Does Anyone Remember America?

Date: January 19, 2012:
"As you're probably aware, yesterday was the much ballyhooed blackout of several popular web sites in protest of new legislation that threatens the Internet as we know it. The United States Congress has teed up two separate bills which give government agencies sweeping new powers to punish millions of innocent users, criminalize harmless activities, and effectively make entire web sites disappear at their sole discretion without any judicial oversight. In a nutshell, these bills would create the online equivalent of Nazi Germany. But what can we really expect from these people? It's not the first time that Congress has gone out of its way to destroy freedom and prosperity, and it certainly won't be the last. Just look at the last decade for a plethora of examples:

(USA PATRIOT Act, 2001.) The US Constitution officially became toilet paper when this bill of over 60,000 words just happened to be introduced only a few weeks after 9/11. Roving wiretaps, suspension of due process, and a complete loss of privacy became the norm.

(Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2002.) In the wake of the Enron scandal, Congress did the only thing it knows how to do-- pass stupid laws with no thought of long-term consequences. SOX, as it became known, was one of the most burdensome pieces of legislation to American business in history.The disclosure requirements alone added millions of dollars of unnecessary expenses to US businesses and sent foreign companies who were thinking about listing on the formerly prestigious NYSE running for the hills. Places like Hong Kong and Singapore benefitted from such short-sighted regulation, and the US became less competitive. Again.

(Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, 2010.) The inappropriately named HIRE Act essentially puts a gun to foreign banks' heads and forces them to make a decision: any bank with US clients must either enter into a costly information sharing agreement with the IRS, or be subject to a 30% withholding tax on US-sourced capital flows. Consequently, a number of foreign banks have begun dropping their US clients. Taken in conjunction with various US Securities rules, many foreign businesses have also begun dropping US citizens as partners, shareholders, and directors. It's simply too onerous to have to deal with all the disclosure filings and risk action by the SEC or IRS.Net result? US citizens are less capable of competing internationally in a world where the economic power is shifting overseas.

(National Defense Authorization Act, 2011.) Signed by President Obama on Saturday, December 31st with little fanfare when hardly anyone was looking, NDAA is the latest gem in a long line of liberty-destroying legislation that authorizes indefinite military detention (without trial) of suspected terrorists.Thing is, NDAA provides a ridiculously broad definition of 'suspected terrorist', essentially giving carte blanche to local, state, and federal police agencies who no longer need to worry about justifying their decisions in front of a judge. Don't worry, though. President Obama issued a statement acknowledging the controversy of the bill, but clarified that his administration "will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens."Heartwarming. But hardly a secure guarantee. President Obama isn't exactly batting 1,000 on his promises to the American public, and future presidents certainly won't be obliged by the same pledge.

There are, of course, dozens of other examples. Obamacare. Dodd-Frank 'financial reform'. And now the Stop Online Piracy Act / Personal Information Protection Act. Hey, these laws like SOPA and PIPA always have great names. Just like wars. Operation 'Enduring Freedom' was the moniker given to the early days of the US War of Terror. It all sounds very noble. The reality is always different. Throughout history, governments on the brink of insolvency have routinely enacted similar policies. Sliding into economic obscurity, they'll engage in reckless, cannibalistic initiatives-- higher taxes, burdensome regulation, war, destruction of the productive class, etc. It only hastens the end game.This time is not different. And we can expect more and more of the same.

Up next will be new laws that:- restrict cash transactions over a certain amount (Italy has already passed such measures for amounts exceeding 1,000 euros)- nationalize pension funds and private retirement accounts (again, has already happened around the world from Ireland to Argentina)- impose a national sales tax and reduce death tax exemptions (already at the forefront of the ongoing tax debate in the US)- ban gold and silver personal holdings (if you think this can't happen, ask any of the 250,000 people who used to own Liberty Dollar coins before they were seized by the FBI in 2007...)And more.

The thing is, every time one of these new bills crops up, there always seems to be a small resistance movement fighting it tooth and nail on the ground. Hence yesterday's SOPA/PIPA blackout. But ultimately, the political establishment wins. It's impossible to shake the public from its apathy... to steer people from the mind-numbing drivel of prime time airwaves... to rescue them from the PSYOPS campaigns of the 24/7 news channels. We can only take care of ourselves. Any money or energy spent fighting the government or rousing grassroots support is inherently better spent looking after your own interests and making sure that you and your family aren't victims of historical certainty. And make no mistake, collapse of empire is a historical certainty. From the Babylonians to the Persians to the Romans to the Mayans to the Mongolians to the Ottomans, no empire is built to last. And the final years are anything but smooth-sailing..."

Simon Black Senior Editor,
SovereignMan.com

...and it starts. Is this our Tea Stamp Moment?

Anyone with a computer has, by now, heard about SOPA and PIPA. My mistake was in ass-u-ming that it was JUST the United States, under BHO, that was pushing this totalitarian junk.
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Don't get me wrong, theft is theft and I'm anti-piracy of any kind concerning computers, uploads , downloads, OS's, etc, etc, etc. I've had too many people over the years attempt to get me to load software they didn't 'own'. I won't do it. Likewise, I don't steal from Wal-Mart JUST because they are a big company like Microsoft. I'm against piracy and theft, but IS there enough piracy and theft to need SOPA / PIPA? I think not. But our DOJ doesn't agree, nor do many other gub'ments.
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According to The Guardian of London, there were nine, 9, ...n - i - n - e...countries including the U.S. involved, at the BEHEST of BHO's illustrious DOJ in arresting people tied to Megaupload, a file share and storage company.

Perhaps their work load was so light at DOJ that they had to go LOOKING for work?
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I don't think so.
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This is the same DOJ who did NOT prosecute the Black Panthers for accosting and intimidating WHITE voters after spending millions of dollars in investigation. (I found that video simply by Goggling it, it looks like intimidation to me ) But they somehow must have missed that YouTube video of the Panthers outside the polls, carrying sticks and taunting white voters and passers-by.
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This is also the same DOJ who sold guns to Mexican Drug Cartels, again spending millions of $$ in the process of arresting damned near no one. Guns that were ultimately used to murder American Citizens. The DOJ has a work load all right, but it's seemingly aimed at stripping us of our God Given Rights and sometimes our very lives instead of working toward protecting us!
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It may seem trite or even 'nerdy' to say this, but the more of this crap they pull, the more I think like Carrie Fisher in 'Star Wars', the first time she's brought before Peter Cushing.
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'The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers!"
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We may not be 'star systems', but we'll all damned sure wind up in a Civil War against a totalitarian Emperor IF we don't get rid of BHO and EVERY other idiot clown, puppet gub'ment that followed him into this travesty.
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Prepare my friends, prepare, 'cause IT'S coming.
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Schteveo

"Right" To Privacy ?

No, it's not in the Constitution, although if you are a liberal social engineer with the divine ability to see things that are not actually there, it is. It's also there if you're a female who wants a free abortion, or if you're gay and want to "have your fun" anytime and anywhere you like. But what of the rest of us? Do we have a right to privacy? In fact, here in 2012, with private companies able to track your every move via your cell phone, is there any such thing as privacy?

What if the govt. wants to attach an ankle bracelet to your child (the very same kind they put on criminals ) using the excuse that they want to monitor your child's eating habits? Does your child have the same right to privacy as gays and pregnant females? Not according to the govt.

You see, the govt. health-Nazi's have decided that your child is obese. In fact, they claim obesity is a deadly situation that is sweeping the nation. Of course, if you are the govt., and you control the definition of obese, you can set the bar anywhere you like. You can, in fact, designate every child in America as "obese". Why would they do that? CONTROL! There's is nothing that gets a leftist social engineer more excited than having the ability to control the lives of everyone. Also, there's hundreds-of-billions that can then be spent (see: stolen, wasted, given away) on programs to combat a national problem that they have invented! It wouldn't be the first time the govt. has come up with "solutions" to problems that don't exist...


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/schools_spy_on_fat_kids_HpPAgsKXPYjt1EWFfaNp9K?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

And My Vote Goes To...

1:37 PM, Jan 13, 2012 •
“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth. War is hell...” ------- Ret. Lt. Col. Rep. Allen West (R-FL.)

I'm Just Sayin...

I don't know about the rest of you, but i'm getting pretty sick of all these Republican debates and the vicious attacks on each other by some involved. IMO, the debates are simply shows put on by the MSM, for the MSM, with their main goal being, to make the Republicans look bad. And sadly, with this bunch, that's not hard to do.

Of course, there's another benefit for the MSM that most people don't realize. That is, the hundreds-of-millions in extra profits they're making from all the political ads and endless "round table" discussions and interviews on TV, which they, the media, instigate and incite. In the end, it is the media that is controlling (and choreographing ) the election process. It's clear to see why our elected lying crooks have such a close relationship with the media. One can not exist without the other, which IMO, is not good for us.

So, what do i get from all this? I'm starting to get the feeling that we'll have another four years of that skinny, Mooselamb Marxist in the Oval Office which will give him the opportunity to finish destroying the Constitution and the country. But, that's just me...

Why the U.S. credit rating was downgraded

This is very good, and it puts the budget mistakes of the USA and Europe into terms we can
all understand. It rather brilliantly cuts thru all the political doublespeak we get...........

Why the U.S. was downgraded:

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000

* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000

* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000

* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700

* Money the family spent: $38,200

* New debt on the credit card: $16,500

* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

* Total budget cuts: $385

Got It ?????

OK now Lesson # 2:

Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:

Let's say, you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood....and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do......

Raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?

Your choice is coming Nov. 2012

Tip of the hat to Mr Bill Hardee, my septic system guy, for sending that to me.

Schteveo

A Pretty Smart Kid

A student who obtained 0% for his responses, as listed below, on a class exam responded to those questions with what I believe was considerable foresight. It is apparent the exam preparer did not, in my opinion, phrase the questions appropriately as to direct the student to respond with the answer he/she had in mind as the only acceptable one;

Q. In which battle did Napoleon die?
A. His last battle

Q. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
A. At the bottom of the page

Q. River Ravi flows in which state?
A. Liquid

Q. What is the main reason for divorce?
A. Marriage

Q. What is the main reason for failure?
A. Exams

Q. What can you never eat for breakfast?
A. Lunch & dinner

Q. What looks like half an apple?
A. The other half

Q. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what will it become?
A. It will simply become wet

Q. How can a man go eight days without sleeping?
A. No problem, he sleeps at night

Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A. You will never find an elephant that has only one hand.

Q. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have?
A. Very large hands

Q. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
A. No time at all, the wall is already built

Q. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A. Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.

What-A-Guy!

While the American people have allowed themselves to be anesthetized by the MSM, Mullah Obummer has made "historic firsts"...

Yes, he's historic, alright.•
First President to Preside Over a Cut to the Credit Rating of the United States Government•

First President to Violate the War Powers Act •

First President to Orchestrate the Sale of Murder Weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels•

First President to issue an unlawful "recess-appointment" while the U.S. Senate remained in session (against the advice of his own Justice Department).•

First President to be Held in Contempt of Court for Illegally Obstructing Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico•

First President to Defy a Federal Judge's Court Order to Cease Implementing the 'Health Care Reform' Law•

First President to halt deportations of illegal aliens and grant them work permits, a form of stealth amnesty roughly equivalent to "The DREAM Act", which could not pass Congress•

First President to Require All Americans to Purchase a Product From a Third Party•

First President to Spend a Trillion Dollars on 'Shovel-Ready' Jobs -- and Later Admit There Was No Such Thing as Shovel-Ready Jobs•

First President to sue states for requiring valid IDs to vote, even though the same administration requires valid IDs to travel by air•

First President to Abrogate Bankruptcy Law to Turn Over Control of Companies to His Union Supporters•

First President to sign into law a bill that permits the government to "hold anyone suspected of being associated with terrorism indefinitely, without any form of due process. No indictment. No judge or jury. No evidence. No trial. Just an indefinite jail sentence."•

First President to Bypass Congress and Implement the DREAM Act Through Executive Fiat•

First President to Threaten Insurance Companies After They Publicly Spoke out on How Obamacare Helped Cause their Rate Increases•

First President to Threaten an Auto Company (Ford) After It Publicly Mocked Bailouts of GM and Chrysler •

First President to "Order a Secret Amnesty Program that Stopped the Deportations of Illegal Immigrants Across the U.S., Including Those With Criminal Convictions"•

First President to Demand a Company Hand Over $20 Billion to One of His Political Appointees•

First President to Terminate America's Ability to Put a Man into Space.•

First President to Encourage Racial Discrimination and Intimidation at Polling Places•

First President to Have a Law Signed By an 'Auto-pen' Without Being "Present"•

First President to Arbitrarily Declare an Existing Law Unconstitutional and Refuse to Enforce It•

First President to Tell a Major Manufacturing Company In Which State They Are Allowed to Locate a Factory•

First President to refuse to comply with a House Oversight Committee subpoena.•

First President to File Lawsuits Against the States He Swore an Oath to Protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN, etc.)•

First President to Withdraw an Existing Coal Permit That Had Been Properly Issued Years Ago•

First President to Fire an Inspector General of Americorps for Catching One of His Friends in a Corruption Case•

First President to Propose an Executive Order Demanding Companies Disclose Their Political Contributions to Bid on Government Contracts•

First President to allow Mexican police to conduct law enforcement activities on American soil•

First President to Golf 90 or More Times in His First Three Years in Office.


Courtesy of Brother Poots...

What's Going On?

I read a very interesting article the other day, one that said, U.S. gun dealers submitted 1.5 Million background checks to the FBI for the month of December, 2011. That's the highest number, by far, since they started keeping these statistics. Of course, my first thought was that Brother Poots had simply gone shopping, but even he can't buy that many. (?) So, what's going on? Do the American people smell something coming? Then this morning, i read the below-linked story which just might explain the surge in gun buys.

IMO, the Department of Homeland Stupidity has become a heavily-armed army, (occupation force? ) one that doesn't seem to answer to anyone except the Marxist-in-Chief himself, and the radical Leftist lesbian he put in charge of it. I don't know about you, but that sounds very Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong Ill, to me, especially when you read the enclosed story. Just what are these people up to? Are seniors and disabled folks now seen as threats? Remember, it was Butch Napilitano who called our returning warriors "possible/potential terrorists".

Depending on what happens in this upcoming election, there are those of us who truly believe only an armed "uprising" will save our country. And IMO, anything short of that and we will become Venezuela North. Hell, we're more than halfway there already...


http://www.infowars.com/dhs-officers-armed-with-semiautomatics-set-up-unannounced-id-checkpoint/

Well, It's About Time!

As i've been saying for a very long time, the only way to fight, and defeat, the Left is to use their tactics against them and play by their rules, which means, no rules at all. Could someone have read my postings? It seems a new group, The Center for American Freedom, plans to do just that. Yes, they are coming late to the game, but if they mean what they say, are tough enough, and understand that political correctness is simply a weapon used by the Left to keep others quiet, it just might have an effect.

The CAF is a group of conservative journalists (didn't know any existed ) and some savvy political types who have decided to launch their own advocacy group just like the Leftists have. We all know about the notorious groups like, the pro-communist Center For American Progress, a group of hard-core, radical Leftists funded by George (the anti-Christ ) Soros. In fact, many of the people working for the Marxist-in-Chief's administration come directly from this Soros-funded bunch. Perhaps now they'll have some competition.

Let's hope the MSM doesn't help steal yet another election in 2012. But if they do, and Mullah Obummer is re-elected, remember, it's OUR fault, not theirs...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71099.html

Best Christmas present ever

Hey guys,

thought I would share this one with anyone that is interested.

at 8:24 a.m. on Christmas Eve (day) The world was inhabited by the first of the next generation as my Grand daughter entered the world.

As you can see, by New Year's she made a great little nap buddy with grandpa. Mom is doing great, and Grandma is exstatic.

Auld Lang Syne, Historically Speaking.

Happy New Year fellow bloggerites.

As the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, one song will usher in 2012 in time zonesaround the world: Robert Burns​'s "Auld Lang Syne." Even in Burns's native Scotland, many people don't understand all the words, but that's done nothing to diminish the song's appeal.

Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo​ also played an important role in popularizing "Auld Lang Syne" in North America. He adopted the song in 1929 for use in his annual New Year's Eve broadcasts on radio and television.

May the New Year find us all in better circumstances. Yeah, I get that it ain't likely. But hope springs eternal.

Schteveo

Firearms Refresher Course

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.

3. Colt: the original point and click interface.

4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?

6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.

7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.

8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.

9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

10. The United States Constitution (c)1791. All Rights Reserved.

11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.

13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.

14. Guns only have two enemies: rust and politicians.

15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.

17. 911: government-sponsored Dial-a-prayer.

18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.

19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer and easier.

20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.

21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.

22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.

23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.

24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.


FACT: Gun control - While drafting the 1968 bills, Sen. Thomas Dodd had the Library of Congress provide him with an English translation of the gun control regulations that the Nazis used to disarm Jews and political dissidents...

Charlie Brown's "Christmas Special"

http://www.whosay.com/DenisLeary/videos/108117

Human Nature

Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: 'Free to good home. You want it, you take it.' For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people were too un-trusting of this deal. It looked to good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: 'Fridge for sale $50.'................ The next day someone stole it!

*One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when someone shouted....'Look at that dead bird !' Someone looked up at the sky and said...'where?'

*While looking at a house, my brother asked the estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, 'Does the sun rise in the north?' When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, 'Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff..'

*My colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the administrative assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the beach. She drove down in a convertible, but 'didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving'.

*My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car it's designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped She keeps it in the trunk.

*My friends and I were on a Lager run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%. Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases.. The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.

*I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain. My friend said, 'Wouldn't the chain rip out every time she turned her head?' I had to explain that a per son's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned...

OY!

The United States of Fools

While tens-of-millions of Americans are out of work, losing their homes, and having trouble paying their bills and feeding their families, our elected representatives are living high on the hog. Of course, the illusion they create is that it's not your money they're spending. But, on an average salary of about $185K a year, how can they spend $10K-a-night on a luxury hotel suite? Can it be that we're all that bad at basic math? Or, is it that we're all that stupid. Personally, i'll bet on the latter. Our elected, lying, crooks know that sheep don't protest...


http://www.hawaiireporter.com/while-president-obama-arrives-in-hawaii-amidst-security-and-fanfare-former-house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-slips-quietly-into-big-island-resort/123


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078964/Growing-wealth-gap-members-Congress-rule-survey-reveals.html#ixzz1hk8pAfrq

Terrorism 2.0

Thanks to 9/11, we are all painfully aware of most of the tactics used by terrorists. Shoe bombs, underwear bombs, I.E.D's, remote-controlled bombs, car and truck bombs, and God only knows what else. Most people with experience in dealing with these matters will tell you that there is no real defense against terrorism. The reason is quite simple. You can't fight what you can't see. The terrorists main weapon is anonymity, blending in with everyone else. This is one of the main tactics used against our warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan which accounts for almost all our KIA's and wounded. (and the PC'ized "rules of engagement" account for the rest) It is in fact, a tactic learned from the Viet Cong.

But what happens when that terrorists weapon is, your computer? What the linked story is showing us is the new face of terrorism. No loud explosions. No blood. No gunfire. But make no mistake, the casualties are just as real. In fact, there are experts who are saying this type of terrorism can do a lot more damage than exploding bombs...


http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/27/stratfor-hacking-victims-targeted-again-after-speaking-out/?test=latestnews

Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to all......... blue

What If...

What if you're the president of the United States, and you're told that back in the 90's, another idiot who had your job introduced a program whereby the U.S. would exchange nuclear scientists and secrets with, (are ya ready?) our biggest enemy, China. And, that the program resulted in one of, if not the largest intelligence loss we've ever suffered. What would you do?

Well, if you're an anti-American, mooselamb, Marxist who lied and conned his way into the Oval Office, you would see a chance to a) pander to your radical left-wing, anti-nuke base, and b) make America weaker than you've already made it by reintroducing that same program, again!

Someday, if the American sheeple are ever able to stop listening to all their electronic devises and take those idiotic little headphones out of their ears, they're going to hear a very loud noise. That noise is the whole world laughing at us...

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/21/inside-the-ring-105581724/

Mullah Obama's Magic Trick

December 21, 2011:

New Yorkers can be forgiven for shock at the newspaper headlines last week informing them that millions more of them were “near poor” or “low income.” They might relax a bit on learning that the “root cause” is simply new definition of poverty from the Census Bureau. Indeed, under the Census definition, a family in New York City is “near poor” if it has full medical insurance and an annual income below $77,000. (In Oakland, Calif., the figure is $88,000!)

The Census report actually put nearly half the US population as “low income” — and news stories typically implied the startling new number was the result of sharply deteriorating economic conditions. In fact, it was a surreptitious and dubious shift by the Obama administration, setting the “near-poverty” income level very close to the median-household income in most communities. (“Median income” is the point at which half the households have more income, and half have less.) Thus, it was foreordained that, using this new standard, the Census folks “discovered” that almost half the population is living in “near-poverty” conditions. That is, if you define “near poverty” as an income roughly equal to the median, that means that by definition nearly half the population will always be “poor” or “near poor” — regardless of any changes in actual living standards.

Obama’s new poverty measure will produce very odd results. For example, if the real income of every single American were to magically double overnight, the new measure would show no drop in poverty or “near poverty,” because the poverty- and near-poverty income thresholds would also double. In other words, the president has introduced a statistical trick that gives new meaning to the saying that “the poor will always be with you.” The shift seems designed to promote Obama’s obsession to “spread the wealth.” By suggesting that many more Americans are poor or near-poor, the Census generates political pressure to raise taxes and expand the welfare state.

Of course, President Obama has already permanently increased welfare spending by nearly a third. This year, the government will spend more than $900 billion on means-tested aid, providing cash, food, housing, medical care and social services to poor and low-income persons. (This figure does not include Social Security, Medicare or unemployment insurance.)
This welfare spending comes to around $9,000 for each person in the lowest-income third of the population. And the new “poverty” measure is propaganda to raise the figure further. What does all this have to do with poverty?

For most Americans, the word “poverty” means a family that is unable to obtain reasonable food and shelter. Along that line, news stories about poverty typically feature a homeless family with kids sleeping in the back of a van. In fact, nearly all poor Americans live in houses or apartments that are in good condition and not over-crowded. Even under the old, stricter definition of poverty, only 4 percent of the poor became homeless during the course of a year — while the typical “poor” American lived in a house that was larger than the house of the average nonpoor Englishman or Frenchman.

Under the old standard, more than 80 percent of poor Americans had air conditioning, nearly two-thirds had cable TV and half had a computer. Most of the poor were able to obtain medical care whenever needed. Even in the middle of the current recession, some 96 percent of poor parents stated their children were not hungry for even a single day during the last year.
Clearly, there was a huge gap between poverty as it is understood by most Americans and “poverty” as defined by the government. And now Obama has widened that gulf. Under this new, propaganda-driven definition of poverty, the gap between common-sense and government poverty statistics will grow much larger. The Obama administration is twisting statistics to confuse voters, rather than providing accurate information...


By Robert Rector is a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/team_poor_trick_hmh726JdxaRenT0G6T0HCL#ixzz1hHL9c9JD

Blue Predicts

Blue's predictions for the November elections are:

Democrat - Obama/ Hillary
Republican - Romney/ Condi Rice
3rd party - Ron Paul/ Bachmann

the 3rd party will pull enough votes away from the Republicans that the Stuttering Clusterfuck Of A Miserable Failure will be reelected.......

To ME, this was 50 STAGGERING Facts about our Economy

I'm still shaking my head. Shake yours too. I'm thinking of starting my New Years drinking early now. I'm just loading the first 10. There are some real humdingers from 11 through 50.

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

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And yet, our fearless leaders are squabbling over WHO CAUSED this mess. Well, I think it's all of them. So Merry friggin' sad ass Christmas to all our elected over lords of the last 40 or 50 years, who put us here.
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Santa Schteveo

Friday (Visual) Funny!

Tip o' the hat to my little brother, Tio Orso. Thanks for sending me this one Bruh!
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It would appear that the 'teleprompter' plays a bigger part in the President's life than we previously thought...
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UPDATE: Saturday, 06:35, I was wrong, HORRIBLY WRONG! I attributed this to the WRONG brother. This didn't come from Tio! It came from Schteveo's & Tio's LITTLE brother, Chris.

(this was an easy mistake. Chris, like me is a dyed in the woll conservative, Tio Orso is new to this side. He used to be from the DARK side. He was... a , non-voting, I don't care, no matter who you vote for it's all the same, liberal / moderate. Then he got married, had kids, ...grew up. Tio is a actor / comedian. I know he's the one who usually sends me stuff like this.
But not this time. I was wrong. It's OK though, I made it to December 17th this year without being wrong, or making a mistake!)
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Schteveo

Times Magazine does it Again!!!

In the past, Time Magazine has picked some real 'winners' as their Man / Woman / Person / Object of the year. We've had such luminaries as Hitler, Stalin, Ayatollah Khomeini...you know, important people.
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Well, justifiably that has changed over the years. It was originally a person who had made some major difference in the world. And those I noted certainly qualify on that front. But now, they've 'pushed' their choice, IMHO.
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Time's Person of the Year, 2011 is...
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THE PROTESTOR!!!

Once upon a time, when major news events were chronicled strictly by professionals and printed on paper or transmitted through the air by the few for the masses, protesters were prime makers of history. Back then, when citizen multitudes took to the streets without weapons to declare themselves opposed, it was the very definition of news — vivid, important, often consequential. In the 1960s in America they marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War; in the '70s, they rose up in Iran and Portugal; in the '80s, they spoke out against nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Europe, against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, against communist tyranny in Tiananmen Square and Eastern Europe. Protest was the natural continuation of politics by other means.

Massive and effective street protest" was a global oxymoron until — suddenly, shockingly — starting exactly a year ago, it became the defining trope of our times. And the protester once again became a maker of history.

I get it. Most of the 'journalists' in America identify with the left, they see the protesters as little journalists in training, they despise the power structure and want the world to be 'level' for everyone.
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And monkeys might fly outta my butt too!
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You want to see open and level? Send your resume to Time and tell them you're a journalist based on your two years on the college newspaper and 3 years blogging here. You won't even get an 'FO' Letter. Because THEY have power structure in their industry (like all industries) that keeps YOU out unless you meet THEIR internal standards. Plus, in journalism, the BIG story of the new decade has been the demise of newspapers.
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And those papers are dying because they aren't making money. They are cutting back, slowing down, tightening up because money is in short supply. And what are the 'protestors' protesting? They are protesting because their governments are cutting back, slowing down, tightening up because money is in short supply.
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Is it that the 'journalists' at Time don't get the similarity? Or, is it, that they get it, but they're too gutless to protest and strike at their bosses office?
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Schteveo

It's a Brand New Day

Food For Thought

"You are a Republican. You consider yourself a “conservative,” maybe even a “Tea Partier.” But whatever you prefer to call yourself, the truth of the matter is that there are some basic facts of contemporary American political life that you detest.

First, the federal government has grown well beyond anything that our Founding Fathers could have envisioned. Today, it has come to assume authority over virtually every aspect of your life.

Inseparable from this first fact is another: You have far less liberty as an American than you should have under the U.S. Constitution. The exponential expansion of the federal government over the decades has been inevitably attended by an equally exponential diminution of liberty.

Third, both major national parties, Republicans and Democrats, “conservatives” and “liberals” alike, in spite of their assurances to the contrary, have continued to feed the Leviathan that is our federal government.

You want change. You want real change.

More specifically, you want for your elected representatives to finally — finally! — walk in accordance with their talk. You want, in other words, for Republicans to proceed to revoke the Big Government agenda that has dominated American politics for most of the 20th century to the present. You ache for politicians who will fight to restore the constitutional Republic that our Founders bequeathed to us, politicians who will supplement their rhetoric of “limited government” with real action.

As a self-avowed “conservative” or Tea Partier, you have had it with establishment Republicans. You have had it with those prominent figures in your own party who live to convince “independents” and “moderates” that it is “an open tent,” so to speak, a party able and willing to accommodate a rich, even staggering, diversity of viewpoints. It isn’t that you have a problem with intellectual diversity in itself; it is just that you know all too well that the only viewpoints that establishment Republicans are eager to embrace when they speak thus are those that entail an ever larger role for the federal government in our daily activities.

Establishment Republicans have proven time and time again that they are most certainly not in favor of the “limited” or “constitutional” government to which they routinely pay lip service. With this you are exasperated. But you are just as exhausted with those establishment Republican politicians who never tire of trying to convince you that they are not establishment Republicans.

Since their crushing losses in ’06 and ’08 Republicans have expressed regret over having “lost their way.” While you are relieved that they have unreservedly conceded their betrayal of the very principles for which they have claimed to stand, you are no less frustrated now than you were while they were in power, for you still don’t know what in the Republican Party agenda has changed.

Now there is another Republican Party presidential primary race. Let’s say that you don’t know the names of any of the contestants. All that you know is the following: Of the seven candidates, all of them, save one, adamantly supports “the War on Terror.” More specifically, they support President George W. Bush’s “Freedom Agenda,” an enterprise that requires the U.S. government to deploy the time, treasure, and blood of its citizens toward the end of “spreading Democracy” throughout the world. It was for the sake of this mission that we have spent the last decade attempting to “fundamentally transform” Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is also for the purpose of waging “the War on Terror” that all of the candidates, save one, enthusiastically endorse “the Patriot Act;” the nationalization of airport security; and every liberty-imperiling measure ostensibly intended to provide ever greater security for Americans.

In other words, the very same policies that drove legions of American voters into the arms of Democrats in 2006 and 2008 continue to be embraced just as ardently now as they did back then by all of the GOP’s presidential candidates, save one.

Although most of the base of the Republican Party and, truth be told, most Americans oppose “foreign aid,” all of the candidates, save one, supports it. This lone candidate deems it unconstitutional and immoral that American citizens should be made to part with their time, energy, and money to subsidize any foreign governments.

All of the candidates claim to oppose the exorbitant spending in which our federal government engages. Yet none of them, save one, has proposed a substantive plan to address it. That is, none of the candidates, save one, has specified a single program, much less an agency, that he or she is unequivocally committed to eliminating. The exceptional candidate, in stark contrast, has explicitly and unequivocally identified one trillion dollars worth of programs and agencies that he or she would abolish within one year of being elected President.

Here is the proverbial $64,000 question: As a conservative or Tea Partier who seeks to reduce the federal government to a size and a scope that our Constitution would recognize, who among the seven GOP presidential candidates sounds most inviting?... "


Written by Jack Kerwick, Ph. D.
12-9-11

The Dumbest Congressional Idea of 2011!

I'm not sure yet, WHO the three Republicans are who voted against this, but THEY are the only one's who should be allowed to get re-elected. The other 97 (D)'s and (R)'s need to GO!

The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence.

This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade.

By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.

The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.

"People that want to be engaged in illegal activities along the border, ones that are engaged in those activities now, they're still going to do it," said William Wellman, Big Bend National Park's superintendent. "But you'd have to be a real idiot to pick the only place with security in 300 miles of the border to try to sneak across."

Gee, that last sentence makes it all OK. No one would ever try to come across the 'protected' areas. I guess that's why they NEVER catch drug or gun runners actually at a Border Patrol Guarded Crossing.
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But here's the bottom line, they've proposed to open the border and hold US indefinitely as terrorists with no recourse, ALL in the same week. Is THIS the country ANY of us took an oath to protect?
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Not me!
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Schteveo

What NOT to do.

I just watched the first episode of a show on the History Channel, called "Off the Grid". The premise is two 'regular' Americans are being 'chased' by a team of security experts. If they get away and complete 4 tasks, they win a Million Dollars. If they get caught, they go back to work Monday, knowing they're really stupid.
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Tomorrow night (Thursday, Dec. 8) at 11 p.m. ET/10 p.m. CT, a new show premiers on The History Channel that pits two regular Americans against an "A-team" of surveillance experts in a race to stay hidden. It's called "Off the Grid", and the catch for this reality TV show is that the two contestants win a million dollars if they can remain hidden from the surveillance experts for a single day, while completing a few essential tasks in downtown Los Angeles. It's a real-life game of cat-and-mouse for the biggest purse prize in cable TV history.

Armed with only very basic information about the two contestants, a team of surveillance experts led by human tracking expert Kevin Reeve, is tasked with learning enough about the contestants to find where they might be and then to go out and actually bring them in. At Kevin's disposal are Rob (an experienced hacker) and Matt (a proven corporate security IT specialist). These guys can infiltrate your cell phone, gain access to public records information and generally put the digital eye on you. Also on the team is Dave, a former Navy SEAL who works a day job training SEAL teams in California. They're exactly the four guys you wouldn't want tracking you in an urban environment.

Despite their backgrounds and knowledge, co-producer Charlie Ebersol (who also produced NBC's terrorist-tracking program "The Wanted") said it's still a tough job for these guys to pursue people who want to remain hidden. He added that it raises bigger questions about being hidden in today's electronic environment.

"One of the reasons that this show is so appealing is that we all live in a digital world and people are starting to realize that what they do and where they go can be tracked," said Ebersol, who says the program is like a reality TV version of the movie "Enemy of the State".

The first two contestants got caught because the repeatedly used cell phones and credit cards!
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They were both 'professionals', meaning, supposedly people with education. (educated does NOT = Smarts!) But having said that, they committed some really stupid mistakes. Like taking an 'anonymous' phone call from a guy (actually one of the electronic trackers) who kept them on the phone for 5 or 6 minutes under the guise of 'helping' them evade capture. It's an interesting thing to watch, IMHO, if for two simple reasons.

First, it shows you what NOT to do if you want to go off the grid or how to avoid being tracked.

Second, it shows just HOW broad the capabilities of LEO's and investigators are in the 21st Century, electronic, everything tied together, modern world. At any rate, HERE is an interesting article from the Security Industry, about the show, and surveillance capabilities.
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Schteveo