And THAT's the way it is...

From Yahoo News:

NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.

Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.

Rest well, sir.

National Health Care... The Canadian Way

No wonder so many of them come over to our side...

How's the economy doing?

Well, if you listen to Larry Summers, 'top economic adviser' to the White House, it's doing just fine. What's he base that assessment on? Well, Google searches, of course:

Of all the statistics pouring into the White House every day, top economic adviser Larry Summers highlighted one Friday to make his case that the economic free-fall has ended.

The number of people searching for the term “economic depression” on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said.

But, if you wander on over to the Department of Labor, they'll tell you something different:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Labor Department says unemployment topped 10 percent in 16 states last month. The rate in Michigan surpassed 15 percent, the first time any state hit that mark since 1984.

Home to the nation's struggling auto makers, Michigan has been clobbered by lost factory jobs. Its jobless rate of 15.2 percent in June was the highest in the country, but the record-high for the state was 16.9 percent in November 1982.

Still, the government says it's the first time in 25 years that any state has suffered an unemployment rate of at least 15 percent. In 1984, it was West Virginia.

The national unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, a 26-year high, and is expected to hit 10 percent by year-end.

Question: Who do you believe?

We are sick...

Back in April, I wrote an essay about what I see as a national sickness. You can find that post here.

In that post I stated:

We are sick. We are sick economically. We are sick politically. We are sick physically. And, perhaps most importantly, we are sick in spirit and in our souls.

Unfortunately, you can find a perfect example of what I'm talking about here.

This article is about a 17-year-old girl who put a kitten into a 500 degree oven and let it burn to death. In court, this monster in human form taunted the kitten's owner. I can't give you more than that because, quite frankly, I couldn't bear to read it nor can I bear to quote any of it.

It literally made me ill. I'll think of that kitten every time I pick up and cuddle one of my cats. I'll also wonder, hopelessly, how we got to this point.

How have we created these people?

Is it something we've done?

Something we haven't done?

How does a human being lack every shred of compassion and humanity we should have?

I know. Trust me, a police officer knows exactly how horrible and cruel people are to each other. I've dealt with it. I've dealt with child abuse that has left me wanting to take justice into my own hands. I've dealt with man's inhumanity to man for more years than I like to count.

I have no answers but I wish I did.

Democrats and their love of free speech...

From Gateway Pundit:

Local Tea Party patriots held an anti-Obama Care protest at Senator Claire "ACORN" McCaskill’s district offices on Delmar Boulevard today.

The protest was organized by Americans for Prosperity and the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition.

McCaskill's office manager locked the doors, pull down the blinds, called the cops and forced the protesters across the street.

These are the same people who saw nothing wrong with groups like Code Pink harassing the Marine Corps in the name of 'free speech'.

To be fair, protesters cannot block entrances or interfere with the comings and goings of others. However, for the staff of a United States Senator to draw the blinds and refuse to talk to constituents is beyond me. And calling the cops? That's sure to get you my vote...

Dana Carvey's take on Obama

Still not sure where he stands, politically, but clearly he has doubts about The One and his plan to save the economy...

Is anyone surprised by this?

From an article posted at Human Events:

Democrats also voted down an amendment from Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nv.) that would require all Members of Congress to get insurance through the government-run plan. Apparently Democrat members of Congress do not like the government plan they’re trying to inflict on the rest of us. In a straight party line vote, Democrats voted against exempting themselves from the government-run plan by a vote of 21-18.

Not surprised at all.

Forty Years Ago Today

John F. Kennedy:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

What the...

How bizarre does this situation have to get before someone with some sense puts it to bed?

Recently, a Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook was ordered to deploy to Afghanistan. He filed a lawsuit claiming that, because Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen, he is not legally commander in chief of the United States military. Because of this, according to the suit, Cook was filing to have his status changed to that of a conscientious objector.

Shortly after the suit became national news, Cook's deployment orders were revoked with no explanation given.

Now, there is this:

Pentagon orders soldier fired for challenging prez

Army warrior terminated from job after questioning Obama eligibility

Posted: July 15, 2009
3:08 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling and Joe Kovacs
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Dr. Orly Taitz

The Department of Defense has allegedly compelled a private employer to fire a U.S. Army Reserve major from his civilian job after he had his military deployment orders revoked for arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office.

According to the CEO of Simtech Inc., a private company contracted by the Defense Security Services, an agency of the Department of Defense, the federal government has compelled the termination of Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook

Understand this.

The Department of Defense pressured a private company to fire a private employee... because he questioned the legality of Obama's presidency.

I'm still not sure what to think of this birth certificate thing but I do have one question:

If the accusation is false, why won't Obama provide the document that will shut the conspiracy people up? What's the point of allowing this sort of speculation continue?

Inquiring minds should want to know.

Earmarks and the President

Remember back during the campaign when Obama promised to do away with earmarks? Well, along with his promise for transparency and his promise to post all bills on the web for a five day period before they were voted on, it seems the earmark promise has gone with the wind.

The House is beginning to work on a bill funding energy and water projects. There are 1,866 earmarks attached to the bill - most of them put there by none other than President Obama.

Here are the first ten on the list. If you want to see the rest, go here.

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources AK CHIN INDIAN WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT ACT PROJECT $10,600,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources ANIMAS-LA PLATA PROJECT $50,445,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources ARBUCKLE PROJECT $234,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources ARIZONA WATER SETTLEMENT ACT $1,400,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources BALMORHEA PROJECT $58,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources BOISE AREA PROJECTS $5,401,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources CACHUMA PROJECT $1,674,000 The President Capps

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources CALIFORNIA INVESTIGATIONS PROGRAM $500,000 The President

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources CALLEGUAS MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT RECYCLING PROJECT $100,000 The President Capps; Gallegly

Bureau of Reclamation Water Resources CANADIAN RIVER PROJECT $217,000 The President

Eight of the ten are requested by President Obama alone; two have co-sponors.

Earmarks are not a democrat invention. Republicans are just as guilty. President Obama, however, promised to do away with earmarks, just as he promised transparency and openess. They were promises that he has broken.

It seems fitting, in a way. Our government is broken. Those in Washington are no longer listening to those of us who sent them there. They are spending money with no regard to the burden it places on us, the taxpayers, and the people they are responsibile to.

It is time to reclaim our government. If they will not behave responsibly, if they will not listen to those of us they work for, if they continue to believe they know better than we do what we want, it is time for them to go.

An incredibly wise leader once said American government is a 'government: of the people, by the people, for the people'.

It is time for those words of Abraham Lincoln to once again have meaning.

It is time for us to retake what is ours.

Governor Palin vs the loony left

I recently posted the op-ed piece Governor Palin wrote for the Washington Post. Scroll down a bit and you'll find it. It is an excellent piece on Obama's 'Cap and Tax' energy plan.

To no one's surprise the left, in the form of Moveon.org and John Kerry, have responded with more personal attacks. Governor Palin apparently terrifies Moveon - they're launching a campaign against her. One has to ask why if, as the pundits keep saying, she is washed up.

Today in Investor's Business Daily, there is a response to Kerry's response. It says, in part:

The political death of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated. In a devastating op-ed in the Washington Post, Alaska's governor exposes the cap-and-tax fraud that has nothing to do with earth's temperature and everything to do with government control of the economy.

She also exposes the stealth socialism ambitions of the Democratic left and once again points out the availability of abundant "shovel-ready" resources under America's soil, off America's shores and even in America's rocks.

It also says:

From Palin's front porch, senator, she can see "the largest private-sector energy project in history" — her "3,000-mile natural gas pipeline (that) will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America."

From Palin's front porch you can also see the 2,000-acre part of ANWR's frozen tundra that contains 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil (such estimates often underestimate actual yields) and that could supply all the oil needs of Kerry's Massachusetts for 75 years.

And from her front porch, Palin can see the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska's landmass. Awaiting development there, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, are 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 30% of the world's supply, and 83 billion barrels of oil, 4% of global conventional resources

It's a piece worth reading. We need to start getting serious about energy in this country and Alaska needs to be on the forefront of any energy policy. Governor Palin knows this.

Why don't those on the left?

Today's cautionary tale

Three years ago, Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, a 66-year-old, Spanish woman became pregnant via in vitro. She justified her actions by saying:

...there was no reason to believe she would not have as long a life as her mother, who died at the age of 101. She even joked that she might live to see her grandchildren.

She gave birth to twins.

Three years later, she has died. living her two-year-old twin boys parent-less.

Technology is going to continue to allow us to do things we've never done before.

Let this story remind you that simply because we can now do them, it doesn't mean we should.

Best Ford commercial ever?

Gotta say I agree...

Can't liberals ever own what they say?

I've listened a bit to the confirmation hearings on Sotomayor.

I've listened to her explain away, feebly, her statements concerning "wise latino" women and judges making policy by saying, basically, that's not what I meant. I mis-spoke. I didn't mean what you say I meant.

I find it interesting for one reason - she didn't just say these things once. She used the "wise latino" comment at least six or seven times.

Do they really not say what they mean or do they think we're complete idiots?

No, I don't really expect or need an answer. It's pretty obvious.

Sarah Palin on Energy

Washington Post Op-ed: The 'Cap And Tax' Dead EndShare

By Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK)

There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America's unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won't bring jobs. Our nation's debt is unsustainable, and the federal government's reach into the private sector is unprecedented.

Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:

I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president's cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will "necessarily skyrocket." So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, "poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity."

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.

Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.

We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama's plan will result in the latter.

For so many reasons, we can't afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.

Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?

Yes, we can. Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan.

The greatest quote from a baseball movie...

Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirt sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic tonight, about a great many things. There's something about James Earl Jones' speech in Field of Dreams that fits my mood. There is something about the past that we're missing, isn't there? Whether it's the innocence or the peace or something else, I don't know. I just know that it's gone and we desperately need it back.

If you build it... he will come.

My Declaration - Sarah Palin 2012

From StandingStrong4Sarah

So, how's that stimulus working?

Stimulus So Far: $416 million; 34 Full Time Jobs

July 13, 2009 by Patrick

The New Hampshire Office of Economic Stimulus is providing estimates of the number of jobs created by President Obama’s stimulus package for the first time and the number may explain why the president’s economic agenda appears to be wounded and Americans have turned sour on the spending bill.

Is the stimulus working?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has created fifty jobs in the Granite State thus far, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. Thirty-four of those jobs are fulltime.

These jobs—many of them temporary—are the results of the first $413.6 million in stimulus funds that have come to the Granite State. The state may receive as much as $750 million in total.

Wow. 50 jobs, 34 full-time and it only cost 413 million dollars. What a bargain! And prosperity must surely be just around the corner.

One of the dumbest things ever written...

I've been reading quite a bit of nonsense in the media about Governor Palin, but this has got to be the dumbest of the incredibly dumb. It's an old article that appeared in the Washington Post during the campaign. It was written by Samuel Rodriguez, founding pastor of Third Day Worship Centers, President of the Nation Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

To be honest, I'm not entirely certain what Rodriguez's point was but I found part of his column insulting, to say the least:

At the end of the day, Sarah Palin lacks ministerial preparation and theological education to speak on the aforementioned matters. She cannot speak with authority regarding theological doctrine regarding the application of God's will in governmental affairs, public policy or legislative initiatives.

It takes a degree in theological education and ministerial prepartaion for a person speak about God's role and His will in governmental affairs? Since when? God is not the private property of ministers or theologians. In fact, I tend to believe that God, as demonstrated by Jesus, would much rather spend His time with us 'common folk' than people with such lofty opinions of themselves.

Governor Palin has a relationship with God. That is perfectly clear. She talks about it openly and deomonstrates it daily. The MSM and some of the 'lofty elitists' on the left clearly have a problem with that. Remember Obama's quote about how we conservatives cling to our God and our guns?

Frankly, I'll take Governor Palin's down-to-earth, bedrock faith over the left and Pastor Rodriguez's faith any day.

The Wisdom of Tony Snow

It's been a year since Tony Snow left us.

He was such a good, decent man that I feel the need to remember him today with some exerpts from one of his essays. It appeared in Christianity Today and was titled "Cancer's Unexpected Blessings":

Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet; a loved one holds your hand at the side. "It's cancer," the healer announces.

The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter—and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."

There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived—an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.

The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.

There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.

Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.

You can find the entire essay at the above link. I hope you read it. They were indeed words of wisdom, from an amazing man.

Tony, your calm, quiet voice is truly missed.

American Voters are fickle...

From RedState:

Pubic polling Top Gun Scott Rasmussen reports his latest findings:

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on eight out of 10 key electoral issues, including, for the second straight month, the top issue of the economy. They’ve also narrowed the gap on the remaining two issues, the traditionally Democratic strong suits of health care and education

Don't get me wrong, this is welcomed news but I can't help but ponder how fickle American voters are. Obama promised "Hope and Change" and no one paused to consider what that meant. They bought an empty message because the economy was in trouble and they had grown tired of President Bush, in spite of the fact that he kept the country safe.

How much thought did they give their principles? How about their beliefs? Are things like conservative beliefs and liberal beliefs simply buzz words now? Do we even care or are we little more than wisps of nothing caught up on the winds of fate?

I once thought we cared about values and principles but now? Now I'm not really sure.

These people are beyond words...

But I'm sure I'll find a few.

Yesterday, I posted about yet another ethics complaint filed against Governor Sarah Palin. You can find it here.

The complaint was filed by Ray Ward, friend and impersonator of James Brown, the convicted wife-beater. Ward, it turns out, once sued Brown for losing a scrape book. He's also been involved in numerous court cases.

The most significant thing to come to light is the fact that Ward's attorney is Rex Butler. The same Rex Butler who held a press conference in his office starring Levi Johnson, who decided it was his place to declare that the governor is resigning in order to 'cash in' by appearing on television shows. He's also the same Rex Butler who is a major Obama supportor.

Amazing how that all dove-tails together, isn't it?

Here, by the way, is a list of all the ethics complaints filed against Governor Palin, as of the moment. It shows that 17 out of 20 complaints have been dismissed, one is pending, and two were filed within the last few days.

Is it any wonder Governor Palin is resigning? How could anyone do their job under these circumstances?

Is this the America we want?

Sonia Maria Sotomayor.

Remember her? She's set to begin her confirmation hearing for a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States.

She's the one who stated, in an opinion that would seem to display a certain mindset that 'a wise Latino woman' is better equipped to make decisions than a white man... based on nothing but race preference.

She's the one who belonged to the exculsive Belizean Grove, a by invitation, women only club. She resigned after her membership came to light.

She's also the one who ruled in Maloney v. Cuomo, that the Second Amendment does not protect individuals from having their right to keep and bear arms restricted by state governments.

And finally, she's the one who recently ruled against a reverse discrimination case involving firefighters in New Haven. When only one minority firefighter passed the test for a promotion, the city invalidated the test and denied the white firefighters their promotions.

As a result of this ruling, Sotomayor's 'advocates' are urging the press to target one of the firefighters in an attempt to discredit him and save Sotomayor's reputation.

From McClatchy:

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.

On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the "troubled and litigious work history" of firefighter Frank Ricci.

Ricci, it turns out, is a 17 year veteran of the fire service, with numerous awards for bravery and a history of overcoming dyslexia. Sotomayor's 'advocates' want the press to ignore those facts and highlight the fact that he was involved in a prior lawsuits having to do with his dyslexia and was fired from one department, which Ricci claims was due to his raising safety concerns.

This is what America is coming to. The politics of destruction. Let's not argue the case on Sotomayor's merits, let's vilifiy and destroy anyone with the audacity to stand against her and her 'advocates'.

Obama's book was titled "The Audacity of Hope". Lately, I've seen it referred to as "The Audacity of Nope"...

You decide which is more appropriate these days.