Bryan's Discontent

Thanksgiving: The true, but VERY politically incorrect story

2011-11-24T06:40:00.001-08:00

While our country struggles with the growth of socialism, collectivism, debt and spending, attacks on religion and Christianity, the desire for wealth, to be taken care of, free healthcare, opportunity, free enterprise, big vs. small government, and so on, I decided to go back as far as I could to see if we've been here before. So here's what I've found, going all the way back to the Pilgrims landing in America, and it's very first leader, William Bradford, the leader of the Separatists from England on the Mayflower and the governor of Plymouth Plantation. Maybe our ultimate real first President?

I assume many of you were like me when this stuff was being taught to us in grade school, eyes glazed, shooting rubber bands, making paper airplanes, and generally not paying attention to this stuff. And if was even taught, lots of "politically incorrect" stuff was sure to be left out. The Plymouth Plantation story, here, right from Bradfords own record, "Of Plymouth Plantation" is one that confirms that:

As early as 1620, Bradford tried socialism in the Plantation and it failed miserably with famine, strife, conflict, greed. If it doesn't work for less than 100 people, how will it work for 300 million?
The Pilgrims were devoutly Christian, their early laws were based on the bible, they deeply desired free enterprise, adventure, and religious freedom.
The socialism experiment failed because humans are hard-wired by God, to produce according to their gifts, and receive all they need (not want) according to God's plan, and by their free will, not being compelled by anyone, but to help, love and assist their brethern. As not to be a slave to any human. Luke 12:48: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked".
When each family was allowed to take a plot of land large enough for their particular family to produce upon, and each family was allowed keep all they wanted, they had more than enough for themselves, they set up trading posts to sell the extra, they took care of those unable to produce, they tithed to the church, and thus, capitalism and free enterprise was born. Malachi 3:10, my favorite verse, the ONLY time in the bible the Lord tells us to TEST Him: "¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

So the early Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation celebrated the success of their early capitalism experiment with a Thanksgiving feast, acknowledging not the wisdom of Bradford, or the hard work of their own hands but the wisdom and provision of God. By trusting and following His comittment to their needs and freedom, He would, and did provide.

As usual, do not trust me, read for yourself HERE This is the kind-of-hard-to read original text of "Of Plymouth Plantation". Focus on pages 215 to about 219. Prior to 215, Bradford goes on at length of how badly the collectivism and socialism methods were failing. Truly fascinating! Another good summary is HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Did GM really payback their loan?

2011-06-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

I have always been a diehard Chevy fan, and it pains me greatly to openly tell people I will NEVER buy a GM or Chrysler vehicle ever again. I think it is just wrong for the government to use taxpayer dollars to bail out any business that is in trouble. We have a great, yet painful process for that and it works: Bankruptcy. There is life after bankruptcy and I am proof of it- I had to declare a personal chapter 7 (that means liquidation, not reorganization) in 1997 when I had to close my business. I dont wish it on anyone, but it is a process to enable the economy to function.

But back to GM: I have had several conversations with people about GM and my stance on not buying a GM car again and the response is like, "Well, they DID pay back all the money, ahead of time, what's the big deal? Here are the facts:

The GM line: General Motors allegedly borrowed a "mere" $7.1 billion dollars from us. And then just a few months later supposedly made enough money to repay the loan in full with interest, way ahead of time. Great right??

The real amount was actually $50 billion dollars, using taxpayer dollars. In exchange for the $50 billion, the taxpayers got GM stock as collateral, which by the way, the taxpayers own 61% of GM stock. This is all part of the US Treasury's "Automotive Industry Financing Program".

$32.6 billion of the $50 billion went to GM to pay for...whatever. $17.4 billion went into an escrow account and GM needed Treasury's permission to draw from it. In November 2009, GM told the Treasury it planned to pay down the original $7.1 billion loan with the 17.4 that was in escrow. And they did this in April of 2010, and then GM ran all these ads saying, "We paid our loan off early", which is a baldfaced lie.

From what I've read, most of the $32.6 billion went to union pension funds, to basically pay retired people not to work.

This would be like using your home equity line of credit to pay down your Mortgage. And it gets better....

GM then got a $10 billion low interest loan, from the taxpayers, to retool their plant to build the new Volt electric car, which sells for $41,000, and they've only sold a few thousand of them to date. Other hybrid cars, like the Prius, are cheaper and much better.

So, not one cent of the original $7.1 billion loan has been paid back with GM operating revenue. And the taxpayer has not been paid back one cent of the now $60 billion it has been loaned.

What GM hoped to do was to recoup the $60 billion of cash loaned from the taxpayer by selling the 61% stake it has in GM stock once it went public, again. But to do this the stock price needs to be around $70 and it is right around 30 right now.

But wait there's more: Obama also gave GM a tax break this year of $59 billion. So now the taxpayer is out $120 billion.

This is flat out wrong, deceptive, and probably illegal. Here are my sources:

http://heartoftheissue.blog.com/2011/04/02/the-truth-behind-the-gm-bailout-and-aftermath/
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/09/general-motors-finance-bailout-opinions-columnists-warren-meyer.html
http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=694:issa-a-jordan-assail-general-motors-deceitful-tactics&catid=22

Follow Greece to see what's coming our way

2011-06-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

Here's what's happening today on Greece:

500,000 protesters in the town square because the government wants to cut another $6 billion from the budget, mainly pensions. This on top of the bailout plan from last year that has not worked.
Protests organized via Facebook.
Nationwide bank strike to occur on June 9: called by the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE) and the Civil Servants Supreme Administrative Council (Adedy), reacting to the "neoliberal government storm of antilabour measures.
The plan includes massive tax increases while there is in excess of 16% unemployment and massive tax evasion, on the order of 30% of GDP, while there are continuing mass layoffs.
Greece is about to default on about 340 billion of debt, but this is on an economy smaller than California's.
Praising rocket attacks on the Yemen leader whom everyone in Yemen hates.
Praise for ousting Mubarak in Egypt.
Banks have lost the ability to do interbank funding.
Commercial loans continue to go bad, Greece debt continues to be downgraded.
The new plan abolishes the national collective bargaining contract by lowering the minimum monthly wage, features a barrage of tax hikes and slashes social services.
Many fear a complete selloff of all state-owned assets on extremely unfavourable terms. To what country? What assets? If you sell your country who do you become?
The selloffs are already stirring a strong social backlash, with employees at state-owned companies staging or planning to stage sit-ins and strikes: staff at TT Hellenic Postbank went on strike on May 30, OTE phone company workers will hold a nationwide strike on June 2, court employees from June 6 to10, while a massive general strike, under the umbrella of the GSEE and ADEDY labour confederations, will take place on June 15
Artists and academics are calling on the Greeks to rally behind the governments plan to cede State Sovereignity in order to save the country financially.
Car sales down 16% in May, 43% from the previous year as new government sponsored programs to increase sales did not materialize.
S&P downgraded Greece debt 2 notches to a B, causing stocks to fall to a 2011 low.
New revenue sources being planned: higher taxes for annual vehicle registrations, higher taxes on boats and luxury cars, a new consumer tax on soft drinks and a bigger surcharge on natural gas consumers, as well as the ubiquitous tax hike on cigarettes.
Reduction in the tax free ceiling on personal property holdings. This is the equivalent to our mortgage interest deduction.
Interestingly they are considering a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 20%. Novel idea, from the Bush days???

DNC Chair Wasserman-Schultz: Republicans want to make illegal immigration a crime...and other great quotes

2011-06-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

..."the Republican solution...it should be a crime and we should arrest them all.”

“If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars; they would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes.” Wasserman Schultz owns a 2010 Infiniti FX35, a Japanese car whose parent company is Nissan.

"And another tremendous source of pride is that I am a pro-Israel Jewish member of Congress and I proudly support a president that is pro-Israel." Ummm...didn't Obama just say he wants the border cut back to 1967 lines?

In regard to the Republican plan to reduce the deficit, a bad reference to the holocaust: “This plan would literally be a death trap for some seniors,”

“In fact, we added 12 years of solvency to Medicare and ensure that it would be better for seniors.” That’s contrary to the assessment of the Congressional Budget Office... it predicted the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted by 2020 at the current path, almost a decade sooner than the last year’s forecast.

What a ditz.

See the article here.

Would you approve?

2011-05-27T04:21:00.000-07:00

If any other of our presidents
had doubled the National Debt, which
had taken more than two centuries
to accumulate, in one year,
would You have Approved?

If any other of our presidents
had then proposed to Double
the debt again within 10 years,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had criticized a State Law that
he admitted he never even read,
would you think that he is
just an ignorant hot Head?

If any other of our presidents
joined the country of Mexico and sued a
State in the United States to force that State
to continue to allow Illegal Immigration,
would you question his patriotism
and wonder who's side he was on?

If any other of our presidents
had pronounced the Marine Corps
as if it were the Marine Corpse,
would you think him an Idiot?

If any other of our presidents
had put 87,000 workers out of work
by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on
offshore oil drilling on companies that have
one of the best safety records of any industry
because one foreign company had an accident,
would you have agreed?

If any other of our presidents
had used a forged document as the
basis of the moratorium that would render
87000 American workers unemployed,
would you support him?

If any other of our presidents
had been the first President to need a
teleprompter installed to be able to get through
a press conference, would you have laughed and said
this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is
really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If any other of our presidents
had spent hundreds of thousands of Dollars
to take his First Lady to a play in NYC,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had reduced your retirement plan holdings
of GM stock by 90% and given the
unions a majority stake in GM,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had made a joke at the expense
of the Special Olympics,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive
and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown
had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had given the Queen of England an
IPod containing videos of his speeches,
would you have thought it to be a
proud moment for America ?

If any other of our presidents
had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia ,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had visited Austria and made reference
to the nonexistent "Austrian language,"
would you have brushed it off
as a minor slip?

If any other of our presidents
had filled his Cabinet and circle of
Advisers with people who cannot seem
to keep current on their Income Taxes,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had stated that there were 57 states in
the United States , wouldn't you have had
second thoughts about his capabilities?

If any other of our presidents
would have flown all the way to Denmark
to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics
would benefit him walking out his front door in his
home town, would you not have thought he was
a self-important, conceited, egotistical jerk?

If any other of our presidents
had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to
"Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador
when it was "The 5th of May" (Cinco de Mayo),
and then continue to flub it when he tried again,
wouldn't you have winced in embarrassment?

If any other of our presidents
had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel
to go plant a single tree on Earth Day,
would you have concluded he's a Hypocrite?

If any other of our presidents'
Administrations had okayed Air Force One
flying low over millions of people followed by
a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing
widespread panic, would you have wondered
whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If any other of our presidents
had failed to send relief aid to flood victims
throughout the Midwest, with more people killed
or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you
want it made into a major ongoing Political issue
with claims of racism and incompetence?

If any other of our presidents
had created the positions of 32 Czars
who report directly to him, bypassing
the House and Senate on much of
what is happening in America ,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had ordered the firing of the CEO
of a major corporation, even though he
had no constitutional authority to do so,
would you have approved?

If any of our other presidents
had suggested that Israel, our strongest and
really last ally in the middle east,
should retract their border to 9 miles wide
that they fought against and won, through an attack on THEM,
would you have a approved?

So, tell me again,
what is it about Obama that
makes him so brilliant and impressive?

Obama's Roommate Confirms Cloward-Piven Strategy

2010-09-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Jun. 06, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: Obama's agenda: Overwhelm the system
Rahm Emanuel cynically said, "You never want a crisis to go to waste." It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Barack Obama's presidency.

Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.Â

Barack Obama is my college classmate (Columbia University, class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.

-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care.Â It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?

-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."

-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression?Â Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.

-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America. But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government.Â Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.

-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America. The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.

-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.

With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.

Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama.

Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee and serves on the Libertarian National Committee.

Find this article at:
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/obama-s-agenda--overwhelm-the-system-95716764.html

Confirm authenticity with Snopes here:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/overwhelm.asp

The Bridge Builder

2010-05-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

My daughter posted to me on facebook yesterday, "Daddy, you talk about politics too much". Here's why, this poem I found says it all:

The Bridge Builder
by Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man, going a lone highway
Came in the evening, cold and grey,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was running a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim
That sullen stream had no fears for him,
But he turned when he reached the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

Old Man, said a fellow pilgrim near
Why waste your strength in building here?
Your journey ends with the ending day
And you never again must pass this way,
You've crossed the chasm deep and wide
Why build your bridge at eventide?

The Builder lifted his old grey head,
Good Friend, in the path I have come, he said,
There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.

The chasm which was nought to me
To this fair haired youth might a pitfall be,
For he too must cross, in the twilight dim
Good Friend, I'm building the bridge for him.

Ok- Now I Get It

2009-11-21T05:07:00.000-08:00

Whether you are Democrat, Republican or Independent, I think we all agree that things happening in our country just have not been making much sense lately. So I've been wondering: are our politicians just that ignorant that they have no idea what they're doing, or is this some very orchestrated plan that is being implemented? Unfortunately, it seems to be the latter.

I have posted many bizarre things on this blog but nothing as disturbing as what I have just found. It all makes sense now. You MUST read the two links below if you are an American that believes in the continuance of the America that embodies the freedom and values that we have grown up with and that the founders have laid out in our Constitution.

The Cloward-Piven Strategy
The Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

Speaker Pelosi’s Government-Run Health Plan Will Require a Monthly Abortion Premium

2009-11-05T09:19:00.000-08:00

On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan. It’s right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under “Insurance Rating Rules.” The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account - and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Section 213 describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run plan. The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.

http://republicanleader.house.gov/blog/?p=666

Roe v Wade was about Eugenics, not women's right to choose!

2009-10-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

"First, Eugenics is: the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, esp. by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).

From the 1800's until around 1960, forced sterilization was used to prevent certain races and species from reproducing because society had decided to limit those species in favor of others. The eugenic activity increased greatly with the freeing of slaves after the civil war. In the United States that basically meant limiting the reproduction of blacks in favor of whites. In Nazi Germany, Hitler is well known for this, sterlizing and killing Jews in favor of the Arian race.

Our own Supreme Court found in favor of Eugenics against blacks in 1927, saying "three generations of imbeciles is enough". Click here for the link.

When forced sterilization became increasingly unpopular in the 1960's (done mostly by the American Birth Control League, now called Planned Parenthood), forced abortion was the next easiest method.

Margaret Sanger, founder of this organization stated the following, and recommended setting up a government agency to do this: "It is a vicious cycle; ignorance breeds poverty and poverty breeds ignorance. There is only one cure for both, and that is to stop breeding these things. Stop bringing to birth children whose inheritance cannot be one of health or intelligence. Stop bringing into the world children whose parents cannot provide for them. Herein lies the key of civilization. For upon the foundation of an enlightened and voluntary motherhood shall a future civilization emerge".

Did she think she was God???

Fast-forward to July 11, 2009, an interview with Ruth Bader Ginsberg with the New York Times Magazine. The interviewer asks:

Q: If you were a lawyer again, what would you want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don’t know why this hasn’t been said more often.

Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.

This is from our current sitting Supreme Court Justice. She believed, at the time of passing Roe v Wade, that it was a case involving the legalization of Americans choosing which humans we thought should continue to exist and which should not...AND allowing the use of taxpayer money, Medicaid, to do it. Then Roe v Wade got all twisted around to be a womens rights issue, which you can see clearly was never the intent.

I want to throw up. I cannot believe what I'm even writing.

I was asked to run sound for a black church in Frederick a few weeks ago to for a movie they wanted to show called, "MAAFA 21: BLACK GENOCIDE IN 21ST CENTURY AMERICA". I became increasingly uncomfortable in the room full of 800 Christian black worshippers as the movie laid out the stunning history of eugenics in the U.S. and even more stunning the very close associations between Sangers organization and Hitler. It plays a taped excerpt of President Nixon saying "kill the black bastards" and shows evidence that we are killing more blacks in a week today, in the womb, than was killed in the entire Vietnam War.

There was a Q&A after the movie which I did not attend, but the pastor (Luke Robinson) was asked about his view on President Obama's position on abortions/eugenics. I understand his response was that Obama represents the greatest threat ever to blacks on this issue, primarily because he is using healthcare reform to provide money via government paid health insurance to indirectly provide abortions. This of course circumvents the direct payment via Medicare which the Hyde amendment prohibits. In my other blog post, I have shown that the current health bill provides for this funding.

Where is the thunder of black AND white voices standing up in opposition to this President and this health care plan which threatens the black race more now than ever? Remember the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

This is one issue this white guy will certainly stand up for, for my black brethern and my God.

China Overtakes America- soon

2009-10-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in another post how this could, or already may be happening. Here's someone else who elaborates here.

2nd September 11 Nationwide Terror Plot Thwarted

2009-09-26T05:27:00.000-07:00

Great example of our tax dollars at work, doing what they should be doing: FBI, CIA, NSA, local law enforcement protecting us and our families. THANK YOU. Heres the story.

Oh, and did you see the statement/press conference of President Obama thanking the Patriots that cracked this plot?? Hmmmm....I didn't either. Please comment and provide the link if you find it.

Have we been here before?

2009-09-26T05:15:00.001-07:00

This is very scary:

See this video from 1934.

See this video from 2009.

Next Czar: Mark Lloyd

2009-09-08T04:30:00.000-07:00

Let's start here with the 1st amendment to the Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Mark Lloyd is the FCC Diversity Czar, he started work July 29, 2009. Here are some things he has said:

From the Korea Times, a Scripps Howard Article dated 9/2/09:

There he was in 2008, participating in a conference on ``media reform," telling us what a wonderful leader Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, was, and wincing at an unpleasantness the dictator had to deal with, the uppity owners of media, people who had some objections in mind.

He spoke of Chavez's ``incredible revolution, a democratic revolution," and of the ``property owners and the folks who then controlled the media in Venezuela" who ``rebelled" and who ``worked to oust him." Still, said Lloyd, Chavez ``came back with another revolution, and then ... began to take very seriously the media in his country."

To Lloyd, as he wrote in a 2006 book quoted in an Internet article, the whole free speech thing is at any rate a bit of a fraud meant to serve global corporations and obstruct policies of the kind our society needs.

As much becomes clear when you read a report he and some others produced for a leftwing think tank that said conservatives dominate talk radio, not because they are more popular than liberals as the evidence clearly shows, but because most station owners are white men who apparently heed their monolithic ideology more than the marketplace and their pocketbooks.

He is proposing that private radio/tv stations pay license fees equal to their total operating costs, and those fees would go to public radio stations. So, the private stations obviously go out of business.

He is proposing a fine of about $250 million in aggregate for any radio station that says things critical of liberal policies. Again, the funds will be used for public radio. Also, the license would not be renewed, essentially taking the private station's license and giving it to public radio.

Shudder, friends. The administration would not have put Lloyd in his current job if it did not subscribe to his objectives.

Did you hear what Obama said about Van Jones resigning???

2009-09-08T04:23:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't either, that should be VERY concerning. Why didn't Obama come out and REJECT Van Jones' views? If Obama takes his oath seriously about defending the Constitution and the US, there should have been a prompt, clear, definable rejection statement...I didn't hear one.

Van Jones- OUT

2009-09-07T03:58:00.000-07:00

The text of his resignation letter. Don't know how his own videos can be construed as "lies and distortions".....

"I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.

On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.

I have been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum - urging me to "stay and fight."

But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.

It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead."

Top Secret Security Clearance- how did they get them?

2009-09-05T04:52:00.000-07:00

I would assume that President Obama, along with his Czars, had to apply for and get a Top Secret, or higher security clearance. I had to apply for one for a job I had in the past, and many of my friends have one for their jobs. A couple of my neighbors has had to get a TS, and an agent came to my house, sat down for an hour long interview, asking questions about the person's integrity, if I ever heard them saying anti-american statements, drinking a lot, having fancy cars, etc., and this is for a civilian. Did Obama and the Czars get a TS, and if so, you will ask HOW after you read this.

So, who IS really required to get a TS, and what do they want to know? I've attached a link to the Form 86, "Questionnaire for National Security Positions". Click HERE.

I have highlighted the most important areas in this document. Note the following:

Page 2, #4: The President and the Czars are employees, and should be required to get a TS clearance.

Page 2, #7: The media should be able to have access to the TS information, especially for Van Jones.

Page 6, #12: People you know well. Wonder if Bill Ayers was on Obama's list. You may remember, Bill Ayers bombed the Pentagon and went to jail for it. Here's a link to an interview where he admits it.

Page 7, #14: Relatives and associates. Who's on this list?

And the silver bullet: Page 11, #30: Have you ever been affiliated with an organization or person or made a contribution to an organization dedicated to the violent overthrow of the government, or has an intent to. Obama was the director of an organization that Bill Ayers founded about about 8 years ago.

Again, I'm not making this stuff up. If this bothers you, as it does me, pick up the phone and call your congressman, and the white house and ask: Does the President of the US have a TS, and does all his appointed staff. If so, how did they get it?

Who are the Czars?

2009-09-05T04:19:00.000-07:00

Remember, there is no provision in the Constitution for these people, no one elected them, the Congress had no say in appointing them, the FBI obviously did not, or was not allowed to vet them, they have enormous budgets with no accountability, other than to the President, we dont know what their plans or goals are, other than what we can learn about their track record in the past. Here they are:

As of July 20, 2009:

• The Brainroom counts 32 czars in the Obama administration, based on media reports from reputable sources that have identified the official in question as a czar.
• In addition, President Obama has said that he will create the position of cyber czar, and there have been media reports that there could be a health insurance czar and a copyright czar. When and if those positions are filled, that would bring the total to 35.
• Since czar isn't an official job title, the number is somewhat in the eye of the beholder.

NOTE: positions that also existed under previous administrations are indicated with an *.

1. Afghanistan Czar - Richard Holbrooke

Title: Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Will work with CENTCOM head Gen. David Petraeus to integrate U.S. civilian and military efforts in the region.
• 45 years of experience have made him a fixture of the Democrats' foreign policy establishment.
• Was U.S. ambassador to U.N., 1999-2001
• Brokered the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia
• Also served as Assistant secretary of state, East Asia and the Pacific (1976 to 1980); worked in foreign service (1962 to 1976)
• From 1972 through 1976, was the editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

2. AIDS Czar * - Jeffrey Crowley

Title: Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy
Salary: $102,000
Reports to: President Obama (as part of the Executive Office of the President’s Domestic Policy Council)
Appointed: February 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services

• Coordinates HIV/AIDS policy domestically and internationally.
• Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and a Senior Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center.
• Was Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the National Association of People with AIDS
• Has Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health

3. Auto Recovery Czar - Ed Montgomery

Title: Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Larry Summers, the president's top economic adviser, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Labor

• Will work to leverage government resources to support the workers, communities and regions that rely on the American auto industry.
• Was Deputy Secretary and Chief Economist at the Labor Department (1997 to 1998)
• Is Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland (2003 to present)
• Has PhD in economics from Harvard
• In 2008, made $1,200 in political donations, all of which went to Obama’s presidential campaign.
• Wife is the granddaughter of a General Motors worker from Portland, Mich.
• Drives a 2000 Lincoln

4. Border Czar * - Alan Bersin

Title: Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
Appointed: April 2009
Agencies that might have handled similar issues: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

• Will coordinate all of the department's border security and law-enforcement efforts.
• Essentially had the same job under President Clinton; served as Attorney General Janet Reno's special representative on border issues, a job that he held while retaining the position of U.S. attorney for San Diego.
• This time, boss will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who will expect him to handle illegal immigration and drug violence issues along the Mexican-American border
• Previous experience: Chairman of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority (2006 to 2009); Secretary of Education for California (2005 to 2006); Superintendent of San Diego Public Schools (1998 to 2005); U.S. Attorney for San Diego (1993 to 1998)
• Graduate of Harvard and Yale Law School
• Talking about border security shortly before he was named Clinton border czar in 1995, said he wanted to focus on suspected smugglers of both drugs and people and was not interested in prosecuting “economic migrants.”
• Often tied to the 1994 border policy called “Operation Gatekeeper.” The policy shifted the U.S. focus from the arresting of immigrants who actually crossed the border to an increased border presence designed to stop border crossing in the first place. When Bersin left the position in 1998, border arrests were on pace for an 18-year low of just more than 200,000. Latino groups complained that Operation Gatekeeper was immoral, saying the program monitored the border near San Diego but simply forced illegal immigrants to other, more dangerous areas.
• Has given more than $50,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of it to Democrats.

5. California Water Czar - David J. Hayes

Title: Deputy Interior Secretary
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
Appointed: June 2009
Confirmed by Senate (as Deputy Interior Security): May 20, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Interior

• Charged with coordinating federal agencies to ease California's water shortage
• Graduate of Stanford Law School; clerked for U.S. District Court for the D.C., has been a partner at two big D.C. law firms
• Was deputy interior secretary under Bruce Babbitt during Clinton administration
• From 1993 to 1995, was chairman of the board at the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit research center.
• As a lobbyist, represented the Southern California Metropolitan Water District in 2001
• In August 2008, wrote a policy report while working at the Progressive Policy Institute accusing the Bush administration of leaving a “damaging legacy” in their natural resource management policies
• Donated $2,300 to Clinton during 2008 campaign; after she withdrew, donated $2,300 to Obama

6. Car Czar - Ron Bloom

NOTE: on July 13, 2009, Bloom took over as head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, replacing Steven Rattner

Title: Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council head Larry Summers
Appointed: July 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• A leader of the White House task force overseeing auto company bailouts; worked on restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler LLC.
• Was special assistant to president of the United Steelworkers union from 1996-Feb 2009
• Has negotiated restructuring deals for more than 50 companies, getting major concessions from unions and companies.
• Was raised in New York in a pro-union family, which included a schoolteacher mother and unionized relatives.
• After working for the Service Employees International Union, got an MBA from Harvard University because he thought unions lacked business smarts, he said in a 1996 interview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• From 1985 to 1990, he worked as an investment banker with Lazard Freres & Co., which specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring, before co-founding the investment-banking firm Keilin and Bloom.

7. Central Region Czar - Dennis Ross

Title: Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region (encompasses the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia)
Salary: unknown
Reports to: National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Spent 12 years in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations trying to create a permanent agreement between the governments of Israel and the Palestinian territories
• In 1981, was named to President Ronald Reagan’s national security staff as the director of Near East and South Asian Affairs.
• Was director of the State Department’s Policy Planning office during President George H. W. Bush’s term.
• 1993: appointed to the position of Middle East coordinator, making him the top negotiator for peace between Israel and Palestinian territories
• After he left government in 2000, headed up Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a hawkish think tank with a pro-Israeli bent

8. Climate Czar - Todd Stern

Title: Special Envoy for Climate Change
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Appointed: January 2009
Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency; State

• Responsible for developing international approaches to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
• Served in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1999; Was Head of the Initiative on Global Climate Change (1997 to 1999) and Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury (1999 to 2001)
• As a top aide to President Clinton, helped negotiate the Kyoto and Buenos Aires climate pacts, both of which fell apart partially because of a lack of U.S. support during Bush administration.
• After Bush was elected to office, went to the Wilmer Hale law firm, where he is a partner in the regulatory and government affairs division.
• Was most recently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on climate change and environmental issues.
• Has written extensively on climate change, and has called on the American government and the international community to take a series of steps to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
• Supports a national cap-and-trade system that would limit carbon emissions and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil
• Has law degree from Harvard

9. Domestic Violence Czar - Lynn Rosenthal

Title: White House adviser on Violence Against Women
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama and Vice President Biden
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services

• Will advise the President and Vice President on domestic violence and sexual assault issues.
• 2000-2006: served as the Executive Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence
• Was an advocate for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2000 and 2005 and has assisted states and local communities with implementation of this federal legislation
• Was director of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence

10. Drug Czar * - Gil Kerlikowske

Title: Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: March 2009
Confirmed by Senate: May 7, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Justice

• Directs drug-control policy in the U.S.; is expected to shift drug policy to intervention, treatment and a reduction of problem drug use.
• Was police chief for the city of Seattle from 2000-2009
• Was Deputy Director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (1998 to 2000); Police Chief for the city of Buffalo (1994 to 1998); Police chief of Fort Pierce, Fla. (N/A to 1994)
• A strong gun-control advocate, urged both the Washington legislature and the U.S. Congress to pass an assault-weapons ban and has worked to close the loophole that doesn't require background checks at gun shows
• 2003: admitted that busting people for personal marijuana possession was not a top priority of the Seattle police department.
• As Seattle police chief, assigned an officer full-time to the drug court, which commuted sentences of drug users who complete medical treatment in lieu of going to jail.

11. Economic Czar * - Paul Volcker

Title: Chairman of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
Salary: Volcker reportedly isn't paid for his advice.
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• Charged with offering independent, nonpartisan information, analysis, and advice to the President as he formulates and implements his plans for economic recovery.
• Some reports say he's been marginalized by Larry Summers.
• Former Federal Reserve chairman (1979-1987)
• Was Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, Department of the Treasury (1969 to 1974); Deputy Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, Department of the Treasury (1963 to 1965)
• Gave Obama campaign $2,300 in 2008.

12. Energy and Environment Czar - Carol Browner

Title: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
Salary: $172,200
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: January 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: EPA

• Coordinates energy and climate policy, emphasizing regulation and conservation.
• Was Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Clinton administration (1993-2000)
• Was Florida Secretary of the Environment (1991 to 1993)
• Founded and continues to serve as a principal of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Also a principal of Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm that concentrates on emerging markets.
• Worked on the Socialist International's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which argues that the global community must work collectively to address environmental policies
• Described Bush administration as the "worst environmental administration ever"
• While orchestrating private discussions between the White House and auto industry officials on vehicle fuel efficiency standards, kept the talks as quiet as possible. Mary Nichols, the head of the California Air Resources Board, said, "We put nothing in writing, ever."
• 2003: A federal judge held the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt for destroying computer files during the Clinton administration that had been sought by a conservative legal foundation. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered the EPA to pay the Landmark Legal Foundation's legal fees and costs because the agency disobeyed his order to preserve the electronic records of Browner, the former EPA chief.

13. Faith-Based Czar * - Joshua DuBois

Title: Director of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Salary: $98,000
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: February 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services

• Acts as a liaison between faith and secular community groups and the White House, often partnering with them to tackle social issues. Helps these groups apply for federal grants available to them.
• Is 26 years old
• Has master’s in public affairs from Princeton University; served as associate pastor
• Worked for Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) as an intern and then as a fellow for Rep. Charles B. Rangel (DN. Y.).
• Hired as a legislative correspondent in Obama’s Senate office in May 2005
• In 2008, at the age of 25, was appointed director of religious affairs for the Obama campaign.

14. Government Performance Czar - Jeffrey Zients

Title: Chief Performance Officer
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag
Appointed: April 2009
Confirmed by the Senate (as deputy director for management for the OMB): June 19, 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB

• Charged with cutting costs and finding best practices throughout government.
• Has never worked in government before
• Was a chief executive and former management consultant
• Was founder of Portfolio Logic (2004 to present); Partner of the Washington Baseball Club (2004 to 2006); CEO of the Advisory Board (1998 to 2004)
• Has donated just over $90,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of which went to Democratic candidates

15. Great Lakes Czar - Cameron Davis

Title: Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson
Appointed: June 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency

• Oversees the administration's initiative to restore the Great Lakes' environment.
• President of the Chicago-based environmentalist group Alliance for the Great Lakes
• Was a litigating attorney and served as an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School.
• Served with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked on the Montreal Protocol to protect the Earth’s ozone layer, and U.S. EPA’s Office of Regional Counsel in Chicago.

16. Green Jobs Czar - Van Jones

Title: Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Head of Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley
Appointed: March 2009
Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency; Labor

• Will focus on environmentally-friendly employment within the administration and boost support for the idea nationwide
• Rose from near obscurity in the Oakland, Calif., grassroots organizing scene to the leader of a national movement to spur the green economy.
• Founded Green For All, an organization focused on creating green jobs in impoverished areas
• Also co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, which includes Bay Area PoliceWatch, a group devoted to "protect[ing] the community from police misconduct"
• Published New York Times best-seller The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, in October 2008
• Started career as a prison-reform advocate in Oakland, Calif., lobbying for reform of the juvenile justice system and youth-violence prevention programs
• Has law degree from Yale
• 2007: worked on the Green Jobs Act with then-Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), who co-sponsored the bill in the House
• 1993: was arrested at the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of cops in the Rodney King beating. "I was arrested simply for being a police observer," says Jones, who had just graduated from Yale Law School and was working with the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco.
• 1999: was arrested in the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization
• Excerpt from a Nov. 2005 interview in the East Bay Express:
Jones had planned to move to Washington, DC, and had already landed a job and an apartment there. But in jail, he said, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'" Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. "I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary." In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist." In 1994, the young activists formed a socialist collective, Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, which held study groups on the theories of Marx and Lenin and dreamed of a multiracial socialist utopia. They protested police brutality and got arrested for crashing through police barricades. In 1996, Jones decided to launch his own operation, which he named the Ella Baker Center after an unsung hero of the civil-rights movement.

17. Guantanamo Closure Czar - Daniel Fried

Title: Special envoy to oversee the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Justice; State

• Works to get help of foreign governments in moving toward closure of Guantanamo Bay, in fulfillment of Obama's promise to close the prison within a year of taking office.
• Was Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, State Department (2005 to 2009); Director for European and Eurasian Affairs, State Department (2001 to 2005); U.S. Ambassador to Poland (1997 to 2001)

18. Health Czar * - Nancy-Ann DeParle

Title: Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform
Salary: $158,500
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services (HHS)

• Coordinates the development of the Administration's healthcare policy agenda.
• Experience: Managing Director, CCMP Capital (since 2001); Adjunct professor (focusing on healthcare policy), Wharton School of Business (since 2001); Commissioner, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (since 2001); Fellow, Harvard Institue of Politics (2000 to 2001); Director, Healthcare Financing Administration (1997 to 2000)
• Has law degree from Harvard
• Served as the OMB’s representative on health-care reform during Bill Clinton’s first term
• As head of the HHS Health Care Financing Administration under Clinton, ran the largest health insurance provider in America, overseeing $600 billion in payments annually to 74 million recipients of Medicare and Medicaid
• 2001: left government to take a year-long fellowship at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, where she was part of Harvard’s Health Care Policy Forum and led a weekly study group on reforming Medicare.
• During Bush administration, sat on the boards of many health companies, from medical treatment producers to hospital systems
• In September 2008, donated $2,300 each to Clinton and Barack Obama.

19. Information Czar - Vivek Kundra

Title: Federal Chief Information Officer
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag
Appointed: March 2009
Agencies that might have handled similar issues: other federal agency CIOs

• Basically in charge of overseeing other federal agency CIOs and for setting technology policy across the government.
• Head of a federal technology budget that amounts to $71 billion annually
• Operation is housed in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and will likely have authority to question how money in departmental technology budgets is used
• Formerly head of the District of Columbia's technology operations
• Shortly after he joined the OMB, federal authorities raided his old District government office. They arrested two technology office managers and a subcontractor, charging them with a bribery scheme that allegedly defrauded the city out of at least $500,000. Kundra was not a suspect in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
• Has a masters from Maryland in information technology.
• Experience: Washington, D.C. Chief Technology Officer (2007 to 2009); State of Virginia's Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Trade (2006 to 2007); CEO of computer security firm Creostar

20. Intelligence Czar * - Dennis Blair

Title: Director of National Intelligence
Salary: $197,700
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: January 2009
Confirmed by Senate: January 28, 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: CIA

• Nation’s top intelligence official.
• Retired four-star admiral.
• Graduate of the United States Naval Academy, 1968; sixth-generation naval officer
• Lacks professional roots in the world of intelligence
• Held a number of prestigious Washington posts, including the Pentagon’s top liaison to the CIA and director of the Joint Staff.
• Ran the non-profit Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), which focuses primarily on issues related to national security, and does a lot of work for the Defense Department. Left IDA under a cloud of controversy in mid-2006.

21. Mideast Peace Czar - George Mitchell

Title: Special Envoy for Middle East Peace
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Works to maintain the shaky peace between Israel and Hamas after recent hostilities
• Senate majority leader from 1989 to 1994
• Was special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration and lead investigator into steroid use in Major League Baseball.
• 2000: led a fact-finding committee to study violence in the Middle East; 2001's Mitchell Report formed the basis for the road map for Middle East peace

22. Pay Czar - Kenneth R. Feinberg

Title: Special Master on executive pay
Salary: reportedly receiving no compensation for his work.
Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• Named to examine compensation practices at companies that have been bailed out more than once by the federal government
• Oversaw the payouts to the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
• Was the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which commemorates the students who died in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech
• Founder and managing partner of Feinberg Rozen LLP (1992 to present), law firm specializing in mediation
• Was Chief of staff for Sen. Edward Kennedy (1978 to 1980)
• While working with the Feinberg Group, donated over $150,000, nearly all of which has gone to Democratic candidates and political action committees. In 2007, donated $2,300 to 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani (R).

23. Regulatory Czar - Cass R. Sunstein *

Title: Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Office of Management and Budget head Peter Orszag
Appointed: January 2009
Nomination was sent to Senate on April 20, 2009 - no action yet taken
Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB

• Will be responsible for reviewing draft regulations and assessing their costs and benefits
• Is a Harvard Law School professor; prior to that, was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago Law School (1981-2008)
• Academic specialties: constitutional law, administrative law, and regulatory policy
• Obama: "Cass is not only a valued advisor, he is a dear friend"
• Known for advancing a field called "law and behavioral economics" that seeks to shape law and policy around the way research shows people actually behave; though embraced by conservatives, critics say it fails to account for the sometimes less-than-rational aspects of human behavior.
• In his 2002 book, Republic.com, discussed the drawbacks of limitless choices on the Internet that allow people to seek out only like-minded people and opinions that merely fortify their own views; he talked about the idea of the government requiring sites to link to opposing views. He later came to realize it was a "bad idea."
• In his 2004 book, Animal Rights, suggested that animals ought to be able to bring suit, with private citizens acting as their representatives, to ensure that animals are not treated in a way that violates current law.
• In a 2007 speech at Harvard he called for banning hunting in the U.S.
• The American Conservative Union started a website, Stop Sunstein, in an effort to keep him out of the White House.

24. Science Czar - John Holdren

Title: Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: December 2008
Confirmed by Senate: March 19, 2009
Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Energy

• Top adviser to Obama on science and technology, issues that are increasingly relevant to other issues such as homeland security, energy and environmentalism
• Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (1996-2009); Harvard University Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy (1996-2009); University of California, Berkeley Professor of Energy and Resources Emeritus (1996 to present)
• Studied aerospace engineering and plasma physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — where he earned his BS and MS — and Stanford University, where he received his doctorate in 1970
• Is an outspoken advocate of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and believes the United States should sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
• In a 2008 New York Times op-ed, Holdren called climate change skeptics “dangerous” members of a “denier fringe.”
• In 1971, co-authored a paper in Global Ecology suggesting "some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the century."
• Some conservative media outlets have called attention to a book Holdren co-authored in 1977 titled Ecoscience: Population, Resources, and Environment. The book reportedly includes this statement: "population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution." Holdren's office says he "does not now and never has been an advocate of compulsory abortions or other repressive measures to limit fertility."

25. Stimulus Accountability Czar - Earl Devaney

Title: Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Vice President Biden
Appointed: February 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB

• Leads oversight board that monitors money spent by the stimulus package
• Experience: Inspector General at the Interior Department (1999 to present); Director of criminal enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency (1991 to 1999); Special Agent at the Secret Service (1970 to 1991)
• During his tenure at Interior, uncovered the shady dealings of disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an investigation that eventually led to Abramoff's imprisonment and the resignation of Interior's no. 2, J. Steven Griles, for lying under oath about his own role in the scandal.
• On July 8, 2009, the U.S. General Services Administration issued a press release announcing an $18 million contract for a new recovery.gov web site, which quoted Devaney as saying, “We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved."

26. Sudan Czar - J. Scott Gration

Title: Special Envoy to Sudan
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Will coordinate U.S. role in the aftermath of the genocide in Darfur
• Experience: Supreme Allied Command, NATO (2004 to 2005); Air Force assistant deputy undersecretary for international affairs (2003 to 2004)
• Commanded all air operations during the Iraq war in 2003
• 2006: left Air Force position to join Obama’s staff after traveling to Africa with the then-Senator from Illinois, even though he was a Republican
• Has won a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, a Defense Superior Service Medal and 16 other awards
• Is a fluent Swahili speaker who grew up in the Congo
• Has called on the Obama administration to incentivize participation by the Sudanese government in peace talks by lifting sanctions, a position that is controversial. Also worked to position himself as the principal negotiator between the Sudanese government and its adversaries in Darfur, and is planning an international conference for September 2009
• Has M.A. in security studies from Georgetown

27. TARP Czar - Herb Allison

Title: Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• Leads the government's $700 billion financial rescue program in the office of financial stability
• Veteran Wall Street banker and interim head of the mortgage-finance company Fannie Mae
• Worked at Merrill Lynch for 28 years, reaching position of president and COO
• Was CEO of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund (2002 to 2008); CEO of the Alliance for Lifelong Learning (2000 to 2002)
• Has undergraduate degree from Yale and MBA from Stanford
• 2000: was John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign finance chairman
• In 2008, donated $2,300 to Obama's presidential campaign

28. Technology Czar - Aneesh Chopra

Title: Chief Technology Officer
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: April 2009
Confirmed by Senate: May 21, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Commerce

• Will lead in the effort to eliminate wasteful government programs
• Will probably work to increase broadband access nationwide and computerize medical records
• Was Virginia’s secretary of technology (2005-2009)
• Has degree in public health from Johns Hopkins, Master's from Harvard in public policy
• Worked at Morgan Stanley as investment banker; also worked at Advisory Board, a health-care research and consultancy firm
• Has donated more than $24,000 since 1997 to various campaigns. With the exception of a $1,000 donation to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in 2004, all of Chopra’s contributions have gone to Democrats. From 2007 to 2008, Chopra donated $2,750 to Obama’s presidential campaign.

29. Terrorism Czar - John Brennan

Title: Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
Salary: $172,200
Reports to: National Security Adviser James L. Jones
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Homeland Security

• Under Obama's plan the homeland security adviser’s office would be eliminated, and the National Security Council would take over those duties. Brennan would be responsible for guarding against natural disasters and terrorism.
• Has called for increased integration between the Departments of Commerce, State and Defense
• Graduated from Fordham University in 1977 after a year of intensive Arabic and Middle Eastern studies in Cairo. Earned his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin before joining the CIA as an intelligence director in 1980.
• Is a CIA veteran and fluent Arabic speaker
• Was CIA deputy executive director (2001 to 2003) and National Counter-Terrorism Center, Chair (2004 to 2005)
• Worked at Analysis Corp, (2005 to 2008);
• Staunch supporter of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Program; defended the use of extraordinary rendition, saying it is “an absolutely vital tool.”

30. Urban Affairs Czar - Adolfo Carrion Jr.

Title: White House Director of Urban Affairs
Salary: $158,500
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: February 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Housing and Urban Development

• Job entails coordinating transportation and housing initiatives, as well as serving as a conduit for federal aid to economically hard-hit cities.
• Has undergraduate degree in world religions from Kings College; became an associate pastor at a Bronx church; earned his master’s degree in urban planning from Hunter College
• Was Bronx Borough President (2001-2009); President of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (since 2007); City Council member (1998 to 2000)
• Many reporters say he has higher ambitions and will probably run for New York City mayor in the next ten years.
• Was an active campaigner for Obama, travelling across the country to speak on his behalf. He focused particularly on states with large Hispanic populations.
• The NY Daily News reported numerous developers made tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Carrión around the same time he was considering approving their projects in the Bronx.

31. Weapons Czar - Ashton Carter

Title: Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Appointed: April 2009
Confirmed by Senate: April 23, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Defense

• Will coordinate the Pentagon's acquisitions, technology and logistics for weapons.
• Will oversee a weapons-buying system that Obama has placed at the top of his list of federal programs he wants to fix and will be asked to quickly weigh in on difficult decisions concerning at least 10 major defense programs, while also instantly dissecting the procurement system’s ailments so he can advise the administration on its Pentagon acquisition reform agenda
• Is a physicist and Harvard academic whose only previous Pentagon stint was in a mid-level policy post from 1993 until 1996 under the Clinton administration
• Graduated from Yale summa cum laude; studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and earned a doctorate in theoretical physics.
• Chair of Harvard’s International Relations, Science & Security Area International Security Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (1993 to 1996); Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School (early 1990s)
• Has donated primarily to Democratic politicians since 2000. He donated $6,900 to then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2007 and 2008. He gave the same amount to then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during that same span.

32. WMD Policy Czar - Gary Samore

Title: White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control
Salary: unknown
Reports to: National Security Advisor Gen. James L. Jones
Appointed: January 2009
Department or agency that might have handled similar issues: NSC; Defense; State

• Will coordinate issues related to weapons of mass destruction across the government. His portfolio includes proliferation, nuclear and conventional arms control, threat reduction, and terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction.
• Position sits within the National Security Council.
• Is a veteran arms control negotiator.
• B.A. in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his PhD in government from Harvard University in 1984.
• After brief stints with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the RAND Corporation, joined the State Department during the Reagan administration in 1987. Held several positions there, including director of the Office of Regional Non-proliferation Affairs; special assistant to the Ambassador-at-Large for Non-proliferation and Nuclear Energy Policy; and deputy to Ambassador-at-Large for Korean Affairs Robert Gallucci. Helped to negotiate the 1994 U.S.-North Korea Framework Treaty
• Joined the Clinton administration’s National Security Council in 1995 as an adviser on nonproliferation. Coordinated U.S. policy on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
• Was Director, Council on Foreign Relations (2006 to 2009); Vice President for Global Security and Sustainability, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2005); Researcher, International Institute of Strategic Studies (2001 to 2005)

Get to know Van Jones

2009-09-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

Van Jones is one of 36 Czars appointed by Obama. He is the Green Czar, charged with the duty of creating jobs in the green, environmentalist movement. Van Jones, like the other 36 Czars, are accountable to only to Obama, are in charge of Billions of tax dollars, with no Congressional oversight, and we have no idea what their plans are.

In Van Jones's case, he is a self-proclaimed communist, believes that Bush Administration deliberately allowed 911 to occur, even signed a petition to this effect, believes whites exploit minorities, formed a non profit organization to promote Marxisma and Leninism, only 6 months ago called Republicans "Assholes" in a public speech on energy in Berkeley CA, referring to it as technical political science term, believes in redistribution of ALL wealth, believes in reparations, he wants the US to move from "suicidal gray capitalism to eco-capitalism".

Van Jones wants to "change the whole system, we're going to change the whole thing".

Van Jones, 2005: : "You've never seen a Columbine done by a black child. Never. They always say, 'We can't believe it happened here. We can't believe it's these suburban white kids.' It's only them. Now, a black kid might shoot another black kid. He's not going to shoot up the whole school." Heres the video of him saying this.

What is Van Jones up to? There is an event coming and we dont know what it is. Here is a transcript from the Van Jones speech in California:

VAN JONES: And this won't ‑‑ we have to prepare for this to be a long process even though it probably won't be. We have to prepare ourselves. We can't just push the people. We can push for (inaudible), but the people ‑‑ it must be a dance, you know. We have to listen, listen, listen, listen. And then learn. And then co‑lead, try to coauthor a different future with folks. And we have to assume that's going to take a long time, but sometimes what should have taken another 20 years, Barack Hussein Obama, can take a season.

I am NOT making any of this up. See the links below for backup:

Van Jones himself on the radio

Here is the link to an article to abc news reporting this.

The final question: Did the FBI vet this guy? If they did, the FBI should be dismantled today. Or, does Obama know all about him, and this is exactly what Obama wants in place? Judging from Obama past affiliations with known terrorists like Bill Ayers (he bombed the pentagon), one must assume Obama knows exactly what he is doing.

Healthcare bill allows full access to your IRS data

2009-08-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and "other information as is prescribed by" regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for "affordability credits."

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details -- there's no specified limit on what's available or unavailable -- to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify "affordability credits."

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a "low-income prescription drug subsidy" but has not applied for it.

So, this looks to me like a way for the feds to justify handing out free money to people they think need it.

What's the problem with that? Well, it's against the law:

Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says in e-mail: "We would oppose section 431(a) of the bill because it violates the intent of the Privacy Act which generally requires agencies to obtain information directly from individuals and not from other agencies." EPIC still hasn't updated their Web site to reflect this sentiment, but it's good to know that other folks have concerns too.

Canada's Healthcare System is "Imploding"

2009-08-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

And we want to copy what they are doing?

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Click here for full article

Ronald Reagan responds to socialized medicine...in 1961

2009-08-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

Click here

Scenes from Rep Cardin's Townhall

2009-08-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

Click here

Obama finally tells the truth

2009-08-11T19:23:00.001-07:00

Government organizations screw it up, private companies run things better: Postal Service vs. FedEx and UPS.

Click here.

No Town Halls for Mikulski

2009-08-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

She broke here ankle, probably from kicking a "mobster" out of a town hall meeting. We wish her a speedy recovery nonetheless. Here's an email from her scheduler:

Unfortunately, Senator Mikulski has broken her ankle and per her doctor's orders has to stay off of her feet until Labor Day. Therefore, she will not be appearing at any event during the August recess. However, you can speak or meet with one of the members of Senator Mikulski's legislative team, who will report to her your views.
If you would like to speak with a member of her legislative team, please call 202-224-4654.

Regards,
Nicole Morgan
Scheduler

Words of Advice

2009-08-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

This is great! How do you score on doing all these things?

An Angel says, 'Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn't happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.'

1. Pray
2. Go to bed on time.
3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.
4. Say No to projects that won't fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.
5. Delegate tasks to capable others.
6. Simplify and unclutter your life.
7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)
8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places..
9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don't lump the hard things all together.
10. Take one day at a time.
11. Separate worries from concerns . If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety . If you can't do anything about a situati on, forget it.
12. Live within your budget; don't use credit cards for ordinary purchases.
9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don't lump the hard things all together.
10. Take one day at a time.
11. Separate worries from concerns . If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety . If you can't do anything about a situati on, forget it.
12. Live within your budget; don't use credit cards for ordinary purchases.
13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.
14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.
15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday. 16. Carry a Bible with you to read while waiting in line.
17. Get enough rest.

18. Eat right.
19 Get organized so everything has its place.
20. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.
21. Write down thoughts and inspirations.
22. Every day, find time to be alone.
23. Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don't wait until it's time to go to bed to try and pray.
24. Make friends with Godly people.

'If God is for us, who can be against us?'

(Romans 8:31)

Cardin Town Hall in Hagerstown

2009-08-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 12th - 1 p.m. at the
Kepler Theater in the Hagerstown Community College Campus. Space is
limited, so if you would like to attend, please rsvp to
robin_summerfield@cardin.senate.gov.

FOR A GOOD SUMMARY OF WHAT IS CONTAINED IN THE BILL, this link is
excellent. This bill contains provisions which would shock most people.
Please take a moment to read it so that you will be well informed.
http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=19319

Upcoming Town Halls

2009-08-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

I called Rep Mikulski's office and Rep Cardin's office a minute ago to find out if they have any town halls coming up. Got voicemail. Called Rep Bartlett's office, spoke to a nice lady who informed me Rep Bartlett will be having town halls on August 25th, 26th, and the 27th. Location not known yet, but click here to find out, maybe on Monday.

Be a Watchdog for you country

2009-08-07T05:29:00.001-07:00

Click Here.

SEIU members and ACORN members allowed into town hall, others locked out

2009-08-07T05:19:00.000-07:00

And remember, ACORN is the organization running our census next year.
Click here.

White House asks you to turn in your neighbors critical of healthcare plan

2009-08-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

Sounds like an encroachment of free speech. Read about it here.

Write your congressman regarding healthcare

2009-08-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Write or call your Senators and Congressman: Sit down and write (by hand if possible) a letter to each of your Senators and your member of Congress. If you are not sure who your Congressman or Senators are, go to these links to find out:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Simply address the letter to:

Your Senator or Congressman:

US Senate or US House of Representatives, Washington DC 20510 (Senate) or 20515 (House)

Sending a letter by snail mail is much more effective than by email.

Tell them about your concerns about the current plan and what you would like done. Here are some ideas.

Rahm Emmanuel's Chicago Politics

2009-08-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

So much for free speech. Or ye who owns the gold makes the rules...or the gold is witheld.

Read about here.

Federal Tax Revenues Plummeting 18%

2009-08-04T04:59:00.000-07:00

While spending skyrockets? This is NOT good.

Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.

The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.

"Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made," said Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury Department official in the Reagan administration who is now vice president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

"This just adds to the problem."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_plummeting_taxes

2009-07-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Subject: Lou Pritchett's Open Letter to President Obama

The author, Lou Pritchett, is a well-known public speaker who retired after a successful 36-year career as the VP World Sales for Proctor and Gamble.

Lou Pritchett

Foremost Leader in Change Management

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America's true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Analysis: The letter is authentic. Lou Pritchett, author, motivational speaker and former Vice-President of Sales and Customer Development for Procter & Gamble, has acknowledged writing the above opinion piece and submitting it to the New York Times for publication, though to date it has only been published on the Internet, including on various conservative blogs and the American Family Association's website.

Take Back America Group

2009-07-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

If you are concerned about what is happening to the country you love, you are not alone and the Tea Parties started it. Here are some things happening in Frederick you might want to know about:

We Surround Them

An article about "We Surround Them".

The Tentacle

There NEVER was any separation of church and state

2009-07-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

We have been fed a load of manure on the "separation of church and state". First, that line is nowhere in the constitution itself. Second, most of the constitution and our country's laws were based directly or indirectly on the Bible itself, with the underlying assumption that the laws would ONLY work if the populace were believed in God. This assumption is exactly what PROMOTES and preserves the freedom of religion in this country, which too many people want to take away. Remember Obama's line, "The US is NOT a Christian nation". Read on....

Separation of Church and State?
Here are 18 quotes and statements, most directly from the mouths of this country’s forefathers, or from the Supreme Court itself, that prove that God and the Bible is inseparable from the laws that make the USA great.

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists—but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry (June 12, 1776)

“In the days of our contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed the frequent instances of superintending Providence in our favor.
“To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity to establish our nation. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that a new nation can rise without His aid? We have been assured Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
“I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to any business.” Benjamin Franklin, June 28, 1787

“Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”
Benjamin Franklin, letter to the French Minister of State (March, 1778)

“It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are the indispensable supports. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience BOTH forbid us to expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
George Washington, Farewell Speech, September 19, 1796

“We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams, Second U. S. President and Chairman of the American Bible Society.

“Everyone appointed to public office must say: “I do profess faith in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, His only Son and in the Holy Ghost; and in God who is blessed forevermore I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, which are given by divine inspiration.” Delaware Constitution of 1776
John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams, U.S. Congressman, the U.S. Minister to Russia, France and Great Britain, Secretary of State under James Monroe and the 6th U.S. President. He was also the Chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest honor and most important role.

Celebrating the 4th of July, 1821, President Adams said:
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of Civil government with the Principles of Christianity. From the day of the Declaration, they [the founders] were bound by the Laws of God, which they all, and by the Laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as their rules of conduct.”

“You have attacked the Bible. In attacking the Bible you have attacked Jesus Christ. And in attacking Jesus Christ you have attacked the roots of our nation. Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity soon manifests itself in the dissolving of our Civil government.” Supreme Court, The Peoples vs. Ruggles, 1811

In 1844, Vida vs. Gerrard, a public school teacher determined to teach morality without use of the Bible, the Supreme Court ruled:
“Why not use the Bible, especially the New Testament. It should be read and taught as the Divine Revelation in our schools. Where can the purist principles of morality be learned so clearly and so perfectly as from the New Testament.”

“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that they should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. No purpose of action against our religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to this present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation.”
Supreme Court, February 29, 1892

March 27, 1854, Senate Judiciary Committee Final Report:
“The First Amendment [religion] clause speaks against “an establishment of religion.” What is meant by that expression? [The founding fathers] intended, by this amendment, to prohibit “an establishment of religion” such as the Church of England presented—or anything like it. But they had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people… They did not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation the dead and revolting spectacle of atheistic apathy!

“Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity—that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle! At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the Amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, just not any one sect [denomination]… the object was not to substitute Judaism or Islam or infidelity—but to prevent rivalry among the Christian denominations to the exclusion of others.
“Christianity must be considered as the foundation on which the whole structure rests. Laws will not have permanence or power without the sanction of religious sentiment, without the firm belief that there is a Power above us that will reward our virtues and punish our vices.
“In this age there can be no substitute for Christianity. By its general principles, the Christian faith is the great conserving element on which we must rely for the purity and permanence of our free institutions. That was the religion of the founding fathers of the republic—and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendents.”

Based on the Senate Judiciary report, in May of 1854, in joint session of Congress, this resolution was passed:
“The great vital and conserving element in our system of government is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In 1782, the United States Congress voted to use the Bible in Schools
“The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in our schools.”

In the original Harvard Student Hand Book, rule #1 was that all students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek, for the study of Scripture.
Here was rule #2:
“Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

“In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but shapes the intelligence of the people. Christianity therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal consent. The consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle in the moral world is fixed and in force.
“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her great harbors; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her universal public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
“But not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases to be good—America will cease to be great!”
Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835

The first prayer in Congress, September 24, 1774 in Philadelphia's Carpenters Hall:

Jacob Duche kneels at a podium, his eyes raised toward heaven as he recites his legendary prayer. Members of Congress, many of them on their knees, humbly participate in the beseeching of God to grant His blessings on the young nation:

"Lord our Heavenly Father, High and Mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these our American States, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent on Thee, to Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give; take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle! Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation.

That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask In the Name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior. Amen."

And, Where there IS true separation of church and state:
Constitution of the United Soviet Socialist Republic, Article 124:
“In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the U.S.S.R. is separated from the State; and the schools from the church.”

Payroll Tax Boycott

2009-07-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

If this email offends anyone, I'll make my apologies right now. I heard this letter read yesterday on the radio by Glenn Beck and I had to pull the car over to hear the whole thing. Listen to the audio file and print the letter out and keep it on hand. It is written by a woman from Arizona (registered Democrat, then Repulican, but now not happy with either party). Yes, Glenn Beck tends to take conservative stance most times, but if you've listened in the past few months, he is pretty equally dissatisfied (as I am) with both parties. I just saw yesterday that the largest political group in the country is moderates, someone who does not agree with either party.

You should be very concerned about what is happening to our country, and BOTH parties are to blame because they are BOTH mainly concerned about their positions of power, and NOT upholding the Constitution. No country in the history of the world has ever survived the direction we are heading. In fact, if you have kept up with what is happening in the UK with Brown, they have just completed the path that we are heading down, are basically bankrupt, and the people are clamoring to throw Brown out of office and go back to the way things were.

I urge you to forget your politcal affiliation, re-read the Constitution, and let that be your filter for anything you hear from Republican or Democrat. Write or call your Representative or the White House and let them know your thoughts. It is not YOU who will need to deal with the aftermath, but our kids, and we need to do what we can to require our elected representatives to do what we want….while we can still elect them.

In addition, I will be suggesting to media outlets and Glenn Beck that all us taxpayers organize a tax boycott in September. The best way to show anyone you are serious about something is do something with their income. I will suggest that in August, that USA taxpayers go to their HR departement, online to their company HR application-whatever, and mark their witholdings as EXEMPT just for September, or to be completely legal, input 40 exemptions, or whatever the maximum is you can put it, to put your witholdings at a bare minimum. If your witholdings have been calculated correctly so far, the worse thing that will happen is you wont get quite as big of a refund or you may owe a little more come April 15 next year. Then, at the end of September, put your witholdings back where they were.

My rough calculations tell me that the Fed will be missing up to 100 billion dollars in one month if all wage earners do this. This has got to get their attention.

Here are the links:

Glenn Beck Letter

Constitution

Senate Contacts

House Contacts

Great Video on the government takeover of GM

2009-07-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

Click Here.

Garlic Parmesean Potatoes

2009-07-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Make these with the Pit Beef listed in my blog:

Garlic-Parmesan Potatoes

By: Bryan Chaney

2 lbs. Potatoes, quartered. (redskin work best.
2 TB oil 1tsp. Garlic powder
½ cup parmesan cheese

Throw all of the above into a big (one gallon) Ziploc bag. Shake like heck. Dump onto cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. You may want to turn them about halfway through. Or, I usually put them on the sheet round side down, then they dont stick to the cookie sheet.

Have wife clean the dishes.

Pit Beef Recipie

2009-07-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Summer is the best time for this, and everyone we've served it to wants the recipie, so here it is:

Baltimore Pit Beef Sandwich
For the rub:
2 T. seasoned salt
1 T. sweet paprika
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. black pepper

For the sandwich:
1 3 lb. piece top round 8 kaiser rolls or 16 slices of rye bread
Horseradish sauce
1 sweet white onion, sliced thin
2 ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
Iceburg lettuce, thinly sliced
Combine all ingredients for rub in a bowl and mix. Sprinkle 3 to 4 tablespoons of rub all over beef, patting it into meat. Place in a baking dish and cover with plastic wrap. You can marinate beef for a few hours, but for maximum flavor, marinate for 3 days in refrigerator, turning once a day.

Heat grill to very hot. Grill beef 30 to 40 minutes, or until outside is crusty and dark golden brown (even black) and internal temperature is about 120°F. (for rare; somewhat higher for medium-rare or medium). Turn beef often with tongs. Transfer to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Slice beef as thinly as possible across the grain, then finely chop with a cleaver. To serve, pile beef high on a roll or bread thickly slathered with horseradish sauce. Garnish with onions, tomatoes and lettuce. Serve immediately.

Click HERE for a link to the slicer I use that you can buy at Lowe's.

What might a bankrupt US look like?

2009-07-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this article on Obama's economic summit yesterday in China. China is the largest US debtholder at $800 billion dollars. It's not rocket science to understand that if you have a lot more of something, it is worth less and that applies to dollars, and that is inflation. The Chinese are really worried, and should be, that when the massive stimulus dollars start hitting our economy, the debt the returns they are guaranteed by the US on they debt they are holding could be worthless. Or worse yet, we can't repay the principal to them.

So what happens if cannot repay the Chinese, or repay them with dollars worth far less than they were guaranteed? What happens if you do not repay your mortgage? The collateral, or the asset the debt is secured by, is taken instead. So, the Chinese could say, well since you cannot repay us, we will just take, Hawaii, or California instead. This could actually be an attractive outcome for the many contractors and welfare recipients and taxpayers waiting for tax refund checks, all who are holding IOU's from the government. The Chinese make the payments to these IOU holders, bring their militia in, provide all the healthcare, funding, schools, and services the Chinese get. Along with their prohibition of assembling peaceably, turn over all your guns, take over the press and the internet, prohibit certain religions, especially Christianity. It is amazing to me how many rights US citizens are willing to give up if you just give them cash or services, or I think thats called a bribe. We are in very dangerous territory here.

Healthcare Bill Provides Money for Abortions

2009-07-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the 850 page healthcare bill: http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/DraftHealthCareReform-BillText.pdf

Page 169, section 1814 includes a provision for funding "family planning services" under Medicare. First, I don’t want my tax dollars used for killing babies. Next, it is unconstitutional. See this interview with Ruth Bader Ginsberg just last week where she restates that Medicare funding is fobidden by a 1980 Supreme Court cases: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?pagewanted=4&sq=ginsberg%20interview&st=cse&scp=1
Also page 680 line 16, 681, line 12,

688 line 1, provides federal medicare funding to public school health clincs for family planning services.

On a side note, read more of the interview and find that Ginsberg is surprised about how Roe vs Wade has been twisted around: she thought Roe vs Wade was about the selective elimination of certain parts of the population that we want to get rid of!! Yes, read it! This is a whole other issue!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?pagewanted=4&sq=ginsberg%20interview&st=cse&scp=1

Here are links to an interview by Orrin Hatch in a committee hearing on the health bill about our own Barbara Mikulski who slipped in the wording to provide the abortion funding: http://www.daylife.com/quote/03AvbT4h03gmE?q=Orrin+Hatch

I really wish I was just making this stuff up.

Let your representatives know how you feel about this:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

Spreading the Wealth Around

2009-07-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

I don't even know how to comment about this. It is absolutely wrong for the government to use taxation to redistribute money to anyone they think should have more. We have 2 great mechanisms for this: One is capitalism. Work hard, become excellent in your field, mind your expenses and there are few obstacles in your way to make really good money in this country. The second: Charitable contributions. The US leads the world in charitable contributions, and I believe I saw a statistic that said even last year, charitable contributions were at an all time high. If the HAVE NOTS need something, I will, and have served the less fortunate in many ways, through the entities I choose to take care of the have nots. It is a fact that for every $100 the government gets, only about $30 comes back to where it was intended.

The best example of how redistribution of wealth has worked in the past would be to revist the history of the USSR. It failed and no longer exists, by the way. Here is the architect of the socialist, and then communist system that became the USSR, Karl Marx:
Karl Marx

The Real Root of the Financial Crisis/Recession

2009-07-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Financial Crisis

This situation is very real. One of my coworkers was trying to get an order shipped a few days ago (our year ended on Sept 30) and was unable to because the distributor "was out of money" and their credit line was frozen. If you have a home equity line of credit (HELOC) and feel you may need it in the next year for emergencies or meeting short term cash needs, do not be surprised if the bank sends you a note telling you it has been cut in half or frozen altogether. Mine just got cut by 45%. One strategy if you need liquidity is to write a check for almost the whole amount of the credit line and put it in a high interest savings account, like ING. Then when this thing blows over, you pay the HELOC back down. It is much more difficult for the lender to cut your credit line if it is mostly used up. And if they should call it due, you've got the cash in the savings account.

So what is the source (or the truth) to this mess? Bottom line is a whole lot of people qualified for real estate loans over the past 6 to 10 years that could not afford them. These are called subprime loans, because they went to borrowers with "subprime" credit. No money down loans, low intro rate variables, negative amortization loans, you name it. So, with SO many people buying houses because so many more people can qualify to buy them, house prices skyrocketed. When those subprime mortgage holders couldn't pay the mortgage, all those houses go back on the market, values plumment. Then, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (who guarantee those mortgages by buying them) end up holding all those bad loans, and they fail. Pretty simple. Economics 101, supply and demand...and to think I skipped most of those classes in college!

So who came up with the dumb idea of allowing people to get these loans who couldn't afford them? See the following link:
NY Times Article from 1999

Who wanted to loosen up credit to non-creditworthy borrowers and who was against it?
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac hearings

2009-07-28T04:08:00.001-07:00

Testing 123

2005-09-17T15:33:00.000-07:00