pattern of lying.

The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes.

Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

read more here

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Wait! there's more!

Hillary Clinton didn't pay health insurance bills for her campaign staff.

During the first two months of the year, the [Hillary] campaign did not pay down any of that debt. In fact, it accrued another $16,000 in unpaid bills last month, and it finished the month owing Aetna $229,000. the debts reported: It’s not just the size of Clinton’s debts that’s noteworthy. It’s also that her unpaid bills extend beyond the realm of high-priced consultants who typically let bills slide as part of the cost of doing business with powerful clientele whose success is linked to their own. Some of Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000.

...and if you need more proof, read William Saffire's 1996 essay:

Blizzard of Lies

By WILLIAM SAFIRE Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital liar.

Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.

1. Remember the story she told about studying The Wall Street Journal to explain her 10,000 percent profit in 1979 commodity trading? We now know that was a lie told to turn aside accusations that as the Governor's wife she profited corruptly, her account being run by a lawyer for state poultry interests through a disreputable broker.

She lied for good reason: To admit otherwise would be to confess taking, and paying taxes on, what some think amounted to a $100,000 bribe.

2. The abuse of Presidential power known as Travelgate elicited another series of lies....

3. In the aftermath of the apparent suicide of her former partner and closest confidant, White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster... [h]er closest friends and aides, under oath, have been blatantly disremembering this likely obstruction of justice, and may have to pay for supporting Hillary's lie with jail terms.

Again, the lying was not irrational. Investigators believe that damning records from the Rose Law Firm, wrongfully kept in Vincent Foster's White House office, were spirited out in the dead of night and hidden from the law for two years -- in Hillary's closet...

The records show Hillary Clinton was lying when she denied actively representing a criminal enterprise known as the Madison S.& L., and indicate she may have conspired with Web Hubbell's father-in-law to make a sham land deal that cost taxpayers $3 million...

By concealing the Madison billing records two days beyond the statute of limitations, Hillary evaded a civil suit by bamboozled bank regulators....

"Why didn't she just come clean at the beginning?" She had good reasons to lie; she is in the longtime habit of lying; and she has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning lying in her aides and friends....

excerpt read the COMPLETE ARTICLE
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How can her followers not despise her? The web she spins, the lies that flow freely and easily from her lips, should be an embarrassment - to her as well as the people who claim to support her.

Would You Like A Saucer Of Milk With That Comment, Heather?

2008-04-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

With the race for Sacramento Mayor heating up, I wrote this column for The Sacramento Union Friday March 24th. I will post the follow-up column tomorrow.

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On March 5, former NBA player and Sacramento native Kevin Johnson announced that he is challenging two-term (and wanna-be three-term) Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo in the upcoming municipal election in June.

Described by NBA.com as “blindingly quick and possessing the ability to shoot or dish off his drives, Kevin Johnson can be as difficult to defend one-on-one as any point guard in basketball.” I am hoping that this translates to his political career. He’s going to need those fast-moving skills in the turbulent flight ahead.

After Johnson’s announcement, Fargo sneered on KCRA Channel 3, “If he is going to question my record, I get to question his. He will need to open up his books and explain to the taxpayers where all that money went in Oak Park… He has a fair amount of back taxes owed. He has some liens on his property. He will have to clear that up.”

Meow. Someone offer Mayor Fargo a saucer of milk.

While Bee columnist Marcos Breton contends, “Fargo didn’t just take the gloves off – she put on her brass knuckles,” I find her words more malicious and ill tempered. In other words, you are finally seeing the real Heather Fargo and not the tame, folksy persona she prefers in public.
Where Fargo made her big slip up was telling the Bee, “People are amazed by how many 9-0 votes we have,” referring to how everyone on the city council is like-minded. “What (he) is doing is running against the entire council, all of our records, and we have to defend what we’ve done together—and I think there is a lot.”

Another meow, Heather.

The Sacramento City Council members are also the same people fouling up all of the local boards and commissions in Sacramento—of course they all vote 9-0 on issues. They all share a bed as well as the same political consultant. Fargo is so out of touch, she is touting this political incest as a good thing.

That’s reason enough to want a different mayor—especially someone who has been the recipient of the city’s attack machine as soon as he started showing interest in running.
Just as with Hillary Clinton’s claim of “vast experience,” Sacramento residents don’t like the “experience” we have had with Heather Fargo. She has never been responsible for employees on her own dime or had to operate within a real budget or has even been on the receiving end of the redevelopment process. To his strengths as a candidate, Kevin Johnson has done those things. He has real business experience and responsibility where Heather Fargo has none. Spending other people’s money does not count, although she’s really good at that, as her “vast travel experience” is evidence. If only “Sister City” residents could vote.

Fargo told KCRA Channel 3 that voters should consider both her and Johnson’s records before choosing a candidate.

“We both have been entrusted with public money, taxpayer money and I think we need to review those records, and I think the public will be much more comfortable with mine,” Fargo said. “The improvements that he’s touting in Oak Park were all done with taxpayer money and that’s why we have to take a look at that.”

Meow, meow. Heather Fargo and the city council spend taxpayer money faster than we can get those property tax checks in the mail every April and December. The K Street Mall is an excellent example of wasteful spending and even worse oversight.

Let us remember the outrageous $8 million purchase of the Joe Sun & Co. building and store inventory—only a fraction of the $28 million spent on the hideous K Street redevelopment in just 2006. It seems that the city lightweights blew their budget on Joe Sun’s ugly building and now can’t afford to pay Moe Mohanna market value for his property. Heather Fargo is already demonstrating that she’s just another unsophisticated liberal harridan with her own self-interest in mind. She’s had eight years to show us otherwise. But she hasn’t.

Finally, Sacramento has a real race for mayor. Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. Return your trays to the upright and locked position. If further action becomes necessary, The Sacramento Union crew will inform you of this in a timely manner. We are about to encounter some heavy turbulence.

Human Predators

2008-04-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

Someone stole my geese. A couple of months ago, my geese, "Click" & "Clack," voluntarily moved from my backyard across the street to the big city park. There were other domestic geese living in the pond, and my geese joined them.

Saturday morning, they were gone. Since December, at least 11 of the domestic geese in the park's pond are gone.

Domestic geese don't fly nor do they migrate. They live at the pond as one, happy little flock.

Animal Control told me that the city is having a big problem with Southeast Asians stealing ducks and geese from city parks. If that is the case, then my Click and Clack were sold to an Asian market.

I am sickened. I am repulsed. And if the thieves are caught, it's just a misdemeanor.

Why did I have geese?

Last March 2007, two goslings appeared on my doormat - two fuzzy, yellow chicks. Except for the big feet, they looked like ducklings. Their parents had been hanging around my yard for a few weeks, so I figured they were nesting in the bushes. But the parent geese left the week-old goslings one day, and went back to the park. They came around periodically, but never showed interest in their babies. I have since found out that Chinese geese aren't always the best parents.

They would have ended up as raccoon food if we left them outside all night, so we brought them in the house and put them in a dog crate. I went online to find out what to feed them. The first night, it was mashed up cat food. The next day I went to the feed store and bought waterfowl starter feed. The rest is history.

They waddled around my kitchen for a couple of months. I put out baking pans of water for them to play in. I made them a nest with soft alfalfa hay inside of a plastic bin - the kind that fits under the bed. They ate a diet of waterfowl food, Romain lettuce and dandelion greens.

They grew and grew and grew. Their yellow down was pushed out by funny-looking feathers. They started to get aggressive, chasing visiting teenage boys, around the kitchen (that was a sight!). We all got a few goose bites. They went through that awkward stage where their feet and legs go so big that they looked like Ostriches.

We eventually moved them outside into our backyard. It is fenced with wrought iron fencing and has a big pond and fountain in it. A friend gave me an extra-large dog cage where they slept at night, safe from predators on their bed of alfalfa hay. We taught them to climb into the pond and swim. They loved the pond.

They grew and grew. The honking started. And everyday, they looked across the street longingly at the other geese in the park and honked.

Finally, we started letting them go to the park during the day. They came home every evening for food and bed.

And last December, they decided to make the park their permanent home. They visited everyday, as they waddled over from the park, often bringing two of three other goose friends. My son started calling me the crazy goose lady because I could hand feed all of them. I'd walk them back across the street to the pond, and visit them in the evening before dark, armed with Romain lettuce, a treat of dandelion greens and waterfowl food. Eventually, I made friends with all 14 of the domestic geese who lived at the pond. I named them: Mr. & Mrs. Brown, Frick & Frack, my own Click & Clack, Gabby goose, Louie, Yak and Mrs. Yak, Zack, Jack, Mack...

And then they started disappearing, two by two. We are down to only 3 big ganders: Yak, Louie and Gabby. Mrs. Yak is a Canadian honker - technically a wild goose. Ducks are missing as well.

Human predators are far more dangerous. We are supposed to know better, and take care of the animals, not prey on them.

The Many faces Of Barack

2008-03-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

The many faces of Barack Obama are very different and completely contradictory. However, this should not come as a surprise, as nearly everything liberals claim they believe, contradicts some other ideology they claim.

Victor Davis Hanson wrote a great column for Townhall.com titled, "A Speech Sen. Obama Could Have Given" here. Had Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., just said the following words last week in his speech on race in America, his problems with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, would probably now be over:

And Stephen Spruiell's column on Obama's campaign ad (featuring Delphi) that "might qualify as the most deceptive of the 2008 race." here First, Delphi did not exist as an independent company when Congress passed NAFTA in 1993. It was part of General Motors until it was spun off as an independent supplier in 1999. Second, foreign competition did not drive the company to eliminate American jobs. It declared bankruptcy in 2005 because the legacy labor costs it inherited from GM made it impossible to compete against other U.S.-based suppliers. Third, workers at the Warren, Ohio plant were offered generous buyouts and early-retirement packages. Its employees were not just kicked to the street.

Larry Elder wrote: here American blacks live in a post-slavery, post-Jim Crow world, with a growing, thriving black middle class. We live in a country where, for the most part, hard work, focus, ability and some luck determine success. Why, then, the continued anger, negativity, and finger-pointing, in a country to which much of the world -- if it could -- would happily relocate?

And Marty Peretz (Obama supporter) wrote: I've just read Dayo Olopade's fascinating piece, "Far Wright," on Barack Obama's far-left preacher, Jeremiah Wright. What's more interesting is Wright's comfortable upper-middle class upbringing. Peretz's friend Morton Klein is quoted in the column: It was hardly the scene of poverty and indignity suggested by Senator Obama to explain what he calls Wright's anger and what I describe as his hatred.
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If Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters and Diane Watson (and others like them) did not have race to dwell on, what would they talk about? How would they appeal to blacks? Aren't there more pressing issues facing black and white voters than black and white?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson said it best when writing about Cynthia McKinney's 2002 defeat: The bitter truth is that guilt-tainted racial appeals by black politicians for black solidarity and voter registration caravans and buses into black neighborhoods are not going to make blacks dash to the polls to vote for politicians who wage media-grabbing empty fights over issues that many black voters regard as remote and foreign to their needs and interests.

It's just about grabbing power and headlines - which translates to big income.
Everything is economic. don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
Barack Obama is as big a race baiter as any of the more obvious cons... he's just worked a little harder at being polished.

Lie Down With The Liars

2008-03-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton inserted her foot in her mouth - again, by telling an unnecessary lie about the danger of her visit to Bosnia. And Then, she had Chelsea support her statement.

The funny thing about liars is that they lie even when they don't have to - the mark of a Sociopath. How many Americans would have questioned the danger in Bosnia? We knew Bosnia was dangerous. She didn't need to embellish, but she's a liar by nature, and liars are compulsive. She's also a liberal, and liberals think that the average Joe is too stupid to draw reasonable conclusions, so they make stuff up.

And then she wouldn't admit that she even embellished because she's never wrong. It doesn't matter how many acting coaches and professional handlers Hillary has: she's still a cheap, tawdry harridan, blinded by ambition and power. She's dangerous for America... besides being a harpie.
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Sen. Clinton this morning after newsreel footage discredited her account of "landing under sniper fire" on a March 1996 trip to Bosnia.

YouTube - Hillary Clinton Lies About Her Bosnia Trip

I don't need to offer much comment about this. Chicago Tribune readers did a superb job:

"Call it "misspeak". Call it "exaggeration", as Obama did in his politically correct way. If it not the truth, it is a lie."

Chicagotribune.com user gjs writes, "I thought that when you misspoke it was an Innocent incorrect statement. How does telling the same thing twice in a two week period of time be misspeaking. Sound like an out and out lie to me."

A reader posting with the username Hilary writes, "Misspoke? Misstatement? Sounds like she didn't use any of the right words in any of the right places. Kind of like lying. "

User Boy George says, "Once again, Hillary proves that she will say anything to get elected.

Remember how she 'had always been a Yankee fan' when she was running for NY Senator?"

Liam says, "This was a deliberate Fairy Tale being told to convince people that Hillary is cool under fire, and that she would be remain cool when her imaginary Red Phone rings.

JB Nimbel writes, "If you ever stopped off a plane in the middle of "sniper fire", I doubt you would forget that experience. "

Jeff in Orlando agrees. "Don't you think, no matter how many trips you made, you would vividly remember if someone was shooting at you when you landed? Especially when you had your daughter with you."

Jane English Leary writes, "Surely, she remembers that Chelsea was with her and wouldn't have chosen to take her daughter into such a risky environment. Come on. Not a misstatement at all."

Whether Clinton's "misstatement" is or is not lie, chicagoharry reminds readers, "It's all a matter of what 'is' is."
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and Here's a few Clintonian lie-highlights from a FreeRepublic reader:

1. "I remember when I was a boy they burned the black churches in our area -BJ Clinton No black churches burned in Arkansas during that period." Bill

2. "I did not have sex with that woman." -Bill

3. "I was named after Sir Edmund Hillary." - Hillary Rodham She was born years before Edmund Hillary became internationally known.

4. "Chelsea was jogging near the twin towers when the plane hit." -Hillary - Not even close.

5. "We were under sniper fire." -Hillary

6. "I have thirty-five years of experience for the presidency." -Hillary
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Still lying after all these years...

Chelsea Clinton: Bill Reborn?

2008-03-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when Chelsea Clinton verbally chastised a college student for daring to ask her about her mother's reaction to Monica Lewinski, I realized that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. She pulled a Bill Clinton.

As she nationally campaigns for her mother, she has put herself in the public eye and is not untouchable any longer. She is also 27, a college graduate and has a career. Her mother is running for President, and has made her own near perfection, a campaign issue.

I always wondered who Chelsea would take after - mom or dad. Bill or Hill. Liar or bigger liar.

Anyone has the right to ask a candidate who is campaigning, anything. They candidate does not have to answer.

This is the Clinton legacy, and Chelsea is now left holding the bag.

Evan Strange, a Butler University student who works on the school's newspaper, The Butler Collegian, said he had asked Chelsea Clinton her opinion "on the criticism of her mother that how she handled the Lewinsky scandal might be a sign of weakness and she might not be a strong enough candidate to be president."

It wasn't clear what aspect of the former first lady's actions he was referring to. Before she was fully aware of President Bill Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky, Hillary Rodham Clinton said allegations about her husband and the White House intern were manufactured by a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Strange's question at Chelsea Clinton's appearance Tuesday at the school brought a stinging rebuke from Clinton's daughter. "Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business," Chelsea Clinton said during the campaign visit for her mother. (wnbc)

Chelsea is unfortunately showing that she is like her parents; if she doesn't like the question, she deflects and attacks. Sounds like dad... and mom.

On Crows Feet, Clogs & Rebranding

2008-03-21T10:32:00.001-07:00

I ran into a darling friend the other day while shopping with my son when he was home for spring break. As we chatted, she reached out and touched my cheek just below my eye. "I never noticed that you had crows feet," she said. Then when I admitted that I try to downplay the wrinkles with makeup, she quickly tried to spare my feelings. "Oh, but I mean that in a good way," she said. I told her that since I earned them, (looking at my son), it was just fine with me. She went on to say that she thinks crows feet are attractive... in that "older woman kind of way."

Uh oh. My son looked as if he wanted to run. Luckily, I know exactly what she means. I am fine with my face - crows feet and all. And yes, when I smile big, I have crows feet. So what? If I never smile, who will know? God love good friends who can tell you anything!

This incident reminded me of the latest typical American craze that some women are falling prey to: Rebranding. Columnist Maria McErlane with the Daily Mail wrote this: The rebranding party is a craze currently sweeping America. The idea is that instead of friends telling you how wonderful you are, they tell you everything about you that they don't like - with tips on how to change. Each attendee must be brutally honest about the elements of your personality they feel may be holding you back. They must bring positive and constructive ideas, offer assistance, and are given carte blanche to say whatever they want, on this one occasion, without you taking offence.

And in fem-magazine Marie Claire, the "I don't like you much party" is described as: the hottest party craze currently sweeping the States is the 'rebranding' do, where women ask their friends to come along and tell them exactly what's wrong with their life/lover/wardrobe over drinks and nibbles.

Uh oh, again. Not only am I sure that I don't want to give my friends that kind of liberty with me, I am pretty happy with the way I am. I think. Not that I couldn't use a little help from those who have to look at me... I get dressed up when I have to... even my 18-year old son thinks I look pretty good all dolled up. But what about the rest of the time...

So, if I entertain participating in this craze, my rebranding party invitation would read:

45-year old married gal, wears golf attire and yoga pants too much (& the clogs have got to go), needs a manicurist/pedicurist, can get too skinny, needs to be more disciplined with weight lifting for her bad back, should wear lipstick more often, needs to curb her opinion in social situations, should be more aggressive with her political writing career, needs to learn to return phone calls quicker, must get out for lunch more frequently (and stop eating leftovers while writing at her desk), needs to clean her house regularly and not just when people are coming over, takes in way too many stray animals (geese, birds, cats, dogs, rabbits...), rabble rouses too much, (at least she has a good husband)...

Oh no. I am afraid my Rebranding party would take weeks instead of just one evening. Forget the crows feet and yoga pants, I am a work-in-progress. Maybe some rebranding wouldn't hurt.

Obama's Doublespeak

2008-03-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

Obama has done it again - or so he thinks. The mainstream media are all atwitter with his latest delivery, but his speech is full of contradictions.

Again.

Obama finally admitted to being a divider, not a uniter. He divides by race, by gender, by class. He is class jealous.

He claims to want unity, but in the next breath continues to talk about the black experience, and the suffering. He has not transcended race or hate - he is promoting it.

My descendants suffered atrocities and unspeakable inhumanity. The Celtic tribes of my forefathers fought ruthlessly and brutally, enslaved women and children, and tortured and brutalized them. My relatives came to this country after the Irish Civil War looking for hope, and found themselves instead indentured servants and laborers.

I have been the recipient of outrageous sexual harassment, discrimination, jealousy, all in the workplace. But instead of calling myself a victim, I vowed to make something of myself, work harder and smarter, and not let the loosers who tried to subjugate me, win. I won. And it's not because I am white or female; it's because I am not a victim and I am a fighter.

Is this any excuse to race bait, and hate? Or is it just an excuse?

Obama is a master of speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Why won't his followers actually listen to his words instead of swooning over him like hormonal teenage girls at an Elvis concert?

OBAMA SPEECH IN FULL: A MORE PERFECT UNION

Obama's Big White Lie

2008-03-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

Suddenly, the mystery surrounding Obama's lack of substance becomes clear. how long did he think he could pull off the no-comment no-substance campaign?

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Sunday, March 16, 2008 7:14
Ronald Kessler

Clarification: The Obama campaign has told members of the press that Senator Obama was not in church on the day cited, July 22, because he had a speech he gave in Miami at 1:30 PM. Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama's attendance. Mr. Davis' story was first published on Newsmax on August 9, 2007. Shortly before publication, Mr. Davis contacted the press office of Sen. Obama several times for comment about the Senator's attendance and Rev. Wright's comments during his sermon. The Senator's office declined to comment.
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Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.
Senator Obama has sought to separate himself from his pastor’s incendiary remarks, issuing a statement Friday rejecting them as “inflammatory and appalling” but failing to renounce Wright himself for his venomous and paranoid denunciations of America.
In his press release, Obama claimed, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity [United Church of Christ] or heard him utter in private conversation.”
Appearing on cable news shows this past weekend, Obama claimed when he saw recent videos that have Wright making such comments as “God damn America,” he was “shocked.” Obama implied that the reverend had not used such derogatory language in any of the church services Obama attended over the past two decades.
If Obama’s claims are true that he was completely unaware that Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ has targeted “white” America and Israel, he would have been one of the few people in Chicago to be so uninformed. Wright’s reputation for spewing hate is well known.
In fact, Obama was present in the South Side Chicago church on July 22 last year when Jim Davis, a freelance correspondent for Newsmax, attended services along with Obama. [See: ”Obama’s Church: Cauldron of Division.”]
In his sermon that day, Wright tore into America, referring to the “United States of White America” and lacing his sermon with expletives as Obama listened. Hearing Wright’s attacks on his own country, Obama had the opportunity to walk out, but Davis said the senator sat in his pew and nodded in agreement.
Addressing the Iraq war, Wright thundered, “Young African-American men” were “dying for nothing.” The “illegal war,” he shouted, was “based on Bush’s lies” and is being “fought for oil money.”
Obama’s most famous celebrity backer, Oprah Winfrey began attending Wright’s church in 1984. Last year, Newsmax magazine reported that Winfrey abruptly stopped attending years ago, and suggested that she did so to distance herself from Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric. She soon found herself a target of Wright, who excoriated her for having broken with “traditional faith.”
The Reverend Wright’s anti-white theology that Senator Obama expressed surprise over is evident on the church’s website. The site says the congregation subscribes to what it calls the Black Value System, which is described as a disavowal of “our racist competitive society” and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” That is defined as a way for American society to “snare” blacks rather than “killing them off directly” or “placing them in concentration camps,” just as the country structures “an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.”
“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in the church-affiliated magazine Trumpet four years after the attacks. “White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
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read the rest from NewsMax here

Michelle Malkin has plenty to say: Jeremiah Wright’s Greatest Hits

and Jeremiah-gate: Glowbama’s losing his glow Update: Report: Obama nodded in agreement last summer

and Scott at Power Line

and The Los Angeles Times blog

Mickey Kaus has posted a La Raza press release listing Obama’s scheduled appearance at 1:30 p.m. There is also video of Obama’s appearance

and Now we know where Michelle Obama’s resentment of America comes from

Laura Ingraham found this: Abracadabra! Rev. Wright can't be found any longer on the Obama website.

THE TRUTH about Obama's lie: "Attempting to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama characterized Wright as "an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with."

The Double-Edged Sword of Harassment

2008-03-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

This week, all of my company's managers converged upon our attorney for a two-hour session of state mandated Discrimination & Sexual Harassment Prevention training. We did not learn anything new other than the fact that when an employee feels that she has been the victim of discrimination or harassment, the manager can be personally named in the complaint and ensuing lawsuit.

Oh goody. Trial lawyers lining their pockets again. I guess going after the employer just didn't provide enough funds.

California now makes it mandatory for companies with 50 or more employees to provide this training to managers, and the Human Resources director is no longer "qualified" to do the training - even though HR professionals are charged with the responsibility of investigating the harassment and discrimination claims. No. Now we must pay an attorney or other "certified" and "qualified" person thousands of dollars to "train" manager how to stop harassment and discrimination.

Is there discrimination and harassment in places of work? Yes. And it's wrong and frankly a disgusting and pathetic attempt at power by very small people.
However, no one ever talks about how women dress inappropriately - for work, or play . Yes, this is a real issue.

When a young girl or woman chooses clothes, she is very aware of her sexuality as well as the impact it has on men. Trust me - all women know this from the time they first flirt with their daddies.

When a woman chooses tight jeans, a lowcut t-shirt and high heals, she knows that all of her assets are on display for anyone and everyone to ogle. However, when she dresses like this for work, unless she works at Hooters, she should be sent home by her employer and told to dress more appropriately.

But men are terrified of women at work. Can her boss send her home? Can he even address her attire? When he points out to her that her attire is not appropriate, is that Sexual harassment because he was looking?

Do you see the outrageous legal conundrum we have as employers?

But trust me - a woman knows the effect her attire will have on men.

Employers can send an inapropriately dressed employee home to change as long as proper attire is addressed in the Company Employee Manual. In fact, I encourage it. Obviously some women never learned from their mommies the word "appropriate," or the timing of appropriateness and the workplace is not the venue to test this out.

I distribute memos every year to my employees, reminding them of our Company policy and what is appropriate attire in the workplace. And every year I have to send one or two women home to change their clothes. And yes, they have threatened to sue me, they have threatened discrimination and harassment, and a few have even informed me of their "right" to dress how they want to. They were terminated on the spot.

In the 18 years I have worked in Human Resources Management, I have fired several men for unbelievable behavior - disgusting harassment. I have never had a discrimination case with any validity. My company would not tolerate that behavior for five minutes. But more of the complaints are the result of hurt feelings, spurned lovers, tough managers who are demanding, or young, flirtatious women flaunting themselves at guys and then deciding they don't want the guy after all; the embarassment usually leads to a sexual harassment claim.

Preventing discrimination and harassment in the workplace is a double-edged sword. Managers and owners cannot be afraid to declare attire policies, as well as zero tolerance for any discrimination, and then enforce the policies.

And don't be afraid to tell a female coworker that she is dressed inappropriately. Dressing like a floozie is ugly anytime, but we don't have to tolerate this at work... we see it enough at the mall, the grocery store, the video store, at school, at the gym...

Cutting Illegal Aliens' Benefits Before We Cut Education

2008-03-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

While California State Democrats are pounding their chests and bloviating again about the need to cut education if we don't raise taxes to balance the state budget, illegal aliens continue to receive the lions share of taxpayer-funded freebies.

Republican Assemblywoman Audra Strickland has introduced legislation to require proof of legal residency in order to receive the myriad of welfare benefits and other subsidies that illegal aliens have been enjoying. A few of the benefits illegal aliens receive are, subsidized college tuition, welfare, food stamps, adult and career technical education, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, as well as Workers Comp benefits through employers, medicare, and unlimited health care at emergency rooms all over the state.

Strickland wrote in a guest commentary on the FlashReport: "That is why I have introduced AB3x 20 and its companion bill ACA 14. If signed into law, AB3x 20 will require all adults applying for state benefit programs to prove legal residency in order to qualify. ACA 14 would place an initiative with identical legislative provisions on the ballot for voter approval. Passage of these measures is estimated to save the state anywhere from $5 billion to more than $10 billion a year."

"Before we consider cuts to education and lay off teachers, before we consider cuts to children in foster care, before we jeopardize public safety by releasing 22,000 prisoners, before we increase tuition for lawful students, before we adopt the Democrat's multi-billion dollar plan to increase taxes, we should stand firm against state taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants. It is time to end the Democrat's ruse and put Californians first."

Finally, a legislator willing to take on the politically incorrect, multi-billion dollar illegal alien experiment.

California Democrats Shameless Tax Increases

2008-03-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

California Legislature
ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS RELEASETOP 10 LIST OF DEMOCRAT TAX INCREASES

Democrats Threaten To Hold Up State Budget For Tax Increases

SACRAMENTO – Assembly Republicans today released a Top 10 List of tax increases proposed by Democrats in the Legislature to highlight the lengths to which the majority party will go to try to raise taxes on California’s hardworking families.

Last week, Democrat leaders declared they would hold up passage of the state budget later this year if it did not include at least $5 billion in higher taxes. So far this year, Democrats have proposed over $25 billion in tax increases on Californians.

“It is simply irresponsible for Democrats to stick their head in the sand and refuse to reduce state spending to address our massive budget deficit,” said Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, of Fresno. “Raising taxes will do nothing but hinder our economic growth and punish taxpayers for the fiscal mismanagement of the liberal majority.

Republicans will stand firm in protecting the wallets of hard-working Californians from higher taxes and we will reject each and every attempt by Democrats to raise taxes.”

Here are the “Top 10” tax increases proposed by Democrats so far this year:

10. The iTunes Tax
Assembly Bill 1956 (Calderon) would require state tax officials to begin imposing sales taxes on music, movies and software purchases made online, such as on iTunes. Democrats have also talked about taxing all items purchased on the Internet ($500 million tax increase).

9. The Plastic Bag Tax
Assembly Bill 2829 (Davis) would impose a new plastic bag tax, at a still-unspecified level, on the plastic bags used by grocery stores and other retailers to package purchases.

8. Making It Easier for Politicians to Raise Taxes
Senate Constitutional Amendment 18 (Torlakson) would make it easier for local politicians to raise taxes, by allowing educational finance districts to impose special taxes by a majority vote.

7. Increasing the Car Tax
Assembly Bill 2388 (Feuer) would raise the car tax based on the weight of the vehicle and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions it emits, to a still-unspecified level.
Assembly Bill 2522 (Arambula) would authorize San Joaquin Valley air quality officials to impose a new $30 car tax on local drivers, without a vote of the people.
Assembly Bill 2638 (Coto) would impose a new sales tax on the sale of cars in California that get less than 15 miles per gallon.
Senate Bill 1731 (Yee) would authorize San Francisco Bay Area transportation officials to impose a higher car tax on local drivers, without a vote of the people.
Democrats have also proposed restoring the higher car tax imposed by former Governor Gray Davis and repealed by Governor Schwarzenegger upon taking office, a $6 billion tax increase.

6. Increasing the Gas Tax
Assembly Bill 9xxx (Núñez) would impose a costly new “oil severance” tax on the cost of oil production in California. This will cause gas prices to soar new heights in California as this new tax will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices at the pump. Assembly Bill 2744 (Huffman) would authorize San Francisco Bay Area transportation officials to impose a new gas tax, of as much as 10 cents per gallon, to pay for new government spending.
Assembly Bill 2558 (Feuer) would authorize Los Angeles transportation officials to impose one of two different taxes, subject to a majority vote, to address climate change – an increased gas tax as high as 3 percent, or an increased car tax as high as $80.

5. Raising Income Taxes
Assembly Bill 2372 (Coto) would impose a new 1 percent tax on Californians earning more than $1 million per year, raising the state’s highest income tax rate to 11.3 percent.
Assembly Bill 2897 (Hancock) would impose a new 10 percent tax rate for individuals earning more than $136,115 every year ($272,230 for joint filers) and a new 11 percent tax rate for individuals earning more than $272,230 per year ($544,460 for joint filers).

4. Closing So-Called “Tax Loopholes”
Democrats and others have pushed closing “tax loopholes,” which is an effort to raise taxes on working Californians. These so-called loopholes include taking away the senior citizen tax credit (a $255 million tax increase) and reducing the child dependent tax credit ($2.4 billion) – which will hurt middle-class families.

3. New Health Taxes
Democrats have proposed the largest tax increase on businesses in state history, an $8 billion jobs tax, to pay for government-run health care. In addition, Assembly Bill 2967 (Fuentes) would impose a new .06 percent tax on the gross operating costs of every California hospital, to pay for new government health care programs.

2. Creating a New Tax on California Businesses
Speaker Núñez has talked about creating a new split-roll property tax on California businesses, which would be a $3 to $7 billion tax increase on businesses. This would lead to higher prices for consumers and the threat of job losses.

1. Taking Away the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
Democrats have proposed eliminating the state home mortgage interest deduction, also known as the homeowner’s tax, which provides significant tax savings for working families and helps many Californians afford the expensive costs of home ownership. This would be a $5.3 billion tax hike.
*************

Shameless Democrats.

Michelle Boo Hoo Obama

2008-03-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ralph R. Reiland of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported on Michelle Obama's recent stop in Zanesville, Ohio where 1/4 of the population lives under the poverty rate. However, that didn't stop Mrs. Obama from whining about the cost of piano lessons and summer camp for her daughters. Looking out at an audience of families who live on less than $22,000 per year, she flt that it was acceptible to lecture them about their education and career choices - about "giving back."

Michelle Obama is an elite Democrat.

"We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do," she told a group of women at a day-care center. "Don't go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond."

"Employed as vice president for community affairs, Mrs. Obama's annual compensation jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office.
That's a $195,052 raise -- not bad for someone who looks down her nose at the "money-making industry."

"All told, the total income declared by the Obama household on the couple's 2006 income tax return, figuring his Senate salary, book royalties and her compensation from sitting on corporate boards, was $991,296 -- again, not bad for sacrificing themselves in the "helping industry."
Still, Mrs. Obama complained about the amount of money she has to spend on piano, dance and other lessons for her two children and the burden of paying back student loans from her time at Princeton and Harvard."

Someone please slap her back into reality. Apparently the "two Americas" theory is alive and well, living within the elite wing of the Democrat party.

"It's doubtful that many in the audience could feel Mrs. Obama's pain. The median income for female workers in Zanesville last year was $20,142. In surrounding Muskingum County, 88 percent of adults don't have a college degree and an estimated 20 percent don't have high school diplomas."

“We spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we’re spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements. And summer programs… Do you know what summer camp costs?”

Boo hoo Michelle. After-school programs just don't cost that much. Even sports don't cost that much. Where are her kids going? To fantasy spring training camp? She is obviously grooming her children for a life of elitism.

Jack Kelly has more.

Where is the media reporting on this outrageous display of elitism? And where has Michelle gone? Into hiding? Is that how the Obama camp keeps her quiet? What happens if she's First lady? what will she whine about then...the used White House china?

HO HO HO: Sptizer's Gotta GO

2008-03-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

Allahpundit from HotAirblog has this to say:

The “no schadenfreude” rule is still in effect, but rules were made to be bent. Only a little, though: There are still innocents caught in the crossfire here.

Unable to accept that a Democrat might be guilty of malfeasance without some greater Republican malfeasance to explain it, the nutroots splits into two camps: (a) Spitzer didn’t really do anything wrong since the only true crime is hypocrisy (of which he’s also guilty, but never mind that); (b) the whole prosecution is a politically motivated witch hunt by Bush’s DOJ, a claim debunked here by Karl in wondering what the feds were supposed to do, precisely, once Spitz’s bank raised the alarm about shell companies and “structuring.” read on and watch the video:

more on this story:
Spitzer Linked To Prostitution Ring by Wiretap
Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood: Sex + Hypocrisy
Spitzer Addresses Media

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

Just as I said with Foley, Craig, Condit and Bill Clinton, these lying, cheating, hypocrites need to disappear from public life. But the Democrats never do... will Spitzer leave, or continue to live a life of hypocracy, while dragging his wife and children through the gutter?

Nasty Feminists Don't Get The Love

2008-03-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

What happens to women who have shunned men and consequently have shot themselves in the... not foot... well... let's say they don't get any love.

Man haters have cooked their own gooses. But they don't cook either. Oops.
Hmmmm.

Man haters have cleaned their own clocks. Oh Darn. They don't clean.

Okay. Let's try again. Apparently the housekeeping analogies don't work with this subject.

Man haters have shot their... nope. That doesn't work.

Let's just say that man hating women are S. O. L. Does that work?

Man hating women have created so much inner hated for the traditional and natural man/women love relationship, that they are now alone, ugly, miserable, and forced to hang out together, forever complaining about what they are really missing in life.

Have you ever met a happy feminist? Nope. And I'll bet you won't.

I was forced to take a miserable feminist class in college, way back in the early 1980's. It was taught by a militant lesbian feminist. Those of us young ladies who dared to wear makeup and have boyfriends were punished for being conventional. Apparently the urge to love a man is far too conventional for a radical feminist. This feminist teacher "taught" us that traditional sexual relations between husbands and wives is rape, and we were nuts for desiring a husband and children. Today's young women are taught far worse - and now most "women's studies" courses on university campuses are taught by bitter, mean, nasty females, but not by women.

Being a women is a privilege.

Feminists are all pent up and pruned faced from years of scrunching their faces whenever the subject of "man" is brought up.

Men are wonderful. Men are delightful. Men are normal and natural and great, and real women love men. While men make us crazy because we are so different (and visa versa), at least we do it together.

What do militant feminists have? Jane Fonda? Cindy Sheehan? Rosie O'Donnell? CA Senators Carole Migden and Sheila Kuehl (hags)? Other shriveled up, angry, women? Or the harlets in Hollywood who never marry the fathers of their children? Some role models...
Nasty feminists don't get the love... that is, they don't get the love they need. Maybe that's why they wear such ugly clothes. The fear of looking feminine and pretty must be dangerous to a feminist.

Self-Reliance or Entitlement?

2008-03-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

How is it that two successful black women, who both have experienced racism in their lives, can take such different ideological paths in life?

Condoleezza Rice chose to follow her father's advise that black people would have to prove themselves worthy of advancement, and would simply have to be "twice as good" to overcome injustices built into the system. “My parents were very strategic, I was going to be so well prepared, and I was going to do all of these things that were revered in white society so well, that I would be armored somehow from racism. I would be able to confront white society on its own terms.”

Michelle Obama however, chose to be a victim: "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before."I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

Both women are highly educated. Condoleezza Rice Rice graduated from St. Mary's Academy (a private all-girls Catholic high school) in 1970. In 1974, at age 19, Rice earned her BA in political science, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver. In 1975, she obtained her Master's Degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame. She first worked in the State Department in 1977, during the Carter administration, as an intern in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 1981, at the age of 26, she received her PhD. in Political Science from the Graduate School of International Studies at Denver.

Michelle Obama Michelle graduated high school from Whitney Young Magnet High School (a highly selective-enrollment Chicago public school) in 1981 and went on to major in sociology and minor in African American studies at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with an Artium Baccalaureus in 1985. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.

Their career choices are interesting as well. Condi Rice was hired by Stanford University as an Assistant Professor in Political Science (1981–1987). She was granted tenure and promoted, first to Associate Professor (1987–1993), and then to Provost, the chief budget and academic officer of the university (1993–1999), and full Professor (1993–present). Rice was the first female, first minority, and youngest Provost at Stanford. She was also named a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. She was a specialist on the former Soviet Union and gave lectures on the subject for the Berkeley-Stanford joint program led by UC Berkeley Professor George Breslauer in the mid-1980s.

Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin where she first met her husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property. Subsequently, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor and Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies.

In 1996, Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service Center. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May, 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs. She still holds the position, though is working part time in order to devote more time to being a mother.(information from Wikipedia)

Michelle Obama recently said, "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."Then in Madison, she said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change."
(Watch the video of this second comment HERE.)

She said in a speech, "We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another — that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation."

Where does all of this despair originate from a woman who has benefited so greatly in America? Her ambition was never quashed. She was accepted to Princeton and was able to pay for it using student loans. She fulfilled her dreams of elite education, elite jobs and career. Why the despair?

Compare Obama's quotes to Condoleezza Rice's: "I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group... In America, with education and hard work, it really does not matter where you come from - it matters where you are going."

"Birmingham [Alabama] was odd. It was completely segregated. But the black community built its own world. I went to ballet classes and took French lessons and etiquette classes. My father had a picture of me when I was about four sitting on Santa Claus's lap and I have this really odd look on my face, and I wonder if that's because I'd never been that close to a white person before."

"I was going to be so well prepared. And I was going to do all of these things that were revered in white society so well, that I would be armoured somehow from racism. I would be able to confront white society on its own terms. My family is third- generation college-educated. I should've gotten to where I am."

One woman is all about entitlement, and one is all about self-reliance. Michelle Obama is bitter and depressing, while Rice is positive and full of hope, and what can be.

Obama is a classic, whining feminist who waves the victim flag and screams, "What can you do for me?" while emasculating her husband. Rice, although unmarried, is not a feminist. She honors her culture and history, is not embittered by it, nor does she wear her race like a scarlet letter. Rice drew protests when, as provost, she departed from the practice of applying affirmative action to tenure decisions and unsuccessfully sought to consolidate the university's ethnic community centers (LA Times). How's that for self-reliance?

Chatting With an Obama Believer

2008-03-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

Chatting with an Obama supporter yesterday, left me with an insatiable desire to claw my eyes out.

This was not a woman I know - I was waiting in a long line at a grocery store when she walked up behind me, wearing an OBAMA t-shirt.

Curious, I asked, "Going to vote for Obama?" I said nodding, as if I understood her plight. Her eyes glazed over and she smiled that knowing smile. "Oh yes!" she exclaimed. "I first joined Obama a few months ago," as if she joined a church. I asked, "joined Obama," with my eyebrows raised practically up to my hairline.

She explained that she "converted from Hillary to Obama," and is now a devotee. So I bit. I asked her what specifically about his policies that she loved so much. She just stared and blinked, with a soft smile. So I instead asked her what it was about him that she loved so much. This was an easier question to answer because she practically bubbled. "I love how he brings people together," she said.

"To do what?" I asked kindly and softly.

She stared and blinked again... blinked like Nancy Pelosi at the State of the Union... blink, blink, blink, blink, blink...

"Uh, well, he has such an amazing ability to bring people together to get things done," she proudly answered.

"What kinds of things?" I asked again.

"Well, when people come together everyone benefits," she said.

I nodded and smiled. What kind of beast can argue with this logic? "How will you benefit?" I asked her.

"Well, like when people come together like say, in environmentalism, with more people recycling, the world will be a better place."

Now I was staring and blinking. Rapidly. My eyes were stinging. I bit my cheek.

"So if more of us recycle our garbage, this is Obama's doing?" I replied. I am confused.

"Well, okay. When people come together and are inspired by him, we all will benefit. We all will see the good in each other, and get more done" she explained.

I said, "Wow, he sounds more like a prophet than a politician." And then I moved in for the kill. "So, getting back to his politics, which of his policies do you like?"

Again she stared, and began to pick at her cuticle. The rapid blinking started up again. But then a smile started to form at the corners of her perfectly lined mouth. "The war!" she exclaimed loudly. "He's against the war."

Hmmm.

"Yes. He says he is against the war," I said. "So what will he do?"

Blink. Blink. Blink.

"Well," she said changing tactics, "He represents Americans."

"Okay," I said, practicing a level of patience unfamiliar to me, "How does he represent Americans? What does that mean?" I deplored. I felt as if I was talking to a kindergartener.

"He gives us hope for a bright future," she answered.

I had wondered when she would bring up "hope."

"How does he give us hope?" I asked, still smiling, but clicking my tongue.

She was now getting frustrated with my questions even though I was asking them in the nicest way possible.

"Look," she said, "I am just a Obama volunteer. We aren't given details. I just like him a lot. I know he will do great things for America. He will bring about change. He will bring back hope. He has plans. That's all I know," she finished breathlessly, clearly her way of saying that this discussion was over.

I thanked her for helping me understand Obama better, as if she had enlightened me. She smiled and rapidly blinked again. It was obvious she wished I would go away. But I was ahead of her in the line. Finally it was my turn - the clerk began scanning my groceries.

My blinking friend grabbed a People Magazine and stared at the pictures. I had just one more question. Turning toward her, and looking at the page she had opened in the People Magazine I said, "Well, at least you are in good company with Oprah - she loves Obama."

This was like talking about the Dali Lama to a Hollywood star. "Oh I know," she said with conviction. "And who doesn't listen to Oprah?" she added.

"Yup." I smiled. I bit my cheek again. And started blinking rapidly.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

2008-03-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

As an employer in the United States of America it is my responsibility to verify applicant's identification as well as their social security numbers. If any of this looks fishy, then what?

Some lawyers say that legally employers cannot refuse employment to an applicant because their identification is suspicious because the applicant can bring a discrimination lawsuit against us. Hmmmm. Shouldn't I be able to sue them for the time, labor and cost it takes me to find out they are not who they say they are?

But government officials say that employers are to blame for knowingly hiring illegal aliens.

In the past, if an applicant provided identification that looked "homemade," I would call it in to a phone number at the Social Security Administration (a number that I had been given by an INS drug agent) for verification. However, if the number did not match the person's name, the only thing the Social Security employee would tell me is to have the applicant go to their nearest office and apply for a valid social security number, and that I could not refuse to employ them.

Then along came Homeland Security. They had developed an employer's page where we could verify the validity of an employee's identification, albeit with all of the disclosures that we could not use the information in our decision to hire or not hire someone.

But that service just quietly disappeared - after I took the two hours filling out the lengthy application, received approval, and was thoroughly screened myself.

Today, I tried once again to sign up on the Social Security website for social security number verification, only to be dumped into a dead end page claiming that my employer would be notified "usually within 2 weeks." I am the employer! This after I had to provide my Federal Tax ID number, my personal information, etc... Somehow, my valid information is not valid enough for me to be cleared by the Social Security Administration as an employer who just wants to verify someones social security number.

So now I have yet another employee who has been working here for months, who just can't provide valid identification. And no one can tell me if he is illegal, has a record, or is in the witness protection program.

But it's my fault if he is illegal.

Dab At Your Eyes - Hillary Cries Again

2008-02-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

Poor Hillary - "it's tough being a woman out there." (Dab at eyes)

Clinton: Playing Field for Her as Candidate Not Even Because of Her Gender

February 28, 2008 8:44
by Jake Tapper
ABC News' Senior National Correspondent

In an interview with ABC News' Cynthia McFadden to air on this evening's "Nightline," Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says it's tougher for her to run as a woman than it is for her male opponent.
Asked why she thinks so many women may be feeling sorry for her, Clinton said, "I think a lot of women project their own feelings and their lives onto me, and they see how hard this is. It's hard. It's hard being a woman out there. It is obviously challenging with some of the things that are said that are not even personal to me so much as they are about women.

"And I think women just sort of shake their head," Clinton continued. "My friends do. They say, 'Oh, my gosh, this is so hard.' Well, it's supposed to be hard. I'm running for the hardest job in the world. No one has ever done this. No woman has ever won a presidential primary before I won New Hampshire. This is hard. And I don't expect any sympathy, I don't expect any kind of, you know, allowances or special privileges, because I knew what I was getting myself into.

"Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field," she said, "but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there."

Of course, it might be observed that it likely hasn't exactly been a complete walk in the park for an African-American to run for president, either.

But apparently Clinton thinks -- based on this comment -- that the "playing field" is easier for a black man than a white woman.

I also wonder if former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. -- and all the other men vanquished by Clinton (and Obama) so handily -- think that they had an easy go of it.

What do you think?

- jpt
***************

What do I think? How about what I know. Grandma used to say that if you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen. Perhaps Hillary should reacquaint herself with her kitchen, and whip up a humble pie, and some thick-skin a la mode.

She clearly can't take the heat without using the female drama card. Can you imagine Condi Rice crying after a tough meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? "Boo hoo. He won't denounce terrorism... boo hoo. It's so hard being a woman in a terrorist's world. Boo hoo."

It's not hard being a woman out there, it's lonely. Hillary does not speak for women, and she doesn't represent the American woman. We have more grit than Hillary will ever know. While she plotted and strategized, connived and schemed for most of her adult life, the rest of us women worked hard everyday at our jobs, our families, at our marriages and friendships. Hillary Clinton's only reference point on groups of women is from her days at Wellesley... a sad commentary and pathetic example. And because she doesn't have a husband she can cry to in the privacy of their home, she uses the cameras.

What Hillary needs is a public redressing by another woman - one who does not parade with the feminists, one who has been in healthy relationships with men, whose femininity is intact, and is strong enough NOT to cry in public. When adult women cry out of frustration, it is a manipulation.

Hillary is an embarassment to the millions of women who work everyday without crying. What she's really upset about is that her coronation looks like it's in jeopardy, and she thought it was in the bag. She's just like a murderer crying on the stand for the jury - they think he's crying with remorse and for the victim, but what he's really crying about is the life sentence facing him. She's crying because her life sentence is back in New york with Bill.

The Ugly Face of Code Pink

2008-02-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen a good-looking Code Pink member? Alone, each Code Pink member can make even Rosie O'Donnell look handsome. Together as a group, the bitchiness, the shrill voices all talking at one time, the shrews cackling at passers by... but the faces of Code Pink can melt the chrome off a '59 Cadillac.

Look who’s calling for the Marines now on Michelle Malkin's blog - the head shrew Medea Benjamin. The Code Pinko's are a deranged bunch of women. Maybe it's true that when you get a bunch of women together for any length of time, they all PMS simultaneously. Oh, but wait. I think these women are all in menopause...

Start with this: Some College Republicans from San Francisco State filmed this video of one of the city-of-Berzerkeley-approved protests at the USMC recruiting center.

Then, watch a brief video of a Code Pink meeting with The Washington Times: breitbart.tv ...

Here is a listing of many of Michelle Malkin's Code Pink posts:

Talking back to Code Pink

Howard Dean’s true colors

Code Pink is Code Blue…

A challenge to Code Pink

Dems gave Code Pink disrupters tickets

Code Pink on the “other side”

Code Pink slips through?

A closer look at Code Pink

and of course, a follow up to the diabolical and anti-America Berkeley protests:

The Berkeley after-action report

and I could not leave this out: Berkeley Code Pink Protests Bring Vietnam Vet to Tears

These women are hysterical shrews with Jello for brains, and obviously have nothing better to do with their time. They support everything that's Anti-American. Speak out against them every chance you get. Let's silence the shrews.

What the #@!! Is Going On at Regional Transit?

2008-02-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

The den of thieves that we call Regional Transit in Sacramento, is working a pretty big cover up these days - internal criminal behavior as well as internal irresponsible and criminal spending that rivals the DMV and Congress.

There are problems other than who is running the show and taking big contract payouts.

Light rails guards are at war with RT management. Over what? I have word from an insider that one female guard has been repeatedly harassed and stalked by a convicted felon. But her management won't do a thing about it. In fact, they have told her to keep her mouth shut, and instructed her NOT to go to the police.

This convicted felon apparently has a well-connected mother who has been accused of buying her son's freedom - everyone from the parole officer to the Judge is suspect in this case. Meanwhile, the female guard works in fear.

And it seems that this particular female light rail guard is beloved by the high school students who frequent her station. When she is not there, all hell breaks loose, the kids riot, fight, gang behavior, etc... but when she is there, they all get along... for her.

And now that they know she is being harassed, apparently some of these kids are reportedly looking for the convicted felon...

But this is all in addition to the rumor that the Federal Government will be taking over Regional Transit... and that the line to Natomas and the airport is just a bunch of hyperbole for the press.

And the "new" RT director, 30 year RT employee Mike Wiley, is only in the position so the Board doesn't get slammed again for bringing in another big-name, high-priced director, who leaves before the contract is over and still collects. Wiley will be the sacrificial lamb.

From my source: "I understand the security office has their Corporate personnel in town. So far, they have found:

A) Numerous sexual harassment's allegations against a supv have NOT been filed properly nor in accordance with the laws;

B) That same supervisor was allowed to stay on site and keep his job, even though, the security management knew that this person sold narcotics to minors on site, had/engaged in sexual activities on site and assisted in the Park/Ride thefts that had been previously reported;

C) said supv is supposedly on 30 days leave;

D) Manager Jacob was found to NOT be in his office, nor working for up too 8 hours a day, however he still received his paycheck FOR 8 hour days;

E) Pay raises for officers working on RT did NOT receive them, instead that money found it's way into the Whackenhut office and was paid to Office personnel and Managers....they have since been informed to REPAY that/those monies back to the Corporation;

F) RT is near the point of having Drivers and/or Mechanics go on Strike, which would cripple RT;

G) Police are swarming onto the 4th Light Rail site, in response to the parent of the ' stalker ' trying to apprehend the teenagers who've assaulted him.......however, they are NOT getting the people they are looking for;

H) Teenagers are now becoming more hostile towards RT and afraid of Police overreactions, and are taking it upon themselves to protect ' their officer, since the Cops and Law won't ';

I) ALL problems dealing with the Lt Rail system, are NOT to be reported via Radio communications, as RT has those calls instantly logged, and they ARE reviewed by the Federal Authorities....RT is engaged in suppressing problems by NOT reporting issues on radios;

J) RT wants NO problems to exist on the 4th Light Rail station, and since this guard has worked there, they have NO newspapers reporting the problems that previously existed, and therefore, they want this officer to stand her post....however they DO NOT want media involved in any way or wanting them to KNOW the problems that still exists;

K) RT does NOT want to involve itself with passengers who are NOT on platforms/RT property, if they walk off the site and are struck by cars?? That's NOT an RT problem...see previous comments about Blind people nearly being struck by vehicles."

Well, well, well. It looks like the Regional Transit Board is shirking their responsibility again. Because if I am hearing this, they know about all of it.

And the Board of Directors is made up of the same old names and faces: Roger Dickinson, Steve Cohn, Roberta MacGlashan, Bonnie Pannel, Ray Trethaway, Don Notolli... all city council members or county supervisors. here's the link to the Board: http://www.sacrt.com/rtboard.stm ...the same old incompetent do nothings, found on every other board in Sacramento.

who else could approve a budget of $45, 595,248 million in revenue and $147,659,037 million in operating expenses for a negative of ($106,063,789) million
Labor and Fringe benefits are $90,542,717 ! They must rely on "grant revenues" ($150 million)to make ends meet.
- here's the link: http://www.sacrt.com/documents/financialdocs/Budget2007-08.pdf page 44 is the actual budget

here's the link to the Executive managers at RT: http://www.sacrt.com/biopage.stm
Send your thoughts to Mike Wiley. Tell him why you won't let your wife or kids ride the train or bus.

This is making me crazy. must go back to work....

Too Pretty To Fly

2008-02-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

Oh my GOD - like we were soooo discriminated against cause we're sooooo pretty...
***********************

from the airlinebiz blog: It all started on Valentine's Day when two Florida teenagers were escorted off a Tampa-Los Angeles flight and met by authorities. That's about all that the teens and the airline can agree on.

The two 18-year-old girls, Nisreen Swedberg and Sarah Williams, have suggested they were too pretty and that the Southwest flight attendants didn't like them. They said they had been banned for life from Southwest flights.

""I think they were just discriminating against us because we were young, decent-looking girls. I mean, nobody else really on the plane looked like us except us," Ms. Williams told a Tampa TV station.

Mindful of the Kyla Ebbert debacle of last summer, Southwest struck back Tuesday with a written statement and a YouTube.com video statement denying that the two young ladies were targeted for anything but bad behavior.

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King says in the YouTube video that the airline couldn't ban someone for life "even if we wanted to." The claim that the airline kicked them off for being too pretty is "simply not true," Ms. King said.

"We would be out of business if we banned pretty people from flying Southwest Airlines," Ms. King said.

The two girls "were using vulgar language, aggressive behavior and threatening gestures at 30,000 feet," she alleged.

Pretty is fine. "Just leave your bad behavior at home," Ms. King concluded.

In the Tampa Channel 10 story, Ms. Swedberg complained that she had asked for a bottle of water when she boarded and was told she'd be served after the other passengers, and then was passed over when flight attendants served beverages.

She acknowledged that Ms. Williams and another passenger exchanged profanities in an argument over a restroom, but that Ms. Swedberg and Ms. Williams were the only passengers targeted.

When the flight arrived in Los Angeles, four uniformed police officers boarded the plane and escorted the two girls off, Ms. Swedberg said, and held them for nearly two hours before releasing them.

"I don't know what happened on this flight. I didn't do anything wrong, and I feel like I was just discriminated against based upon my looks." Ms. Swedburg told the TV station.
Here's Southwest's written statement:

Southwest Airlines Responds to Customers' Unruly Behavior
Customers Questioned Due to Behavior, not Appearance, and Not Banned for Life
DALLAS, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines would like to set the record straight regarding a situation involving two female Customers, Ms. Sarah Williams and Ms. Nisreen Swedberg, on Flight #3600 from Tampa Bay to Los Angeles on February 14, 2008. During this flight, the Flight Crew and several witnesses confirm that Ms. Williams and Ms. Swedberg's unruly behavior was touched off by an occupied lavatory. After banging on the door, Ms. Williams and Ms. Swedberg became verbally abusive and threatening toward the Customer who had been using the lavatory.
When Our Flight Crew addressed the situation with Ms. Williams and Ms. Swedberg, the two Customers continued their threatening behavior and abusive language. At this time, the Flight Crew requested that local police meet the flight upon its arrival in Los Angeles. The police questioned several witnesses, as well as Ms. Williams and Ms. Swedberg, who were later released. Contrary to reports, we did not ban these Customers from flying Southwest Airlines.
Our Employees must maintain a Safe and comfortable environment onboard the aircraft at all times. Despite some news reports, this story has nothing to do with Ms. Swedberg and Ms. Williams' appearance, but rather, their use of what other Passengers tell us was profanity and threatening behavior onboard one of our flights. Finally, we would have gone out of business a long time ago if we discriminated against beautiful women -- or anyone else for that matter. We carry almost 100 million Customers a year, and they are all beautiful in our eyes.

Like, they haved the video here... http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/02/too-pretty-to-fly-southwest-sa.html

No, these girls aren't self-absorbed - are they?

2008-02-25T11:57:00.000-08:00

I've been reluctant to acknowledge this stunt, but now that it has reached epidemic proportions, and Barack Obama uses the same scripted words and phrases everytime... well, it's pretty obvious how staged these stunts are. Spare me. The fainting women are always in the front row and Obama always saves the day by asking for a medic, and tossing a bottle of water into the audience for the poor girl.
This kind of stupid campaign trickery is offensive and condescending. I'd be critical of any candidate who pulled this.

(freerepublic)
Is Barack Obama Orchestrating Fake Fainting Spells At Campaign Stops? (yes)KXMC ^ 2/15/08 staff
Posted on 02/16/2008 7:34:49 AM PST by pissant
It certainly seems like that could be the case. At five different campaign stops on five different dates someone near the stage at an Obama rally faints, and Obama notices each time and reacts in basically the same way. Here’s some audio/video proof:
Feb. 24th, 2007-Sen. Obama in Los Angeles, CA:
(Excerpt) Read more at kxmc.com ...

More Clintongate

2008-02-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

The The Capitalist Conservative Republican Homepage brings us this comprehensive list of Clinton scandals:

The Scandals:
Whitewater
Cattlegate
Nannygate
Helicoptergate
Travelgate
Gennifer Flowersgate
Filegate
Vince Fostergate
I wonder where those Whitewater billing records came fromgate
Paula Jonesgate
Federal Building campaign phone callgate
Lincoln bedroomgate
White House coffeegate
Donations from convicted drug and weapons dealersgate
Buddhist Templegate
Web Hubbell hush moneygate
Lippogate
Chinese commiegate - Clinton was practically endorsed by red China Update!
Let's blame Kenneth Starrgate
Zippergate/interngate - the Lewinsky affair itself
Perjury and jobs for Lewinskygate - the aftermath
Willeygate
Web Hubbell prison phone callgate
Selling Military Technology to the Chinese Commiesgate
Coverup for our Russian Comrades as Wellgate
Wag-the-Dog-gate
Jaunita Broaddrick gate
PBS-gate
Email-gate
Vandalgate
Lootergate
Pardongate

Bonus: Humorgate: some mishaps and mysteries around the Clintons. This is just humor in a serious scandal page.
Haircutgate
Hillary talks with Eleanor Rooseveltgate
Burgergate
Joycelyn Elders Is this Administration Shameless?
The Bill Clinton Tiananmen Peace Tour Vacation
The Lewinsky Speech

Clintons' Scandalgate

2008-02-25T10:52:00.000-08:00

This is probably the best summary of the Clinton's scandalous reign.

Whitewater: Years of Legal Trouble
By PETE YOST
Feb 24, 11:17 AM (ET)By PETE YOST

WASHINGTON (AP) - Whitewater. The word symbolizes years of legal troubles for Hillary Rodham Clinton during her husband's presidency. The scandal stoked a $52 million criminal investigation and offered moments of extraordinary spectacle, including the unprecedented grand jury appearance by a first lady.
"It's not a first that I'm particularly pleased about," she acknowledged at the time.
Today, Clinton factors the lessons of Whitewater into her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. "For 15 years, I have been the object of the Republican attack machine," she says. "And I'm still here."
What became the Whitewater saga grew out of a long-ago Arkansas land deal in which the Clintons said they lost money.
Rising political stars often find themselves standing at the intersection of business opportunities and friendship. Bill and Hillary Clinton were no exceptions.
When Bill Clinton was running for Arkansas governor in the late 1970s, they became partners with businessman Jim McDougal and his wife, Susan, in a planned vacation home development on the White River in the Ozarks.
The Clintons' Whitewater investment never would have created a stir if not for reports of fraud at the McDougals' savings and loan and a New York Times article about the Clintons and the McDougals during the 1992 presidential campaign.
That and the legal work Hillary Clinton did for the McDougals' financial institution were enough to send federal regulators scurrying to Little Rock, Ark.
Investigators began taking another look at the warehoused records of the McDougals' old S&L. Questions lingered:
_Had the McDougals taken money from their savings and loan to pay down the bank loans on Whitewater?
_In doing so, had they lightened the financial load on their partners, the Clintons?
A Hollywood producer would be hard-pressed to find a more colorful cast of characters than those mixing it up with the Clintons in the Whitewater deal.
Jim McDougal, in failing health and living in a trailer after regulators took away his S&L, remained the bombastic personality he had been in the days when he had money to burn. All he needed was an audience.
There always was one - the press, prosecutors, political pundits - during Whitewater. Not to mention Republicans feasting on the Clintons' legal problems.
Whitewater investigators are "going to hang" the Clintons, McDougal proclaimed from prison in 1997.
Prosecutors never nailed the Clintons, but they tried, from late 1993 to 2000. First the Justice Department. Then a specially appointed outside prosecutor. Then court-appointed Independent Counsel Ken Starr.
An assortment of controversies were tacked on, one by one, to the initial probe by Starr, a prominent Washington lawyer and a conservative. His conservative credentials were seized on by Clinton loyalists who decried Starr's inquiry as politically motivated.
Hillary Clinton's role in firing employees in the White House travel office also came under scrutiny. So did the gathering by some low-level White House aides of FBI background files on prominent Republicans.
Bill Clinton's alleged perjury and obstruction regarding his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was added to the list. The Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal captured the nation's attention for a year and led to his impeachment. The Senate acquitted him.
In the end, Jim McDougal died in prison. His ex-wife, imprisoned after refusing to testify against the Clintons, was pardoned by President Clinton on his last day in office in 2001.
The years of investigations left the Clintons with legal bills running into the millions.
Two years before the Lewinksy affair, prosecutors and a Republican-controlled Congress focused on the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, a longtime law firm partner of Hillary Clinton.
Documents pertaining to Whitewater had been moved out of Foster's office by White House aides after his death. Were the records of Hillary Clinton's work for the McDougals' failing savings and loan among them? And where were the records now?
Her legal work for the S&L seemed minimal. But prosecutors could not be sure because they never could seem to find her time sheets documenting what services she had provided to McDougal.
The missing billing records became the Rosetta Stone of Whitewater. Congress wanted them, as did Starr's office.
Then one day in early January 1996, out popped the records from the White House family residence. The pile of computer printouts detailed her work for the McDougals' failing S&L in the mid-1980s. A Clinton staffer said she had found the printouts stashed in a box in a storage room.
Prosecutors were furious. They had issued a subpoena for the billing records 18 months earlier. The prosecutors summoned Hillary Clinton, making her the only first lady to appear before a federal grand jury.
The billing records did not present a pretty picture regarding Hillary Clinton. They showed that she drafted a real estate document regulators later said had misled bank examiners. Prosecutors concluded that McDougal and others had used her legal work to conceal unlawful activity.
Had she obstructed the investigation by hiding the billing records? Had the records been removed from Foster's office after his suicide? Neither prosecutors nor Congress were able to answer the questions.
She said she did not know where the billing records had been and that she could not recall the work she had done for the S&L 10 years earlier.
Prosecutors concluded they did not have enough to prove that she was a knowing participant in the criminal conduct by McDougal or others.
Starr's probe left a legacy of anger among congressional Democrats who saw Whitewater as an example of an out-of-control criminal investigation. Republicans, too, had endured a prolonged independent counsel investigation - Lawrence Walsh's probe into the Iran-Contra scandal. Congress put its foot down, declaring there would be no more independent counsels. So lawmakers allowed the law that authorized court-appointed prosecutors to lapse.
By the end of 2006, their legal bills paid off, the former president and his presidency-seeking wife had assets of at least $10 million and possibly as much as $50 million with no liabilities.
---
On the Web:
Independent counsel's report: http://icreport.access.gpo.gov/final/

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

How'd they pull that off? hmmmm

Calif Republicans in Sanctuary City

2008-02-24T18:56:00.000-08:00

Why is the California Republican party in San Francisco for the convention?

They should have boycotted that city - the Sanctuary City, and instead held the convention is a small, conservative California city... but I guess they are showing their true colors, again. A convention could have been a financial boon for a smaller valley city. Instead they gave the revenue to a biggest hypocrisy in California.

Great idea Ron Nehring.... who? Yeah, he's the head of the California Republican Party.

Conservatives Acting Like Liberals

2008-02-24T18:01:00.001-08:00

Voting is a privilege.

I have been highly criticized by fellow Conservatives and Republicans when I say it's time to go for the win in an election. I've been called everything from RINO to turncoat, as well as some very unlady-like names. And this from Conservatives who say they will not vote because their candidate did not win the primary.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for Governor after the recall election of Gray Davis, I was a big advocate - primarily because he was the only Republican candidate who could win. I am a big Tom McClintock fan, but there was no way he had enough steam to win.

My point then, as it still is, is that after the primary is over, once in the general election, we must vote for the BEST available candidate in the race. And that usually means compromise.

Fellow conservative are acting like liberals when they say they will not vote in the upcoming Presidential election. If I can't have my candidate and my way, I won't vote. This is the behavior of a 4-year old, or a liberal.

We have a responsibility to vote, living in a democracy.

Voting is a privilege and don't ever forget it.

You must vote, even if you have to hold your nose. Just think about the Iraqi citizens who so proudly held up their purple fingers after voting in a Democratic election for the first time. They know it's a privilege.

Conservatives, you have a responsibility, as do all Americans, to vote. And if you don't like the choices, the day after the election, get to work on a better candidate for 2012.

Conservatives Acting Like Liberals

2008-02-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

Voting is a privilege.

My point then, as it still is, is that after the primary is over, once in the general election, we must vote for the BEST available candidate in the race. And that usually means compromise.

We have a responsibility to vote living in a democracy.

Voting is a privilege and don't ever forget it.

Conservatives, you have a responsibility, as do all Americans, to vote. And if you don't like the choices, the day after the election, get to work on a better candidate for 2012.

Stand By Your Man

2008-02-22T15:45:00.001-08:00

Cindy McCain is demonstrating that she is a woman of substance... as if anyone doubted this (Daily Kos...).

From townhall.com: Cindy McCain did not hesitate as she stepped toward the microphone, taking her place in the history of political wives who stood by their men in the face of rumored or alleged marital infidelity.
"Well, obviously, I'm disappointed," she said, her voice low but clear and self-assured. "More importantly, my children and I not only trust my husband, but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family, but disappoint the people of America. He's a man of great character." Cindy McCain, Like Others, Stands by Man

A New Low For the New York Times

2008-02-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

The New York Times sinks to a new low... still trying to throw Presidential elections. Didn't they learn anything in 2004? perhaps they will need to lay off another 100 employees after this fiasco.

Talk show host and columnist Mike Gallagher had this to say about the New york Times' latest slimy stunt: I have two sources, both of whom wish to remain anonymous, that report to me that New York Times Editor Bill Keller was spotted in a dumpster last weekend in the Hamptons snorting crack cocaine and smothering a pair of cocker spaniel puppies with a pair of sweat socks.
So now I’m reporting it to you. (Mike Gallagher: The New York Slimes)

read the whole ugly story here: NY Times reports on McCain link with lobbyist Politics Reuters
and then:
McCain turns tables on NYT...
and:
White House slams TIMES...
as if this will make the mess go away...
Paper Buries McCain Denial to Front Page Accusation in Back of Paper...

I am almost embarassed to be a columnist for a newspaper... almost. No one I work with would ever sink so low.

Be above it is a strong motto to live by. And if in doubt, take the high road.

Daily Kos Hate-Speech - The "Tolerance" Crowd

2008-02-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

A friendly sparring blogger shared this post with me today from the Daily Kos. Beware: It is hate-filled, cruel, liberal attack garbage.

Skinny, Rich, Blond, White Chick

by Granny Doc
Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 12:57:20 PM PST

Cindy McCain has just responded to Michelle Obama's comment that, "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country", by saying, "I'm always proud of my country".
Yeah, right.
A Caucasian woman, given every opportunity to make choices freely, without any constraints on her decisions based on centuries of racism, thinks everything is just hunky-dory.
The media is, of course, playing this like just another cat fight, oohing and ahhing that Cindy never injects herself into politics.
Granny Doc's diary :: ::
Is the McCain campaign totally tone deaf? Do they want to completely destroy any outreach to people of color - people that still don't quite fit the Republican model of worthy, and good Americans? WTF?
I'm with Michelle, on this one.
The Democratic Party, and the voters of America, have made me prouder of America than I have ever been, in my adult life.
We have an African American candidate. We have a woman candidate. We have thrown over the centuries of domination by rich white men, and kicked the can WAAAAY down the road.
You carry on, Cindy Lou...
Go on and make it completely clear that you don't have a clue. Just like the Flocks of Heathers everywhere, go on pretending that the charmed existence you lead is representative of the real world. That it's those "other people", who don't think your priviledged, cosseted isolation from gender and racial bias, represents reality, truth, and the American way. And when they point out the progress this election cycle is pushing into the consciousness of every man, woman, and child in this country, you act offended that they are stating the truth.
Brilliant women like Michelle and Hillary just don't appreciate what a nice little sinecure you have, and dare to challenge the assumption that there are no cracks in the world that surrounds you.
Republican Women Strike Again. Doesn't anyone else see how very WRONG this argument is?
****************

And for some of the comments from Daily Kos readers:

John McCain is the Republican dream candidate- he has it all:
cheating wife
scandal in the past- Keating Five
RWCM calls him a "maverick"
pretends to be against torture, but of course he doesn't vote against torture- he already did that once, evidently there is a limit to how many times he can vote against torture!
**********

I spent several year in the beer business (0 / 0)
and Cindy McCain is what we would have call the "golden sperm", titular head of the company because it was founded by daddy. It is very common at beer distributors across the country. Not calling names, just providing commentary...
**********

Is it just me (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
Dem in the heart of Texas
Or does Cindy McCain look very similar to Katherine Harris? The wrinkly angry eyes look - I have 2000 deja vu!
***********

McCain was married to someone else when Ms. Cindy Lou Who started a relationship with him. The tramp stamp fits...
***********

McCain's a tramp (0+ / 0-)
One of hundreds of Republican stepford wives that live in their own little bubbles of "perfect living" according to "traditional values."
***********

dating McCain when he was married (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
Granny Doc
Just one more in the long line of Republican tramps, check out the Gingrichs, Doles, etc. Not a faithful bone in their bodies, but of course IOKIYAR.
And why does MAD MAX McCain get a free pass on his "Keating Five" bank fraud?
McCain is slime, so it is no surprise that he married a silver spoon richie-rich.
**********

finally some sense:
What about John Kerry's wife? Isn't she a richie-rich? But it's different because she's a Democrat, right?
Because our richie-riches are all pure and saintly and their richie-riches are all privileged snobs?
Because our richie-riches do charity work because they truly care for the less privileged and their richie-riches just do it for show?
Give me a break. Wallow in the sewers all you like, but don't expect me to join you.
***********
see it for yourself: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/19/153532/129/891/459820

I am disgusted at the "tolerance" crowd.

Short-Run "Stimulus" Will Be Long-Run Problem

2008-02-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

The latest economic stimulus package is nothing more than political rhetoric that will ultimately coswt taxpayers a great deal of money for a long time. And buyer beware anytime both sides of congress support an issue - it's usually an empty package wrapped to look as if they are giving the taxpayers a present. Bipartisan support means trouble.

John Stossel wrote in Stimulating Nonsense "The federal government is in the red. Bush's new budget has a $400 billion deficit. There's no lockbox with $100 billion in it. So to give everyone a tax rebate, the government will have to borrow more money. But that only moves the cash from one part of the economy to another. As Roberts says, "It's like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool and dumping it into the shallow end."
Unless the government cuts spending, which the theory says would neutralize the stimulus, the only other way to get the money will be to raise taxes or to have the Fed create money -- inflation -- which would raise the price of everything."

Thomas Sowell wrote A "Stimulus Package"? "Those on the left love to believe that the stock market crash of 1929 showed the failure of the free market and that the New Deal interventions in the 1930s saved the day.
But the stock market crash of 1987 was just as big and Ronald Reagan resisted loud calls for him to intervene. The result was not another Great Depression but the beginning of a decades-long period of prosperity.
Before Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt came along, there was no expectation that the federal government would intervene when the stock market crashed or when there was a downturn in the economy." Take the time to read the entire column A "Stimulus Package"? I always learn something from Sowell.

He also has a quick economics lesson, listing some of the fallacies examined in various chapters of his book "Economic Facts and Fallacies" include the following:

1. Government programs are needed to create "affordable housing." (Actually, government intervention is what has made housing so unaffordable in places where even hovels are expensive.)

2. Employer discrimination is the main reason for differences in income between women and men. (Tons of evidence point in other directions.)

3. College tuition is going up so fast because of rising costs. (Only if you call voluntary increases in spending "rising costs.")

4. Foreign aid helps poor countries become more prosperous. (Only if you don't look at the evidence.)

5. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. (It all depends on whether you are talking about flesh and blood human beings or statistical brackets.)

"Economic Facts and Fallacies" is not just a demolition derby. It also brings out some facts that seldom get much attention in the media.

1. The poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits since 1994.

2. The average income of the elderly is several times their earnings, and their wealth is far higher than among younger people.

3. Just as blacks are turned down for mortgage loans more often than whites, so whites are turned down more often than Asian Americans. (What does that do to racism as an all-purpose explanation?)
****************
Pay for it now and let the market correct itself. It's too bad that so many greedily bought into houses they could ill afford, and then used them as a checking account for their bad habbits. These people will whine and cry about only wanting the American Dream, but it was nothing of the sort - it was greed. The government has no business bailing these folks out of trouble. They should be turning their attention toward the Mortgage companies and the regulations that went ignored for a couple of years.

But it's an election year and politicians need votes right now. Doing the right thing is the last thing they care about.

Kamikaze Republicans

2008-02-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

“Kamikaze Republicans—those who say they’ll never vote for John McCain because he isn’t conservative enough—may get what they deserve. The Clintons... It isn’t necessary to love everything McCain has done to vote for him should he be the nominee. But it isn’t possible to argue that there’s no difference between McCain and Clinton (or Barack Obama), as some Republicans insist.” —Kathleen Parker

I'm no McCain fan. But a protest vote is only a vote for Hillary or Obama.

Stand on your conservative principals? Don't waiver? If you think McCain is a liberal, you haven't seen anything yet with Hillary or Obama.

Grow up Conservatives. We have a job to do and work isn't always fun, or something we agree with.

Vote for McCain, and as soon as he's inaugurated, start campaigning for Romey for 2012. that's the way it works.

But if Kamikaze Republicans stay home, you have only yourselves to blame when Hillary or Obama decimates the military, liberal judges infiltrate more federal courts as well as the Supreme Court, government welfare is doubled, national healthcare is created, and the moral decay of the country becomes more evident.

Remember Schwarzenegger vs. Bustamante? We had the same problem then. But Bustamante in the state capitol would have made him the Governor of Mexifornia. Schwarzenegger is no conservative, not by a longshot, but he's still better than having Bustamante or Angelides as Governor.

Did I already say grow up? You're acting like the liberals who are used to taking their ball and going home when the game gets tough or distasteful.

Free Speech Rights Smacked Down

2008-02-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this:

Read his story, watch the video clips and send your comments. I want to know what you think about this.

Ezra Levant, former publisher of Canada's Western Standard.

NO on Nunez & Perata!

2008-02-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

from No on Prop 93:

Latest Information on Proposition 93: By the Numbers The latest numbers from the Secretary of State's office show a decisive 7.2% win for No on Proposition 93. This margin is expected to increase further as the remaining votes cast on Election Day are tabulated. With 98.5% of the vote counted as of 2:30pm today,

No on Prop. 93 had a victory margin of over 476,000 votes.

What's more, No on Prop. 93 carried 51 out of 58 California counties including Alameda and Los Angeles - the homes, respectively, of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

The only counties that voted in favor of Proposition 93 were the tiny counties of Lassen, Alpine and Mono along with San Francisco and the smaller counties of Imperial, Santa Cruz and Monterey.

The strong victory for the No on Proposition 93 campaign is all the more remarkable given that proponents outspent opponents by a two-and-a-half to one margin or almost $10 million.

No on 93 spent approximately $7.2 million while Yes on 93 raised and spent almost $17 million between its two main committees.

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

Bye bye Fabian.

Nunez to Collect Unemployment Insurance?

2008-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

I admit I am doing a bit of daydreaming... wondering what Fabian Nunez will do when he's lost his bid for the bogus Proposition 93 and is forced to leave the state capitol.

hmmmmm.

Will he stand in line at the EDD waiting to fill out his unemployment insurance forms with the other unemployable soles?

What will the "reason for separation" be listed as on the EDD application form? Termed out of office is not the usual and customary response the EDD is used to dealing with. Maybe he could he say "layed off" so his employer won't fight the claim...

Will his claim be investigated?

The weekly maximum allowable will not pay for his lunches or fine wine.

Fabian should polish up the old resume and brush up on his computer skills.

Chances are, we won't see Fabian for a while, and then he'll pop up as a very highly compensated union thug/lobbyist somewhere, haunting the hallowed halls of the state capitol. Or he could always do volunteer work for MEChA and La Raza.

Will he keep his Sacramento house or rent it to another legislator for an exhorbanant price?

hmmmm. All of these things to think about when losing your annointed place in office...

No more walking into fancy restaurant and screaming , "Do you know who I am," to the new manager.

But probably more than Fabian Nunez losing his job, his staff will be impacted. Like rats jumping off a sinking ship, they have their deals cut for the next gig. I would love to hear their phone conversations and see their text messages.

Such is politics. But it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Friends With Money

2008-01-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

The NO on Proposition 93 campaign recently published who is financing YES on Prop 93... the list should simply read Friends of Fabian Nunez and Don Perata.

*****************************
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate Pro Tem Don Perata - have led the parade of incumbent legislators who have given campaign cash to extend their taxpayer-funded, yet unproductive, time inside the Capitol. The two have contributed $690,000 and $350,000 respectively to the Yes on 93 effort and have been joined by 16 of their fellow politicians to support the measure.

Below is the list of campaign contributions from committees and political organizations controlled by legislators to the two Yes on 93 committees directed by Perata and Nunez.

Politician & Party Committee Contributions to Yes on Prop 93 Committee Yes on Prop 93 (Nunez), Committee For Limits & Legislative Reform (#129608)

TORRICO FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $45,000.00
BELIEVING IN A BETTER CALIFORNIA $25,000.00
BELIEVING IN A BETTER CALIFORNIA (Assemblymember De Leon)$35,000.00 COMMITTEE TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA'S FUTURE (Nunez) $390,000.00
COMMITTEE TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA'S FUTURE (Nunez)$300,000.00 1/15/2008COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT CURREN PRICE $25,000.00
DAVE JONES FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $45,000.00
FRIENDS OF NOREEN EVANS FOR ASSEMBLY $5,000.00
HECTOR DE LA TORRE FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 2008 $25,000.00
HECTOR DE LA TORRE FOR STATE ASSEMBLY 2008 $20,000.00
JIM BEALL FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $10,000.00
KAREN BASS FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $50,000.00
KAREN BASS FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $20,000.00
KEVIN DE LEON FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $15,000.00
MIKE ENG FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $45,000.00
MIKE FEUER FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $25,000.00
PARRA FOR SENATE 2010 $25,000.00
PEDRO NAVA 2008 PAC $20,000.00
RE-ELECT FIONA MA $45,000.00
STRENGTHENING CALIFORNIA THROUGH LEADERSHIP (Asm Bass) $45,000.00 STRENGTHENING CALIFORNIA THROUGH LEADERSHIP (Assemblymember Bass) $40,000.00
TED LIEU FOR ASSEMBLY 2008 $50,000.00
Sub-Total for #1296108 $1,305,000.00

Yes on Prop 93 (Perata), Citizens for Accountability & Legislative Reform (#1299457)

FRIENDS OF TOM TORLAKSON 2008 $25,000.00
GLORIA ROMERO FOR CALIFORNIA 2010 $25,000.00
LEADERSHIP CALIFORNIA (Perata) $50,000.00
STEINBERG FOR SENATE 2006 $45,000.00
VOTER EDUCATION AND REGISTRATION FUND (Perata) $200,000.00
VOTER EDUCATION AND REGISTRATION FUND (Perata) $100,000.00
Sub-Total for #1299457 $445,000.00

Grand Total:$1,750,000.00
****************************
We have some pretty desperate Assembly and Senate persons - desperate to keep their jobs that is. Adnd from Sacramento I see Daryl Steinberg and Dave Jones - both former City Council members who promised they weren't using local office as a springboard into state politics. You can't believe anything that comes out of the mouths of politicians.

BLINK: State of The Union

2008-01-29T18:47:00.001-08:00

During last night's Presidential State of the Union, how many blinks did you count?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi = 1002

Vice President Dick Cheney - 2

Too much plastic surgery prevents one from closing her eyes fully. Too much Botox makes one look, well, SURPRISED, all of the time.

In addition to sounding stupid during every interview, now Ms. Pelosi looks the role.

The Huffington Post: The buzz in the speaker's office Monday was not about Bush's address, but about Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's fiery speech earlier endorsing Democrat Barack Obama.
"Did you ever see anything like that?" asked Pelosi. "Transferring the mantle from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. It was the most stunning thing. I mean, I couldn't take my eyes off it. And I didn't have any time to sit there and watch TV, you know - we had a whole schedule. I just was mesmerized by it."

Ugh.

Another great column from WorldNetDaily: The camera never blinks, Nancy

and this video of her less than stellar record: It was a bad year for San Fran Nan.

and for a non-political view: sisu: The definitive case against excessive cosmetic surgery

Election '08 - Get Out Of Jail FREE Card

2008-01-28T15:16:00.001-08:00

I've been deliberately silent about the presidential election thus far, as the primary process still has quite a long way to go.

I prefer to listen when it's necessary, rather than just toss opinions out like candy.

And listening is exactly what I have been doing a lot of. Previously, when friends asked me who I would vote for, my smarty-pants answer was to say McRomniani... my way of saying keep watching.

Barack Obama's stupid campaign of "change" is well, stupid. Change is inevitable. The mere fact that President Bush is termed out and leaving office at the end of the year begs imminent change.

Obama is a good-looking guy and an excellent speaker. However, he never says anything. He might be easy on the eyes and ears, but what about the desire for message? Are his followers really the sheep they seem to be? And just because he is a "change?"

His campaign workers have even been instructed to never discuss issues, only their "feelings;" feelings about Obama. There's no change going on here - it's the same old condescending liberal politics as usual, devoid of substance and policy.

Hillary Clinton - rather Billary - is starting to implode. Finally. But they have been given a get-out-of-jail-card thus far and it's getting tiring listening to interviewers questions, and Hillary getting away with dodging them. It's not that she has any real skill in dodging questions - she's just never forced to answer the original question. Neither is Bill. He wags his finger in the face of the offending journalist, gets red in the face and is left alone. Or she/he acts indignant and complains about being attacked - tactics that wouldn't pass muster in an 8th grade debate class.

Hillary looks good while Bill looks as if his lifestyle has finally caught up with him, of some infectious disease. Her Botox'd face is more lovely than ever - if you like that frozen smile look. Adn Hillary does look younger than her 60-years... only her plastic surgeon knows. Bill could use some Botox - he is caught scowling too often these days.

And Hillary's lame-ass explanations about how Bill loves her so much is a pathetic attempt to rival the Romney marriage - two people who actually like each other. When Bill Clinton makes a "Jesse Jackson" reference to Obama, he is most definitely being a racist - not loving his wife a whole bunch. For moe evidence and analysis of this, read The Clintons' Possible Political Demise by David Limbaugh...excellent coverage of their overt race baiting. Some tolerance.

Guiliani can't seem to get any media coverage - positive or negative. The media fears him because he knows how to take no prisoners and does take names... lot's of names. And the media knows that independent voters would cast a Guiliani vote without having to hold their noses. Hold that thought. Guiliani refused to play by the media rules, and went straight to Florida to campaign. Hold that thought.

The media loves to hate Romney - he's handsome, white, rich, religious, successful - the guy to hate in America. And his flip-glops are baby-steps to Hillary's - she's doing high-dive flips depending on the audience. He was able to explain his flip-flop on abortion.

Edwards is only hanging in there for a cabinet appointment. He's just too prissy for most dems.

And McCain - I will never understand McCain/Fringold, the Amnesty legislation and his opposing the Bush tax cuts - shameful behavior. He doesn't deserve to be President with the sour-grapes behavior he has displayed toward President Bush the past eight years. But he's the liberal the media loves - read Frank Rich's column in the January 27th New York Times: The Billary Road to Republican Victory. When Frank Rich thinks McCain is the only guy who can beat Billary... well... just read his column. Then we'll talk.

Huckabee is just another lib Republican. 'Nuff said. Again, he and McCain have only made it this far because the liberal media is trying to throw another election. Can you say liberal judges and amnesty?

The will of the people is stronger than the nincompoop lib media realizes. We will prevail. meanwhile, keep your eye on Billary - they will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Just wait until after the conventions and Hillary has to finally answer questions, allegations and defend her "we are the President" record. "I've been for change for the past 35 years" is not a battle cry.

Bush Didn't Lie

2008-01-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent column -it in fact, makes so much sense that I am not sure liberals will ever speak to you again if you explain things this way... nothing like the truth to shut people up.

by Dinesh D'Souza : Actually Bush Didn't Lie

More On Nunez/Perata and Prop 93

2008-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Here's another excellent analysis of what Prop 93 REALLY is:
********************

It's all about Nunez, Perata
By Tom Elias
01/27/2008

While much of America is watching the Feb. 5 California primary election to see who might emerge as favorites for the major party presidential nominations, voters here need to focus at least as much on Proposition 93, a ballot initiative billed as a reduction in term limits for state lawmakers.

For the fate of this measure is essentially a referendum on the effectiveness and morality of two of the top three leaders of California government.

If Proposition 93 passes, Democrat Fabian Nunez of East Los Angeles figures to get at least five and maybe six more years as Assembly speaker and fellow Democrat Don Perata of Oakland another four as leader of the state Senate.

The question nominally before voters is whether to cut the total time politicians can serve in the Legislature from 14 years to 12, but let them have all that time in one house or the other if they choose. But because Proposition 93 would apply its new 12-year limit to present as well as future legislators, Nunez would essentially get to serve six more years in his present seat, rather than being termed out at year's end. Perata would get four more years in the Senate, for a total of 18 in the Legislature.

So the real question voters will decide - if they understand the actual issue here - is whether Nunez and Perata deserve to have their power extended.

Both are ethically challenged, at best.

Perata, for one, has spent at least three years under the cloud of an FBI investigation into his dealings with campaign contributors. His home has been searched, his associates grilled as agents apparently tried determine whether donors to the accomplished fundraiser gained directly from his actions because of their contributions.

A federal grand jury has heard many hours of testimony, but no action has yet ensued.
Meanwhile, questions about the ethics of Nu ez have not reached the stage of a known investigation by any law enforcement agency. But newspapers have carried headlines reading "Campaign Cash Gives Nunez Rich Travel Style" and "Watchdog Questions Assembly Leader's Living Arrangements." The accompanying stories detailed how Nunez spent thousands of campaign dollars buying fine wines in a Bordeaux, France, store and purchased many thousands of dollars worth of Luis Vuitton luggage.

The stories also revealed that Nunez shares a plush downtown Los Angeles apartment (in his Assembly district) with Democratic fundraiser Dan Weitzman. He acknowledges spending one or two nights there during most weeks, living with his wife in a $1.2 million suburban Sacramento home most of the time.

Nunez says his lavish traveling style and his big spending on luxury items are needed because he's representing the state and must both give gifts and maintain at least a "middle-class" lifestyle.

These items, some commentators have charged, may be legal, but do not pass the "smell test."
More serious are conflict-of-interest questions about the role of Mrs. Nunez, who goes by her maiden name of Maria Robles, in drawing a six-figure salary from a nonprofit group called Californians for Patient Care. She got the job in January 2005, just a month after her husband introduced a bill aiming to provide "affordable, quality health care coverage" to everyone in California.

The California Nurses Association calls Robles' employer a front group for the hospital industry; in fact, it receives almost all its funding from the California Hospital Association.
While it's not illegal for Robles to hold that job while her husband leads a legislative effort that would heavily affect the industry that funds her job, this one also doesn't pass the smell test. Even though Robles denies ever discussing health care with her husband the speaker, how likely is it that any husband and wife can completely avoid talking about their jobs? Or that a husband wouldn't look out for the interests of his wife?

None of these questions, of course, is on the Feb. 5 ballot. But they should be very much on the minds of voters.

For in crafting Proposition 93, Nunez and Perata made certain their power would be secured for years to come if it passed. They say they were only interested in the well-being of the state, that allowing legislators to serve longer in one house would make for better lawmaking.

But anyone who can read between the lines will soon know this measure is about these two men more than anyone or anything else. That's why besides asking themselves who might make the best president, voters also now need to reflect on the fitness of California's most powerful legislative leaders.

Tom Elias is author of "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It," now available in an updated third edition (e-mail: tdelias@aol.com).

Penetrating Liberal Thoughts on Billary

2008-01-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

In order to understand the other side of politics, one must surf their musings.

Here's an interesting perspective from Frank Rich - The New York Times...

The Billary Road to Republican Victory
Any Democrat who seriously thinks that Bill Clinton will fade away if Hillary wins the party nomination is a Democrat who, as the man said, believes in fairy tales.

IN the wake of George W. Bush, even a miracle might not be enough for the Republicans to hold on to the White House in 2008. But what about two miracles? The new year’s twin resurrections of Bill Clinton and John McCain, should they not evaporate, at last give the G.O.P. a highly plausible route to victory.

Amazingly, neither party seems to fully recognize the contours of the road map. In the Democrats’ case, the full-throttle emergence of Billary, the joint Clinton candidacy, is measured mainly within the narrow confines of the short-term horse race: Do Bill Clinton’s red-faced eruptions and fact-challenged rants enhance or diminish his wife as a woman and a candidate?

January 27, 2008
(click on the title to read the rest)

Paper or Plastic?

2008-01-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

Democrat California legislators are now proposing a new bill charging grocery shoppers .15 cents for every plastic bag they choose to use instead of a paper sack.

Aren't these the same liberal democrats who forced the plastic bags on grocery shoppers in the first place? Yes. the lib argument was that plastic is "recyclable," only they never forced people to recycle the bags. Instead the bags ended up in landfills and waterways and oceans.

Did I already say that this was the bright idea of environmentalist libs? Uh huh. But now they won't breathe a word of responsibility. Not one of these idiots will admit that their stupid ideas are faulty.

Trees are a renewable resource.

So what about stores like Safeway and Albertsons? They switched to plastic-only bags a coupe of years ago.

I'm a paper-only girl. I hate the plastic bags. Turns out I was right all along.

Clinton Lying Again...

2008-01-17T12:27:00.000-08:00

Watch this:

VIDEO: Bill Clinton heated over Vegas voter lawsuit...

should make your blood boil

City Council Flunks Econ 1-A

2008-01-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

from one of my columns in The Sacramento Union:

In recent weeks, The Sacramento Bee reported that the City of Sacramento will face a huge budget deficit, implying that it is solely because of the downturn in the housing market. It has been reported that the members of the City Council are “stunned.” However, as City Finance Director Russell Fehr said, “it was unclear how much Sacramento's deficit would be this year, but he knew it would be more than the $27 million estimated in May.” I’m not sure if I’d brag about that.

The question on the table is, did the City Council know a budget deficit was eminent, or not? Either way, it is reprehensible and screamingly irresponsible. And I have difficulty believing that anyone on the City Council could be “stunned;” that would suggest incompetence.

The Sacramento City Council has beautifully demonstrated once again that liberal Democrats do not understand or subscribe to basic economic principles. If they did, taxes would be lowered to stimulate the local economy. Instead, City officials are whining that “revenue growth” (liberal-speak for “taxes”) is not enough.

What are the city's major revenue streams? Property, sales and utility user taxes – all taxes! City officials complained that because we had a warm winter last year, we spent less on our utilities (utility user taxes), admitting that last winter the city finance gurus saw less money coming in.
Admitedly, City officials say that current staffing and service levels are not sustainable, given the current weakness in “revenue growth,” meaning that there are too many city employees and social programs for the current level of tax revenue. But instead of making cuts, they would rather face a deficit. To any other group of people who work together, this means that the company is going broke.
Even thought 66 % of the General Fund budget is the cost of labor (employees), City Finance Director Russell Fehr has ruled out layoffs. He said he expects necessary cuts can come from attrition, the hiring freeze and restricting some discretionary spending like travel."It's a long-standing city policy that you do everything you can to avoid laying off career employees," Fehr said. Russell Fehr’s brilliant cost-cutting measure is to wait for city employees to quit.
Every business owner in America knows that when faced with a looming budget deficit, labor must be cut… unless liberals are running the show. And the only liberals running anything work in government, and are not running successful private businesses.
Can you imagine if a private business owner made such an irrational and arrogant statement as Fehr did? He’s saying that even thought the city is going broke, we don’t cut jobs.
There is a reason that certain people gravitate to government jobs and others to private enterprise. That’s not to say that all people working for local government are arrogant boneheads – by no means. It just appears that those people in the top local positions are.
This recent deficit is because Sacramento does not have a well-rounded tax base. If a real estate housing downturn causes this much of a “deficit,” Houston, we have a problem! The City of Sacramento relies on various taxes for revenue. The housing boom increased revenue. Communities with static or declining tax bases typically have growing tax rates. A city with either too much retail, or housing, or government such as Sacramento, is vulnerable to rapid downturns.
And Sacramento is still building housing and cheesy strip malls. Councilman Rob Fong said the budget crisis presented an opportunity. "We can bemoan it or can use it as a time to re-examine where and how we do business." More consideration ought to be given, he said, to developing areas currently not slated for growth. Did he really say that? Does he really think more houses in a saturated market will be the answer?
As for “discretionary travel cuts,” Mayor Heather Fargo just returned from another Sister City trip abroad. And traveling with her were fifteen people, paid for by the City. Air fare expenses alone must have run $50,000, at a mimimum. But don’t tell Mayor Fargo, the eternal optimist, that Sacramento has a deficit. Her comment on the $50 million budget deficit? "We'll still be able to do about 90 percent of what we do; we're staying in business," Mayor Heather Fargo said after a council budget hearing. "We're going to get through this." I think Mayor Heather must have taken “new math” in school.
This is the same Mayor and City Council that wanted taxpayers to fund a new sports arena. In addition to building the tax-funded arena, the city council completely ignored the fact that sporting arenas nearly always run on a deficit. Wow! Just like our city! Budget deficits don’t matter when you’re trying to build a “world-class city,” Heather.
It is a simple equation: when revenues decrease so must expenses and costs of “doing business.” The City must cut labor, cut services, cut material costs, refinance loans where they can, renegotiate leases, and cut salaries – particularly at the top (as all good leaders do). Taxes should be cut as well, in order to allow city residents to turn around and spend their savings back into the local economy.
These are all realistic ways to reduce costs. But the City of Sacramento, City Council and Mayor Fargo don’t really care about cutting costs because it’s not cutting into their personal bottom line: i.e. it’s not coming out of their salaries. They are not going to feel the pinch they are asking you to live with. They will just raise taxes again and you will see it on your property tax bill, and fees, and licenses, and permits. The housing bubble has burst and the revenue bubble resulting from the housing boom is over. Did they salt any of that surprise revenue away? No. Now the city officials are moaning about the revenue decrease. Everyone but Heather Fargo and the City council will pay for their ineptitude, arrogance and apathy.
Do you care? Well, what are we going to do about it?

Hillary's Teary Moment

2008-01-15T11:15:00.001-08:00

I am growing weary of all of the commentary about Hillary's tears last week. It comes down to this:

1) Either she cannot control her emotions in difficult situations and is not fit for the job, or

2) Grown women don't cry unless they are trying to manipulate. Children cry spontaneously - grown women do not.

So, is she incapable of handling the job, or is she just a manipulator?

Either way, she's not fit for command.

More Prop 93 Foes

2008-01-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

California's newspapers are rejecting the initiative they call "self-serving" and a "scam."

15 major newspapers across the state - the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, Riverside Press Enterprise, Orange County Register, Fresno Bee, Bakersfield Californian, Long Beach Press-Telegram, San Bernardino County Sun, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Torrance Daily Breeze, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Modesto Bee, the Woodland Daily Democrat and the Tracy Press have all now come out in opposition to Propostion 93.

The latest newspapers to oppose the misleading Proposition 93 are the Sacramento and Modesto Bees (finally!), the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and the Orange County Register.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel: As We See It: No on term-limit "reform"

Editorial, January 13, 2008

Would allowing state legislators to serve a total of 12 years in either the Assembly or Senate be in the public benefit?That's really the only question worth answering about Proposition 93, which voters will be asked to approve or deny Feb. 5.

Reluctantly, and after initially supporting this reform proposal, we say it would not.

Legislators themselves are to blame. Here's why.· Proposition 93 is backed by many politicians acting out of blatant self-interest, such as Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Don Perata, both of whom would be termed out after 2008, and both of whom have showed disregard for the public's tolerance for unwarranted spending.Nunez, if 93 passes, would be able to serve six more years; Perata four more. Some 28 senators would be able to serve for 18 years. The ballot argument in favor of 93, written by state Attorney General Jerry Brown, misstates the intent of the measure by trumpeting that it "reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state Legislature from 14 years to 12 years."

Link to article
*****************
Written by Jerry Brown... why isn't anyone talking about that?

2008-01-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

Here's an email I received regarding my last blog post on The Clinton Act. Very interesting indeed... I received his permission to post this.
Whether or not it's from a competing campaign, it's still interesting.

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

On Jan 12, 2008 8:27 PM, peter paul wrote:

I liked your blog. I thought you should better understand my efforts to expose the frauds that Hillary directed to win her Senate seat and the unprecedented obstructions of justice she directed to keep the seat and avoid accountability. In my civil fraud case of Paul v Clinton et al pending in LA Superior Court- discovery will begin in March with the entire Clinton family among the deponents that will be videotaped.

I am sending a fee link to the Documentary I collaborated on- Hillary!Uncensored below. Please make some noise with your blog about the Justice Department's refusal to force the FEC to obey its own laws and to refrain from aiding and abetting the violations of criminal laws as defined by DOJ prosecutors.

The gravamen of my new FEC complaint is that six months AFTER the May, 2005 trial of Hillary's Finance Director David Rosen for causing Hillary's campaign to file three false FEC reports that hid over $1.2 million in my contributions, along with my identity as the donor, the FEC allowed Hillary Clinton's campaign to file yet another false report that the DOJ Prosecutor described as a felony violation of "the people's right to know that Peter Paul personally gave more than $1.2 million to Hillary's national campaign." The FEC then used the final false and illegal report as the basis to settle my original FEC complaint and immunize Hillary and her campaign from further investigation!

Take a look at WWW.hillcap.org to see the complete public record on this matter that the media has hidden since the January 30, 2006 false FEC report regarding Event 39, Hillary's largest fundraising event, was filed by Hillary. That FEC report repeated exactly the offense that her finance director was indicted and tried for in May 2005 as a result of my civil complaint in Paul v Clinton. Nowhere in that FEC report, as in all the previous ones, is there a mention that Peter Paul personally gave any money, much less $1.2 million plus as stated by the DOJ and FBI in the Rosen trial ( see transcript)

Peter PaulAsheville

Hillary Clinton & FEC Charged With Complicity in Illegal 2006 Report and FEC Settlement
The Vanguard.org, counterpoint to Move On.org, Joins In Challenging FEC Complicity in Clinton Illegalities
Hillary!Uncensored

COMPLIMENTARY VIEWING OF "HILLARY! UNCENSORED"
ON YOUPERVIEW.COM: 1. Sign up and login on WWW.youperview.Com
2. Once logged in, replace the URL address field in the navigation bar with this address:
Http ://WWW.youperview.Com/video/freewatch
The first Documentary Film to chronicle Hillary Clinton's political life using exclusive home videos, photos, letters, legal filings and expert witnesses became a viral video Internet phenomenon when a 13 minute unedited roughcut trailer for the documentary posted on a private Google site was leaked to the world on super agent Lucianne Goldberg's political blog site Lucianne, on October 7, 2007.

The Clinton Act

2008-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

I've never bought into the Clinton Act. In fact, instead of ever eliciting sympathy or empathy from me, both of them bring out an instinctive gut reaction from me - one that says "watch your back, protect your butt and don't take your eyes off of them."

Bill Clinton has never made me swoon. I never found him irresistible or charming, or wished he'd look into my green eyes with his blue eyes. I found him to be more like the most annoying car salesman, slick, insincere, cagey, shallow and a hick. I definitely did not buy the "good-ole-boy" routine. My husband and I were calling him trailer park trash long before the press did. By the time the press started with that name, I figured many others like me felt the same way about him.

Remember Bill at Ron Brown's funeral, laughing and chatting it up - until a camera caught him. He got real solemn, real fast, and even bit his lip - probably to make himself cry. It was pathetic.

Then came Hillary... she expects a coronation and will stop at nothing to receive her crown.

(unionleader.com) She wants you to believe her "record" of work within the White House, but the Clinton's won't release the records. "I was a member of the White House team that was involved with trying to make a lot of changes . . . I think that people who are running for President should lay out for Americans their record, their experiences, their qualifications, their vision, their plan, and their understanding of how to make it all happen, and that's what I'm doing."

Those records - 2,600 pages worth in the National Archives. The Clintons have claimed that the National Archives won't release the records, but the Archives official in charge says Bill Clinton has not authorized their release.

Among those records is Mrs. Clinton's schedule, which would help show just how involved she really was in her husband's administration.
Because she has made her "experience" her primary qualification for the presidency, the people deserve to see exactly what experience she really has. Which policies did she help shape? Which did she oppose? Did she serve as a de facto staff member or did her role primarily consist of whispering suggestions into her husband's ear? That history is blackened out, and she is keeping it that way. Why?
She has said that releasing the records is Bill's decision, not hers. But if she cannot convince her husband to release some White House documents for public scrutiny, how does she expect us to believe she will be able to convince Congress or foreign heads of state to follow her lead?

Unless Hillary can prove her "35 years of experience of change," she's just Bill's wife.

I can prove my working record, and I can produce evidence, and day planners, and even people who vouch for me. Hillary just can't seem to make this happen. And she deserves the Presidency? I fear the people who will blindly vote for her - they are more frightening in America than one ambitious, lying, desperate woman.

Prepare for a very ugly campaign. After reports of cars with license plates from New York and Massachusetts, cheating has already begun by the Clinton machine. It's going to get very dark - that's what desperation and greed does to a person's soul.

Sacramento Supervisor Tries To Look Busy

2008-01-10T10:54:00.000-08:00

(cbs13.com) Sacramento County supervisors have ducked a vote on the Iraq war. Supervisors voted three to two yesterday to drop a resolution supporting a phased withdrawal of troops. Supervisor Susan Peters says the war is not an issue supervisors should be dealing with. But Supervisor Roger Dickinson says the decision to remove the resolution from the agenda without debate was unprecedented.

(sacbee.com) Supervisor Roger Dickinson, who offered the resolution is asking his colleagues to join him in calling for the "phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq." "It's past time we make a planned and orderly withdrawal," Dickinson said. He added that any characterization of this as anti-troops would be "completely without foundation."

Barbara O'Connor, a communications professor at California State University, Sacramento, is among those who ask: "What's the point?" "That is part of the reason why the public is not enamored with elected officials," O'Connor said. "The public's reaction to something like that is, 'Why aren't they dealing with things that affect Sacramento County?' "

"This board has not made a practice of getting involved in foreign affairs, and I really don't think it's our role to do that," MacGlashan said. "We have enough on our plate at the county level. I really don't see the point of it."

The resolution was greeted with cheers and jeers from those on either ends of the political spectrum.

"It's a waste of time for municipalities to weigh in on national politics where they neither have the facts or the expertise," said Sal Russo, a GOP operative and the chief strategist for Move America Forward, a group active in support of U.S. service members. "It's irresistible … to take pot shots when they don't know anything and nobody cares."

If Roger Dickinson wants to work on national policy, he should run for Congress. Meanwhile, he needs to focus himself and deal with Sacramento County issues and do his job. Meddling in National affairs is not what he was elected to do.

One sacbee.com reader left this comment: "With so many problems in the county why are resources wasted on this publicity stunt. Oh wait..too late, they've already got their press. What's next Roger Dickinson?...are you going to debate whaling by Japan?...the Chinese occupation of Tibet?...the fist fights of drunken scientist at the Antarctic? Your job is to deal with county issues, so do your job. At my job, if I'm goofing off I get fired....too bad we can't do the same with these county stupidvisors."

Priceless. And accurate.

Oh wait, maybe he is running for Congress. He won't be re-elected to his current Supervisor seat at the rate he is going. This guy needs to rethink his career. He can't get a thing done for his district so looks to national politics where he has no accountability... what a great scam.

An Oprah Nation of Feelings

2008-01-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

American has turned into a nation of feelings, over reason.

Barack Hussein Obama is a living, breathing example of this. Obama is riding on a wave of feel-good, not substance.

Obama makes white liberals feel less guilt, as if voting for him will finally absolve America of the last vestiges of guilt over slavery. A vote for Obama makes them look truly progressive, part of the "in-crowd."

Because he has no substance. His claim of never having voted for the war is empty. His lengthy speeches say nothing. His promise of change is empty - he never promises specifics or details - just "hope" and "change."

Obama neglects to talk about the economy, education, and health care in concrete terms. Everything he has to say only appeals to making people feel special and part of something cool.

But since Hillary, John Edwards and Obama share the same liberal views on most topics, it is a popularity contest for who makes liberals feel better. A vote for Obama makes liberals part of the "cool" crowd.

How embarrassing for those who have "Obama" signs in their front lawns. They can't even tell you what his voting record is, or what specifically he stands for... other than change. Change is inevitable. The only appeal Obama offers is making the unpopular and socially awkward feel part of the cool kids clique.

Sac Bee is Conspicuously Absent

2008-01-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

Five newspapers have come out in strong opposition to Proposition 93 in recent days. The Bakersfield Californian, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and San Bernardino County Sun have all editorialized against the measure to loosen term limits.

These newspapers join the San Jose Mercury News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Fresno Bee, Riverside Press-Enterprise and Woodland Daily Democrat in denouncing the scam initiative to loosen term limits sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

How about The Sacramento Bee? Conspicuously absent.

In Case You Missed It:

EDITORIAL: No on 93: Don't swallow this baloney

The Bakersfield Californian, January 6, 2008 J

an. 6--How stupid do legislators think California voters are? OK, maybe you shouldn't answer that. We have swallowed some pretty big political "whoppers" over the years.

But not this time. Proposition 93 is a clumsy political sleight of hand that lacks the finesse of even an amateur magician.

Here's the "scam." Proposition 93 is being peddled as a tightening of the term limits California voters imposed on legislators in 1990. (By the way, the limits were imposed because voters were disgusted by do-nothing and sometimes corrupt lifetime legislators who were sucking the system dry.)

Proposition 93, on the Feb. 5 ballot, proposes to reduce from 14 years to 12 years the time a politician can serve in the Legislature.

For those who favor term limits, so far so good.But University of Southern California political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe is correct when she notes the "Legislature was just too cute by half" when lawmakers crafted this ballot "reform" measure.

The existing formula allows legislators to serve no more than six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate for a total of 14 years.Proposition 93 would cap the years of service at 12, but allow all years to be served in one house.

Proposition 93 creates a special loophole that will benefit 42 incumbent politicians, including our very own Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, who are termed out. It will give them more time in office. Working the numbers right, some will be able to serve 20 years forget about the existing 14-year cap.

And that's why Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata are among those who are working so hard to get voters suckered into passing Proposition 93. The termed-out legislators would be able to serve an extra six years and four years in office, respectively. They want to hold on to their power.

If legislators had played it straight and not shaped this measure in such a self-serving way, voters might have gone along with it.After all, California's term limits are among the nation's tightest. And an argument can be made that existing limits have created a distracting system in which career politicians bounce from one post to another more interested in their next political step than in serving their constituents.

Institutional knowledge in Sacramento has dwindled with the churn. The power of lobbyists and special interests and the money they ply has grown. California has become nearly incapable of solving its increasing problems.But opponents are correct to denounce Proposition 93 as nothing more than an arrogant power grab by career politicians. That's exactly what it is. Voters should tell these "too cute by half" politicians that we aren't swallowing their baloney. Vote no.

Link to article

California Legislators Give Each Other A Merry Christmas

2008-01-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

In Case You Missed It:

Contra Costa Times:

Lawmakers' pay raise

THE TIMING DOESN'T seem so great, but California legislative salaries have risen to $116,208. Keep in mind, these salaries were the highest in the country going in, we are facing a monster of a budget deficit next year and there has been a lack of any significant legislation lately.

Amazingly, the salary increase received the blessing of an independent citizens commission in June, which must approve legislative salary increases thanks to Proposition 112 that passed in 1990. So much for public oversight.

We commend the 13 legislators who have asked the state controller to keep their $3,110-a-year raise. Skeptically, however, we note that eight of those lawmakers are up for re-election; it's worth the sacrifice to keep constituents happy. The other 106 lawmakers, including 11 of 12 constitutional officers, will gladly pocket the extra cash, though.

We suggest many of these lawmakers reconsider the raises. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to his credit, doesn't take a salary, but he did sound the alarm recently when he saw many of his budget plans crumbling, thanks in part to the subprime mortgage crisis that is bleeding income tax revenue. With a projected $14 billion budget deficit, Schwarzenegger demanded a 10 percent cut across the board on state agencies. Yet lawmakers saw fit to take extra money despite many layoffs and the sacrifice of services on the horizon.
Link to article

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what can I possibly add to this?

Welcome 2008! Defeat Hillary 2008!

2008-01-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

I am back from Christmas, New Year's, and the flu.

I hope everyone has a Happy and prosperous 2008. And it will only be prosperous if Hillary Clinton is defeated. Otherwise, we will all know:

1) more taxes on the highest taxpayers

2) Government controlled health care (already failed once at the hands of Mrs. Clinton)

3) Enactment of the Fairness Doctrine

4) a total depletion of the military

5) More activist judges

6) Gay Marriage

7) The continued rise of China - thanks to the Clinton's the first time around

Does this sound like a first lady, or a president?

FIRST FIRST LADY to come under criminal investigation
FIRST FIRST LADY to almost be indicted according to one of the special prosecutors
NUMBER of Hillary Clinton fundraisers convicted of, or pleading no contest to, crime: 5
NUMBER OF TIMES that Hillary Clinton, providing testimony to Congress, said that she didn't remember, didn't know, or something similar: 250
NUMBER OF CLOSE BUSINESS partners of Hillary Clinton who ended up in prison: 3. The Clintons' two partners in Whitewater were convicted of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. Hillary Clinton's partner and mentor at the Rose law firm, Webster Hubbell, pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud and tax evasion charges, including defrauding former clients and former partners out of more than $480,000. Hillary Clinton was mentioned 35 times in the indictment.
IN THE 1980s, Hillary Clinton made a $44,000 profit on a $2,000 investment in a cellular phone franchise deal took advantage of the FCC's preference for locals, minorities and women. The franchise was almost immediately flipped to the cellular giant, McCaw.
HILLARY CLINTON AND HER HUSBAND set up a resort land scam known as Whitewater in which the unwitting bought third rate property 50 miles from the nearest grocery store and, thanks to the sleazy financing, about half the purchasers, many of them seniors, lost their property.
IN 1993 HILLARY CLINTON and David Watkins moved to oust the White House travel office in favor of World Wide Travel, Clinton's source of $1 million in fly-now-pay-later campaign trips that essentially financed the last stages of the campaign without the bother of reporting a de facto contribution. The White House fired seven long-term employees for alleged mismanagement and kickbacks. The director, Billy Dale, charged with embezzlement, was acquitted in less than two hours by the jury.
HRC'S 1994 HEALTH CARE PLAN, according to one account, included fines of up to $5,000 for refusing to join the government-mandated health plan, $5,000 for failing to pay premiums on time, 15 years to doctors who received "anything of value" in exchange for helping patients short-circuit the bureaucracy, $10,000 a day for faulty physician paperwork, $50,000 for unauthorized patient treatment, and $100,000 a day for drug companies that messed up federal filings.
TWO MONTHS after commencing the Whitewater scheme, Hillary Clinton invested $1,000 in cattle futures. Within a few days she had a $5,000 profit. Before bailing out she earns nearly $100,000 on her investment. Many years later, several economists will calculate that the chances of earning such returns legally were one in 250 million.
IN 1996, Hillary Clinton's Rose law firm billing records, sought for two years by congressional investigators and the special prosecutor were found in the back room of the personal residence at the White House. Clinton said she had no idea how they got there.
DRUG DEALER Jorge Cabrera gave enough to the Democrats to have his picture taken with both Hillary Clinton and Al Gore. . . Cabrera was arrested in January 1996 inside a cigar warehouse near in Dade County, where more than 500 pounds of cocaine had been hidden. He and several accomplices were charged with having smuggled 3,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States through the Keys
In 2000, Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign returned $22,000 in soft money to a businesswoman linked to a Democratic campaign contribution from a drug smuggler in Havana.
IN AUGUST 2000, Hillary Clinton held a huge Hollywood fundraiser for her Senate campaign. It was very successful. The only problem was that, by a long shot, she didn't report all the money contributed: $800K by the US government's ultimate count in a settlement and $2 million according to the key contributor and convicted con Peter Paul. This is, in election law, the moral equivalent of not reporting a similar amount on your income tax. It is a form of fraud. Hillary Clinton's defense is that she didn't know about it
HILLARY CLINTON'S participation in a Whitewater related land deal became suspicious enough to trigger an investigation by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
IN 2007, A Pakistani immigrant who hosted fundraisers for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton became a target of the FBI allegations that he funneled illegal contributions to Clinton's political action committee and to Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2004 re-election campaign. Authorities say Northridge, Calif., businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, fled the country shortly after being indicted on charges of engineering more than $50,000 in illegal donations to the Democratic committees.

If you want a repeat of the Clinton administration, here's a refresher course:

- The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance

- Most number of convictions and guilty pleas by friends and associates*

- Most number of cabinet officials to come under criminal investigation

- Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify

- Most number of witnesses to die suddenly

- First president sued for sexual harassment

- First president accused of rape. - First first lady to come under criminal investigation

- Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case

- First president to establish a legal defense fund

- First president to be held in contempt of court

- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions

- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad

- First president disbarred from the US Supreme Court and a state court

And more from Bill and Hill:

OTHER MATTERS INVESTIGATED BY SPECIAL PROSECUTORS AND CONGRESS, OR REPORTED IN THE MEDIA
Bank and mail fraud, violations of campaign finance laws, illegal foreign campaign funding, improper exports of sensitive technology, physical violence and threats of violence, solicitation of perjury, intimidation of witnesses, bribery of witnesses, attempted intimidation of prosecutors, perjury before congressional committees, lying in statements to federal investigators and regulatory officials, flight of witnesses, obstruction of justice, bribery of cabinet members, real estate fraud, tax fraud, drug trafficking, failure to investigate drug trafficking, bribery of state officials, use of state police for personal purposes, exchange of promotions or benefits for sexual favors, using state police to provide false court testimony, laundering of drug money through a state agency, false reports by medical examiners and others investigating suspicious deaths, the firing of the RTC and FBI director when these agencies were investigating Clinton and his associates, failure to conduct autopsies in suspicious deaths, providing jobs in return for silence by witnesses, drug abuse, improper acquisition and use of 900 FBI files, improper futures trading, murder, sexual abuse of employees, false testimony before a federal judge, shredding of documents, withholding and concealment of subpoenaed documents, fabricated charges against (and improper firing of) White House employees, inviting drug traffickers, foreign agents and participants in organized crime to the White House.

Forget the list of changes she will enact that hurt individual Americans, it's what she does in secret that should scare us more.

more to come...

Cynthia McKinney - Just Another Expensive Kook

2007-12-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

In case you are wondering what Cynthia McKinney is doing running for the Green Party nomination for President, here's a clue:

McKinney seems to be modeling her effort much along the lines of another African-American female presidential candidate from the 1990s Lenora Fulani. Fulani and her cult-like “New Alliance Party” never got more than a half-a-million votes. But they did qualify for millions in federal campaign matching funds.

In a U.S. News and World Report in 2002, Michael Barone pointed out:

Some three-quarters of McKinney's contributions came from people with Muslim or Arab names, most from outside Georgia. She received contributions from people under federal investigation for links to terrorists and from people who have voiced support for Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. In response to criticism, McKinney said she would not “racially profile” her contributors.

Cynthia McKinney is a money-grubbing nut who will do anything for continued fame and wealth - on her followers' dime.

Read the rest of the report here.

For more of my Cynthia McKinney posts:
http://fetchingjen.blogspot.com/2006/08/mckinney-is-gone.html
http://fetchingjen.blogspot.com/2006/04/cynthia-mckinneys-bad-hair-day.html
http://fetchingjen.blogspot.com/2006/03/felony-slap.html

You decide what kind of person she is.

Pearl Harbor Day Remembered

2007-12-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today, is December 7, 2007...66 Years Later...

From the Naval Historical Center:

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.
Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials.

read the rest here: Pearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941
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Visit Michelle Malkin's website for a stunning tribute to WWll Pearl Harbor Veterans.

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/12/07/pearl-harbor-66-years/

this is touching and heart wrenching: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Pearl.html

National Geographic: Remembering Pearl Harbor--history, maps has a wonderful spread.

and visit Welcome! Pearl Harbor Survivors Project

Reflect and remember. These amazing people are dying and with them are going memories and history.

NO on Prop 93 War Chest

2007-12-06T11:19:00.000-08:00

from the NO on Prop 93 Campaign:

Some Tough Numbers for Fabian Nunez and Don Perata

Sacramento - NO on 93 Communications Director Kevin Spillane issued the following statement today:

The San Jose Mercury News recently conducted an illuminating analysis on the success rate of California ballot measures since 1998. While the analysis was completed for a different purpose it also says a great deal about the prospects for Proposition 93 on the Feb. 5th ballot.

The Mercury News found that of the 107 measures on the ballot since 1998, only 9 passed where opponents spent $1 million or more. The NO on 93 coalition now has a war chest of $4 million and growing.

The two pillars of the Nunez/Perata strategy to pass Proposition 93 are 1) the initiative's intentionally misleading Title and Summary description so that voters are fooled into thinking it toughens term limits and 2) an opposition that is unfunded.

That deceptive Title and Summary is still Prop. 93's biggest asset and it will take money to educate the voters about the cynical effort by California's legislative leadership to loosen term limits and remain in power. But the second pillar of the YES on 93 campaign is crumbling under the weight of some very real numbers - 9 out 107; $4 million. Those are some tough numbers for Fabian Nunez and Don Perata. And as they say, numbers don't lie.

Prop 93: Power Play, Not Reform

2007-11-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

If there is no other issue you follow during this election cycle, pay attention to Prop 93. The following is an excellent Editorial from the San Diego Union Tribune outlining the sneaky Proposition and it's sleazy backers, Fabian Nunez and Don Perata.
Here's why you must vote NO on Prop 93:
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It's a self-serving power play, not reform

November 28, 2007

This editorial page has long viewed term limits as a populist stunt. The claim that term limits would reduce the clout of special interests and bring fresh blood and fresh thinking into politics has not been borne out over the past two decades.
Nevertheless, we strongly oppose Proposition 93, the highest-profile measure on the February presidential primary ballot. It would loosen California's term-limits law by allowing lawmakers to serve 12 years total in either the Assembly or the Senate. They now are allowed to serve a maximum of six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate.
This change is not an inherently bad idea. But everything else about the initiative stinks of expedience.
Consider Proposition 93's origins. Assembly Speaker Fabian NÚñez and Senate President Don Perata built early support for the measure by vowing to pair it with a redistricting initiative that would end the severe gerrymandering that makes it all but impossible to defeat a legislative incumbent, however shady or ineffective.
Instead, NÚñez and Perata once again went back on promises to back redistricting reform and worked to put the term-limits measure on the ballot by itself.
Consider the base motives driving the initiative. NÚñez, Perata and 40 other lawmakers will be termed out and lose their jobs in a year unless it passes.
The Legislature ostensibly added a third 2008 statewide election on Feb. 5 so Californians could have extra influence on the presidential race. Don't believe it. The real reason was so that Proposition 93 could pass and thus allow these 42 lucky incumbents to run again in the June 3 legislative primaries.
Consider the dishonest way the initiative is being marketed. Its ballot title is misleading in the extreme – “Limits on Legislators' Terms in Office.” So is the ballot description, which offers no context to help voters understand how the measure benefits a select club of 42 career politicians. (Thanks a lot, Attorney General Jerry Brown, who approved the wording.)
The deception continues with Proposition 93's Internet campaign, which declares it would immediately improve the Legislature – even though its sole immediate effect is to keep the same bickering, ineffective pols on the job.
The only good thing about Proposition 93 is that its brazenness will further bury the myth that NÚñez, Perata and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have ushered in a new and enlightened era. The initiative reflects the same sort of shabby power politics that have long been the Sacramento norm.
Thankfully, voters are lukewarm about the measure. Even before the inevitable TV ad campaign points out 93's self-serving nature, a fall Field Poll showed it had less than majority support.
Now it's time for Schwarzenegger to follow through on statements that he would only back term-limits changes if they were paired with a redistricting fix. The governor should use his popularity and actively campaign to put Proposition 93 where it belongs: the scrap heap. Well, governor?

Governor Fabian?

2007-11-26T10:42:00.000-08:00

From Jon Fleischman at The Flash Report:

"In some of the more - uh - interesting political analysis seen in a long time, Fabian Nunez's communications guru Steve Maviglio is promoting the embattled Assembly Speaker for Governor of California. In a blog post that Steve wrote for the The California Majority Report, he lists Nunez, his boss, as #8 on the list of Top Ten Democratic potential candidates for Governor in 2010. Incredibly, Nunez's gubernatorial prospects have improved since the blog's previous assessment of would-be Governors when the Speaker was ranked Number 10. Now that's what we call spin. Talk about failing upward. Since Maviglio's last handicapping of Nunez' odds at being the next Governor of California, a few things have taken place...
Nunez is under investigation by the FPPC for personal use of campaign funds, failure to adequately disclose campaign expenditures and the use of his campaign account to finance international travel and luxury goods.
It has been revealed that Nunez personally benefits financially from special interest money thanks to his wife's six-figure salary from a foundation financed by interests with business before the Legislature. (There is no way that Nunez could afford his expensive Sacramento home without his wife's income)
The press has reported the Speaker also pays a bargain rent to live with his professional fundraiser (who's received a whopping $600,000 from Nunez in recent years) in a luxury loft when he's in LA.
Nunez also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars from special interests with business before the Legislature - and who had already contributed the maximum allowed to the Speaker's campaign accounts - to a non-profit foundation suspended by the state and legally which should not have been operating but which explicitly promoted Nunez politically in his Assembly district. (Imagine - curry favor with the Speaker, and get a write-off!) The litany of Nunez scandals is one way to boost name identification - and it has worked rather dramatically. Perhaps the Majority Report has a point. In a June 2007 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Nunez only had 11% name ID among likely California voters. Recent private polling which I have seen has shown that in the last six months the Speaker has quadrupled his name ID. The only problem is that Nunez's name ID is now almost 2 to 1 negative!The glory-seeking Nunez has always wanted to surpass the fame and accomplishments of previous Assembly Speakers Jesse Unruh and Willie Brown and he's finally succeed in at least one respect - the same polling shows Nunez's negative ratings are dramatically higher than even those of the legendary Willie Brown among California's electorate. That's one heck of a campaign platform - to loosen term limits and pass Prop. 93 - much less run for Governor.I heard from a reliable source over the weekend that the back-room politicking is going on to decide what the Assembly leadership will look like come February, after a termed-out Fabian Nunez is forced to accept being a lame duck. Nice. "

And this would not be complete without reading Steve Maviglio's comment to John Fleishman - this is getting good:

"Jon, maybe you should spend a little more time trying to figure out how to get the CRP out of its massive debt instead of writing fact-deprived missives on the Speaker. I'm not promoting the Speaker for Governor. The ratings are independent of my job. And the main reason he moved up is that the list has shrunk from 15 potentials to 10. Also, I provided full disclosure about that, something I recommend you do since you appear to be bankrolled by the anti-Prop 93 big bucks.Allow me to correct you on some other items:1. The FPPC is randomly auditing the Speaker, along with 29 other legislators. A quick peek at FPPC Chairman Ross Johnson's filings on similar expenses while he served in the Senate show the same (or less) transparency.2. The rent on the apartment is market rate, with an agreement drawn up by an election lawyer to insure transparency. You might want to check with some of your GOP legislators (some of whom have their WIVES as fundraisers) about the office space they share with their fundraisers before you throw that stone in your glass house. (BTW, it's not a "luxury loft." It's a 1,000 sq. ft. apartment in a five-story building.)3. The Speaker didn't funnel any money to a "foundation." It was a nonprofit charity, which gave toys to kids and scholarships. Contrast that with some of the "behests" by Republican legislators (now available on the FPPC website) or the LA Times story on Bill Leonard and Barbara Alby.4. The Speaker's wive's job is not policy related and was earned based on her experience as a nurse. The primary funder is the California Hospital Association -- which does NOT support the Speaker's bill.5. The Speaker's accomplishments -- co-authoring the nation's first global warming bill, raising the minimum wage, passing billions in infrastructure bonds that you opposed but are now being embraced by Republicans in the legislature -- far outweigh a week of bad press. It would interesting for you to cite the polls you're talking about, since the public polls show no such negative ID.5. Prop 93 enjoys a double-digit lead in the polls, including widespread support among Republicans. The initiative REDUCES the number of years in office, hence strengthening term limits.And since we're on the subject of ethics ...Maybe you can take a pledge not to accept any advertising dollars from the anti-term limits reform group to ensure that your readers don't see any conflict of interest in your numerous columns on the subject? Wadda you say?
Posted by Steven Maviglio, Deputy Chief of Staff, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez at November 26, 2007 10:12am"
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