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Friday, July 15, 2011

Our Real Enemy Identified

This is an article that has been around since the 1980's however, with the debt limit crisis, it really is appropriate to resurrect. I believe it is well worth the read. 

The problems the country now face are major, however, they all can be traced to the desire of our elected "public servants" to be re-elected. They have done everything in their power to maintain their seats by returning dollars to their districts.  Now that the problems are significant, they refuse to face the music. Will they ever or are we destined to be another Greece?

If we don't fix the problems, will there be riots in the streets? Oh, I forgot about Wisconsin, that has already occurred.  So can we expect more disturbances and civil disobedience?  My guess would be yes, especially if major cuts in services, benefits and programs occur as a result of the debt limit and budget crises.

What do you think? We are interested in your opinion?

545 vs. 300,000,000 People”
                -By Charlie Reese
The Orlando Sentinel

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

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

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

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

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

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

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House now? He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

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

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

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

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

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

There are no insoluble government problems.

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

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

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

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

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

     

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

Is The Little Boy Crying Wolf Again? Is This Emergency Number 4 or 5?

Every time the government wants to get our attention, they declare an emergency. First it was the banking crisis, then car companies, then stimulus crisis, and now it is the debt limit crisis. I am getting crisis'd out.  How about you?

Remember the old story about the boy crying wolf?  Well, the government has done it once too many times for me and now I do not believe a word they say.  Can the latest crisis, the debt crisis, be that bad? We have enough money to pay the debt payments, social security, and military. What we do not have enough is to pay our Senators and Representatives and our Presidential salaries and benefits as well as all those former public servant benefits.  I think that if the government needs to address debt, they start in their own offices!

We also do not have the money to pay for those special things that were great at the time they were proposed and passed. However, times are not great now and we need to get rid of them.  In a previous post we discussed the millions spent for Chinese Prostitute training so they would not get drunk before they met their johns. What a waste!  Add to that the wasteful grants to study shrimp exercise.

What about foreign aid to hostile nations? Let's get rid of that!

We need to get back to what government is meant to do.  The Feds must protect us (military), control interstate commerce, conduct foreign affairs. However,  as an example,  we don't need an Education Department as that is a local and state issue.  We need to look at every program in the government and decide if it is necessary. If not, it should be eliminated.

Can we expect that from Congress and the President, probably not. If not, I think it is dereliction of duty and each should be brought up on charges.

That is my plan, what do you think?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Human Bombs, What Is The TSA To Do?

The latest threat facing the invincible Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are bombs being surgically implanted in humans.  What are we going to face  the next time we try to board a plane?  An x-ray or maybe a CAT Scan or MRI might work better? Will the threat materialize or is this a straw man constructed by the agency to get more dollars, personnel or equipment? I am sure that no agency would ever try get more power, right?

If we are faced with exploding bodies on planes, it would be disastrous to the air travel business due to the fact that I doubt  frequent fliers would allow themselves to be x-rayed routinely.  What might the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say regarding the safety of the multiple exposures? How long would it take to clear someone through the x-ray process? These and many more questions come to mind.

So, if blasting travellers with rays each time they try to take a plane, what other alternatives would the TSA have?  They would tell you none as they depend on technology to find the "bad guys" regardless of age, sex or malady. Of course, they could have us all strip searched before getting on a plane or we could all travel in the nude, not really a pleasant thought considering the percentage of people in this country who are overweight. So what is a poor overworked, underpaid agency to do?

My suggestion is that they go back to the basics. First of all, do the unforgivable, profile.  It was not five year old children or 85 year old women in wheelchairs who brought down the planes on 9/11. So let's start there.  If the profile changes, so must the screening.

Additionally, screen people like they do in Israel.  When I travelled there last year, we were allowed to take any water or liquids we wanted onto the plane, did not have to remove our shoes or go through back scatter strip searches. Rather they questioned us and looked for our reactions. They were human lie detectors and up to now, their methods have worked pretty darn well. Of course, that would make the agency hire a whole new bunch of inspectors--people who can think.  Can you imagine the uproar when all the current employees were terminated?

US: Terrorists look to implant bombs in humans

By Eileen Sullivan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has warned domestic and international airlines that some terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into humans to carry out attacks, The Associated Press has learned.
There is no intelligence pointing to a specific plot, but the U.S. shared its concerns last week with executives at domestic and international carriers.
People traveling to the U.S. from overseas may experience additional screening at airports because of the threat, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
"These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same activity at every international airport," TSA spokesman Nick Kimball said. "Measures may include interaction with passengers, in addition to the use of other screening methods such as pat-downs and the use of enhanced tools and technologies."
Placing explosives and explosive components inside humans to hide bombs and evade security measures is not a new idea. But there is new intelligence pointing to a fresh interest in using this tactic, a U.S. security official told the AP. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security information.
When the U.S. government receives information suggesting terror tactics that could threaten commercial aviation, the TSA alerts companies domestically and abroad. Last December, the U.S. received intelligence that al-Qaida's Yemen branch was considering hiding explosives inside insulated beverage containers to carry them on airplanes. That warning was shared with domestic and foreign airlines so that security could be on the lookout, even though there was no specific plot.
Airport security has increased markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. But terrorists remain interested in attacking aviation and continue to adapt to the new security measures by trying to develop ways to circumvent them.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Poor Palestinian Authority, Yea Right!

Every time I read about how bad things are in  Gaza and the West Bank, I remember the great new hotels being built in Gaza (supplying jobs) and the piles of goods being brought into the territories by Israeli trucks. In the attached article by Peggy Shapiro in the American Thinker give more facts which only reinforces my opinions.

When one sees that there are 50% more people living under the poverty line in Israel than in the West Bank, it shows how badly the press is reporting.  Of course, being positive toward the Jewish state is not "politically correct" and would have the author thrown out of the press club.  Don't you think that it is time that the press be  held responsible for misreporting the issues?

Peace can never be achieved if information provided to the negotiators is inaccurate or misleading.  Isn't it time that the press become an honest broker?   What do you think?






http://israel-commentary.org/?p=958
By Peggy Shapiro
AMERICAN THINKER
July 11, 2011
Dan Greenfield recently that the Palestinian Authority is facing another budget crisis and requesting additional funding from the West. Before we take out our overdrawn checkbooks, it might be time to look at some of the numbers and decide if we can afford to pour more money down the Palestinian Authority drain.
 
 Greenfield makes the point that the Palestinians are better off than some of the people who are footing most of the PA bills.
Percentage of the population who live below the poverty line:
West Bank (under PA control) 16%
Washington, D.C. 18.9%. 

Greece 20%.
Israel 24%.


Palestinians are already receiving more money in international financial assistance than other groups who are struggling in far more dire circumstance.
Per capita Foreign Assistance 2009:
Palestinian Authority $725.00
Afghanistan $219.00
Sudan $56.00

Central African Republic $53.00

Ethiopia $48.00

Democratic Republic Congo $34.60

Niger $31.20
 Bangladesh $8.00
 

In fact, the Palestinians are the top per-capita aid recipients in the history of the planet. It’s not just how much, but how long Palestinians have received international welfare that breaks all records. For 63 years, the US, European nations and the UN have been nonstop donors. While all refugees in the world receive assistance for a few years from the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Palestinians have their own, seemingly eternal source of UN welfare under the auspices of the United Nations Relief United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Set up in 1949 with a temporary, three-year mandate (UNGA Resolution 302IV) to provide aid and jobs for 700,000 Palestinian refugees, UNRWA has grown into a permanent institution for the only people allowed to hold refugee status for over sixty years. The number of “refugees” has inflated to 4,618,141 since refugee status is an inheritance which is passed on to all descendants and their descendants no matter where they live.
 
The Return on the investment to the Palestinian Authority is questionable at best. It certainly hasn’t bought the peace it was expected to buy.
In 2007, eighty-seven countries and international organizations pledged $7.4 billion to the Palestinian Authority, an amount far in excess of any previous level of US or European aid to the Palestinians for the purpose of strengthening those Palestinians who favor peaceful coexistence with Israel.

How much peace has $7.4 billion purchased? Not only has the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government with the terror group Hamas, it also passed a law in June which allows it to put imprisoned terrorists, even members of Hamas, on its payroll.
Rather than quell violence, foreign assistance to the Palestinian Authority has shown to correlate to an increase in violent attacks against both other Palestinians and Israelis. 
 
The billions of dollars, francs, marks, shekels and euros in Palestinian aid are not producing the desired outcomes and have had some dire consequences for the Palestinian people, who live with the resulting government corruption and culture of resentment and dependency. The welfare does not bring peace or prosperity to its recipients and we cannot afford to throw any more money down the Palestinian drain.

Is Hillary Stupid or Knows Exactly What She Wants?

Wonder of wonders, what is the first demand of the Muslim Brotherhood?  They want the U.S. to drop all support of Israel! Who would think that they would make that type of pre-condition to talks? Anyone who looks at the world rationally.
This brings us to our Secretary of State.  Where does she get her rose colored glasses?  Anyone who has lived as long as she has and is in the responsible position she has, should know different. So the only rational answer is that she is getting what she and/or the Administration wants. 

Would they (the Administration) want Israel to be isolated  by an American withdrawal of support?
What would that achieve? We would like to hear what you think.

Our opinion is that the Administration (Obama, Clinton et al) is anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian and will do anything in its power to make sure that Israel is isolated politically and militarily.  Those of us who support the Jewish State must take action to let the President know that we will not stand for this.



Muslim Brotherhood's First Demand for US: Drop Israel
Ryan Jones - Israel Today Magazine, July 5th, 2011

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the weekend publicly announced the Obama Administration's desire to reestablish ties with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.The Brotherhood responded this week by thanking Clinton, and issuing its first demand of its new American friends: drop support for the “Zionist regime.”
In an email response quoted by Bloomberg, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan stated that if America wants solid relations with the group, it should “stop supporting the corrupt and tyrannical regimes, backing the Zionist occupation and using double standards.” It is important to remember that when the Muslim Brotherhood speaks of the “Zionist occupation” it does not mean only the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, the so-called “West Bank.”
The Muslim Brotherhood sees all of Israel as a cancerous growth that must be eradicated. The group supports returning Egypt to a state of war with Israel, and wants to see the entirety of the region become an Islamic Caliphate. Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood for making peace with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood is today the most organized political force in Egypt, raising expectations that it will win control of the government when Egyptians go to the polls in September.