Five Ways to Talk to Lefturds and Libtards about Same-Sex Marriages

The following article from Inside Catholic makes some excellent points and is well worth reading:

H/T – Mrs. Don-o

Five Ways to Talk to the Left about Same-Sex Marriage

Eric Pavlat – InsideCatholic.com
[...]

1. Focus on the Words ‘Right’ and ‘Marriage’

So much of the argument for gay marriage is based on the idea of equal rights for all. An easy response is to state that you fully support equal rights for everyone — to free speech, to association, to any legitimate human right.

Of course, you then clarify that the freedom to marry is not a right. A few quick examples should show why:

• Marrying an already-married person is illegal. If marriage were a right, then this restriction would be unjust and should be illegal.

• All states restrict certain persons from marrying (to some degree or another): aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, children and parents, even in-laws (who aren’t related by blood). These restrictions would constitute another breach of a “right” to marry whomever one chose.

• Marriage has an age of consent; there’s no “age of consent” for our rights to speech and religion.

• One must pay the government a fee in order to marry. But rights are free and automatic, not available for purchase.

It’s also worth asking why rights exist at all, and where they come from. Are they granted by governments? If that were the case, the government could also take them away. Are they simply innate, then? But if so, how do we know that? What does that mean?

Of course, we as Catholics know that rights come with duties; that freedom means the right to do what we ought to do; and that these things stem from our being made in the image and likeness of God. Prompting these questions gives you the opportunity to share a more coherent view of rights and their origins.

Eventually, the question comes down to what marriage is: the lifelong union of one man to one woman. The two sexes are complementary, not undifferentiated. “Nature and reason tell us that a man is not a woman,” says scholar Harry Jaffa. The Minnesota Supreme Court concurs, writing, “There is a clear distinction between a marital restriction based merely upon race,” a limitation it finds illegitimate, “and one based upon the fundamental difference in sex.” A man and a woman are necessary for the creation of children, and for those children to be raised by people with complementary gifts.

What about auxiliary rights that have been attenuated to marriage through the years — hospital visitation, inheritance, and so on? These can be fulfilled by other readily available means, including contracts, wills, and power-of-attorney documents. Marriage is not necessary to acquire them.

In short, by shifting the conversation from “equal rights for all” to the nature of rights and marriage, you’ve removed the conversation from the realm of bigotry and homophobia to a place where progress can be made.

2. Oppose the Status Quo

At this point, gay-rights supporters will often say that it is heterosexual couples who have damaged marriage. They are right, and we need to agree.

Rush Gets Inside Gibbs’ Head!

LOL!   You see?  This highlights a major problem with Libtards and Lefturds; no self-control and extremely thin skin.   A bunch of whiny babies, all of them:

Gibbs Takes on Rush Limbaugh

By Elizabeth Williamson – WSJ

At a briefing [Thursday] to discuss the administration’s efforts to rescue the auto industry, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs took on conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh—and every other critic “sitting in the cheap seats” –for criticizing the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler as a “government takeover” that smacks of socialism.

Told by a reporter that “You had Rush Limbaugh today — today or yesterday — talking Obama Motors again,” Gibbs, who doesn’t often provide free advertising by taking on his critics by name from the podium, let fire.

“Look, Rush Limbaugh and others wanted to walk away. Rush Limbaugh and others saw a million people that worked at these factories, that worked at these parts suppliers, that had — that supported communities, and thought we should all just walk away. The president didn’t think that walking away from a million jobs in these communities made a lot of economic sense,” Gibbs said.

He was just getting up to speed.

“We’ve got auto companies that for the first time since 2004 all showed an operating profit in the first quarter of this year. It’s adding jobs. And the money that this administration invested — about $60 billion — we believe we’re on the path to recouping all of that. That’s a significant story.

“I’ll let those that sat in the cheap seats a year-and-a-half ago and wanted to walk away” from a milion workers, he continued, “explain to every one of those workers why they made that decision.”

Finally, he wrapped it up: “And then you should ask Mr. Limbaugh — I don’t know what kind of car he drives, but I bet it’s not an F-150.”

The F-150 truck, we should note, is made by Ford, which didn’t get federal rescue funds.

Oh, yeah.  I forgot to mention that Libtards and Lefturds are morons, too.

DemonRat Makes a List of Jews with Lots of Money

Uhm…  Perhaps he fancies himself as another Schindler:

Mike McMahon fires ‘Jewish money’ aide
Politico

Staten Island Rep. Mike McMahon (D-NY) moved into damage-control mode Thursday, firing the communications director for his re-election bid Thursday night after she gave a reporter a breakdown of a Republican rival’s “Jewish money” contributions.

McMahon announced he was firing spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson after she provided a New York Observer reporter with a breakdown of Republican rival Michael Grimm’s second-quarter financial haul donations from Jewish donors, in an apparent effort to show the former FBI agent has little financial support within the district.

In an astonishing move – putting such a statement on paper – the file the reporter was given was titled “Grimm Jewish Money Q2.”

“Where is Grimm’s money coming from,” Nelson was quoted saying to the Observer. “There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees.”

She added that the campaign’s finance director had compiled the list, and, by way of explaining how she managed to pick out donors by their religion from filings, said, “She herself is Jewish so she knows a lot of people in that community.”

Nelson also insisted the purpose wasn’t to show “ethnicity” in terms of who was outside the district, but that was the only list the Observer said it was given – and it came at a time when McMahon has reportedly been ramping up his outreach to Jewish donors.

“This is a United States congressman that’s segregating people out by their religion. I’m outraged. Even an apology isn’t going to make it right,” Grimm told POLITICO. “This goes to his thought process and his feelings.“

[Exactly!]

Obama Administration Perplexed as Recession Continues to Deepen

I don’t understand why they are so flummoxed.  History has proven time and time again that Keynesian tactics simply do not work in a free market system.  Governments can’t just pour money into the economy and expect growth.  After all, most of that money came from the taxpayers—money which the taxpayers no longer posses and are no longer able to spend more effectively than the government can.  And, don’t even get me started on all the fraud, waste, and abuse inherent in a government run bureaucracy!

In a free market economy, the consumer picks the winners and losers based on needs, wants, and customer satisfaction.  In a Keynesian system, the government just rewards failure by pouring money into failing businesses and financial institutions.   Those businesses were failing for a reason; the free market system had already targeted those businesses for termination.  Now, infused with Monopoly money by the government, those failed businesses are allowed to remain open, further degrading the overall health of the economy.

Look at it this way, you don’t fix a paper cut by pouring raw sewage into it:

Recession was deeper than gov’t previously thought
Recession inflicted more damage on economy than previously thought, government data show
AP via Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The recession was deeper than the government previously thought.

The Commerce Department, in revisions issued Friday, estimates the economy shrank 2.6 percent last year — the steepest drop since 1946. That’s worse than the 2.4 percent decline originally estimated.

The economy’s plunge underscores why the unemployment rate surged to 10.1 percent in October, a 26-year high.

The revisions in gross domestic product, or GDP, now show zero growth in 2008. That compares with a 0.4 percent gain previously estimated.The economy also grew less in 2007 (1.9 percent) than earlier thought (2.1 percent).

For all three years, consumers spent less and home builders cut more deeply than had been thought. Those factors help explain the downward revisions on the economy.

The revisions also show that struggling state and local governments cut spending more last year than previously thought. And they spent less in 2007 and 2008.

The economy slid into its worst recession since the Great Depression in late 2007. Many economists think the recession ended last summer, although a panel of academics that dates the start and end of recessions hasn’t declared when this one ended. The panel usually does so well after the fact.

From the start of the recession in December 2007 until the April-to-June quarter of 2009, the economy sank 4.1 percent. That was deeper than the 3.7 percent decline previously estimated for the recession.

GDP is the broadest gauge of the economy’s health. It measures the value of all goods and services — from machinery to manicures — produced in the United States.

The Commerce Department’s latest revisions reach back to 2007. They’re based on more complete data and on methodology thought to be more accurate.

Biased almost media crying about Burn the Koran Day

People that protect Gays crack me up; they always feel they have to protect the minions to appear tolerant. Most are too ignorant of islam to realize the worlds best known pedophile ordered their kind killed.

by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca‚ 29 Jul‚ 2010, Beyond Chron,
The same creepy Gainesville, Florida folks who gave us the “no homo mayor” campaign (to protest an openly gay candidate for mayor) and who claim that queers hate good ol’ American free speech because they “don’t want to hear the truth about their perverted lifestyles,” will now present “International Burn a Koran Day.” To commemorate the ninth anniversary of the tragedy that befell the Twin Towers in New York, the Dove World Outreach Center, a Christian denomination (it calls itself a New Testament Church, whatever that is), will take a match to the Muslim holy book this September 11.
-The first sentence tells the story; this person would rather gays die at the hands of a minion than recognize that Christians are allowed to judge his deviant lifestyle according to their faith. The difference is the Christians love the sinner but hate the sin; muslim minions will follow the order to murder homosexuals.

The church has even set up a Facebook page for the event, and at this writing has garnered over 1,100 supporters. A page opposed to the event has almost 800.

Pastor Terry Jones, head of the church, told Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist blog that he expects hundreds to attend his event, the culmination of years of anti-Islam activities that included authoring a book trashing the religion.
-Support islam and you support, murder, rape, incest, slavery and other crimes that are not only allowed but ordered, islam is not a religion it is a death cult.

Spain Reissues Arrest Warrants for 3 U.S. Servicemen Over Death of Cameraman Killed in Iraq in 2003

If a REAL American was in the White House, he would tell the Spaniards to shove that arrest warrant up their culo.  After all, war is hell and there is no evidence to suggest that the U.S. soldiers knew they were firing upon a news crew.  Friendly fire incidents are just tragic consequences of war and, usually, everybody understands that and lets bygones be bygones.  However, since we don’t have a REAL American in the White House, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Obama throw these three servicemen to the Spaniards as a “teachable” moment to the rest of our military:

Spain reissues US troop warrants over Iraq death

(AP) MADRID — A Madrid judge reissued arrest warrants Thursday for three U.S. servicemen over the death of a Spanish journalist killed by American tank fire in Iraq in 2003.

Judge Santiago Pedraz acted in response to a recent order from the Spanish Supreme Court that the case — twice shelved by a lower court — be reopened.

Cameraman Jose Couso was one of two journalists killed when the U.S. soldiers — members of a tank crew — responded to what they said was hostile fire from a Baghdad hotel that housed Western journalists during the invasion of Iraq.

The soldiers — Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp — were all from the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, and have never appeared in Spain in connection with the case.

Following the incident, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said American troops had opened fire after encountering hostile fire from the hotel, perhaps from a sniper. He said a U.S. review of the incident found the use of force was justified.

[...]

The NAACP is Now the Government’s Uncle Tom

It should come as no surprise to anyone that welfare policies only strengthen the government’s control over black communities in America.

For a point of reference, consider this:  Before LBJ’s Great Society, the  marriage rates and statistics for the black community were almost comparable to those of the white community.  However, once LBJ’s welfare reform packages kicked in, black marriages decreased dramatically and black children born out of wedlock increased at an alarming rate.

Why is this?  Well, if you take a look at the way welfare is set up, a woman who is married stands less of a chance of collecting a sizeable welfare check than one who is not married and is raising children on her own.  Ergo, it behooves welfare recipients to remain unmarried.  Need a raise?  Just get pregnant and have another baby out of wedlock!  Sadly, that’s the way it works, and that is exactly the reason why so many black families are now fatherless.

Statistically, fatherless families produce children with severe behavioral problems, putting them at a distinct disadvantage when compared to children raised in a traditional, two-parent family.   Statistics also show that fatherless children are 20 times more likely to end up in prison than those from a traditional family.

Hence, children who are the product of fatherless families have a harder time integrating into society and often wind up in prison before they even have a chance to get a good job and make something of their lives.  Of course, once they get out of prison, they are stuck with a rap sheet and invariably have problems getting good, high-paying jobs.  Therefore, they usually give up looking for a decent job and wind up living on welfare for the rest of their lives.

Yup, welfare recipients are nothing but slaves to the government.  Thank you, LBJ and your Great Society!  *sarc*

BTW – If you find the above title to this post offensive to your delicate sensibilities, then grow some skin and get over it!  It’s in reference to the NAACP calling black Tea Party members, “Uncle Toms.“

Is Fighting for Smaller Government Racist?
By Daniel Greenfield  Wednesday, July 28, 2010 – Canada Free Press

When the NAACP allowed itself to be used by the Democratic party to try and smear a grass roots movement for smaller government as racist, the resulting controversy shone a light on more than just racism by individuals associated with the NAACP, but with the organization’s inability to delink class warfare from racism. If there is one thing that both the white media elites at Jornolist and the NAACP leadership agreed on, it’s that fighting for smaller government is racist.

The peculiar notion that reforming government by reducing its size is racist originates from the marriage of racial equality with class warfare to create the 40 Acres and a Mule politics covering everything from wealth redistribution to affirmative action to social welfare programs—all under the aegis of the federal government. And yet this same brand of 40 Acres and a Mule politics underlies the particular tragedy of the black community, whose leaders traded in aspiration and equality for government handouts, forcing them to make the argument over and over again that there can be no social justice without total government control.

When the Democratic party was forced to make the transition from a party of Northern businessmen and Southern plantation owners, after two Republican Presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, put a severe dent in their Southern plantations and the Northern business offices that had formerly given the party a death grip on the country’s economy—it did so by redefining the “Company Store” to mean the Federal government. The Republican notion of individual rights and free labor met the new Democratic notion of ward boss handouts at the Federal level in a battle for the soul of the Black community, and the Democrats won. Not immediately, not conclusively and not absolutely—but they won, and the NAACP’s leadership demonstrates why.

The black leadership has gained distinct advantages for itself as a separate class, while disadvantaging the black community as a whole. Civil rights leaders who made their money on lawsuit shakedowns and diversity training seminars, corporate executives and business owners who got where they were through affirmative action programs that encouraged companies to hire one black executive for appearance not merit, and rewarded minority business owners for the color of their skin, rather than for results—helped create a black leadership that owed its position and power to government intervention, rather than ability. And in the process that same leadership marginalized more qualified people within the black community, while teaching the lesson that aspiration and ability did not matter, only connections and politics did.

Affirmative action politics closed far more doors than it opened, but those who got through the open door knew exactly what they owed it to. Creating racial quotas as a way to select leaders was an effective tool for perpetuating the same system over and over again, marginalizing black candidates and business owners as a whole, while rewarding a select few who would then be in a position to praise and maintain things the status quo.

Your New Easy-Breezy Health Care Deform Flowchart

To quote Dana Loesch:  “Good luck with that.”

America’s New Health Care System Revealed
Updated Chart Shows ObamaCare’s Bewildering Complexity
Press Release from Senator Jim DeMint

Washington, DC – Four months after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously declared “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” a congressional panel has released the first chart illustrating the 2,801 page health care law President Obama signed into law in March. (Click here to view the pdf.)

Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.

“For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,” said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. “If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all.”

Brownback, the committee’s ranking member, added, “This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering complexity facing everyone affected by this law. It doesn’t take long to see how the recently signed health care bill causes a hugely expensive and explosive expansion of federal control over health care. Personal choices that should be between a doctor and a patient will quickly be strangled in a never ending web of bureaucracy.”

Senate Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) called Obamacare “a bureaucratic nightmare. The Democrats’ takeover of health care creates a byzantine network of 159 new federal programs and bureaucracies to make decisions that should be between just the patient and their doctor. It should concern everyone that at the center of this regulatory web is the new CMS chief, Donald Berwick, who has championed rationing and European socialized medicine. Americans were rightly outraged that this big government bill was rushed through Congress before anyone read or fully understood the bill’s consequences. Republicans will fight to repeal this reckless takeover and to ensure health care freedom to American families.”

In addition to capturing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays: – $569 billion in higher taxes; – $529 billion in cuts to Medicare; – swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million; – 17 major insurance mandates; and – the creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board. Brady admits committee analysts could not fit the entire health care bill on one chart. “This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this.”

French Cops Recieve Death Threats from “Rioters”

Gee, just who are these “rioters” and why do they hate the French police?

If I may be so bold, let me see if I can take a stab at this:  The “rioters” are Muzzie immigrants/invaders who believe they are entitled to special privileges because they are “superior” to the French “infidels” and, after all,  Sharia Law trumps any French law…

Yup, the French have finally met a group of people even more conceited than they are;  The Muzzies.

Of course, you would never know this by just reading the following piece of watered-down journalism.  Nope.  French journalists are “interdit” from actually calling Muslims “Muslims.”  Instead, French journalists (along with their international siblings) must resort to all sorts of nebulous descriptive nouns—like rioters, arsonists, gangsters, hoodlums, delinquents, and immigrants—in an effort to avoid actually mentioning the word “Muslim:”

Rioters scare French cops
AFP – via News24.com

Grenoble – A group of police officers have been forced to take time off after receiving death threats and coming under fire in the French city of Grenoble, officials said on Tuesday.

Authorities reported another arson attack overnight, following a string of arrests and raids as tensions rumbled on after a week of fierce street battles sparked by the killing of a robber by police.

Judicial officials said on Tuesday that arsonists drove a burning car into a municipal storage building in the working class suburb of Villeneuve, scene of running battles between police and rioters last week.

The local police chief Brigitte Jullien told reporters that three officers involved in the July 15 shooting had been transferred out of their unit and that reinforcements had been brought in from other cities.

Another 20 officers from the same detective squad have taken time off to spend with their families and “take a step back following these threats”, she said.

Police said they found sub machine guns and handguns when they raided a bar in Villeneuve on Monday. Meanwhile, authorities said gangs had made death threats against local officers over the killing of the suspect.

“We are giving protection to the families who are threatened but at the same time we are using lots of means to find the authors of these threats,” said Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

“They will be arrested and brought to justice.”

Developing: Liberal Judge Dulls the Cutting Edge of Arizona’s Immigration Law

Yup, the moment I heard that a Clintonian judge would be hearing the case, I knew it wouldn’t end well:

Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law
By JACQUES BILLEAUD and AMANDA MYERS Associated Press

PHOENIX — A judge has blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona’s new immigration law from taking effect Thursday, handing a major legal victory to opponents of the crackdown.

The law will still take effect Thursday, but without many of the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also put on hold a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

[Uhm, here's the lunacy in that ruling:  The U.S. Government requires all immigrants of 18 years or older to carry their green cards upon their person at all times.  So, if one were to follow the logic here, Judge Bolton just crossed over the line by striking down Federal law.  Again, let me remind everyone that judges are not allowed to legislate from the bench---which she clearly doing, here---but, to only interpret pre-existing legislation.]

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton put those controversial sections on hold until the courts resolve the issues.

Opponents say the law will lead to racial profiling and is trumped by federal immigration law.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Warns Illegal Protestors They Might Just End Up in Jail, Themselves!

Common sense and straight talk from one of my favorite sheriffs:

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to Protesters: If You Block the Jail, You’ll End Up In the Jail

July 28, 2010 – ABC News – George Stephanopoulos

Maricopa county Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a message to the people who intend to protest the controversial Arizona immigration law tomorrow: “I’m ready for it.”

“I hear a rumor they want to block my jails. So if they want to block the jails they can have a little trip in the jails,” Arpaio told me on “GMA.” “So we are not going to put up with any civil disobedience just because they want to show, give a message through the media about this situation that is occurring here in Arizona.”

Arpaio has tents set up as a make shift jail cells outside the Maricopa county jail, anticipating a surge of illegal immigrants.

[Of course, I'm hoping they will also be sporting those fashionably pink prison clothes...]

SB 1070 will go into effect at midnight tonight, unless a federal judge sides with the Obama administration and issues an injunction.

I asked the sheriff what steps he’s taking to make sure his officers don’t engage in racial profiling, and why all these new steps are necessary given the fact that illegal immigration and crime in the southwest have both been dropping for the last several years.

Arpaio told me he doesn’t understand what the “big hype” is about.

“Nothing really is going to change other than the fact that if we come across an illegal alien that doesn’t have a state charge now we can arrest them and book them into the jail or turn him over to ICE,” he said.

Massachusetts Becomes Sixth State (say that five times fast) to Approve Unconstitutional, Marxist Scam to Bypass Electoral College

Damn Commies still can’t get over their defeat in the 2000 elections.  So, they’ve decided to “fix” the situation by doing what they always do; throwing the U.S. Constitution out the window:

H/T – TGUSA

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff – Boston.com

The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

“What we are submitting is the idea that the president should be selected by the majority of people in the United States of America,” Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said before the Senate voted to enact the bill.

Under the new bill, he said, “Every vote will be of the same weight across the country.”

But Senate minority leader Richard Tisei said the state was meddling with a system that was “tried and true” since the founding of the country.

“We’ve had a lot of bad ideas come through this chamber over the years, but this is going to be one of the worst ideas that has surfaced and actually garnered some support,” said Tisei, who is also the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.

The bill, which passed on a 28-to-9 vote, now heads to Democratic Governor Deval Patrick’s desk. The governor has said in the past that he supports the bill, said his spokeswoman Kim Haberlin.

Under the law, which was enacted by the House last week, all 12 of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.

New CBO Report Slams “Historic” Spending Spree by Obama and the DemonRats

I don’t understand why it takes the Congressional Budget Office to tell Obama and Congress what everyone already knows:  Unlimited, reckless spending inevitably leads to higher taxes and financial ruin for a country.

Of course, the only time the DemonRats suddenly appear to pay any attention to fiscal responsibility is when a Republican is sitting in the Oval Office…

Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis

Economic and Budget Issue Brief

Summary

Over the past few years, U.S. government debt held by the public has grown rapidly—to the point that, compared with the total output of the economy, it is now higher than it has ever been except during the period around World War II. The recent increase in debt has been the result of three sets of factors: an imbalance between federal revenues and spending that predates the recession and the recent turmoil in financial markets, sharply lower revenues and elevated spending that derive directly from those economic conditions, and the costs of various federal policies implemented in response to the conditions.

Further increases in federal debt relative to the nation’s output (gross domestic product, or GDP) almost certainly lie ahead if current policies remain in place. The aging of the population and rising costs for health care will push federal spending, measured as a percentage of GDP, well above the levels experienced in recent decades. Unless policymakers restrain the growth of spending, increase revenues significantly as a share of GDP, or adopt some combination of those two approaches, growing budget deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels.

Underground Shelters Back in Style

What? Did they ever really go out of style?

Heck, if you live in the Midwest, underground shelters see lots of usage during the tornado season.  So, if you are having problems justifying a “doomsday shelter” to your spouse or neighbors, just tell them its a tornado shelter:

Doomsday shelters making a comeback

By Keith Matheny, USA TODAY

Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he’s “not paranoid” but he is concerned, and that’s why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters — the Vivos shelter network — that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project’s developers.

Vivos Shelters - Upper Level

“It’s an investment in life,” says Hodge, a Teamsters union representative. “I want to make sure I have a place I can take me and my family if that worst-case scenario were to happen.”

There are signs that underground shelters, almost-forgotten relics of the Cold War era, are making a comeback.

The Vivos network, which offers partial ownerships similar to a timeshare in underground shelter communities, is one of several ventures touting escape from a surface-level calamity.

Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas, has built underground shelters for more than three decades, and business has never been better, says Walton McCarthy, company president.

The company sells fiberglass shelters that can accommodate 10 to 2,000 adults to live underground for one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air, McCarthy says.

The shelters range from $400,000 to a $41 million facility Radius built and installed underground that is suitable for 750 people, McCarthy says. He declined to disclose the client or location of the shelter.

“We’ve doubled sales every year for five years,” he says.Other shelter manufacturers include Hardened Structures of Colorado and Utah Shelter Systems, which also report increased sales.

Obama’s New Financial Deform Law Exempts SEC from Freedom of Information Requests

Typical communist move; not only do they take over the financial communities, they insulate themselves from public scrutiny:

SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public Disclosure
By Dunstan Prial -  July 28, 2010 – FOX News

So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings.”

The SEC cited the new law Tuesday in a FOIA action brought by FOX Business Network. Steven Mintz, founding partner of law firm Mintz & Gold LLC in New York, lamented what he described as “the backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the  SEC’s failures secret. The only losers here are the American public.”

If the SEC’s interpretation stands, Mintz, who represents FOX Business Network, predicted “the next time there is a Bernie Madoff failure the American public will not be able to obtain the SEC documents that describe the failure,” referring to the shamed broker whose Ponzi scheme cost investors billions.

The SEC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Criticism of the provision has been swift. “It allows the SEC to block the public’s access to virtually all SEC records,” said Gary Aguirre, a former SEC staff attorney-turned-whistleblower who had accused the agency of thwarting an investigation into hedge fund Pequot Asset Management in 2005. “It permits the SEC to promulgate its own rules and regulations regarding the disclosure of records without getting the approval of the Office of Management and Budget, which typically applies to all federal agencies.”

Aguirre used FOIA requests in his own lawsuit against the SEC, which the SEC settled this year by paying him $755,000. Aguirre, who was fired in September 2005, argued that supervisors at the SEC stymied an investigation of Pequot – a charge that prompted an investigation by the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees.

The SEC closed the case in 2006, but would re-open it three years later. This year, Pequot and its founder, Arthur Samberg, were forced to pay $28 million to settle insider-trading charges related to shares of Microsoft. The settlement with Aguirre came shortly later.

“From November 2008 through January 2009, I relied heavily on records obtained from the SEC through FOIA in communications to the FBI, Senate investigators, and the SEC in arguing the SEC had botched its initial investigation of Pequot’s trading in Microsoft securities and thus the SEC should reopen it, which it did,” Aguirre said. “The new legislation closes access to such records, even when the investigation is closed.

“It is hard to imagine how the bill could be more counterproductive,” Aguirre added.

Illegal Aliens Whining About Fingerprinting

Sheesh!  You would think that illegal aliens have been given all the rights normally reserved for U.S. citizens:

H/T – Islams Not For Me

Immigrant groups criticize fingerprint initiative

By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press -

DENVER – The federal government is rapidly expanding a program to identify illegal immigrants using fingerprints from arrests, drawing opposition from local authorities and advocates who argue the initiative amounts to an excessive dragnet.

The program has gotten less attention than Arizona’s new immigration law, but it may end up having a bigger impact because of its potential to round up and deport so many immigrants nationwide.

The San Francisco sheriff wanted nothing to do with the program, and the City Council in Washington, D.C., blocked use of the fingerprint plan in the nation’s capital. Colorado is the latest to debate the program, called Secure Communities, and immigrant groups have begun to speak up, telling the governor in a letter last week that the initiative will make crime victims reluctant to cooperate with police “due to fear of being drawn into the immigration regime.”

[Don't you just love how illegal aliens are now, somehow, just referred to as"immigrants?"]

Under the program, the fingerprints of everyone who is booked into jail for any crime are run against FBI criminal history records and Department of Homeland Security immigration records to determine who is in the country illegally and whether they’ve been arrested previously. Most jurisdictions are not included in the program, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been expanding the initiative.

Since 2007, 467 jurisdictions in 26 states have joined. ICE has said it plans to have it in every jail in the country by 2013. Secure Communities is currently being phased into the places where the government sees as having the greatest need for it based on population estimates of illegal immigrants and crime statistics.

Since everyone arrested would be screened, the program could easily deport more people than Arizona’s new law, said Sunita Patel, an attorney who filed a lawsuit in New York against the federal government on behalf of a group worried about the program. Patel said that because illegal immigrants could be referred to ICE at the point of arrest, even before a conviction, the program can create an incentive for profiling and create a pipeline to deport more people.

[Good! That's the way the system is suppose to work!]

“It has the potential to revolutionize immigration enforcement,” said Patel.

[...]

ICE maintains that only suspects arrested for crimes — and not the people reporting them — will be screened for their legal status.

Obama Disses Boy Scouts’ 100th Anniversary in Favor of Appearing on “The Brood”

Actually, this is a good thing.  The farther we can keep Obama away from our kids, the better:

Obama Snubs Boy Scouts’ 100th Anniversary in Favor of ‘The View’
Tue, 07/27/2010 - Newsbusters

President Barack Obama, the honorary chairman of the Boy Scouts of America, will not speak in-person before the group on Wednesday at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, as part of the organization’s 100th anniversary celebration. However, the president is sending a videotaped message to the scouts for Wednesday, the same day he will be in Manhattan to tape an appearance for ABC TV’s talk show “The View.”

Bob Dries, chairman of national news and media at the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree – a gathering that happens every four years and attracts thousands of scouts from around the world – told CNSNews.com that the organization was told on Monday that the president had scheduling conflicts and would not be speaking in-person at the week-long event.

The BSA had scheduled its Wednesday arena program to include remarks by the president at 11 a.m. in front of the more than 45,000 scouts who will be in attendance.

The White House did not confirm to CNSNews.com that the president would not speak live at the Jamboree on Wednesday, but reporters were sent an e-mail at 1:45 p.m. on Monday announcing that the president will be in New Jersey on Wednesday afternoon to talk about the economy before he travels on to New York City to film his appearance for “The View’s” Thursday edition.

Also, shortly after the White House e-mail was distributed, Bob Dries confirmed that Jamboree officials had been informed the president would not be speaking in-person but would address the scouts via pre-taped remarks.

Since the Jamboree was launched in 1937, sitting presidents have been invited to speak at the event in their role as the honorary chairman of the BSA. That year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke at the inaugural Jamboree, held on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Obama’s three predecessors spoke at the event – George H. W. Bush in 1989 and Bill Clinton in 1998 in-person, and George W. Bush who spoke via video in 2001 when bad weather prevented him from traveling. George W. Bush did speak in-person at the 2005 Jamboree.
First Lady Nancy Reagan addressed the Jamboree in 1985, the first year someone from the White House had spoken there since President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Prior to Johnson, President Harry Truman was joined by then-General and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, both of whom spoke at the 1950 Jamboree in Valley Forge.

Presidents Nixon, Reagan, Carter and Ford did not speak at a Jamboree and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated before the Jamboree in 1964 when Johnson spoke.

The BSA issued a statement late on Monday about President Obama not being able to speak at the event.

“Due to his schedule, President Obama will not be able to attend the 2010 National Scout Jamboree,” the statement reads.  “In February, the President sent a letter honoring the BSA’s 100th Anniversary and his signature appears on Eagle Scout cards.”

[...]

Moms Take Babies Saved from Abortion by Pregnancy Help Centers to Congress

This is the second good idea that I have heard today. Did you know that the ninth anniversary of 9-11 is also “burn a koran day”? I like this idea of challenging congress because I believe a few of them could benefit from facing the truth of their policy decisions. Odds are at least a few were actually honorable people at some point, maybe a few can be salvaged. Just in case I am wrong, vote not for party but against incumbents.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 26, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Women who rejected the “choice” to abort their babies will be bringing their children to Washington D.C. this week to tell Congress how thankful they are for the life-saving work of pregnancy help centers.

Babies Go to Congress, a Heartbeat International project, provides an opportunity for women to speak publicly, on Capitol Hill, about their gratitude for the support they received when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Heartbeat International, founded in 1971, is a Christ-centered association of more than 1,100 pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, non-profit adoption agencies, pregnancy help medical clinics and abortion recovery programs in 50 countries.
-I have never understood how anyone can justify the murder of innocents and look themselves in the mirror. The Christians standing against this are to be commended; those that do nothing are as guilty as the birth mothers that kill their own children. Doing nothing is passive support and passive support is still support.

One of the testifying moms, Danica Fountain of Arizona, says she felt pressured to abort her baby before she arrived at the Women’s Center of Tucson, a local pregnancy resource center. “I was absolutely shocked to see that this so called ‘blob of tissue,’ the term I so commonly heard people use when referencing a pregnancy this early on, was in fact a fully formed baby! She had a head, arms and legs,” says Fountain.

“When I saw my baby’s heart beating I knew I would do anything to protect my child.”

Fountain is scheduled to meet with members of Congress this week. “The emotional support I received from the pregnancy center helped me realize that I could succeed as a single mom,” she said. “So I continued in my full time position at the bank, knowing they were there if I needed more encouragement or practical help. I can never thank the Women’s Center of Tucson enough.”

The visits will occur only weeks after news broke earlier this month that U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) would introduce a bill, known as the “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act,” to restrict the activities of pregnancy resource centers. The measure aims to force such centers to loudly advertise their lack of abortion services, and is strongly supported by NARAL and Planned Parenthood, who have complained of the centers’ siphoning off customers from “legitimate reproductive health care centers.”
-It is a shame that those members of congress were not aborted,

Muslim chaplain says Islam is ‘perfect balance’

Naughty, naughty the chaplain is a liar. Unless he means that islam is the perfect balance between slavery and violence. We run many of the stories; the minions want you to see islam as just another religion. It is like looking at Nazis as potential oven repairmen.

By Tricia Pursell, 26 July, 2010, The Daily Item
SUNBURY — The daughter of a Catholic mother and Jewish father said that 12 years ago she discovered Islam to be the perfect balance between both religions, and for the past year, she has devoted her time to interfaith activities that aim to bring all Valley religions together on common ground.
-Great lead in for deception but neither of those religions has anything in common with islam.

While learning to love Jesus in Catholicism, and finding that such a concept was far from accepted by Jews, Safiyyah Jihad Levine, of Sunbury, said she had many unanswered questions until she found Islam, which, she said, “puts both of them together in such a perfect kind of way.”
-More deception, islam orders the murder of Jews and other non believers. The puts them together is true if she is talking about them being choice victims of islam.

Levine had married a Muslim, read all his books, and a year later, “That’s when I decided Islam was for me,” she said.
-Catch that? How much did she suffer during that year before she abandoned her own faith?

“I didn’t convert because of him,” she said. “I did it because of me.”
-She did it to stop the abuse, the length of time that she resisted is impressive.

Bailout Money Given to Goldman Sachs Went Overseas…

Are you really that surprised?

Goldman reveals where bailout cash went
By Karen Mracek and Thomas Beaumont, Des Moines Register – via USA Today

Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night.

Goldman Sachs disclosed the list of companies to the Senate Finance Committee after a threat of subpoena from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia.

Asked the significance of the list, Grassley said, “I hope it’s as simple as taxpayers deserve to know what happened to their money.”

He added, “We thought originally we were bailing out AIG. Then later on … we learned that the money flowed through AIG to a few big banks, and now we know that the money went from these few big banks to dozens of financial institutions all around the world.”

Grassley said he was reserving judgment on the appropriateness of U.S. taxpayer money ending up overseas until he learns more about the 32 entities.

WikiLeaks…

Well, it’s about time WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange posted this stuff.  I was beginning to wonder if the Obama administration had secreted  him away and placed him in a gulag or something.  Of course, the documents conveniently only cover the 2004-2009 time period, so I’m sure Obama was only concerned about the stuff that happened in 2009…

Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert
By MARK MAZZETTI, JANE PERLEZ, ERIC SCHMITT and ANDREW W. LEHREN
NY Times

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday.

The documents, made available by an organization called WikiLeaks, suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban  in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.

Taken together, the reports indicate that American soldiers on the ground are inundated with accounts of a network of Pakistani assets and collaborators that runs from the Pakistani tribal belt along the Afghan border, through southern Afghanistan, and all the way to the capital, Kabul.

[...]

Some of the reports describe Pakistani intelligence working alongside Al Qaeda  to plan attacks. Experts cautioned that although Pakistan’s militant groups and Al Qaeda work together, directly linking the Pakistani spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, with Al Qaeda is difficult.

The records also contain firsthand accounts of American anger at Pakistan’s unwillingness to confront insurgents who launched attacks near Pakistani border posts, moved openly by the truckload across the frontier, and retreated to Pakistani territory for safety.

The behind-the-scenes frustrations of soldiers on the ground and glimpses of what appear to be Pakistani skullduggery contrast sharply with the frequently rosy public pronouncements of Pakistan as an ally by American officials, looking to sustain a drone campaign over parts of Pakistani territory to strike at Qaeda havens. Administration officials also want to keep nuclear-armed Pakistan on their side to safeguard NATO supplies flowing on routes that cross Pakistan to Afghanistan.

[...]

Taliban not real US enemy: former hostage

With the utmost respect of the man, I have to disagree with his conclusion that the taliban is a simple local insurgency and not a global threat. He went and did what most would not dare try but he is wrong and I’ll explain why.

NEW YORK: After 45 days as a hostage of the Taliban, Jere Van Dyk, 64, drew a surprising conclusion: the diehard insurgency might not be the real enemy.
-He is almost there, islam is the enemy, at its core it is a violent, oppressive ideology permanently stuck in the seventh century and totally incompatible with the modern world.

The US author’s newly-published memoir “Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban” makes clear that nothing is black-and-white in Afghanistan — neither his own terrifying ordeal in 2008, nor the US-led war as a whole.
-Afghans by nature are opportunists; the easy way to determine if one is lying is to watch his mouth, if it moves he is lying.

Captive brims with the fear and confusion Van Dyk experienced as he and three Afghan cellmates prayed for salvation from what they thought was to be their certain shooting or beheading. In an interview, Van Dyk said the Taliban, unlike al-Qaeda, does not choose to be at war with the United States.
-Inaccurate, the taliban refuses to see them selves as “true muslims” the believe that allah allows them to fight anyone that doesn’t believe as they do. They are equally ready to fight the us as they are muslims with less religious zeal. They are not limited to afghanistan and they are true enemies of anyone wishing to live in this century following modern standards of rights and values.

13 Bank Failures in Just Two Weeks!

How Obama can sit there with a straight face and say the economy is recovering is beyond me:

U.S. Bank Failures This Year Surpass 100
FDIC Closes Seven Banks in Seven States; Total Seizures in 2010 Now 103
via CBS News

(AP)   U.S. bank failures this year have surpassed a bleak milestone of 100 as regulators shut down banks in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kansas, Nevada, Minnesota and Oregon.

The seven bank seizures announced Friday bring to 103 the failures so far in 2010. The pace of bank closures this year is well ahead of that of 2009, which saw a total of 140 banks shuttered amid the recession and mounting loan defaults. That was the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis.

The pace has accelerated as banks’ losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development. Many companies have shut down in the recession, vacating shopping malls and office buildings financed by the loans. That has brought delinquent loan payments and defaults by commercial developers.

[...]

By this time last year, regulators had closed 64 banks.

The number of bank failures is expected to peak this year and be slightly higher than the 140 that fell in 2009. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force, and only three succumbed in 2007.

The growing bank failures have sapped billions of dollars out of the deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year, and its deficit stood at $20.7 billion as of March 31.

The number of banks on the FDIC’s confidential “problem” list jumped to 775 in the first quarter, from 702 three months earlier…

[...]

The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to total around $60 billion from 2010 through 2014.

The agency mandated last year that banks prepay about $45 billion in premiums, for 2010 through 2012, to replenish the insurance fund.

Depositors’ money – insured up to $250,000 per account – is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government. That insurance cap was made permanent in the financial overhaul legislation signed this week by President Barack Obama.

Home Valley Bank      Cave Junction      OR      23181
SouthwestUSA Bank     Las Vegas     NV     35434
Community Security Bank     New Prague     MN     34486
Thunder Bank     Sylvan Grove     KS     10506
Williamsburg First National Bank     Kingstree     SC     17837
Crescent Bank and Trust Company     Jasper     GA     27559
Sterling Bank     Lantana     FL     32536     July 23, 2010
Mainstreet Savings Bank, FSB     Hastings     MI     28136
Olde Cypress Community Bank     Clewiston     FL     28864
Turnberry Bank     Aventura     FL     32280
Metro Bank of Dade County     Miami     FL     25172
First National Bank of the South     Spartanburg     SC     35383
Woodlands Bank     Bluffton     SC     32571

Farewell Blue Sky – America’s Wall is Rising; Your Republic is Over!!!

Did Obama Just Throw Charlie Rangel Under the Bus?

Sure sounds like it to me.  I mean, considering that Obama and the DemonRats control everything in Washington, D.C., there’s no way Rangel could be brought up on ethics violations unless Obama gave the orders.  Sure, Rangel has been under scrutiny for quite a while, but Obama tends to protect his own and cover-up for anyone in his inner circle.  So, one does wonder what exactly Rangel did to piss off Obama…

Oh, wait a minute, now I remember, Rangel made the mistake of comparing Obama to Bush and Cheney when it came to Iraq.

Yup, that’ll get you thrown under Obama’s bus in a heartbeat:

Ethics raps put Rangel on trial

NYPost – Jaywon Choe

* House panel accuses Harlem Dem * Faces boot from office after 40 yrs.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel was slapped yesterday with charges of serious ethics violations — and faces a public trial in the House that could end with his expulsion after 40 years in office.

The charges are the latest setback for the embattled 80-year-old dean of the state congressional delegation, who grudgingly relinquished his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee in March after being admonished by the committee for going on a corporate-paid junket to the Caribbean.

The secretive House Ethics Committee didn’t reveal which of the accusations leveled against the Harlem Democrat were included in the formal charges being brought against him.

But sources said they’re related to Rangel’s use of official stationery to raise money for a City College center named for him; his use of four rent-regulated apartments; and his failure to report income.

“It’s very bad news for Mr. Rangel,” said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, which called for him to step down yesterday.

“This means they found some very bad stuff. To me, this is a step toward expulsion.”

Rangel was briefed in recent weeks on the allegations and rejected them, The Washington Post reported, citing sources who said he could have avoided the trial by accepting the findings.

Among the most serious charges that have been aired against Rangel — first disclosed by The Post — was his failure to report and pay taxes on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic.

The Post later revealed that Rangel also didn’t report hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and income on the financial-disclosure forms he has filed with Congress each year.

And Rangel has been accused of soliciting large corporate donations for a center named after him at CCNY while heading Ways and Means.

He also was found to be maintaining four rent-regulated apartments in Harlem, as well as preserving a tax shelter for an oil-drilling company, Nabors Industries, whose CEO had donated to the Rangel Center.

The trial is set to kick off Thursday and is certain to draw national attention.

Saudi Father Keeps His “Possessed” Son Chained in the Basement

Uhm…  You would think that cries of “child abuse” would abound in the following article; however, I can’t find nary a one!  Therefore, I can only conclude that Islamic societies endorse child abuse and  the Daily Mail is so dhimmified that they are afraid to criticize anything Islamic:

Saudi man chains his son in the basement for six years because he is ‘possessed by an evil female genie’

By Michael Theodoulou
23rd July 2010 – DailyMail.co.uk

A Saudi man has been chained in a basement apartment for more than six years because his father believes he is possessed by an evil female genie.

‘When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white,’ said the father of the 29-year-old man who has been identified only as Turki.

‘Then the voice of a woman can be heard coming from him.’

When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him.

‘But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no-one can exorcise her unless Turki dies,’ his father said.

One cleric advised him to shackle his son’s arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him.

‘We did this. My son became quiet but is totally unaware of what is happening around him. He does not talk and is now unable to harm anyone,’ Turki’s father told Arab News, an English language Saudi daily.

But genies, or jinn, in Islamic theology can be much more sinister. Some are good, others bad.

A Saudi family last year took a ‘genie’ to court, accusing it of theft and harassment.

The jinn was said to have terrified the children by throwing stones, stealing mobile phones and speaking in male and female voices.

Turki lives in a tiny, two-room basement apartment with his impoverished mother and her three other children in the holy city of Mecca. They survive on £150 a month from social security.

His parents divorced before he was ‘possessed’.

Turki’s father claimed he himself was afflicted by a jinn at the age of nine and suffered for more than four decades until it was exorcised by a cleric.

‘I used to see a woman who would at times appear very beautiful and at times extremely ugly,’ he said.

On some occasions she was ‘surrounded by fire’ and on others appeared ‘with animal limbs’.

A Saudi human rights activist and professor in Sharia (Islamic law) who visited Turki found him to be in a ‘semi-coma’.

Muhammad Al-Suhali said Turki ‘did not know what was going on around him. He could not eat, drink or use the toilet without the help of others’.

The professor added that when started to read some Koranic verses, Turki became furious and shook until he nearly fell out of his bed.

‘When I stopped reciting, he became quiet again but was distant and unaware of what was happening,’ Suhali told Arab News.

He praised Turki’s young wife for staying with him despite his frightening condition.

Suhali called on Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs to provide the family with better accommodation and to include Turki in its social security programme.

John frankensKerry Dodging State Taxes?

Johnny’s getting his tax tips from Timothy Geithner, I see…

Sen. John Kerry skips town on sails tax
By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Friday, July 23, 2010 – Boston Herald

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel – Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage – was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax  back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven – like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau – for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

[...]

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”  – Leona Helmsley

Surprise: Obama’s Strategic Arms Control Treaty Favors Russia at America’s Expense

Okay, so it’s not really all that surprising to any of us who have been paying attention to Obama’s disastrous policies which always seem to be aimed at undermining America’s security and independence:

New START: White House Figures Are Deceptive
By:  Baker Spring – The Heritage Foundation

According to press reports, an undisclosed State Department report on the new strategic arms control treaty with Russia, called New START, reveals that the Obama Administration is not concerned about the implications of Russian cheating under the treaty. Specifically, the State Department report supposedly states that “any Russian cheating under the treaty would have little effect, if any, on the assured second-strike capabilities of U.S. strategic forces.”

New START is now being examined by a variety of Senate committees in advance of a possible future vote in the Senate on consenting to the ratification of the treaty. Up until now, Senate examination has made it appear that the Obama Administration was willing to use New START as a means for accepting a parity relationship with Russia in terms strategic nuclear forces. This development represented a huge concession to Russia because the treaty will force the U.S. to limit its strategic nuclear force in accordance with Russia’s lesser near-term capacity to field such forces.

The State Department’s report makes it clear that the Obama Administration’s real concession to Russia will be far larger. This is because it effectively concedes that the Administration really favors a “minimum deterrence” strategic nuclear force, where a large disparity in the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads in favor of Russia is determined to be insignificant. Under the minimum deterrence policy, the U.S. will give to Russia a many-fold advantage in the numbers of deployed strategic nuclear delivery systems and warheads. This comes at a time where Russia already has such an advantage in the number of non-strategic nuclear weapons.

The outlines of a minimum deterrence posture are described in an April 2009 report issued by the Federation of American Scientists and the Natural Resources Defense Council. According to this report, the numbers of weapons in the U.S. arsenal can safely be reduced to roughly 1,000 by 2020, and later to 500 because the U.S. should radically and unilaterally change its nuclear deterrence doctrine. This recommendation comes despite the fact that New START’s ceiling is 1,550 accountable warheads and Russia plans to maintain in excess of 2,000 real warheads. Apparently, the Obama Administration’s assertions about the kind of strategic nuclear force the U.S. would retain under New START in its Nuclear Posture Review is little more than subterfuge.

JournoList Emails Convince Fred Barnes that, Yes, there is a Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy

We didn’t need the JournoList emails to tell us that the Lefturds were running the show and dishing out the talking points.  After all, for years Rush Limbaugh has been playing clips of supposedly unaffiliated news outlets all over America using the exact same words and phrases when slamming Conservatives and the Right Wing.  However, having a hunch is one thing, but having the actual proof, as provided by the JournoList emails, is a slam-dunk in any court of law.

Now that JournoList has been shut down, don’t expect things to change.  I hear that the Lame Stream Media has already set up a JournoList 2.0 which will be even harder for Conservatives to infiltrate:

The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy
Everyone knew most of the press corps was hoping for Obama in 2008. Newly released emails show that hundreds of them were actively working to promote him.

By FRED BARNES – The Wall Street Journal

When I’m talking to people from outside Washington, one question inevitably comes up: Why is the media so liberal? The question often reflects a suspicion that members of the press get together and decide on a story line that favors liberals and Democrats and denigrates conservatives and Republicans.

My response has usually been to say, yes, there’s liberal bias in the media, but there’s no conspiracy. The liberal tilt is an accident of nature. The media disproportionately attracts people from a liberal arts background who tend, quite innocently, to be politically liberal. If they came from West Point or engineering school, this wouldn’t be the case.

Now, after learning I’d been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I’m inclined to amend my response. Not to say there’s a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism.

My guess is that this and other revelations about JournoList will deepen the distrust of the national press. True, participants in the online clubhouse appear to hail chiefly from the media’s self-identified left wing. But its founder, Ezra Klein, is a prominent writer for the Washington Post. Mr. Klein shut down JournoList last month—a wise decision.

It’s thanks to Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller website that we know something about JournoList, though the emails among the liberal journalists were meant to be private. (Mr. Carlson hasn’t revealed how he obtained the emails.) In June, the Daily Caller disclosed a series of JournoList musings by David Weigel, then a Washington Post blogger assigned to cover conservatives. His emails showed he loathes conservatives, and he was subsequently fired.

This week, Mr. Carlson produced a series of JournoList emails from April 2008, when Barack Obama’s presidential bid was in serious jeopardy. Videos of the antiwhite, anti-American sermons of his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had surfaced, first on ABC and then other networks.

JournoList contributors discussed strategies to aid Mr. Obama by deflecting the controversy. They went public with a letter criticizing an ABC interview of Mr. Obama that dwelled on his association with Mr. Wright. Then, Spencer Ackerman of The Washington Independent proposed attacking Mr. Obama’s critics as racists. He wrote:

“If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them—Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares—and call them racists. . . . This makes them ‘sputter’ with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.”

Taxpayer Bailout Reaches $3.7 Trillion!

Our daughter is only 3-years-old and, just because of the bailout, she already owes the government more than $12,000!!!

When is America going to wake up and get rid of these crooked Communist pigs who are incessantly sucking dry the teats of honest American tax payers?

US financial system support up $700 bln in past year-watchdog
Wed Jul 21, 2010 – Reuters

* Total US govt financial system support seen at $3.7 trln

* US support swells by $700 bln in past year-watchdog

* Mortgage, housing commitments account for most of rise

* TARP watchdog criticizes Obama housing rescue efforts

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) – Increased housing commitments swelled U.S. taxpayers’ total support for the financial system by $700 billion in the past year to around $3.7 trillion, a government watchdog said on Wednesday.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the increase was due largely to the government’s pledges to supply capital to Fannie Mae  and Freddie Mac  and to guarantee more mortgages to the support the housing market.

[And yet, not one iota of reform for the actual cause of this most recent financial meltdown---the U.S. government and Fannie & Freddie---managed to find its way into the Financial Overhaul legislation which Obama just signed into law...]