Political Straight Talk

The David Hall Effect

2010-09-18T09:24:00.001-05:00

There comes a time in every campaign season that you have to eat crow when you are wrong and my time is now. No, I will not recant anything I wrote in the primary as it was a primary and everyone is entitled to their opinion and I had mine at the time. I will go on record and say that NO-ONE except the Hall campaign expected them to win and we were all wrong.

It is time for people to hang up the grudges and spend the next 46 days working to get good people elected to the state and federal levels of government. Is David Hall our first choice - to some no to others yes but therein lies the bigger question. Who will better serve the people of the Tennessee 5th? I believe that person to be David Hall.

David and his camp have leaps and bounds to make in order to win. David needs to focus time and resources in Davidson County. Wilson and Cheatham will go overwhelmingly for David.The Hall camp has to make up at least a 7 point defcit in Davidson to win the day while keeping good leads and moderate to heavy turnout in Wilson and Cheatham counties.

There are a few things that is going in the Hall camp's favor:

1. The political winds of the nation.

2. The depressed mood of democrats which will translate into terribly depressed turnout in generally strong democratic areas of Davidson County.

3. A very strong republican gubernatorial candidate in Bill Haslam.

4. Energized republicans as well as a previously untapped tea party resource.

We are all always talking about making a difference and now is the time for us to put our money and time where our mouth is. Get out and support and vote for David Hall.

Stuff used in tonight's podcast

2010-09-03T20:43:00.001-05:00

Fox News Poll

Traitor Soldier

Ground Zero Mosque

World Trade Center Mosque issue

2010-08-14T21:26:00.003-05:00

Ok I have attempted to hold my tongue when people have talked about the mosque that is proposed for the ground zero area in New York City. It is bad enough that we are so desensitized that we, as a nation, have forgotten what happened on 9/11/2001. It is even worse that our bumbling president has the nerve to actually condone the building of a mosque (he backed it and then he has to clarify because the teleprompter messed up) of the faith (I use that term very loosely given that ALL ISLAM is a political socio-economic society not a religion). The Islam community domestic and abroad will view this as a VICTORY of 9/11/01. If this was not the driving force then the planners of the site would have taken Governor Patterson's offer to relocate on other properties owned by New York. But guess what is not going to happen.

Our Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion not the freedom of a political regime and that what Islam has been is and always will be. It is pathetic that people will not rise up and say know to the infiltration of these people into our inner workings as a nation. We have cities trying to incorporate sharia law into our laws and there is not want or need for it in our nation.

If you are a weak kneed liberal who feels the need to hold hands and be accepting then you call me and I will assist you in getting a one way ticket to a sharia based society and lets see how long you hold their hand before they cut yours off.

Obama's Governing!!

2010-07-31T13:22:00.004-05:00

Everyone is acting so surprised at the Obama Administration's attempt to create backdoor amnesty. The Obama camp instructed the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to come up with ways to bypass Congress and create a path to citizenship.

This should come as no surprise given that Obama uses Czars and recess appointments to shove his agenda down people's throats. For an administration that claimed we would see transparency and openness all they have shown us is closed door negotiations and procedural moves to keep the people's voices from being heard.

Here is a list of the Czars:

1. Herbert Allison Jr., bailout czar, [replaced Bush bailout czar Neel Kashkari, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability confirmed by Senate]

2. Alan Bersin, border czar

3. Dennis Blair, intelligence czar [Director of National Intelligence, a Senate confirmed position]

4. John Brennan, counterterrorism czar

5. Carol Browner, energy czar

6. Adolfo Carrion, urban affairs czar

7. Ashton Carter, weapons czar [actually Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and so subject to Senate confirmation]

8. Aneesh Chopra, technology czar

9. Jeffrey Crowley, [openly gay white man] AIDS czar

10. Cameron Davis, Great Lakes czar

11. Nancy-Ann DeParle, health czar

12. Earl Devaney, stimulus oversight czar

13. Joshua DuBois, religion czar, aka God czar

14. Arne Duncan, education czar

15. Kenneth Feinberg, pay czar

16. Daniel Fried, Guantanamo closure czar

17. J. Scott Gration, Sudan czar

18. Melissa Hathaway, [soon to be] cybersecurity czar

19. David J. Hayes, water czar [a Deputy Interior Secretary and therefore subject to Senate oversight]

20. Richard Holbrooke, Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) czar

21. John Holdren, science czar

22. Kevin Jennings, safe schools czar [nominated to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, a newly created post; openly gay founder of an organization dedicated to promoting pro-homosexual clubs and curricula in public schools]

23. Van Jones, green jobs czar

24. Gil Kerlikowske, drug czar

25. Ron Kirk, trade czar

26. Vivek Kundra, infotech czar [Shoplifted four shirts, worth $33.50 each, from J.C. Penney in 1996 (source)]

27. Douglas Lute, war czar [retained from Bush administration, married to Jane Holl Lute, currently a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security]

28. George Mitchell, Mideast peace czar

29. Ed Montgomery, car czar [replacing Steve Rattner, who stepped down amid controversy over his former firm’s role in a possible kickback scandal]

30. Lynn Rosenthal, domestic violence czar

31. Dennis Ross, Mideast policy czar

32. Gary Samore, weapons of mass destruction czar

33. Todd Stern, climate change czar

34. Cass Sunstein, regulatory czar

35. Larry Summers, economic czar

36. Michael Taylor, food czar

37. Arturo Valenzuela, Latin-American czar (nominee) [although this post is referred to as a czar, he is nominated to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and so is subject to Senate confirmation]

38. Paul Volcker, economic czar number two

39. Elizabeth Warren, TARP czar [chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Trouble Assets Relief Program; note that Herb Allison is more frequently called the TARP czar]

40. Jeffrey Zients, government performance czar [replaced original nominee Nancy Killefer who withdrew her name after issues with her personal income tax filings surfaced]

Positions established but not yet filled:

41. Behavioral science czar

42. Copyright czar

Positions being planned:

1. Income redistribution czar

2. land-use czar

3. Consumer financial protection czar, aka mortgage czar (source)

4. radio-internet fairness czar

5. Student loan czar, to oversee a program of mandatory service in return for college money (source)

6. Voter list czar

7. Zoning czar

Personal Rant

2010-07-30T21:28:00.002-05:00

I have been chugging along as a political Hack/Adviser for quite a few years now and I have to say that I am thoroughly disgusted with politics right now. I have never seen a more bitter and divisive campaign than I have seen over the last 2 cycles first we have a polished democrat who has very little substance in there moral fiber and even less substance when it comes to the issues and the truth. That leads to a new culture in Washington where we allow 92,000 page leaks (probably will surface that the White House knew it was going to happen) and we forget everything that makes this nation great.

On a more local level we have people who are biting fellow conservatives heads off and spreading lies about their opponents solely for the chance to run in a race to be elected to a political office. This has spread as a far as the executive committee races across the state as well and it is a disgrace. Maybe we need to do what one American town did and fire everyone candidates and incumbents alike find a few level headed farmers and let them take a crack at it. Best I recall a few of the best citizen politicians we have had were farmers.

What do you think?

Senator Tom Coburn (OK) on the Stimulus - Should make you MAD.

2010-07-25T10:06:00.002-05:00

"We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be standing on the Principles that made this country great. There ought to be a review of every Program in the Federal Government that is not effective, that is not Efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and we ought to get rid of it Right now. We ought to say, you're gone, to be able to pay for a real Stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.

I would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody that next week we are going To hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside Of this, they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the banking System. Still not fixing the real disease-the pneumonia-we are going to Treat the fever or treat the cough, but we are not going to treat the real Disease.

Until we treat the real disease, this is pure waste. It is worse than pure Waste. It is morally reprehensible, because it steals the future of the next Two generations.

I am going to wind up here and finish, but I wanted to spend some time to Make sure the American people know what is in this bill. I think once they Know what is in this bill, they would reject it out of hand.

Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this bill..

The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion in this Bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be great, maybe, If we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world sitting at MIT say we don't have the technology yet to do that. Why would we build a $2 Billion power plant we don't have the technology for that we know will come Back and ask for another $2 billion and another $2 billion and another $2 Billion when we could build a demonstration project that might cost $150 Million or $200 million? There is nothing wrong with having coal-fired Plants that don't produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington Post said the technology isn't there. It is a boondoggle. Why Would we do that?

We eliminated tonight a $246 million payback for the large movie studios in Hollywood .

We are going to spend 88 Million to study whether we ought to buy a new ice Breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what? The Coast Guard needs a new ice Breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now That they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to what they Needed to and not spend the $1 billion they are going to come back and ask For, for another ice breaker, so why would we spend $88 million doing that?

We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department of Homeland Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty buildings Right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we can't sell them, We can't raze them, we can't do anything, but we are going to spend money on A new building here in Washington .

We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture for that Building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What about the Furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now? These are tough Times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about using what we have? That Is what a family would do. They would use what they have. They wouldn't go Out and spend $248 million on furniture.

How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do you know what I Would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans have new cars Than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars we have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could do. Instead, we are going to spend $600 million buying new cars for Federal employees..

There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs .. I have a lot of experience on that. I have delivered 4,000 babies. We don't need to spend $400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate about the infection rates and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That doesn't take a penny more. You can write that on one piece of paper and teach every kid in this country, but we don't need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a
priority.

How about $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs? That might even be somewhat stimulative. New sewers. That might create jobs.

How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how that helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority. Would the average American think that is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging our kids' future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?

How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody knows, the census is So poorly managed that the census this year is going to cost twice-in 2010 is going to cost twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a contract because it was no-bid that didn't perform. Nobody got fired, no competitive bidding, and we blew $800 million.

We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which probably is a great idea, but we just passed a bill-the SCHIP bill-that we need to get 21 million more Americans smoking to be able to pay for that bill. That doesn't make sense.

How about $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges? Since when is a community college in my State a recipient of Federal Largesse? Is that our responsibility? I mean, did we talk with Dell and Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do better? Is there not a market force that could make that better?

Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid? No, because there is nothing that requires competitive bidding in anything in this bill. There is nothing that requires it. It is one of the things President Obama said he was going to mandate the Federal Government, but there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.

We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well, that will put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now?

There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green buildings. That is a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of Washington , a job that actually produces something, that actually increases wealth?

How about $500 million for State and local fire stations? Where do you find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within our realm of prerogatives? None of it is competitively bid - not a grant program.

Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that employ? What does that mean?

How about $88 million for renovating the public health service building? You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth of properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building requirement and backlog we have.

Then there's $412 million for CDC buildings and property. We spent billions on a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority? Building another Government building instead of - if we are going to spend $412 million on building buildings, let's build one that will produce something, one that will give us something.

How about $850 million for that most "efficient'' Amtrak that hasn't made any money since 1976 and continues to have $2 billion or $3 billion a year in subsidies?

Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new "security training'' facility for State Department security officers, and we have four other facilities already available to train them. But it is not theirs. They want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in West Virginia ... I wonder how that got there? So we are going to build a new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have that could easily do what we need to do. But because we have a stimulus package, we are going to add in oink pork.

How about $200 million in funding for a lease-not buying, but a lease of alternative energy vehicles on military installations?

We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all of the health programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out of the private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal Government. You talk about back dooring national health care. Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a single-payer Government-run health care system. We are going to move another $150 billion to the Federal Government from the
private sector.

We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small Business
Administration. You know what that does? That pushes productive capital to unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Then there is $160 million to the Job Corps Program-but not for 20 jobs and not to put more people in the Job Corps but to construct or repair buildings.

We are going to spend $524 million for information technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don't you love the efficiency of Washington thinking?

We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for the States, a "slush fund,'' to bail out States and provide millions of dollars for education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away? Once the State education programs get $79 billion over 2 years, do you think that will ever go away? The cry and hue of taking our money away - even though it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will never go away. So we will continue putting that forward until our kids have grand kids of their own.

There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs that are primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that. But we ought to get something for it. There ought to be metrics. There are no metrics. It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it.

Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our country. We will either start living within the confines of realism and responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the greatest Nation that ever lived. This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart of freedom in this country.

I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am doing everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope somebody is listening who will treat the pneumonia we are faced with today, which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn't matter how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless we fix that problem first. Failing that, we will go down in history as the Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this country.
Let it not be so."

Taxes - A poem

2010-07-25T06:11:00.000-05:00

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid...

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax..

Lets add up the taxes

2010-07-24T18:13:00.003-05:00

Below I have made a list of some taxes and I would like to see if you can add to the list. If you know of other taxes add them in the comments section. The next Monday I will repost with all of the additional taxes.

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

545 PEOPLE

2010-07-24T18:08:00.003-05:00

By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits..... The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power not to mention czars. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Candidate Compensation

2010-07-20T23:38:00.003-05:00

I find myself in the unique position of coming to the defense of 5th congressional candidate Jeff Hartline. Jeff has spent the last few weeks getting hammered by people over immigration, energy policy, legal issues, and most recently the salary he receives from his campaign. I agree that the majority of these issues need to be looked at and vetted in a constructive and professional manner. To a large degree that has not happened, The Hartline campaigned has been maligned by a lot of people who have no real interest in the truth only smear campaigns in an effort to knock him down the proverbial peg or two.

I want to address the issue of a candidate taking a salary from their campaign. While this tactic is relatively new it is not unheard of and it is not illegal. Many candidates that do not have the deep pockets of wealthy candidates must either work a secular job or receive monies from their campaigns. I asked the Hartline campaign why he was taking a salary and it was relayed to me like this “Jeff needs to focus solely on his race and he would not be able to do that worried about how he would pay the bills during the campaign.”

I, as a campaign manager would advise him to do the same thing. When someone commits to running they need to focus solely on running and not be worried about the income. I would advise an income that mirrors the previous year’s tax return. There have been questions about the amount ($4000 according to the campaign) that is being paid monthly. I questioned this to the campaign and I am told that that amount maintains prior years status and does not represent a pay boost for him.

Finally, I believe the majority of the uproar coming from other campaigns has to do with the fact that Jeff has been able to raise $250,000 and can afford to pay himself a salary. The other campaigns come nowhere near that figure.

I believe a candidate needs to be vetted on issues and any perceived shenanigans but this is not anything illegal or unethical and people need to go back to the issues at hand and stop slinging the mud.

NOTE: I am working to get Jeff on Political Straight Talk Radio to interview him.

5th Congressional Candidates Part 3

2010-07-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we discussed candidates that were mid level and today we discuss the front runners.

The top 2 by far in this race is Jeff Hartline and CeCe Heil. These 2 have vast differences but also have similarities in their campaigns. Their tactics and strategic moves have put them at the top of a crowded field if history is any teacher.

CeCe Heil is a very articulate and pleasant person to meet. She has a dedication to this race that many people who run for office do not possess or lose when they win. She has a history of Constitutional law which we desperately need (although she admits that she froze up in the debate when asked to list the enumerated powers). I do not believe that the freeze up is a reflection of how she would be when pressed in an emergency situation as a congressman.

Jeff Hartline is a very strong presence on the campaign trail. He presents himself in a way that is very in control (most times) and really wants to be the first republican to win the 5th district since prior to the Reconstruction. Jeff, like CeCe, has a group of dedicated family and volunteers who are at every function doing what needs to be done to win the vote.

Jeff also had a moment at the debate where, I am sure he wishes could be recalled and redone. During a give and take with another candidate Jeff did become irritated over his stated energy policy. This give and take was, according to the cadidate, a misunderstanding over the timeline of the policy (after researching it I have come to agree with the Hartline camp about a stated energy tax policy. It is not an increase in taxes.)

Both of the aforementioned candidates have come from obscurity to lead a pack of candidates that all have good intentions and all to some degree bring qualities to the race.

I mentioned in the last article that there are a few spoilers and a tea party surprise in the race. Let me break them down for you.

Bob Schwartz is a spoiler for Jeff Hartline. Bob appeals to the same voters as Jeff and the more he comes out swinging against Jeff the more Jeff has to defend himself over things. Bob knows he has nothing to lose and will do whatever it takes to knock Jeff out of the driver's seat.

David Hall, on the other hand, will pull from CeCe. David appeals to the more conservative evangelicals as does the Heil campaign. David does not have a lot of support but the voters he has are desperately needed by the Heil campaign.

Finally, there is what I have taken to calling the Tea Party Surprise and that is the Spivak Campaign. If you had asked me 4 weeks ago about this campaign I would have told you they had no shot at winning and to a degree they still do not BUT Lonnie Spivak can very well help determine who will win the race. For weeks, Lonnie has been courting the Tea Party people all across the country and his efforts paid off. Lonnie received Tea Party endorsements and grumblings through the political grapevine say others are coming in a matter of days that will help move Spivak into a spoiler's role. Lonnie will pull votes from all the candidates but the one who will be affected most is CeCe. CeCe is seen as a second choice to the Tea Party movement that has rallied around Lonnie's campaign.

Finally money plays in to all of this. Jeff is out raised his closest opponent almost 5 to 1. He has the money to take to the airwaves like no other candidate can. CeCe has a lot less money and it shows in the media buys that have been made but do not count them out because they are stronger in the new media arena than the Hartline campaign.

If this were a 2 man race and Jeff and CeCe were the candidates with all the same strategies and moves CeCe would win that race. But, as we all know this is not that race and given all that is going on with all the people and all the factions pulling votes it appears to me that the winner will be Jeff Hartline in a squeaker against CeCe Heil. Whoever wins will have a heck of a time against Cooper and will need the help of all the people who have worked to make this race of of the most contested in the State of Tennessee.

The above article will be made totally false if God has a different plan. In all things we need to serve Him and seek His will (I have to admit it is good when my predictions match His will.)

5th Congressional Candidates Part 2

2010-07-17T09:35:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we discussed those who need to go and today we discuss those who are the 2nd tier candidates and stand a chance to be spoilers but not winners.

There are 2 that can be considered spoilers.

The first spot goes to David Hall. Not because he is a viable candidate but because his whole family is running in the race and that alone can create a name recognition wave. The Hall campaign has a litany of problems ranging from 95% of their signs being placed illegally in Davidson County and taking illegal monies that had to be returned to no real contributions to the campaign and terrible radio and TV ads. David Hall refused to come to debates and in the last debate stated he was unable to attend because he met with volunteers; however his website showed nothing planned (calendar has since been removed). David has consistently shunned the debate process which leads me to believe he is unable and unqualified to lead the district. Mr. Hall would be a very easy target for the Cooper machine.... Hall is NOT a serious contender to beat Cooper but he is a potential spoiler for the front-runners (to be talked about tomorrow) in the sense that he will pull votes from one or the other of the leaders (I will reveal who I believe he will pull from tomorrow.)

Number 2 goes to Bob Schwartz. Bob is a viable candidate under different circumstances in a different race. He is not a viable federal office candidate at this time. He has no major financial network and no inroads to money after a primary. Early on Bob seemed to have a message and was sticking to it but in recent days and weeks appears to be the anyone but Hartline Express. Another race another time Bob is a good viable candidate. If he dropped out today the top 2 would not be affected BUT if he stays in he could very well cost a front-runner the race (will discuss specifically tomorrow).

Tomorrow we discuss the front-runners with a wild card thrown in.

5th Congressional Candidates

2010-07-16T20:46:00.009-05:00

The field for the 5th congressional seat is a very crowded field and it is time to whittle it down a bit. I have been asked about my assessment of the field of candidates and I will be doing this in three parts over 3 days.

This piece will be about those who need to go ahead and leave the race.

The first candidate that should leave the race is ViJay Qumar - ViJay is a good man and he has strong feelings about certain issues but he is in large a one - issue candidate. ViJay's stance on radical Islam makes him a favorite of conservatives but when you get past that he has a rather left leaning past. This is not to say he is a leftie simply that the past ties put him closer to the left than the right.

The second candidate who needs to hang his hat is Bob Ries. Bob is a delightful man and a very light-hearted candidate who successfully interjects humor in a sometimes dry political arena. Bob is 70 years young and presents himself well but he does not have a full grasp of the issues and his hearing has made for some situations where he has been way off the mark in his answers to questions (he admitted as much at the close of the debate.)

The third candidate that needs to hit the adios trail is Patrick Miranda. He comes across as a guy with a chip on his shoulder and has attacked many of the candidates in a negative way. Patrick, last night, appeared to be out of his league and very uncomfortable in his answers. Also Patrick has called for "mandates" and when asked about it he said he would get them enforced through "his position". This is not what we need as citizens. As a matter of fact, we need LESS mandates and more people who are dedicated. Finally, Patrick has taken this race so lightly he has done very little campaigning outside of Facebook. Whereas Facebook is an awesome tool it is not the sole way to campaign.

The fourth candidate that needs to retire from the race is Jarod Scott. Jarod lacks the passion and the vision, at this time, that the 5th district needs as we move forward. Jarod also needs to study the demographics of this district and be a student of conservatives and politics a few more years.

The fifth candidate that needs to drop out is Tracy Tarum. Tracey is by far the best candidate material on this list. He is green to the political scene BUT he is willing to learn and not compromise who he is. Tracy, last night in the debate had the best line (IMO) when he admitted he did not have an answer but would learn more about it. He has the integrity that we look for in candidates. Tracy does not have the momentum or the roots yet to win a political race of this magnitude but he does have the moxy to win a state level race in the near future. Tracy needs to leave this race but not politics. He will be a representative on the local or state level soon if he keeps at it.

Tomorrow - Mid Level candidates

Ron Ramsey is the guy to lead!!

2010-07-11T22:12:00.003-05:00

I have intentionally stayed out of the gubernatorial debate because of my own political clients and the type of work I do but it occurred to me that on my internet radio show I am always talking about standing up for something or falling for anything.

Today I am endorsing Ron Ramsey because he is the one who has the Tennessee Government knowledge to lead our state. He has proven time and time again that he can and will make the tough choices for Tennessee.

Ron Ramsey has the character and fortitude to be an upstanding and outstanding governor for our state.

Fabian

Stacey Campfield for State Senate

2010-06-21T12:00:00.004-05:00

In my second endorsement for the Tennessee State Senate in as many weeks I am endorsing State Representative Stacey Campfield for the District 7 seat being vacated by Sen. Tim Burchett (who is seeking the nomination for Knox Co. Mayor)

Stacey is a bit unorthodox in how he does his job but I have found in my years of observing him as a voter and as his friend that his methods work to get out the message and bring the appropriate light to the issues. These issues, when presented using the status quo, were swept under the rug and forgotten about. Enter Stacey - he knows the political climate and what his constituents want him to do and he does it.

I have been in his office as people stop by who need to see him and no matter how busy he is he always has time for the people of Tennessee. This time is given whether you voted for or against him during the election.

It is these many qualities that we need in the 7th Senate district and that is why I urge all of you to vote Stacey Campfield in the republican primary.

I am endorsing Susan Lynn

2010-06-18T06:27:00.000-05:00

In a move that is fairly uncommon for me, I am endorsing a candidate for the Tennessee Senate. District 17 has been under represented for some time now but Susan Lynn aims to change that problem. Susan's time in the state house has been a time of action and fighting for the individual rights of Tennesseans. She has a strong conservative record to stand on and that is what we need in Tennessee at this time.

I have had the honor and privilege of meeting Representative Lynn on many occasions and in many settings and I have come to a few conclusions;

1. She is a lady of class and distinction.

2. Her character is above reproach and that is why her opponent has to make up ludicrous accusations of people stealing her signs. The true issue for her opponent is not people stealing the signs but people either refusing to put them up or taking them down as her character becomes clearer through her silly antics towards Representative Lynn.

3. She has been a champion for a limited government.

Finally let me say that I have observed Rep. Lynn in session, at events, or doing constituent outreach and she has always been professional, courteous, and a resource for the voters of her House district, Senate District and all of the residents of Tennessee.

These are just a few of the reasons I am endorsing Representative Susan Lynn for the District 17 Senate Seat and I encourage all of you who reside there to give her the chance to truly REPRESENT YOUR interests.

Humane Society = Anti-pet?

2010-06-07T14:28:00.003-05:00

In an article run in the Citizen Tribune the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) alleges that the United States Humane Society only gives around 5% of monies raised to local shelters. A three year study showed that a measly 5% percent was given to local shelters.

I am no fan of the Humane Society of the United States because I believe they are full of hot air and provide very little assistance to the true workers and pet lovers the local societies that are in our counties. I also believe (it is backed up in the article) that the HSUS is an anti pet group who would love to see all pets roam wild and free with Farms put out of business in that area.

As usual these do-gooders do not realize the greater evil of realizing their goals. What happens when we release domesticated animals into the wild? Cows raoming free?

MORE SLAUGHTER.

I am not for the outright abuse of animals and would report it if I see it(which I have), but I do not think the HSUS has their hearts and minds on the animals they have it on the money and that is SAD.

Hello All

2010-06-07T14:21:00.001-05:00

I know I know been a while since I last posted here and I bet many of you thought I had given it up. Well nope. I have been helping several campaigns get up and running in preparation for the fall elections (or if you are a democrat - beatings.) In helping out the various campaigns the stuff I had been working on here have had to take a back seat.

I will begin posting again later today about the issues going on in our country (which are many.)

Thank you for your support and we will be straight talking with you SOON

Fabian

Esco takes a stand - For the law

2010-05-03T14:14:00.001-05:00

Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin had no other choice but to fire three deputies under his command. The Tennessee Civil Service Act does not allow deputies to serve, and run for a partisan political office at the same time.
Cheers to Sheriff Jarnagin; who endured an onslaught of misconstrued assumptions and negative press from media tabloid miscreants—who wrote that the deputies were “Fired for the Crime of seeking a higher Office."
Deputies that are running against the sheriff essentially become “adversaries” of their boss (the sheriff)-- and could easily be tempted to “overly investigate certain cases”, or “under-investigate certain cases” to further their political ambitions.
In addition to the possible conflict of interests, Sheriff Jarnagin was advised by the state attorney’s office that not letting the deputies go, could put the county at risk of not receiving federal grants for restrictions under the Hatch Act provisions.
Coverage under the Hatch Act is is fact dependent. People that are subject to the restrictions of the Hatch Act are employees of State, County, or Municipal agencies that perform jobs that are connected to programs that are financed in whole or in part by federal grants, and are candidates in partisan political elections.
There are certain federal funds that can pass through state agencies-- if it is money that originated from federal grants and received as a state grant--it is still considered a federal grant. This would include but not limited to grants for police cars, software, radios, courses for special training, salaries, and equipment. All enforceable Hatch Act advisory opinions are handed down from the Hatch Act Unit of the Office of Special Counsel. Anyone seeking an opinion, must present the specific facts of each case to the Office of Special Counsel.

FORMER HAMBLEN COUNTY DEPUTY SENTENCED TO 188 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

2010-05-03T13:33:00.002-05:00

Sheriff Esco Jarnigan cleaning his own house!!!

GREENEVILLE, Tenn--Dexter L. Morris, Jr., age 36, of Morristown, Tennessee, was sentenced to 188 months (15 years 8 months) in prison in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, United States District Judge.

As established by the proof at trial, Morris, while employed as a deputy sheriff with the Hamblen County Sheriff's Office, stopped a "J.L." the evening of August 24, 2005, detained her for over an hour and a half, and then directed her to a deserted cemetery where he raped her in the rear seat of his patrol car.

Less than one month later, on September 18, 2005, Morris, after arresting "N.E."on a misdemeanor probation violation warrant, took "N.E." into a side room at the Hamblen County jail, outside the view of security cameras, and compelled her to expose her breasts with the threat of additional charges and the loss of custody of her children.

Morris had been involved in misconduct two years earlier, in August 2003, when, while a jailer at the Hamblen County jail, he compelled a female inmate, "R.L.", to engage in sexual activity.

Finally, on the evening of September 25, 2005, Morris stopped a teenage girl, "T.W.", under the pretense that he suspected her of drunken driving. Morris engaged in inappropriate behavior, to include placing his hands in the girl's jeans pockets under the pretense of searching her, making suggestive remarks, and soliciting the girl to accompany him to a nearby deserted park.

Morris, when questioned by FBI special agents in April 2007, falsely claimed that he could not recall ever having sexual relations, to include consensual relations, with any woman he had encountered in a traffic stop.

After hearing four days of testimony, a jury, on June 8, 2009, found Morris guilty of all three counts of the indictment -Count 1, which charged a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242, deprivation of rights under color of law constituting aggravated sexual abuse, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment; Count 2, which charged a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242, deprivation of rights under color of law, with a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment; and Count 3, which charged a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, making a false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of a federal agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Greer rejected Morris’ claims that the sexual encounter was consensual and amounted to nothing more than adultery, stating that instead of holding a gun to the head of the victim Morris used his blue lights and badge. In imposing the non-parolable sentence of over fifteen years imprisonment, Judge Greer noted the effect that Morris’ criminal conduct had on the public’s trust in law enforcement officers. Judge Greer also cited the psychological harm to the victims in imposing the lengthy term of imprisonment.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Greer also imposed a five-year term of supervised release after Morris is released from prison.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Morris was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of Detective Lieutenant Mike Hayes and Sheriff Esco Jarnigan of the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Department. AUSA Neil Smith represented the United States.

The Dam Letter

2010-01-04T06:53:00.000-06:00

This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania This guy's response is hilarious, but read the State's letter before you get to the response letter.

SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

The dam in question

Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:

Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond.

A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity.

A review of the Department's files shows that no permits have been issued. Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.

The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2006 .

Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff.
Failure to comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action.
We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter.
Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division

Here is the actual response sent back by Mr. DeVries:

Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. Price,

Your certified letter dated 12/17/05 has been handed to me to respond to.
I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget Lane , Trout Run, Pennsylvania . A couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood "debris" dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful use of natures building materials "debris." I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic.

As to your request, I do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity.

My first dam question to you is:
(1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or
(2) do you require all beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request?

If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through the Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued. Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.

I have several concerns. My first concern is, aren't the beavers entitled to legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said representation -- so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department's dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event, causing flooding, is proof that this is a natural occurrence, which the department is required to protect. In other words, we should leave the Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling their dam names.

If you want the stream "restored" to a dam free-flow condition please contact the beavers -- but if you are going to arrest them, they obviously did not pay any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to read English.

In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water flows downstream. They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy Spring Pond. If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources (Beavers) and the environment (Beavers' Dams).

So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2006 ? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then, and there will be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them then.

In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental quality, health, problem in the area. It is the bears! Bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone.

If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! The bears are not careful where they dump!

Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.

RYAN DEVRIES & THE DAM BEAVERS

Sadly there is a grain of truth in this!

2010-01-03T20:52:00.002-06:00

In God I still Trust

2010-01-02T17:20:00.001-06:00

(Author's note: Over the past 2 years there have been trials and tribulations and I have made my share of mistakes but I tell you this I know God is there and by my side and in the end I and those around me will be vindicated. God Bless.)

Lt. Governor Wilder passes away.

2010-01-01T12:31:00.002-06:00

I had the honor of meeting Lt. Gov. Ramsey on several occasions. That is par for the course when you are a political hack such as I am. The most memorable came the day prior to his announcement that he would retire from the Tennessee Senate. This chance meeting happened with fellow hack David Oatney and what makes it so memorable is the fact that he was a man of class and dignity even with him knowing we actively work against his party.

I have to say that I am honored to have met him and he did many good things for our great state.

My condolences go out to the Wilder family.

To the true mothers

2009-12-19T19:44:00.000-06:00

2009-12-17T15:47:00.000-06:00

(Hat tip: Sandra and Sanford)

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me.
What in the world do leaping lords, French hens,
swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out
of the pear tree have to do with Christmas?

This week, I found out.

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were
not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone
during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning
plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each
element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember.
-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew , Mark, Luke & John.
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'
Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone

Semper Fi!

2009-12-17T15:44:00.001-06:00

(Hat tip: Sandra)

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 min. The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.'

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.

The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence.
The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?'

The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting American soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me.'

The classroom erupted in cheers!

This op ed sums it up for the GOP!

2009-12-14T14:07:00.001-06:00

The Republican Party is resurgent—or so goes the conventional wisdom. With its gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey, an energized "tea party" base, and an administration overreaching on health care, climate change and spending, 2010 could shape up to be 1994 all over again.

Maybe. The political landscape sure looks greener than it did a year ago, when talk of a permanent Democratic majority was omnipresent. But before John Boehner starts measuring the drapes in the Speaker's office, or the party exults about its possibilities in 2012, it's worth noting that some of the key trends driving President Barack Obama's strong victory in 2008 haven't disappeared. Republicans need to address them head-on if they want to lead a majority party again.

There are the depressing numbers on young voters (two-thirds of whom voted for Mr. Obama), African-Americans and Latinos (95% and 67% went blue respectively). But these groups have voted Democratic for decades, and their strong turnout in 2008's historic election wasn't replicated this fall, nor is it likely to be replicated again.

The voting patterns of the college-educated is another story. This is a group that, slowly but surely, is growing larger every year. About 30% of Americans 25 and older have at least a bachelor's degree; in 1988 that number was only 20% and in 1968 it was 10%.

As less-educated seniors pass away and better-educated 20- and 30-somethings take their place in the electorate, this bloc will exert growing influence. And here's the distressing news for the GOP: According to exit-poll data, a majority of college-educated voters (53%) pulled the lever for Mr. Obama in 2008—the first time a Democratic candidate has won this key segment since the 1970s.

View Full Image
petrilli
David Gothard
petrilli
petrilli

Some in the GOP see this trend as an opportunity rather than a problem. Let the Democrats have the Starbucks set, goes the thinking, and we'll grab working-class families. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, for instance, wants to embrace "Sam's Club" Republicans. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee pitched himself in 2008 as the guy who "looks like your co-worker, not your boss." Even Mitt Romney blasted "Eastern elites." And of course there's Sarah Palin, whose entire brand is anti-intellectual.

To be sure, playing to personal identity is hardly novel, nor is it crazy. Bill Bishop and other political analysts have noted that people's politics are as much about their lifestyle choices as their policy positions. Republicans live in exurbs and small towns, drive pick-up trucks or SUVs, go to church every Sunday, and listen to country music. Well-heeled Democrats live in cities and close-in suburbs, drive hybrids or Volvos, hang out at bookshops, and frequent farmers' markets. These are stereotypes, of course, but they also contain some truth.

Widening this cultural divide has long been part of the GOP playbook, going back to Nixon's attacks on "East Coast intellectuals" and forward to candidate Obama's arugula-eating tendencies. But with the white working class shrinking and the educated "creative class" growing, playing the populism card looks like a strategy of subtraction rather than addition. A more enlightened approach would be to go after college-educated voters, to make the GOP safe for smarties again.

What's needed is a full-fledged effort to cultivate "Whole Foods Republicans"—independent-minded voters who embrace a progressive lifestyle but not progressive politics. These highly-educated individuals appreciate diversity and would never tell racist or homophobic jokes; they like living in walkable urban environments; they believe in environmental stewardship, community service and a spirit of inclusion. And yes, many shop at Whole Foods, which has become a symbol of progressive affluence but is also a good example of the free enterprise system at work. (Not to mention that its founder is a well-known libertarian who took to these pages to excoriate ObamaCare as inimical to market principles.)

What makes these voters potential Republicans is that, lifestyle choices aside, they view big government with great suspicion. There's no law that someone who enjoys organic food, rides his bike to work, or wants a diverse school for his kids must also believe that the federal government should take over the health-care system or waste money on thousands of social programs with no evidence of effectiveness. Nor do highly educated people have to agree that a strong national defense is harmful to the cause of peace and international cooperation.

So how to woo these voters to the Republican column? The first step is to stop denigrating intelligence and education. President George W. Bush's bantering about being a "C" student may have enamored "the man in the street," but it surely discouraged more than a few "A" students from feeling like part of the team.

The same is true for Mrs. Palin's inability to name a single newspaper she reads. If the GOP doesn't want to be branded the "Party of Stupid," it could stand to nominate more people who can speak eloquently on complicated policy matters.

Even more important is the party's message on divisive social issues. When some Republicans use homophobic language, express thinly disguised contempt toward immigrants, or ridicule heartfelt concerns for the environment, they affront the values of the educated class. And they lose votes they otherwise ought to win.

The races in Virginia and New Jersey show what can happen when the GOP sticks to its core economic message instead of playing wedge politics. Both Republican candidates won majorities of college-educated voters. Their approach attracted Sam's Club Republicans and Whole Foods Republicans alike.

It's good news that America is becoming better educated, more inclusive, and more concerned about the environment. The Republican Party can either catch this wave, or watch its historic opportunity for "resurgence" wash away with the tides.

Mr. Petrilli is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a frequenter of the Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring, Md.

McClintock!

2009-12-08T21:38:00.001-06:00

What a wonderful movie (and I am no big western man but this movie is awesome.)

2009-12-03T08:31:00.003-06:00

As promised in an earlier post here is the petition for people to sign saying they want the fairgrounds left intact. I encourage all of you who want to save a piece of history and heritage to sign on to this (Nashville and Davidson County Voters.) It is by our voices that we can stop the sale of this family oriented property. If you have any questions you may call me at 615-732-5651

Petition to Retain Tennessee State Fair Grounds

Mayor Dean oversteps the Metro Charter

2009-12-03T08:25:00.002-06:00

Seems that Mayor Dean of Nashville may have prematurely spoke on trying to sell the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. It would appear that the very charter he uses as a power grab is the same charter that restricts the uses of the Fairgrounds property.

Here is a summary of the charter as it relates to the Fair:

In his 1909 “State of the State” address, Governor Patterson stated, “I call your attention to the proposition for an agricultural fair to be established at Nashville as a permanent State institution; and, in my opinion, this should meet with your approbation.”

February 3, 1909 – Senate Bill No. 46 – Chapter 42

Sect. 1 -- This act authorizes Davidson County to issue bonds not to exceed the amount of $150,000 and outlines the attendant details of said bond issue.
This section also directs that “Said bonds or their proceeds shall be used and appropriated for the purpose of purchasing suitable property in Davidson County, upon which there shall be established and maintained permanently a State Fair, showing the agricultural mineral, and other resources, the commercial and industrial development, the educational interests, etc., of Davidson County, and the State of Tennessee.” [emphasis added]
It also provides for Davidson County to lease the purchased property to the State of Tennessee for the purposes set forth above.

Sect. 2 – Gives authority to Davidson County to levy and collect taxes for the purpose of paying the bonds authorized in Sect. 1 and to pay the interest on such bonds.

Sect. 3 – Provides the structure for the public vote on the bond issue.

Sect. 4 – Makes the act effective immediately.

May 1, 1909 – Acts of 1909, Chapter 490

This general law established the Board of Fair Trustees of the State of Tennessee. Sections 2 and 7 directly pertain to Davidson County.
Sect. 2. That the said Board of Fair Trustees is hereby invested with the power, authority, and duty to take complete charge and control, in behalf of the State of Tennessee, of any property which may hereafter be purchased by Davidson County and conveyed or leased by Davidson County to the State of Tennessee for the holding thereon of a State Fair, and they shall use and maintain said property by holding thereon at least once a year for not less than six days a fair or exposition for the benefit of the people of Tennessee, at which shall be exhibited, as far as possible, the resources and developments of the State of Tennessee and the progress of its people in all kinds of enterprise and endeavor. ...
Sect. 7. That should any property be conveyed or leased by Davidson County to the State of Tennessee as aforesaid, for the purpose of holding thereon said annual fairs, the said Board of Fair Trustees shall use and maintain said property for the purpose set forth in this Act, and should said property, without good and sufficient cause, such as bad weather, fire, storm, pestilence war, etc. cease to be used for the purpose herein set forth for a period of two years, beginning with the last day of any annual fair, then and in that event said property, with all fixtures thereon, shall revert back to and become the absolute property of the donor or conveyor, and all right, title, and interest whatever in said property which shall have been acquired by the State of Tennessee shall become null, void, and extinguished. This provision shall constitute a condition of the acceptance and use of said property by the State of Tennessee. In this manner and upon this condition the State of Tennessee through its said Board of Fair Trustees, shall accept and use such property as may be conveyed, leased, or otherwise tendered to the State of Tennessee by Davidson County for the purpose of holding thereon an annual State Fair; ...

September, 1911-- At approximately this period, the current state fairgrounds were purchased by Davidson County and a lease was signed by the State of Tennessee to lease the aforementioned fairgrounds property from Davidson County for a period of 99 years for the purpose of holding a state fair. There is apparently no surviving copy of this lease, as a search by both the State Archives Department and the State Attorney General have failed to turn up the document.

April 8, 1921 – Chapter 168, Senate Bill No. 1020 – “An Act to amend Chapter 490 of the Acts of Tennessee of the year 1909, etc.”
This act basically repealed Section 1 of the above chapter and established new criteria for the Board of Fair Trustees for the State of Tennessee. It also authorized the State to break the lease from Davidson County on the fairgrounds property and execute a new lease.

March 28, 1923 - Chapter 515* – House Bill No. 1005

Sect. 1 – Authorizes divisional fairs in counties meeting the population criteria listed.

Sect. 2 – Establishes the Board of Fair Commissioners in such counties and the criteria for their selection and terms.

Sect. 3 – Provides that the Board of Fair Commissioners “shall have full power to prescribe rules and regulations for its own government and organization, and for the holding of said fairs and expositions, and shall elect officers for the fairs, and shall choose whatever employes(sic) it may deem necessary and fix their compensation; …

Sect. 5 – Establishes quarterly reports for the fair board and opens its accounts “to inspection and examination by the County Auditor…”

Sect. 6 – Requires a $5,000 bond be executed by the board Secretary.

Sect. 7 – Requires the fair board to install an accounting system as directed by the county.

Sect 8 – Authorizes the County Court to levy a “Fair Tax” for the benefit of the fair operations. It further states that “Said Board shall have control of the disbursement of all funds collected by taxation, received from the State of Tennessee, or collected from gate receipts, concessions, or leases of the said fair property for educational or amusement purposes, for the operation, maintenance or improvement of the fair property.”

Sect. 9 – Authorizes the board to co-operate with the State Division of Fairs on all matters, but requires County Court Approval of any expenditure of funds beyond that raised by the tax levy.

Sect. 10 – Gives the fair Board the authority to enter into negotiations with the Commissioner of Agriculture for dissolving any outstanding leases with the State of Tennessee, “and to take complete charge and control on behalf of such counties, and they shall use and maintain such property by holding thereon, at least once a year, for not less than six days, a fair or exposition for the benefit of the people of such counties, and they may lease for amusement purposes said property at such times and in such ways as not to interfere with the operation of said fair, the proceeds received from said leases to be used in the maintenance of said fair, at which shall be exhibited, as far as possible, the resource of said county and the State of Tennessee…”

Sec. 11 – Authorizes the Board to offer special incentives for the promotion of the fair.

Sect. 12 – Declares the act effective immediately upon passage.

March 30, 1923 -- Chapter 111, House Bill No. 1008
This legislation repeals Chapter 490 and Chapter 168 in their entirety.

March 30, 1923 – Chapter 112, House Bill No. 1007
This legislation authorizes the Commissioner of Agriculture to completely cancel the prior lease of the fairgrounds property by the state, surrender the property, and make financial settlement with Davidson County.

NOTE: The 99-year lease was apparently in fact cancelled at approximately this time. Although no copy of any official document exists, the cancellation is referenced in other official documents.

March 19, 1925 – House Bill No. 526
Amends Chapter 515, Section 8 to give the Fair Board the authority to mortgage the fairgrounds property to raise funds for “fair purposes”; and to purchase additional property for the fairgrounds, such property to be deeded in the name of Davidson County.

March 30, 1927 – House Bill No. 203
Amends Chapter 515, Section 8

February 4, 1931 – House Bill No. 371
Amends Chapter 515, Section 8 with new criteria for the makeup and selection of the Fair Board and further amends Section 3 to allow free passes for the County Court, the Governor, the Commissioner of Agriculture, and the Mayor of Nashville.

*Both Act 490 and Act 515 are incorporated by reference into the Metro Charter, and Act 515 appears word-for-word as part of the charter.

Saving the State Fair

2009-12-01T16:25:00.004-06:00

In early October we heard that Nashville Mayor Karl Dean was unilaterally going to cease operations at the Tennessee State Fair in June of 2010. This led to a huge outcry from residents, elected officials, businesses, and vendors. A letter was sent to the Mayor requesting more time in order to fulfill the obligations currently contracted on the Fairgrounds. The Mayor agreed and the grounds will operate through the month of December 2010.

I am a little disappointed with the mayor and his advisers (he needs to demand a refund for faulty consulting) for failing to look at all the options regarding the keeping of the State Fair.)

There have been reports that Fair Director Buck Dozier presented a proposal to update the facilities and make the area more user friendly. Anyone who attended the 2009 Fair would know that he is well on his way to creating an optimal operation that is location, vendor, shopper, and family friendly.

I have pondered what can be done to save the grounds and what we as voters can do and our voices are what will make the difference in this matter. We, as tax-paying voters own the property not the government. Our will should be done and not that of one man.

In the next days I will be posting a petition to present to the mayor to tell him we want a fair and expo center and I urge all of you to get involved in this matter.

No No No NObama

2009-11-23T12:48:00.001-06:00

This helps prove the bias of CNN.

2009-11-17T08:01:00.002-06:00

Our Jobless Recovery

2009-11-06T08:07:00.003-06:00

It seems to me that the Obama administration would have you believe that our economic woes are over and the great Barack is large and in charge - healthcare for all, emissions cutbacks, and an overall happy populous. Well not exactly. The jobless rate is 10%, the healthcare bill will leave many people in a lurch by not covering those with pre-existing conditions for six months, The White House induces an H1N1 scare, and yet they still want to spout all the greatness they are doing - Change we can believe in? I THINK NOT.

To Change or not to change - The Climate

2009-11-04T06:15:00.000-06:00

Personally I believe that global warming is not man made at up but instead a series of natural occurrences that have been taking places in cycles over the centuries. I am going to put in a video of President Obama talking about the Copenhagen Treaty Summit as well as an expert who believes as I do on global warming. Browse a copy of the draft treaty and you will be amazed.

Calling the New Jersey Race

2009-11-03T21:13:00.003-06:00

As I predicted earlier it looks as if Republican Chris Christie will win the Governor's mansion in the state of New Jersey. I go back to my earlier comments that the White House should take heed that they and their agenda is in trouble. Republicans need to work together and unite the many factions of conservatives (72% of the country see themselves as conservative) and then we can send all of the liberals including the White House occupants packing before they give away our sovereignty and the country to socialist interests.

What's funny is the 2-stepping.

2009-11-03T19:36:00.004-06:00

The polls have barely closed in Virginia and New Jersey and already the spin masters are out in force for the democratic party. The white House is saying the loss of 2 Governors' seats as well as a loss in the New York 23rd in no surprise to them and it does not show the mood of the country. I beg to differ with them on this matter.

The California 10th is a race that has gone unnoticed by the politicos. Why? Because showing a potential loss of a seat in strong democrat territory would show that Obama (the teflon Don) would be in major trouble.

The Wall Street Journal has a history of getting the issues right and in an article written last Tuesday they open the door to the notion of a republican taking the seat.

The only question that remains is is this change we can believe in? The answer is coming soon.

Cap and Trade is Green Garbage!!

2009-11-03T16:07:00.000-06:00

Sen. Barbara Boxer is trying to pull a fast one!

She wants to force her outrageous Boxer-Kerry cap-and-trade energy rationing and taxing scheme through the Senate Environment and Public Workers Committee this week, while the country is focused on health care. Sen. Boxer is even trying to force it through without the official EPA analysis of what's in the bill and how much it will cost.

It's bad enough to try to pass the biggest tax hike in history, hidden in what's supposed to be an environmental bill. But slamming it through a committee when it hasn't even been analyzed by the EPA is wrong. The public has a right to know what's in the bill and what the EPA thinks it will cost.

Committee votes matter, because once a senator supports something in committee it's very hard for them to change their mind on later votes. That makes it even more outrageous that the first votes could be cast while much of the bill-and its sky-high costs for regular Americans-remain secret.

I'm emailing you because our system indicates that one of your senators is on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (full list below).

Please enter your information in the box provided above to get your Senator's contact information.

Tell them no mark-up without a full EPA analysis, and that even with everything else going on, you know how important cap-and-trade is and you are paying attention.

Thanks.

Senate Majority Committee Members
Barbara Boxer (Chairman)
Max Baucus
Thomas R. Carper
Frank R. Lautenberg
Benjamin L. Cardin
Bernard Sanders
Amy Klobuchar
Sheldon Whitehouse
Tom Udall
Jeff Merkley
Kirsten Gillibrand
Arlen Specter

Senate Minority Committee Members
James M. Inhofe
George V. Voinovich
David Vitter
John Barrasso
Mike Crapo
Christopher S. Bond
Lamar Alexander

If one of your senators is on the list, please enter your information in the box above and tell your senator not to vote until we know how much cap-and-trade will cost.

Thanks for all you do,

Phil Kerpen
Director of Policy

Americans for Prosperity
2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 350
Arlington, Virginia 22201

Office: 703-224-3200
Cell: 202-285-9714
Fax: 202-478-0343

Twitter: http://twitter.com/kerpen
Facebook: http://facebook.com/PhilKerpen
Podcast: http://kerpen.hipcast.com/rss/kerpencast.xml

Democrats plan to take credit or distance for tonights election results.

2009-11-03T09:04:00.002-06:00

In what has become customary for democrats they are preparing to declare victory or create distance over tonight's election results.

Democrats know they are in major trouble today as voters go to the polls so they want to create spin no matter which way it goes today. The numbers appear to favor republicans in Virginia with New Jersey very close in margin (republican leads by a few points in all major polls.

What appears to be most telling in all of the analysis of today's vote is the ineffectiveness of Obama's coattails so soon after his landslide victory.

Remember last year I kept telling people that change we can believe in may not necessarily be a good thing and looks like I am being vindicated in my thought process.

My predictions for the evening:

Republicans take the 2 governors mansions up for grabs and the up-state New York congressional seat.

The truth shall set you free

2009-11-03T06:42:00.000-06:00

THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.

At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet. Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.

The nails were driven into His wrist. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breath.

Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.

Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding.

He was simply pouring water from his wounds.

From common images we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side. But do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even large nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. But before the nails and the spear Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.

He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds.
The human adult body contains about 3.5 litres (just less than a gallon) of blood.

Jesus poured all 3.5 litres of his blood; He had three nails hammered into his members; a crown of thorns on his head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into his chest.

All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying his own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where his hands were nailed).

Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you can have free access to God.
So that your sins could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation. JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU! For you, who now read this e-mail. Do not believe that He only died for others (those who go to church or for pastors, bishops, etc).

He died for you! It is easy to pass jokes or foolish photos by e-mail, but when it comes to God, sometimes you feel ashamed to forward to others because you are worried of what they may think about you.

Accept the reality, the truth that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.

God has plans for you, show all your friends what He experienced to save you. Now think about this! May God bless your life!

60 seconds with God...

For the next 60 seconds, set aside what you're doing and take this opportunity! Let's see if Satan can stop this.

All you have to do is:
1. Simply pray for the person who sent this message to you: Lord, you know the life of _________. I ask You to bless him/her in all things and make him/her prosperous. Take care of his/her family, his/her health, his/her work and all his/her future plans. Lead him/her not into temptation, but deliver him/her from evil. In Jesus' name, amen.
2.Then, send this message to 10 people.
3.10 people will pray for you and you will make that many people pray to God for other people.
4. Take a moment to appreciate the power of God in your life, for doing what pleases Him.
Follow Jesus' instructions. He said (Matthew 10:32 & 33): "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whosoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven".

Yes, I love God. He is my source of life and my savior. He keeps me alive day and night. Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me". Philippians 4:13.

Wish we had a president such as this one!

2009-11-02T22:48:00.001-06:00

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Australia
Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques.

Quote: 'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.'

'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the Language!'

'Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.'

'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'

'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.'

'If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.'
Maybe if we circulate this , American citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths.

Bill Cosby Speaks

2009-11-02T22:38:00.001-06:00

(Author's note: I love Cosby and would vote for him. Hat Tip: Sandra)

His words:

I HAVE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IN THE YEAR 2012.. HERE IS MY PLATFORM:

(1). Any use of the phrase: 'Press 1 for English' is immediately BANNED!!!. English is the official language; speak it or wait outside of our borders until you can.

(2). We will immediately go into a two year isolationist attitude in order to straighten out the greedy big business posture in this country. America will allow NO imports, and we'll do no exports. We will use the 'Wal-Mart 's policy, 'If we ain't got it, you don't need it.' We'll make it here and sell it here!

(3). When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it coming in here.

(4). All retired military personnel will be required to man one of the many observation towers located on the southern border of the United States (six month tour). They will be under strict orders not to fire on SOUTHBOUND aliens.

(5). Social Security will immediately return to its original state. If you didn't put nuttin in, you AIN'T gettin nuttin out. Neither the President nor any other politician will be able to touch it.

(6). Welfare. -- Checks will be handed out on Fridays, at the end of the 40 hour school week, the successful completion of a urinalysis test for drugs, and passing grades.

(7). Professional Athletes -- Steroids? The FIRST time you check positive you're banned from sports ... for life.

(8). Crime -- We will adopt the Turkish method, i.e., the first time you steal, you lose your right hand. There is no more 'life sentences'. If convicted of murder, you will be put to death by the same method you chose for the victim you killed: gun, knife, strangulation, etc.

(9). One export of ours will be allowed: wheat; because the world needs to eat. However, a bushel of wheat will be the EXACT price of a barrel of oil.

(10). All foreign aid, using American taxpayer money, will immediately cease and the saved money will help to pay off the national debt and, ultimately, lower taxes. When disasters occur around the world, we'll ask The American People if they want to donate to a disaster fund, and each citizen can make the decision as to whether, or not, it's a worthy cause.

(11). The Pledge of Allegiance will be said EVERY day at school and every day in CONGRESS.

(12). The National Anthem will be played at all appropriate ceremonies, sporting events, outings, etc.

My apology is offered if I've stepped on anyone's toes .... nevertheless....

GOD BLESS AMERICA !

I love Harry Truman

2009-10-15T21:54:00.001-05:00

(Hat Tip: Sandra)

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many important, crucial decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife, Bess, had inherited the house from her mother and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his own postage stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. No Secret Service guards accompanied them.
When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."
Once, during a White House interview held in his famous personal flower/vegetable garden, the interviewer asked him how he got such beautiful, huge vegetables. He answered that he used a lot of water & manure. The interviewer cut the interview at that point, and he asked President Truman if he could use an alternate word other than “manure”. Beth quickly chimed in that it had taken her 35 years to get him to say “manure”. My kind of straight talker!

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. (Sic. Illinois).
Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!”

Is this discrimination?

2009-10-15T21:51:00.004-05:00

Author's note: The following Fox News article highlights the issues with the hate crime bill currently becoming a new law. This Justice of the Peace was simply following what HE believed to be right and now he most likely will face charges as a result of it. The ACLU is putting their racist hate mongering hands in it as well like they have any room to talk about hate and bigotry. Sounds to me like this couple is more worried about a little face time and their 15 minutes instead of getting married. It is a Justice's prerogative who he will and will not marry just as it is a minister's whom he will wed. I have never been faced with this particular quandary but I have refused to marry certain people even though they met all of Tennessee's criteria.)

HAMMOND, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.

Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

"That was one thing that made this so unbelievable," she said. "It's not something you expect in this day and age."

Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.

"We are looking forward to having children," Humphrey said. "And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we're typical happy newlyweds."

"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. "The Supreme Court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."

The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending "the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice."

"He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it," Schwartzmann said.

According to the clerk of court's office, application for a marriage license must be made three days before the ceremony because there is a 72-hour waiting period. The applicants are asked if they have previously been married. If so, they must show how the marriage ended, such as divorce.

Other than that, all they need is a birth certificate and Social Security card.

The license fee is $35, and the license must be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge. The original is returned to the clerk's office.

"I've been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don't think I've mistreated anybody," Bardwell said. "I've made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn't tell this couple they couldn't get married. I just told them I wouldn't do it."

True Social Security Reform!

2009-10-14T22:27:00.002-05:00

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. .....

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age; will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. ZIP!! NADA!!! ZILCH!!!

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds; "OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer ), We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. . Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us.

Then sit back.....

And see how fast they would fix it!

The Hate Crimes bill will outlaw free thinking!

2009-10-14T22:16:00.003-05:00

(Author's Note: It truly is a sad day when we have to legislate what is hate. I see this bill as yet another infringement of free thinking individualism. The bill in the form it has taken is very very bad for out nation and Christianity and any other religious group that speaks out.)

"I can announce after more than a decade, this (hate crimes) bill is set to pass and I will sign it into law."

The president spoke these words last Saturday night to the largest homosexual advocacy organization in the country.
As even the president acknowledges, with your help we have successfully beaten back attempts to pass so-called "hate crimes" legislation since the 1990s.
However, as the president points out, this legislation is now closer to becoming law than it ever has been.
The House passed this bill last Thursday, and our last chance to stop this dangerous bill is when your senators vote on it this week.
Here's what wrong with the "hate crimes" bill:

• It criminalizes thought. For the first time in American history, criminal penalties are being attached to thoughts, not actions. Perpetrators will receive extra punishment not for what they did but for what they were thinking when they did it.

• It endangers freedom of religion and speech. Everywhere in the world "hate crimes" laws have gone into effect, they have quickly been used to harass, intimidate, silence and punish people of faith. Your pastor could go to jail if even a tenuous link could be established between a sermon on homosexuality and some act of violence.

• It destroys the American principle of equality under the law. It creates a judicial caste system, in which some victims get more legal protection than others. It actively discriminates against heterosexuals by giving them less protection in law than victims who engage in non-normative sexual behaviors.

• In a devious maneuver by Democrats, it's attached to a Defense Appropriations bill. Our military deserves a stand-alone vote on funding.

Tim Huthison to run for Knox County Mayor?

2009-10-14T21:56:00.004-05:00

In an apparent move to run for Knox County Mayor former sheriff Tim Hutchison filed to name a campaign treasurer.

As a former knox county resident I can say that this is what the county needs in order to shed light on what the [G]agsdales administration has done. Tim H. has proven he will do what is right no matter who or what gets in the way. I watched as he was sheriff and was always delighted in how he handled his political rivals.

Tim H. is a master politician who takes the people who want to play politics and beats them at their own game.

Now many of you may know that I have supported Tim Burchett in his senate seat. I now have to withdraw that support as he runs for this office because of his alignment with Mike Ragsdale in more ways than professional means. I believe Tim B. will be more of the same cover ups and disgraces we have seen too many times in recent years.

Fabian

Our privacy evaporates

2009-10-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

(Author's note: Like many of you I want to see crooks and criminals off of the street. I do not however want to see law abiding citizens give up the very rights we have spent 200 plus years defending.)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver's license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes.

The project in North Carolina has already helped nab at least one suspect. Agents are eager to look for more criminals and possibly to expand the effort nationwide. But privacy advocates worry that the method allows authorities to track people who have done nothing wrong.

"Everybody's participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver's license," said Christopher Calabrese, an attorney who focuses on privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Earlier this year, investigators learned that a double-homicide suspect named Rodolfo Corrales had moved to North Carolina. The FBI took a 1991 booking photo from California and compared it with 30 million photos stored by the motor vehicle agency in Raleigh.

In seconds, the search returned dozens of drivers who resembled Corrales, and an FBI analyst reviewed a gallery of images before zeroing in on a man who called himself Jose Solis.

A week later, after corroborating Corrales' identity, agents arrested him in High Point, southwest of Greensboro, where they believe he had built a new life under the assumed name. Corrales is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles later this month.

We honor our police officers

2009-05-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

Today, May 15th, is Police Memorial Day. I would like to ask you to
join me in a prayer for these men and women who have dedicated their
lives to the protection of our communities.

May 15th is only one of two days per year that the law requires that
the U.S. flag be lowered to 1/2 mast in honor of those officers who have
given their lives in the line of duty.

We honor our troops through out the world who fight for our freedom
and mourn their losses. They are keeping this country safe from foreign
peoples who would like to do us harm.

Yet, we hear little of the fight our officers are engaged in. It is
here, on our streets, in our communities. Our officers give their lives
to keep us safe here, at home, on our own streets, in our own
communities. On average, one police officer dies every 50 hours in the
line of duty. Giving thier lives to protect us. This does not include
accidents and suicides. ( Which are on the rise in alarming numbers
amoung police officers.)

These men and women will never have "Veteran Status", nor are there
federal programs to recognize them with the exception of the "Police
Officer's Memorial Wall" in Washington D.C. and a dedicated group
C.O.P.S. (Concerns for police survivors")

Please join me in honoring these men and women who fight to keep us
safe here at home. Please, do not wait until they die , to show them our
support. Please join me in prayer for those who have given their all
and for the ones they left behind.

Thank you!!

WHO IS JACK SCHITT?

2009-04-11T17:02:00.000-05:00

For some time many of us have wondered just who is Jack Schitt?

We find ourselves at a loss when someone says, 'You don't know Jack Schitt!' Well, thanks to my genealogy efforts, you can now respond in an intellectual way.

Jack Schitt is the only son of Awe Schitt. Awe Schitt, the fertilizer magnate, married O. Schitt, the owner of Needeep N. Schitt, Inc. They had one son, Jack.

In turn, Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt. The deeply religious couple produced six children: Holie Schitt, Giva Schitt, Fulla Schitt, Bull Schitt, and the twins Deep Schitt and Dip Schitt.

Against her parents' objections, Deep Schitt married Dumb Schitt, a high school dropout. After being married 15 years, Jack and Noe Schitt divorced. Noe Schitt later married Ted Sherlock, and because her kids were living with them, she wanted to keep her previous name. She was then known as Noe Schitt Sherlock.

Meanwhile, Dip Schitt married Loda Schitt, and they produced a son with a rather nervous disposition named Chicken Schitt. Two of the other six children, Fulla Schitt and Giva Schitt, were inseparable throughout childhood and subsequently married the Happens brothers in a dual ceremony. The wedding announcement in the newspaper announced the Schitt-Happens nuptials. The Schitt-Happens children were Dawg, Byrd, and Horse.

Bull Schitt, the prodigal son, left home to tour the world. He recently returned from Italy with his new Italian bride, Pisa Schitt.

Now when someone says, 'You don't know Jack Schitt,' you can correct them.

Sincerely,
Crock O. Schitt

From the mouth of Juan

2009-04-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

Below is a good example of a discussion with a master of circular logic. Don't be logical, don't respect the truth or your adversary, just say what you think makes a new case when the previous case gets too difficult to defend. On the streets of downtown Houston , May 1, 2007.

Jim Moore reporting for a Houston TV station:

Jim: Juan, I see that you and thousands of other protesters are marching in the streets to demonstrate for your cause. Exactly what is your cause and what do you expect to accomplish by this protest?

Juan: We want our rights. We will show you how powerful we are. We will bring Houston to its knees!

Jim: What rights?

Juan: Our right to live here...legally. Our right to get all the benefits you get.

Jim: When did you come to the United States ?

Juan: Six years ago. I crossed over the border at night with seven other friends.

Jim: Why did you come?

Juan: For work. I can earn as much in a month as I could in a year in Mexico . Besides, I get free health care, our Mexican children can go to school free, if I lose my job I will get Welfare, and someday I will have the Social Security. Nothing like that in Mexico !

Jim: Did you feel badly about breaking our immigration laws when you came?

Juan: No! Why should I feel bad? I have a right to be here. I have a right to amnesty. I paid lots of money for my Social Security and Green Cards.

Jim: How did you acquire those documents?

Juan: From a guy in Dallas . He charged me a lot of money too.

Jim: Did you know that those documents were forged?

Juan: It is of no matter. I have a right to be here and work.

Jim: What is the "right" you speak of?

Juan: The right of all Aliens. It is found in your Constitution. Read it!

Jim: I have read it, but I do not remember it saying anything about rights for Aliens.

Juan: It is in that part where it says that all men have Alien rights, like the right to pursue happiness. I wasn't happy in Mexico, so I came here.

Jim: I think you are referring to the declaration of Independence and that document speaks to unalienable rights .. Not Alien rights.

Juan: Whatever.

Jim: Since you are demanding to become an American citizen, why then are you carrying a Mexican Flag?

Juan: Because I am Mexican.

Jim: But you said you want to be given amnesty ... to become a US citizen.

Juan: No. This is not what we want. This is our country, a part of Mexico that you Gringos stole from us. We want it returned to its rightful owner.

Jim: Juan, you are standing in Texas . After wining the war with Mexico, Texas became a Republic, and later Texans voted to join the USA. It was not stolen from Mexico .

Juan: That is a Gringo lie. Texas was stolen. So was California , New Mexico and Arizona . It is just like all the other stuff you Gringos steal, like oil and babies. You are a country of thieves.

Jim: Babies? You think we steal babies?

Juan: Sure. Like from Korea and Vietnam and China . I see them all over the place. You let all these foreigners in, but try to keep us Mexicans out. How is this fair?

Jim: So, you really don't want to become an American citizen then.

Juan: I just want my rights! Everyone has a right to live, work, and speak their native language wherever and whenever they please. That's another thing we demand. All signs and official documents should be in Spanish. Teachers must teach in Spanish. Soon, more people here in Houston will speak Spanish than English. It is our right!

Jim: If I were to cross over the border into Mexico without proper documentation, what rights would I have there?

Juan: None. You would probably go to jail, but that's different.

Jim: How is it different? You said everyone has the right to live wherever they please.

Juan: You Gringos are a bunch of land grabbing thieves. Now you want Mexico too? Mexico has its rights. You Gringos have no rights in Mexico. Why would you want to go there anyway? There is no free medical service, schools, or welfare there for foreigners such as you. You cannot even own land in my country. Stay in the country of your birth.

Jim: I can see that there is no way that we can agree on this issue. Thank you for your comments.

Juan: Viva Mexico !

Pass this along to every American citizen in your address books and to every representative in the state and federal government. If you choose to remain uninvolved, do not be amazed when you no longer have a nation to call your own nor anything you have worked for left since it will be "redistributed" to the activists while you are so peacefully staying out of the "fray".

Check history, it is full of nations/empires that disappeared when its citizens no longer held their core beliefs and values. One person CAN make a difference. One plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one........

The battle for our secure borders and immigration laws that actually mean something, however, hasn't even begun.

Sick Pervert tapes teens in home!

2009-04-09T08:50:00.000-05:00

(This guy is a real scumbag and I encourage anyone who has knowledge of his terrible acts to call police and we need to put him in prison and hope for a little prison justice.)

UPDATE: NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A former neighbor of a Nashville man charged with producing child pornography says she's not surprised of his arrest.

Louis J. Levine was taken into Tuesday morning after detectives said he has been giving teenagers drugs and alcohol and secretly videotaping them having sex in his home for the last 30 years.

Michelle Nowell remembers first meeting the Levine family in 2000.

New to Belle Meade area, neighbors suggested she go to the Levine's house on Alton Road on Halloween.

"We put our two boys, who were four and two in a red wagon," she recalled. "We pulled them over there and went trick-or-treating."

Nowell said when they returned home she found more than just candy in her son's bag.

"My four-year-old dumps the bag on the floor and the first thing he sees is two women," she said, adding it was a pornographic magazine. "The kind of filth and pornography he was distributing was just that, it was filth."

Nowell said she confronted Levine and his father, Morris, who was still living at the home, and called police who investigated her complaint.

It was determined there was nothing criminal about it.

According to Nowell, the magazines were supposed to be passed out to kids' parents in what the Levine's called "Daddy Bags."

"It was someone's dirty little secret, but it was okay, this one time of year," she said.

Nowell said she always felt something more was going on behind the walls of home and said when she learned of Louis Levine's arrest, she wasn't surprised.

"I was angry and it was one of those, I told you so things," she added.

Levine, 52, worked as a science teacher for Murfreesboro City Schools and also as a substitute teacher in Nashville.

Investigators said he also had ties to the Cumberland Science Museum and worked at youth camps in both Davidson and Williamson counties.

Police began their investigation last month after receiving information from a concerned.

During a search of Levine's home, investigators found an elaborate network of computers, monitors and cables inside his padlocked bedroom, allegedly set up to videotape sex acts.

As many as 400 tapes and DVDs were recovered from the home.

Authorities are interviewing students who may have had contact with Levine over the last 30 years.

Present day teens, as well as alleged victims who were teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s, have provided similar information in regard to sex and drug activity at Levine's home.

Metro police said Levine has been estranged from his wife for years and after his parents died, lived in the house alone.

News 2 has learned Levine's wife filed for divorce last Thursday.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A teacher with ties to two Middle Tennessee school districts faces federal charges after authorities said he has been secretly taping teenagers having sex in his house over the past 30 years.

Authorities arrested Louis J. Levine Tuesday morning at his home on Alton Road off Highway 100 in Belle Meade on federal charges of producing child pornography.

Levine, 52, worked as a science teacher for Murfreesboro City Schools and also as a substitute teacher in Nashville.

Murfreesboro City Schools placed Levine on administrative leave April 1 after learning of the charges and he has now been suspended without pay.

Marilyn Mathis, director of Murfreesboro City Schools, said they are now moving to terminate his employment.

School officials in Nashville said Levine has been listed as a substitute teacher since 2002 but has worked very little in the district.

Levine is listed having worked only one full day and two half days this year at Harpeth Valley Elementary School, Croft Middle School and McMurray Middle School.

He last worked in a Metro school on March 26.

Metro said they removed him from the substitute list as soon as they got word of the investigation.

"We actually got a call from police last week saying he was under investigation and at that point they put a block on his employment, just to make sure we can do whatever we can to keep our students safe," said Noelle Mashburn with Metro schools.

Additionally, Levine has worked with the Cumberland Science Museum and for youth camps in both Davidson and Williamson counties.

Metro police said the alleged victims who have provided information thus far are from Davidson and Williamson counties.

More victims are expected to come forward.

Metro police said their investigation began on March 25, after receiving information from a concerned parent.

In the days that followed, police interviewed numerous persons and learned Levine had a building behind his home known as the "Little House" where teenagers were given marijuana, alcohol and had sex.

The "Little Room" was equipped with cameras, which were part of an elaborate monitoring system discovered in Levine's bedroom during a search of the home on March 31.

Detectives said Levine also had a room in the main house known as the "Isolation Chamber." The room contained a waterbed with a wooden box over it that was wired for videotaping.

From the home, officers recovered more than 400 homemade videotapes and DVDs and a camcorder.

Metro police said the alleged sex acts had been going on for decades.

Present day teens, as well as alleged victims who were teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s, have provided similar information in regard to sex and drug activity at Levine's home.

The teenagers interviewed said they did not know they were being taped.

Metro police said Levine has been estranged from his wife for years and lived in the house alone.

Detectives said the investigation is continuing and state charges against Levine are expected.

Levine is charged federally because the video camera and tapes he used were manufactured in Japan, prosecutors said.

Anyone with information of inappropriate behavior between Levine and minors is urged to call Metro police sex crimes detectives at 615-832-7540.

Double talkin' Rick Warren

2009-04-08T16:56:00.003-05:00

( Never been a huge fan of this guy given all he preaches is worldly wealth. I do believe we need to hate the sin not the sinner but as Christians we have to stand for the truth whether it offends or not. PERIOD.)

California mega-church pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren says he apologized to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of California's Proposition 8, and now claims he "never once even gave an endorsement" of the marriage amendment.

Monday night on CNN's Larry King Live, Pastor Rick Warren apologized for his support of Prop. 8, California's voter-approved marriage protection amendment, saying he has "never been and never will be" an "anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist."

"During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never -- never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going," Warren claimed.

However, just two weeks before the November 4 Prop. 8 vote, Pastor Warren issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members. "We support Proposition 8 -- and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8," he said.

The following is a complete transcript of Warren's comments just weeks before the Prop. 8 election:

"The election's coming just in a couple of weeks, and I hope you're praying about your vote. One of the propositions, of course, that I want to mention is Proposition 8, which is the proposition that had to be instituted because the courts threw out the will of the people. And a court of four guys actually voted to change a definition of marriage that has been going for 5,000 years..

"Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 -- and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.

"This is one thing, friends, that all politicians tend to agree on. Both Barack Obama and John McCain, I flat-out asked both of them: what is your definition of marriage? And they both said the same thing -- it is the traditional, historic, universal definition of marriage: one man and one woman, for life. And every culture for 5,000 years, and every religion for 5,000 years, has said the definition of marriage is between one man and a woman.

"Now here's an interesting thing. There are about two percent of Americans [who] are homosexual or gay/lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population determine to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.

"This is not even just a Christian issue -- it's a humanitarian and human issue that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love, and procreation.

"So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I'm going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this. But everybody knows what I believe about it. They heard me at the Civil Forum when I asked both Obama and McCain on their views."

During his CNN interview on Monday, Warren expressed regret for backing Prop. 8. "There were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends -- the leaders that I knew -- and actually apologized to them. That never got out," he admitted.

Additionally, Pastor Warren said he did not want to comment on or criticize the Iowa Supreme Court's decision last week to legalize same-sex "marriage" because it was "not his agenda."

Bryan Fischer with the Idaho Values Alliance says Warren is abdicating his biblical role as a pastor. "For Pastor Warren to say that shoring up marriage is not something that's on his agenda is just something that's hard to believe for somebody who believes the Bible is our rule for faith and practice," Fischer notes.

Dr. Jim Garlow, the senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, helped spearhead the Prop. 8 effort in California. Garlow admits he is confused and troubled by Pastor Warren's decision to apologize for supporting Prop. 8.

"Historically when institutions and individuals back away from convictional biblical truth, it is driven primarily by one single factor -- and that is the respectability of other people. In other words, much more caring about what other people think about them than what God thinks about them," he concludes.

Immigration 'Diversion' for North American Union?

2009-04-08T16:33:00.000-05:00

(Author's Note - This Union Deal is back on the table under O"blah"ma)

The debate over illegal immigration is a "diversion" to distract Americans from government efforts to enter into a North American Union with Canada and Mexico, in the view of activists protesting in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
"The illegal alien problem is a mechanism for leveraging what is yet to come," Daneen Peterson, a researcher who studies the North American Union issue, said at the small rally, which drew about 40 protestors.
"Once the civil unrest and chaos caused by the overwhelming human tsunami of illegal aliens and MS-13 gang members reduces America to complete anarchy ... the federal government will institute martial law," Peterson said.

Peterson, a former university professor, predicted that martial law would then "allow the shadow government to step forward and visibly take over this country. They will use martial law to install a fascist One World Order, dictatorial government in plain sight instead of operating clandestinely as they do now."
She accused the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a foreign policy think tank, of designing and implementing a "shadow government" dedicated to uniting Canada, Mexico and the United States under one government.

"If you continue to believe that the illegal alien invasion is the biggest threat to America, you will never understand that there is something far more dangerous to our country called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," Peterson said, referring to the trilateral dialogue between the North American countries.
According to its government-hosted Web site, the SPP is a "trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing." Activists like Peterson, however, believe it is a step toward relinquishing United States sovereignty.
"Their goal is to destroy our constitutional republic," she said, repeatedly referring to the "shadow government" and a "cabal" of government officials conspiring to bring the U.S. into a North American Union. Peterson said the argument that three nations are merely engaging in dialogue is "a blatant lie."

The SPP website refutes allegations made by critics like Peterson. It says the conversations among leaders of the three nations "seek to make the United States, Canada and Mexico open to legitimate trade and closed to terrorism and crime. It does not change our courts or legislative processes and respects the sovereignty of the United States, Mexico, and Canada."
More bluntly, the site says the SPP "in no way, shape or form considers the creation of a European Union-like structure or a common currency. The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our Founding Fathers."

Nonetheless, U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., in January introduced a sense of Congress resolution stating that the United States should not enter into a union with its neighbors to the North and South.
Goode addressed the rally Friday. He said the SPP "will send us on a glide path to the destruction of our sovereignty, and I always want the United States to be the best country in the world as it is today, and it won't be if we're part of a North American Union."

Robert Pastor, vice president of international affairs at American University and one of the leading proponents of a "North American Community," called Peterson's predictions "completely unrealistic" and "totally absurd."
"Every important initiative requires the consent of our elected officials. None of this can be done by stealth or in secret," he told Cybercast News Service.
"The idea that somehow or other they're going to wake up one day and George Bush will have stolen American sovereignty, or that I would have, or the Council on Foreign Relations, is totally absurd. That doesn't really require a serious conversation," Pastor said.

He called the North American Union a "straw man," explaining that "a union is a unified national state, so if you believe the North American Union, you would be in favor of dissolving the United States ... I don't know anyone who is proposing that."

Pastor said the North American community he envisions "begins with a simple premise, and that is that if our neighbors do well, we will do well. And if our neighbors have problems, we may not be able to contain them. It's a simple principle of interdependence."

"America's strength has always come from opening its doors and embracing and adapting the best in the world," he said. "We ought to continue to adapt our institutions to changes in the world, and that's what's required to advance our
interests."

Addressing concerns that his plan would sacrifice American sovereignty, Pastor said the United States has "agreements with hundreds of countries, we belong to hundreds of international organizations. Every treaty we have involves us sharing some responsibility with other countries, sharing some power in the United Nations. That's the real world that we're in today."
But as Cybercast News Service has previously reported, Pastor is not optimistic that the leaders of the three nations are serious about working together to build the community.

"I don't anticipate any serious forward movement during this meeting," he said of a meeting between President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper scheduled for August.

"The fact they're having a meeting is a positive step and will offer the three governments a chance to hopefully move the relationship forward in a positive manner," Pastor said. "But having said that, my impression from consultations is that this is a very low priority in all three governments."

© CNS News.com. All rights reserved.

Heritage Foundation Research on Illegal Alien Costs

2009-04-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

by Robert E. Rector

The Senate is currently considering a massive immigration reform bill, the "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007" (S. 1348). This bill would grant amnesty to nearly all illegal immigrants currently in the United States.

The fiscal consequences of this amnesty will vary depending on the time period analyzed. It is expected that many illegal immigrants who are currently working "off the books" and paying no direct taxes will begin to work "on the books" after receiving amnesty, and therefore tax payments will rise immediately. By contrast, under S. 1348, benefits to these immigrants from Social Security, Medicare, and most means-tested welfare programs (such as Food Stamps, public housing, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) will be delayed for many years. In consequence, then, the increase in taxes and fines paid by amnesty recipients may initially exceed slightly the increase in government benefits received. In the long run, however, the opposite will be true. In particular, the cost of retirement benefits for amnesty recipients is likely to be very large. Overall, the net cost to taxpayers of retirement benefits for amnesty recipients is likely to be at least $2.6 trillion.

Who Are the Illegal Immigrants?

According to the most widely accepted estimates, there were 11.5 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States in the spring of 2006.[1] Because the number of illegal immigrants has, on average, increased by roughly 500,000 each year, the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. in 2007 is probably around 12 million to 12.5 million; however, these estimates are uncertain, and the actual number of illegal immigrants may be higher.

As Chart 1 shows, some 49 percent of illegal immigrants are adult males, 35 percent are adult females, and 16 percent are foreign-born children. Living in illegal immigrant families are another 3.1 million U.S.-born children of illegal immigrant parents.[2] Because they were born inside the U.S., these children are considered citizens, not illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants now make up about 4 percent of the U.S. population, meaning that about one in twenty-five persons currently in the U.S. is here unlawfully. Illegal immigrants make up nearly one-third of the foreign-born population in the U.S.

As Chart 2 shows, more than half (56 percent) of illegal immigrants come from Mexico. Another 22 percent come from other Latin American countries, and 22 percent come from Asia, Europe, and Africa.[3]

Education of Illegal Immigrants.Illegal immigrants generally have very low education levels. As Chart 3 shows, 61 percent of illegal immigrant adults lack a high school diploma, 25 percent have only a high school diploma, 5 percent have attended some college, and 9 percent are college graduates, according to the Center for Immigration Studies' estimates.[4] The Pew Hispanic Center estimates slightly higher education levels: 49 percent without a high school diploma, 25 percent with a high school diploma only, 10 percent with some college, and 15 percent with college degrees.[5] Overall, 49 to 61 percent of adult illegal immigrants lack a high school diploma, compared to 9 percent of native-born adults.

Illegal Immigrants and Poverty. Because of their low education levels, illegal immigrants have a poverty rate that is roughly twice that of native-born Americans. As Chart 4 shows, the poverty rate of children in illegal immigrant families is 37 percent, compared to 17 percent among children in non-immigrant families. The poverty rate among adult illegal immigrants is 27 percent, compared to 13 percent among non-immigrant adults.

S. 1348 and the Amnesty Process

The Senate's immigration reform bill would offer amnesty and a path to citizenship to the 12 million to 12.5 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. In addition, its lax evidentiary standards would encourage millions more to apply for amnesty fraudulently. Because there is no numeric limit on the number of amnesties that could be granted under the bill, the actual number who would receive amnesty under the bill could be far higher.

In general, under S. 1348, any person who was illegally present inside U.S. borders on January 1, 2007, is eligible for Z visa status, amnesty, and ultimately citizenship. Excluded from this rule are illegal immigrants subject to a formal deportation order issued prior to enactment of the legislation and illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors prior to enactment. The amnesty process consists of four stages leading to citizenship.

Stage One: Probationary Z Visas. Within 180 days of enactment of the bill, the Secretary of Homeland Security would begin accepting applications for Z visa status from illegal immigrants. The Secretary can accept applications for up to two years. The Secretary must grant "probationary Z visa" status to all amnesty applicants who pass a background check that must be completed within one business day. Except for those failing the one-day background check, applicants will automatically be granted probationary status and issued appropriate documents on the day after their application, even if the background check has not been completed.[6]

Stage Two: Permanent Z Visas. The Secretary must issue a permanent Z visa to every applicant who is determined to have met four conditions: the individual was inside the U.S. unlawfully on January 1, 2007; has not left the U.S. for more than six months since then; is employed or is the spouse or child of an employed applicant; and has passed more thorough criminal background checks that may be required. Each Z visa is good for four years and can be renewed indefinitely for the rest of the Z visa holder's life.[7] The Secretary cannot grant permanent Z visas unless the modest enforcement trigger provisions of S. 1348 have been met.[8]

Stage Three: Legal Permanent Residence (LPR).All Z visa holders who pay a $4,000 fine and pass an English test would become eligible for legal permanent residence (also known as green card status). Z visa holders must go abroad to apply for LPR status but may return to the U.S. the same day. No later than 8 years after enactment, the Secretary of Homeland Security must determine the number of Z visa holders who are eligible for legal permanent residence and grant LPR status to all such persons over the following five years at a rate of 20 percent per year.[9]

During this process, Z visa holders would be granted their own special "supplemental allocation" of green cards and would not be required to compete with other visa seekers.[10] In the 13th year after enactment, the Secretary must provide an additional allotment of green cards to Z visa holders who are qualified for Z visa status.

Stage Four: Expanded Eligibility for Government Benefits. During the initial years an immigrant is in LPR status, access to government welfare programs may be limited; however, after five years in LPR status, individuals become eligible for nearly all welfare programs. Legal permanent residents may also apply for U.S. citizenship at this point.

Eligibility for Government Benefits

The following outlines eligibility for government benefits at each stage of the amnesty process. In each case in the following text, eligibility for a benefit means that the former illegal immigrant or his family member obtains the same eligibility for that program as a U.S. citizen would have; that is, he will receive the benefits if income limits and other normal eligibility standards applying to U.S. citizens are met.

Probationary and Permanent Z Visa Status. All children born within U.S. borders to illegal immigrants, Z visa holders, or legal permanent residents are automatically U.S. citizens. As such, these children are potentially eligible for all U.S. welfare benefits from the moment of birth through the rest of their lives. All children of Z visa holders (both foreign- and native-born) have the right to attend U.S. public schools and to receive Head Start and daycare assistance.[11] In addition, adult Z visa holders and their foreign-born children will be eligible for medical care under the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Program.

All individuals placed in probationary Z visa status will be given lawful Social Security numbers,[12] which makes the Z visa holder immediately eligible for two refundable tax credits: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). These credits provide cash welfare assistance to low-income parents. Upon receipt of a lawful Social Security number, Z visa holders will also be granted the right to earn entitlement to future Social Security and Medicare benefits. After 10 years of employment, they will become fully eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits, although in most cases the benefits will not commence until the individual reaches age 67.

Legal Permanent Residence. Upon obtaining LPR status, the non-citizen children of former Z visa holders will become eligible for Food Stamp benefits.[13] All legal permanent residents who have a 10-year work history in the U.S. are automatically eligible for Food Stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and other welfare programs.[14] Many legal residents without a work history are eligible for Medicaid in 22 states, including California and New York.[15] Irrespective of employment history, amnesty recipients will become eligible for 60 different federal welfare programs five years after receiving legal permanent residence.

Citizenship. After obtaining citizenship, individuals become eligible for Supplemental Security Income, a means-tested cash aid program for disabled and elderly persons.

To summarize this process, all Z visa holders will be eligible for medical care benefits under the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Program. Foreign-born children of Z visa holders will be eligible to attend public schools and receive Head Start and daycare assistance. Children born inside the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents and Z visa holders will be eligible for public schooling and all means-tested welfare programs. Many state and local governments may also provide benefits and services to Z visa holders.

Upon obtaining a probationary Z visa, amnesty applicants will receive a lawful Social Security number, which makes Z visa holders potentially eligible for the EITC and the ACTC. In addition, they will begin to earn entitlement to Social Security and Medicare benefits. Roughly eight years after enactment, amnesty recipients will begin to enter LPR status and non-citizen children will become eligible for Food Stamps. Legal permanent residents with a 10-year work history in the U.S. will be eligible for most federal welfare programs subject to income limits and other admission criteria. No later than five years after receiving LPR status, amnesty recipients will be eligible for nearly all means-tested welfare programs.

The initial limitation on receipt of means-tested welfare will have only a small effect on governmental costs. Welfare is only part of the benefits received by immigrant families. Moreover, the average adult amnesty recipient can be expected to live more than 50 years after receiving his Z visa. While recipients' eligibility for means-tested welfare will be constrained for the first 10 to 15 years, they will be fully eligible for welfare during the last 30 to 40 years of their lives. Use of welfare during these years is likely to be heavy.[16]

In addition, if S. 1348 is enacted, many state and local governments are likely to begin giving benefits and services to Z visa holders that are greater than those currently provided to illegal immigrants. State governors of both parties will pressure Congress to relax the eligibility restrictions barring Z visa holders from receiving most federal means-tested benefits as a way of relieving fiscal pressure on state and local governments. In the present political climate, these efforts are likely to prove successful.

The Net Retirement Costs of Amnesty

Giving amnesty to illegal immigrants will greatly increase long-term costs to the taxpayer. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would, over time, increase their use of means-tested welfare, Social Security, and Medicare. Fiscal costs would rise in the intermediate term and increase dramatically when amnesty recipients reach retirement. Although it is difficult to provide a precise estimate, it seems likely that if 10 million adult illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. were granted amnesty, the net retirement cost to government (benefits minus taxes) could be over $2.6 trillion.

The calculation of this figure is as follows. As noted above, in 2007 there were, by the most commonly used estimates, roughly 10 million adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. Most illegal immigrants are low-skilled. On average, each elderly low-skill immigrant imposes a net cost (benefits minus taxes) on the taxpayers of about $17,000 per year. The major elements of this cost are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. (The figure includes federal state and local government costs.) If the government gave amnesty to 10 million adult illegal immigrants, most of them would eventually become eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits or Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid benefits.

However, not all of the 10 million adults given amnesty would survive until retirement at age 67. Normal mortality rates would reduce the population by roughly 15 percent before age 67. That would mean 8.5 million individuals would reach age 67 and enter retirement.

Of those reaching 67, their average remaining life expectancy would be around 18 years.[17] The net cost to taxpayers of these elderly individuals would be around $17,000 per year.[18] Over 18 years, the cost would equal $306,000 per elderly amnesty recipient. A cost of $306,000 per amnesty recipient multiplied by 8.5 million amnesty recipients results in a total net cost of $2.6 trillion.

These costs would not occur immediately. The average adult illegal immigrant is now in his early thirties; thus, it will be 25 to 30 years before the bulk of amnesty recipients reaches retirement. At their peak level, it appears the amnesty recipients will expand the number of beneficiaries under Social Security by 5 to 10 percent. This will occur at a point when Social Security will already be running deficits of over $200 billion annually.

This is a rough estimate. More research should be performed, but policymakers should examine these potential costs very carefully before rushing to grant amnesty, "Z visas," or "earned citizenship" to the current illegal immigrant population.

Factors That Could Increase Future Costs

The $2.6 trillion figure is a rough estimate of future costs that would result from putting 10 million adult illegal immigrants on a guaranteed pathway to citizenship. There are a number of factors that could raise or lower these future costs. Among the factors that could increase the net cost (benefits received minus taxes paid) well above $2.6 trillion are the following:

1. The actual number of illegal immigrants may be greater than 12 million. The estimated cost of $2.6 trillion in future retirement costs outlined above assumes that the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. in 2007 was around 12 million, based on data from the Pew Hispanic Center. While the Pew Hispanic Center is the most widely used source for demographic information about illegal immigrants, its data assume that some 90 percent of illegal immigrants appear in the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS).[19] It is possible that many illegal immigrants do not appear in the CPS and that the total number of illegal immigrants is substantially higher than 12 million. Some estimates place the number of illegal immigrants as high as 20 million. Clearly, if the illegal immigrant population is greater than 12 million, then the net retirement costs resulting from amnesty would be, ceteris paribus, higher as well.

2. There is a huge potential for amnesty fraud. In order to receive amnesty and a Z visa and be put on a pathway to citizenship, an illegal immigrant must demonstrate that he or she was in the U.S. illegally and employed on January 1, 2007. However, the standard to demonstrate residence is very loose. The illegal immigrant need merely produce two affidavits from non-relatives asserting that he or she was working in the U.S. on the appropriate date. The affidavits could even come from other illegal immigrants. It is doubtful that the Department of Homeland Security has any real capacity to separate true affidavits from bogus ones, especially in the crush of processing millions of applications in the space of a year or two. Consequently, the potential for amnesty based on fraudulent documents is very high. In the 1986 amnesty, an estimated 25 percent of the amnesties granted were fraudulent.[20] In the last 20 years, the underground industry producing fraudulent documents has grown vastly larger and more sophisticated. In this round of amnesty, the fraud rate could be as high as or higher than in 1986, resulting in millions of additional amnesties.

3. Spouses and children living abroad may be added to the amnesty population. In its present form, the bill grants amnesty to employed illegal immigrants who were in the U.S. on January 1, 2007. Any spouses, children, and parents of employed illegal immigrants who were residing in the U.S. on that date will also receive Z visas and amnesty. However, many illegal immigrants have spouses and children living abroad; under S. 1348, while illegal immigrants and their families inside the U.S. are put on a path to citizenship, families living abroad are not. Family members living abroad would be denied Z visas and would not be permitted to reside in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Presumably, the Z visa holder could have his family join him when he achieves legal permanent residence, but this would not occur until eight years after he is initially given the Z visa.

The designers of the bill appear to have excluded spouses and children living abroad from eligibility for Z visas in order to lower the apparent number of amnesty recipients, but pressure will build to eliminate this exclusion. At some point, either before or after the bill's passage, a "technical correction" will almost certainly be introduced allowing spouses and children living abroad to obtain Z visas and get on the pathway to citizenship. For every 10 illegal immigrants living in the U.S., there may be four dependents living abroad; if the current illegal population is 12 million, the number of additional dependents who could be brought permanently into the country should the exclusion be eliminated may be as high as five million.[21] The overall number of amnesty recipients and dependents could easily reach 17 million.

4. Medicaid and Medicare costs are likely to rise faster than the rate of general inflation. To project the future governmental costs of amnesty recipients during retirement, this paper has used the current net governmental costs for elderly immigrants with skill levels similar to the amnesty population. These net governmental costs amount to $17,000 per person per year in 2004; half of this cost was medical care expenditures under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The cost of government Medicaid and Medicare benefits has tended to escalate rapidly both because medical cost inflation has been greater than the general rate of inflation in the economy and because the range of medical services provided by these programs has expanded. The cost of Medicare and Medicaid services is likely to continue to increase more rapidly than inflation for the foreseeable future. As a consequence, the actual retirement costs for amnesty recipients will almost certainly be greater than $2.6 trillion, even after adjusting for general inflation.

Factors That Could Reduce Future Costs

By contrast, three factors could reduce the future costs estimated in this paper:

1. Not all illegal immigrants will get amnesty. The cost estimate in this paper assumes that all illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. will receive amnesty. In reality, not every illegal immigrant who was present in the U.S. on January 1, 2007, will actually receive amnesty. Some will not apply for a Z visa. Some will be found ineligible due to lack of proof of residence, despite the lax evidentiary standards. Some illegal immigrants will fail the criminal background checks and be rejected.

2. Some amnesty recipients will return to their native countries. Granting amnesty and creating a pathway to citizenship creates powerful financial incentives for illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. permanently. Nonetheless, some Z visa holders and legal permanent residents will return to their native countries before reaching old age. Even in this case, some amnesty recipients will have earned eligibility for Social Security benefits and thereby will impose governmental costs even after leaving the nation. To the extent that amnesty recipients leave the U.S. at some point in the future rather than living out their full lives in the U.S., future governmental costs will be reduced. This, however, simply underscores the fact that illegal immigrants, on average, are a fiscal burden. The longer they remain in the U.S., the greater the burden.

3. The net taxes paid by second-generation immigrants may offset some costs. The average amnesty recipient will reach retirement age in 30 to 35 years. By that time, many of the children of amnesty recipients will have reached adulthood and will be receiving benefits in their own right and paying taxes. This second generation will have better education and higher incomes than their parents. In consequence, their government benefits will be lower and their tax payments will be higher than those of their parents. It is possible that, on average, these second-generation immigrants will be net fiscal contributors; the taxes they pay could exceed the benefits they receive. If this is the case, their net tax payments may offset some the government retirement costs of their parents; however, in calculating the fiscal contributions of second-generation families, it is essential to count more than Social Security taxes paid. A family that pays $3,000 in Social Security taxes while receiving $30,000 in a variety of government benefits does not contribute to governmental solvency. At present, it is uncertain to what extent, if any, the children of potential amnesty recipients will be net fiscal contributors (paying taxes exceeding total benefits). Further, even if they are net contributors, these second-generation families would have to make very large contributions in order to significantly offset the $17,000 per year net cost of their parents.

One final factor should be considered: Some illegal immigrants may become citizens, and thereby impose costs on taxpayers, even without amnesty. Under current law, a child born inside the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents is deemed a U.S. citizen. Upon reaching age 21, this child can petition for his illegal immigrant parents to be given legal permanent residence. In most cases, the petition is automatically accepted. Upon receiving LPR, the parents could begin to gain eligibility to Social Security and Medicare; within five years, the parents would become eligible for most means-tested welfare programs.

This means that, even without amnesty, some current illegal immigrants could become eligible in their retirement years for the type of benefits described in this study. Consequently, some of the costs estimated in this paper may occur without amnesty. How many illegal immigrant parents would, under current law, be placed on the pathway to citizenship by the petitions of their native-born children is unknown. Certainly the path to entitlement through the amnesty provided in S. 1348 is easier and more attractive. Nonetheless, the fact that some illegal immigrants can obtain access to government benefits under current law does not reduce the fiscal costs estimated in this paper; it simply means that a portion of these costs may occur even if S. 1348 is not enacted.

Congressional Budget Office Estimate of S. 1348

At first glance, the figures presented in this paper appear to differ from the cost estimates of S. 1348 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).[22] However, the CBO has estimated only the changes in benefits and revenues that would occur in the first 10 years after enactment of S. 1348. By contrast, the retirement costs analyzed in this paper will not really begin until 25 to 30 years after passage of the legislation. The current paper and the CBO study thus analyze very different impacts from the bill.

Currently, very few illegal immigrants are elderly, and virtually none receive Social Security and Medicare. A major result of S. 1348 would be to make illegal immigrants eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security during their retirement years. CBO does not address these retirement costs at all.

The CBO report does conclude that in the first 10 years after enactment of S. 1348, federal taxes and other revenues paid by Z visa holders would increase by $63 billion while federal benefits would increase by $33 billion. This should not be surprising since, as this paper has pointed out, under S. 1348, increases in tax revenues would occur immediately while increases in benefits, for the most part, would not begin for 10 years or more. However, in subsequent decades, benefits received by amnesty recipients would increase significantly. When the amnesty recipients reach retirement age, total benefits received will outstrip taxes paid by roughly seven to one. Thus, while amnesty may reduce government net costs slightly in the short run, in the long run, the fiscal effects will be substantially negative.

There are other limitations to the CBO study. First, it covers only federal benefits and revenues and ignores state and local government costs. Second, it covers only changes in spending and revenue that would result from S. 1348 and ignores the government benefits currently received by illegal immigrant families. Finally, the CBO report does not analyze the total fiscal balance of amnesty recipient families either before or after amnesty. (The total fiscal balance of a family equals total federal state and local benefits received by the family minus total taxes paid.) Similarly, it does not analyze the total fiscal balance of amnesty recipients either before or after retirement.

Policy Discussion: Reducing the Costs of Immigration Reform

Amnesty is not only very expensive, but it also violates the rule of law and is manifestly unfair. It gives the inestimable gift of U.S. citizenship to millions of individuals whose sole qualification for receiving citizenship is that they broke U.S. laws. Consider that on January 1, 2007, there were hundreds of thousands of foreigners in the U.S. on a variety of temporary visas. Because these individuals were here lawfully, none will be granted citizenship under S. 1348. By contrast those who were in the U.S. illegally on that same day will be given the privilege of citizenship.

Consider two foreigners who were in the U.S. on temporary visas that expired in December 2006. One of these individuals lawfully returned home upon expiration of his visa; the other chose to remain in the U.S. unlawfully. Under S. 1348, which of these individuals will be granted the privileges and benefits of citizenship? The one who broke the laws, while the individual who respected the law will have little chance for citizenship. Is this fair? Of all the people in the world who wish to come to America, why should any American feel compelled to place those who broke the laws on a guaranteed path to citizenship?

It is often argued that it is unfair to expect illegal immigrants who have spent years in the U.S. and have begun to raise families here to uproot their families and return home. But S. 1348 makes no distinction between illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. for decades and those that have been here only a few days. Everyone who was here illegally on January 1, 2007, is potentially eligible for citizenship.

In order to constrain fiscal costs, immigration reform should include three policies:

1. Emphasize enforcement. In 1986, the U.S. granted amnesty to some three million illegal immigrants as a quid pro quo for a prohibition on the future hiring of illegal immigrants. The amnesty was granted, but the prohibition on the future hiring of illegal immigrants was never enforced. S. 1348 repeats the same mistake; mass amnesty will be granted, but the border and employment enforcement provisions of the act are hollow and will probably never be enforced. To avoid repeating the mistakes of 1986, enforcement must come first.[23]

2. Do not grant amnesty. Amnesty is unfair and would be very expensive. Proponents of S. 1348 will argue that there is no feasible alternative to giving citizenship to all the illegal immigrants in the U.S. But serious, phased enforcement of a ban on hiring illegal immigrants would cause many, if not most, illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the U.S. and return to their native countries. To minimize economic disruption, it might be possible to give some current illegal immigrants temporary work visas, with the explicit provision that they must return home over time. Such temporary visas would not grant access to welfare, Social Security, Medicare, or citizenship. If necessary, the exiting illegal workers could be replaced by legitimate temporary workers or by permanent immigrants who have never violated U.S. laws.[24]

3. Close the "anchor baby" loophole. As explained above, under current law, when U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants turn 21, they can petition the government to grant their illegal immigrant parents legal permanent residence, thereby conferring an automatic path to welfare entitlements and citizenship upon the parents (hence the term "anchor baby"). The popular concept of "birthright citizenship"—that anyone born in the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen—is historically and legally inaccurate and ought to be corrected by Congress.[25] Regardless, this backdoor path to citizenship for illegal immigrant parents should be closed.[26]

Conclusion

There are currently at least 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. The immigration reform bill currently being debated in the Senate would grant amnesty to these individuals and would likely result in the entry of 4 to 5 million dependents living abroad into the U.S. as permanent residents. Illegal immigrants receiving amnesty will immediately begin earning eligibility for Social Security and Medicare benefits and, after approximately 10 years, gain access to a wide variety of means-tested welfare programs, such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, and public housing.

Because amnesty recipients have very low education levels (75 to 85 percent have only a high school diploma or less), they are likely to receive more in government benefits than they pay in taxes through most of their lives. When they reach retirement age, amnesty recipients will impose a large net cost on taxpayers, receiving each year at least $17,000 more per person in benefits than they pay in taxes. The illegal immigrants granted amnesty under S. 1348 are likely to impose a net cost of at least $2.6 trillion on U.S. taxpayers during their retirement years. Policymakers should carefully consider the potential long-term fiscal costs before enacting the amnesty provisions of this bill.

Proponents of S. 1348 will emphasize that amnesty recipients will pay Social Security taxes during their working years, thereby presumably helping to alleviate the great burden already on the government retirement system. Given their low skill levels, the Social Security tax payments of amnesty recipients will, on average, be modest. More important is the fact that, in future years, Social Security benefits will be funded by both Social Security taxes and general revenue. What matters is not the small amount of Social Security taxes that will be paid but the overall fiscal balance (total federal state and local benefits received minus all taxes paid) of amnesty recipients. If the net benefits taken by amnesty recipients and their families exceed the Social Security and other taxes paid, the amnesty recipients will undermine rather than strengthen the financial support for U.S. retirees, even before they reach retirement age themselves.

Finally, if S. 1348 is enacted, the public should expect to see a broad array of new spending proposals and programs designed to help amnesty recipients move upward economically and socially. Many of these programs are likely to be enacted into law, further increasing fiscal pressures.

Robert Rector is Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

[1] Jeffry S. Passel, "The Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.: Estimates Based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey," Pew Hispanic Center, March 7, 2006, p.1.

[2] Ibid.

[3]Ibid., p. 5.

[4] Steven A. Camarota, "Immigrants at Mid-Decade," Center for Immigration Studies, December 2005, p. 23, and other information provided by Steven Camarota.

[5] Jeffry S. Passel, "Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics,"Pew Hispanic Center, June 14, 2005, p. 23.

[6] Title VI, Section 601 (h)(2).

[7] Title VI, Sections 601 (k)(1) and 601 (k)(2).

[8] Title I, Section 1 (a)(ii).

[9] Title V, Section 503 (f)(2), and Title V, Section 501 (b). Title V of the Act states that the Secretary shall begin bestowing legal permanent residence on Z visa holders eight years after enactment. By contrast, Section 602 (a)(2)(B)(5) states that Z visa holders will not be given legal permanent residence until the entire backlog of family reunification applicants has been granted legal permanent residence. If it takes more than eight years to reduce the backlog of family-based applicants, it is not clear which provision would take precedence.

[10] Title V, Section 501 (b), inserting (d) 1 C ii.

[11] Ron Haskins, "The Goal of Limiting Welfare Benefits for Non-citizens: The Emergence of Compromises" The Brookings Institute, p. 3.

[12] Title VI, Section 606.

[13] Ruth Ellen Wasem, "Non-citizen Eligibility for Federal Public Assistance: Policy Overview and Trends," CRS Report for Congress, January 19, 2007, p. 18.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Shawn Fremstad and Laura Cox, "Covering New Americans: a Review of Federal and State Policies Related to Immigrants' Eligibility and Access to Publicly Funded Health Insurance," Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, November 2004.

[16] Robert Rector and Christine Kim, "The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer," Heritage Foundation Special Report No. 14, May 21, 2007, p. 14.

[17] See Elizabeth Arias, "United States Life Tables, 2003," National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 54 Number 14, March 28, 2007, at www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0038/tabC.txt. The calculation is based on table 4 covering the whole white population. As noted, 78 percent of illegal immigrants are Hispanic. Census projects the life expectancy of Hispanics in the U.S. to be the same as white non-Hispanics.

[18] This figure represents the average net annual cost of elderly low-skilled immigrants to the taxpayer in 2004. The figures have not been adjusted upward for inflationary increases that will occur over the next thirty years.

[19] The Census Survey asks whether individuals are immigrants but does not ask whether they are legal immigrants. The number of immigrants who are illegal is conventionally estimated by subtracting the known legal immigrant population from the total immigrant population. The remainder equals the illegal immigrant population.

[20] Steven A. Camarota, "Amnesty Under Hagel-Martinez: An Estimate of How Many Will Legalize if S. 2611 Becomes Law," Backgrounder, Center for Immigration Studies, June 2006, p. 3, table 1.

[21] Ibid., p. 5

[22] Congressional Budget Office, "Senate Amendment 1150 to S. 1348, The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007," Congressional Budget Office Estimate, June 4, 2007.

[23]Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., "Where We Stand: Essential Requirements for Immigration Reform," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No.2034, May 10, 2007.

[24]Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., "Permanent Principles and Temporary Workers," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1911, March 1, 2006.

[25]Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., "Where We Stand." See also John C. Eastman, Ph.D., "From Feudalism to Consent: Rethinking Birthright Citizenship," Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum No. 18, March 30, 2006.

[26] S. 1348 actually closes this loophole by removing parents from the uncapped green card category of immediate relatives; however, this change will have little effect because the bill opens the far easier Z visa path to citizenship for these same individuals.

Under attack subliminally!!

2009-04-07T15:44:00.000-05:00

Author's Note: Say what you will about my commentary but I see the following article as a bit scary to those of us who believe that the United States is a sovereign nation. Again it seems that the diversity and multiculturalism crowd want to shove the communist Chinese down our throats in the guise of language. It is language all right one we need to reject vehemently the false religion and the communism that is bound to come through.)

A Chinese philosopher's precepts fuel bridge-building between Memphis and the Middle Kingdom

The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, "Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure."

Such words summarize the spirit behind the University of Memphis' Institute, as well as the intent of the Institute's director, Hsiang-te Kung.

The Memphis incarnation of the Confucius Institute, which partners with Hubei University in China, was approved on Aug. 13, 2007, by the Chinese Embassy and the Beijing-based Office of Chinese Language Council International. At the time, it was the 24th Confucius Institute in the United States and the first in the Midsouth. (There are now a total of 52 throughout the United States and over 100 worldwide.)

Kung credits both personal and institutional efforts for the successful establishment of the Institute, and indeed, Kung's personal role should not be underestimated. A professor of geography, Kung was born in China and grew up in Taiwan before moving to the United States in 1969 and joining the university in 1981. His credentials include a Master of Science and doctorates from UT-Knoxville in both geography and geology. But as important as any academic credential is his bloodline: Kung is a 75th generation descendant of Confucius.

For its part, the University provided the institute with the 11th floor of the Wilder Tower and, with the aid of an anonymous $1 million donation, created a new Asian Studies and International Trade program that began in the fall of 2007.

With the goal of bringing a Confucius Institute achieved, Kung then set out to execute on its mission.

"The institute's main purpose is to provide global education and promote culture through the teaching of language, bringing about multiculturalism and diversity,"Kung says. "The biggest barrier to trade is language."

To address this and other barriers, the Institute prepares students for a global market largely dominated by China and its 1.3 billion Chinese speakers by offering a wide range of opportunities for students and teachers alike. Over 200 university students, teachers and high school students have traveled to China through the Confucius Institute in the past few years. Among these programs were last summer's Fulbright-Hays Study Abroad project, a seminar for teachers, "Winter Break in China" for university students and the "Chinese Bridge Summer Camp" for high school students. According to Kung, the Summer Camp, in particular, is expanding quickly. "Last year, only 13 Tennessee high school students went abroad with this program, compared to an expected 50-60 participants this year," he says.

The institute also performs collaborative research with Chinese universities such as China Three Gorges, Huazhong Normal, East China Normal, Xinjiang and Shanghai universities.

Back stateside, the recently ended spring semester, the Institute offered 17 classes, ranging from Chinese language instruction to classes on Asian culture (Tai Chi, cooking, etc.). Kung also travels to schools and universities across the state. (In March, he gave a lecture on Asian studies topics at Dyersburg Community College.)

Though a global effort, the Institute's presence in Memphis is a more natural fit than one might expect. The business ties between the Middle Kingdom and the Bluff City are substantial. According to the U.S.-China Business Council, China is Tennessee's third largest export market, following Canada and Mexico. And the Memphis International Airport has maintained its ranking as the largest cargo airport in the world, slightly ahead of Hong Kong International Airport.

Even in cultural matters, Memphis and China have official connections that go beyond business and industry. The Memphis Zoo is one of only four zoos in the United States to which China has loaned Giant Pandas for long-term exhibition. Even college sports has been impacted: In 2007, the University of Memphis solidified a five-year, collaborative project with China by signing an agreement with the Chinese Basketball Association.

As for the Confucius Institute's ultimate success in building stronger relations between the state and China, Kung sums it up with one of the core tenets of Confucianism itself: "Education is key." That's a sentiment business and political leaders throughout Tennessee can support.

Coal ash-dominated headlines overshadow a historic shift in TVA's ownership model

2009-04-07T15:39:00.000-05:00

(Hat tip: S. Lea Article By BTN) Author's note: I want to look into this some more!

Last September, a cooperative of TVA distributors secured short-term loans to buy 70% of an 810-megawatt, combined-cycle combustion turbine plant in Southaven, Miss. That they found $325 million in the midst of a frozen credit market was "miraculous," says Jack Simmons, president of the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA), which represents TVA's 158 municipal distributors. Longtime observers of the Tennessee Valley Authority may find equally miraculous the purchase itself. Municipal ownership of generating capacity, standard practice for other public utilities, is a first for TVA, which for 75 years had retained sole custody of the assets its ratepayers fund. It was a historic moment that's gone largely unnoticed.

TVA's new willingness to share has been germinating since 2004, when the utility's previously monolithic governance was restructured--a move made, in part, to bolster its relationship with distributors. Still, several municipalities just inside the TVA fence threatened to jump it; some eventually did. What emerged from negotiations with those unhappy municipalities, Simmons says, was an awareness of their desire for "more voice and choice and input into the asset-planning decisions" paid for by their citizens.

In response, TVA and TVPPA launched a pilot program allowing distributors to own, collectively, up to 5% of the generating capacity in the Valley. (The program involves the coordinated, shared purchase of newly acquired facilities; as federal property, existing TVA assets can be sold only if deemed "surplus.") In July 2007, TVPPA formed the nonprofit generation and transmission cooperative Seven States Power Corp., which took its first opportunity to partner with TVA in the purchase of the Southaven facility and plans to buy another 20% share, the maximum allowable, early this year. Until contracts and permanent financing are finalized next spring, TVA and Seven States have a temporary lease/buyback arrangement covering the cost of the nonprofit's short-term loans and interest.

Simmons hopes through the project to achieve a more economical, cost-based model of distribution. But the real benefit to distributors and ratepayers, he says, is "a long-term equity shift" away from the federal government--and a successful pilot program may eventually help raise TVA's limit on publicly owned capacity.

TVA, struggling to meet growing demand under a $30 billion debt ceiling, can gain from the arrangement, as well. While TVA spokesman Jim Allen says the utility hopes to benefit ratepayers, not "to circumvent [our] debt limitations," distributor-financed assets mean TVA can generate new power while incurring less long-term debt.

In the process, TVA hopes also to generate good will among a public that no longer holds the nostalgic view of TVA as the power that lifted the rural South into modernity. Current ratepayers see, instead, a largely self-regulated anachronism that--last year alone--raised its rates 25%, released toxic sludge into the Ocoee River, and offered few substantive answers to a disastrous, 300-acre coal ash spill in Roane County.

Its new partnership with the public marks a real change of course for TVA--but it's also a nuanced and protracted process. Ultimately, its historic significance may be lost in a year marked by equally historic, and far more immediate, problems.

Day of Silence - Politicking in our schools.

2009-04-07T11:07:00.000-05:00

(Hat tip: Sandra Lea)

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on April 17. On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day-even during instructional time-to promote GLSEN's socio-political goals and its controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.
Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to restore to public education a proper understanding of the role of government-subsidized schools. You can help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child's school allows students to remain silent during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

Parents should no longer passively countenance the political usurpation of public school classrooms through student silence.
If students will be permitted to remain silent, parents can express their opposition most effectively by calling their children out of school on the Day of Silence and sending letters of explanation to their administrators, their children’s teachers, and all school board members. One reason this is effective is that most school districts lose money for each student absence.
School administrators err when they allow the classroom to be disrupted and politicized by granting students permission to remain silent throughout an entire day.

Visit this website for complete information on opposing the Day of Silence.

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Call your local schools and ask whether they permit students or teachers to remain silent in the classroom on “Day of Silence.” IMPORTANT: Do not ask any administrator, school board member, or teacher if the school sponsors, endorses, or supports DOS. Schools do not technically sponsor the Day of Silence. Technically, it is students, often students in the gay-straight alliance, who sponsor it. Many administrators will tell you that they do not sponsor the DOS when, in fact, they do permit students and sometimes even teachers to remain silent during instructional time. Also ask administrators whether they permit teachers to create lesson plans to accommodate student silence.

2. Find out what date the event is planned for your school. (The national date in 2009 is April 17, but some schools observe DOS on a different date).

3. Inform the school of your intention to keep your children home on that date and explain why. (See sample letter below)

(Date)

Dear _______________,

Due to the administration’s decision to allow the politicization of the learning environment through the Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the highly partisan Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, we feel compelled to call our child/children out of school on that day.

The administration errs when it allows the classroom to be disrupted and politicized by granting students permission to remain silent throughout an entire day. The protesters have a captive audience, many of whom disagree with and are made uncomfortable by the politicization of their classroom. How many political protests will the school allow, and who decides which political issue will be permitted to disrupt the educational process?

Day of Silence participants have a First Amendment right to wear t-shirts, and if other extracurricular clubs put up posters and set up tables from which to distribute materials, “gay-straight alliances” have that right also. The Day of Silence participants go further, however, by exploiting the instructional time of every student in every class for an entire day in the service of their philosophical beliefs and partisan political purposes. Their silence, and in some cases, the silence of their teachers, transform the activities of the day.

By allowing students to remain silent, administrations fail to protect the classroom from intrusive, political exploitation. My child/children will not be part of this political appropriation of the classroom.
Sincerely,

Oh what a year can do!

2009-04-06T22:59:00.000-05:00

Over a year ago I along with David Oatney broke the story of Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's affair with Allison Wagley. This story broke prior to Mrs Ragsdale filing for divorce from this 2-timing disgrace of a Mayor.

This tramp most likely caused 2-timing Rags a shot at the Governor's office.

David and I were vilified and called liars and every other name we could have placed upon us.

Well here is a bit o proof for our critics

With Obama can the U.S. Stand?

2009-04-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

(Author's note: Sandra Lea a friend and author pointed out to me that we are seeing biblical prophecy in the O"blah"ma and I happen to agree. Thanks Sandra for standing firm.)

By Sher Zieve Friday, April 3, 2009

Moving as quickly as he can to gut the USA and then divide its body parts amongst like-minded globalists, the USA’s Supreme Leader Barack Hussein Obama used the G-20 conference to begin his turnover of USA sovereignty to said internationalists and start the move toward a one-world government. Obama has signed off on international legislation—the Financial Stability Board—that would regulate ALL firms, including those within the USA and places them under the responsibility of an international governmental agency.

On FNC’s Greta Van Susteren’s program, author and columnist Dick Morris noted “literally from April 2nd of this year, that is, today, it’s a whole new world of financial regulation in which, essentially, ALL of the U.S. regulatory bodies and ALL U.S. companies are put under international regulation, international supervision. It really amounts to a global economic government.”

Called the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the pending international body’s legislation—which will of course override the US Constitution—states: “We agree to a framework of internationally agreed upon high standards. We will set up a financial stability board with a strengthened mandate to extend regulation and oversight to all systemically important financial institutions, instruments and markets”—including hedge funds, all—anything that they decide is important to the system—to endorse and implement tough new principles on paying (ph) compensation and to support sustainable compensation schemes and the corporate social responsibility of ALL firms.” The international community will now be able to determine the salaries and compensation of us all.

During this same conference, Obama officially announced the reduction in US nuclear weaponry, so that Iran will be more amenable to sitting down to talk with the US. In other words, he’s again announced to the world that the USA is no longer a threat to anyone—let alone terrorists. Never before in our soon to be short-lived history has the United States of America had this sort of a leader who has now announced—in no uncertain terms—that it is his plan and duty to dismantle and destroy the country he represents. He, his administration members and his Congress (with extraordinary assistance from most notably Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd and their friends) have devastated the US economy, are in the process of eliminating the First and Second Amendments—and the entire US Constitution—have ended free enterprise, established his national youth indoctrination—if not police—force (via the GIVE—Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education—Act) and have begun the process of taking over virtually all private companies.

In not yet 100 days, Obama and Company have almost destroyed this country. Under this constant and increasing onslaught and devastation from within—by our “leaders”—can the USA stand much longer? Seriously, can it?

An abortionist bites the dust!

2009-04-06T20:04:00.000-05:00

From Christian Newswire this afternoon, by pro-life activist and writer Gingi Edmonds:

Some of you may have seen the major news story of the private plane that crashed into a Montana cemetery, killing 7 children and 7 adults.

But what the news sources fail to mention is... the [cemetery] contains... the Tomb of the Unborn... erected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.

What else is the mainstream news not telling you? The family who died in the crash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation....
Active in his synagogue and in the community of Redlands, CA, Dr. Feldcamp purchased Family Planning Associates 4 years ago. Feldkamp also owns Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates, and is CEO of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. The 17 CA "Family Planning" clinics perform more abortions in the state than any other abortion provider - Planned Parenthood included - and they perform abortions through the first 5 months of pregnancy.

Although Feldkamp is not an abortion doctor, he reaps profits of blood money from the tens of thousands of babies that are killed through abortions performed every year at the clinics he owns. His business in the abortion industry was what enabled him to afford the private plane that was carrying his family to their week-long vacation at The Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only ski resort.
The plane went down on Sunday, killing 2 of Feldkamp's daughters, 2 sons-in-law and 5 grandchildren along with the pilot and 4 family friends....

David Hamilton is Wrong for US!

2009-04-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

( Hat tip: Sandra Lea)

Dear Citizen Activists,

PLEASE HELP STOP this bad nomination of the most dangerous liberal extremist, anti-Life, anti-Liberty, anti-Jesus Judge David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

President Barack Obama has just nominated federal Judge David Hamilton, who has issued controversial rulings (banning public prayers offered "in Jesus name," and hastening the abortion of unborn children), to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (the same court that has reversed his aggressive decisions for many years).

PLEASE CLICK TO SIGN AND FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 U.S. SENATORS, OPPOSING THE ANTI-LIFE, ANTI-CHRISTIAN JUDGE DAVID HAMILTON.

Judge Hamilton is the worst of Obama's 15 new liberal appeals court appointees. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals covers Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. Since most cases never reach the Supreme Court, the federal appellate circuits often provide the last word on cases affecting life and liberty.

READ THE FACTS:

The Judicial Confirmation Network quickly opposed Hamilton's nomination, stating that "President Obama's first nominee to the federal appeals courts -- specifically the appeals court based in Chicago -- is an ultra-liberal named David Hamilton who is a former fundraiser for ACORN and former leader of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU. He was nominated to the district court bench by President Clinton even though he had no judicial experience and was rated as 'not qualified' by the American Bar Association

Hamilton ruled in 2005 to ban the practice of opening the chamber's business with prayers mentioning Jesus Christ or using terms such as "Savior." He said that amounted to state endorsement of a religion. (But he ruled prayers to "Allah" were perfectly lawful.)
ANTI-JESUS, BUT PRO-ALLAH?

Judge Hamilton wrote: "The injunction orders the Speaker...that the prayers should not use Christ's name or title or any other denominational appeal...If those offering prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives choose to use the Arabic 'Allah'...the court sees little risk that the choice of language would advance a particular religion or disparage others."

In other words, Judge Hamilton ruled the words "Jesus" or "Christ" are illegal words, prohibited for public speech, banned by the First Amendment, which somehow prohibits freedom of religious expression, and makes Christian prayers ILLEGAL in a public forum. (What crazy version of the First Amendment is he reading?)
Thank God, I took action in 2007 and provided legal arguments to the Indiana Attorney General who appealed to the 7th Circuit Court and WE WON a 2-1 decision overruling Hamilton, restoring the right to pray "in Jesus name" in Indiana.

PLEASE CLICK TO SIGN AND FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 U.S. SENATORS, OPPOSING THE ANTI-LIFE, ANTI-CHRISTIAN JUDGE DAVID HAMILTON.
ANTI-LIFE BUT PRO-ABORTION?

In 2003, Judge Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law on abortion. The reasonable law had required abortion clinics to simply give women information about alternatives to abortion in the presence of a physician or nurse, 18 hours before the procedure, until Hamilton ruled to hasten abortions. But thank God, the 7th Circuit Court also reversed Hamilton's bad decision in that case.

If confirmed now Hamilton will sit on that 7th Circuit Court (the same court that frequently overruled him) with terrible power to rule the heartlandwith his anti-life, anti-liberty, anti-Christian agenda.

WE CAN WIN THIS BATTLE!
We've already sent thousands of faxes to the full Senate, and we're getting results! On April 1st, Senator Orrin Hatch led all Republicans to walk out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in protest against the Democrat "rush job" to confirm Judge Hamilton. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said he was troubled by Hamilton's ruling against a sectarian prayer to open the Indiana House of Representatives. Even Senator Arlen Specter expressed concern.
But retiring RINO Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) endorsed Hamilton, endangering his own state of Indiana and ruining his own legacy. Lugar's five phone numbers are: Indianapolis (317) 226-5555, Evansville (812) 465-6313, Fort Wayne (260) 422-1505, Valparaiso (219) 548-8035, DC Office (202) 224-4814. Everybody please call all five numbers today.

PLEASE CLICK TO SIGN AND FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 U.S. SENATORS, OPPOSING THE ANTI-LIFE, ANTI-CHRISTIAN JUDGE DAVID HAMILTON.

God Bless you, in Jesus' name,

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt

What patients say during Colonoscopies!

2009-04-06T16:27:00.000-05:00

Colonoscopies are no joke , but these comments during the exam were quite humorous..... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:

1. Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!
2. Find Amelia Earhart yet?
3. Can you hear me NOW?
4. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
5. You know, in Arkansas , we're now legally married.
6. Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?
7. You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...
8. Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!
9. If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!
10. Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.
11. You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?
12. God, now I know why I am not gay.

And the best one of all...

13. Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up there?

Religious Freedom - You can fight for it but do not practice it!

2009-04-05T13:47:00.000-05:00

(Author's Note: Not only does our military get the shaft by our leaders but now the men and women who put their lives on the line are being denied the very religious freedom the fight to protect.)

By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

An investigation is being sought by a Christian church organization
in the United States after the U.S. Army deliberately shut down a
service one of its sponsored chaplains was running for U.S. military
service personnel at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq.

The complaint by Associated Gospel Churches, a fellowship of
Independent Fundamental Christian churches, has been forwarded to
the Army by U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., seeking an Army
Inspector General investigation.

Rev. G. William Baugham, the chairman of the AGC's commission on
chaplains, told WND that the circumstances are particularly
egregious since it appears it was a representative from another
Christian denomination that closed down the service that had been
operated at FOB Loyalty by Chaplain Stuart Kazarovich, who has been
endorsed by the AGC.

The services held by Kazarovich were shut down for five weeks, from
July 8-Aug. 12, 2007, the organization's report on the situation
confirmed.

"Because this information is now in the public domain, the AGC
acknowledges that the Fundamental Baptist service led by Chaplain
Stuart Kazarovich, an AGC endorsed chaplain, appears to have been
suppressed because it was offensive to the brigade chaplain,"
Baugham told WND in a prepared statement.

"AGC believes the Army's initial response was slow and ineffective,
despite the unprecedented depredation of basic constitutional rights
of the fundamental Baptist congregation," he continued. "In short,
this calls attention to the suppression of a Fundamental Baptist
service and the command's insensitivity to religious hostility."

A comment could not be obtained from the Army immediately on this
case, but WND has reported earlier on issues within the corps of
chaplains for the U.S. military because of some members were
approved for those posts by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who at the time
headed the American Muslim Council, and now is serving a 23-year
prison sentence on federal terrorism charges.

WND also has reported on the battle waged by Navy Chaplain Gordon
Klingenschmitt, who actually was separated from the military for his
decision to pray "in Jesus' name."

Rev. Baugham indicated the facts in the new case are disturbing.

He said Kazarovich was assigned as a battalion chaplain in 2006 to a
unit in Fort Carson, Colo., during its preparation for deployment to
Iraq.

"Kazarovich's sending church is an Independent Baptist Church," he
confirmed. "[He] immediately began experiencing hostility from his
brigade chaplain directed at [Chaplain] Kazarovich's Fundamental
Baptist beliefs."

"This included criticisms of his sermons and his answers to
soldiers' questions concerning how they could have peace with God
and the assurance of salvation, which address basic Christian
beliefs," he said. "At one point, his brigade chaplain is alleged to
have said that being 'born again' has no place in the Army."

Once in the war zone, Kazarovich started a Christian service that
was attended by more than 30 soldiers at FOB Loyalty.

"One of those who attended was a self-identified agnostic who said
that it was the one service that he found challenging and thought
provoking," Baugham said.

Then for a scheduled rest and recreation leave, Kazarovich arranged
to have the service continue. However, "his brigade chaplain
canceled the services [and] upon CH Kazarovich's return from R&R
July 24, 2007, the brigade chaplain told CH Kazarovich there would
be no more Fundamental service," Baugham said.

Soldiers then rebelled, Baugham confirmed, contacting AGC for help
to re-establish the service.

Baugham said he wrote the battalion commander suggesting the
censorship was a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
and the Constitution's Free Exercise, Establishment and Due Process
clauses, and also contacted the division chaplain and chief of
chaplains.

Not only did 34 of the soldiers from Kazarovich's congregation sign
a petition seeking a return of the service, some of the family
members of those soldiers as well as soldiers' pastors joined in, he
said.

"It is overwhelming evidence that in the minds of these soldiers,
their service was suppressed and the command had no intention of
reinstituting it," he said.

"Out of respect for the Army's and Chaplain Corps' commitment to
free exercise, the AGC attempted to resolve the problem through the
appropriate Army channels. AGC issues this press release because the
incident has become more widely known and believes the public has a
right to the basic information without impeding the ongoing
investigation," Baugham said.

He said the initial military investigation alleged the service
was "suspended" for the five weeks it was not allowed, even though
he had exchanged letters with the battalion commander prior to the
suppression attempting to resolve "what appeared to be the brigade
chaplain's harassment and intolerance of Fundamental Christian
beliefs."

Jones' office could not comment on the issue today, although his
office has been integral in fighting for the religious rights of
military service members. A constituent earlier had notified him
that a chaplain had asked him whether it would be allowed to
mention "Jesus."

"He alluded to the fact that he and other chaplains had been asked
not to mention Jesus Christ. This startles and frightens me that our
faith is being infringed upon, even within our own military," the
constituent said.

Another comment came in from an Army chaplain.

"The persecution centers on Christian chaplains praying in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ," he wrote. "My 'Christian' group leader
was indignant and ridiculed me for praying in Jesus' name and for
suggesting that I would have an altar call during chapel services
that I lead," the chaplain, whose identity was withheld, wrote.

"Additionally, he said, it is offensive to pray in the name of Jesus
and is against Army policy to do so."

Jones also earlier rallied help for an Army chaplain who was serving
in Iraq but was removed from his chapel for speaking to the media
about the importance of the freedom to pray according to his faith
tradition. The chaplain later was reinstated.

The issue of praying in Jesus' name also has come up in the setting
of public facilities in the United States.

But it is the case of Klingenschmitt that so far has raised the most
serious questions about the military's treatment of Christianity.

He was convicted by the Navy of failing to follow a lawful order
because his superior didn't want him praying "in Jesus name." But
when Congress got word of his $3,000 fine for his prayer, members
ordered the Navy to remove the limitation and allow chaplains to
pray as their "conscience dictates."

Correct way to say someone is stupid.

2009-04-04T16:22:00.000-05:00

A few fries short of a happy meal.

The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead.

All foam, no beer.

The cheese slid off his cracker.

Body by Fisher, brains by Mattel.

Warning: Objects in mirror are dumber than they appear.

He fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.

As smart as bait.

Her sewing machine's out of thread.

One fruit loop shy of a full bowl.

Her antenna doesn't pick up all the channels.

His belt doesn't go through all the loops.

Proof that evolution CAN go in reverse.

Receiver is off the hook.

Skylight leaks a little.

Her slinky's kinked.

Too much yardage between the goal posts.

Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold them together.

Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming.

If brains were taxed, he'd get a rebate.

Standing close to her, you can hear the ocean.

Some drink from the fountain of knowledge, but he just gargled.

The assault continues

2009-04-03T13:44:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

PORTLAND, OR – "I have a bone to pick with you," a Christian writer
told a group of fellow evangelical writers Thursday.

Evangelical writers nearly always alienate non-evangelicals in their
works, noted long-time Christian writer and editor Tim McLaughlin.

While most writers write to impact non-believers, as well as
believers, the phrases they use and how they ignore some faith
passages are real obstacles to reaching the unchurched, the Oregon
native added.

During a workshop, entitled "How the Non-Evangelical World Views You
and What You Can Do About It," McLaughlin said he refers to a list
of common pitfalls of evangelical writers in offending the
unchurched when he writes or edits stories.

"I will not make a dent in any unchurched person's mind unless I
attend to this," McLaughlin said, speaking at the annual convention
of the Evangelical Press Association.

Unconscious evangelical "passwords," such as how many years an
evangelical has been married and how many kids that person has, in a
biography is nice from an evangelical perspective, but may be
irrelevant or a stumbling block to non-evangelicals, he said.

McLaughlin contends that evangelicals include personal information
in a biography to establish credibility based on religious standards
rather than professional. After careful consideration, he decided to
delete the line on family life in a biography and leave just the
subject's professional qualification in his efforts to edit out
the "passwords" used in evangelical writing.

The speaker also called into question the campaign for traditional
marriage.

Evangelicals have long championed the idea of one man-one woman for
life as the biblical standard for marriage, said the evangelical
writer. But for non-evangelicals, this may be an unrealistic or
inconsistent view because the one-man-one woman for life concept in
the Bible is only relevant based on where one looks in the
Scripture.

"I think that we are also unrealistic, evangelicals, in how we view
let's say marriage," McLaughlin said. "I wonder if we are reluctant
to see our current ideas of a Christian marriage in the United
States as a thing much more dictated by culture than the Bible.

"Adam and Eve had no civil ceremony, Abraham slept with other women
including Hagar, Isaac's wife was selected by his father's servant
and was his cousin, David `collected wives like military victories,
and his most memorable son came from an affair with a married
woman,' and Prophet Hosea married a whore," McLaughlin noted,
speaking from a non-evangelical point of view.

"So what do we have as a biblical model for marriage?" he asked
while chuckling.

"Let's not call marriage `biblical,' as we like to, but healthy,"
posed McLaughlin.

The evangelical writer and editor with more than 20 years of
experience called on evangelical writers in the room to be more
thoughtful and conscious of what viewpoint they write from.

"I speak through writing," McLaughlin said, who also edits for a non-
Christian publication to be able to see through the eyes of non-
believers. "So when I'm writing and editing, I'm not picturing a
person who is lost, in all respect, but a person who is finding
themselves and being chased by God."

An eye opener

2009-04-02T13:41:00.000-05:00

Dr.. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retired

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our
country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we
know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes
WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there
are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even
fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

1 When did the threat to us start?

Many will say September 11, 2001. The answer, as far as the United
States is concerned, is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with
the following attacks on us:
* Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
* Beirut , Lebanon Embassy 1983;
* Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
* Lockerbie ,ScotlandPan-Am flight to New York 1988;
* FirstNew YorkWorld Trade Center attack 1993;
* Dhahran , Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996;
* Nairobi , Kenya USEmbassy 1998;
* Dares Salaam , Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
* Aden , Yemen USS Cole 2000;
* New York World Trade Center 2001;
* Pentagon 2001.

(Note: during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist
attacks worldwide.)

2 Why were we attacked?

Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms. The attacks
happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush
1, Clinton and Bush 2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or
Democrats, as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or
their immediate predecessor, President Ford.

3 Who were the attackers?

In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.

4 What is the Muslim population of the World?

25%.

5 Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?

Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the
predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under
the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that
made no difference. You either went along with the administration or
you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by
the Nazis for political reasons (including
7,000 Polish priests).

(seehttp://www.Nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm

Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis as
the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom
hear of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler
kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy in killing
anyone who got in the way of his extermination of the Jews or of
taking over the world - German, Christian, or any others.

Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US , but
kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, British,
French or anyone else. The point here is that, just like the peaceful
Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how
many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from
the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on
doing -- by their own pronouncements
-- killing all of us 'infidels.' I don't blame the peaceful Muslims.
What would you do if the choice was to remain silent or be killed?

6 So who are we at war with?

There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than
the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid
verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win
if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.

So with that background, now to the two major questions:
1 Can we lose this war?

2 What does losing really mean?

If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions:

We can definitely lose this war and, as anomalous as it may sound, the
major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom
the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?

It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war
means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home, and going on about
our business, like post-Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one
can get.

What losing really means is:

We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks
will not subside, but, rather, will steadily increase. Remember, they
want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they
would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us
over the past 18 years. The plan was, clearly, for terrorists to
attack us until we were neutered and submissive to them.

We would, of course, have no future support from other nations, for
fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see; we are
impotent and cannot help them..

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It
will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage.
It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw
its troops from Iraq . Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists
bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else
they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France Our one hope with France is that they
might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are
finished, too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without
us. However, it may already be too late for France France is already
20% Muslim and fading fast.

Without our support, Great Britain will go, also. Recently, I read
that there are more mosques in England than churches.

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports, and way of life
will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal
with us if they were threatened by the Muslims? If we can't stop the
Muslim terrorists, how could anyone else?

The radical Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and
therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We'd
better know it, too, and be likewise committed to winning at any
cost.< BR>
Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple.
Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put
100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take
that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war?

Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by 'imploding.' That
is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their
purpose and failing to dig in and lend full support to the war effort.
If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to
be divided, there is no way that we can win.

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the
life and death seriousness of this situation:

President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transport ation.
Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men
between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow
profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously?
This is war! For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of
the civil rights to which we have become accustomed. We had better be
prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most
certainly lose all of them permanently.

And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of
civil rights during WWII, and immediately restored them after the
victory ... and, in fact, added many more since that time.

Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him?

No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our
Political Correctness and all of our civil rights during this conflict
and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to
war. Get them out of your head.

Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the
Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see
us lose.

I think some actually do. I hasten to add that this isn't because they
are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing
means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy
that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends and it does
great damage to our cause.

Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media
regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war perhaps exemplifies
best what I am saying. We have recently had an issue involving the
treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our
military police.. These are the type prisoners who just a few months
ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their
hands, cutting out their tongues, and otherwise murdering their own
just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.

And, just a few years ago, these same type prisoners chemically killed
400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the
same type of enemy fighters who recently were burning Americans and
dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq. And, still
more recently, the same type of enemy that was and is providing videos
to all news sources internationally of the beheading of American
prisoners they held.

Compare this with some of our press and pol iticians, who for several
days have thought and talked about nothing else but the 'humiliating'
of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their
charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but
'humiliating' them.

Can they be for real?

The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the
Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of
comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are
fighting, the life and death struggle we are in, and the disastrous
results of losing this war, nothing can.

To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this
prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome
burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world.
Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife.
Again, I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media
people are disloyal. It simply means that they are absolutely
oblivious to the magnitude of the situation we are in and into which
the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us for many years.

These people are a serious and dangerous liability to the war effort.
We must take note of who they are and get them out of office.
Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels.
That translates into ALL non-Muslims -- not just in the United States
, but throughout the world. We are the last bastion of defense.

We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant.' That
charge is valid. We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so
good, powerful, and smart that we can win the hearts and minds of all
those who attack us, and that, with both hands tied behind our back,
we can defeat anything bad in the world.We can't!

If we don't recognize this, our nation, as we know it, will not
survive, and no other free country in the world will survive if we are
defeated.

And, finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that
allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion,
freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone,
equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in
one single way that contributes to the good of the world.

This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war
or we will be equated in the history books to the self- inflicted fall
of the Roman Empire . If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow
history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the
Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will
continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to
encroach, little by little, on the established French traditions.

The French will be fighting among themselves over what should or
should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them
from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some
external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, polit
ically correct piece by politically correct piece.

And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown,
worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or
even to themselves, once they are in power.

Muslims have universally shown that when they have taken over, they
then start brutally killing each other over who the few will be
controlling the masses.

What is happening in Iraq is a good example. Will we ever stop hearing
from the politically correct about the 'peaceful Muslims?'

I close on a hopeful note by repeating what I said before: If we are
united, there is no way that we can lose.I hope now, after the
election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the
critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country. It
is your future we are talking about. Do whatever you can to preserve
it. I reiterate: our national election is under way.

After reading the above, we all must do this, not only for ourselves,
but for our children, our grandchildren, our country, and our world.
Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal .. and that
includes the Politicians and media of our country and the free world.

Please forward this to any you feel may want, or NEED to read it. Our
'leaders' in Congress ought to read it, too. There are those who find
fault with our country, but it is obvious to anyone who truly thinks
through this, that we must UNITE!

Lastly, I wish to add: at the risk of offending, I sincerely think
that anyone who rejects this as just another political rant, or doubts
the seriousness of this issue, or just deletes it without sending it
on, is part of the problem. Let's quit laughing at and forwarding the
jokes and cartoons which denigrate and ridicule our leaders in this
war against terror. They are trying to protect the interests and well
being of the US and it's citizens. Best we support them.

GOD BLESS AMERICA
__._,_.___

Then and Now: The Iraq War

2009-04-01T13:37:00.000-05:00

(Author's Note: Before the annointed O"Blah"ma became president we could not escape the negative stuff coming from the media as the following story relates. Following the coronation of the blah one we hear NOTHING about Iraq. HMMM wonder why?)

By Dana Milbank
Thursday, April 24, 2008

Lt. Col. Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers to be killed in
the Iraq war, was laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National
Cemetery. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Pentagon
doesn't want you to know that.

The family of 38-year-old Hall, who leaves behind two young daughters
and two stepsons, gave their permission for the media to cover his
Arlington burial -- a decision many grieving families make so that
the nation will learn about their loved ones' sacrifice. But the
military had other ideas, and they arranged the Marine's burial
yesterday so that no sound, and few images, would make it into the
public domain.

That's a shame, because Hall's story is a moving reminder that the
war in Iraq, forgotten by much of the nation, remains real and
present for some. Among those unlikely to forget the war: 6-year-old
Gladys and 3-year-old Tatianna. The rest of the nation, if it
remembers Hall at all, will remember him as the 4,011th American
service member to die in Iraq, give or take, and the 419th to be
buried at Arlington. Gladys and Tatianna will remember him as Dad.

The two girls were there in Section 60 yesterday beside grave 8,672 --
or at least it appeared that they were from a distance. Journalists
were held 50 yards from the service, separated from the mourning
party by six or seven rows of graves, and staring into the sun and
penned in by a yellow rope. Photographers and reporters pleaded with
Arlington officials.

"There will be a yellow rope in the face of the next of kin,"
protested one photographer with a large telephoto lens.

"This is the best shot you're going to get," a man from the cemetery
replied.

"We're not going to be able to hear a thing," a reporter argued.

"Mm-hmm," an Arlington official answered.

The distance made it impossible to hear the words of Chaplain Ron
Nordan, who, an official news release said, was leading the service.
Even a reporter who stood surreptitiously just behind the mourners
could make out only the familiar strains of the Lord's Prayer.
Whatever Chaplain Nordan had to say about Hall's valor and sacrifice
were lost to the drone of airplanes leaving National Airport.

It had the feel of a throwback to Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, when
the military cracked down on photographs of flag-draped caskets
returning home from the war. Rumsfeld himself was exposed for failing
to sign by hand the condolence letters he sent to the next of kin.
His successor, Robert Gates, has brought some glasnost to the
Pentagon, but the military funerals remain tightly controlled. Even
when families approve media coverage for a funeral, the journalists
are held at a distance for the pageantry -- the caisson, the band,
the firing party, "Taps," the presenting of the flag -- then whisked
away when the service itself begins.

Nor does the blocking of funeral coverage seem to be the work of
overzealous bureaucrats. Gina Gray, Arlington's new public affairs
director, pushed vigorously to allow the journalists more access to
the service yesterday -- but she was apparently shot down by other
cemetery officials.

Media whining? Perhaps. But the de facto ban on media at Arlington
funerals fits neatly with an effort by the administration to sanitize
the war in Iraq. That, in turn, has contributed to a public boredom
with the war. A Pew Research Center poll earlier this month found
that 14 percent of Americans considered Iraq the news story of most
interest -- less than half the 32 percent hooked on the presidential
campaign and barely more than the 11 percent hooked on the raid of a
polygamist compound in Texas.

On March 29, a week before the raid on the polygamists' ranch,
William G. Hall was riding from his quarters to the place in Fallujah
where he was training Iraqi troops when his vehicle hit an improvised
explosive device. He was taken into surgery, but he died from his
injuries. The Marines awarded him a posthumous promotion from major
to lieutenant colonel.

Newspapers in Seattle, where Hall had lived, printed an e-mail the
fallen fighter had sent his family two days before his death.

"I am sure the first question in each of your minds is my safety, and
I am happy to tell you that I'm safe and doing well," he wrote,
giving his family a hopeful picture of events in Iraq. "I know most
of what you hear on the news about Iraq is not usually good news and
that so many are dying over here," the e-mail said. "That is true to
an extent but it does not paint the total picture, and violence is
not everywhere throughout the country. So please don't associate what
you see on the news with all of Iraq.

"Love you and miss you," he wrote. "I'll write again soon."

Except, of course, that he didn't. And yesterday, his family walked
slowly behind the horse-drawn caisson to section 60. In the front row
of mourners, one young girl trudged along, clinging to a grown-up's
hand; another child found a ride on an adult's shoulders.

It was a moving scene -- and one the Pentagon shouldn't try to hide
from the American public.

Be a Merry Christian

2009-03-31T13:35:00.000-05:00

Story by AFA

In a time when the world seems to offer only cynicism and negativity,
the Fellowship of Merry Christians (FMC) urges believers to remember
the joy that comes with following and serving Christ.

"Even during these turbulent times, we've tried to follow Jesus'
instructions to His disciples to `be of good cheer' and to bring some
joy, laughter and healing humor to churches and their publications,"
said Cal Samra, editor of FMC's The Joyful Noiseletter.

The Noiseletter offers a wealth of resources for churches, including
books and bulletin fillers. Cartoons from Bil Keane (creator of "The
Family Circus") and the late Johnny Hart (creator of "B.C.") are also
featured regularly.

As a visual aid to prompt a joyful spirit, FMC offers prints of the
Jack Jewell painting "The Risen Christ by the Sea." Jewell donated
the popular painting to the Noiseletter in 1990, and it immediately
became the FMC trademark.

Samra is encouraged by interest in Holy Humor Sunday, a custom from
the early centuries of Christianity when believers celebrated the
resurrected Christ on the Sunday following Easter. He said the custom
was called "Risus paschalis" (the Easter laugh) and was rooted in the
musings of such theologians as Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa and John
Chrysostom.

To learn more, visit www.joyfulnoiseletter.com or call 1-800-877-2757.

Common Sense Solution

2009-03-30T16:16:00.000-05:00

Immigration:

America was founded by immigrants. It can even be argued that the American Indians were the first immigrants to our country having come here from Asia, but too much of a good thing at one time is too much. We just can’t afford to continue to take in the large quantities of poor from the rest of the world as we have over the last decade. Does anyone give money to every poor person they see on the street? No, and neither should we by continuing to allow the current onslaught of illegal aliens that are invading our country.

 The borders must be properly controlled,
 the penalties for hiring illegal aliens must be enforced and
 a sensible system for guest workers must be developed.

Remember, while the majority of illegal aliens do work, they also artificially depress wages and, while that may not hurt you, I’m sure it has hurt someone you know and eventually it will hurt your children and grandchildren.

At the moment it can and has been argued that there are anywhere from 5,000,000 to 15,000,000 illegal immigrants in this country. Add in their babies and other American born dependents and who knows how many people this wave of illegal immigration is responsible for at this time. So what do we do now?

First, in spite of all the rhetoric by some groups, no one is going to lead a round-up of all of the illegal immigrants and send them back “home”. We are too nice as a people to ever participate in the forced relocation of millions of people. Besides, they do contribute to society (net negative or net positive is open to debate), but we need to make them contribute on the same level and under the same rules as everyone else in America participates on a daily basis.

Let’s face it, the illegal aliens are here because our politicians allowed them to come here for cheap labor and like most actions by politicians now someone needs to clean up the mess their policies (and lack of enforcement of current laws) has created.

My plan for dealing with this mess would proceed as follows:

1 - All people in the country illegally would have to register as a foreign guest-worker within 90 days in order to ever obtain citizenship. There would be no exceptions to this policy. If you don’t register within 90 days, you are in a separate class and face a much harder road to move forward towards legal working status and citizenship.

2 - In addition to having to register, all illegal aliens would have to open bank accounts and obtain legal, taxable jobs if they hope to ever obtain citizenship. Household employees would need their employers to start paying taxes on them, gardeners would have to start recording their income like real businessmen and everyone would get back on a level playing field.

3 - In order to obtain citizenship, a process that I envision taking at least 3 years and up to 10 years depending on how long the individual can prove they have been in the country the following qualifications will have to be met.

Registration, as stated above, in the required amount of time and other requirements of the registration rules.

Opening of a bank account, having a regular, on the books job and paying taxes.

Absolutely no criminal record including not having such offenses as driving without a license, driving without insurance or drunk driving.

At least an 8th grade grasp of the English language.

Payment of a fee of an amount large enough to cover the costs of all the services required to become a citizen of the United States.

These rules are fairly simple. As President I would do one thing to ensure that this situation doesn’t happen again, I would make sure our rules are enforced.

First , I would strictly enforce and apply the rules against hiring illegal immigrant workers.

Second , I would direct that all instances of hiring of illegal aliens be subject to penalty by jail time – real jail time, not a “country club” jail. It’s real simple for an employer to pay a fine and move on – that’s just a cost of doing business. It’s not so simple to ignore the threat of real jail time in a real criminal jail. No one wants to face that prospect.

Third , I believe we need to change the Constitution so that only those born of American citizens become citizens of this country upon birth. The founders of our country could and would have never envisioned the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of babies being born each year in United States hospitals solely so their parents can use their anchor babies as an excuse to demand to stay here and take benefits from the rest of us.

It’s really that simple. If the laws are enforced and there aren’t any jobs for illegal aliens then there will be no reason for them to sneak across the boarder and come here. My plan will help to make the millions of people already here a solid part of American society, bring them into the economy and help them to realize their dream of becoming an American. While at the same time, preventing this situation from occurring again.

Immigration is a great thing and brings new ideas, new enthusiasm and new life to the country. We just have to do it in a rational and planned way to ensure that life remains good for all Americans.

By:

Frank McEnulty

2009-03-30T13:33:00.000-05:00

Story by AFA Journal Staff. Sources cited for News of Interest
indicate source of basic information only. April 2008

(Author's Note: We are witnessing the erosion of true Christianity from our society no matter what is engraved on a coin.)

"In God We Trust" will return to the front of the $1 coin beginning
in 2009. According to the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan, a 2005
law had relegated the national motto to the edge of the new $1
presidential coin series. On the edge of a coin, it is difficult to
read at best.

President George W. Bush recently signed into law an omnibus bill
that includes returning the national motto to the face of the coin.
The motto provision was sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS).

Brownback said he met with Treasury Department officials late last
year and they were supportive of restoring the motto to prominence.
The senator said he doesn't expect atheist activist Michael Newdow
will give up his litigious campaign to purge any reference to God
from the Pledge of Allegiance as well as from all U.S. coins.

But the Kansas senator believes Americans in general are growing more
and more impatient with efforts to strike religion from the public
arena.

Careful what you wish for!

2009-03-29T17:02:00.001-05:00

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for their orders. The man says, "A hamburger, fries and a coke," and turns to the ostrich, "What's yours?" "I'll have the same," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order "That will be $9.40, please," and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.
The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, "A hamburger, fries and a coke." The ostrich says, "I'll have the same." Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.

This becomes routine until the two enter again. "The usual?" asks the waitress. "No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and a salad," says the man. "Same," says the ostrich. Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, "That will be $32.62." Once again the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change in your pocket every time?" "Well," says the man, "several years ago I was cleaning the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right a mount of money would always be there."

"That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would ask for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!"
"That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there," says the man. The waitress asks, "What's with the ostrich?"
The man sighs, pauses and answers, "My second wish was for a tall chick with a big butt and long legs who agrees with everything I say."

A little Humor

2009-03-29T16:55:00.001-05:00

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English."

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard " c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w"with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

This is still an issue today!

2009-03-29T16:13:00.000-05:00

High rate of tuberculosis hard to control along border

By Sara Inés Calderón - The Brownsville Herald

November 21, 2005 - Undocumented immigrants crossing through the Rio Grande Valley could be introducing or helping spread communicable diseases in South Texas, such as resistant strains of tuberculosis and even the avian flu, according to health officials. “The illegal immigrants don’t necessarily help the situation,” said Herb Tolentino, director of nurses for the Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

In the 2005 fiscal year, the U.S. Border Patrol detained 137,083 undocumented immigrants in the Valley, and 15,321 people have been detained in fiscal year 2006, since Oct. 1. “Especially if they are coming from Central America, and they come through Mexico, if they have TB (tuberculosis) or dengue, they might bring that with them to the border and then transmit it,” Tolentino said.

Communicable diseases are those considered transmittable from human to human through either direct or indirect contact, such as coughing, sneezing or coming into contact with body fluids. It is tuberculosis, however, that is the primary health concern due to illegal immigration in the Valley, said Miguel Escobedo of the Centers for Disease Control in El Paso. People who have active tuberculosis are usually very thin and have a very noticeable cough, said Brian Smith, the director for the Department of State Health Services in Region 11, which includes the Valley.

With other communicable diseases people are usually so sick that they are not able to travel, he said. Tuberculosis, along with cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, hemorrhagic fevers, SARS, and influenza with potential for pandemic are diseases the federal government deems quarantinable. In Cameron County officials closely monitor the diseases, plus dengue, chickenpox, AIDS/HIV, hepatitis and measles for sudden outbreaks.

TUBERCULOSIS
The Valley has more cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 people than the national average, Tolentino said, and that has always been the case. But rather than blame illegal immigration, Tolentino said the demands of border life and the frequent crossing of borders that accompanies it is at fault. “Our society is becoming so mobile that it is hard for us to contain or to control tuberculosis,” he said, “That back-and-forth stuff is hard on the medical providers who take care of the patients.” Treatment for tuberculosis must be strictly adhered to in order to prevent creating drug-resistant strains of the bacteria. Both Mexican and U.S. health authorities work together to ensure that those with tuberculosis follow their treatment, Tolentino said. “There is no Border Patrol for mosquitoes,” said Lorenzo Pelly, a Brownsville physician who has been practicing in the Valley for 23 years.
“There is an increasing number of tuberculosis patients from south of the border that come into the U.S., some of them with resistant strains of TB,” Pelly said. Federal agencies in the Valley, such as the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which runs the Port Isabel Detention Center, have some policies in place to deal with communicable disease. Pelly, who has contracted with the government to provide care for immigrants, said the Port Isabel center’s measures are adequate to prevent the spread of tuberculosis, but the Border Patrol “does not have the process” to deal with the disease.

Every detainee at the Port Isabel center has their chest x-rayed upon arrival to screen for tuberculosis. Detainees at the center are usually awaiting a final decision on their immigration status, and many reside in the center for several months. In addition, all Port Isabel detainees pass a mental and physical screening. Those who are confirmed tuberculosis cases are separated in the Tuberculosis Isolation Facility, completely segregated from the rest of the population, until the completion of their treatment. The Border Patrol counts some formal and periodic training for agents dealing with air and blood pathogens, the use of surgical masks and gloves for detainees, daily staff meetings, standard operating procedures dealing with contagious diseases and a partnership with the CDC as its preparation to deal with communicable diseases.

“The agents really are our eyes and ears in the community, and they are the ones that help us detect and respond and whenever there is a condition that is of interest,” Escobedo said.

The CDC provides information and assistance in the case of severe cases of communicable diseases in immigrants, he said. “Every sector is different,” said Salvador Zamora, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C. Most sectors have contracts with medical facilities to monitor the health of detainees, he said, most of whom are not housed by the Patrol for extended periods of time. There have been cases of agents and their families contracting tuberculosis, he said.

“The risk of being a Border Patrol agent are high — even without communicable disease,” Zamora said, “When they come into contact with an individual, that risk increases because we add the element of the unknown, which is where these people came from.” As long as there is a border, there is no way to eliminate the potential for transmission of tuberculosis, Pelly said. “For every detainee, there are probably many more that are in this country — the potential impact is that there can be potentially a significant number of people who acquire tuberculosis.” And where prevention is not possible, quarantine may be an option.

“Almost all of the cases where quarantine has been enforced in the last decade have been for TB,” said Allison Abell, an epidemiologist with the Department of State Health Services. “Nowadays in Texas almost every time quarantine is imposed, it is going to be for TB.”

AVIAN FLU
As of Nov. 17, the World Health Organization reported 67 avian flu-related deaths worldwide and a total of 130 laboratory-confirmed reported cases. No cases of the avian flu have been reported in the Valley, according to DHHS. Currently China has two confirmed cases of the avian flu, with a probable third, the Associated Press recently reported. The country has been working to prevent an outbreak, killing and immunizing billions of domestic poultry and stockpiling 60 million units of the bird vaccine, AP reported. More than half of all undocumented Chinese immigrants detained by the Border Patrol were detained in the Valley, officials said.

The Valley has potential to be a hotspot for the disease, Tolentino said, but an outbreak of avian flu would threaten everyone on the planet. “If the disease starts to spread from human-to-human, it won’t be long before it’s everywhere because of how people travel,” Tolentino said. The avian flu, however, has yet to mutate into a human-to-human form, according to health officials. The mortality rate of this disease is quite high and half the people who contract the disease are likely to die, he said. This is partially due to the fact that the virus is adapted to birds’ immune systems, so the human immune system is totally unprepared to fight it. Quarantine measures against this flu might be imposed if it were detected in the Valley, said Abell. “It could mutate where it is transmittable human-to-human and then it’s going to get really serious,” Tolentino said of an avian flu outbreak, “The Valley would just be another place in the world.”

ASSESSING THE RISK
Better and amplified screenings for tuberculosis and other diseases, as well as making sure those affected finish their treatments completely are the best ways to deal with TB, said Smith. The CDC, in partnership with federal agencies, works with other health agencies to prepare and understand communicable diseases, Escobedo said. “We are concerned about the introduction of communicable diseases,” Escobedo said, “For those reasons we look for ways to do research to better understand the patterns of the disease transmission and address diseases from a binational perspective.”

he Old Paths

2009-03-29T13:54:00.000-05:00

I liked the old paths, when
Moms were at home.
Dads were at work.
Brothers went into the army.
And sisters got married BEFORE having children!

Crime did not pay;
Hard work did;
And people knew the difference.

Moms could cook;
Dads would work;
Children would behave.

Husbands were loving;
Wives were supportive;
And children were polite.

Women wore the jewelry;
And Men wore the pants.
Women looked like ladies;
Men looked like gentlemen;
And children looked decent.

People loved the truth,
And hated a lie;
They came to church to get IN,
Not to get OUT!

Hymns sounded Godly;
Sermons sounded helpful;
Rejoicing sounded normal;
And crying sounded sincere.

Cursing was wicked;
Drugs were for illness;
And divorce was unthinkable.

The flag was honored;
America was beautiful;
And God was welcome!

We read the Bible in public;
Prayed in school;
And preached from house to house
To be called an American was worth dying for;
To be called a Christian was worth living for;
To be called a traitor was a shame!

Preachers preached because they had a message;
And Christians rejoiced because they had the VICTORY!
Preachers preached from the Bible;
Singers sang from the heart;
And sinners turned to the Lord to be SAVED!

A new birth meant a new life;
Salvation meant a changed life;
Following Christ led to eternal life.

Being a preacher meant you proclaimed the word of God;
Being a deacon meant you would serve the Lord;
Being a Christian meant you would live for Jesus;
And being a sinner meant someone was praying for you!

Laws were based on the Bible;
Homes read the Bible;
And churches taught the Bible.

God was worshiped;
Christ was exalted;
And the Holy Spirit was respected..

Church was where you found Christians
on the Lord ' s day, rather than in the garden,
on the creek bank, on the golf course,
Or being entertained somewhere else.

I still like the old paths the best!

Quote for the day

2009-03-29T13:53:00.000-05:00

Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply.

If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.

If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.

If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.

If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.

She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.'

So - if you give her crap, you will receive more shit than any one human being can handle.

Love and appreciate all the women in your life.

EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS

2009-03-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

PRINT OUT AND KEEP IT WITH YOUR BIBLE...USE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY!

A HANDY REFERENCE LIST OF EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS:

When in sorrow...................................call: John 14
When men fail you...............................call: Psalm 27
When you have sinned............................call: Psalm 51
When you worry...........................call: Matthew 6:19-34
When you are in danger..........................call: Psalm 91
When God seems far away........................call: Psalm 139
When your faith needs stirring................call: Hebrews 11
When you are lonely and fearful.................call: Psalm 23
When you grow bitter and critical.......call: I Corinthians 13
When you feel down and out...................call: Romans 8:31
When you want peace and rest............call: Matthew 11:25-30
When the world seems bigger than God............call: Psalm 90
When you want Christian assurance..........call: Romans 8:1-30
When you leave home for labor or travel........call: Psalm 121
When your prayers grow narrow or selfish........call: Psalm 67
When you want courage for a task................call: Joshua 1
When you think of investments and returns........call: Mark 10
If you are depressed............................call: Psalm 27
If your pocketbook is empty.....................call: Psalm 37
If you are losing confidence in people..call: I Corinthians 13
If people seem unkind............................call: John 15
If discouraged about your work.................call: Psalm 126
If self pride/greatness takes hold..............call: Psalm 19
If you want to be fruitful.......................call: John 15
For understanding of Christianity.call: II Corinthians 5:15-19
For a great invention/opportunity..............call: Isaiah 55
For how to get along with fellow men...........call: Romans 12
For Paul's secret to happiness........call: Colossians 3:12-17

ALTERNATE NUMBERS:
For dealing with fear..........................call: Psalm 347
For security.................................call: Psalm 121:3
For assurance..................................call: Mark 8:35
For reassurance.............................call: Psalm 145:18

PLEASE NOTE:
Emergency numbers may be dialed direct. No operator assistance is necessary.
All lines to Heaven are open 24 hours a day!

Feed your FAITH, and DOUBT will starve to death!

A little Humor

2009-03-18T01:18:00.000-05:00

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment
community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection
and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of
celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs.
Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the
Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high
with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a
man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in
show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was
not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-
baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times he still was a
crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, two children, John Dough
and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven.. He is also survived
by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

2009-03-17T01:17:00.000-05:00

A wealthy man decided to go on a safari in Africa. He took his
faithful pet dog along for company. One day the dog starts chasing
butterflies and before long the dog discovers that he is lost.

So, wandering about he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his
direction with the obvious intention of having lunch. The dog
thinks, "OK, I'm in deep kimshee now!" Then he noticed some bones on
the ground close by, and immediately settles down to chew on the
bones with his back to the approaching cat.

Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly, "Boy,
that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around
here?"

Hearing this the leopard halts his attack in mid-stride, as a look of
terror comes over him, and slinks away into the trees. "Whew", says
the leopard.

"That was close. That dog nearly had me."

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a
nearby tree figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade
it for protection from the leopard. So, off he goes. But the dog saw
him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figured that
something must be up.

The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and
strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The leopard is furious
at being made a fool of and says, "Here monkey, hop on my back and
see what's going to happen to that conniving canine."

Now the dog sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back, and
thinks, "What am I going to do now?"

But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his
attackers pretending he hasn't seen them yet ...
................. and just when they get close enough to hear, the
dog says, "Where's that monkey? I sent him off half an hour ago to
bring me another leopard!!"

2009-03-16T01:19:00.000-05:00

NOW that the President has called us to prayer.....
NOW that Congress has called us to prayer.....
NOW that our Governor has called us to prayer....
NOW that the city Mayor has called us to prayer....
NOW that the "liberal" media and most other branches of our American
society have called us to prayer.....
AND NOW that our churches are assembling in special prayer....
"Honorable" Justices of the Supreme Court, I have only one question..
Would it be okay to pray in our schools........??

An American Citizen

2009-03-15T01:17:00.000-05:00

Everyone in Vietnam knew that the restrictions imposed by the rules
of engagement were insane, but only two Air Force officers fell on
their swords in protest.

By Joe Patrick

The war in Vietnam was a strange war, indeed. It was a conflict that
should not have been lost. But the men who ran that war were
politicians and bureaucrats, not military professionals. Men like
Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara and President Lyndon
Baines Johnson, along with Department of Defense bureaucrats,
civilian and military, called all the shots.

America lost her first war ever because bureaucrats 10,000 miles away
from the fighting played a kind of "war monopoly" game, in which the
stakes were not play money but the lives of men sent out to die in
the rice paddies and skies of Vietnam. Called to testify in a civil
suit after the war, McNamara said under oath that he had decided as
early as December 1965 that "the war could not be won militarily."

During the war, President Johnson would talk by telephone to then Air
Force Major John Keeler about what to say during the "Five O'Clock
Follies," the daily press briefing held every afternoon in Saigon. As
Keeler put it, Johnson called so that the press officer could "get
the party line." The political agenda in America was obviously more
important than the bloodshed on the hills around Khe Sanh. Johnson
often bragged, "Those boys can't hit an outhouse without my
permission."

Among the individuals affected by that type of bureaucratic thinking
were a pair of Jacks, Air Force Colonel Jacksel "Jack" Broughton (who
20 years later would serve on the original editorial review board for
Vietnam Magazine) and Air Force General John D. "Jack" Lavelle.

Jack Broughton's story is well-known. While he was serving as vice
commander of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) at Takhli Royal
Thai Air Force Base in 1967, he destroyed gun camera film to save his
pilots from certain conviction at a court-martial. Two of his "Thud"
(Republic F-105D Thunderchief) fighter jocks had been sent out to
bomb a rail line near Cam Pha Harbor in North Vietnam. The harbor
itself was designated as one of McNamara's "sanctuaries," areas that
were supposed to be off-limits for American missions. When AAA (anti-
aircraft artillery) opened up on his aircraft, the pilot of the lead
Thud, Major Ted Tolman, quickly decided that he did not want to
become a POW resident of the Hanoi Hilton. When shot at, he decided
to shoot back. In bringing his Vulcan 20mm cannon to bear on the AAA
gun emplacements on the shore, Tolman's gun camera caught the Soviet
cargo ship Turkestan dead center in his sights.

There is no evidence to this day--no real proof--that any 20mm rounds
hit Turkestan. But it was widely understood that such a violation of
McNamara's sanctuary policy would lead to an automatic court-martial
for Major Tolman and his wingman, Major Lonnie Ferguson. For Jack
Broughton, then acting as commander of the 355th TFW in the temporary
absence of its commander, the answer to the problem was obvious:
destroy the only incriminating evidence, the gun camera film, thus
ensuring that the "wheels"--the Air Force military bureaucrats in
Honolulu, the Philippines and Guam--would not see it.

Pacific Air Force (PACAF) commander General John D. Ryan, who would
later become Air Force chief of staff, initiated court-martial
proceedings against Broughton, Tolman and Ferguson for conspiracy
against the U.S. government. By accepting responsibility for his
pilots, Broughton ensured a "not guilty" finding for them, but he was
convicted on the much lesser charge of destruction of government
property--i.e., the gun camera cassette, which was worth $5.

Broughton appealed his conviction, and the court-martial was voided.
One observer on the Board for the Correction of Military Records
called the court-martial "the grossest example of injustice in
history." As Broughton himself wrote in his book, Going Downtown: The
War Against Hanoi and Washington, "I found it interesting that in the
entire history of the United States flying forces, only one other
officer had ever had a general court-martial set aside and voided.
His name was Billy Mitchell."

Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, a World War I hero and an
outspoken advocate of air power, was court-martialed in 1925 for
publicly condemning the Navy and War departments for "almost
treasonable" neglect of the Army Air Service. He subsequently
resigned from the service and died in 1936. Ten years later he was
rehabilitated in the eyes of the military when, after World War II,
Congress voted him a posthumous medal for his "outstanding pioneer
service...in the field of American military aviation." Today,
Mitchell is honored as one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Air
Force.

Broughton, too, left the Air Force after his court-martial. During
his retirement, he wrote Thud Ridge and Going Downtown, both books
about his experiences as a Thud pilot in Vietnam. While his
rehabilitation was not nearly so dramatic as Billy Mitchell's,
Broughton was returned to Air Force favor. In 1997, three decades
after the Turkestan incident, Air Force Chief of Staff General Ronald
R. Fogleman directed the Air Force to buy 10,000 copies of Thud
Ridge, which, along with 12 other books on the Air Force's basic
suggested reading list, were provided free of charge to all Air Force
officers upon their promotion to captain.

General Jack Lavelle was not so fortunate. Lavelle, who was serving
as the commander of the Seventh Air Force in 1972, told his troops
that they were fighting in a war and were to act and react
accordingly. He urged them to shoot first, ask questions later, and
destroy enemy military targets.

As crazy as it may sound, those orders were in direct violation of
Washington's bureaucratic rules. As General William C. Westmoreland,
the longtime U.S. military commander in Vietnam, related in his
memoirs: "In 1965, we observed the construction of the first surface-
to-air (SAM) sites in North Vietnam, and the military sought
permission to attack them before they were completed to save American
casualties. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs
John McNaughton ridiculed the idea.

"'You don't think the North Vietnamese are going to use them!' he
scoffed [to Lavelle's predecessor, Seventh Air Force Commander
General Joseph H. Moore]. 'Putting them in is just a political ploy
by the Russians to appease Hanoi.' It was all a matter of signals,
said the clever civilian theorist in Washington. We won't bomb the
SAM sites, which signals to North Vietnam not to use them." But our
enemies were not playing Washington's silly games. A month later the
United States lost its first aircraft to a SAM.

By 1971, when General Lavelle assumed command of the Seventh Air
Force, President Johnson, McNamara and McNaughton were long gone.
Johnson had been replaced by Richard Nixon; Melvin Laird was
secretary of defense; and Admiral Thomas Moorer, a naval aviator and
World War II combat veteran, was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. McNaughton had been killed in a plane crash in 1967.
Nevertheless, many of the restrictions imposed by the Johnson-
McNamara "ROE" (rules of engagement) were still in effect in Vietnam.

Absolutely forbidden targets included: any MiG base designated as a
sanctuary, a MiG fighter that did not have its landing gear
retracted, any MiG fighter not showing hostile intent (no fighter
jock ever figured that one out), and any SAM site not in operation. A
SAM had to be fired at a U.S. plane before the plane could fire back,
a dicey situation at best. There were more restrictions, but the
rules listed here were the ones that frustrated U.S. fighter pilots
the most and formed the backdrop for the Lavelle affair.

Until now, the details of Lavelle's story have not been published.
Lavelle fought in three wars, rose to the rank of four-star general,
served as the commander of the Seventh Air Force in Vietnam and was
concurrently appointed the deputy commander of Military Assistance
Command, Vietnam (MACV), the highest military headquarters in
Vietnam.

At his headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, near Saigon, Lavelle's
first order of business each morning was to study the combat losses
inflicted on "his boys" the day before. He sent word to every fighter
unit in the Seventh Air Force that if their planes were shot at, they
were to shoot back. They shouldn't wait for the SAMs to become
operational and start shooting their "flying telephone poles." The
fighter pilots were told to hit transporters and SAM sites under
construction.

Changes in North Vietnamese air defense tactics had made such pre-
emptive actions essential. As a subcommittee of the House Armed
Services Committee would later report: "In late 1971, the North
Vietnamese took several actions which vastly improved and augmented
their tracking capability. The most important was netting of their
early warning and surveillance radar and their anti-aircraft
artillery radar with SAM missiles. In that netted mode, the Fan Song
(radars) which alerted U.S. pilots to the surveillance never came up,
as the surveillance could all be conducted with the other radars.
General Lavelle believed that, with those mutually supporting radar
systems transmitting tracking data to the firing sites, the SAM
missile system was activated at U.S. aircraft at any time they were
over North Vietnam."

Even though in 1972 many in Washington knew that the 4-year-old
Johnson-McNamara nonsensical rules of engagement were strategically,
operationally and tactically counterproductive, no one, civilian or
military, made any effort to change them. Therefore, when Jack
Lavelle sent that "shoot back" order to his troops, he got in very
hot water. As the official U.S. Air Force history of the war
laconically states, "General Lavelle was recalled from his post in
April 1972, charged with having authorized certain 'protective
reaction' strikes beyond those permitted by the rules of engagement."

While Broughton reported to military bureaucrats, Lavelle was
answerable to both military and civilian officials, and it was
primarily the bureaucratic politicians in the U.S. Senate, searching
for a scapegoat to placate their anti-war constituents, who
ultimately did him in.

Today, President William "Bill" Clinton, an anti-war protester during
the Vietnam era, has given the military express permission to shoot
back if fired upon, the crime of which Lavelle was accused. But the
mood was different in 1972. The gut-wrenching, turbulent 1960s were
over, but the anti-war protests continued. Jane Fonda was back from
Hanoi and would later charge, with the agreement of many fellow
protesters: "We have no reason to believe U.S. Air Force officers
tell the truth. They are professional killers."

One of the top hits on music charts at the time was "Country Joe"
McDonald's song that satirically slammed young Americans who felt
honor-bound to tread the killing fields and rice paddies of Vietnam.
One line of the song in particular stood out for many Americans: "Be
the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box."
Ironically, that was precisely what General Lavelle was trying to
avoid with his "protective reaction" strikes to safeguard American
lives.

But saving American lives in far-off Vietnam was the least of the
concerns for the anti-war cabal in Congress. Pleasing the voters who
kept them in office had top priority. One of the leading members of
this faction was Iowa Senator Harold Hughes. An ex-alcoholic
preacher, he was not only anti-military and anti-Vietnam but also a
close supporter of the flee-to-Canada faction and had even joined in
an anti-war rally outside the Pentagon. It was Hughes who would lead
the hue and cry.

The catalyst was a complaint letter to Hughes from one of his
constituents, Sergeant Lonnie Franks, a disgruntled 23-year-old
noncommissioned officer in Lavelle's command. Franks, whose identity
was initially concealed by Congress but was eventually leaked by the
New York Times, charged that General Lavelle was covering up illegal
strikes on enemy air defense positions under the guise of "protective
reaction." That letter--along with the behind-the-scenes connivance
of Air Force Chief of Staff General John Ryan, who had been involved
in Broughton's downfall--would bring Lavelle's distinguished 32-year
career with the Air Force to an abrupt end.

The specific accusations that brought Lavelle back from Vietnam to
Washington, D.C., to face congressional hearings were that he had
filed four false reports and had authorized 28 unauthorized bombing
raids (out of a total 25,000 sorties flown) against enemy air defense
positions. Accepting responsibility for 20 such strikes, Lavelle
said, "Even though I did not do it and did not have any knowledge of
the detail, it was my command and I should have known."

The Lavelle hearings in the House of Representatives lasted only one
day, June 12, 1972, and generally went well. In closed session as a
result of security constraints, U.S. Representative Bill Dickson (R-
Alabama) looked directly at Lavelle and said: "I am not sure why we
are here today. But I think, if I had been in your position, I would
have done the very same thing. And if that means stretching the rules
is part of it, then good for you."

But the Senate hearings, which lasted from September 11 to September
22, 1972, were another matter. Ostensibly, the Senate Armed Services
Committee hearing was to determine what rank Lavelle should hold upon
retirement. Major general and rear admiral (two stars) are the
highest permanent ranks in the military. Three-star (lieutenant
general and vice admiral) and four-star (general and admiral) ranks
are temporary and are held only when occupying a position calling for
those ranks. To carry three-star or four-star ranks into retirement
requires a special dispensation that is usually routinely granted.
But that would not be true for Lavelle.

The routine Senate hearing turned into an inquisition. All that was
missing were torches burning in wall brackets and a torture rack in
the background to make it a scene right out of a Hollywood B movie.
For more than a week and a half, Senate committee members hurled
questions at Lavelle; at Admiral Moorer, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs; and at Army General Creighton Abrams, the overall U.S.
commander in Vietnam, who had been called home from Saigon to
testify. At one point, Lavelle told an old friend: "I wish they'd
court-martial me. Then everything would come out." He never explained
what he meant by "everything." After his retirement, however, he did
record an oral history of his tribulations, but his family has
decided to indefinitely withhold the tape from public release.

As if the Senate inquisition was not bad enough, a media circus
developed as well. Fed by leaks from Senator Hughes and interviews
with Sergeant Franks, the media turned the matter into a cause
célèbre, reflecting the passions and deep divisions in American
society over the Vietnam War.

One exchange between Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona,
an Air Force Reserve major general, and General Lavelle was
revealing. "You didn't have the authority to hit a MiG because it was
sitting on an airfield below the 19th parallel?" asked
Goldwater. "Yes, sir, that's right," replied Lavelle.

"It's a hell of a way to run a war," responded Goldwater. But before
he could say more he was cut off by Democratic Senator John Stennis
of Mississippi, the committee chairman. The truth was evidently too
painful for the senators to hear.

With a sinking feeling, Jack Lavelle realized he was about to be
sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. A few days later, he
was told that he would lose his four stars and retire as a two-star
major general. For the first time in history, Congress had demoted a
high-ranking Air Force officer. Old friend John Dyas later went to
see General Ryan, the Air Force chief of staff, to ask his help in
getting Lavelle reinstated to at least three-star level. Ryan
refused.

While on the surface, Lavelle's relief from duty and his demotion
appear to be the work of a pernicious Congress (which three years
later would break its solemn pledges and betray an entire country,
the Republic of Vietnam, leaving it at the mercy of its enemies), the
truth is far more complex. Civilian bureaucrats may have played the
leading part in this sad story, but military bureaucrats and
interservice rivalries played a major role as well.

To outsiders, the United States had one Air Force during the Vietnam
War. But in reality there were three: the transport pilots and crews
of Military Airlift Command (MAC), the fighter pilots of Tactical Air
Command (TAC), and the bomber pilots of Strategic Air Command (SAC).
The rivalry between TAC and SAC was particularly intense during the
war, and it played a major part in the Broughton and Lavelle affairs.

Individuals who wore the label "fighter pilot" were very disdainful
of pilots who were not flying fighter aircraft. Sometimes they were
downright nasty toward their brethren of the skies. To them, a bomber
pilot was a "SAC weenie" and a transport pilot was a "trash hauler."
Fighter pilots knew they were regarded as the elite, and they
developed tremendous egos.

But when the U.S. military entered the age of "massive retaliation"
after World War II, SAC, charged with the nuclear weapons delivery
mission, and its bomber generals like Curtis LeMay came to dominate
the Air Force. The bomber generals had little faith in tactical air
power. They believed that the heavy bomber could win any war--as, in
their eyes, had been the case in Europe in World War II and, with the
delivery of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the case in
the Pacific as well. With the development of the hydrogen nuclear
bomb and Boeing B-52 strategic bomber, SAC became even more powerful.

The TAC conventional-war missions of air-to-air combat and close air
support of ground troops, perfected at great cost in World War II and
Korea, were considered to be of little value in the nuclear age. As
Jack Broughton put it, the Air Force had become "SACumcized." Even
the head of TAC, General Walter C. Sweeny, was a bomber general and a
SAC disciple.

But in Vietnam nuclear devices had no significance. It was an old-
fashioned, conventional war. Tactical air power was reasserting
itself in Vietnam. Not only were TAC aircraft like Broughton's F-105s
taking bombs to the enemy, TAC fighters were shooting down MiGs as
well.

Although TAC had the major combat role in Vietnam, SAC bomber
generals still ran the Air Force and were the ones--PACAF General
John Ryan in particular--who brought Broughton, the consummate TAC
fighter jock, to trial. The role they played in General Lavelle's
demotion is less well-known, however.

Sergeant Lonnie Franks' complaint letter to Senator Hughes about
General Lavelle finally ended up on the desk of bomber general Ryan,
by then the Air Force chief of staff. (A bomber pilot in World War
II, Ryan had had a finger shot off while on a mission over Germany
and was known, behind his back, as "Three-Fingered Jack.") Within 24
hours, Ryan had dispatched Lt. Gen. Louis J. Wilson, the Air Force
inspector general, to Seventh Air Force headquarters at Tan Son Nhut.

The bomber generals had taken the first step to bring down Jack
Lavelle. They believed he had committed the ultimate crime--not the
unauthorized "protective reaction" strikes but, in their eyes, the
more heinous offense of defecting to TAC.

Jack Broughton says the first time he met Jack Lavelle was at Yokota
Air Base in Japan. "As I recall," Broughton said, "he was a very
intense individual. He was always rushing from place to place. He was
really 'Mr. SAC.'" But after he assumed command of the Seventh Air
Force, Lavelle had a change of heart. "I can only say with pride I
saw him do a 180-degree turn," recalled Broughton, "and get back with
the fighter pilot people."

"There is something about a fighter pilot," Broughton wrote in Thud
Ridge, "that is both unique and hard to describe. Tell him you are
going to send him to hell, and that things will be rougher than he's
ever seen, and he will fight for the chance to go." That's the kind
of man Jack Lavelle was. He was the antithesis of the "good old boy"
military bureaucrat, and the military bureaucrats then running the
Air Force could never forgive him for that.

And there was another thing for which they could never forgive
Lavelle. One anecdote tells the tale. In Vietnam the heavily bomb-
laden B-52s of SAC were referred to as BUFFs, or "Big Ugly Fat F--s."
That sobriquet so angered a bomber general on Guam, the headquarters
of SAC's Eighth Air Force, that he issued an official order, saying
that B-52s would no longer be called BUFFs by Air Force personnel.
Jack Lavelle called the bomber general--a man he knew well--and
laughed at the nickname as well as the order. Lavelle, a former SAC
leader himself, was forever after considered a turncoat. Thus, when
General Lavelle later came under fire for unauthorized protective
reaction strikes to safeguard the lives of his pilots, the bomber
generals at the Pentagon, instead of closing ranks in his defense,
betrayed him.

Of the 25 people interviewed for this article, not all liked Jack
Lavelle personally. But they all agreed he was a "workaholic,"
a "perfectionist," a "stern, but fair, disciplinarian," a man
who "lived by the book" and who "never tried to outsmart the system."
But in return, the system did him in.

Living in Oakton, Va., with his wife, Josephine, and family, Jack
Lavelle tried to make the best of his military retirement. He had
nothing to do for the first time in 32 years. He puttered around the
house, played a lot of golf and gave some thought to writing his
memoirs but then rejected the idea.

On July 11, 1979, Jack Lavelle dropped dead on a golf course in
Virginia at age 62. Attending physicians gave the official reason for
death as a heart attack. But the real reason was more likely a broken
heart, shattered by his supposed comrades-in-arms seven years
earlier.

----------------------------------------------------------
An Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War, Joe Patrick is a frequent
contributor to Vietnam Magazine. Suggestions for further reading: The
United States Air Force in Southeast Asia 1961¬1973, edited by Carl
Berger (Office of Air Force History); and Going Downtown: The War
Against Hanoi and Washington, by Jack Broughton (Orion).

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

A matter of integrity?

Before his death on October 27, 1983, Air Force General John D. Ryan
gave an oral history interview for the Office of Air Force History on
his 35-year military career, including his involvement in the Lavelle
affair. Excerpted here are statements from that interview, which took
place May 15-17, 1979. Questions are posed by "H" who is not
otherwise identified. General Ryan's responses are labeled "R."

H: I think this would be a good time to at least start on General
[John D. "Jack"] Lavelle's episode in which you were involved.
According to a 28 June 1978 Air Force Times article, Senator William
Proxmire demanded that General Lavelle be court-martialed for his
action....How was the Air Force able to pacify such critics as
Proxmire?

R: I don't think the Air Force ever pacified Proxmire on any subject.
I will just give you a rundown on the Lavelle case as I see it, and
then you can ask any questions you want. I have known Jack Lavelle
for a very long time. He is a very capable, able officer....We put
him out at PACAF [Pacific Air Force in Honolulu] as Deputy Commander
of PACAF in a three-star slot. When, I guess it was Lou Clay came out
of Vietnam, I recommended Jack be promoted to four stars, and we sent
him to Vietnam as Commander of Seventh Air Force, and he did a very
fine job there. He is a very capable man.

I got a letter from Senator [Stuart] Symington saying he had received
a letter from boys stationed at Udorn [Royal Thai Air Force Base]
saying that they were falsifying reports. That was the first I had
heard of it. I send my Inspector General out to find out if this were
true. He found out it was true. When [General Louis L.] Wilson came
back and reported to me, I wired Lavelle and told him to come in. He
came in and I asked him what the hell was going on. Here is what the
Inspector General found out, that they were falsifying reports on his
orders. He admitted that he had told them to falsify the reports. I
said, "Well. I can't leave you in command, and I am recommending that
you come out of command." That was on a Sunday. I took it up to the
Secretary of the Air Force the next day....

As far as hitting unauthorized targets in North Vietnam, that wasn't
Air Force responsibility. The chain of command is Secretary of
Defense to CINCPAC [Commander in Chief, Pacific Command] to PACAF to
Seventh Air Force. My whole point was that here is a commander who
had told troops to lie, and I just couldn't tolerate that....Inasmuch
as he had served outstandingly as a lieutenant general, I recommended
he retire in the grade of lieutenant general.

By this time the news media got into it, and the Secretary of Defense
and everybody backed off. Of course the news media were not in on the
lying; it was unauthorized bombing. Well, no one touched that with a
10-foot pole. [Secretary of Defense Melvin] Laird shoved it onto me.
Well, there had been unauthorized bombing, no question about it. That
was what all the hullabaloo was about, the unauthorized bombing.
That's the story. The Senate Armed Services Committee turned down the
recommendation that he be retired as a lieutenant general, and he was
retired as a two-star....

H: General Lavelle remarked in his interview that the military went
to extremes in bending over backwards to avert any notion that the
services weren't responding to every wish of their civilian
superiors...and felt that the senior military leaders should have
voiced opposition to the ridiculous restrictions placed on them while
attempting to fight this war. How do you feel about this?

R: I certainly agree. There [were] a lot of ridiculous restrictions
put on us in fighting the war in Southeast Asia, but the military
leadership in Washington was very vocal both to the Secretary of
Defense and the President of the United States against those
restrictions. If Jack feels they could have been more vocal, that is
his opinion.

H: According to General Lavelle again, "I think the senior
military...were so frightened that anyone would get the impression
the military was taking over or the military was not following
completely civilian rule or civilian control, that they withheld
direct confrontation just because they didn't want anyone to get the
impression that the military would resist civilian control....For
instance when Ryan called me back and fired me, his total discussion
for the first hour or two was 'The Air Force had followed civilian
instruction, had done what they were told' although 'they didn't like
the job.' He also noted that 'paramount in his mind was somebody was
liable to get the impression that the military is not following
directives.'" Do you feel the military went overboard in trying to
make such an impression?

R: No. I don't think the military went overboard. When you are in the
military, when a decision is made, you follow the decision. We tried
to get those directives changed through conferences with the
Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense and with the
President and the National Security Advisor. We were unable to get
those decisions changed. I certainly take exception that the first
hour when he got called back that this was the gist of our
conversation. The gist of the conversation was that he told my crews
to lie.

Hell, his unauthorized bombing, that wasn't my concern, directly,
because I was not, as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, in the
operational chain of command....I did not recommend General Lavelle's
firing because of his unauthorized bombing of North Vietnam. I
recommended that he be relieved because he told my crew members to
lie. It's just that simple.

Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr.

2009-03-15T01:15:00.000-05:00

The entire North Vietnamese Army was on the move, but that
didn't stop the Air Force's search and rescue helicopters.

By Colonel Darrell D. Whitcomb, U.S. Air Force Reserve (ret.)

Editor's note: The June 1997 issue of Vietnam features U.S. Air Force
Colonel Darrell Whitcomb's story of the B-52 bomber strike against
the North Vietnamese during the massive 1972 Eastertide Offensive,
the shootdown of a Douglas EB-66 electronic warfare aircraft, and the
downing of "Blueghost 39," an air cavalry helicopter (see "Heroic
Huey Search-and-Rescue Mission" on TheHistoryNet). As in the classic
Japanese movie Rashmonen, where a tragic incident is told from many
different perspectives, Colonel Whitcomb, a former forward air
controller (FAC), tells the many-sided story of the attempts to
rescue two downed American airmen in the spring of 1972.

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton (call sign Bat-21 Bravo)
was the navigator of the EB-66 that was shot down while leading the B-
52 bomber strike. First Lieutenant Mark Clark was the navigator of a
North American Rockwell OV-10 FAC aircraft shot down in an early
attempt to extract Hambleton. The efforts to locate and rescue both
men--later sensationalized in a 1988 movie, Bat-21, starring Gene
Hackman, Dannie Glover and Jerry Reed (none of whom
were "particularly believable" in their roles, according to one
reviewer)--actually involved separate Army, Air Force and Navy
operations. What follows is Whitcomb's account of the Air Force
operations.

At approximately 3:15 p.m.on April 6, U.S. Air Force Captain Fred
Boli took off from the American air base at Da Nang in a prop-driven
Douglas A-1 Skyraider fighter-bomber (known as a "Sandy"). With Boli,
whose call sign was Sandy 01, were three other A-1s, Sandys 02, 05
and 06, and two Sikorsky HH-53 rescue helicopters (known as "Jolly
Greens"), Jolly Greens 67 and 60. A few minutes later two more Jolly
Greens, led by Captain Mark Schibler, took off as backups.

The task force had two possible objectives. Colonel Hambleton, the EB-
66 survivor, had now been on the ground four days and needed to be
resupplied. Therefore, one A-1 (Boli's) was rigged to drop him a
Madden resupply kit with food, water, ammunition and extra radios. A
rescue attempt could also be made if Boli, the Sandy leader, felt the
situation warranted it. It would be Boli's call.

Lt. Col. Bill Harris, commander of the Jolly Green squadron, was
concerned about the mission. Harris knew that there was still likely
to be a significant enemy presence around the two downed Americans.
He discussed the situation with his commander, Colonel Cecil
Muirhead, in Saigon. Muirhead and his staff were also worried and
were monitoring the ongoing rescue effort very closely.

Harris had intended to fly as aircraft commander on the lead Jolly
Green during the April 6 mission. But he had participated in one of
the earlier pickup attempts, when the choppers had been badly shot
up, and his squadron mates insisted that he had already done his
share. When Harris reluctantly stood aside, Captain Peter Chapman
stepped forward and insisted that he be allowed to fly as aircraft
commander on the mission. Harris was deeply impressed with Chapman's
volunteering, especially since

Chapman was not next in the duty rotation and, in fact, had orders to
return to the United States to fly with the presidential air unit at
Andrews Air Force Base, in Maryland. But Chapman's attitude was
typical of all of the men in his squadron, who were ready to risk
their lives to save others. With Chapman on Jolly Green 67 were 1st
Lt. John H. Call, III, co-pilot; Tech. Sgt. Roy D. Prater, mechanic;
Sergeant William R. Pearson and Tech. Sgt. Allen J. Avery,
pararescuemen; and Sergeant James H. Alley, photographer.

The gaggle of airplanes proceeded to a holding point southeast of
Quang Tri, where Jolly Greens 67 and 60 and Sandys 05 and 06 circled
while Sandys 01 and 02 entered the battle area to assess how
dangerous it might be to attempt a pickup. There, they took over from
the two FACs on station, Captain Harold Icke (call sign Bilk 11) and
Captain Gary Ferentchak (call sign Nail 59). Icke and Ferentchak had
been working the area jointly and finishing up the preparatory
airstrikes. The two backup Jolly Greens were on hold at a position
east of Hue, just off the South Vietnamese coast.

Boli noticed a friendly tank position approximately six kilometers
south of the survivors and decided to make the final holding point
for the helicopters right over them. But he was very concerned about
the five enemy battalions that intelligence had told him were
directly around the survivors. He spent the next 30 minutes trolling
the planned ingress route for the helicopters, using his 7.62mm
minigun to strafe anything that looked suspicious. Neither Boli, in
Sandy 01, nor Sandy 02 observed any appreciable enemy reaction, but
they did receive some enemy surface-to-air-missile (SAM) signals on
the radio while they were checking out the area.

At 4:15 p.m., Boli directed the two FACs to terminate the airstrikes
so that he could overfly the survivors' immediate area. He requested
that Icke and Ferentchak as well as Sandy 02 and both Hambleton and
Clark, on the ground, all listen on the same radio frequency and
watch while he flew low around the survivors' positions. Boli also
tried to drop the Madden supply kit to Hambleton, but the arming wire
on the device failed and the kit did not release from the aircraft.
Boli did not know that, however, until he landed back at Da Nang.

Boli also strafed a few suspected NVA locations with his 20mm cannons
and had Sandy 02 drop cluster bombs on other areas, widening his area
of search as he did so. Boli directed the FACs to hit several areas
with more airstrikes. While all of that was going on, Boli ordered
Jolly Green 60 to hold southeast of Quang Tri and ordered Jolly Green
67 and Sandys 05 and 06 to proceed to the final holding point.

As the aircraft were repositioning, Captain Boli began his final
briefing for all the participants in the rescue attempt. They would
first try to pick up Hambleton, he said, then--depending on how the
situation developed--they would try to extract Clark. The two would
be picked up either by Jolly Green 67 or one of the other choppers.
But the briefing was rudely interrupted by a SAM call, which forced
all of the aircraft to dive for the deck to avoid the missiles. Boli
noted that the SAM launches were not accompanied by any anti-aircraft
artillery (AAA, or triple-A).

At 5:10 p.m., Sandy 03 joined the force with a full load of white
phosphorus smoke, which could be used to lay a smoke screen. Boli
finished the plan briefing--Sandy 02 would lead Jolly Green 67 in
with a series of smoke rockets to pick up Hambleton and then Clark,
in that order, if the area was quiet. Sandy 02 would then join with
Sandys 05 and 06 in a "daisy chain" around the Jolly Green to provide
suppressive fire. Sandy 03 would lay a series of well-placed smoke
screens and then join the daisy chain. Sandy 01 would orbit above to
direct the operation and call ground fire.

At 5:15 p.m., Boli determined that all requested targets had been
struck to his satisfaction. He had the FACs and remaining strikes
hold high and dry while he re-entered the survivors' immediate area
to brief them and take one last look. He reviewed the plan and
situation in his mind. He knew that it could be a trap, but the
preparation had been thorough, the trolling and probing had been
intense, and the enemy response so far had been slack. It was time to
go!

Boli directed the task force to execute the pickup. Sandy 02
immediately laid down his marks for the helicopters to follow to
Hambleton. Sandy 03 put down his smoke screen. Sandys 02, 05 and 06
began the daisy chain to protect the vulnerable helicopter and began
dropping cluster bombs and strafing with their 20mm cannons anything
that looked in any way threatening. A slight wind shift caused some
of the smoke screen to partly obscure Hambleton's position. But the
confusion was quickly resolved, and the force pressed on. Overhead,
in the swirling mass of airplanes, Captain Ferentchak took out his
camera and began to take pictures. He wanted to record what he
thought was going to be a historic rescue.

As Jolly Green 67 crossed the river near Cam Lo, the helicopter began
to take ground fire from all quarters. Seconds later, as it
approached to within 100 meters of Hambleton, Boli called for the
survivor to pop his red smoke so that the Jolly Green crew could
locate him. Almost simultaneously, someone on Jolly Green 67
called, "I'm hit." It was later determined that they also had
added, "... they got a fuel line." Hambleton heard all of this on his
survival radio and, realizing the gravity of the situation, did not
pop his smoke and reveal his position.

The crew of Jolly Green 67 fought to control their damaged aircraft.
Boli had briefed the helicopter crews that if they began taking
ground fire, they were to immediately exit the area on a southeast
heading. Realizing their desperate situation, the crew began to turn
their craft to escape the cauldron of withering fire. The North
Vietnamese gunners seemed to increase the intensity of their fire.

Boli ordered the other Sandys to cover the wounded Jolly Green, and
he began strafing in front of the lumbering helicopter as it tried to
gain speed. But instead of turning southeast as briefed, the crew
began heading due east, toward the enemy concentrations north of the
river nearby. Apparently one of the crew members on the Jolly Green
was holding down his microphone transmit button, since numerous calls
directing the chopper to "Turn south, Jolly, turn right!" were
blocked. The crew finally turned south about one kilometer east of
the planned route after Boli warned them not to cross over a village
full of enemy troops. As the Jolly Green crew made their turn, Boli
flew up behind them and strafed the enemy soldiers.

Jolly Green 67 overshot its turn and took up a heading to the
southwest. Boli ordered the chopper to turn back to the left. Someone
else came on the radio and told the chopper to turn right. Boli tells
the story from there: "Jolly hesitated, and again I ordered, 'No!
Turn left Jolly, turn south.' He initiated the turn, and I was about
to order him to climb when, as I passed on a strafe pass, I observed
a fire suddenly break out between the middle of the left engine and
the main rotor. Immediately pieces flew off of the tail rotor and
struck the main rotor, causing it to disintegrate. Jolly Green 67
continued to roll left and crashed on his left side about 1_
kilometers south of Nail 38 Bravo's [Lieutenant Clark's] position.
Fire immediately spread throughout the aircraft. No beepers were ever
heard.... The time was 1740." On the tactical frequency, Boli began
calling: "Jolly's down! Jolly's down!"

Jolly Green 67 lay on its side, a heap of burning, smoking wreckage.
It would continue to burn and smoke for several days, with
intermittent explosions of the ordnance on board. The fire would
become so hot that some of the metal would melt into the ground.
There were no survivors and there would be no search and rescue
attempt. Instead, the names of six more Americans--Chapman, Call,
Prater, Pearson, Avery and Alley--were added to the mounting bill for
Hambleton.

Boli conducted a roll call of his task force. All others were
present. Captain Schibler, leading the two backup helicopters,
monitored all of this and immediately began to move his two aircraft
to the holding point, where he encountered the rest of the force. The
two groups of aircraft quickly joined into an orbiting aircraft and
tried to sort out the disaster. All the pilots agreed that there were
apparently no survivors of Jolly Green 67 and that another attempt to
rescue Hambleton and Clark did not appear justified at that time,
since there was still a strong enemy presence in the area.

As the task force leader, it was Boli's call. He agreed that the area
was just too hot; they would abort the mission. Boli then turned on-
scene command over to Captain Icke, with another list of targets to
be struck, told the survivors to remain hidden, and accompanied his
shaken force back to base.

Back at Da Nang, the men of the rescue forces were stunned by the
tragic loss of. Jolly Green 67 and its crew. Colonel Harris was very
upset. The loss of Jolly Green 67 confirmed his earlier fears that
the search area was just too dangerous for helicopters. Once again,
Harris called Colonel Muirhead in Saigon; this time Harris told him
that they had to find another way.

Muirhead agreed with Boli's decision and Harris' recommendations to
terminate the rescue attempts by helicopter. He then notified his
superiors that "all reasonable actions had been accomplished," and
that the area was just too dangerous for a helicopter pickup.

In their hiding places near Cam Lo, the two survivors had been
witnesses to Jolly Green's downing. Lieutenant Clark later recalled
that there had been so much firing going on that he could not
distinguish who was firing at whom. But as the Jolly Green passed
over him heading south, he could tell that it was not gaining
altitude. When he heard it crash, Clark was devastated. His immediate
thought was: "I really cocked this up. Six more guys dying because I %
$&$$&* up." And then the realization set in that he was not going to
be picked up that day. Clark felt desperately lonely.

Colonel Hambleton--Bat 21 Bravo--cried for the six brave men who had
lost their lives lost trying to save his own. Although he was tired,
hungry and demoralized, the 53-year-old navigator resolved then and
there, "Hell, I'm going to get out of this, regardless."

Hambleton and Clark did get out. But not by helicopter. No more of
the vulnerable choppers would be sent in. Instead, a small ground
team was dispatched commanded by U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Andy Anderson
and led by Navy SEAL Lieutenant Tom Norris. Within a week, the team
would infiltrate behind enemy lines to rescue the two downed flyers.
It was a risky and dangerous mission, but it got done. The two lucky
fliers returned home as heroes.

Nothing could be done, however, for the brave crew of Jolly Green 67.
They were lost forever, part of the larger cost of the war. It would
be 22 years before their remains would be found and returned to the
United States.

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

Now a captain for Delta Airlines, Air Force Colonel Darrell D.
Whitcomb logged 1,875 combat hours as a cargo pilot and FAC during
the Vietnam War. Suggestions for further reading: The Rescue of Bat
21, by Darrell D. Whitcomb (forthcoming); BAT-21, by William C.
Anderson; and "SEALS Shadowy Rescue," by Dale Andrade, Vietnam
Magazine, December 1990.

2009-03-15T01:13:00.000-05:00

1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II was killed by the
Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was
killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American
killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air
Corps. . . So much for allies.

2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He
was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his
age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress)

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was Called
CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's
45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train
was named "Amerika." All three were soon changed for PR purposes.

4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps.
While completing the required 30 missions your chance of being killed
was 71%.

5. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter
pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance Japanese ace
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a
passenger on a cargo plane.

6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round
with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had
different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting
the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers
instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction.
Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the
end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was
definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that
stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their
loss rate go down.

7. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was
pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to
Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who
had himself photographed in the act).

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it
wasn't worth the effort.

9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several
Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until
they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the
Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to
fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.

11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian
troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. 21 troops
were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had
been any Japanese on the island.

2009-03-13T08:20:00.001-05:00

By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The online version of a popular board game from many Americans' childhood includes an option for players to choose homosexual marriage and child-rearing as a way of life.

Through the Shockwave.com website, even children can download and play a free trial version of The Game of Life, the first game ever created by Mr. Milton Bradley in 1860.

The player's first option in the online version is to choose a persona based on pictures that clearly depict men and women. Shortly thereafter, the game invites players to choose a spouse, regardless of the potential spouse's sex.

One concerned mother wrote to WND about her experience with downloading the game to play with her daughter.

"You know how kids are," the mother told WND. "My daughter noticed right away (even before I did) and clicked on one of the girls instead of one of the men and then asked, 'Mom, how come I can marry a woman?' And then that led into a lot more questions that, quite frankly, I was not ready to talk to my 6-year-old about."

WND followed the mother's example and played a game as "Jennifer," who chose to marry another woman. The course of the game eventually added four children to WND's lesbian couple.

The mother claims to have posted an objection on the game's review board, only to have it removed by an administrator.

"I went back to the web site and left a very respectful review of the game just stating that this kind of thing should be left out of kids' games, and the Shockwave.com administrator removed my post, stating it was inappropriate," the mother told WND. "I had no idea how insidious they were being with pushing the homosexual agenda."

WND again followed the mother's example, posting the following comment under the screen name "newseditor1":

"Your guidelines ask us to 'keep your language safe for the kids,' yet here's a game where children may choose homosexual marriage and child-rearing," WND wrote. "Many sections of society accept this as normative, but many also would consider this too mature a theme for children. Others would consider this downright offensive. Is it appropriate to include, for example, lesbianism in this game?"

Shortly thereafter, WND's comment was posted, but the word "homosexual" was altered to "****sexual," presumably because the stand-alone prefix "homo" is sometimes used in a derogatory fashion.

WND sought comment from Hasbro, the company that now owns the rights to Milton Bradley games, but received no response.

The original 1860 Milton Bradley game, known as the Checkered Game of Life, was completely redesigned in 1960, bearing almost no resemblance to the original. The new game board included the winding track, spinner and plastic buildings familiar to many.

The redesign also included car game pieces that could be filled with plastic pegs representing a player's growing "family." The board game did not prevent players in any way from placing two pink or two blue pegs in the front seat, thus depicting a homosexual couple.

2009-03-06T12:09:00.000-06:00

(I am glad to see the court at least appear that they are going to respect the voters' right to ammend their constitution.)

The prospects of same-sex marriage in California grew dimmer Thursday, when two Supreme Court justices who helped create the right for gays to marry in last year's historic decision expressed deep reservations about attempts to strike down a statewide referendum passed last fall to ban the practice. "You would have us choose between these two rights: the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change their constitution," said Justice Joyce L. Kennard, one of those two key judges. "You ask us to willy-nilly disregard the right of the people to change the constitution of the state of California. But all political power is inherent in the people of California."

The justices created the right to marry same-sex partners in California last year in a sweeping 4-3 decision. But in November, Californians went to the polls to amend the constitution to prohibit gay marriage. The amendment passed with 52% of the vote, but protests spread throughout the state in the days immediately after the vote. Several groups sued, arguing that stripping away the right to marriage amounted to such a serious change to the constitution that it should require more than a simple majority vote.

Chief Justice Ronald George, the Republican justice who authored last year's opinion, appeared to agree that the barrier to constitutional amendments is far too low in California, noting that the Golden State has seen fit to amend its constitution no fewer than 500 times since 1911, while the U.S. Constitution has survived more than 200 years with just 27 amendments. But like Kennard, who had also voted with the majority to establish the right to gay marriage last year, George seemed to suggest Thursday that until the people of California raise the barrier for amendments, the court has little power to overturn their decisions.

That line of thinking was exactly what Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater independent counsel who is now dean of Pepperdine Law School, had in mind when it was his turn to argue against overturning Prop. 8. Starr is serving as counsel to supporters of traditional marriage who received permission to argue on the initiative's behalf when it became clear that Attorney General Jerry Brown would most likely support efforts to strike down Prop. 8. "The issue before this iconic court has to do with the sovereignty of the people of California," Starr said. "We have heard a lot about individual rights and suspect classification ... But the Attorney General's office points to one inalienable right, the right to marry. But the people, too, have an inalienable right to change their constitution."

When questioned, Starr conceded that his view of the state constitution would permit a simple majority of the voters to repeal any right enshrined in the state constitution, including the right to free speech or a prohibition against racial discrimination. "While it is unthinkable," he said, "... the people do have the raw power" to make whatever changes they desire, so long as they do not alter the basic structure of government. Changes that violate the U.S. Constitution, he added, would of course be struck down on federal grounds, but so far no federal appellate court has ruled that the U.S. constitution protects gay marriage.

The court can take up to 90 more days to issue its ruling, and questions during oral arguments do not always accurately reflect the thinking of individual justices. But Thursday's three-hour session did indicate that the primary argument advanced against Prop. 8 faces big hurdles in the court. Even the lawyers who are asking the court to declare Prop. 8 invalid because it is more like a constitutional revision - which would require approval by lawmakers as well as by voters - conceded, when asked by the court, that there is essentially no precedent in the court's history that directly supports their position. "We have a pretty well established body of law pertaining to what is and what is not a revision, and those decisions do not give strong support to your position that the people couldn't do when they did when they invalidated or disagreed with one aspect of the marriage decision," Kennard said. "Our past decisional law doesn't support the argument that the people couldn't do what they did."

But a second argument, advanced by Attorney General Brown, is that the most important rights found in the constitution are inalienable and not subject to changes by a simple vote of the majority, because they are too important. That argument, too, seemed to suffer under scrutiny from some justices, who asked how the court was supposed to figure out how to draw the line between rights that can't be taken away and those that are subject to amendment.

The hearings did offer hope for the 18,000 or so same-sex couples who have already married. Starr argued that the language in Prop. 8 means that no gay marriages, even those performed when the practice was legal, can be recognized by state authorities. That argument brought a bristling reply from several justices, who said such a ruling would violate basic notions of fairness. Still, such opposition doesn't guarantee that the court won't strike down the existing marriages. Given that three justices voted against gay marriage in the first place, it may be that all Starr needs to win on that point is to convince a single justice that Prop. 8 should be applied retroactively.