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Weaving A Word Salad

Just when I thought I’d heard all the absurdities from those progressive territories radiating outward from Hollywood and Vine,another entertainment dolt has given us the granddaddy of progressive propaganda.Sigourney Weaver, best known for her role as the tall drink of water love interest to Bill Murray in “Ghostbusters” and the scientist who experienced an extraterrestrial head popping from her abdomen in “Alien” made this statement last week: “Global warming is sexist.”

Most normal people with regular linguistic skills who were taught how to diagram sentences, what an adjective was supposed to modify and what words can be grouped together to form a coherent thought will recognize Ms. Weaver’s statement as pure unadulterated garbage. We were never taught that garbage is a structural element of a proper sentence!

Ms. Weaver's serious lack of sentence skills reveals her to be so liberal that those bleeding hearts look conservative. We have another Hollywood-type promoting the idea that global warming does exist. Countless scientists, more knowledgable than the average sitcom star, have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that global climate trends are cyclical. Such scientific conclusions dont matter to stars like Ms. Weaver who undoubtedly feel that they must regularly utter absurdities to remind the world what unadulterated, politically correct morons they are. It must be a requirement in their acting contracts!

Not only does global warming exist, to Ms. Weaver’s star-studded mind, but it is against women. Does this mean global warming ignores women and only presents danger to the male species. Many women with mid-life hot flashes and ex-husbands they wish would burn in …..might appreciate that scenario! Or maybe global warming discriminates against the female sex because it only targets them. Speaking as a woman who can never seem to get warm in the dead of winter, warmer temperatures might be welcome!

If we accept the outlandish idea that an already implausible global warming is sexist, do we have to recognize that photosynthesis is racist(from concentrating on the color green to the exclusion of white and black) or that the weather phenomenon El Nino is anti-Hispanic because it uses a Spanish word to describe a system that can spawn unwelcome extreme weather? Where would it end if we start assigning human biases to the world of science? The best guess is that Medicare funds would go bust way sooner than House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan says they would since there would be scores of Americans sharing padded cells!

Ms. Weaver’s statement sounds remarkably like a word salad- a term psychiatrists use to describe the odd, disconnected language of a schizophrenic. Although, I would never leap to the conclusion that a certain tall, red-haired, over-50 actress was suffering from such a condition merely because she randomly places words next to each other in a sentence!
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A Higher Standard

A Washington-based reporter for an Atlanta radio talk show made comments that has C.H.A.R.G.E. scratching its head in disbelief. When asked about his opinion on the shocking news regarding a certain New York Congressman, this reporter remarked that he didn't know what everyone was so shocked about. He said, "That's why they call it the House of  Representatives,because it represents the people, and there are good and bad people both in and out of Congress."

That is not an answer, Mr. Reporter! That is an accomodation that makes it easier not to have a moral stance when it comes to ethical behavior. Yes, you are required by your journalistic oath(as well you should be to remain objective); but, that is not objective. You gave an opinion that explains so much of what is wrong with our government. You gave an opinion that flat out says that we shouldn't expect the highest standard of behavior in our elected officials because they're only human like the rest of us.

So we should trust our government, our financial futures and national security to people who are willing let the bad side of their human nature dictate often less than desirable actions? We're well aware they are human, Mr. Washington Reporter. But, no, we think the people of America actually elect their representatiaves, hoping that they will possess the highest character possible and exhibit behavior, at least while in Washington, that will make us proud that we trusted them to be their very best selves.

It's doubtful that many Americans are standing in front of a voting machine thinking, "well, this man/woman may end up having an illicit marital affair or embezzle money from his accounting firm, but they're only human -we only want them to show up as a bodily placeholder on the floor of the house, push an  electronic device when called upon by the Speaker; that's enough for us!"

It should be a higher calling to serve your fellow citizens, to represent their wishes, their fears, their concerns, in the federal halls of the greatest republic in the history of the world. It may not be the priesthood, but the higher standard required of  Congress should more closely resemble that than the representative "human" behavior found on the average city street corner!
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C.H.A.R.G.E.

 
Letters From An Ordinary Citizen is proud to welcome the new Georgia-based ethics activist group, C.H.A.R.G.E. to its pages!
 
 
 
http://www.gocharge.org/
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C.H.A.R.G.E. (Citizens Helping America Restore Govt Ethics)

 
 
Please check out our new Georgia-based ethics reform group, C.H.A.R.G.E. (Citizens Helping Americans Restore Govt Ethics)


at our website: 
 http://www.gocharge.org/   
 
I am extremely pleased and proud to be associated with the other Founding Members of C.H.A.R.G.E. who share with me the passion and the drive to tackle the ethics issues surrounding our government and its leaders!
 
 
We encourage you to leave any comments you have regarding ANY ethics issue on our Ethics Discussion Forum. We also would like to hear feedback on our website.
 
 
I hope readers of my blog will agree that it is high time American citizens started taking the responsibility for electing ethical leaders into their own hands!
 
 
C.H.A.R.G.E. on over and say hello......we might be saying something you want to hear!!
 
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Get Yourself In Front Of A Voting Machine!


All right America! Today is the day. No more procrastination. No more excuses. No more apathy and passing the buck. You want the right kind of change? You want jobs, tax reform, more secure borders, a strong defense against terrorism, the true liberty our Founding Fathers promised?
Then, GET OUT AND VOTE!!! No time like the present-no day like TODAY!!! Hopefully, all of you have gone out and heard candidates speak-met them-gotten to know them.Think about what they've said. Then GET OUT AND VOTE!!!   Get yourself in front of a voting machine! Go early. In most states, there is early voting through this Friday. You could be in and out in a matter of minutes.  Your few minutes spent choosing names on a few pages of touchscreen can CHANGE THIS COUNTRY.

 
With the midterm elections looming ever nearer, it is time my fellow citizens to start really listening to what the President is saying-no more pretending we're just not hearing right or he's having a bad day and that's why he's saying the things he says. Telling us to get to move to the back, telling us we're snowing him under, apologizing for America. What we've been talking about among ourselves for these 18 long months is the truth-our President is an arrogant narcissist who's not worthy to lead beneath the legacy of Jefferson and Franklin. He's taking his country down the road to disaster and the Democratic majority in Congress has aided and abetted every step of the way.
 
 
On Nov. 2nd, we can do something about this nightmare ride we've been on.We may not get another chance in our lifetimes! Yes, it's that serious! If we let the progressives who have manhandled our liberties in this administration continue on, they will raze the very foundations of our Republic and we won't be able to recognize it-we will be left begging our government for scraps to sustain our families and with none of the freedoms we have always taken for granted and come to cherish in the last two hundred fifty years!
 
 
If you want more of this same Congress, stay home and watch those Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. Or---drop your kids off at Grandma's, postpone that dinner out, and HEAD FOR YOUR POLLING PLACE! Tell yourself, "I'm gonna vote like there's no tomorrow, because if you don't, THERE JUST MIGHT NOT BE A TOMORROW FOR AMERICA!!!
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National Propaganda Radio

Senoir News Analyst Juan Williams was fired from NPR yesterday after saying this Monday on Fox News' the O'Reilly Factor:
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."  Williams was not given a chance to offer any defense of his remarks to his superiors nor was he called into anyone's office at NPR to discuss the import of his words!
 
Really, how many of us have thought the exact same thing as Juan Williams admits to thinking when we are on an airplane or standing in line in at the post office next to someone who is obviously Muslim? Are we supposed to feel sorry for feeling just the slightest bit scared that we might find ourselves part of a Jihadist rocket headed for an urban skyscraper or lying amidst the rubble of some federal bldg? Maybe Juan Williams was just man enough to say what we have all been thinking but have been warned by our multi-cultural worshipping president not to because such thinking is "hate" speech.
  
I disagree with Juan Williams 85% of the time....but I always look forward to hearing his opinion because I know it is well-thought out, unbiased, and from the heart. He is a good man with whom we can agree to disagree but who deserves our respect.
I have also on occasion been educated on the finer points of some political issue from the lips of this man!
 
NPR should be ashamed of such a politically-motivated action against possibly the only fair journalist they have left. Their firing of Williams is the perfect intersection of a biased media, PCness, the First Amendment and zealous progressives.
 
Back in 1971, when National Public Radio was started, its head honchos hoped that it would be an alternative to commercial media that would “promote personal growth rather than corporate gain” and “speak with many voices, many dialects.”  None of those dialects seems to include the voices of honest, intelligent commentators who have strong personal opinions, strictly conservative views or who dare to venture off the script most of its format celebrates.
 
NPR will obviously only call out one of their commentators if they give an opinion that doesn't flow with their uber-left agenda. Some --years ago, one of their own called out notoriously staunch and vocal NC Sen.Jesse Helms, wishing all manner of tragedy to befall his family. Was that commentator released from his position at NPR? No, he was probably thrown a party that night.
 
Fox News on the other hand, is famously rift with arguing journalists-you don't see Murdoch releasing Alan Colmes or Bob Beckel when they go off on their rants against what they view as the latest conservative outrage! That's because, in spite of the Left ridiculing this label, Fox News IS Fair and Balanced!! NPR wouldn't know Fair and Balanced if it came up to them and knocked them on their heads with a studio microphone!
 
A new study by FAIR(Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) reports that NPR’s guestlist shows the radio service relies on the same elite and influential sources that dominate mainstream commercial news, and falls short of reflecting the diversity of the American public. The study looked at general news sources, think tanks utilized and a list of regular contributing commentators.
 
Journalists only accounted for 7 % of NPR sources and of that 7 %,  83% were employed by commercial media groups, many quite influential in newsrooms in this country. Sixteen were from the New York Times alone, and another seven from the Washington Post-not exactly your bastions of impartial journalism! For a public radio that wanted to provide alternatives to commercial media, NPR is certainly very dependent on those same mainstream journalists.
 
I hope the stink from NPR's unconscionable firing of Juan Williams only grows and Congress decides to do the right thing and cut the funding of NPR. Juan will be okay. He is still a contributing commentator on Fox News. They know they are darn lucky to have his insights and we look forward to hearing from him for a long time to come.
 
When such blatantly left-leaning celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg agree that Williams' firing was uncalled for, you know something is seriously wrong!  If ever someone like Chavez seized control of this country and needed a national radio, he already has the infrastructure in place with NPR!  It is time for Congress to consider pulling the taxpayer funds from a media group who are no longer serving the general public but instead want to please the extreme left by embracing progressive propaganda such as Muslims didn't attack us on 9/11 and we shouldn't be afraid of any of them. After all, well-known progressive financier, dare I say, Socialist, George Soros, recently bestowed a nice chunk of change on NPR-1.8 million to be exact.
 
I have no interest whatsoever in seeing my tax dollars go to such a group as NPR who purport to serve the public, but who fire one of their own because he dares to exercise his free speech. NPR, get a clue! Most, if not all, of your listeners still believe in the First Amendment. We believe it applies to all of us-including radio commentators employed at any radio station! If stations such as yours can't be fair to those who state their opinion, maybe you are not so much a public radio station as a bought and paid for voice box for a progressive corporation!
 
Hopefully Fox News' ratings will soar even higher now and NPR will end up on the media trash heap, barely surviving with broadcasts of fiction readings and news about runaway pets coming home!! And they will be forced to live on George Soros' handouts!!




 
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Pinera versus Obama

Why did Chilean President Sebastian Pinera not give a shout out to Barack Obama as he did to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Gr. Britain's David Cameron last night after that miraculous mine rescue? Because Obama did nothing, save watch the story unfold on tv for a brief period.  Pinera did thank the United States as a whole,however, singling out the Texas men who did a good portion of the actual drilling and the Pa. company that provided the high-tech drill bit that hammered through all that solid rock.
 
But can you imagine OUR president doing what Pinera did for 69 days? Neither can I because Obama WOULDN'T!!Pinera visited the San Jose mine many times in the last two months-lending moral support to the miners' families. For the last two days of the rescue, he did not leave the mine except once or twice to change clothes. He personally greeted and hugged each and every miner. He visited all 33 men in their hospital rooms. He stood and proudly sang HIS national anthem when the last miner came to the surface. AND, he delivered a heartfelt speech when everyone was freed that touched millions worldwide. And, he did it without a teleprompter!
 
 
If Barack Obama had been the leader in such a crisis, he would have passed the photo op to Joe Biden and gone golfing! It was all he could do to stand on that filthy, oily Louisana beach after the Deep Horizon oil spill without getting his Doc Martens ruined. Getting down in the trenches with regular people just isn't old BO's style! 

 
 Let's just hope he would've advised his VP to steer clear of the actual hole in the ground where the capsule brought each man up. Biden's a walking disaster area and might have fallen in! Believe me, there would be lot less interest in a rescue attempt if that happened. Which leads me to an even better idea-what don't we send all the progressives a mile down in that little capsule? They could implement their liberal, spend and tax policies where they flourish best- far from the blinding truth of the light of day!
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Bad Advice From Chris Matthews

After President Barack Obama's speech this past Tuesday night where he officially announced the end of combat operations in Iraq, MSNBC's own Chris Matthews hastened to chide him for using a teleprompter, . Matthews said the president should "get rid" of it.
 
 
Well, Barack, I don't know what was in Matthews head when he was saying this, but I wouldn't heed that advice if I were you. I'm trying to imagine you delivering a speech, any speech, without the use of your trusty old teleprompter and all I can envision is a result that resembles a combination of country music's stammering Mel Tillis and a mental version of Gerald Ford's physical slapstick!
 
 
In the end, not relying on a teleprompter for the right words would result in such an embarrassing and comical scene that you would be the next honored guest at a Comedy Central roast! Gilbert Godfried would be playing you! 
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Feminist Sympathies Are Missing In Action

In those crazy college years in the late 1970s, I must admit that I was a member of N.O.W.(for all of you much younger women who have no idea what I'm talking about, that's The National Organization for Women). I even started a chapter on campus.  I believed in their feminist ideals with all the fervor a young liberal could muster! We demanded this right and that right;we wanted equal this and equal that. It was the stuff campus quad soapboxes were made of.
 
Motherhood and the vantage point of age have radically softened those stiff feminist views. Like many who wore the Susan B. Anthony suit thirty years ago, I have happily progressed to a comfortable confidence in my femininity and to the realization that I am as free and equal as I want to be in this life. Whatever I want to do, I can set my ambition compass and head in that direction. I don't need justifications or assurances from society, men or any psuedo-intellectual, artificial group like N.O.W.
 
I've been thinking long and hard about my earlier feminist days since the horrible news of the Taliban cutting off the ears and nose of that poor 18yr old girl who dared to flee from an abusive husband and their bloody, hedonistic pleasure at stoning another woman to death because she didnt't want to marry an old man.
 
For as much as we American women are free and unencumbered in our daily lives to achieve just about any goal we care to aspire to, I am puzzled by one glaring omission from media reports: where are those who so radically championed women all those many years ago? Aren't they as appalled and disgusted as the rest of us are by the actions of these Taliban men? Why aren't they speaking out against such Islamic extremists' atrocities?  There is no doubt certain ones of that group who practice their Muslim faith in this country(and probably protest militantly for the mosque) that wish they could someday subjegate us in the same barbaric fashion.
 
Where are the Betty Friedans and Germaine Greers professing their own horror at the news and photos of that mutilated 18yr old? Although our own personal cause has come so far in this country, are we not part of a greater sisterhood with women everywhere? Does our conscience not require us to stand up for those of our gender who are unmercifully persecuted, maimed and murdered in the name of cultural and religious jihad? The answer from this ex-radical feminist is a resounding yes!
 
While it is true that many years ago I was a staunch opponent of Ms. Phyllis Schaffly and  in my youthful exuberance, made fun of her philosophical stance on the role of women in society and in the home, I find myself at this stage of the game, occupying space on  the same blog website with her as we both share our concerns for our country and for conservative founding principles.  As for Ms. Steinem, one of the most outspoken leaders in the feminist movement, I have found less and less in common with her as time passed-she has maintained her more progressive ideologies. But when it comes down to such images as appeared recently on Time magazine, I am certain in my heart that we want the same equal justice and humane treatment for women around the globe.

I have to believe that the reason for this screaming silence on the part of some liberal women is that they are not able to separate their female sorority from their other progressive ideas-such as a blanket allowance for others to worship as they please and accepting other cultures into our society. Both of those are well and good and America has a long republican tradition of liberty for all when it comes to religion and living your life. But, one has to draw the line somewhere at where your politics interfere with you humanity. I believe that a Muslim extremist practicing a religion that allows such inhumane, terrible torture and murder has stepped beyond the bounds of our common humanity, no matter your country or your particular politics! 

That is where we should all draw the line. That is the line where those who once called themselves the defenders of women, the voices of equality, should step up to and announce their solidarity with all the oppressed women suffering under the tyrannical laws of extremists!

Women-Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, whatever you may be calling yourself these days-don't be silent. This is a humanitarian issue. The recent beheading by a NYC Muslim tv executive of his wife is more of an humanitarian issue to take before the U.N. than an Arizona law giving the states the right to enforce a federal immigration law already on the books-not that the United States should farm their humanitarian issues out to a global court instead of their own judicial system.

Let me just say that, if any of you Islamic extremists who enjoy displaying your psychotic mashismo in your hatred for women, have any illusions of ever seeing such retributions meted out to women in this country, then you will be in for a rude awakening!  Let me introduce you to American women since you obviously haven't got a clue about who we really are.

We have a 100 year history of suffrage-hard fought battles that have placed us in leadership roles in business, education and government, to name only a few arenas. Some of us Southern ladies had grandmas who made General George S.Patton look docile! Feminism may have become tamer-it may have been integrated into the realities of self-determination over the past few decades-but let me assure you that if anything remotely resembling Sharia law or the mistreatment of women were to occur in this country, we women who were there in the heyday of the feminist movement, would gladly revisit that place! I like to think that such heretofore unimaginable images as Gloria Steinem and Phyllis Schaffly locking arms in defiance would be scattered across magazines everywhere!!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Wrong....Again!

It never ceases to amaze me that voters can be so contradictory. Arizonans profess to be four square behind Gov. Jan Brewer because of her willingness to stand up to the Obama administration over the controversial immigration law. They know she is willing to fight for the rights of rightful citizens and she seems to practice what she preaches about conservatism and freedom. In yesterday's Primary,the majority of the voters in that southwestern state wisely chose Brewer as their Republican nominee for governor in November.
 
In the same breathe, those very same voters returned John McCain as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate! That would be John McCain, the poster boy for liberal Republicans -and not just for crossing the aisle, but for jumping seats-two at a time! His voting record and the bills he has proposed over the past six or seven years have shown him to be someone who is not in touch with true Conservative principles. But beyond his penchant for wanting to "get along" with the other party, McCain has his own ideas that are dangerous to this country.
 
Back in March of this year, McCain introduced a  bill that would allow American citizens thought to be a threat to be arrested and held without benefit of trial or counsel!  The new law, S.3081, The “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010", is so broadly written that it might be used to pick up antiwar protestors, Tea Party participants, or any citizen speaking out or writing against the government.
 
 
It is a terrifying prospect in a nation that treasures its free speech. Although, it does differ in its wording, many have already pointed out the similiarities to "Hitler’s Discriminatory Decrees" signed February 28, 1933. If you think that's a stretch, think again. Read those decrees and then ponder on McCain's bill which suspends probable cause-the one law that keeps government from knocking down our doors in the middle of the night!
 
What I find equally disturbing are the names signed at the bottom of S. 3081. They are the names of several Congressmen whom I thought were true Conservatives, who stood for a free America, the America we've always loved-Sessions and Inoye to name a few. Of course, there are also the who -knows- how- they- will --react bunch-Scott Brown, Saxby Chambliss, etc . (I told you all that Scott Brown was not the savior of Congress back in January, didn't I?)
 
 
These are men who are reacting to the threats of terrorism with the misguided notion that a stifling security is what we need. We need our freedom and Constitutional rights! We'll worry about our security after we are assured of those first! This is why we need to stress the word Conservative in our politics-obviouly the members of both parties are capable of cooking up some pretty scary scenarios!
 
With regards to John McCain, it couldn't be more obvious: his years as a POW are no longer relevant to the matters at hand. For someone who talks endlessly of his years in the military and in enemy captivity, he is horribly incompetent at protecting and defending our individual liberties.

 Honestly, McCain, why don't you just do us all a giant favor and change parties already....all you are missing is the official partisan prefix! Sorry Arizona-you voters are WRONG AGAIN!!! This man is no friend to conservatism.  Quite the opposite. He is a major threat to the liberty we all cherish. He may be a Republican on the ticket, but that is just a word when it comes to this man. He's just talk talk talk; his actions speak volumes. Congratulations!  You've put him on the path yet again to another two years of saying one thing and doing another. God help us with what he suggests next!

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Karen Handel's New TV AD

 
 
UPDATE ON GEORGIA'S GUBERNATORIAL RACE
 
 
Check out Republican candidate Karen Handel's new TV ad. Its set to run by Monday:
 
 
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An Obvious Lack of Leadership

As the leader of this country in the past few months, Barack Obama has been especially ineffectual-more so than an expired Ex-Lax, although the resulting product has been equally excremental! Under pressure to act, he has flown down to Louisiana to inspect the disastrous BP oil spill and to appear engaged in the issue has made a few seemingly affected statements about how he has lost sleep over this whole affair. At the same time, he has turned his back on Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel in their perilous situation while managing to vacation, host sports teams and party down like it was 1988!

According to White House agenda notes, in the 50 days since the explosion on the BP oil rig, Horizon, President Obama has flown to Iowa ,Missouri and Buffalo just to have a slice of rhubarb pie at Jerry's Diner, lunch at Peggy Sue's, and hot wings at Duff's. He has held receptions to honor G-20 ministers and Earth Day. He's had several vacations-in Asehville, NC and Chicago with numerous rounds of golf. In between all of that important executive agenda he has thrown in a fancy DNC fundraiser and a Cinco de Mayo party. Does that sound remotely like a national leader who's focused on the needs of his citizens and a pressing crisis that promises to bilk billions from the livelihood of Gulf states? It sounds more like the good-time-Charley antics of a college frat boy!

 
Why just last week amid bipartisan outcries for some true leadership regarding the worst oil spill in U. S. history, he had Paul McCartney over to the house. The ex-Beatle serenaded Michelle with his song of the same name. The President‘s ‘back-pocket’ media in their celebrity-crazed fever has pointed that out to us totally disinterested folks ad infinitum in the past week. Look, Mr. Obama,you’re not Eddie Van Halen…as if anyone would want to be. You have heavy responsibilities that demand a certain amount of presidential decorum, dignity and, yes, somberness when required. 
 
And you're certainly not Shaquille O'Neal. As much as you like basketball and other sports, it is not your main job to bring all of the teams to Washington for a good time!  Again, since the Gulf crisis occurred in April, you have hosted the NY Yankees, The Duke Blue Devils, Navy football and University of Connecticut women's basketball team.
  
You’re the leader of, what is for now, the free world. There are potential disasters poised to happen all around the globe that need the committed presence of the President of the United States. Do you really have time for beer pong, meeting with U2's Bono and jetting over to Maryland to view...Secret Service binoculars? (What?)

Iran is close to having nukes. Israel is close to war with Iran because of those nukes. Hamas is staging bloody episodes on board blockade-busting “humanitarian” ships to instigate trouble with Israel. North and South Korea are about to time travel to the early 1950s, but it won’t look like it does on MASH reruns!

Now is the time for taking your fingers out of your ears. You have to stop pretending that everything will just go away. These are dangerous times. The world is faced with threats to liberty and freedom everywhere. The world’s economy is going to hades in a hand basket. These are matters that can’t be fixed with a White House memo from Rahm Emmanuel!

Mr. President, the oil spill that is spreading to Florida’s tourism industry is threatening to do more than leave greasy slicks on the backs of local wildlife. Florida is going to suffer financially from this for a very long time. We need answers. We need a government that is willing to sit down with BP, which by the way, I’m sure was merely an oversight in your daily planner.

We need to meet, discuss, organize and delve for realistic, timely solutions. Now is not the time for criticizing former Vice President Cheney-he’s been out of office for two years. Now is not the time for latching onto the disastrous oil spill as political fodder to further your party’s chances in the midterms elections this November.
 
But you have managed to find plenty of time since the oil spill occurred to host glitzy galas for two world leaders- Karzai and Calderon. ( a sad fact given the shoddy treatment you doled out to our longtime ally, Israel when Netanyahu paid you a visit).
 
With regards to foreign policy and what's going on in other countries, you can no longer afford to play the part of the heroic, Peace Prize winner who wants to hold hands with terrorists and sing Kum Ba Ya until they all cry uncle, lay down their AK-47s and turn in their jihad blueprints! All of the splendor of a decorated White House ballroom replete with champagne and caviar won't bring Iran and Korea to their senses!
 
Be a leader Mr. Obama. While there is still time to do something about these formidable problems that face the United States and the world, you need to settle down in your chair in the Oval Office and do the job that so many Americans wrongly chose you to do! Let’s worry about who to prosecute over the oil spill, who to sue and who’s rear end to kick at a later date- shall we say, after we’ve figured out how to permanently plug the oil leak and how to implement the cleanup process?

For better or worse, you’ve got the job you always wanted. But, you seemed to have dived under the desk when the worse times hit. You don’t have that option. You don’t get to ignore matters and close your eyes and hope that when you awaken, Valerie Jarrett has achieved peace in the Middle East between campaign stumps for endangered Democrats..

These are precisely the times that so many of us worried about after your election to the presidency. We’ve been hoping we were wrong. We really don’t want you to fail. If you fail, then we all lose! Yet, nothing you’ve done lately has eased our fears. Please prove us wrong or it may be curtains for this country as well as cataclysmic for the rest of the world.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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On Selig's Side

I am not what you would call a sports enthusiast. I have learned small feats like throwing a baseball and passing a football from my sons. I don’t usually have an opinion on sports-except for which Super Bowl commercial was the best.

I used to watch college basketball’s Final Four , but more for the elimination excitement then the actual tournament…….the only really important final four was the ACC basketball championship( I went to high school in North Carolina and somehow felt surprised whenever I watched other teams play Duke, NC State, Wake Forest and Carolina-it proved other teams existed but I couldn’t quite believe it).
 
I was an expert, of course, having played hundreds of hours of HORSE with the neighborhood kids and a year of truly awful junior varsity ball-though I was a half-decent shooter, my grandma could outrun me. But even the previous magic of Carolina blue has worn off in my middle age.

I sometimes watch hockey when I’m stuck at home, full of energy with nowhere to go. Hockey’s good when I feel like watching guys knock each other over the head with long wooden sticks! But that has less to do with sports and more to do with relationship issues!

Occasionally, when I’m too tired to get off the couch, I watch golf; it doesn’t require me to constantly stare at the screen so I can doze off in fifteen minute intervals. Golf is one sport where, even if you miss the actual shots, you can still be amazed at pars, birdies and eagles and feel plain exhilarated for the golfer anyway

Then there is baseball. I have lived in Atlanta for the past twenty years so I am a Braves fan by virtue of residence! That's how it works here. I occasionally watch games with my grandson who is more enamored of the running stats across the bottom of the screen than the action during innings.  And if I had a dollar for every plastic-tasting, concession-stand hotdog I consumed at city parks in the 1980s, well, I 'd have purchased my own team and given Marge Schott a run for her money!
 
But I do have an opinion on Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s refusal to reverse first base umpire, Jim Joyce‘s unquestionably bad call in Detroit’s game against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday. I stand with Selig on this one. He made the right decision.

Of course I think its sad that the young pitcher, Armando Gallaraga, missed his chance to make Detroit Tiger history by pitching their first no hitter ever. And yes, the umpire admitted that he made a lousy call in declaring Cleveland‘s Jason Donald safe at first; Joyce was sincerely sorry and apologetic to Gallaraga and was visibly distraught. He is obviously a man of character and integrity and should be loudly applauded.

"There's no doubt he feels bad and terrible," Galarraga said after Detroit beat Cleveland 12-6 on Thursday. "I have a lot of respect for the man. It takes a lot to say you're sorry and to say in interviews he made a mistake…..I'm sad, but I know that I pitched a perfect game. The first 28-out perfect game," he said.

That being said, if the baseball commissioner reverses Jim Joyce’s call, then wouldn’t he have to revisit other instances where bad calls cost players milestones? Wouldn’t he be forced to reverse those questionable calls to be fair to those others who came close to historic records?

It’s more than a matter of being fair to this one baseball pitcher who for his performance on the mound that night richly deserves all the accolades that he is receiving. It’s about being fair to all of the other pitchers throughout the history of the game who would like to relive a few precious seconds, would like to have someone reverse those bad calls that denied them their place in the history books.

I have the impression that there are those who are simply grieving the loss of a new record in baseball. To many it seems more important to have that special no-hitter on the books than to uphold the principles of sportsmanship and the rules of the game. It’s clichéd but true, “You win some, you lose some” and many times, whether it be in sports or in life, you lose some due to the errors of others.

As an understandably dejected, yet stalwart, Gallaraga himself said after the game, “That’s baseball.” And that is the whole issue in a nutshell. That is the nature of games- we learn that as children and often it is a hard lesson. How many of us parents have watched our children come face to face with such an experience on Little League fields? How many of us in attempts to toughen our children to the realities of the sports field and of life have quoted Tom Hank’s character in A League of Their Own, “There’s no crying in baseball.”

For that honorable umpire who watched the replay and publicly recognized his mistake and for the talented Detroit pitcher who came….this close….they learned two valuable lessons that we all must learn at some point in our live-lessons that the world of sports excels in: wrong decisions can last a lifetime and nothing is guaranteed us-just when we think we have it all, it can be taken away in an instant.
 
As Associated Press sports writer, Ben Walker wrote, “rewriting sports history would open a Pandora's Box — what happens in an instant must live forever.” Expanded instant reply would destroy the very nature of the game of baseball. Baseball, and any sport for that matter, is about much more than athletic prowess, fame and money.  It is about being a part of something bigger than yourselves, contributing to a team, and conducting yourself with class.
 
Jim Joyce was told he could skip Thursday's game after his botched call. He didn't. He showed up on the field just like he has for every other game in his umpire career. That is class. When Armando Galaragga was told that Joyce was "beating himself up over his call" , the pitcher offered to talk to him, to tell him he forgave him and everything was okay. That, too, was class. It would do other baseball players, coaches and umpires as well as fans good to remember that class used to be a big part of the game of baseball. Sadly, it's not so much anymore. And more's the pity.
 
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Obama's Two-Faced Pen

When President Obama signed the Freedom of the Press Act on May 17, 2010, those underground pamphleteers from the American Revolution turned over in their graves! That penmanship show was brought to us by the same White House who has routinely refrained from press conferences for over a year.

This was an executive demonstration by a leader who constantly ignores questions from reporters and is so afraid of confronting the media, even the liberal media-who are, it seems, slowly awakening from their 2008 coma- that he ordered reporters removed from the gate near the White House during a demonstration supporting gay marriage and gays in the military.

The man’s administration is a despotic cadre of so many leftist radicals who abhor free speech that it’s a wonder any of us are walking the streets with the liberty to hum our favorite tune under our breathes.

Cass Sunstein, the White House director of communications and Regulatory Czar thinks that Americans free speech should be limited because Americans speaking their minds don’t always know what is best for the community at large.

Mark Lloyd, Obama’s FCC diversity director, thinks that Chavez got it right down in Venezuela when he ordered certain radio and TV stations shutdown because they weren’t delivering the right ‘message’ 

We’ve heard Axelrod and ol Rahm speaking about getting the ‘message’ right, and warning that the conservative right is twisting their ‘message’That word should be feared by those Americans who can remember which hand to place over their heart during the national anthem. If ever there was a socialist red flag, those seven little letters are it!

Perhaps Mr. Obama will excuse those of us who don’t quite buy this Freedom of the Press Act. The fact that this paperwork was even on the executive table was kept out of the public’s knowledge. Convenient for the President that he can now say, “yes, I signed the Freedom of the Press Act, while probably thinking to himself, “but I only did it for show; what I’d really prefer is for all of you poor fools out there and the intrusive media to just lie down and be my lapdogs."

"There's no need for speaking about anything. We will take care of you so you don't have to worry about thinking or forming any opinions. I promise the future won’t be too painful for you as you lose those liberty thingamajigs you have loved so long."

"I will slip the old needle of totalitarianism to you so you will be numb to your loss of freedom; but, it’s for your own good. Freedom just gets in the way of everything being equal and fair. But it’s definitely better if you don’t know what’s going on. Then it won’t hurt so much. “So, pay attention to the last episode of “Lost” and cheer on that really bad singer on Idol. It will all be over soon, my children.”

What exactly does this Freedom of the Press Act stipulate? And why in the world do we need one? We already have the greatest freedom of the press act ever written in the history of mankind and it has served us well for well over 200 years! It's called the First Amendment.

Maybe you 'intellectual' yahoos in Washington should break out a copy- you could read it and Arizona H.R. 1040 at the same time! But, I forgot--reading political and legislative documents is not your strong suit. Rhetoric and mudslinging are your hobbies and you've all gotten quite good at those.

Actually, this new act, The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, is a global initiative(two other words to be feared by democracy-loving citizens)introduced in the Senate by Chris Dodd. It will provide millions of dollars to promote and ensure the rights of media across the globe to have access to relevant government documents and to the freedom to express dissenting opinions.

How exciting for the planet! Does this new global freedom of the press include the United States as well? It would be surprising to find that it did, considering the Obama White House's continuing war on conservative talk radio, Fox News and right-wing bloggers across the net. How did your pen not falter and dry up as you put your name at the bottom of a piece of legislation that touts for the rest of the world all that you seem to find unholy in our own country?

Oh, that's right.....we're arrogant and too full of our own sovereignty to speak our minds and have freedom of the press.....but, freedom of speech in the rest of the world, should be supported? Where was all of this support for the pillars of a democracy last year when young kids were dying in the streets of Tehran in a fight against the tyrants who rule there?

Their is one possibility that has not escaped me with regards to this new freedom act signed by the president. If our freedoms,global or national, starting with speech but leading to who knows what other ones later, can be reintroduced by a new legislative document, then won't it be that much easier to erase them by simply declaring that said document null and void, thereby circumventing the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment? Circumventing is another skill which Obama and his cohorts could parlay into big bucks if there was a market for it!

Like so often happens with this progressively infected administration, Americans are given the old sleight of hand. If he ever wants out of politics, Barack Obama should audition for David Copperfield’s job. We need to start scanning our focus across the board every day so we are not bogged down with one particular issue while the President and crew row us straight to a Socialist Armageddon!

This new freedom for the global press act is just another ruse to make us comfortable, to keep us thinking that things are not so bad as conservative pundits insist. A terribly cataclysm of tyranny awaits this nation if we ever start honestly trusting this government not to run roughshod over the First Amendment!

Unless we have long desired to become Stepford citizens, we had best start wagging our tongues and using that precious freedom of speech to let those in power know that we are not going to stand for their takeover! We’re not that impressed with Barack Obama’s signing of a “Freedom of the Press Act”.

Written words are meaningless from a man who is forever talking about clamping down on ours. We are more skeptical of Obama's true feelings about free speech after his little tirade against the free flow of information he unleashed at a recent commencement. The Daniel Pearl Act was signed with a two-faced pen.

Americans need to start using their speech like never before! They should take advantage of You Tube, Twitter, Facebook, emails, blogs, whatever is available in their everyday lives. We should keep the info flowing fellow citizens and dare the government to put any kind of limits on our speech.

If they’re not careful up in D.C., they’re liable to start seeing computer-printed pamphlets start circulating to remind all Americans of those inalienable rights so generously bestowed upon us by a just God and encapsulated for all time in the Bill of Rights.

Contrary to Mr. Sunstein, it is not the government which gives us our rights. They are ours by virtue of birth and not so easily handed over! It is our Bill of Rights and we must demand every last one of its promises-we must demand them and fight for them!

 

 

 

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Barack Obama's iAnxiety

In the 1977 Mel Brooks film, "High Anxiety", psychologically-challenged characters captivate the audience with their warped antics. The present White House has shown itself to be equally entertaining. When questioned by Texas Congressman, Lamar Smith of the House Judiciary Committee, as to whether or not radical Islam was the cause of terrorism, Attorney General Eric Holder sounded remarkably like Harvey Korman in that Brook's film-hesitant, often bumbling. Then, last Sunday, as he delivered the commencement speech at Hampton University in Virginia, President Obama revealed some iAnxieties of his own.

He told that Hampton graduating class that he had concerns over the information being disseminated by the latest technology-represented by the new iPad, iPod, Xbox, the new smart phones and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and Playstations-none of which I know how to work-information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," the President told students. He went on: "All of this is not only putting new pressures on you....it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

Obama's fear of the unfettered freedom of new technology, of course, merely translates to, "I don't like the fact that so many people on iPads, and on Twitter are criticizing my job performance". He can't fathom how someone so destined for greatness(to use his own words, words usually left to historians decades after a presidency) is so disliked by so many! The only one feeling pressure is Barack Obama-he is being pressured by millions of Americans to do the right thing on a lot of issues: jobs, the economy, terrorism, immigration,etc.

He must be thinking, "Didn't I win a Nobel Peace Prize? Isn't most of Europe clamoring for my financial advice in the wake of Greece's economic collapse? Why, to his own mind, he must be a genius if France and Ireland are seeking his counsel. No, what matters most to this vain excuse for the world's most respected leader, is undying allegiance from his public(read-subjects).

After all, he has that august body, the United Nations backing him in his opposition to the new Arizona immigration law. They are throwing around politically-charged words like racism and human rights violations. Surely, if the U.N. is behind him, he(Obama) must be in the right.

So, why would all of these iPad,iPod users and bloggers and tweeters be talking such trash about him as if he were the reincarnation of Lucifer himself? It cannot make sense to a man who's ego is due for a big explosion from overinflation. How dare Americans with their instant communication and fingertip information presume to know better than the President what is good for this country?

The reason for this widespread loathing of his administration is because of something he, himself, said to that same crowd in Virginia with regards to his low opinion of the technology realm "....it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all; to know what to believe; to figure out who's telling the truth and who's not."

Indeed. Well put. But, to quote that old cliché, you are the pot calling the kettle black(or should I say ebony?) That is precisely the problem Americans have with the government now in power. The truth is buried somewhere and they have to work unduly hard every single day to try and ferret it out. Maybe it's buried with Jimmy Hoffa!

Meanwhile, relax, Mr. President. Put in your ear buds and turn on your iPod to "We Are The World". Send out a tweet to Sarkozy on how to pass a massive spending bill disguised as a "reinvestment act". Never mind if some poor schmuck twittering on his Smartphone in rural Iowa hates your choice of neckties.

Take some consolation in the fact that a conservative blogging on his iPad receives tons of derogatory comments. Above all, don't worry- the teenage boys playing, "Grand Theft Auto" on their Xboxes are not plotting to heist the White House limo! And, unlike their outspoken owners, those shiny techno gadgets cannot cast a vote in November!

 
 
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