What Can You Do About It?

January 21, 2009 Ross

Conservatives and conservative principles took a huge hit in this last general election, and the one before that. Getting a bit frustrated? I understand. Been there, done that. No more frustrated than I was when republicans didn’t know how to lead once they won in 2000, and started loosing seats four years later. Here’s one thing you can take to the bank, or under your mattress, whichever you trust more. As for ‘our representatives’ in Washington, when they feel the heat, they will see the light.

Enter the Intelligent Thinkers Movement. It is what grassroots is all about.

Here’s an excerpt that lays the foundation, check the link for more details and how you can help. No cash required. Just your commitment.

The voice of “we the people” has been hijacked by partisan politics, government bureaucrats, and the influence of money on elections and legislation. To take back our government, we must be able to un-elect members of Congress on a timely basis, and dramatically influence their decisions while they are in office.

Because of the proliferation of biased media reporting, gullible voters, and too many in Congress who willingly and intentionally make deceptive and misleading statements about proposed legislation, “we the people” must be able to provide succinct and intelligent feedback to Congress frequently and persistently. We can then hold them accountable intelligently at election time, which is our only leverage for holding their feet to the fire.

We don’t need all 306 million citizens to be successful. We only need 100,000 voters per Congressional district for them to “see the light”.

“We the people” can and will take back our government and the strategic direction of this Nation. It is our right and responsibility.

This is NOT a republican, democrat, libertarian, conservative, liberal, or progressives movement. This is a “we the people” movement.

link: Hermanator’s Intelligent Thinkers Movement (HITM)

Media, Race Relations

Welcome President Obama

January 20, 2009 Ross

Today’s inauguration of the first black head of state was remarkable to say the least. The pre-inaugural hype about President Obama’s inaugural address turned out to be just that, hype. True to his style, Obama delivered the speech well and made everyone feel good for any number of reasons. But also true to his style in his campaign, he did not say very much that would put America in a direction that we, as Americans, could follow. That will have to change.

As is also his style, he covered all the bases on all sides. Personal responsibility up, government involvement up. What? Take care of yourself and your family, be responsible, while government will take care of them if you don’t. Huh? He was equally vague or non-committal when it came to energy. Seeming to focus more on what we don’t yet have than on what we do have.

I don’t recall any inauguration that patently offended an entire race, like the divisive benediction delivered by Rev. Joseph Lowery did when he prayed to God for a time “When white does right.” The fact that white people put Obama in the White House seems to have escaped this old man who is stuck in the last century. What a coincidence that the ghost of Rev. Wright would return on inauguration day.

I’m offended by the suggestion that our country has made no progress in race relations to the point that we need to pray to God for it. When what we need to pray for is an Obama administration that can keep us safe and repair our economy, while preserving our liberties and freedom.

I don’t expect the President to address and correct what Rev. Lowery said, but he should. And I don’t expect for the media to make anything of it either, and they won’t. But imagine for a second, the reaction of an inaugural benediction of a republican president where there was a focus on blacks to do something. Anything!

War On Terror

Thank You President Bush

January 20, 2009 Ross

For all the ways that President Bush has stuck it to conservatives like myself in the last eight years (government spending, bigger government, lost veto pen), there remains a couple things he did right, and I hope his successor carries forward. He kept us safe to the extent that our enemy has been on defense and we have been on offense. He did not yield to his anti-war critics which has allowed us 7 years of safety at home by doing what was necessary (Patriot Act) against an enemy like no other we have ever faced.

Bobby Eberle at The Loft puts it in perspective in I’ll Never Forget Sept. 20, 2001.

Makes one wonder what could have or would have happened in the US had the war on terror not usurped his presidency. Nothing could be worse, however, than to forget that we are in a war.

Politics, Race Relations

To Commemorate MLK's Birthday

January 19, 2009 Ross

On November 2, 1983, Republican President Ronald Reagan signed the bill in the White House Rose Garden making the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday. The bill first came up for a vote in 1979, but the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives refused to pass the legislation. The first national celebration of the holiday in honor of Dr. King took place on January 20, 1986 and is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in January. In his remarks on signing the bill Reagan said: “Dr. King had awakened something strong and true, a sense that true

justice must be colorblind, and that among white and black Americans, as he put it, ‘Their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom; we cannot walk alone.'”

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission with the mission of overseeing the observance of the MLK holiday was created in the bill signed by Reagan.

In May 1989, Coretta Scott King was made a member of the commission for life by Republican President George H. W. Bush.

Democrats today are trying to usurp Dr. King’s legacy, when in reality it was the Democrats who Dr. King was fighting. See the below article for details.

* * * * * * * *

Democrats Smeared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960’s

By Frances Rice

Character assassination. That’s the tactic used by Democrats in the 1960’s to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Republican who was fighting the Democrats and trying to stop them from denying civil rights to blacks.

The relentless disparagement of Dr. King by Democrats led to his being physically assaulted and ultimately to his tragic death. In March of 1968, while referring to Dr. King’s leaving Memphis, Tennessee after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, called Dr. King a “trouble-maker” who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Prior to his death, Democrats bombed Dr. King’s home several times. The scurrilous efforts by the Democrats to harm Dr. King included spreading rumors that he was a Communist and accusing him of being a womanizer and a plagiarist.

An egregious act against Dr. King occurred on October 10, 1963. With the approval of Democrat President John F. Kennedy, Democrat Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy – President Kennedy’s brother – authorized the wiretapping of Dr. King’s telephone by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Wiretaps were placed by the FBI on the telephones in Dr. King’s home and office. The FBI also bugged Dr. King’s hotel rooms when he traveled around the country.

The trigger for this unsavory wiretapping was apparently Dr. Kings’ criticism of the Kennedy Administration, according to the author David Garrow in his book, “Bearing the Cross”. The justification given by the Kennedy Administration publicly was that two of Dr. King’s associates, including David Levinson, had ended their association with the Communist Party in order to work undercover and influence Dr. King. However, after years of continuous and extensive wiretapping, the FBI found no direct links of Dr. King to the Communist Party.

The unrelenting efforts by Democrats to tarnish Dr. King’s reputation continued for years after his death. To his credit, Republican President Ronald Reagan ignored the Democrats’ smear campaign and made Dr. King’s Birthday a holiday.

Today, while professing to revere Dr. King, Democrats are still trying to tarnish his image by making remarks that diminish his civil rights achievements and continuing to claim that Dr. King embraced Communism – a system that is secularist and socialist.

In reality, Dr. King was a Christian who held deeply religious beliefs and was guided by his faith and his Republican Party principles in his struggle to gain equality for blacks. He did not embrace the type of socialist, secularist agenda that is promoted by the Democrat Party today, which includes fostering dependency on welfare that breaks up families, supporting same-sex marriage and banning God from the public square.

An understanding of who the real Dr. King was can be gained from a glimpse of Dr. King as a young man who participated in an oratorical contest when he was 14 years old. The title of his speech was “The Negro and the Constitution” which had the following sentences: “We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance…We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flout the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule….”

If Dr. King were still alive, he would be slandered by Democrats in the same way that they smeared him in the 1960’s and demean all black Republicans today.

Bio: Frances Rice is a lawyer, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: www.NBRA.info/

Uncategorized

aSide Order

January 18, 2009 Ross

Colombo the Asbestos Sleuth

Judge exposes phony claims in asbestos lawsuits

Good legal news for a change: The courts keep making progress against phony asbestos lawsuits, this time in Michigan, by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Robert Colombo, Jr.

Judge Colombo disqualified Michael Kelly, a physician who had diagnosed people in 7,300 cases with asbestos-related disease, from a case on dubious grounds.

More than 90% of the lung function tests Dr. Kelly performed failed to meet basic standards. The defendants also showed that Dr. Kelly submitted nearly identical reports for every patient he saw, yet he failed to note that some of his patients also had heart disease or renal failure. Asbestos attorneys apparently don’t pay for doctors to observe the Hippocratic Oath.

Texas death row inmate pulls out eye, eats it

Hard to believe someone could do that. Except that this guy pulled out his other eye four years ago.

A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye and told authorities he ate it. Andre Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant’s death.

Here’s one for the ‘you gotta be kidding’ column. A police officer steals marijuana, bakes some special brownies then calls 911 and says “I think we are dying”.

video: The end of civilization?

video: A day at the races.

Warning: colorful language including the F bomb but funny nonetheless.

Organized Labor

What If The Boss Calls During Your Furlough

January 18, 2009 Ross

As noted in this post, the Gannett Company has asked its employees to take a week off without pay sometime in the first quarter of 2009. It is called a furlough. Here’s what should happen if your boss calls you while you are on furlough.

From Gannett Blog (not affiliated with Gannett Company),

“Federal and state laws require that employees, whether hourly or salaried, must not work while on an unpaid leave. That includes reading or responding to e-mails, calling or responding to calls from colleagues and being on site at your location at any time during your furlough days.
A furlough means you will not work.”

Judiciary, War On Terror

International Wiretapping Upheld

January 15, 2009 Ross

In a decision made last August 22, but not reported until now, what the left calls warrantless wiretapping, and the courts call the National Security Agency’s secret eavesdropping program, has been declared constitutional and within the powers given to the president.

The decision marks the first time since the disclosure of the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program three years ago that an appellate court has addressed the constitutionality of the federal government’s wiretapping powers. In validating the government’s wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may offer legal credence to the Bush administration’s repeated assertions that the president has the power to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping that may involve Americans.

Regardless, Obama has dismantling the most effective tools of the Patriot Act in mind for his first term. A testament to his selections for CIA director and DHS secretary.

To take this tool away is like trying to run a marathon blindfolded. What the left calls warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is this: a call originating from a known terrorist region and coming into the US. Who wants to bet their life that this program hasn’t helped save lives and hasn’t helped to get the bad guys? Will the resentment and refutation of the policies of George W. Bush take precedence over the safety and security of our citizens?

link: Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Power Legal

Economy, Media

Newspapers Cutting Expenses, Hours, Wages

January 15, 2009 Ross

Newspapers around the country are having a tough time raising revenues for a host of reasons, not the least of which is the economy right now. Papers and Publishers are asking their employees, or I mean their ‘workers,’ to volunteer to have your hours cut as well as your salary. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Gannett Announces One-Week, Unpaid Furloughs

Today Gannett is implementing a furlough program across all U.S. divisions and at corporate headquarters. This means that most of our U.S. employees – including myself and all other top executives – will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter. This furlough will be unpaid. Unions also will be asked to participate.

Emphasis added. Why is there no mention about what the union thinks of their cost cutting plans? Put a camera on the CWA’s president. Someone ask him just how the union is expected to participate? That’s where the news is. What’s up with that?

Wouldn’t you like to see the CWA try to hold up newspaper publishers? Watching that would be like an adult reprimanding a child. Only in this case, I’m having trouble determining which is the adult.

You can bet if the news was about organizing a business, we would see it.

CORRECTION 1/17/09: Gannett is not asking their employees to volunteer to take a week off without pay, they are telling them to, and within the first quarter of 2009. Mmm, wonder what’s up for the next quarter?

Pensacola, Race Relations

Alcaniz Street Preserved

January 14, 2009 Ross

At least for now. According to Councilman Sam Hall, the request to change the name of Alcaniz into Martin Luther King has been withdrawn. Preserving that history was the right thing to do. All you ‘racists’ (according to Boyd) can rest easy now.

This was a big deal a few months ago when community organizer and head of Movement for Change, Leroy Boyd, had petitioned the City to change the remaining blocks of Alcaniz St. to MLK boulevard, from Fairfield Drive to the Main St. on the bay.

Derek Cosson has a good idea.

We’re going to be building a new public library… why don’t we consider naming that for Dr. King instead.

Too bad that Boyd wouldn’t see it that way. He would see it this way, ‘ain’t no white person gonna to tell ME what street I can rename.’

How long before the subject comes up again?

Media, Politics

Pelosi, A More Open, Ethical Congress

January 14, 2009 Ross

That is what Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she was bringing to the House over two years ago. Democrats were going to be more ethical, more open, and something about working with republicans. You remember, it was back when Rep. William (Dollar Bill) Jefferson (D-LA) was found with $90,000 in marked bribe money in the freezer of his Washington residence. Jefferson, btw, is still in Pelosi’s House.

Last week, unnoticed ? by the mainstream media, Speaker Pelosi made a rule change that effectively prohibits the minority, Republicans, from offering amendments or input to new legislation.

One change puts new restrictions on motions to “recommit” a bill to the committee that approved it in order to add new amendments.

The new rule allows the full House to reconsider a bill without delay, depriving the minority party of an opportunity to add its input on the proposed legislation.

This must be what she meant when she said that her House would be more open, ethical, and will be working with Republicans. It is good that Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) is still around to see how his foolish, ‘friendly gesture’ of ‘power sharing’ has affected Speaker Pelosi. Have we learned anything here? Some republicans learn quicker than others.

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) had this to say about it . . .

Included in last week’s accomplishments was the passage of the new Democratic Rules Package, which extended the time Democrats can chair committees, reduced the rights of Republicans to represent their constituents and took the House of Representatives one step closer to being the most authoritarian and dictatorial Congress since the early part of the 20th century.

Former Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), recalling PEBO’s campaign rhetoric and comparing that to what Speaker Pelosi has done. Blunt said the changes are an “absolute contradiction to everything Barack Obama said” about nonpartisan politics during the campaign.

This move by Pelosi has got to be the most unreported action by the House of Representatives. Given the political consequences of the rule change, one would think that that would be newsworthy. Well, then you get into ethics and getting-along stuff so hell, what story? There’s no story there.

The Lunch Counter

Monthly Archives: January 2009