Coupe D' Etat: The sudden overthrow of a government by a usually small group of persons in or previously in positions of authority.
If you were at the Town Meeting on Monday November 3, 2008 that is what you witnessed. Town Meeting, the governing body of the Town and Voice of the People was infiltrated and suppressed by an (union) organized group employed by the Seekonk School Department.
I said it in the meeting, and I will say it again here. Half of the people in attendance last night will not step foot in another town meeting until it becomes time to pad their pockets yet again. It is a disgrace, and a gross manipulation of the democratic process.
Never have I seen Town Meeting go against both the recommendations of the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee. Especially when they are both in agreement with each other. Instead Robert McLintock stood up before every question was put to vote and in effect directed the back half of the room on how to place their votes. That is not democracy. That is an organized group of people hijacking democracy.
Robert McLintock in every town meeting I have ever attended has preached fiscal conservation. Last night he did an about face, and showed himself to be a complete hypocrite, and that he is nothing more than a whipping boy for the unions. He should resign in shame as soon as he possibly can.
With all respect to Michael Carol, our town administrator, because I think he is doing a great job, this is what happens when you have a Department Head in the town who is not a resident. Dr. Emile Chevrette could care less about the financial stability of the town. He doesn't live in it! All he cares about is sucking up to the unions and solidifying his power-base in the town while he is collecting a 130 thousand dollars a year to do it.
If you think it is over after this, think again. If state aid really does crumble next year, the residents of Seekonk could very well be faced with a Prop 2 1/2 override question being presented to them. Think of what the School Department, backed by the teachers union, will do to get that vote passed, or if it does not pass, think of what will happen to our schools when teachers get laid off in order to balance the budget.
I have two children. I understand the importance of a good education. But we need to set our limits. We need to understand the REALITY that money is not going to come flowing into the town. The teachers need to remember that their paychecks, benefits, retirement pensions, are all funded by tax payer money. My money, your money, your grandparents money. They do not work in the private sector, they work in the public sector, and therefore are not entitled to the pay increases and benefit levels of a private sector worker. I should also point out that in this economy, even private sector employees are lucky to see raises from their employers and often pay a higher portion of their benefits than these teachers do.
These teachers may get their raises this year, but once that budget is passed, they should start looking around and crossing their fingers hoping that it will not be them that gets a pink-slip handed to them next year. Maybe if they had not forced their selfishness on the town it would be in a better position to help them, or least be more willing to help them. For me...when the time comes... I will remind them that they are getting exactly what they deserve.
So I urge every voting member of Seekonk to attend the Special Town Meeting on Saturday November 8th. Let YOUR voice be heard. If you don't agree with me that is fine, but at least the voters of Seekonk would get the chance to let their own voices be heard, and not the voice of a powerful few.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Coal Comment
Obama's comment about coal is very interesting and believe it or not could turn out to be devastating.
Why?
Pennsylvania. One of, if not the biggest, producers of coal in the world. And...it is a battle ground state. If McCain takes Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida it could very well cost Obama the election. McCain over the weekend has closed the gap and even passed Obama in quite a few of the battle ground states.
Real Clear Politics right now puts Obama with 278 EV's to McCains 132 EV's (Electoral Votes). With 128 EV's up for grabs. Seems dismal if you are a McCain Voter until you realize that Obama was up as high as 356 EV's earlier in the week, and Friday he had 311 in his corner.
One of the biggest things that any political strategist is going to look at in polling is "trending". If a candidate is trending up in the polls the campaign is happy, if they are trending down, that is bad, especially when it is consistent over a period of time. In politics a week is like 7 dog years.
In order for McCain to win he needs to take Fl,GA,OH,PA, and either NC or VA. He has closed the gap in NC and both Candidates are Polling at 47.8% each with 4.4% either undecided or voting for a third party. So that is a state to watch.
PA Polling is less promising with Obama enjoying a 51.3/43.7 lead. Which is why this coal remark could be so devastating. The Philly area is pretty much the only part of the state that is an Obama Strong-hold. But if Western PA comes out in droves, and Philly doesn't that could turn the tied in McCains favor, and make for a very long election night.
Also watch NH. It's only 4 electoral votes, but Obama is holding a fairly comfortable 10 point lead there. If NH ends up going to McCain, that could be very indicative of where some of the other battle grounds states, and former "Red States" might end up going. NH should be in first. So we may have a good idea if the "Bradly Effect" is in play after all.
Why?
Pennsylvania. One of, if not the biggest, producers of coal in the world. And...it is a battle ground state. If McCain takes Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida it could very well cost Obama the election. McCain over the weekend has closed the gap and even passed Obama in quite a few of the battle ground states.
Real Clear Politics right now puts Obama with 278 EV's to McCains 132 EV's (Electoral Votes). With 128 EV's up for grabs. Seems dismal if you are a McCain Voter until you realize that Obama was up as high as 356 EV's earlier in the week, and Friday he had 311 in his corner.
One of the biggest things that any political strategist is going to look at in polling is "trending". If a candidate is trending up in the polls the campaign is happy, if they are trending down, that is bad, especially when it is consistent over a period of time. In politics a week is like 7 dog years.
In order for McCain to win he needs to take Fl,GA,OH,PA, and either NC or VA. He has closed the gap in NC and both Candidates are Polling at 47.8% each with 4.4% either undecided or voting for a third party. So that is a state to watch.
PA Polling is less promising with Obama enjoying a 51.3/43.7 lead. Which is why this coal remark could be so devastating. The Philly area is pretty much the only part of the state that is an Obama Strong-hold. But if Western PA comes out in droves, and Philly doesn't that could turn the tied in McCains favor, and make for a very long election night.
Also watch NH. It's only 4 electoral votes, but Obama is holding a fairly comfortable 10 point lead there. If NH ends up going to McCain, that could be very indicative of where some of the other battle grounds states, and former "Red States" might end up going. NH should be in first. So we may have a good idea if the "Bradly Effect" is in play after all.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities
This is the second article in two days that I have read from MSM news sources criticizing Obama. One was on CNN where the reporting wrote a great article reminding us that the reason Obama was able to purchase 30 minutes or air time on 3 networks was because he has a lot of cash. Something he would not have had he stuck to his promise of excepting public financing for his campaign. It was also pointed out that the attacks from the 527 groups (his reason for bowing out of Public Funding) never materialized.
Maybe it is to little to late, but hey....here's to hoping right?
Now this article below from the AP ripping apart said 30 minute add for lacking any substantive facts.
-Mike
Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities
By CALVIN WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.
Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are—beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn't tell them:
THE SPIN: "That's why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year."
THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it's not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
___
THE SPIN: "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost."
THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama's policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years—and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: "Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years." The analysis goes on to say: "Neither candidate's plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified."
___
THE SPIN: "Here's what I'll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we'll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. "
THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals."
___
THE SPIN: "I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care."
THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: "I want to start doing something about it." He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.
___
THE SPIN: "We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we're going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad that we've got to look at bringing that war to a close." These lines in the ad were taken from a debate with McCain.
THE FACTS: Obama was once and very often definitive about getting combat troops out in 16 months (At times during the primaries, he promised to do so within a year). More recently, without backing away explicitly from the 16-month withdrawal pledge, he has talked of the need for flexibility. In the primaries, it would have been a jarring departure for him to have said merely that "we've got to look at" ending the war. As for Iraq's surplus, it's true that Iraq could end up with a surplus that large, but that hasn't happened yet.
Maybe it is to little to late, but hey....here's to hoping right?
Now this article below from the AP ripping apart said 30 minute add for lacking any substantive facts.
-Mike
Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities
By CALVIN WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.
Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are—beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn't tell them:
THE SPIN: "That's why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year."
THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it's not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
___
THE SPIN: "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost."
THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama's policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years—and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: "Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years." The analysis goes on to say: "Neither candidate's plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified."
___
THE SPIN: "Here's what I'll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we'll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. "
THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals."
___
THE SPIN: "I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care."
THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: "I want to start doing something about it." He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.
___
THE SPIN: "We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we're going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad that we've got to look at bringing that war to a close." These lines in the ad were taken from a debate with McCain.
THE FACTS: Obama was once and very often definitive about getting combat troops out in 16 months (At times during the primaries, he promised to do so within a year). More recently, without backing away explicitly from the 16-month withdrawal pledge, he has talked of the need for flexibility. In the primaries, it would have been a jarring departure for him to have said merely that "we've got to look at" ending the war. As for Iraq's surplus, it's true that Iraq could end up with a surplus that large, but that hasn't happened yet.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Hey Stupid!
It's been a while since I have personally written anything for this blog. The way new information is changing and updating so rapidly; I as a working class individual have had little time to sit and formulate my thoughts the way I would like. Besides, the information I have been posting was written by individuals with far more knowledge and skill than yours truly.
But I would like to take a moment to sit back; to pause, and have a "Come to Jesus" moment here regarding the Presidential Election that is less than 7 days away.
These are no doubt trying times in our country. Basically anything that could have gone wrong, is going wrong, and it is doing it all at once. People are struggling. I'm struggling, you may be struggling, many of our neighbors and relatives are struggling. In uncertain times the tendency in all of us is to look for help. To find a solution. However in an age where ideology is the cornerstone of our Main Stream Media and hard facts are a thing of the past, it becomes increasingly difficult to put our fingers on the source of the problem.
Capitalism is not the problem. Capitalism is what built this country into the superpower that it is today. Greedy individuals is what put us in this position. Greedy Capitalists, Stupid Consumers, and government officials who are in bead with both of them.
Politicians lie to us and put the blame on other parties, other companies; anyone but themselves. The media reinforces those lies, because the two have been in bed together for so long that for the media to suddenly report facts would be in essence, them admitting that they have been unrepentant whores for Washington all these years. Specifically they have been whores for the left wing agenda.
So naturally when we are faced with this current crisis of the economy, this crisis of the fabric of our society, we are on the lookout for the fix, the godsend. And the media presented him to us as Barak Obama, the Messiah, the patriarch of the middle class. The One. And it looks like we have bought the product, unseen, unproven, and without a warranty.
People don't think much for themselves anymore. They rely on the media to tell them their opinions. We watch a debate on television, and then we rely on the CNN pundits to tell us what was actually said. We get our information from headlines without actually reading the meat of the article. We are becoming a society of sheeple, a dumbed down culture that is spoon feed it's new set of progressive morals by a bunch of talking heads positioned on the bright box centered in every home in America. We don't think. We think we think, but we don't. We think that because we can recite the talking points of every campaign, we are well informed of the issues. We think that because we read the NYT or the Huffington Post that we are well informed; because we read, regardless of the one sidedness. And the more we are spoon-feed the misinformation, or the sterilized-approved-for-the-masses information, the more we alter our senses. The more we accept the idea that we are in fact victims of a capitalistic machine.
"Our faults are not our own, they were forced upon us by a vile CEO of some company. I did not get ahead in life because I didn't work hard enough, but because I was held back by another force that exists in a high rise building somewhere on Wall Street. It was not my fault that I declared bankruptcy because I couldn't pay my 100% mortgage with a piggy-back equity loan, or my 30,000 dollar credit card bills that I racked up buying my new big-screen tv, furniture, home entertainment gallor. It's not my fault, the bank offered me the credit, they said I could afford it, so if they said it, I must be able to. I didn't think I needed to read the contract I signed that said that my interest rate was adjustable so that my payments might actually go up. I didn't bother trying to correct my credit, or debt problems in the three window that I head before the rate changed so I could refinance into a fixed rate mortgage. Those details don't concern me."
Oh yes they do, had you been intelligent enough for analytical thought, you would have known that.
Just once I want to hear someone say that they support Obama even though he is a socialist. At least they admit that, and by admitting that they are showing that they are at least informed of the facts, and not some mindless couch potato who gets all of his "facts" from CBS news evening edition.
To all those who say that Obama is not a Socialist...you are stupid, and mindless, and deserve what you get because you were either to blind, to illiterate, or just to damn lazy to go out and get the facts for yourselves. To say that he is not a socialists only proves that you never even bothered to go out and learn what socialism is.
But don't worry, Obama likes lazy. In fact he will reward lazy with a monthly check from the state, posted directly into your government bank account so you won't even need to leave your couch and your TV to go cash it. And with a little luck...Obama thinks...You will teach your children to live the same way so that generation after generation will continue to be controlled and suppressed and spoon feed by the state. Because his goal is to take away the pain of having to try and succeed in an evil capitalists society, and replace said society with a Communist Utopia.
Oh the bliss.
This is not our grandparents America. Our grandparents worked for everything they had. Some of them get filthy rich, some of them didn't. But they never blamed anyone, they never demanded that someone who had more than they did, give them a peace of the pie. They excepted the fact that some people were just lucky, got a good break, they even celebrated for them. They did not try to regulate them to try and make it harder for the next guy to get ahead.
Not everyone is going to be monetarily rich. If that happened there would not be anyone left to do the manual work. But there are plenty of other forms of riches to experience in life, and we as Americans have forgotten most of them.
The richness of accomplishing a difficult task.
But I would like to take a moment to sit back; to pause, and have a "Come to Jesus" moment here regarding the Presidential Election that is less than 7 days away.
These are no doubt trying times in our country. Basically anything that could have gone wrong, is going wrong, and it is doing it all at once. People are struggling. I'm struggling, you may be struggling, many of our neighbors and relatives are struggling. In uncertain times the tendency in all of us is to look for help. To find a solution. However in an age where ideology is the cornerstone of our Main Stream Media and hard facts are a thing of the past, it becomes increasingly difficult to put our fingers on the source of the problem.
Capitalism is not the problem. Capitalism is what built this country into the superpower that it is today. Greedy individuals is what put us in this position. Greedy Capitalists, Stupid Consumers, and government officials who are in bead with both of them.
Politicians lie to us and put the blame on other parties, other companies; anyone but themselves. The media reinforces those lies, because the two have been in bed together for so long that for the media to suddenly report facts would be in essence, them admitting that they have been unrepentant whores for Washington all these years. Specifically they have been whores for the left wing agenda.
So naturally when we are faced with this current crisis of the economy, this crisis of the fabric of our society, we are on the lookout for the fix, the godsend. And the media presented him to us as Barak Obama, the Messiah, the patriarch of the middle class. The One. And it looks like we have bought the product, unseen, unproven, and without a warranty.
People don't think much for themselves anymore. They rely on the media to tell them their opinions. We watch a debate on television, and then we rely on the CNN pundits to tell us what was actually said. We get our information from headlines without actually reading the meat of the article. We are becoming a society of sheeple, a dumbed down culture that is spoon feed it's new set of progressive morals by a bunch of talking heads positioned on the bright box centered in every home in America. We don't think. We think we think, but we don't. We think that because we can recite the talking points of every campaign, we are well informed of the issues. We think that because we read the NYT or the Huffington Post that we are well informed; because we read, regardless of the one sidedness. And the more we are spoon-feed the misinformation, or the sterilized-approved-for-the-masses information, the more we alter our senses. The more we accept the idea that we are in fact victims of a capitalistic machine.
"Our faults are not our own, they were forced upon us by a vile CEO of some company. I did not get ahead in life because I didn't work hard enough, but because I was held back by another force that exists in a high rise building somewhere on Wall Street. It was not my fault that I declared bankruptcy because I couldn't pay my 100% mortgage with a piggy-back equity loan, or my 30,000 dollar credit card bills that I racked up buying my new big-screen tv, furniture, home entertainment gallor. It's not my fault, the bank offered me the credit, they said I could afford it, so if they said it, I must be able to. I didn't think I needed to read the contract I signed that said that my interest rate was adjustable so that my payments might actually go up. I didn't bother trying to correct my credit, or debt problems in the three window that I head before the rate changed so I could refinance into a fixed rate mortgage. Those details don't concern me."
Oh yes they do, had you been intelligent enough for analytical thought, you would have known that.
Just once I want to hear someone say that they support Obama even though he is a socialist. At least they admit that, and by admitting that they are showing that they are at least informed of the facts, and not some mindless couch potato who gets all of his "facts" from CBS news evening edition.
To all those who say that Obama is not a Socialist...you are stupid, and mindless, and deserve what you get because you were either to blind, to illiterate, or just to damn lazy to go out and get the facts for yourselves. To say that he is not a socialists only proves that you never even bothered to go out and learn what socialism is.
But don't worry, Obama likes lazy. In fact he will reward lazy with a monthly check from the state, posted directly into your government bank account so you won't even need to leave your couch and your TV to go cash it. And with a little luck...Obama thinks...You will teach your children to live the same way so that generation after generation will continue to be controlled and suppressed and spoon feed by the state. Because his goal is to take away the pain of having to try and succeed in an evil capitalists society, and replace said society with a Communist Utopia.
Oh the bliss.
This is not our grandparents America. Our grandparents worked for everything they had. Some of them get filthy rich, some of them didn't. But they never blamed anyone, they never demanded that someone who had more than they did, give them a peace of the pie. They excepted the fact that some people were just lucky, got a good break, they even celebrated for them. They did not try to regulate them to try and make it harder for the next guy to get ahead.
Not everyone is going to be monetarily rich. If that happened there would not be anyone left to do the manual work. But there are plenty of other forms of riches to experience in life, and we as Americans have forgotten most of them.
The richness of accomplishing a difficult task.
Planting flowers in your very own garden that you worked hard to get, even if it is only the size of a bathtub.
The richness of seeing your child finally take off on that two-wheel bike after months of skinned knees and broken side view mirrors from bike into car collisions.
The richness of that first dance recital, or that first soccer game that looks more like an ant colony attacking a half eaten apple.
The richness of teaching your children that there is no substitute for hard work, and the sense of accomplishment when they grow up and actively contribute to society.
Helping others less fortunate...seeing the smile on their faces when they receive a gift as simple as kindness.
Just being alive and healthy can be the richest feeling of all for many.
We need to stop and appreciate the everyday things around us. To pause for a moment or two and realize what are real priorities should be. How many problems from yesterday, today, and tomorrow would have been, could have been, solved, had we just remembered that?
Think about it...
The richness of seeing your child finally take off on that two-wheel bike after months of skinned knees and broken side view mirrors from bike into car collisions.
The richness of that first dance recital, or that first soccer game that looks more like an ant colony attacking a half eaten apple.
The richness of teaching your children that there is no substitute for hard work, and the sense of accomplishment when they grow up and actively contribute to society.
Helping others less fortunate...seeing the smile on their faces when they receive a gift as simple as kindness.
Just being alive and healthy can be the richest feeling of all for many.
We need to stop and appreciate the everyday things around us. To pause for a moment or two and realize what are real priorities should be. How many problems from yesterday, today, and tomorrow would have been, could have been, solved, had we just remembered that?
Think about it...
The Obama Temptation
By Mark Levin, National Review
I've been thinking this for a while so I might as well air it here. I honestly never thought we'd see such a thing in our country - not yet anyway - but I sense what's occurring in this election is a recklessness and abandonment of rationality that has preceded the voluntary surrender of liberty and security in other places. I can't help but observe that even some conservatives are caught in the moment as their attempts at explaining their support for Barack Obama are unpersuasive and even illogical. And the pull appears to be rather strong. Ken Adelman, Doug Kmiec, and others, reach for the usual platitudes in explaining themselves but are utterly incoherent. Even non-conservatives with significant public policy and real world experiences, such as Colin Powell and Charles Fried, find Obama alluring but can't explain themselves in an intelligent way.
There is a cult-like atmosphere around Barack Obama, which his campaign has carefully and successfully fabricated, which concerns me. The messiah complex. Fainting audience members at rallies. Special Obama flags and an Obama presidential seal. A graphic with the portrayal of the globe and Obama's name on it, which adorns everything from Obama's plane to his street literature. Young school children singing songs praising Obama. Teenagers wearing camouflage outfits and marching in military order chanting Obama's name and the professions he is going to open to them. An Obama world tour, culminating in a speech in Berlin where Obama proclaims we are all citizens of the world. I dare say, this is ominous stuff.
Even the media are drawn to the allure that is Obama. Yes, the media are liberal. Even so, it is obvious that this election is different. The media are open and brazen in their attempts to influence the outcome of this election. I've never seen anything like it. Virtually all evidence of Obama's past influences and radicalism — from Jeremiah Wright to William Ayers — have been raised by non-traditional news sources. The media's role has been to ignore it as long as possible, then mention it if they must, and finally dismiss it and those who raise it in the first place. It's as if the media use the Obama campaign's talking points — its preposterous assertions that Obama didn't hear Wright from the pulpit railing about black liberation, whites, Jews, etc., that Obama had no idea Ayers was a domestic terrorist despite their close political, social, and working relationship, etc. — to protect Obama from legitimate and routine scrutiny. And because journalists have also become commentators, it is hard to miss their almost uniform admiration for Obama and excitement about an Obama presidency. So in the tank are the media for Obama that for months we've read news stories and opinion pieces insisting that if Obama is not elected president it will be due to white racism. And, of course, while experience is crucial in assessing Sarah Palin's qualifications for vice president, no such standard is applied to Obama's qualifications for president. (No longer is it acceptable to minimize the work of a community organizer.) Charles Gibson and Katie Couric sought to humiliate Palin. They would never and have never tried such an approach with Obama.
But beyond the elites and the media, my greatest concern is whether this election will show a majority of the voters susceptible to the appeal of a charismatic demagogue. This may seem a harsh term to some, and no doubt will to Obama supporters, but it is a perfectly appropriate characterization. Obama's entire campaign is built on class warfare and human envy. The "change" he peddles is not new. We've seen it before. It is change that diminishes individual liberty for the soft authoritarianism of socialism. It is a populist appeal that disguises government mandated wealth redistribution as tax cuts for the middle class, falsely blames capitalism for the social policies and government corruption (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that led to the current turmoil in our financial markets, fuels contempt for commerce and trade by stigmatizing those who run successful small and large businesses, and exploits human imperfection as a justification for a massive expansion of centralized government. Obama's appeal to the middle class is an appeal to the "the proletariat," as an infamous philosopher once described it, about which a mythology has been created. Rather than pursue the American Dream, he insists that the American Dream has arbitrary limits, limits Obama would set for the rest of us — today it's $250,000 for businesses and even less for individuals. If the individual dares to succeed beyond the limits set by Obama, he is punished for he's now officially "rich." The value of his physical and intellectual labor must be confiscated in greater amounts for the good of the proletariat (the middle class). And so it is that the middle class, the birth-child of capitalism, is both celebrated and enslaved — for its own good and the greater good. The "hope" Obama represents, therefore, is not hope at all. It is the misery of his utopianism imposed on the individual.
Unlike past Democrat presidential candidates, Obama is a hardened ideologue. He's not interested in playing around the edges. He seeks "fundamental change," i.e., to remake society. And if the Democrats control Congress with super-majorities led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he will get much of what he demands.
The question is whether enough Americans understand what's at stake in this election and, if they do, whether they care. Is the allure of a charismatic demagogue so strong that the usually sober American people are willing to risk an Obama presidency? After all, it ensnared Adelman, Kmiec, Powell, Fried, and numerous others. And while America will certainly survive, it will do so, in many respects, as a different place.
I've been thinking this for a while so I might as well air it here. I honestly never thought we'd see such a thing in our country - not yet anyway - but I sense what's occurring in this election is a recklessness and abandonment of rationality that has preceded the voluntary surrender of liberty and security in other places. I can't help but observe that even some conservatives are caught in the moment as their attempts at explaining their support for Barack Obama are unpersuasive and even illogical. And the pull appears to be rather strong. Ken Adelman, Doug Kmiec, and others, reach for the usual platitudes in explaining themselves but are utterly incoherent. Even non-conservatives with significant public policy and real world experiences, such as Colin Powell and Charles Fried, find Obama alluring but can't explain themselves in an intelligent way.
There is a cult-like atmosphere around Barack Obama, which his campaign has carefully and successfully fabricated, which concerns me. The messiah complex. Fainting audience members at rallies. Special Obama flags and an Obama presidential seal. A graphic with the portrayal of the globe and Obama's name on it, which adorns everything from Obama's plane to his street literature. Young school children singing songs praising Obama. Teenagers wearing camouflage outfits and marching in military order chanting Obama's name and the professions he is going to open to them. An Obama world tour, culminating in a speech in Berlin where Obama proclaims we are all citizens of the world. I dare say, this is ominous stuff.
Even the media are drawn to the allure that is Obama. Yes, the media are liberal. Even so, it is obvious that this election is different. The media are open and brazen in their attempts to influence the outcome of this election. I've never seen anything like it. Virtually all evidence of Obama's past influences and radicalism — from Jeremiah Wright to William Ayers — have been raised by non-traditional news sources. The media's role has been to ignore it as long as possible, then mention it if they must, and finally dismiss it and those who raise it in the first place. It's as if the media use the Obama campaign's talking points — its preposterous assertions that Obama didn't hear Wright from the pulpit railing about black liberation, whites, Jews, etc., that Obama had no idea Ayers was a domestic terrorist despite their close political, social, and working relationship, etc. — to protect Obama from legitimate and routine scrutiny. And because journalists have also become commentators, it is hard to miss their almost uniform admiration for Obama and excitement about an Obama presidency. So in the tank are the media for Obama that for months we've read news stories and opinion pieces insisting that if Obama is not elected president it will be due to white racism. And, of course, while experience is crucial in assessing Sarah Palin's qualifications for vice president, no such standard is applied to Obama's qualifications for president. (No longer is it acceptable to minimize the work of a community organizer.) Charles Gibson and Katie Couric sought to humiliate Palin. They would never and have never tried such an approach with Obama.
But beyond the elites and the media, my greatest concern is whether this election will show a majority of the voters susceptible to the appeal of a charismatic demagogue. This may seem a harsh term to some, and no doubt will to Obama supporters, but it is a perfectly appropriate characterization. Obama's entire campaign is built on class warfare and human envy. The "change" he peddles is not new. We've seen it before. It is change that diminishes individual liberty for the soft authoritarianism of socialism. It is a populist appeal that disguises government mandated wealth redistribution as tax cuts for the middle class, falsely blames capitalism for the social policies and government corruption (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that led to the current turmoil in our financial markets, fuels contempt for commerce and trade by stigmatizing those who run successful small and large businesses, and exploits human imperfection as a justification for a massive expansion of centralized government. Obama's appeal to the middle class is an appeal to the "the proletariat," as an infamous philosopher once described it, about which a mythology has been created. Rather than pursue the American Dream, he insists that the American Dream has arbitrary limits, limits Obama would set for the rest of us — today it's $250,000 for businesses and even less for individuals. If the individual dares to succeed beyond the limits set by Obama, he is punished for he's now officially "rich." The value of his physical and intellectual labor must be confiscated in greater amounts for the good of the proletariat (the middle class). And so it is that the middle class, the birth-child of capitalism, is both celebrated and enslaved — for its own good and the greater good. The "hope" Obama represents, therefore, is not hope at all. It is the misery of his utopianism imposed on the individual.
Unlike past Democrat presidential candidates, Obama is a hardened ideologue. He's not interested in playing around the edges. He seeks "fundamental change," i.e., to remake society. And if the Democrats control Congress with super-majorities led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he will get much of what he demands.
The question is whether enough Americans understand what's at stake in this election and, if they do, whether they care. Is the allure of a charismatic demagogue so strong that the usually sober American people are willing to risk an Obama presidency? After all, it ensnared Adelman, Kmiec, Powell, Fried, and numerous others. And while America will certainly survive, it will do so, in many respects, as a different place.
Obama's Education Groups Funded Controversial Organizations
Fox News
The Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund of Chicago funded numerous controversial groups while Barack Obama served on their boards between 1995 and 2002, an analysis of their tax returns shows.
In 2001, when Obama was a part-time director of The Woods Fund of Chicago, it gave $75,000 to ACORN, the voter registration group now under investigation for voter fraud in 12 states.
The Woods Fund also gave $6,000 to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, which Obama attended. The reason for the donation to the church is unclear -- it is simply listed as "for special purposes" in the group's IRS tax form.
It gave a further $60,000 to the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University, which was founded and run by Bernardine Dohrn, the wife of domestic terrorist William Ayers and, with her husband, a former member of the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground.
Other controversial donations that year included $50,000 to the Small Schools Network -- which was founded by Ayers and run by Michael Klonsky, a friend of Ayers' and the former chairman of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), an offshoot of the 1960s radical group Students for a Democratic Society -- and $40,000 to the Arab American Action Network, which critics have accused of being anti-Semitic.
The Woods Fund did not respond to questions about the funding.
When Obama co-chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which calls itself "a public-private partnership improving education for 1.5 million urban and rural public school students," it gave to some of the same groups -- partnering with ACORN to manage funding for schools and giving over $1 million to the Small Schools Network.
It also gave nearly $1 million to a group called the South Shore African Village Collaborative, whose goals, according to Annenberg's archived Web site, are "to develop more collegial relationships between teachers and principals. Professional development topics include school leadership, team building, parent and community involvement, developing thematic units, instructional strategies, strategic planning, and distance learning and teleconferencing."
But the group mentions other goals in its grant application to the Annenberg Challenge:
"Our children need to understand the historical context of our struggles for liberation from those forces that seek to destroy us," one page of the application reads.
Click here to see the application.
Stanley Kurtz, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, found the collaborative's original application when going through Annenberg's archives.
Asked to comment, Yvonne Williams-Kinnison, executive director of the collaborative's parent group, the Coalition for Improved Education in South Shore said, "I don't want to put more fuel on the fire. You can call us back after the election.... I don't want to compromise the position."
Late Afrocentrist scholars Jacob Carruthers and Asa Hilliard were both invited to give SSAVC teachers a training session, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge noted in a report, adding that the "consciousness raising session ... received rave reviews, and has prepared the way for the curriculum readiness survey session."
But Carruthers has been a controversial figure because of inflammatory statements he made in writing.
"The submission to Western civilization and its most outstanding offspring, American civilization, is, in reality, surrender to white supremacy," Carruthers wrote in his 1999 book, "Intellectual Warfare." "Some of us have chosen to reject the culture of our oppressors and recover our disrupted ancestral culture."
In the book, he compared the process of blacks assimilating into American culture with rape.
"We may not be able to get our virginity back after the rape, but we do not have to marry the rapist," Carruthers said.
Hilliard has come under fire for advocating what many consider an extreme Afrocentric curriculum.
He selected the articles for the "African-American Baseline Essays" published in 1987 and first used in the Portland, Ore., school district. The essays have been criticized for claiming, among other things, that ancient Egyptians were the first to discover manned flight and the theory of evolution.
An Obama spokesman called investigation of these ties "pathetic."
"This is another pathetic attempt by FOX News to distract voters from the economic challenges facing this nation by patching together tenuous links to smear Barack Obama," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.
"The Annenberg Challenge was a bipartisan organization dedicated to improving the performance of students and teachers in Chicago Public Schools that was funded by a Republican philanthropist who was friends with President Reagan and launched by Republican Gov. Jim Edgar."
But Kurtz says those founders of the Annenberg Challenge would not have known the details about to whom their Chicago office -- one of 18 around the country -- was giving money.
"If you read Ayers' proposal to Annenberg, it doesn't sound radical. But if you actually read Ayers' education writings, they are very radical indeed," Kurtz said. "Ayers, like so many other savvy professors, knows enough not to state his actual views frankly when applying for money. But you can find the truth in his writings."
The controversial donations make up only a small portion of the overall amount doled out by the Annenberg and Woods funds. The Woods Fund gave over $3.5 million to 115 different groups in 2001, and the Annenberg Chellenge dispensed nearly $11 million to 63 groups at its height in 1999.
Most of the groups are mainstream and well respected, ranging from the Jazz Institute of Chicago to the Successful Schools Project.
But Kurtz says that this should not obscure what he describes as controversial donations.
"If John McCain had given to white supremacist groups and people said, 'Hey, the majority of funding didn't go to supremacist groups' -- that wouldn't even cut the ice," Kurtz said.
"I feel certain [Obama] knew about these radical groups," Kurtz said. "We know that he read the applications because he made statements about the quality of proposals."
The Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund of Chicago funded numerous controversial groups while Barack Obama served on their boards between 1995 and 2002, an analysis of their tax returns shows.
In 2001, when Obama was a part-time director of The Woods Fund of Chicago, it gave $75,000 to ACORN, the voter registration group now under investigation for voter fraud in 12 states.
The Woods Fund also gave $6,000 to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, which Obama attended. The reason for the donation to the church is unclear -- it is simply listed as "for special purposes" in the group's IRS tax form.
It gave a further $60,000 to the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University, which was founded and run by Bernardine Dohrn, the wife of domestic terrorist William Ayers and, with her husband, a former member of the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground.
Other controversial donations that year included $50,000 to the Small Schools Network -- which was founded by Ayers and run by Michael Klonsky, a friend of Ayers' and the former chairman of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), an offshoot of the 1960s radical group Students for a Democratic Society -- and $40,000 to the Arab American Action Network, which critics have accused of being anti-Semitic.
The Woods Fund did not respond to questions about the funding.
When Obama co-chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which calls itself "a public-private partnership improving education for 1.5 million urban and rural public school students," it gave to some of the same groups -- partnering with ACORN to manage funding for schools and giving over $1 million to the Small Schools Network.
It also gave nearly $1 million to a group called the South Shore African Village Collaborative, whose goals, according to Annenberg's archived Web site, are "to develop more collegial relationships between teachers and principals. Professional development topics include school leadership, team building, parent and community involvement, developing thematic units, instructional strategies, strategic planning, and distance learning and teleconferencing."
But the group mentions other goals in its grant application to the Annenberg Challenge:
"Our children need to understand the historical context of our struggles for liberation from those forces that seek to destroy us," one page of the application reads.
Click here to see the application.
Stanley Kurtz, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, found the collaborative's original application when going through Annenberg's archives.
Asked to comment, Yvonne Williams-Kinnison, executive director of the collaborative's parent group, the Coalition for Improved Education in South Shore said, "I don't want to put more fuel on the fire. You can call us back after the election.... I don't want to compromise the position."
Late Afrocentrist scholars Jacob Carruthers and Asa Hilliard were both invited to give SSAVC teachers a training session, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge noted in a report, adding that the "consciousness raising session ... received rave reviews, and has prepared the way for the curriculum readiness survey session."
But Carruthers has been a controversial figure because of inflammatory statements he made in writing.
"The submission to Western civilization and its most outstanding offspring, American civilization, is, in reality, surrender to white supremacy," Carruthers wrote in his 1999 book, "Intellectual Warfare." "Some of us have chosen to reject the culture of our oppressors and recover our disrupted ancestral culture."
In the book, he compared the process of blacks assimilating into American culture with rape.
"We may not be able to get our virginity back after the rape, but we do not have to marry the rapist," Carruthers said.
Hilliard has come under fire for advocating what many consider an extreme Afrocentric curriculum.
He selected the articles for the "African-American Baseline Essays" published in 1987 and first used in the Portland, Ore., school district. The essays have been criticized for claiming, among other things, that ancient Egyptians were the first to discover manned flight and the theory of evolution.
An Obama spokesman called investigation of these ties "pathetic."
"This is another pathetic attempt by FOX News to distract voters from the economic challenges facing this nation by patching together tenuous links to smear Barack Obama," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.
"The Annenberg Challenge was a bipartisan organization dedicated to improving the performance of students and teachers in Chicago Public Schools that was funded by a Republican philanthropist who was friends with President Reagan and launched by Republican Gov. Jim Edgar."
But Kurtz says those founders of the Annenberg Challenge would not have known the details about to whom their Chicago office -- one of 18 around the country -- was giving money.
"If you read Ayers' proposal to Annenberg, it doesn't sound radical. But if you actually read Ayers' education writings, they are very radical indeed," Kurtz said. "Ayers, like so many other savvy professors, knows enough not to state his actual views frankly when applying for money. But you can find the truth in his writings."
The controversial donations make up only a small portion of the overall amount doled out by the Annenberg and Woods funds. The Woods Fund gave over $3.5 million to 115 different groups in 2001, and the Annenberg Chellenge dispensed nearly $11 million to 63 groups at its height in 1999.
Most of the groups are mainstream and well respected, ranging from the Jazz Institute of Chicago to the Successful Schools Project.
But Kurtz says that this should not obscure what he describes as controversial donations.
"If John McCain had given to white supremacist groups and people said, 'Hey, the majority of funding didn't go to supremacist groups' -- that wouldn't even cut the ice," Kurtz said.
"I feel certain [Obama] knew about these radical groups," Kurtz said. "We know that he read the applications because he made statements about the quality of proposals."
Monday, October 27, 2008
Philidelphia Judge Dimisses Obama Lawsuit
From Americas Right.com
The order and memorandum came down at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Friday. Philip Berg's lawsuit challenging Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as president of the United States had been dismissed by the Hon. R. Barclay Surrick on grounds that the Philadelphia attorney and former Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania lacked standing.Surrick, it seemed, was not satisfied with the nature of evidence provided by Berg to support his allegations.
The order and memorandum came down at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Friday. Philip Berg's lawsuit challenging Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as president of the United States had been dismissed by the Hon. R. Barclay Surrick on grounds that the Philadelphia attorney and former Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania lacked standing.Surrick, it seemed, was not satisfied with the nature of evidence provided by Berg to support his allegations.
Various accounts, details and ambiguities from
Obama’s childhood form the basis of Plaintiff’s allegation that Obama is not a
natural born citizen of the United States. To support his contention, Plaintiff
cites sources as varied as the Rainbow Edition News Letter … and the television
news tabloid Inside Edition. These sources and others lead Plaintiff to conclude
that Obama is either a citizen of his father’s native Kenya, by birth there or
through operation of U.S. law; or that Obama became a citizen of Indonesia by
relinquishing his prior citizenship (American or Kenyan) when he moved there
with his mother in 1967. Either way, in Plaintiff’s opinion, Obama does not have
the requisite qualifications for the Presidency that the Natural Born Citizen
Clause mandates. The Amended Complaint alleges that Obama has actively covered
up this information and that the other named Defendants are complicit in Obama’s
cover-up.
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