Jobs Created: A White House Lie

The Obama Administration says:

The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus bill directly saved or created about 650,000 jobs as of the end of last month, administration officials announced this morning.

Bloomberg says this is a "made up metric." I'll write it outright: lies. Malkin writes here. Hot Air here.

The Associated Press embarrassed Mr Obama by writing:

An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.

The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:
_ A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.
_ A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.
_ A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.

There’s no evidence the White House sought to inflate job numbers in the report. But administration officials seized on the 30,000 figure as evidence that the stimulus program was on its way toward fulfilling the president’s promise of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

The reporting problem could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.

So, I suppose Mr Obama created 650,000 new jobs.

Wait -- wait. Do you feel it? Did you see it?

I created 173 new jobs just now.

Because I said I did.

BZ

Alan Grayson:

At the risk of seeming to continuously bleat, I find I must steadily emphasize the obvious because the national US media consistently refuse to cover the most basic of stories, if they somehow conflict with the idealistic path plotted by the current Obama Administration.

The story of Alan Grayson is being smothered by the US media; you'll only read about it on blogs and on the internet. And hear sound bites on Conservative talk radio.

Alan Grayson says that Republicans, with regard to health care, believe you mustn't get sick and -- if you do -- must die quickly.

That would be quite the opposite of the true-life implications of ObamaKare. Watch the video:



Who is Alan Mark Grayson (b. 03-13-58), you logically ask? He is a member of the House for Florida's 8th District.

Grayson already made a statement about Ben Bernanke's adviser, Linda Robertson, here.

This lobbyist, this K street whore, is trying to teach me about economics," he said.

Someone just reach up and slap me.

Just slap me.

Because had any of this occurred under a GOP administration, it would have been headline news for days and days and days.

And the fact, now, that I bring this up could be construed, under my current government, as defeatist and obfuscatory and "fishy" and insurrectionist.

BZ

New York City:

The canary in the proverbial coal mine:

RUSH: Mayor Bloomberg, state and city revenues in New York are falling because of the Wall Street collapse. State lawmakers are considering income tax increases for households earning between $250,000 and $1 million. They already pay a 6.85% income tax rate. Mayor Bloomberg, who as recently as six months ago would have supported this, had something different to say about it recently on the radio. It's sound bite number 11.

BLOOMBERG: One percent of the people that live in the city, the households that file in the city pay something like 50% of the taxes. In a city that's about 40,000 people so, you know, a handful left, any raise would make it revenue neutral. The question is, "What's fair?" If one percent are paying 50% of the taxes, you want to make it even more? A little over half the people, half the households who file tax returns don't pay any taxes. And about 30% of the households that file get a credit from the government. The government sends them a check. That's the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Did you get that? ONE PERCENT (roughly 40,000) of NYC residents pay HALF of that city's taxes?? Patterning the fed after NYC?

Is there any doubt, then, that:

New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers -- and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.

More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.

The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City -- meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.

Not quite in keeping with the Big Socialist Dream of Our Hero.

You mean -- people with money can actually make decisions?? Looks, to me, like the Official Blueprint for any taxpayer in the future.

Well -- that'll certainly have to stop shortly!

In the meantime:

"The Most Trusted Name In News" isn't.

Despite every machination of the Obama Administration to defeat Fox News.

Even MSNBC beat CNN.

Tidal turning?

BZ

Stating The Obvious:

In a debate with Ralph Nader, Barney Frank finally unveils the obvious.

Obama and his minions are already facing a highly unanticipated tough fight for the governorship of Virginia.

So, America: how's Das HopenChange working out for ya?

BZ

A Chicago Op-Ed Post YOU Need To Read:

At the obvious risk of running afoul of publishing rights, I submit this article, in full here, with complete attribution:

Steve Huntley, of the  Chicago Sun Times wrote on Tuesday, October 20th:

Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals

Comments

October 20, 2009

BY STEVE HUNTLEY

Have you heard the news? President Obama inherited an economic mess from the Bush administration.

You say that's hardly news? But it's been the message sounded over and over by the White House. Top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on one of the Sunday news shows, "He walked in the door, we had the worst economy since the Great Depression." In San Francisco, Obama talked of being "busy with our mop." White House heavy hitter Rahm Emanuel used the worst-economy-since-the-Depression line on a public TV news show.

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Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals

RELATED STORIES

White House advisers say Fox News is not newsWholesale inflation dips unexpectedly in SeptemberSeptember housing construction rises 0.5 percentObama welcomes second vote in Afghanistan

You'd think it's October 2008, the final month in the Obama presidential candidacy, rather than October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency. Yet the Obama White House is in full campaign mode -- maybe because it needs to mask the shortcomings of the Obama presidency.

Take, for example, all the talk of inheriting the worst economy since the 1930s crisis. That came in response to the news that the federal deficit hit $1.4 trillion.

Yet just a few months ago, the Obama camp was singing a little different tune. It was under criticism for the $787 billion stimulus package it bulldozed through Congress on grounds that massive spending was needed to keep the unemployment rate from breaching 8 percent. When joblessness hit 9.5 percent in June, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was."

They inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, or the economy turned out to be worse than they thought. Which is it? It can't be both -- unless your brain is completely addled by the Obama charisma.

Obama is still popular, but polls show the public losing faith in his policies. Another indicator was a ''Saturday Night Live'' skit lampooning Obama for the major accomplishments of his administration -- "jack and squat." If the honeymoon is ending with the American voter, it isn't for obsequious elements of the mainstream media. CNN prostrated itself by fact-checking the ''SNL'' comedy skit.

But that's harmless compared to the virulent campaign against Obama critics carried out by the denizens of MSNBC. Its Obama acolytes seek to demonize opponents of Obama's policies by focusing on most marginal corners of right-wing politics like, for example, the "birthers" who deny Obama is a natural born citizen. The larger scheme is to imply Obama critics are racists.

That's the backdrop to the story of Rush Limbaugh getting booted from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams. He was smeared on CNN and MSNBC with false accusations of making two racist comments. He is an abrasive critic of Obama, so he must be racist, or so goes the left-wing story line. I wouldn't defend everything Limbaugh has ever said, but lies were used to blacklist him from professional football for his political views.

Recently an MSNBC personality accused the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of lobbying for policies that amount to being "treasonous to this country." Remember how liberals roared in outrage at any hint of their patriotism being questioned for criticizing the Iraq War? Well, it's the left that doesn't shy from attacking the patriotism of those it dislikes. Recall the repulsive Moveon.org "General Betray-us" ad against Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus. Recent opposition to Chicago's Olympic bid was cast as a sign of a lack of patriotism among Obama critics.

The MSNBC blast against the chamber appears to dovetail with what the Politico newspaper reports is a White House and Democratic effort "to marginalize" the business organization. That echoes the administration assault on the Fox News Channel: It says Fox isn't a news organization.

The White House trying to dictate who's a news organization. Democrats out to gut a business group. Obama media allies damning Americans as racist, unpatriotic and treasonous. Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?

What say YOU, dear BZ readers?

BZ

Freedom of Speech?

A wonderful video that I cribbed wholesale from The Political Jungle:



A British atheist speaks the truth about freedom of speech -- an interesting slant from a very interesting source -- involving the threat that Islam poses with regard to freedom of speech.

International law? Outside the United States? "Community cohesion"? The US Constitution being the anchor for all of Western Civilization? Islam acquiring as much respect as it gives? Zero? Learning nothing from what's currently happening in Europe?  All that and more.

Pat Condell hits on the key point: the United States really is the last, best hope for the entire planet. And this from an avowed atheist.

BZ

Government Waste:

Let's list it:

1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
5. The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $100 billionin potential spending cuts.[5]
6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, including “over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.” The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayershundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and$293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year’s 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines–plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.[22]
23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]
25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY)–but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department’s budget.[26]
27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches–even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in “stimulus” funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]
30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]
32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]
33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]
34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]
35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]
36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards–subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want.[36]
37. Congress appropriated $20 million for “commemoration of success” celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]
38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]
40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in “stimulus” funds for a project that its mayor described as “a long way from the top priority.”[40]
41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]
42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]
43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers–the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]
44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]
45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]
46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]
47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]
48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]
49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]
50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans’ personal data.[50]

Anyone else disgusted?

BZ

Worst What??

Someone must be shot for this!

Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years
The decline in Barack Obama's popularity since July has been the steepest of any president at the same stage of his first term for more than 50 years.

Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April. His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.

Bring out The Usual Suspects!



You see, it could never be the result of actual Demorat politics or policies or proposals or bills; golly-gosh no!



Here's what I think -- and you just go ahead and call me wacky. I think some tactics are backfiring on Our Hero and his minions.

People are beginning to visualize that something just might be amiss with Our Hero, The Anointed One. They are beginning to sense that there may be little congruency between what He promised and what he's (little "h") delivering. Consternation not just with Conservatives; oh no. Much discontent piling up on the Left with his insufficiently Leftist plans and results. Mr Obama -- if you can grasp this fetid little concept -- is insufficiently left for the Left.

Gadzooks!

Dick Cheney didn't help matters this past Wednesday when he said that -- gulp! -- Our Hero's Afghan war strategy seems to bear a striking resemblance to that of former President Bush! Perish the thought!

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the Bush administration had developed a new strategy on the war in Afghanistan before leaving office -- a strategy that he said "bears a striking resemblance" to the one announced by President Obama in March.

"The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger," he said.

"Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," he added. "Waffling, while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy, endangers them and hurts our cause."

"Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."

Ouch.

What does this mean for America, you ask?

I say: Mr Obama will pull out all the stops at this point. Whatever vestige of "Mr Nice Guy" (I can't believe I just wrote that) which formerly existed will now be gone. The Demorats and Mr Obama and his minions and the Religious Left will do anything and everything under the sun, primarily piled into the Unfair, Lowdown and Dirty Column (and, I'd guess, tippy-toeing into the illegal margins), in order to cram their ObamaKare and Cap N Tax down the throats of Americans whose eyes are -- hey, check those polling numbers once again if you don't believe me -- slowly overcoming the Obama Glue. Things are starting to fall apart. Texas Fred proves my point right here.

BZ

Republicans Just Do What They're Told:

To a degree I have to admit he's correct; however, I completely differentiate Republicans from Conservatives -- who happen to have minds of their own.



No lobbying? Complete transparency? Most ethical administration ever?



Right. Conservatives. Just doing what we're told. Completely unlike the Demorats, who are such independent thinkers. . .

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sound like Our Hero will be out for TV news with "The Fairness Doctrine" as with terrestrial radio?

Opinions?

BZ

A Committee of 8-Year Olds:

From The Hill:

Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room

By Susan Crabtree - 10/20/09 05:47 PM ET

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present. Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.

Why the lockout?  Gosh -- could it be because Mr Towns himself received a mortgage loan from Countrywide but -- naturally -- "insists" that he was not part of the VIP program?  Right.  And waves don't turn rocks into sand.  Towns further said he purposely didn't start any investigation because he "does not want to interfere with an ongoing Justice Department probe into the matter."  

Or is it also because GOP's Darryl Issa used technology to create a video which embarrassed the Demorats?  

The truth is this: Towns has been ignoring Republican requests to subpoena records in the Countrywide case (Countrywide now owned by B of A). Last Thursday, the Oversight & Government Reform committee Republicans, led by Issa, were about to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee mark-up meeting. The mark-up was canceled quickly. Only Republicans showed up, whilst Demorats failed to appear. 

Imagine that.  The Dems playing as 8-year-olds.

Issa’s spokesman said the Democrats readily acknowledged to Republicans that they changed the locks in retaliation to the videotape of the Democrats’absence from the business meeting even though committee rules allow meetings to be taped. 

And all this in the name of Mr Obama's TRANSparency.  EVERYthing must be TRANSparent.

Uh.  Except when there is a conflict.  With reality.  And truth.

BZ

Pledge To Support And Defend The US Constitution: Then You're A Suspected Terrorist And A White Supremacist

(Thanks Judy.)

The Las Vegas Review Journal seems to think that if you take your oath to defend and protect the United States Constitution seriously, you're a terrorist, Right Wing extremist or a white supremacist.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

 slide show

Stewart Rhodes, left, founder and spokesman of Oath Keepers, talks to Kyle Zortman, 17, of Cedar City, Utah, right, along with Oath Keeper members John Francois, second from left, and Pat Kerby of Pahrump during the Crossroads of the West Gun Show on Saturday at Cashman Center. 
Photos by K.M. Cannon. 



A member of the Southern Nevada chapter of Oath Keepers who declined to be identified works on the group's Web site during a meeting to plan the inaugural national conference of Oath Keepers in Las Vegas later this month. 



Dave Freeman, national peace officer liaison and Southern Nevada director of Oath Keepers, right, says the group, which was founded in Las Vegas earlier this year, is standing up for the constitutional rights of Americans. Critics of the group say Oath Keepers draw members into "a world of false conspiracy theory." 



Dave Freeman, a leader of Oath Keepers, right, and Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers, discuss plans for the group's inaugural national conference in Las Vegas later this month. 

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia.

"Oath Keepers"?  Who are they?  Go here.

And the LVRJ just happens to be "involved" now because Oath Keepers are holding their 2009 conference in Las Vegas on October 24th and 25th.

From the LVRJ article:

Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.

Because those who support and defend the Constitution are already suspect under the current Obama Administration -- and because the Obama Administration already asked citizens to "turn in" other citizens when their information was not congruent ("fishy") with the propaganda issued forth from the Obama White House -- the comparisons between various fascist regimes are naturally forthcoming.  Bush, the "labeled fascist" that he was -- even GWB didn't attempt to mark and limit those who disagreed as Mr Obama and his minions do now.

The LVRJ article continues:

More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.

It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet.

"The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them.

"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."

That type of rhetoric has caught the attention of groups that track extremist activity in the United States.

Including the US government, the FBI, the Southern Poverty Law Center?

Extremist?

Here is the oath I took, originally, back in 1973:

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the State of California, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Oddly enough, this is the same oath sworn by various state and federal law enforcement and military personnel.

Myself, as well.

So, under Oath Keepers, my original oath is now, somehow, deemed threatening to the current Obama Administration?

Because I am an EDUCATED MAN with regard to my own Constitution and because, after all, I am not only knowledgeable with its content and also with its implications and interpretations?

And that these so-called "interpretations" may possibly not be "in keeping" with the goals and directions of the current Obama Administration?  To continue from the LVRJ article:

What Rhodes terms "the rise of executive privilege" during the post-9/11 years of the Bush presidency will in his opinion only accelerate with Obama in office. What's worse, he said, is that "gun-hating extremists" now control the White House.

Two things have happened since the Homeland Security Department and Southern Poverty Law Center released their reports on extremism: Membership of Oath Keepers has spiked dramatically. And Rhodes has had to do a lot of explaining.

"We're not a militia," he said. "And we're not part and parcel of the white supremacist movement. I loathe white supremacists."

Oath Keepers doesn't offer paramilitary training; nor does it have a military command structure. It instead has board members, which include directors in seven states and outreach coordinators to currently serving local and federal law enforcement and military personnel. The group's state director in Montana, who goes by the name Elias Alias, has said Montana and other states should consider seceding from the United States in protest of the federal government's conduct.

And myself as well.  I am not a white supremacist.  I am, however, a believer in the oath that I swore.  Twice.

But more pointedly:

Rhodes said he hopes Oath Keepers members think about the lawfulness of day-to-day orders they receive.

For example, if a police officer feels he is being asked to do an illegal search of a home or vehicle, he should stand down.

Rhodes eventually wants to create a legal defense fund for Oath Keepers who are disciplined by their employers for defying orders they deem unlawful or immoral.

"The message to law enforcement is not to become a tool of oppression," he said.

And to the Obama Administration I say:

If you were NOT afraid of the lawful and proper dissemination of information, thoughts, opinions -- you would NOT be attempting to dissuade anyone or any organization from any speech.  There wouldn't be a concerted effort to discredit Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

Free Speech is the BEST speech.  And dissenting speech should be the MOST PROTECTED speech of all.

So sayeth the hallowed First Amendment.

To Mr Obama: your attempt to silence dissenters is, in fact, FASCISM.

It is a truism and an appropriate label.  DEAL with it.

BZ

In Mendocino:

Typical Leftist.  Obama-Biden sticker, Save The Earth, Save The Nematodes, Save Armpit Hair On Women,  Impeach Bush, No Drilling, Outlaw Butter, No Carbon -- driving an early 90s American hog Buick four-door which averages 15 to 16 mpg and last had a tune-up in 2002.  Completely trashed and thrashed interior.  "Hypocrites, table for two, please" anyone?

Beautiful waves.  Little breeze, looking south from the town of Mendocino.

Looking east, Highway 1 bridge over Big River, through the sand flats at low tide.

Closer, Highway 1 bridge over the Big River.

We came downstairs in the Mendocino Hotel this afternoon for some cups of tea.  We'd first gone to the Gallery Bookshop in town, where I purchased The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickock by Richard Matheson -- a rarity in the publishing world, particularly in paperback.  

You might recall that Richard Matheson is the author of Nightmare At 20,000 Feet (you remember William Shatner in, essentially, his first starring role -- on The Twilight Zone?), The Incredible Shrinking Man (again, made into a film), Hell House (another movie), I Am Legend (made into a recent movie starring Will Smith and an earlier 1971 film with Charleton Heston entitled The Omega Man), What Dreams May Come (a 1998 film with Robin Williams), Somewhere In Time (a 1980 film with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour), A Stir of Echoes (1999, with Kevin Bacon), and the author of a story translated into the very first movie directed by Steven Spielberg (on TV): Duel.  He also wrote The Enemy Within for the original Star Trek series.

Author Richard Matheson, by the way, born in 1926, is 83 this year.  Matheson has influenced any number of creative artists to include Anne Rice, Stephen King, Steven Spielberg and George Romero.  

What an incredible body of work Mr Matheson possesses.

I would hope you'd be inclined to pick up some or many of his books.

The foghorn still sounds, outside our deck.  In the darkness.

BZ

Live From The Pacific Ocean

Clearly there was no Friday post -- but only because it was a "day off" and my wife and I were driving to one of our favorite coastal towns for a five-day vacation.  Rumors have it that all "discretionary" time off is about to be canceled at my work and I decided to "discresh" whilst I still could.  Because I already live in the Sierra Nevada mountains, our general locale of refuge tends to be the Fornicalia coastal areas, from roughly Big Sur to Eureka and all points in between.  This will be our celebration for my birthday -- early -- because I could get the time, at this point.

And so: here we be, adjacent the ocean once again.  We both find the ocean to be mitigative, refreshing, powerful, cerebral, relaxing, therapeutic.  It's not just the sights; it's the sounds and smells as well.

The coast mirrors some of what's occurring recently inland; the humidity is up exponentially (at least for Fornicalia) due to the tropical systems swirling into the area from the south.  We had torrential rains and winds about five days ago.  As soon as we crested the Mendocino coast range and dropped down towards the cliffs, the temperature plummeted from the 80s into the 60s -- yet the humidity remained and, in fact, increased.

Right now, as the light diminishes, the fog has reduced our ability to see the ocean much past the mouth of the harbor where we watch the waves pound the L-shaped protective jetty.  The foghorn still sounds and alternatively appears to be closer or much further away, dependent upon -- well, I'm not sure what makes it sound near or far.  The fog is so thick it's actually like rain.  I'm watching the drops run down from the overhang protecting our room's veranda.

I treated ourselves to a local couples massage today and we visited an excellent antique bookstore where my wife acquired a number of books, and I purchased biographies of T.E. Lawrence, D.D. Eisenhower and Thomas Jefferson.  I'm quite looking forward to learning about Mr Jefferson as I admittedly know little about his life or words -- and clearly to the consternation of the ubiquitous Mr AJ.  In a fit of pique and decadence, I scheduled ourselves for a second 90-minute massage two days from now.

I also purchased a hardback by Vince Flynn, who is an excellent author and his newest is entitled Pursuit of Honor.  Also out in hardback is Evil At Heart, by Chelsea Cain.  An author that, unfortunately, many people have never read or heard of -- Chelsea Cain isn't simply some sort of "guilty pleasure" -- she is a full-fledged literary force in the realm of fictional serial killers.  Her Gretchen Lowell character is robust, fully-fleshed out (sorry), transfixing and challenged by her nemesis, Portland PD Detective Archie Sheridan.  Run, do not walk, and pick up this and the previous two books in the series by author Chelsea Cain.

And now, at 7 pm, it's mostly dark outside.  The fog is almost complete.  Whereas before, absent fog, at this time I could have at least seen the mouth of the harbor -- it no longer exists.  I have never seen the fog here so thick.  This is new and intriguing.  And somehow mysterious and mesmerizing.

The sheer curtain over the sliding patio door is alternately blowing out and being sucked into the room.  It's almost like the room is breathing.  This is indeed a very strange phenomenon.

BZ

P.S.

This post -- and some others to be published on vacation -- was created on my Apple MacBook Pro.  I'm starting -- just a bit, mind you -- to get the hang of this thing.

Rush Limbaugh, The NFL Racist:

Not.

Bring the documentation. List the websites. Cite the YouTube videos. Give me the MP3 files.

Bring them. Give them.

Because?

They simply don't exist.

If they existed, they would have been used against Rush Limbaugh the MICROSECOND they existed in the digital ether.

Rush and I both worked for the KFBK radio station in Sacramento during different years; me before him in the late 1970s. I met him briefly. He'll not remember me. But he set the pace with regard to Conservative radio and -- talk radio in general. A massive precedent was set in 1988. He sensed a vacuum and filled it. Every dollar he garnered from this he deserves. Because it was his idea.

And now? Rush Limbaugh with his millions of dollars isn't "good enough" to co-own an NFL team?

What garbage!

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said:

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," Goodell said at an NFL owners' meeting. "I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL, absolutely not."

Produce your statements. Produce your evidence. Roger Goodell is a reverse racist himself, an appeaser, a caver, and will end up reducing NFL revenues. If he thinks I'll ever purchase another NFL product again, he is sorely mistaken. And I have more purchasing power now than at any other time in my life.

I am SO tired of this racist crap:

The Rev. Al Sharpton reportedly sent a letter to Goodell on Monday urging the NFL to reject Limbaugh's ownership bid. Jesse Jackson also expressed public opposition to Limbaugh's bid.

Oh. So, fine. The Black Racist Pimps weigh in.

That makes everything okay.

From RightPundits.com:

What’s the old saying, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones? A maxim that Rev. Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson would do well to live by; Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton have sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell imploring him not to allow Rush Limbaugh to purchase the St. Louis Rams. In the letter, Sharpton asked for a meeting to explain the “myriad” of reasons why Limbaugh should not be allowed to own an NFL team.

And how about what who alleges and when?

Any verification? Any truth? Any backup sources?

From 2003, Limbaugh had the temerity to provide an opinion about Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb. He didn't say anything more than what hundreds of thousands of people were already thinking:

Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go," Limbaugh said. "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

Horror of horrors!

But apparently, when it's Rush Limbaugh, anyone can say anything about him. And not have to source their statements or provide any amount of proof. From the Culture & Media Institute:

One of the most damaging accusations you can level at opponent is call that individual a racist in one form or another. And that’s the tactic MSNBC and others left-wing opponents of Rush Limbaugh are taking to thwart his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

During a segment on MSNBC on Oct. 13, former Pulitzer Prize winner Karen Hunter appeared to voice her opposition to the Limbaugh’s NFL bid. She made one of the most outrageous – likening Limbaugh’s ownership of an NFL team to being a plantation owner, a metaphor that invokes the image of antebellum South during the 19th Century, when slavery was rampant.

An educator, a darker-hued female making statements like this about Rush Limbaugh? A professor, an author, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, a learned scholar? She, of all persons, a professional journalist, would only be making quotes or allegations but only based upon iron-clad facts, yes?

Karen Hunter said:

I can just see the visions of plantation grandeur dancing in his head as we speak,” Hunter said. “Yeah, it doesn’t make you a racist to want to own a team. But, it does kind of with all his history question his power position over these players who make millions of dollars and his ability to be able to move them around, deny them contracts and do whatever he wants willy-nilly. It's the ultimate power position to be an owner of an NFL team.”

So: Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, in the "ultimate power position"? Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys, in the "ultimate power position"? Or the City of Green Bay, in the "ultimate power position"? All mostly Horrible White Folks, involved in business, doing nothing but "keeping the black man down"? And, oh, yeah, the NFL is comprised of 65% blacks or mixed race. And a good business owner, whose job is to have his business make an actual profit, wishes to have 65% of his employees fail in the job they're tasked to accomplish? And spend millions and millions of dollars to enable this failure?

Again, this is insanity. But wait, there's more from Karen Hunter. She further says:

The words you even put up – two of the statements that he said about the NFL looking like the crypts (sic) and the blood (sic),” Hunter said. “He even said that Dr. Martin Luther King, his killer, James Earl Ray should have a medal given to him, a medal of honor. He says, ‘We miss you, James.’ You can go online as to the top 10 Rush Limbaugh racist comments.”

These are just lies. Unsubstantiated, racist LIES, from unsubstantiated sources. Plied by agendist "journalists" who don't know the first thing about legitimate journalism.

And by "journalists" who don't, again, know the first thing about conducting interviews or refuting bald statements made by melanin-enhanced individuals. Because that would be -- ooooooo -- "touchy". . .

Rush Limbaugh wakes up in the morning with a target painted on his forehead. He goes to sleep with a target painted on his forehead. He has had each and every word he's spoken, for years, immured either on tape or video or on hard drive.

If he'd said a fraction of the things alleged, there would be YouTube videos and MP3 files rampant around the internet. On every liberal website. For days and days and weeks. The internet would have been RIFE with these videos and files quite some time ago -- had they been TRUE.

Rush is what the Left would term a "target-rich environment."

So.

PRODUCE the videos where Rush makes the James Earl Ray quote. For God's sake, this is so fundamentally simple. Rush himself streams video and audio for EVERY show.

BZ

US Debt: What You Need To Know

Mr Obama wants to spend and spend and spend. There is no end of his spending in sight. I suppose he thinks cash really does come out of a printing press. Similar to this thought: "Why do we need farms and farmers? I can get anything I want at the market."

A sense of our actual debt is difficult to grasp. I am a visual learner and relate much more readily to information that I see in combination with hearing. For this reason, I suggest you visit the US National Debt Clock web site. You can actually see what our debt looks like -- below:


This is a static screen capture photo. The debt has increased since I created this screen capture on Tuesday. Please check the debt clock website.

The spending has to stop. It simply has to stop. I would recommend you immediately visit Defeat The Debt. Everyone needs to understand the dangers posed by $11+ trillion dollars in debt. Play the video.



And yet, despite that, the Senate Finance Committee passed what some call the Sen. Max "Baucus Bill" for ObamaKare (D-Montana, chairman of the committee) on Tuesday the 13th; he declared: "We are going to get this done."

Maine RINO Olympia Snowe said, upon passage: "When history calls, history calls." She was the only Republican who checked the "okay" box in this committee, and enabled it to pass on a 14 to 9 vote.

One more step towards an assured tanking of our entire nation.

And that's not even in consideration of Cap & Tax -- which is, of course, next.

Turn your pockets inside-out, America. Then bend over, grab your ankles and cough.

BZ