Posts
Tim Bishop Guilty of Abusing His Power to Enrich Family Members...Again
Incumbent has demonstrated a “pattern of abuse” since Southampton College days
Randy Altschuler,
nygop.org
Middle Island, July 27, 2012 – Career politician Tim Bishop has abused his power as Congressman to enrich family members, continuing a pattern of abuse when it comes to lining the pockets of those close to him that started when he was the top bureaucrat at Southampton College, charged self-made businessman Randy Altschuler today. Altschuler pointed to a report [....]
http://www.nygop.org/page/incumbent-congressman-tim-bishop-guilty-of-abusing-his-power-to-enrich-family-membersagain
Israel: Obama's Wedge Issue
by Caroline Glick,
townhall.com
August 5, 2012
Less than 100 days before the US presidential elections, the Obama administration is openly denying Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem. Can this be a vote-getter?
Last week, the Emergency Committee for Israel released an ad titled, "O, Jerusalem." The commercial showed administration officials squirming when asked to name the capital of Israel, and highlighted the recent refusals of White House and State Department spokespeople to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel's capital city. The underlying message of the ad was that the administration's policy is out of step with the views of the majority of Americans.
Barack Obama's position is certainly a political outlier. The 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed nearly unanimously by both houses of Congress, explicitly stated that it is the policy of the United States that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel. The law granted the president a right to postpone the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on national security grounds. But the law's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital was unconditional.
During his visit to Israel earlier this week, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney highlighted [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/carolineglick/2012/08/05/israel_obamas_wedge_issue/page/full/
Man Arrested For Collecting Rainwater On His Property
by Bryan Nash,
Personal Liberty Digest
July 30, 2012
Guy Harrington was sentenced to 30 days in jail and forced to a pay a $1,500 fine for collecting rainwater.When it rains, it pours. A man in Oregon has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for collecting rainwater on his property. The government determined he had “illegal reservoirs.” Guy Harrington of rural Eagle Point, Ore., collects rainwater and snow runoff in three locations on his property. Harrington believes a 1925 law is behind the ruckus. The law established that the city of Medford would hold the rights to all the sources of water in the Big Butte Creek watershed and tributaries.
But Harrington thinks the courts are taking the law of out context.
“It didn’t mention anything about rainwater and it didn’t mention anything about snow melt and it didn’t mention anything about diffused water, but yet now, they’re trying to expand that to include that rain water and they’re using me as the goat to do it,”
argued Harrington. Harrington has three ponds on his 170 acres. According to Oregon laws, one must [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2012/07/30/man-arrested-for-collecting-rainwater-on-his-property/?eiid=
Message To Obama: You Owe Us!
by Wayne Allyn Root,
Personal Liberty Digest
August 2, 2012
We built it. We don’t owe you a thing. As a matter of fact, you owe us!
President Obama has it completely backward. Business owners don’t owe credit to government for their success. Government owes us credit for its existence. Government doesn’t enable or empower business owners. We empower government! Business owners would do just fine without government. But government, government employees and the “takers” of society (those who take checks from government) could not survive without us: the creators, producers and taxpayers. Simply put, we pay all the bills for government. We’re the ones you ought to be thanking.
Let me paint a picture even an economic illiterate can understand. Let’s say you own a restaurant. Who needs whom? Do the patrons of your restaurant need you? No, they could choose any one of 1,000 other restaurants in your city. They could stay home and cook for themselves. Heck, they could even choose to not eat; most Americans could use a day off from eating. But you — the business owner — could not live without customers. You desperately need their patronage. You need to be nice, genuflect and show gratitude. Without customers, you could not stay in business. Every employee of your restaurant is dependent on customers. Even ignorant leftists and socialists can’t intelligently argue with that.
Now let’s extend that “business model” to government. Government is the business. The taxpayers are the customers — just like that restaurant example. Government doesn’t survive if we don’t pay the bills. Government is dependent on us, our hard work, our taxes. If we go on strike and stop paying, government goes out of business. The only difference is that in a free market capitalist society, the customer freely chooses to spend his or her money at the business of their choice. But in the case of government, the customer is limited to only one choice. If government can’t pay the bills, instead of being forced out of business, government just raises taxes and extorts more money (legally, of course).
So why does Obama think we owe him? Sure, we need the things that help our society and economy grow: infrastructure (i.e., roads, bridges, traffic lights, police, fire, garbage, sewers, hospitals, airports, schools) and national defense. Although, much of that could be handled by private enterprise. But Obama misses the crucial point: We (business owners and taxpayers) paid for that with our taxes. We built it! You owe us a debt of gratitude. Without our business taxes, Social Security taxes, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes and estate taxes (we even pay you after we’re dead), there would be no money for all those things that Obama values. Why would we thank you for things we paid for? When the customer walks out of the restaurant, or hardware store, or toy store, who thanks whom? The business owner thanks us for spending our money in his establishment.
Instead of telling us how much we owe government, the progressive leftists and socialists should be thanking us. Without taxpayers (especially high-income business owners), you wouldn’t be able to build roads, bridges, highways, schools or airports. Your infrastructure exists because of our hard work. Your schools exist because of rich business owners who pay huge property tax bills. Your Social Security, Medicare, welfare, food stamps and unemployment insurance exist because of business owners paying into the system. Yes, President Obama, it all exists because business owners do, in fact, work harder and smarter. And you had better thank God we do it, or you’d be up [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2012/08/02/message-to-obama-you-owe-us/?eiid=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pe1GFHW79uA
Morning Bell: Friedman’s Legacy of Fighting for School Choice for All
by Amy Payne,
heritage.org
July 31, 2012
On the late Milton Friedman’s 100th birthday today, his words are truer than ever:
“There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children.”
And the news from many parts of the country is disheartening. Despite a new school choice option for students in Louisiana, a teachers union there has threatened to sue private schools that accept voucher students this fall. Unions have fought school choice initiatives because they see options for students eroding their power structure.
The Administration is also fighting students’ best interest. Instead of promoting what works—school choice, empowering parents and students—President Obama just issued an executive order last week creating a new federal bureaucracy to single out African-American students for more government meddling in their education. The order states that: [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/31/morning-bell-friedmans-legacy-of-fighting-for-school-choice-for-all/?roi=echo3-12715186280-9294028-163daaff6e50f0d21c56aa52955a0a31&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Morning Bell: Justice Department Blocks Voter ID at Every Turn
by Amy Payne,
heritage.org
July 27, 2012
People seemingly voting after they’ve been dead for years. Drug kingpins buying votes from poor people to sway elections. Non-citizens being bussed to the polls and coached on how to vote. Stories of voting fraud are shocking, and states have been taking action to make sure that elections are secure. But the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, has blocked states at almost every turn.
This is the same Justice Department that stopped a non-partisan election reform by arguing that if party affiliation were removed from a ballot, African-American voters wouldn’t be able to identify and vote for the Democrats. Holder has continued to stoke the racial fires, calling a requirement for voters to produce photo identification a “poll tax.” Heritage expert Hans von Spakovsky said this argument is merely political. “Holder continues to perpetuate the incendiary error to the public, knowing that the poll-tax assertion is a racially charged one that should not be used lightly,” von Spakovsky said. He explained: [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/27/morning-bell-justice-department-blocks-voter-id-at-every-turn/?roi=echo3-12682573416-9265112-d168b93471ad5547265b76534ccf55c5&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Romney’s Excellent Trip
by Charles Krauthammer,
nationalreview.com
August 2, 2012
It was a fine demonstration of foreign-policy fluency and command.
At the outset of his recent foreign trip, Mitt Romney committed a gaffe. In answer to a question about the Olympics, he expressed skepticism about London’s preparations. The response confounded and agitated Romney supporters because it was such an unforced error. The question invited a simple paean to Olympic spirit and British grit, not the critical analysis of a former Olympic organizer. Soon that initial stumble was transmuted into a metaphor for everything that followed. The mainstream media decided with near unanimity that the rest of the trip amounted to a gaffe-prone disaster.
Really? The Warsaw leg was a triumph. Romney’s speech warmly embraced Poland’s post-Communist experiment as a stirring example of a nation committed to limited government at home and a close alliance with America abroad, even unto such godforsaken war zones as Afghanistan and Iraq, at great cost to itself and with little thanks. Especially little from the Obama administration, which unilaterally canceled a Bush(43)-era missile-defense agreement with Poland to appease Russia. Without any overt criticism of the current president, Romney set out a foreign policy of radically greater appreciation of and fidelity to American allies.
Yet all we hear about Warsaw is the “gaffe”: two phrases uttered by an aide, both best described as microscopically rude. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a pack of reporters hurled questions of such journalistic sophistication as, “What about your gaffes?” To which Rick Gorka suggested that the reporters kiss his posterior, a rather charming invitation that would have made a superb photo op.
The other offense against human decency was Gorka’s correlative directive to “shove it.”
The horror! On the eve of the 2004 Democratic Convention, Teresa Heinz Kerry offered precisely that anatomically risky suggestion to an insistent Pittsburgh journalist. Not only did she later express no regret, but Hillary Clinton reacted with: “Good for you, you go girl.” [Blogger Emphasis]
So where’s the Romney gaffe? Is what’s good for the Heinz not good for the Gorka? And at his previous stop in Jerusalem, Romney’s speech was a masterpiece of nuance and restraint. Without directly criticizing Obama, Romney drew pointed distinctions deftly expressed in the code words and curlicued diction of Middle East diplomacy. He declared flatly that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. The official Obama position is that Israel’s capital is to be determined in negotiations with the Palestinians. On Iran, Romney asserted that Israel has the right to defend itself. Obama says this as boilerplate. Romney made clear he means it — that if Israel has to attack, the U.S. won’t flash the red light before nor punish Israel afterward.
What about the alleged gaffe that dominated reporting from Israel? Romney averred that Israeli and Palestinian economic development might be related to culture. A Palestinian Authority spokesman obligingly jumped forth to accuse Romney of racism, among other thought crimes. The American media bought it whole, despite the fact that Romney’s assertion was a direct echo of the U.N. Arab Human Development Report, written by Arab intellectuals and commissioned by the U.N. It unambiguously asserted that “culture and values are the soul of development.” And went on to report how existing cultural norms — “including traditional Arab culture and values” — are among the major impediments to Arab economic progress. The report deplores the rampant corruption, repressive governance, and lack of women’s (and human) rights as major [....]
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/313046/romney-s-excellent-trip-charles-krauthammer
Rowdy Cluckers: The Chick-fil-A Rebellion
by Doug Giles,
townhall.com
August 5, 2012
Well, the anti-Chick-fil-A thing sort of backfired, now didn’t it? Yep, the rabid gay crowd thought they were going to shut CFA down, but instead their fascist demands that Chick-fil-A’s Presidente Dan Cathy repent of his free speech actually catapulted the fast food chain into record profits. Cha-ching!
I have one word for that homo faux pas of trying to stifle a private company’s free speech, it’s: Ahahaha. Boy, you guys really read the pulse of the American people … Not.
Now, I will give the onerous gay activists this: Aside from the huge boom in ammo sales since Obama was elected, their boycott of Chick-fil-A actually spurred the first definitive economic stimulus of the Obama era. Muchas gracias. Look, I knew this anti-free speech/chicken sandwich protest was going to go south when frickin’ Rahm Emanuel and Edwin Mah Lee got out in front of it. They represent America about as much as I represent PETA. I kept waiting for Mugatu from Zoolander to pop out and join them by slaughtering live chickens in a Foghorn Leghorn outfit while dancing to “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” in front of some Chippendale boys. But, alas! It didn’t happen. Who can I sue?
If there’s one thing I know about Americans it’s that they love Chick-fil-A and free speech. I guess that would be two things. And Americans peacefully showing up in [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/08/05/rowdy_cluckers_the_chickfila_rebellion/page/full/
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| [(quote)....obama can Kiss my ass.] |
by Ben Crystal,
Personal Liberty Digest
August 2, 2012
Gaster Lumber and Hardware has often thrived and always survived in Savannah, Ga., through the efforts of its owner, Ray Gaster.The sign hanging below the roadside marquee in front of Gaster Lumber and Hardware reads:
“I built this business without gov’t help. Obama can kiss my ass.”
Gaster Lumber and Hardware has often thrived and always survived in Savannah, Ga., through the efforts of its owner, Ray Gaster. Gaster is a bit of a political player in the area, and his influence is considerable. But his success as a small-business owner is due entirely to a combination of dogged determination and excellent service. Lest you think I have turned this space into an advertisement for Gaster’s business, let me assure you that I’ve never been to the place. I don’t even know Gaster, although I do know his son well enough to say hello in passing. And on the rare occasions I find myself in need of some hardware-related item, I have to admit I tend to drive to Home Depot. But such a strongly worded message deserves examination, if not celebration.
To be honest, I was a bit surprised to read his rather — ahem — blunt response to President Barack Obama’s now-infamous Roanoke, Va., revelation. After all, I hardly expected to see a well-respected and long-established member of the local power structure of the fairly sleepy Southern city of Savannah step out to such a loud drum. To paraphrase Miss Manners: That sort of thing just isn’t done. But stress can do funny things to a man’s thought processes. And stress unnecessarily created by a profligate, self-important elitist who declares your decades of tough labor and love in building a successful small business an exercise in futility can do doubly so.
I suppose I can’t really blame Gaster for his own declaration of business independence. While I suppose his wording lacks a certain poetry, it’s hardly fair to expect him to pen a sonnet under the circumstances. Gaster sells construction supplies to contractors. His clientele primarily consists of people who spend their days working jobs that guarantee that by the time they get home, they’re dirty, sweaty and tired. These are people who work hard, day in and day out. They aren’t looking for Shakespeare, and Gaster [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2012/08/02/small-business-big-words/?eiid=
The Election, the Presidency and Foreign Policy
by George Friedman,
STRATfor.com
July 31, 2012
The American presidency is designed to disappoint. Each candidate must promise things that are beyond his power to deliver. No candidate could expect to be elected by emphasizing how little power the office actually has and how voters should therefore expect little from him. So candidates promise great, transformative programs. What the winner actually can deliver depends upon what other institutions, nations and reality will allow him. Though the gap between promises and realities destroys immodest candidates, from the founding fathers' point of view, it protects the republic. They distrusted government in general and the office of the president in particular.
Congress, the Supreme Court and the Federal Reserve Board all circumscribe the president's power over domestic life. This and the authority of the states greatly limit the president's power, just as the country's founders intended. To achieve anything substantial, the president must create a coalition of political interests to shape decision-making in other branches of the government. Yet at the same time -- and this is the main paradox of American political culture -- the presidency is seen as a decisive institution and the person holding that office is seen as being of overriding importance.
Constraints in the Foreign Policy Arena
The president has somewhat more authority in foreign policy, but only marginally so. He is trapped by public opinion, congressional intrusion, and above all, by the realities of geopolitics. Thus, while during his 2000 presidential campaign George W. Bush argued vehemently against nation-building, once in office, he did just that (with precisely the consequences he had warned of on the campaign trail). And regardless of how he modeled his foreign policy during his first campaign, the 9/11 attacks defined his presidency. Similarly, Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to redefine America's relationship with both Europe and the Islamic world. Neither happened. It has been widely and properly noted how little Obama's foreign policy in action has differed from George W. Bush's. It was not that Obama didn't intend to have a different foreign policy, but simply that what the president wants and what actually happens are very different things.
The power often ascribed to the U.S. presidency is overblown. But even so, people -- including leaders -- all over the world still take that power very seriously. They want to believe that someone is in control of what is happening. The thought that no one can control something as vast and complex as a country or the world is a frightening thought. Conspiracy theories offer this comfort, too, since they assume that while evil may govern the world, at least the world is governed. There is, of course, an alternative viewpoint, namely that while no one actually is in charge, the world is still predictable as long as you understand the impersonal forces guiding it. This is an uncomfortable and unacceptable notion to those who would make a difference in the world. For such people, the presidential race -- like political disputes the world over -- is of great significance. Ultimately, the president does not have the power to [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/election-presidency-and-foreign-policy?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120731&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=display&elq=8cafb820e42f4e73a0a945d6fb636757
The Lie That Should Sink obama
by Chip Wood,
Personal Liberty Digest
July 27, 2012
The words "you didn't build that" may sink Barack Obama's campaign.If there is one sentence that determines who will win this year’s Presidential election, I hope it will be Barack Obama’s incredible statement that “you didn’t build that.” In just four short words, Obama confirmed his bias against America’s business builders and job creators — the men and women who slaved and sacrificed to help make us the wealthiest, most productive and most generous Nation the world has ever known. Yes, I know, I’ll be accused of taking his words out of context. That he really wasn’t engaging in the blatant, anti-business bias I’ve accused him of. Baloney! Let’s look more closely at exactly what our Great Leader said. Here is a verbatim quote from his campaign speech in Roanoke, Va., on July 13: [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2012/07/27/the-lie-that-should-sink-obama/?eiid=
The Public History of a Campaign That Failed
by John Ransom,
townhall.com
August 1, 2012
Up The first hour was all fun, all idle nonsense and laughter. But that could not be kept up. The steady drudging became like work, the play had somehow oozed out of it, the stillness of the woods and the sombreness of the night began to throw a depressing influence over the spirits of the boys and presently the talking died out and each person shut himself up in his own thoughts. During the last half of the second hour nobody said a word. – Mark Twain, The Private History of a Campaign That Failed
Obama has a problem spending money apparently. And now even Democrats are finding it out. The Billion Dollar man is running through campaign cash at such high rate, says FoxNews, that the president has had to take the unprecedented step of [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2012/08/01/the_public_history_of_a_campaign_that_failed/page/full/
The Rich Congressmen Get Richer?
by Tim Young,
absoluterights.com
July 20, 2012
In a very rare moment the other day, Congress worked together... That's right. They actually passed a bill that was be signed by the President. What bill you ask?
The STOCK Act.
See, because of their unique positions, members of Congress get all the insider trading tips they need to become richer while in office...and they ALL have taken advantage of this until now...so they want you to think. And to clarify, insider trading is what Martha Stewart went to jail for....and anyone can go to jail for for that matter,
EXCEPT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS!
According to the STOCK Act, all members of Congress need to report any trade they make of $1,000 or more within 45 days of the transaction.
Sounds good right?
Here's the problem. The Senate says that this includes family members (spouse, children, etc.) because of how close they are to the elected official.... but the House of Representatives says it doesn't...So essentially, this law is a front...a sham if you will for all the members of the House of Representatives who will go home and think to themselves, [....]
http://www.absoluterights.com/the-rich-congressmen-get-richer/
The Specter of Syrian Chemical Weapons
by Scott Stewart,
STRATfor.com
August 2, 2012
The unraveling of the al Assad regime in Syria will produce many geopolitical consequences. One potential consequence has garnered a great deal of media attention in recent days: the possibility of the regime losing control of its chemical weapons stockpile. In an interview aired July 30 on CNN, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said it would be a "disaster to have those chemical weapons fall into the wrong hands -- hands of Hezbollah or other extremists in that area." When he mentioned other extremists, Panetta was referring to local and transnational jihadists, such as members of the group Jabhat al-Nusra, which has been fighting with other opposition forces against the Syrian regime. He was also referring to the many Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which have long had a presence in Syria and until recently have been supported by the al Assad regime.
The fear is that the jihadists will obtain chemical weapons to use in terrorist attacks against the West. Israel is also concerned that Palestinian groups could use them in terrorist attacks inside Israel or that Hezbollah could use such weapons against the Israelis in a conventional military battle. However, while the security of these weapons is a legitimate concern, it is important to recognize that there are a number of technical and practical considerations that will limit the impact of these weapons even if a militant group were able to obtain them.
Militant Use of Chemical Weapons
Militant groups have long had a fascination with chemical weapons. One of the largest non-state chemical and biological weapons programs in history belonged to the Aum Shinrikyo organization in Japan. The group had large production facilities located in an industrial park that it used to produce thousands of gallons of ineffective biological agents. After the failure of its biological program, it shifted its focus to chemical weapons production and conducted a number of attacks using chemical agents such as hydrogen cyanide gas, phosgene and VX and sarin nerve agents.
Jihadists have also demonstrated an interest in chemical weapons. The investigation of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing found that bombmaker Abdul Basit (aka Ramzi Yousef) had added sodium cyanide to the large vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated in the Trade Center's basement parking garage. The cyanide was either consumed or so widely scattered by the huge blast that its effects were not noticed at the time of the attack. The presence of [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/specter-syrian-chemical-weapons?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120802&utm_term=sweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=293ec68be80944b39b243cf8876aac6e
What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Consumer Confidence Up Four Points Since Jobs Report
Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 43%, Democrats 40%
29% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction
by Scott Rasmussen,
rasmussenreports.com
August 4, 2012
The frustration in America these days runs deep. Just 14% think today’s children will be better off than their parents. That’s the most pessimistic assessment ever and the number is even lower among those with children at home. Worker’s confidence in the jobs market has fallen to the lowest level of 2012. Long-term optimism about the economy is at the lowest level ever recorded. Just 40% believe the U.S. economy will be stronger in FIVE years. That’s down from 62% in January 2009.
Consumer confidence is bouncing along just above 2012 lows. Pessimism about the recovery of housing prices and the stock market remains at or near record highs. President Obama’s Job Approval also fell to the lowest level of 2012 this past week. At the same time, the number of people who consider themselves GOP Republicans also fell to a 2012 low. The lack of confidence in [....]
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/weekly_updates/what_they_told_us_reviewing_last_week_s_key_polls
Where Is John Galt?
by Katie Kieffer,
townhall.com
July 30, 2012
Where is a man who can save us? A man of virtue and action who can rebuild our economy and culture? We must find a true-to-life John Galt. I think America’s best shot at economic recovery and restoring constitutional freedom is to nurture men and women who emulate the virtues of John Galt, a hero in Ayn Rand’s magnum opus novel, Atlas Shrugged. Galt is a man of unparalleled virtue, intelligence and action in a fictional U.S. economy that is eerily identical to the present-day U.S. economy.
Galt is an American inventor who lives and breathes his philosophy: “I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” What Galt means is that he will earn happiness through his virtues of: “…rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.” In Atlas Shrugged, college professors, state scientists and government bureaucrats advocate “shared sacrifice” which is code for theft, lust and brute force. In the novel, most American citizens choose short-term pleasure and a false sense of security over the truth, enabling the government to turn against productive entrepreneurs.
The government annihilates [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/katiekieffer/2012/07/30/where_is_john_galt/page/full/
Until Next Sunday....
