Truth

There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.

Arizona

Arizona
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts

Monday, September 13, 2010

Reality is to Be Feared

| Remember this when you hear liberals screaming and yelling about “fat Cat” CEO’s and their bonuses and how evil they are:
DETROIT – New General Motors Co. CEO Daniel Akerson will get the same $9 million pay package as the man he replaced, Ed Whitacre.
The automaker, which is 60.8 percent owned by the U.S. government, disclosed the pay package in a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is identical to what the company disclosed for Whitacre in February.
So don’t do as they do, do as they say and hate the “the rich” because they are evil incarnate. :)
Contrary to press reports that he would not be compensated, uncovered Treasury Department documents reveal President Obama’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, received a $120,830 annual salary.(WT)
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WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department plans to test futuristic iris scan technology that stores digital images of people’s eyes in a database and is considered a quicker alternative to fingerprints.
ACLU lawyer Christopher Calabrese fears that the cameras could be used covertly. “If you can identify any individual at a distance and without their knowledge, you literally allow the physical tracking of a person anywhere there’s a camera and access to the Internet,” he said.
Iris scans can be quicker than fingerprints. “You can walk up to a wall-mounted box, look at the camera, and that’s it,” Grother said.
Homeland Security will test cameras that take photos from 3 or 4 feet away, including one that works on people as they walk by, Vemury said.
If I agree with the American Communist Liberals Union (ACLU) you know the universe is endanger! :)
But don’t worry, Big Brother and Big Sis are not trying to track your every move and know and control everything about you. No, not at all… :)
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The number of people in the United States who are living in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
Census figures for 2009 – the recession-ravaged first year of Obama’s presidency – are to be released this week, and demographers expect grim findings.
The expected poverty-rate increase – from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent – would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power. Midterm congressional elections are only weeks away.(WP)
But don’t worry,this too is also totally Bush’s Fault! :)
He claims that “the policies of the previous decade … that cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires … ultimately culminated in a financial crisis and a terrible recession that we’re still digging out of today.”--President Obama
The president falsified the record. The Democrats’ politicization of mortgages — not Bush’s tax cuts — caused the financial crisis.
But don’t expect the Ministry of Truth to tell you that either.
If the tax cuts are to blame, why did Obama’s just-resigned Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer — whom Obama on Friday said “helped save this country from a depression” — recently co-author an article in the American Economic Review “contrary to the White House’s plan to reverse the Bush tax cuts,” as columnist Donald Lambro noted? (IBD)

And then there’s former Budget Director Pete Orszag who said the tax cuts should be kept.
So if tax cuts are so evil and wrecked the nation, then why were two of Obama’s biggest Financial Guru’s for them??
Mind you, it was only AFTER they left. :)
President Barack Obama talked a lot about economic recovery during his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, 2010, including the benefits of the economic stimulus bill passed last year.
The stimulus, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, included tax cuts for many Americans, Obama said.
“We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses,” Obama said. “We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.”
So when he says he cut taxes (and doesn’t really or does and then raises in other ways-like Obama Care) it’s good. But if someone else proposes it, it’s just cuts for “the rich” and wrecks the country.
Say what??
“We’re going to take the next 50-some days to convince the public that’s exactly what the Republicans would do – back to the Bush policies,” White House Spokesman Gibbs said.
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“By far, Jan Brewer has shown herself to be the most unreasonable and racist governor in our country, and her discriminatory policies echo the type of prejudice that took place during the lynchings and brutality suffered by African Americans in the South,” Duarte said. “I have known families who have suffered gravely due to the policies she has so easily signed into law.”– Stella Pope Duarte, Phoenix College.
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FEAR IS HOPE
Ad Hominem: attacking the person instead of attacking his argument.
Democrats desperate to convince their base to show up at the polls in November have begun talking less about issues and more about the possibility of a “Tea Party Congress” next year.
The passage of landmark bills such as healthcare and financial regulatory reform has not triggered as much grassroots enthusiasm as initially envisioned, Democratic strategists say. And while the right is engaged this cycle, the left is deflated.

“This is a big problem,” said Democratic targeting and turnout guru Hal Malchow.

So Democrats have turned to a strategy that may be their next best bet: demonization of the “insurgent” Tea Party.
“These are not your run-of-the-mill Republicans we’re talking about here,” said one Democratic organizer working in a state with a contested Senate race this fall. “When you actually start telling voters what these candidates are about, it scares the hell out of them.”
In the past several weeks, when Democratic activists cite the ramifications of a “Tea Party Congress,” they say, more volunteers have signed up to knock on doors to preserve a Democratic-led House and Senate.
President Obama does not fire up the left as much as he did in 2008, and polls indicate independents are turning on him.
A recent Gallup survey shows that Republicans are far more enthusiastic about voting than Democrats, leading by a 50 percent to 25 percent count.
Many liberals have expressed frustration with the White House on issues ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the military prison in Guantanamo Bay — which Obama pledged to close by last January — to the lack of a public option in healthcare reform.
Uniting the party, and making sure their voters don’t stay home this fall, has become the No. 1 issue for the Democratic Party.
“The argument that we’ve made is that the Republican Party has been taken over by the Tea Party,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokeswoman Hari Sevugan said. “It not only energizes Democrats, but it’s the fundamental choice that independents and moderates face in the fall, too.”
Some in Democratic circles are unsure whether they can convince voters that this election is a choice instead of a referendum on Obama and the Democratic Congress. Still, there is a consensus that it’s the best game plan they have.
While then-President George W. Bush was an effective bogeyman for Democrats in 2006 and 2008, blaming him now for the nation’s economic woes has not resonated nearly as much.
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato pointed the finger at “the failure of the Obama economic agenda” for depressing the Democratic base, but is skeptical that shifting away from issues on the campaign trail will solve the party’s turnout dilemma.
“I’m not sure trotting out a bunch of devil figures — the Tea Party congressional nominees, George Bush, [former Alaska Gov.] Sarah Palin, etc., is going to make much difference. Democrats know Obama is in power for at least two more years and can stymie a GOP Congress,” Sabato said. “But in the absence of good news on the economy, it’s worth a try to point out to Democrats who’ll be running things at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue if Democrats don’t show up to vote.”
Many Democrats, including Obama, predicted six months ago that voters would embrace the healthcare reform law when they learned more about it.
But polls show that the public is deeply divided on it. And it’s not moving many people off their couches, according to Democrats at the state and local level.

“Healthcare is largely unpopular in most places,” Malchow said. “That’s why Democrats aren’t talking about it.” (Fifty-three percent (53%) of U.S. voters now say they at least somewhat favor repeal of the new national health care law, matching the lowest level of opposition since the bill was passed by Congress in March. That includes 42% who Strongly Favor repeal.A majority has favored repeal of the legislation every single week since late March, and the bill is playing a major role in a number of congressional races across the country. Support for repeal has ranged from a low of 53%, reached once before in July, to a high of 63%.-Rasmussen)
Financial reform, and other items enacted in the 111th Congress, are likewise not lighting a fire under the Democratic base.
What is working, turnout specialists say, is talking about the “insurgent” Tea Party and how the “rising red” movement could affect the agenda in Washington in 2011.
The success of Tea Party candidates in primaries, especially candidates backed by Palin, has given Democratic operatives a key talking point. These officials have also used the Aug. 28 rally in Washington, D.C., led by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, as a volunteer recruitment tool.
Malchow said that Tea Party-backed candidates who are further to the right than centrist and independent voters will, in the end, help the Democrats’ cause: “That’s a major motivating factor for Democrats, but I think it also depends on where you are.”
In Nevada, with a Republican nominee for Senate like Sharron Angle, Malchow said, it’s likely to be more of a motivator for Democrats than in a state like Illinois, where the party has nominated a more centrist Senate candidate in Rep. Mark Kirk.
“Base voters understand what’s at stake in this election,” said the DNC’s Sevugan. “The message that’s resonating is, do we continue to move forward or do we allow the Republicans to take us back? A slate of Republican candidates who hold very extreme positions make that choice crystal clear.”
Earlier this summer, Democrats launched an effort to cast the Republican Party and the Tea Party as one and the same.
“You don’t know where the Republican Party ends and the Tea Party begins, and they have to own that,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in July.
In an interview on MSNBC late last month, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said he expects voters to wake up to what Tea Party-backed candidates are actually running on before November.
“I think we’ve got some folk — Tea Party folk, Republicans — who are out of sync with the average American. And most Americans are in the middle,” said Cummings.
That’s a much sharper tone than Democrats were employing six months ago. In late February, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went so far as to say that she and Tea Partiers share some of the same views. Since then, however, Democrats have identified the Tea Party as their clear adversary.
For example, Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at the “Republican Tea Party” a couple of weeks ago, predicting Democrats will retain control of both houses of Congress.
“It’s a race between Democrats and the Republican Tea Party,” Biden said.(The Hill)
Washington is today a human and systemic failure that is destroying us from within. Its profligate spending is undermining the dollar — and, according to the International Monetary Fund, it is risking a U.S. sovereign debt crisis. According to Lenin, “There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than debauching the currency.”
The eminent Samuel Huntington observed that Washington is — through the Third World orientation of its immigration policies — deliberately destroying the linguistic, cultural and creedal glue that defines and holds the nation together. Research by Harvard professor Robert Putnam associates high levels of government-created “diversity” with civic dissonance and decline.
Washington makes tax slaves out of one in four Americans, forcing them to pay nearly all the income tax while others pay little or none. It taxes too heavily in the dumbest way possible that does the maximum economic damage (about $3 for every $1 of tax collected), costing everyone jobs and incomes. Taxation is an economic poison that spreads quickly.
And when government spends a dollar, the economic benefit is typically between zero and 60 cents, thereby digging the hole still deeper with a loss on each transaction. No wonder “stimulus” doesn’t work.
Washington discriminates among us according to race and gender, takes our money and property and gives it to union bosses and other friends on its political Facebook, and by forcing us to fill out millions of government forms, annually confiscates 10 billion hours of our time.
It invades our schools, raises costs, messes with students’ minds and morals, and lowers educational quality. It scorns and interferes with traditional Americans in the exercise of their religion — and it forces everyone to fight through a jungle of federal regulations just to live our daily lives.
Washington has by fiat reduced the earnings on our savings accounts to near zero and given the differential to banks and speculators. It has taken $2.5 trillion out of our Social Security Trust Fund and “replaced” the money with federal IOUs that it can pay only by imposing additional taxes on us. What a cruel hoax.
A soon-to-be-published analysis of historical data (by Gary and Aldona Robbins) shows how government ineptitude has for decades been increasing the price of health care. ObamaCare is the final atrocity. It will not be tolerated.
Washington constantly intervenes in our free-market economy, cannibalizing vital parts and impairing its ability to provide jobs and raise living standards. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of commerce and trade may soon stop altogether. Absent that productive genius, what will we do then? Rely on government? What a hoot. Washington is broke and produces nothing.
The Great Recession tells us that government is better at creating problems (such as deficits, debt, unemployment and the housing bubble) than it is at providing solutions. And President Obama proves daily that profligate spending really is a sin: It kills jobs.
Instead of apologizing to the world for America, Obama should apologize to us. His administration seems unfortunately to have lost both its economic mind and its moral compass. (IBD)

But instead, you get it’s Bush’s Fault, fear the “tea party” as radicals and nutjobs, and spending EVEN MORE money than we have will solve everything! :(
I’ll give Gov. Deval Patrick (MA) the last word: “It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but . . . it’s a free country,” Patrick said on the “Jim & Margery Show” on WTKK-FM. “You know, you got to, you got to respect that freedom.”
:)

Friday, May 28, 2010

The Government Will Save You! Or Else...

Recommended Viewing: Gov. Christie of NJ gives a whining member of the teacher’s union a slap back. For once, someone who will stand toe to toe with liberals and push back!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuri7p_9pm4&feature=player_embedded
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Now on to the Financial “reform” bill being finalized in the Congress.
It’s supposed to protect you and me from “too big to fail”.
It’s supposed to protect the consumer against the greedy capitalist pigs called Banks.
Naturally, these are Liberals, so it doesn’t really do that at all.
Just like Health Care reform wasn’t really about Health care. It was about granting the government the power to decide who lives and who dies. Period.
Well, here’s the next nail in your coffin.
But, we are from the government and we are here to help you!
The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury – a political appointee – to seize any financial company (bank or nonbank) simply because, in his opinion, it is too big to fail and in danger of insolvency.  This power can be used for political retribution, pressure for campaign funding, or any other abuse bureaucratic whim or partisan politics can conceive.  It is a power Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez would love to have!
The legislation also requires that any business that extends credit, in any form, needs to clear the loan instrument in advance with the new consumer protection agency.  The backlog of pending applications will strangle consumer credit.
And the bill fails to do the one thing it must do — regulate derivatives and make them transparent.  Senator Chris Dodd (D Ct) bowed to pressure from his sponsors on Wall Street and deleted the regulatory provision and set up a commission to study the situation for two years!  Senator Maria Cantwell (D Wash) protested the cop out with a no vote against the legislation.
These would be the financial fake money traders who caused the problem in the first place when all the bad debts from the subprime mortgage debacle-in-waiting started and eventually crashed.
Curiously, this was championed by the same guy who also championed the Subprime Mortgage mess, Now-retiring Sen. Chris Dodd.
Coincidence I think not.

So how did it pass?  Four Republicans sold out, that´s how!  Among the RINOs were, of course, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine.  But, surprisingly, Scott Brown (R Mass), the newly elected Massachusetts Miracle defected as did the normally stalwart Chuck Grassley (R Iowa).

Now the federal government has effectively taken over about one third of our national economy by passing Obamacare and regulatory reform in almost the same breath.
But that is only part of the story. The bill gives the secretary of the treasury (appointed by the president) powers that are a dictator’s dream come true. He would have the power to seize any bank or financial institution if, in his opinion, it is in danger of insolvency. One can imagine the threats coming from the White House to those banks who failed to make campaign contributions or endorse the presidential agenda.

Then there are the implications for our individual lives. The bill, as we explained in a previous story, would give the feds the right to peer into our bank accounts . . . yours and mine. But also the banks would have to get permission from the government to make individual loans. This is not merely a bank getting general approval to make loans. It is banks going to the government for approval of each and every individual loan.
It might look like this. John Smith goes to First Bank of Elm Street and asks for a car loan. The bank then sends an application to the federal government asking for permission to loan Mr. Smith the money. The feds look at Mr. Smith’s bank statement and find that he contributed money to the president’s political opponent last election. Mr. Smith can forget about his car loan . . . or home loan . . . or financing a new pair of socks.
With possible implications also, according to Glenn Beck, that it will be the “fault” of the lender if the person who they loan the money to defaults.
So imagine this: Your a Bank. If you loan Mr. Smith money, for say a house, and he defaults. He can go to the Consumer advocacy bureaucrats and complain that his rate was too high or whatever and the government can just say,” Bank, you were too greedy” and that’s that.
Now if you were a bank, would you loan any Mr. Smith’s any money?
And the economy comes to a grinding halt.
But at least your safe from greedy capitalist pigs!!
• The Financial Stability Oversight Council will be created and identify non-bank financial companies that “may pose risks to the financial stability of the United States in the event of their material financial distress or failure”
So if the government “deems” you too big a risk they can come in and break up your company, fire anyone they like and do what they deem necessary to “protect” you from these greedy capitalist pigs! :(
• The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection will be created — for you. They’ll be able to limit what financial products and services can be offered to consumers. And the bill mandates any financial institution that takes deposits, keep a record of the number and amount of those deposits and that customer addresses be “geo-coded for the collection of data regarding the census tracts of the residences or business locations of customers.” Geo-coded? Are they linking deposits to the Census Bureau?
They claim to be protecting you from “unfair and deceptive” practices. Unfair and deceptive are two words that are defined and often used in our laws, but there is another word they put in the bill: “abusive.” What does that even mean? No one really knows because it has not been used in this context before. Will its definition be up to the new super regulator who will be in charge of the agency? What is abusive? What if someone defaults on their loan or their house is foreclosed upon and they say “the interest rate is too high” or “I did not understand adjustable rate would adjust up” or “I am old, you should’ve explained it to me.”
Will the regulator decide the lender was abusive? It puts the pressure on the lender to not only offer full disclosure, but take full responsibility. Don’t worry if you can’t pay your loan, blame it on the abusive greedy bank.
Glenn Beck continues…
And here’s what is coming in the House’s financial bill:
• First and foremost, it does nothing to address the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those two helped create the housing mess and then needed a $125 billion bailout, which they haven’t even scratched the surface on a payback.
• It creates a special protected class of “too big to fail” firms. In section 113, a “Financial Stability Oversight Council” is established, which will choose the firms deemed too big to fail. Hmm, can you think of any other massive financial institutions that don’t care if they fail because they know they will be bailed out by the government? Fannie and Freddie. So not only is this bill not doing anything to stop Fannie and Freddie, as they continue to lose hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, this bill will create more of them.
• Provides for seizure of private property without meaningful judicial review. The secretary of the treasury can order the seizure of any financial firm that he finds “in danger of default.” Again, a bureaucrat arbitrarily getting to make the distinction to just take over a financial firm whenever they feel like it. And, once the decision is approved, it’s nearly impossible to reverse.
• This Financial Stability Oversight Council, they’ve got nine regulatory authorities out there and this expands the reach outside of just financial firms. They can declare if a non-bank financial firm (insurance, finance companies, hedge funds) are “in trouble.” And guess what? They can turn it over to the treasury for regulation. Again, this distinction is completely arbitrary and comes from bureaucrats.
• Opens a line of credit to the treasury for additional government funding. Guess who’s irrelevant? You are, Congress! No more begging those pesky politicians for billions of dollars, like with TARP. No, we’ll just skip that and tap the ATM.
• Regulators can guarantee the debt of solvent banks as well. If there is a ‘liquidity crisis’ …
• The bill creates a new “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.” They just want to “protect” consumers. Uh-huh. This bureau will have broad powers to limit what financial products and services can be offered to consumers.
It’s supposed to help, but it will only reduce choices and likely make credit more expensive and harder to get. It also allows them to track all of your financial transactions, just to “protect you.”
• Non-financial firms would be subject to financial regulations. Listen to how broad this is: Section 102 defines a “non-bank financial company” as a company “substantially engaged in activities… that are financial in nature.” Aren’t all companies financial in nature? Sure, bakeries are making cupcakes and bread, but isn’t that financial in nature?
And they’re making sure this bill is jammed down America’s throat by, I’m not kidding, July 4th.
So here is the Frankendodd monster giving us our independence by chaining our children and our freedoms by snooping through our credit cards.
This fits the progressive agenda to a T: Power and control. These guys are power hungry. This financial bill is the biggest reform since FDR. We’re making the same mistakes we make in the 1930s, except the first time we made these mistakes, the American people didn’t know what progressives were really about and there was no global structure in place. When FDR died in office, we could still reverse many of the things he tried to do. But this time, we won’t be able to, because your representatives won’t have any control.
Again: “Governance is not government — it is the framework of rules, institutions and practices that set limits on behavior of individuals, organizations and companies.”
Again, I ask you to call your representative at the IMF and complain if you don’t like that fact that America spent $50 billion in tax money to bail out Greece. Call your representative at the U.N. and say you won’t vote for him next time. Contact the World Bank and let them know that you’ll close your bank account with them if you have to.
This is why all of this matters: You have no representation. It’s just the way the world is now. It’s a global community.
Another thing FDR did not have, but Woodrow Wilson did, was Cass Sunstein.
He’s the regulatory czar, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He controls everything — he nudges you. He never tells you what to do — he nudges you. Remember “The Truman show”? Sunstein is the director up there in the control room. You still have his “freedoms.” Sunstein is just using a lot of “choice architecture” around you.
Cass Sunstein has wanted that job in the control room his whole life — his whole life! In 2008, on the campaign trail, he went on a date with his soon to be wife, Samantha Power. She asked him what his dream job was. She said, “I expected him to say he dreamed of playing for the Red Sox… his eyes got real big and he said, ‘Ooh! OIRA!’”
Most people will say what’s the big deal with that job? Here’s a guy who’s wanted this job. What kind of geek wants this job? Well, any geek who knows history knows that’s one of the most powerful jobs in the world. You are looking at the power of the Fed and more.
Oh, by the way, if this financial regulation bill passes, how much control does government have over the economy? Twenty percent? Forty-eight percent? No — 60 percent.
We are teetering on the brink of totalitarianism in the land of the free. Folks, write your congressmen while there is still time.
But at least the government is looking out for you! :(
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An analysis of government data by USA Today found that “paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year.”
That’s only part of this sad story: “At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.”
If the share of private-sector pay is shrinking, income from government must necessarily be growing. Sure enough, during the first quarter, the federal government added 81,000 jobs while the private sector lost 4.71 million.
President Obama wants more. He’s asked federal agencies to accelerate and streamline hiring of federal workers at a time when laying off bureaucrats would be the far better course.
Even before Obama began to push federal hiring, working for Washington was a lucrative career choice. In 2008, the typical federal worker took home on average $67,691 in salary compared with $60,046 for the private sector.
During the first 18 months of the recession, USA Today reported in December, “Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.”
Government workers have also avoided the job losses we’ve seen in the private sector. Their unemployment rate from 2007 to 2010 has been 3%; the rate across private industry has been 7.9%.
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And finally, this liberal ditty. Now keep in mind the Liberals have no problem with a 13-story Islamic mosque being built practically across the street from ground zero by a radical muslim cleric…
But they do object to…The American Flag!!
(But don’t expect the Ministry of truth to tell you this one.) :(
An Army veteran in Wisconsin will be allowed to display an American flag until Memorial Day, but the symbol honoring his service in Iraq and Kosovo must come down next Tuesday, his wife told FoxNews.com.
Dawn Price, 27, of Oshkosh, Wis., said she received a call from officials at Midwest Realty Management early Wednesday indicating that she and her husband, Charlie, would be allowed to continue flying the American flag they’ve had in their window for months through the holiday weekend. The couple had previously been told they had to remove the flag by Saturday or face eviction due to a company policy that bans the display of flags, banners and political or religious materials.
“It’s basically an extension so we can fly the flag on Memorial Day,” Price told FoxNews.com. “It does need to come down after that.”
Charlie Price, 28, served tours of duty as a combat engineer in Iraq and Kosovo, his wife said. To honor his eight years of service, she began decorating their apartment during Veterans Day in November. An American flag topped off the display, she said.
“I knew it made Charlie really proud to see that,” she said. “And this isn’t something new. This has been up for quite some time now.”
Veterans’ groups were furious at the realtors’ refusal to allow the flag to fly.
“As a veteran, it sickens me that the Dawn and Charlie Price’s building management company would imply that the American flag could be construed as offensive by their residents,” said Ryan Gallucci, a spokesman for AmVets.
“We’re talking about our most revered national symbol. This is insulting to anyone who has defended our flag honorably, like Charlie Price.”
Dawn Price said she now works to amend the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which states no “condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association” may stop someone from flying the American flag. The law, however, does not apply to renters.
“This has been eating at us since Friday,” she said. ‘The best way to fight this isn’t getting an eviction and going after these people in court. That’s just going to cost us a lot of time, energy and money.”
Instead, Dawn Price said she either intends to place a curtain between the flag and the apartment window to block it from onlookers or will move it to a rear balcony come next week.
“We don’t want to fight the eviction,” she said. “We know we’d lose.”
Officials at Midwest Realty Management, which manages Brookside Apartments, where the Prices live, did not return several messages seeking comment. In a statement to the Oshkosh Northwestern, company officials said the policy was established to provide a consistent living environment for all residents.
“This policy was developed to insure that we are fair to everyone as we have many residents from diverse backgrounds,” the statement read. “By having a blanket policy of neutrality we have found that we are less likely to offend anyone and the aesthetic qualities of our apartment communities are maintained.”
Despite the brief reprieve, Dawn Price said her husband is disappointed by the flag flap.
“He actually sees it as a slap in the face to his service,” she said. “He’s pretty upset about it, especially right around Memorial Day.”(FOX)
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But the good news, if there is such a thing these days, there’s a Tea Party in San Francisco!!
No, the world did not end because of this fundamental contradiction.
But great “Unifier” can’t even win in San Francisco these days.
So there is hope.
Hope FOR Change.
Or else, in my lifetime, it will all go the way of the dinosaurs….

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

To Protect Your Own - Narcissism 101

You have to see this: Ray Stevens “Come to The USA” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOHOHKBEqE
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USATODAY:
Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.
At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.
The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. “This is really important,” Grimes says.
The recession has erased 8 million private jobs. Even before the downturn, private wages were eroding because of the substitution of health and pension benefits for taxable salaries.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that individuals received income from all sources — wages, investments, food stamps, etc. — at a $12.2 trillion annual rate in the first quarter.
Key shifts in income this year:
• Private wages. A record-low 41.9% of the nation’s personal income came from private wages and salaries in the first quarter, down from 44.6% when the recession began in December 2007.
•Government benefits. Individuals got 17.9% of their income from government programs in the first quarter, up from 14.2% when the recession started. Programs for the elderly, the poor and the unemployed all grew in cost and importance. An additional 9.8% of personal income was paid as wages to government employees.
The shift in income shows that the federal government’s stimulus efforts have been effective, says Paul Van de Water, an economist at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“It’s the system working as it should,” Van de Water says. Government is stimulating growth and helping people in need, he says. As the economy recovers, private wages will rebound, he says.
Economist Veronique de Rugy of the free-market Mercatus Center at George Mason University says the riots in Greece over cutting benefits to close a huge budget deficit are a warning about unsustainable income programs.
Economist David Henderson of the conservative Hoover Institution says a shift from private wages to government benefits saps the economy of dynamism. “People are paid for being rather than for producing,” he says.
So the majority of people’s wages and earnings come from the government.
47% of the people don’t even pay taxes (according to the IRS).
And governments don’t produce anything.
Governments have no money except what they take from you.
And now a majority of the American people are on the government dole.
So do you think they will vote to kiss their own butts or worry about their “grand children”??
Narcissism is a 21st Century epidemic.
What do you think? :(
Obama’s “laser beam focus” on jobs has produced what exactly?
Nothing.
The better question is, was it supposed to create anything, but smoke?
No.
SEIU, Service Workers International Union,  the largest Government Union of Government employees.
The same people who have been used as thugs and intimidators before by the LEFT.
On May 16, Washington, D.C., police escorted 14 busloads full of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members at least part of the way to storm the Chevy Chase, Md., home of Bank of America’s deputy legal counsel, Greg Baer.
Some 500 protestors affiliated with SEIU and their allies in the community organizing group National Political Action (NPA) trampled his lawn, blocked his doorway to his home and screamed “greed.” Legally, it was burglary, trespassing and, possibly, assault.
But Maryland cops didn’t enforce the law. And Baer had to brave the insult-hurling mob alone to rescue his 14-year old son who, home alone, had locked himself in the bathroom in fear.
SEIU spokesman Stephen Lerner response was chilling: “People in powerful corporations seem to think they can insulate themselves from the damage they are doing,”
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Aggressive, personalized protests have been a fact of life in the world of unions and community organizers influenced by the radical philosophy of Saul Alinsky.
But they’re now growing in frequency as SEIU officials top the White House visitors’ list and union influence grows.
It started in earnest last year, when SEIU thugs gave a “beat down” to a black trinket seller at a tea party protest — with no consequences.
It also was seen when the SEIU teamed up with its community-organizing ally Acorn to set up bus harassment tours of AIG executives’ homes during last year’s insurance bailout.
In recent weeks in New York and Washington, SEIU and NPA protestors invaded and shut down banks, frightening customers.
What’s important here is that these mobs act with near impunity and lash out at critics like Easton. What Stern calls “the persuasion of power” is identical to the violent means of maintaining political order in Cuba and Venezuela.
It’s going full blast in the U.S. now as the party in power loses popularity. That’s a bad sign that democracy itself is under attack. (IBD)

So the government has less money coming in, because private wages pay taxes with their own money, unlike a government person.
Less than half of the people in this country pay taxes at all.
The Government unions, which make a majority of Union membership in this country, are used as Alinsky-inspired thugs.
The Private sector is demonized and intimidated.
The American People who objected are “racists”, “terrorists”,”teabaggers”,”nazis”, “heartless”,”cruel”,”mean” et al.
Oh, and Congressmen want to bail out the Unions, yet again!
That’s what the Stimulus last year was all about.
But now the Unions’ unsustainable pensions (you know the ones where you can retire at 50 and make more money in retirement than you did working!) are failing so the Democrats have to bail them out, with our money.
From that dwindling pot of non-government incestuous money.
Meanwhile, 8 Million jobs evaporated under Obama.
Medicare is bankrupt.
Social Security is bankrupt.
But yet, Democrats pass the largest entitlement in a generation, The Health Care bill.
Fascinating…
But The Unions get stronger and stronger.
Union are very zealously Democrats.
Funny That. :(
A Democratic senator (Sen. Bob Casey D-PA,reportedly) is introducing legislation for a bailout of troubled union pension funds.  If passed, the bill could put another $165 billion in liabilities on the shoulders of American taxpayers.
The bill, which would put the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation behind struggling pensions for union workers, is being introduced by Senator Bob Casey, (D-Pa.), who says it will save jobs and help people.
As FOX Business Network’s Gerri Willis reported Monday, these pensions are in bad shape; as of 2006, well before the market dropped and recession began, only 6% of these funds were doing well.
Although right now taxpayers could possibly be on the hook for $165 billion, the liability could essentially be unlimited because these pensions have to be paid out until the workers die.
It’s hard to say at the moment what the chances are that the bill will pass. A hearing is scheduled Thursday, which will give the public a sense of where political leaders sit on the topic, said Willis.
Just last week President Obama said there would be no more bailouts.

So that’s why we also have a bailout for the National Education Association- The Teacher’s Union:
Yet another example of public sector employee union smash and grab, at a time when private sector workers are desperate for jobs:
The Obama administration on Thursday threw its support behind a $23 billion measure intended to avert large-scale teacher layoffs, urging Congress to include the effort in a spending bill lawmakers are drafting to fund wartime costs and other urgent needs.
“We are gravely concerned that ongoing state and local budget challenges are threatening hundreds of thousands of teacher jobs for the upcoming school year,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Duncan added: “These budget cuts would also undermine the groundbreaking reform efforts under way in states and districts all across the country.”
What’s particularly galling about this is that a huge chunk of the stimulus is already devoted to education funding. In particular, the $53.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, included $39.5 billion for local school districts to prevent teacher layoffs and program cuts. Further, it’s notortiously difficult to fire incompetent teachers, thanks to union strictures. Los Angeles Unified School District spent $3.5 million just to fire seven bad teachers out of over 33,000 on the payroll. And we’re supposed to prop them up?
And there’s talk about eliminating Summer School in many places!
And in the UK, they are some schools to provide 3 meals a day!
But we have to give the NEA a bailout!
So no more bailouts, unless it’s a Union, because they are big Democrats.
So we will bail out Unions, But demonize private business as “greedy”
No wonder Liberals are always going on about Illegal Aliens who pay taxes, because they themselves don’t! :(
Liberals complain about “greedy” corporations, but they themselves are very “greedy” with everyone else’s money. :(
The world is truly upside down and bass ackwards.
And the Liberals want it that way.
We are from the Government and we are here to help you. :(