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Just where does he get these crazy ideas?

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Sunday, October 18, 2009 12:46:39 AM
Obama urges people to serve their communities

Quote:
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Calling public service "the essence of our liberty," President Barack Obama on Friday urged Americans to step up and volunteer in their communities.

Speaking at a community service forum in Texas, Obama said there's only so much government can do in tackling the nation's problems. He said government can build the best schools, but it can't run the PTA. It can buy the armed forces the best equipment, he said, but it can't give a home-cooked meal to a military family stretched thin.

Pardon me, sir, but the essence of our liberty is to be free - free to do what we want to do, free to achieve whatever lofty heights our abilities and hard work can bring, and free to keep what we earn for our own use and that of our posterity. Government's only responsibility is to make sure that I don't infringe on someone else's freedom to do the same.

If you had your way, government WOULD run the PTA and give a home-cooked meal to every family stretched thin (oops, government DOES do those things, doesn't it. You run the teacher part of the PTA, and I know you've heard of food stamps, welfare, and the thousands of other gubmint programs that keep the populace subservient to government.)

Quote:
"The need for action always exceeds the limits of government," Obama said. "While there's plenty that government can and must do ... there's a lot that government can't and shouldn't do and that's where active, engaged citizens come in."

Maybe you do understand that government has its limits, but you don't seem to know what those limits are. I would like to suggest a reading of the U.S. Constitution which is written in very plain English, so that all of its citizens could understand what the government was empowered to do. It will take a lot less time to read than the 1,000 pages of legalese you and Congress used to take from the people $787 billion and spend it in ways we can not fathom. It would take less time to read than the 1,000 pages of legalese in the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Tax bill that you support which will make energy rates for all families skyrocket. And it would take less time to read than the 1,000 pages of legalese that will be written in order for the government to destroy the best healthcare system in the world while claiming to make it more affordable.

In a few short pages of simple English, The Founding Fathers set forth the Supreme Law of The Land, which served us well for almost two hundred years. But then something terrible happened. All three branches of our federal government decided that they knew better how to take care of the American people than the American people knew about caring for their own best interests. And we let you get away with it.

Well, enough is enough!

Quote:
Former President George H. W.) Bush first spoke of the "thousand points of light" in his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican convention, using it as a metaphor for all the things Americans do, individually and in groups, to help fellow citizens. He created the Daily Point of Light Award in 1989 to honor volunteers. Friday's event honored the 20th anniversary of his volunteer movement.

In recognizing that initiative, Obama said Bush "didn't call for one blinding light to shine from Washington, but for a vast galaxy of people and institutions to solve problems in their own backyards."

No, Mr. Obama, President Bush did NOT call for "one blinding light to shine from Washington", but your proposed solution to every perceived problem is a solution from on high in Washington, DC. It would be a lot simpler and infinitely less expensive to taxpayers for government to get out of our way so that we - the people - can solve our daily problems.

Quote:
"In the end, service binds us to each other and to our community and to our country in a way that nothing else can," (Obama) said.

This is nothing more than empty rhetoric, Mr. President. The Founders said it much more eloquently than you ever will when they "pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to establish a country in which we could pursue - without government interference - our God-given (not government-given) rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

You, Mr. Obama, said:
Quote:
... there's a lot that government can't and shouldn't do and that's where active, engaged citizens come in."

It's a sad commentary that you couldn't hear our millions of voices on September 12, 2009 at your residence in Washington, DC. We, the people, have been trying to get your attention through all of the letter-writing and all of the TEA Parties all over the country.

It is so sad that you just will not listen to us.

--------------------

BTW, don't you find it at least a LITTLE uncomfortable to be on the same stage with a President Bush when you spend so much of your effort trashing his son, President Bush. If only some of his grace would rub off on you and your Democrat predecessor.
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Rush Limbaugh and The NFL

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 10:39:46 PM
I can't believe I am writing two consecutive posts on the National Football League.
 
For the last week, news has been circulating that Rush Limbaugh was one of a group of investors seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise.  All of a sudden, out the woodwork come the usual suspects condemning his involvement.  Among them is Al "Tawanna Brawley" Sharpton, a man whose own checkered past is never questioned.
 
Radio personality and Townhall.com columnist Hugh Hewitt posted this column earlier today - Roger Goodell and the New McCarthyism.  He quotes the NFL Commissioner in his opening paragraphs:
 
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked Tuesday about the possibility of Rush Limbaugh acquiring a piece of the NFL's St. Louis Rams, and responded:

"I've said many times before we're all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about. I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL, absolutely not."

Goodell has not yet held up his hand and proclaimed that he is holding within it a list of conservative pundits who cannot be allowed to continue to attend NFL games, but check in next week. It is classic McCarthyism to use unspecified charges of political wrongdoing to blacklist an individual, and that's what Goodell did yesterday.
Divisive comments?  Roger Goodell is the same man who determined that Michael Vick should be allowed back into the NFL fold IN SPITE OF his actions - gambling!
 
Divisive comments?  Not one of the comments attributed to Limbaugh can be sourced from the original content.  Could it be that they never occurred?  More likely, it is a case of "Tell the big lie loud enough, often enough, and in enough different places, and soon it will be perceived as truth."
 
Divisive comments?  Just who is charging Limbaugh with making them?  Al Sharpton.  Jesse Jackson.  Media commentators who would not know a football from the Eiffel Tower.  All of them with suspect backgrounds, and consequently should not be given any credibility whatever.
 
Divisive comments?  Who is more divisive (and hateful) than the NFL Sunday night anchor Keith Olberman?  Goodell (and ESPN) seem to think he is okay, though.
 
Divisive comments?  Give me a break!
 
This is about much more than who gets to own an NFL franchise.  This is about how the other side has no rules when it comes to besmirching the reputation of anyone on the conservative side of the aisle.  Those of us on this side had better learn to fight back effectively.
 
On Rush Limbaugh's website, he documents the hateful, divisive actions of some of his detractors, and that documentation is from original sources.  May I suggest that you read it?  His detractors have no such documentation.  If they did, they would have produced it.  All they have is invective, innuendo, and their own hateful opinion.
 
I am very disappointed in Limbaugh's parters, headed by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts.  For them to throw Limbaugh under the bus says as much about their character as Goodell's statement says about him.  They are not folks with whom to be associated.  Rush is probably better off without them as partners, and it's best he found out what kind of folks they were before he parted with his money.  If they dumped him based on this libel and slander, they would have eventually had disputes with him over running the franchise.
 
Goodell, on the other hand, allows players with histories of drug abuse, spousal abuse, steroid use, and a host of other bad behaviors to continue to play in the NFL and collect multi-million dollar salaries.  What a double standard.
 
I have had it with Goodell and the NFL.  A pox on both their houses.  I am going to start watching professional wrestling.  At least I know for sure that it's rigged.
 
And you and I had better watch our backsides.  We are also vulnerable to these baseless attacks.
 
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He served his time...

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Friday, August 14, 2009 6:04:30 PM
So...  Michael Vick served his time?
 
How about eighteen months of a 23-month sentence?  And the last few months were at home!
 
This sleezeball tortured, electrocuted, and killed dogs.  He gambled on dog fights.  He funded the operation.  To him, this disgusting display of dogs tearing each other apart was enjoyable.
 
The "conventional wisdom" says that he has paid the price for his misdeeds, and he should now be allowed to make a living and turn his life around.  And he should...
 
But it should not be with the Philadelphia Eagles or any other team in the National Football League.  He should be banned from professional sports.  He could get a job in a department store unloading trucks.  He could work on a road crew digging ditches.  He could become a painter or a window-washer.  Those are all honorable professions.
 
But you can not make millions of dollars doing those jobs.  You don't get to be on national television every week doing those jobs.  You don't draw the attention of young people to be just like you in those jobs.
 
ESPN talked about him as if he was the second coming.  Apparently, they don't know that we got that last November.
 
Your thoughts?
 
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Cap and Tax: 'A pile of s--t' - Boehner

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Sunday, June 28, 2009 6:51:03 PM
Updated: 06/30/09  (See Below)

On Friday evening, despite the Capital switchboard being clogged with callers (voters) urging their Congressmen to vote no, the House of non-representative Representatives voted 219-212 to pass the "American Clean Energy and Security Act."  I challenge anyone to tell me how this bill provides either.  Eight Republicans voted for this nonsense, while 44 Democrats voted against it.  Without those eight Republican votes, this bill wold have been defeated.

Thanks to Mark Levin, I finally discovered the identities of The 8 Republicans Who Gave America the Finger.

Quote:
The eight who voted for cap and trade are:
    Bono Mack (CA) 202-225-5330
    Castle (DE) 202-225-4165
    Kirk (IL) 202-225-4835
    Lance (NJ) 202-225-5361
    Lobiondo (NJ) 202-225-6572
    McHugh (NY) 202-225-4611
    Reichart (WA) 202-225-7761
    Chris Smith (NJ) 202-225-3765

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, chairman of the committe that prepared the 900-page bill, admitted a week ago that he had no clue what was in the bill.  And he is the committee chairman.  And then at 3:09 am on Friday, the Democrats dump a 300-page Amendment to the bill in the hopper.  No Congressman has had an opportunity to read this 1200-page bill prior to voting on it.  That is pretty much the way the Democrats seem to be running the Peoples' House these days.
 
GOP Minority Leader Congressman John Boehner, after speaking for an hour on the House floor against it, weighed in and called this legislation exactly what it is. 

Boehner: Climate bill a 'pile of s--t'

First, the Democrat leadership morons (Pelosi, Reid, Obama, their Democrat minions and the eight Republicans named above) think that there is a problem with carbon dioxide levels, even though there is no scientific evidence. Are they so ignorant that they don't realize that our entire world and everything in it is carbon-based?

Second, the Democrat leadership morons think that the earth is getting warmer, even though there is no scientific evidence.  Investor's Business Daily quotes a previously suppressed EPA report that says the UN was wrong on global warming.
"Given the downward trend in temperatures since 1998 (which some think will continue until at least 2030), there is no particular reason to rush into decisions based on a scientific hypothesis that does not appear to explain most of the available data."
Third, the Democrat leadership morons think that man (and let's not leave out woman, to be politically correct) can actually do something to affect these non-existent problems, unless we want to regulate the sun.  Quoting the EPA report further:
"A new 2009 paper by Scafetta and West," the report says, "suggests that the  United Nations' IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) used faulty solar data in dismissing the direct effect of solar variability on global temperatures. Their report suggests that solar variability could account for up to 68% of the increase in Earth's global temperatures."
The UN got it wrong by leaving out relevent data?  They wouldn't do that, would they?
Fourth, the Democrat leadership morons' solution involves making every American pay more for electricity, more for gasoline, more for natural gas, and more for every product that relies on these resources for its manufacuring and distribution. The cost of all four of these categories of items that we use every day will be further increased by the do-nothing accounting the gubmint will require to track "carbon offsets."

Fifth, the Democrat leadership morons' solution must create an agency to monitor "trades" of so-called "carbon credits" between various entities. More taxpayer dollars to pay for this new agency and all of its bureaucrats.

Sixth, the Democrat leadership morons actually think that overnight they can replace proven technology which made the United States the most advanced civilization on the planet with wind, solar, and battery technology which is not yet fully developed and needs time to be perfected.

All of this is supposed to be designed to reduce a problem which science says doesn't exist and in President Obama's words to "reduce our dependence on foreign oil." What a 'pile of s--t', to quote Leader Boehner.

Let's make a tangential shift of gears here.  If you want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, the answer is as simple as "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less."

If The Chosen One would just read a few choice words from his TelePrompTer stating that we were opening ANWR to oil drilling tomorrow, the price of oil on the world market would drop like a rock starting on Monday, and the price of gasoline at the pump would be below $1.75 per gallon by Labor Day, and still dropping. The United States is sitting on more oil than we can use in at least the next sixty years. Same goes for natural gas. (Thank you, Gov. Sarah Palin for getting construction started on that natural gas pipeline and getting Exxon-Mobil involved along with your Canadian partners.  For thirty years, politicians could not get this thing going, but you did it in just over two years as Governor.)

If PrezBHO were not so hell-bent on destroying the coal industry, he would find that the use of coal - one of our most abundant natural resources - is already much cleaner than it was just a few years ago. But The Anointed One knows a better way, having been schooled by the Saul Alinsky's and Bill Ayers' of the world. In order to have a "transformed" America, he must first destroy everything American that has been built over 200 years.

Congressman Boehner is absolutely correct about this bill. Let's hope and pray that the Senate kills it, as it should.

Do you want an energy policy that makes sense?

TrekTek's Energy Policy
    • Give ANWR back to Alaska, and free the State of Alaska to drill.
    • Open the Continental Shelf and give authority over it to the adjacent states.
    • With these two steps accomplished, the states can open bidding for drilling rights to United States oil and natural gas producers.
    • Eliminate the red tape that is keeping new refineries from being built in the United States.
    • Eliminate the red tape keeping electric utilities from building the cleanest and cheapest form of electricity production - nuclear power plants. (The biggest expense in money and time currently is compliance with the paperwork requirements just to build the damn things - not to run them!)
    • Provide appropriate tax credits to individuals and/or companies doing research into alternate energy sources, including battery systems.
    • Repeal all CAFE standards on the auto manufacturing industry.
The result would be a drastic reduction of foreign oil prices, employment of Americans to provide for their own requirements (not to mention a reduction of unemployment), and the eventual bankruptcy of those foreign nations that seek to control our economy. And that is the kind of platform the Republicans should run against the current crop of Democrats in the majority who are destroying our country with every new massive legislative bill they craft and then pass without reading.

This can not continue indefinitely.
 
UPDATE - 06/30/09
 
Henry Waxman, D-CA, weighs in on the Crap and Tax bill he crafted:

Waxman: GOP "Rooting Against Country" Because Of Energy Bill Vote

What a set of cajones this guy must have, accusing the Republicans of doing exactly what the Democrats did in trying to stifle every move of the Bush Administration to wage the War on Terrorists. Does he not remember that it was Democrats that tried to withhold funding from the troops in an effort to bring them home early? Give me a break! I remember!

Quote:
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) on Republicans voting against the energy plan and Rep. John Boehner's comments on the House floor Friday evening: "They [Republicans] want to play politics and see if they can keep any achievements from being accomplished that may be beneficial to the Democrats. They're rooting against the country and I think in this case, even rooting against the world because the world needs to get its act together to stop global warming."

And the Energy Czar hasn't read the bill.

Energy Czar Carol Browner Hasn't Read Cap & Trade Bill

Quote:
“I’ve read vast portions of it.” Vast portions? That would put her ahead of the Congressional curve, where 219 people — including eight Republicans who made the difference — voted for it without reading it at all. We know that because the House never produced a complete, up-to-date, and integrated copy of the bill to its members before the vote took place. - Ed Morrissey

Nothing like being an informed public official...  And that is the problem with all of these "czars" that have been created and appointed by The Annointed One without any Congressional oversight.  They are so well-qualified and well-informed.  Oh, and well paid, with our tax dollars...
What do you think?

 
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The $24,000 Date

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Monday, June 01, 2009 3:00:34 AM

"Taxpayers footed the bill for the big night on the town, which included a total of at least $24,000 for the three aircraft used to ferry the Obamas, aides and reporters to New York and back. Dinner costs and orchestra seat tickets -- at $96.50 apiece -- were paid by the Obamas."

How big of President Obama to pay for his own dinner and theatre tickets!  No mention of how much Secret Service cost for the night.  And just who among the rest of us would take aides and reporters on a "date?"

What IS this man thinking?  We taxpayers are supposed to tighten our belts, pay more taxes, more for food/clothing/shelter, more for utilities, and then we are expected to "volunteer" for community service so that some "community organizer" will have something to organize.  Meanwhile, he blows $24 large in one night!

This episode - as have so many others - shows the utter contempt this man has for his subjects...

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I'm Not Overly Inspired By This...

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Monday, June 01, 2009 2:22:54 AM

Is this to be the future of a once great company? 


http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/GM_Small_Car.sff_NYBZ192_20090529111632.jpg

Once it is converted into Government Motors, is this the best that can be designed and built by the country that put a man on the moon (multiple times), built/launched/orbited/repaired-in-orbit the Hubble, launched and remote-controlled multiple unmanned spacecraft to study and send back information from not only our nearest neighbors in space but from the utmost reaches of our solar system?

Oh, well, I guess it's the best we can expect from a government that controls vast resources of coal, oil, and natural gas equal to or greater than those in the rest of the world combined and refuses to exploit those resources while hunreds of thousands of workers could be re-employed.

I guess it's the best we can expect from a government that thinks we should all drive electric cars without building any additional generating capacity to charge the batteries.

I guess it's the best we can expect from a government that thinks the energy future of the country lies in solar cells and wind farms exclusively to the exclusion of nuclear power generation - a proven safe technology.

I guess it's the best we can expect from a government that ignores an invasion of its borders by more than 20 million illegal aliens (many of whom think the Southwest United States still belongs to Mexico) who refuse to even learn our language and then gives them all sorts of perks at the taxpayers expense.

I guess it's the best we can expect from a government that says it can not locate those 20 million invaders and deport them, while UPS and FedEX could not only locate them but deliver a package to them the very next day while tracking that package every step of the way.

I am depressed...
 
Tell me what you think...
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Lady Justice's Blindfold

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Sunday, May 10, 2009 5:37:31 PM
Lady Justice's Blindfold

Quote:
JUDICIAL dispassion - the ability to decide cases without being influenced by personal feelings or political preferences - is indispensable to the rule of law. So indispensable, in fact, that the one-sentence judicial oath required of every federal judge and justice contains no fewer than three expressions of it: "I . . . do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me . . . under the Constitution and laws of the United States, so help me God."
...

And that is why President Obama's "empathy" standard is so disturbing, and has generated so much comment.

Time and again, Obama has called for judges who do not put their private political views aside when deciding cases. In choosing a replacement for Justice David Souter, the president says, he will seek not just "excellence and integrity," but a justice whose "quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles," would be "an essential ingredient" in his jurisprudence. In an interview last year, he said he would look for judges "sympathetic" to those "on the outside, those who are vulnerable, those who are powerless."

To my thinking, this is where the liberal argument fails. The United States is a nation of laws, governed by the supreme law of the land - The United States Constitution. The law means what the law says. And laws are made by the elected representatives of the people.

In the liberal view, apparently also Obama's, the law means what a judge says it means - no matter how convoluted the judge's logic may be. The liberals have learned that in order to control our society, control of the courts is paramount. What the law says matters not. What good is equal protection under the law when we recognize "disadvantaged" classes of people. In this latter view, the individual and individual rights have no meaning. As a member of a "disadvantaged" class, one gains the advantage!

And where does it stop? Does it stop with our right to free speech? Or how about our right to keep and bear arms? Or our right to own property?

Our education system has completely failed to teach us the basics of our history so that we as a people know how we came to be the country that we were intended to be. Instead of teaching respect for the law, we are teaching anger management and conflict resolution.

Dr. Thomas Sowell explains how we are losing the meaning of the English language in How We're Killing Our 'Living Constitution'.

Quote:
This process of "interpreting" the Constitution (or legislation) to mean pretty much whatever you want it to mean, no matter how plainly the words say something else, has been called judicial activism.

As a result of widespread objections to this, that problem has been solved by redefining "judicial activism" to mean something different.

By the new definition, a judge who declares legislation that exceeds the authority of the legislature unconstitutional is called a "judicial activist."

The verbal virtuosity is breathtaking. With just a new meaning to an old phrase, reality is turned upside down. Those who oppose letting government actions exceed the bounds of the Constitution — justices like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas — are now called "judicial activists." It is a verbal coup.

Politicians such as Sen. Patrick Leahy and law professors such as Cass Sunstein and many in the media measure how much of a judicial activist a judge is by how many laws that judge has declared unconstitutional.


Michael Ramiriz at Investor's Business Daily depicts the coming Obama judicial appointments this way:

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In Honor of Earth Day

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 7:29:26 PM
Today I learned some useful information about Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs (CFLs).

CFLs are manufactured in China.
Incandescent bulbs are manufactured in Kentucky.

CFLs have to be shipped to the United States on huge oil-burning cargo ships.
Incandescent bulbs are manufactured in Kentucky. Kentucky is IN the United States.

CFLs provide manufacturing jobs for lots of otherwise unemployed Chinese.
Incandescent bulbs are manufactured in Kentucky, providing employment for Americans that will soon be unemployed thanks to Congress.

CFLs cost about ten times more to purchase, but may last a little longer and save some electricity.
Incandescent bulbs are a lot cheaper, and if one burns out, you replace it with another cheap one.

"If your ENERGY STAR qualified CFL product burns out before it should, look at the CFL base to find the manufacturer’s name. Visit the manufacturer’s web site to find the customer service contact information to inquire about a refund or replacement. Manufacturers producing ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs are required to offer at least a two-year limited warranty (covering manufacturer defects) for CFLs used at home. In the future, save your receipts to document the date of purchase." (This paragraph was quoted verbatim from the EPA document cited below.)

If your incandescent bulb burns out early, throw it in the trash and replace it with another one from Wally-world.

I also learned about the disposal of broken CFLs. As a public service, here is the Environmental Protection Agency's link to Cleanup and Disposal Guidelines For Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs).

Check out the last step in cleanup and disposal:
Quote:
Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

CFLs require me to get in my gas-guzzling SUV and drive the dead carcusses to a recycling center, wasting gas and time, while putting additional pollutants in the air.
Incandescent bulbs go in the trash can at home.

CFLs are one of the cures to global warming... Just ask Congress! 

Where is the sense in this insanity of CFLs?
_________________
What's your opinion?  I want to hear from you!
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Napolitano MUST be FIRED!

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 3:05:31 PM
How did this woman get her job?

The border for dummies

Quote:
In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.

Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."

Just what does that mean, exactly?

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.

In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?

And then, there is this item:

DHS Chief Napolitano: Illegal Immigration Is Not a Crime

Quote:
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stunned many listeners during an appearance on CNN when she asserted that illegal immigration is really not a crime. ...

“What we have to do is target the real evil-doers in this business, the employers who consistently hire illegal labor, the human traffickers who are exploiting human misery.

“And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil. But anyway, going after those as well.”

The fact is, crossing the border without authorization is a crime. The statute reads: “Any alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers . . . shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both.” (emphasis mine)

What part of "illegal" does she not understand? Yet, Napolitano seems to think that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and employers are the main problems.

Janet Napolitano is in charge of Homeland Security! She obviously does not know enough to do the job!

She MUST be FIRED! Not allowed to resign, but FIRED!

{I just looked up the word "inept", and there was her picture next to the word. So I looked up "unqualified", and there she was again - right next to Obama.)
_________________
Your comments are welcomed...
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Obama's Tuesday Press Conference

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Thursday, March 26, 2009 8:46:10 PM
The Mechanics and Staging:
 
The Tuesday night Press Conference started a lot of conversation amongst some of my friends about PrezBO's use of a TelePrompTer for virtually every speech or opening statement.  One of my friends said, "I have 2 words for the teleprompter critics: So What?"
 
Use of a TelePrompTer would not be an issue if he wasn't so reliant upon them at every speaking opportunity. His biggest failure in the use of TPT's is that his eyes are always fixed on the damn machine, as if he doesn't rehearse these statements and internalize them before giving the speech. During the campaign, I noticed that his head was always tilted up - toward one of the TPT screens - even though his audience was (in most venues) six to ten feet below him physically. When you are looking down your nose, it is hard to make eye contact with the people to whom you are speaking.

His staff has even said that they were investigating ways to incorporate a monitor in the Presidential lecturn during press conferences so that staff could feed answers to him in real time.

Some time ago I had an experience with a TelePrompTer at a major company's employee meeting in Georgia. The TPT operator was feeding the text of the keynoter's address to the TPT while I was on-stage doing the "Testing, testing..." thing with the microphones and one of my associates was setting the equalization on the sound system. Never having seen the address before - and not knowing any of the technical jargon - I began reading from the TPT and two LCD monitors in front of the stage as I walked back and forth. It is not easy to do, but you can read ahead of your voice a few words and make eye contact as you complete a sentence. PrezBO hasn't learned after two years of TPT experience to do this.

Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Bob Hope, and Jack Benny have used cue cards effectively without impairing their ability to connect with an audience.  They were never so obvious about using cue cards as Obama is about using a TelePrompTer.  With no way of knowing, I would bet that none of his advisors has made Obama sit down and critically watch himself in front of a TPT event. They should. He COULD improve his performance.

My educated guess is that his advisors are aware of this weakness in his public personna, and that is why they dumped the TPT on Tuesday night for the LCD panel. However, I watched his eyes during his statement. They hardly ever left the monitor - even when he turned his head. It is as if he is afraid that he will never find that huge monitor again if he ever looks away from it.  And I am not the only one to make the same observation.
 
My friend says, "One last word about President Obama using a Teleprompter:  Enough!"

As for it being "Enough!", with all due respect, calling George W. Bush "dumb, stupid, etc." for mangling a word here and there was never enough for the last eight years. And we are still hearing from PrezBO about all of the "problems" he inherited. I am tired of hearing "inherited" from this man. He knew what was coming before he ran for the office. He spent two years screaming "the worst economy..." He won. It is time for him to deal with it, if he can.

As for his content during the press conference:
Quote:
"You know, there was a lot of outrage and finger-pointing last week, and much of it is understandable," Obama said of the bonus issue in his opening remarks. "I'm as angry as anybody about those bonuses that went to some of the very same individuals who brought our financial system to its knees."

AIG is an insurance company, not a bank. It just so happens that AIG made huge contributions to Obama, Sen. Christopher Dodd, and others. I have been told that AIG insures the pensions of Congress, though I haven't been able to confirm it with a news source.

Does anyone really think that if AIG had filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy that the world would have ended? Does anyone really think that State Farm, Allstate, and the hundreds of other insurers would not have stepped in to fill the void? Does anyone remember that New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer forced Hank Greenburg out as Chairman and CEO of the company that he founded and built into an honorable institution that went downhill after his departure?  Forbes.com has this analysis.

Be that as it may...

Congress enrolled the bailout bill on a Thursday night, voted for it on Friday afternoon without reading it and left town. This was too much of an emergency to let it wait for five days for the public (not to mention, our representatives) to read it.

One problem. PrezBO was headed for Illinois for Valentine's Day with Michelle. He didn't come back to Washington until Monday, and then he had to stage the signing in Detroit for Tuesday! Some emergency!

Quote:
"Bankers and executives on Wall Street need to realize that enriching themselves on the taxpayers' dime is inexcusable, that the days of outsized rewards and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk have to be over," the president told reporters and the nation.

Had ANYONE read the bill, including Obama, they would have known the Dodd Amendment was in it, and that the bonuses were going to be paid.

For that matter, if ANYONE had read the bill and taken their oath of office seriously (to preserve, protect and defend The Constitution), they would have realized that government was overstepping its bounds and voted against this unconstitutional disaster. Taxpayers should have not been put on the hook in the first place.

Quote:
"At the same time, the rest of us can't afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That drive is what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately get these banks lending and our economy moving once more," he said.

Finally, Obama gets it right! (But as you can see, he has taken both sides of the issue!)

And it was him and his fellow Democrats who have demonized the AIG executives and employees and sent their ACORN minions to demonstrate at their homes for the last two weeks. Government policies got us into this mess, but the finger is pointed squarely at private American citizens - not at the politicians who caused the problem in the first place.
As usual, I welcome your comments...
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A Look at Obama's Auto-Bailout Team

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:59:49 PM
A Look at Obama's Auto-Bailout Team

And not a single one of them has ANY experience at building an automobile... or working on an automobile... or doing market research on what auto buyers want in an automobile... or running a business of any kind...

I am glad Obama picked the best people in the country for the job...
 
Waddayawannabet they come back and tell GM and Chrysler that in order to be profitable, they need to build more "green" (read, "small") cars?
 
Your commens are welcome, as always...
 
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The Government - Not AIG - Screwed Up!

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Friday, March 20, 2009 8:35:04 PM
I am overwhelmed daily by the evidence that we are being governed by "The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight!"  I just keep waiting to see what they are going to do next.

Let me see if I can make some sense of this weeks events... 

Congress passes the $787 Billion Bailout-Pork Bill without anyone having a chance to read it (The bill was entered in Congress on Thursday night at 11:00pm and voted on Friday at 4:00pm.) Only the Democrats and the Three RINOs voted for it.

Christopher Dodd, D-CT, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, added language to the bill to guarantee the "bonuses" to AIG at the request of TurboTax Geithner. This language was called "The Dodd Amendment."  Then Dodd denies any knowledge of "who" put this language in the bill.

Democrats call the AIG CEO - a retired Allstate CEO whom they hired at $1.00 per year to straighten out the "mess" at AIG - and skewered HIM in front of a national TV audience for "allowing" the bonuses to be paid. That was Wednesday.

On Thursday, we find out that not only are Dodd's fingerprints all over this scandal, but so are Treasury Secretary Timothy "TurboTax" Geithner's. Dodd and Geithner admit their involvement.

And today, the House makes it "illegal" for the recipients to keep the bonuses that they were paid under the law and their employment contracts.  Democrats and some Republicans passed a bill to tax those bonuses at 90%.  So much for equal protection under the law!

And PrezBO finds time to tape Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" on the opposite coast.  Does he realize that he can stop campaigning?  He won, already!  (I think I would have flown to Hawaii and skipped the taping.) Probably a very good idea to get as far out of town as possible.

And on his way to the taping, the Campaigner-in-Chief has time to spend on ESPN picking his Final Four "Barackets" and stops somewhere to tell us how disappointed we all are that AIG screwed up?
AIG screwed up?  It looks like all of Washington, DC screwed up.  And we are the ones who must hold these morons accountable.
 
I heard on the radio this week that Our Saviour was a carpenter, but this "saviour" can't even make a Cabinet!
 
As always, your comments are welcome...
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The Obama Economy

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 10:32:24 PM
Here's an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal:

The Obama Economy
As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.

Quote:
As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem.

Americans have welcomed the Obama era in the same spirit of hope the President campaigned on. But after five weeks in office, it's become clear that Mr. Obama's policies are slowing, if not stopping, what would otherwise be the normal process of economic recovery. From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence -- and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth...

So what has happened in the last two months? ...

What is new is the unveiling of Mr. Obama's agenda and his approach to governance. ... (O)ne negative revelation has been the way he has chosen to spend his scarce resources on income transfers rather than growth promotion. Most of his "stimulus" spending was devoted to social programs, rather than public works, and nearly all of the tax cuts were devoted to income maintenance rather than to improving incentives to work or invest...

The market has notably plunged since Mr. Obama introduced his budget last week, and that should be no surprise. The document was a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy. Health-care stocks have dived on fears of new government mandates and price controls. Private lenders to students have been told they're no longer wanted. Anyone who uses carbon energy has been warned to expect a huge tax increase from cap and trade. And every risk-taker and investor now knows that another tax increase will slam the economy in 2011, unless Mr. Obama lets Speaker Nancy Pelosi impose one even earlier.

Meanwhile, Congress demands more bank lending even as it assails lenders and threatens to let judges rewrite mortgage contracts.

When, indeed, does the Obama Administration start?
 
I welcome your comments...
 
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A Lesson From Our Founding Fathers

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Monday, March 02, 2009 11:25:02 PM
As a conservative first and foremost, I believe that our Founding Fathers were a lot smarter and braver than our current crop of politicians. After all, as Benjamin Franklin said, "Gentlemen, we must hang together or we will certainly hang separately." Those men stood to lose everything they owned - including their lives - and many of them did. They placed EVERYTHING on the line, including the lives of their families.

Our current political class - in my humble opinion - besmirches their memory with every encroachment on The Constitution.  And they violate their oath oath of office to "preserve, protect, and defend The Constitution of The United States of America, so help me God" nearly every day.  Our federal government has far too much control over too much of our lives today.  The United States Constitution limits the powers of the federal government, but thanks to the courts, the New Deal, and the Great Society, the government has grown way beyond the boundaries that our Founders established.
 
Consider this example of what I mean.

The Founders envisioned a country in which I could make a product, offer to sell it to you at a price, and if you wanted it, you could purchase it. 

Today, if my product is gasoline, the government has told me where I can drill for or buy the crude oil, where I can build a refinery, and where I can sell refined gasoline - not to mention that I must make different grades of gasoline for virtually every market. As if that were not enough, I have to pay the government for leases on the land on which I pay the cost of exploring for the presence of oil and the cost of drilling for it if I find some oil. I have to report all of my costs, expenses, and revenues to the government, and that costs me money to prepare the reports and file them. After all of that, I get to make about a 10% profit. Then the government forces me to add on a 20%+ tax, which I must collect from you and pass on to the government.

The government gets more than twice the profit from my efforts, yet I did all of the work and bore all of the risk (and loss when that last well turned out to be a dry hole.) And then the government and the media cast me as the villain because I charge "confiscatory" prices in order to make a paltry 10% return on my investment.

This same scenario plays out in virtually every major industry in our country, including automobile manufacturing, banking, insurance, housing, mortgages... you name it!  And now our elected so-called "representatives" want to curtail the pay of the people who run those companies.  Those industries that have not been affected in a major way are about to be targeted. That is not the way it was supposed to be.

Can you imagine what it would have been like in Franklin's day if blacksmiths were regulated over what kind of shoes to put on your horse, or what a saddle and bridle characteristics had to be?
 
Your comments are welcome...

 
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The Speech

Posted by Bob Wood aka TrekTek on Sunday, March 01, 2009 11:17:24 PM
Rush Limbaugh delivered the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday afternoon.  On one of the forums I frequent, one of the members posted the following:  "Sorry, but the legion of "ditto-heads" and the man behind the golden EIB mic are the fear mongers."  Frankly, I have watched the speech twice and read the transcript.  If I am wrong, please tell me where, but I don't find a single instance of fear-mongering in Limbaugh's speech - or for that matter on his radio program, his website, or his newsletter.
 
More important than the few hilarious zingers tossed at President Obama and liberals in general, Rush Limbaugh defines who we are as conservatives:
Quote:

Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. [Applause] When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. We don't see people we want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don't think that person doesn't have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government. [Applause]

We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. [Applause] We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life. [Applause] Liberty, Freedom. [Applause] And the pursuit of happiness. [Applause] Those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault. [Applause] ...

We don't want to tell anybody how to live. That's up to you. If you want to make the best of yourself, feel free. If you want to ruin your life, we'll try to stop it, but it's a waste. We look over the country as it is today, we see so much waste, human potential that's been destroyed by 50 years of a welfare state. By a failed war on poverty. [Applause]

We love the people of this country. And we want this to be the greatest country it can be, but we do understand, as people created and endowed by our creator, we're all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We resist the effort to make us feel that we're all the same, that we're no different than anybody else. We're all different. There are no two things or people in this world who are created in a way that they end up with equal outcomes. That's up to them. They are created equal, given the chance - -[Applause]

We don't hate anybody. We don't -- I mean, the racism in this country, if you ask me, I know many people in this audience -- let me deal with this head on. You know what the cliche is, a conservative: racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen of America, if you were paying attention, I know you were, the racism in our culture was exclusively and fully on display in the Democrat primary last year. [Applause]

It was not us asking whether Barack Obama was authentic. What we were asking is: Is he wrong? We concluded, yes. We still think so. But we didn't ask if he was authentically black. We didn't say, as some Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders said: Barack is not authentic, he's not got any slave blood. He's really not down for the struggle, but his wife is. So don't expect the race industry to go away. Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- you may not know this, because it wasn't reported in the Drive-By Media -- the racism, the sexism, the bigotry that we're all charged with, just so you across the United States of America know, and you'll see demonstrated here as the afternoon goes on, doesn't exist on our side. We want everybody to succeed. [Applause]

You know why? We want the country to succeed, and for the country to succeed, its people -- its individuals -- must succeed. Everyone among us must be pursuing his ambition or her desire, whatever, with excellence. Trying to be the best they can be. Not told, as they are told by the Democrat Party: You really can't do that, you don't have what it takes, besides you're a minority or you're a woman and there are too many people that want to discriminate against you. You can't get anywhere. You need to depend on us.

Well. Take a look, someone has to say this ... -- and I'm going to touch on this in more detail in a moment, but this is just to get you thinking -- take a look at all the constituency groups that for 50 years have been depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives. ... They're still complaining, still griping about the same problems. Their problems don't get fixed by government. And those lives have been poisoned. Those lives have been cut short by false promises, from government representatives who said don't worry about it, we'll take care of you. Just vote for us. [Applause]

For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I'm Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed. [Applause]


Quite simple. Quite elegant. Quite True.

Quote:
Limbaugh praised Obama as one of the most gifted politicians he has seen, but said, "It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just the opposite."

Ronald Reagan inherited a much worse economy from Jimmy "Malaise" Carter with more unemployment, higher interest rates, and higher deficits.  Carter's economy was so bad that the media invented "The Misery Index" to describe it.  But Reagan (without disparaging his predecessor) urged us to be the best, and through his tax cuts that left more money in the hands of those of us who earned it - which increased revenues to the fed - the economy made a comeback in just a couple of years in spite of the fact that Tip O'Neill and the Democrat Congress spent $1.50 for every new dollar in revenue.

Obama talks of the "worst economy since The Depression" (which it is not) that he inherited and that only government can save us. We can not do it ourselves.

That is just wrong. Government does nothing well. Even our military - which is the best in the world - could improve efficiency.

We conservatives believe - as Reagan demonstrated - that the American economy and the American people combine as a most powerful engine. Government just needs to get out of its way.
 
As always, I welcome your comments...
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