John McCain delivered a good speech for a man who's not so comfortable talking in that setting or about himself.
It was tough for him to get into a rhythm in the beginning, with the socialist scum (like Code Punk, er Pink) that snuck into the building to make a spectacle of themselves.
He did an excellent job spelling out Republican Party beliefs...
"We believe in low taxes, spending discipline and open markets.
We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor.
We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench.
We believe in the values of families, neighborhoods and communities".
Pointing out the differences between himself and Obama...
I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them.
I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them.
I will cut government spending. He will increase it.
My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them.
My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.
I felt he hit the mark on job retraining, education and energy.
The main reason I support John McCain is his ability to keep this country safe first!
We face many threats in this dangerous world, but I'm not afraid of them. I'm prepared for them. I know how the military works, what it can do, what it can do better and what it should not do. I know how the world works. I know the good and the evil in it. I know how to work with leaders who share our dreams of a freer, safer and more prosperous world, and how to stand up to those who don't. I know how to secure the peace.
McCain's speech was the best at the end...
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.
I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.
If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our armed forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.
I'm going to fight for my cause every day as your president. I'm going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I'm an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.
Fight for what's right for our country.
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.
Fight for our children's future.
Fight for justice and opportunity for all.
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.
Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.
Dummycrat Representative David Obey (WI) went off the deep end and berated the mother of a Marine who had the audacity to question the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee about why he was not cutting off funding for the war.
“We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war,” Obey said. “You can’t end the war if you’re going against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understood that.”
...“The liberal groups are jumping around without knowing what the hell is in the bill,” he bellowed. “You don’t have to cut off funds for an activity that doesn’t exist.”
...“We don’t have the votes to pass [a resolution],” he yelled. “We couldn’t even get the votes to pass a non-binding resolution one week ago. How the hell do you think we’re going to get the votes to cut off the war?” “You cut off the funding,” an onlooker replied. “How, if you don’t have the votes?” Obey roared in response. “That bill ends the war! If that isn’t good enough for you, you’re smoking something illegal. You’ve got your facts screwed up.” “We can’t get the votes! Do you see a magic wand in my pocket?” he continued, opening his suit jacket as if to display an empty pocket. “We don’t have the votes for it. We do have the votes if you guys quit screwing it up. We do have the votes to end the legal authority for the war, that’s the same as de-funding it.”
When The Hill contacted him Friday about the videotaped encounter, Obey immediately apologized for getting angry with the woman, saying that his immense frustration about “this stupid war” boiled over. “Once in a while that frustration boils over, I wish it hadn’t but you cannot continue conversations forever,” he said. He also continued to skewer “liberal groups” for failing to inform the members and the public that the war supplemental spending bill contains language aimed at ending the war. ...Tensions had already been riding high, he said, because this week protesters had been “sitting in” his district office and have refused to leave at the end of the business day and were arrested. “What so frustrated me about the encounter is that it became apparent that she had no idea that the bill she was being asked to tell me to vote against would set a deadline for our getting out of Iraq,” he said. “So many of these liberal groups don’t adequately inform their members. They don’t have the full story about what we’re trying to do and they wind up not being able to distinguish their friend from their enemy. These people won’t take yes for an answer.”
...Instead of trying to help them in the task, the members of liberal groups are viewing them as the enemy rather than their friends, Obey said. “When you have misinformation or lack of information put into their head’s, it’s a disservice to them and to me,” Obey said. “I respect their views. But I would hope they would also respect mine and others on the Hill who are working so hard to find a way out of this.” ...At the end of the interview Obey again said he was sorry about his outburst then cut off questions, saying he needed to get to a hearing. “I’m sorry that the frustration happened to erupt in that hall,” he said. “I wish it hadn’t. If these groups would inform people before they hit the Hill…we might have a better chance to have the votes to end this thing.”
Not much of an apology!
I love it when Fiberals and Dummycrats attack each other, the cannibals.
Final Score: Obey 1?
(Subtle Star Wars reference for Pruisner's benefit)
What's the point of having cake if you can't eat it?
And the scientific community is united in that fact.
With the news that Iowa Republicans have moved their Caucus, I'll be able to attend and won't be a bad Iowan after all (at least in this aspect).
If the political season ended right now, I'd be here today and gone to Maui.
However, as at the Straw Poll, my support is still with Rudy Giuliani.
I kid about it being an Italian thing, but I've liked Rudy since he was in Reagan's Justice Department as Associate Attorney General (the third highest position at Justice).
In Des Moines, in June, Rudy laid out his twelve commitments to voters...
*I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists’ War on Us. *I will end illegal immigration, secure our borders, and identify every non-citizen in our nation. *I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending. *I will cut taxes and reform the tax code. *I will impose accountability on Washington. *I will lead America towards energy independence. *I will give Americans more control over and access to health care with affordable and portable free-market solutions. *I will increase adoptions, decrease abortions, and protect the quality of life for our children. *I will reform the legal system and appoint strict constructionist judges. *I will ensure that every community in America is prepared for terrorist attacks and natural disasters. *I will provide access to a quality education to every child in America by giving real school choice to parents. *I will expand America’s involvement in the global economy and strengthen our reputation around the world.
Foremost, you know Rudy gets it...
“The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”
“This war ends when they stop coming here to kill us!”
I've taken some grief from other conservatives about my backing Rudy and it's mainly about abortion.
I supported Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and not a lot has really changed on that front since 1981.
I'm tired of conservatives that over the last few years have threatened to sit out elections and not having a problem with Hellary.
For them I say...
"Let's grow up, conservatives. If we want to take this party back — and I think we can — let's get to work." --Barry Goldwater
That was spoke at the 1960 Republican Convention when he withdrew from the nomination and supported Richard Nixon.
Quin Hillyer, of the American Spectator, offers his take on that quote...
"Goldwater's message 47 years ago was that the conservative movement did not have the right to complain about not winning, because it had not done the work necessary to win — that it needed to 'grow up' and go out and earn its victories rather than griping all the time."
"I hear too much griping and not enough effort to find common cause and work on behalf of that cause, When everything looks grim, that's the time to let bygones be bygones and start rebuilding."
"It's not perfect. But it's so much better than the frightening prospect of Hillary Clinton in the White House that it behooves us not to tear down those candidates in the course of choosing a nominee. I'm not suggesting that we be Pollyannas. I am suggesting that we be realists with an upbeat and 'can do' attitude rather than defeatists."
So welcome back baby To the poor side of town When is a poverty tour not a poverty tour?
When it's headed by a multi millionaire trial lawyer.
...publicity about his personal wealth - $400 haircuts, construction of a 28,000-square-foot house, hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary to speak about poverty and advise a hedge fund for the superrich - has opened him to charges of hypocrisy and threatened to undermine his message.
"Let them attack," Edwards said in a letter to supporters, asking for symbolic $8 campaign donations to support his effort.
Edwards poverty tour was supposed to be a break from fund raising and campaigning.
Do you see why there might be charges of hypocrisy?
Some at his campaign rallies do.
Last night in Fort Dodge, Dave Price reports this...
A woman first asked him if he would consider living on the "food stamp diet' a few members of Congress are trying. He told her he hadn't heard about it, but if he could make it work on the Presidential campaign trail, he would think about it. Then she brought up the haircut. She told him her family lives for weeks on what he paid for that one haircut. The comment brought a collective "ohhhh" from the crowd and silence for a bit from Edwards.
That's for a $400 haircut, but his barber---er, hairstylist was paid more.
Joseph Torrenueva has cut the hair of Hollywood celebrities, from Marlon Brando to Bob Barker, so when a friend told him in 2003 that a presidential candidate needed grooming advice, he agreed to help.
...Torrenueva has cut Edwards's hair at least 16 times.
At first, the haircuts were free. But because Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign trail to meet his client, he began charging $300 to $500 for each cut, plus the cost of airfare and hotels when he had to travel outside California.
Torrenueva said one haircut during the 2004 presidential race cost $1,250 because he traveled to Atlanta and lost two days of work.
When this first came out Edwards said that he was embarrassed by the cost and that he "didn't know it would be that expensive," suggesting the haircuts were some kind of aberration given by "that guy" his staff had arranged.
16 times is not an aberration.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me 16 times you're a Fiberal Dummycrat.
...the Edwards campaign said this week that Edwards had arranged for the stylist to give him numerous cuts over the past four years. But it said that a personal assistant handled paying for the haircuts and that Edwards didn't realize how much they cost.
Really?
...According to Torrenueva, the last time he cut Edwards's hair was March 23, the day after Elizabeth Edwards announced that her cancer had returned and a month before the cost of the haircuts became public.
Unlike two prior haircuts in January and February, which were paid for by the campaign, Edwards personally paid the $400 for the March cut, the stylist said.
The Edwards campaign said this...
"Breaking news -- John Edwards got some expensive haircuts and probably didn't pay enough attention to the bills. He didn't lie about weapons of mass destruction or spring Scooter Libby; he just got some expensive haircuts."
No, Edwards lied about haircuts!
Pathetic!
There is one thing I can agree with John Edwards on...
"Democrats want to win. This is not an intellectual exercise for us..."
And the scientific community is united in that fact.
I can't blame you for tryin' I'm tryin' to make it too
... Together we can make it baby From the poor side of town
This might cause Nancy Pelosi to have a BOTOX blow out!
A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.
At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.
As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" according to the affidavit.
Jefferson, who represents New Orleans, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official _ the name is blacked out in the court document _ to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.
All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.
Two of Jefferson's associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in Alexandria. One, businessman Vernon Jackson of Louisville, Ky., admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the lawmaker in exchange for his help securing business deals for Jackson's telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries.
The new details about the case emerged after federal agents searched Jefferson's congressional office on Capitol Hill Saturday night and Sunday. The nearly 100-page affidavit for a search warrant, made public Sunday with large portions blacked out, spells out much of the evidence so far.
The document includes excerpts of conversations between Jefferson and an unidentified business executive from northern Virginia. She agreed to wear a wire after she approached the FBI with complaints that Jefferson and an associate had ripped her off in a business deal.
Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, contended that the prosecutors' disclosure was "part of a public relations agenda and an attempt to embarrass Congressman Jefferson. The affidavit itself is just one side of the story which has not been tested in court," Trout said in a statement.
The affidavit says Jefferson is caught on videotape at the Ritz- Carlton as he takes a reddish-brown briefcase from the trunk of the informant's car, slips it into a cloth bag, puts the bag into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drives away.
The $100 bills in the suitcase had the same serial numbers as those found in Jefferson's freezer.
While the name of the intended recipient of the $100,000 is blacked out, other details in the affidavit indicate he is Abubakar Atiku, Nigeria's vice president. He owns a home in Potomac, Md., that authorities have searched as part of the Jefferson investigation.
Jefferson assured the FBI informant in their coded conversations that he paid the money to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's possession when agents searched his home Aug. 3.
On Aug. 1, two days after Jefferson picked up the $100,000, the informant called Jefferson to ask about the status of "the package."
Jefferson responded: "I gave him the African art that you gave me and he was very pleased."
When Jefferson and the informant had dinner at a Washington restaurant on May 12, 2005, the FBI was listening, too. Jefferson indicates he will need an increased stake in the profits of one deal, the affidavit said. Instead of the 7 percent stake originally agreed upon, he writes "18-20" on a piece of paper and passes it to the informant.
That is when negotiations move ahead and notes go back and forth, ending with Jefferson's laughter about the FBI watching it all.
Throughout the conversations, Jefferson makes attempts to deflect direct connections to any bribes.
He tells the informant at one point that money should be paid to businesses operated by his children. "I make a deal for my children. It wouldn't be me," Jefferson said, according to the affidavit.
In a different conversation, Jefferson seeks to distance himself from bribes that must be paid to Nigerian government officials to facilitate transactions.
"If he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal," Jefferson told the witness, according to the affidavit. "We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that. We're not doing any of that that gets us (unintelligible)."
The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was involved; nearly all were blacked out in the document.
Jefferson, who has pledged not to resign from Congress in the face of the bribery investigation, speculated about his political future in one of the recorded conversations.
When the informant asked Jefferson about his political plans, he responded: "I'm gonna get your deal out of the way ... and I probably won't last long after that."
The only difference between this guy and William Jefferson Clinton? Clinton's money came from China!
I thought John McCain was strong from the first question on.
I wish McCain would have challenged Obama bringing up the AIG retreat, or junket as Obama called it.
You may recall that Obama chastised McCain for originally opposing the bailout of AIG and chastised him as not having "clarity or a grasp on the situation".
Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, originally sided with McCain on AIG.
A plague on both their houses for throwing Warren Buffett's name out for Secretary of Treasury.
Obama still believes "Senator McCain is right" on a few issues.
McCain scored effectively lumping Obama and the Democrats into the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle and pointing out Obama as the second highest recipient of their campaign contributions in history, all the while killing legislation McCain supported to fix the problem.
Obama sounded weak trying to defend his warning of writing to Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairmen Bernanke.
Writing a letter vs. enacting legislation. WHEW, that's powerful stuff! (he writes sarcastically).
I think McCain was effective when he pointed out his record on bipartisanship and how Obama has never even taken on the leadership of his own party.
McCain was smart to point out that voters should look at their records and then their proposals.
McCain gave a perfect example of rhetoric vs. record when he pointed this out about Obama...
"When he ran for the United States Senate from Illinois, he said he would have a middle-income tax cut. You know he came to the Senate and never once proposed legislation to do that?"
I couldn't follow Obama on how the computer "was the engine for economic growth over the last couple of decades".
Then he went on with...
"The same way the computer was originally invented by a bunch of government scientists who were trying to figure out, for defense purposes, how to communicate..."
That's not the computer, it's Al Gore's internet that began in the Department of Defense!
I thought it was an interesting slam on Delaware that Obama had "because they've got very -- pretty loose laws when it comes to things like credit cards".
Who does Obama know from Delaware?
Could it be his running mate, the Senator from MBNA?
Obama was confusing about his using force for the Obama doctrine...
"Well, we may not always have national security issues at stake, but we have moral issues at stake.
If we could have intervened effectively in the Holocaust, who among us would say that we had a moral obligation not to go in?"
The Holocaust was ended by our victory over the Nazi's in a little national security issue called World War II.
I believe McCain closed as strong as he opened.
Overall, I felt McCain did well on the economy and dominated on foreign policy.
I thought John McCain looked Presidential and is someone I want representing this country in the world.
A little background. One Saturday I was watching the TV8 6p.m. news and they put up a map to go with the story that anchor Erin Kiernan was reading. The map showed the U.S. and Europe, with an ocean in between. Can you correctly name that ocean? Well, whoever put the map together prior to the newscast couldn't. They had named it the Pacific instead of the Atlantic. I sent an e-mail to Ms. Kiernan and asked if she was as shocked as I was about the change. She good naturedly replied she was stunned. I sent an e-mail to Davie Busiek, News Director, and he gave me some lame excuse about being out of town and not seeing it. Well last Sunday night, after a roughly two week period of watching their mistakes, I'd had enough. At the end of the 10p.m. news I sent an e-mail to the station manager and news director. Enjoy the following....
I grew up with TV8 news. My earliest memories are of Russ Van Dyke with AE milk at the desk and of course the backwards weather map. However you have made it difficult to stay with you. From the weekend when you replaced the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, ask Erin Kiernan, to the last few weeks when you've mis-spelled Italy on Cynthia Fodors report(ITALTY) to mis-spelling the Harlem Globetrotters (HARLAM). Bob Kaple has been the final straw for me. Stating, after a tree tore through a mans home and struck him, "no harm no foul" to his latest inability to report correctly the opening of the new DM library, stating the library would be closed Sunday 4/9 and not open again until Monday 4/10. Later corrected by Emily Givens, prior to the Dm Register plug, that it would be open Sunday 1-5pm. I'm done with your idiocy
His reply
Dave A Busiek wrote: Mr. King:
We try hard every day to get it 100% right, but in 27 years at KCCI (back to the days of working with Russ), I've found perfect newscasts to be rare. You seem to have a wonderful memory for the mistakes. What's disappointing about your email is that you can't seem to give us credit for any of the good work that we do. Judging by a lot of factors, not the least of which is ratings dominance, I'd have to say the vast majority of viewers think we must be doing something right.
We live in a fishbowl, and every mistake is out there for all the world to see. We realize that, and we have systems in place to catch mistakes before they air, and they catch many, but they are not foolproof. If we make a mistake, we try to find the reason for it and prevent recurrences. And if it's a mistake that needs correcting, like the one this weekend on the library hours, we go on the air and admit the mistake.
I don't know what you do for a living, but if you work with people, you surely must know that humans make mistakes. If that makes us "idiots" in your eyes, I guess we'll have to live with that. I'll be sure to share your note with the rest of the staff so they know how you feel.
Sincerely,
Dave Busiek News Diector
My BAD back
You might want to consider a refresher course for "How to win friends and influence people". I found your e-mail quite defensive for Iowa's News "Bleat"-er. I'm not surprised you missed the facts of my e-mail, since it's the facts that have been messed up in your newscasts. I didn't call you "idiots", I stated I was tired of your "idiocy". However, I believe it is "idiotic" to make excuses for the mistakes made. Oh well, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people", or it's media. "No harm, no foul", Bob Kaple just may have captured your new slogan.
I usually cut folks some slack if they're new or doing a live shot. These errors are in their prepared pieces and facts that are easily checked. Needless to say, they lost a long time viewer.
I thought the third debate started out boring, but got interesting later.
I'm amused that when pressed by Bob Schieffer, Obama's big budget cut was a $15 Billion dollar subsidy.
In all three debates Obama scoffed at the savings McCain pushed on earmarks because "it's not going to solve the problem".
Per Obama, earmark savings amount to $18 Billion.
McCain finally had an excellent comeback to Obama comparing him to President Bush...
"I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country".
McCain scored when he painted Obama as the big spender that he is...
"Sen. Obama talks about the budgets I voted for. He voted for the last two budgets that had that $24 billion more in spending than the budget that the Bush administration proposed. He voted for the energy bill that was full of goodies for the oil companies that I opposed. So the fact is, let's look at our records, Sen. Obama. Let's look at it as graded by the National Taxpayers Union and the Citizens Against Government Waste and the other watchdog organizations".
Obama had a couple of gaffes when he tried to tie McCain, again, to Bush policies...
"But when it comes to economic policies, essentially what you're proposing is eight more years of the same thing. And it hasn't worked".
Presidential terms are four years, with a maximum of eight.
"And 100 percent, John, of your ads -- 100 percent of them have been negative".
Obama was not completely truthful about his association with ACORN...
"The only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law..."
Digging deeper you'll find that during Obama's organizing years he taught future leaders identified by ACORN and was a part of their Project Vote.
ACORN and his connections may be Obama's downfall, as the voter fraud ACORN has perpatrated has reached 11 states so far.
Back to the debate.
Some may consider it a gaffe, but I thought John McCain was right on when he referred to Obama as "Senator Government".
Obama scared the hell out of me when he proposed his less than strict judicial litmus test...
"the most important thing in any judge is their capacity to provide fairness and justice to the American people".
Obama as a lawyer knows the law isn't always fair, it's not a judges role to make it so.
As a Senator, Obama should realize the role of the legislative branch of our government is to write laws.
I was less than moved by Obama's argument regarding equal pay for equal work, namely because Obama and Biden pay the women on their Senate staff's less than John McCain pays his.
Obama’s 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397. Obama’s 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average … on average, Obama’s female staffers earn just 83 cents for every dollar his male staffers make …
As for Biden, his 14 male staffers split a total payroll outlay of $1,077,128.40. So, Biden’s average male employee earned $76,937.74 per annum.
Biden’s 27 female employees divided $1,517,874.47, or $56,217.57, on average.
Among Biden’s top five highest-paid aides, one was a woman. Among the top 20, 11 were women.
All told, for every dollar that Biden paid his average male staffer, his female equivalent made only 73 cents.
McCain’s payment patterns are the stuff of feminist dreams. McCain’s 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878. On average, according to these data, women in McCain’s office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes.
The Liter continues with the debate...
I loved how McCain accurately portrayed the left's "Pro Abortion Movement", because that's what pro choice really is.
Don't believe Obama on his Born-Alive Infants Protection Act stance or Partial Birth Abortion, his own campaign has had to correct him on that.
Watch out when Obama talks about preventing "unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth".
Last month Byron Yorkdiscovered what an Illinois sex-education bill, supported by Obama, was really about.
When Schieffer stated the U.S. spends more per capita than any other country on education. Yet, by every international measurement, in math and science competence, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, we trail most of the countries of the world.
Obama's response was to throw more money at the education system.
McCain was correct when he stated...
"throwing money at the problem is not the answer. You will find that some of the worst school systems in America get the most money per student".
McCain has used this solution several times...
we take good teachers and we reward them and promote them and we find bad teachers another line of work.
Obama on bad teachers...
And we also agree on the need for making sure that if we have bad teachers that they are swiftly -- after given an opportunity to prove themselves, if they can't hack it, then we need to move on...
If you know they're bad teachers they've already proven they cant hack it.
McCain ended with which candidate you can trust...
to be careful stewards of your tax dollar, to make sure America is safe and secure and prosperous, to make sure we reform the institutions of government. That's why I've asked you not only to examine my record, but my proposals for the future of this country. I've spent my entire life in the service of this nation and putting my country first. As a long line of McCains that have served our country for a long time in war and in peace, it's been the great honor of my life, and I've been proud to serve. And I hope you'll give me an opportunity to serve again. I'd be honored and humbled.
It was a great move by Sears to be so closely tied with ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. In my book this is an even better move. I got this from a friend.
I assume you have all seen the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up...
Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution.
Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves.
So I(Beth), decided to check it out before I sent it forward. I sent the following email to the Sears Customer Service Department:
I received this email and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your store. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item even if it was cheaper at the other store. Here is their answer to my email: _______________________________________
Dear Customer:
Thank you for contacting Sears.
The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.
Bill Thorn Sears Customer Care
Please pass this on to all your friends, Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!!!!!!!!!!
Today Rick Campbell, one of our senior members at age 87, is here to reminisce a bit and give us a history lesson.
He says he is so old that he learned to drive an internal combustion engine car (remember those) with a manual transmission.
He once owned a typewriter.
He remembers when bicycles had one speed, phones had two-party lines, and cameras had something called film.
He is from a different time; almost a different world.
I'm sure all of us are far too familiar with the tragic events of 2010, so Rick is not going to plow that fertile field again.
Instead, he is going to give us a personal look back at the conditions which led up to that fateful year, in a speech titled "2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President."
Yes, 2010 was long ago and far away.
As we look back on history, it appears that some Presidents had an easy ride- times of growth and stability.
Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton come to mind.
Those were good years to be President.
Others were elected just when the Republic was facing terrible crises: Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, George W. Bush.
They rose to the occasion, even though they were controversial and widely hated while in office.
Not such good years to be President.
Just a few years prior, in 2008, the country began foundering.
We were in the sixth year of the Iraqi Occupation, and the economy was flat.
The mainstream press clearly wanted a Democrat elected.
Although we didn't know it until some years later, oil producing nations had colluded to secretly buy their own oil on the open market, driving oil prices to shocking levels above the true demand price- reaching a high of $162 a barrel in October, 2008, just before the general elections.
Their purpose was simple: to effect regime change in the United States.
And of course, the U.S. economy was already in a real estate slump and also suffering the curse of stagflation; slow growth and high inflation.
There were a million home foreclosures.
Independent truckers went under by the thousands.
Airlines failed. Airlines with names now long-forgotten: United, Delta, Northwestern, American.
All now merged, of course, into the one lone U.S. carrier we love so much: Southwest.
Against this backdrop of weariness of the war on terror, and economic distress, the American people were ripe for a demagogue, and they certainly got one in Barack Hussein Obama.
He and his running mate Kathlene Sibelius inspired them with vague notions of hope and change; of a world in which diplomacy settled all international problems, of free universal health care, of abundant alternative energy, of peace and love.
It was a vision too good to resist.
The Republican nominee, a name you probably haven't heard in years, anyone?
Yes, it was John McCain, an obscure Senator from Arizona had no clue how to run a national campaign, and a platform nearly as liberal as Obama's.
The selection of Condoleeza Rice as his running mate looked brilliant at first.
Unfortunately, black voters viewed her as white, and women voters viewed her as one of the guys.
Even so, the McCain/Rice ticket would have won the election if it weren't for the fact that 16 percent of conservative Republicans voted for, anyone remember?
That's right, Bob Barr, another name that's a footnote in history.
After Obama's narrow win, thanks to recounts in Broward County, Florida, the country was positively giddy.
A Democrat House, Senate, and President.
At last an end to gridlock in Washington.
Camelot!
When Congress convened in January, 2009, the 44th President of the United States did something unique in history: he made good on his campaign promises.
Certainly most Americans never really thought he was serious during the campaign.
But whether because of inexperience, idealism, or simply incompetence, he followed through.
In Obama's first One Hundred Days, the Congress passed his initiatives, and he signed them into law as he said he would.
He repealed the Bush tax cuts, increased capital gains taxes.
He enacted a windfall profits tax, and instituted price controls on gasoline and diesel fuel.
He passed universal health care, which added an additional 10 percent tax increase on all working Americans.
He signed the Immigrant Amnesty bill which created 12 million new citizens instantly, each with entitlements.
He closed the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and summarily released all the detainees.
He repealed the Patriot Act, and cut funding for espionage, and eliminated all terrorist listening and wiretaps.
Most important, he began the complete and immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq.
He ignored the advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who wanted to retain bases in Kuwait and Qatar.
Instead, he went with the recommendation of Secretary of Defense Dennis Kucinich, and ordered all troops back to U.S. soil.
Viola!
In One Hundred Days, by May of 2009, it was all done, and the vision was complete. He did exactly what he said he would do.
And so it was in the summer of 2009 that things began to unravel for Obama.
Of course, the economy needed a tax cut, not an increase, and unemployment quickly rose to 12 percent.
Even attorneys and economists were put in the bread lines.
Hard times.
Price controls on gasoline immediately led to shortages and gas lines.
The global cooling trend we have seen for the past 25 years first became obvious in 2009, exposing the CO2 global warming fraud.
People were justifiably angry.
Federal deficits increased massively because thousands of baby boomers, facing job loss and much higher taxes, simply gave up and took social security.
Although the superb U.S. health care system was thrown into disarray, the bright spot was the creation of the Federal Department of Health care, and the immediate hiring of 250,000 administrators, inspectors and auditors, the only job growth in any economic sector in 2009.
By February 2010, the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq was complete. It was a very expensive undertaking.
And then in March, the gradual Shiite insurgencies from Iran turned into a true Iraqi civil war.
In May, Iranian tanks crossed the border and quickly took Baghdad.
Although the exact number is not known, at least 230,000 Sunni Iraqis died as we stood by.
Iran also quickly moved into undefended Kuwait.
President Obama did exactly what he said he would.
He sent Secretary of State Maria Cantwell to Tehran to meet with Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
After two weeks of high level talks, the United States agreed to allow Iran to retain Iraq and Kuwait to create stability in the middle east, with the understanding that Israel would not be disturbed.
Cantwell returned to Washington, and explained the agreement in her famous speech, in which she proudly noted that the Obama administration had finally achieved "peace in our time" in the Middle East.
So there was some surprise at the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv on August 14th.
President Obama said, "This is not the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I knew."
The Obama administration decided it would be de-stabilizing to take sides in the conflict, and approximately 29,000 Israeli civilians died during the summer and fall.
American Jews were appalled at the inaction.
Yes, in 2010 most American Jews were Democrats, but because of 2010, they are solid Republicans today.
As awkward as it was, everything might have turned out all right for the Obama administration going into the fall mid-term elections of 2010, if it hadn't been for the dirty bomb in the Port of Long Beach.
The administration had cut funding for the inspection of containers, because they felt it showed a "lack of trust" in the international trading community.
It wasn't really a very big bomb, and thank goodness, not a real nuclear device, but nonetheless it contaminated some expensive real estate- Newport Beach, Palos Verdes Estates- and ultimately caused the death of 14,000 Americans.
People were especially annoyed that Disneyland had to be closed for decontamination.
And so, in the midterm elections, Republicans regained control of both the House and Senate, and the rest is history.
The impeachment proceedings against President Obama for "failure to protect and defend" were swift and nearly unanimous.
Vice President Sibelius resigned.
Newly-elected Speaker of the House, J.C. Watts, became the 45th President of the United States.
But you know the rest of the story well.
Republicans finished the war on Islamic fundamentalists, largely by aiming ICBM's at Mecca and Medina.
No Democrat has been elected President since.
Republicans have held both Houses of Congress.
History of Western Civilization and Economics are now taught in all public schools, and in English only.
Marriage is defined as one man and one woman.
And there are border fences, north and south.
We old codgers remember the ancient Confucian curse:
"May you live in interesting times."
Well, 2010 was an interesting year, but it was not a good year to be President."
This came from my friend Cal, I believe the author is unknown.
Hellary was in my neck of the woods yesterday, that explains the smell.
She proudly stood behind another affirmative vote by criticizing the No Child Left Behind program.
Makes one wonder, if like her Iraq vote, she read anything at all about NCLB before her vote.
Hellary's criticism, capture by Radio Iowa, came in response to this question from a soon to be college graduate...
"Hi senator. I go to the school in town and I'm a music student and I'm about to graduate and I have a lot of friends who are going to be BMEs -- Bachelor of Music Education -- and they're great people and they really believe in their subject and but with this No Child Left Behind program, arts are being cut left and right. I'm afraid my friends aren't going to have jobs. I'm afraid I'm not going to have a job and I just remember in school having all these great music teachers who helped me and will you do something?"
It appears NCLB isn't tough enough and the scientific community is united in that fact.
Hellary's answer...
"Yes, I will. Anyone who's ever heard me sing on YouTube knows I can't sing."
"I mean, you know, it's really tragic because it always sounds right to my ears and I love to sing. I mean, you should hear me in the shower. It's operatic."
More like PATHETIC, I mean.
"You know, when I was in high school -- still deluded about my musical ability I tried out for the spring musical and the director was a friend of mine and he told me I could be in it as long as I just lip-sinced."
"So you know, I know how miportant the arts are because not every person and certainly not every student learns the same way. You know, music and art and exposure to a different set of cultural experiences can ignite such a creative passion and imagination in some people and I worry that No Child Left Behind -- with it's emphasis on tests which are primarily one way of learning, you know, you sit and you listen and you try to absorb and then you try to give it back -- is going to leave so many kids out, kids who are artistically inclined, who have musical ability, kids who learn by making things.
"You know, if you were stranded on a desert island the people you would want are the people who know how to make things and that is a legitimate form of learning so I get very passionate about this because I think we are in danger of narrowing curriculum and leaving children behind, the very opposite of what they expected to have happen."
I know only an idiot says "You know" so much.
Desert Island? There's an relevant analogy.
I mean somebody's watching too much "LOST" or "Gilligan's Island", you know.
This all occurred at a fund raiser for Freshman State Senator Staci Appel.
Afterwards Appel publicly endorsed Hellary, no surprise since she's given over $3,000 to her previous campaigns.
Appel, who always has that deer in the headlight look, just completed the first year of her four year term. She spent over $250,000 for a seat that pays $21,000.
In a final note, Friday Hellary welcomed CONgressman Alcee Hastings to her campaign as a National Co-Chair...
"I am delighted that Debbie and Alcee will take on leadership roles in my campaign," [Mrs.] Clinton said. "With their help, we will bring our message of change throughout Florida and across the country."
Hastings was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988 and removed as a federal judge.
Hastings was found to have committed perjury and had conspired to solicit bribes/money from defendants in return for favorable treatment in his court.
It all depends on what your definition of change is.
It's hard to believe that intelligent people can really be so stupid as to even think they really want the Republican Party calling the shots again.
Don't let the leaders of the Republican Party like Sarah Palin make you complete idiots. This woman is a highly dangerous person. the Republican Party is the Party that got us into this mess. Anyone that has a brain should be able to figure that one out.
Sadly, Mr. Hoard hasn't been able to figure it out
The people that were and are still set against having a black person as president are doing everything in their power to make the administration fail.
And
They don't come right out and say it, but they are still highly prejudiced when it comes to black people. That is the main reason they won't go along with Obama and the good things that he wants to do for his fellow man.
BfI isn't bright enough to realize that hate speech is negative imagery and long on lies.
Mr. Hoard also believes -- The leaders of the Republican Party should hand their heads in shame.
I believe he means hang their heads in shame, but he claims to be 92 so I'll cut him a little slack.
Proudly, my 98 year old grandmother has more on the ball than either Mr. Hoard or BfI and she has no hate in her heart either.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is making the rounds (Today, The View) for the re-release of her book, "It Takes A Village".
Talking about her vote to authorize military action in Iraq, HRC told NBC's Today...
"Obviously, if we knew then what we know now, there wouldn't have been a vote and I certainly wouldn't have voted that way."
Is her Senate desk too close to John "I voted for the $87 Billion before I voted against it" Kerry's?
If there wouldn't have been a vote, you couldn't have voted any which way!
Hell, if I knew then what I know now...I wouldn't have married my first wife!
She also said she would not support a short-term increase in U.S. troop presence in Iraq unless it was part of a more comprehensive plan to stabilize the country.
I guess that rules out baking cookies.
Don Surber, a columnist for the Charleston Daily Mail, points out Hillary makes a mistake bringing attention to her idiot book.
...That anti-welfare reform chestnut has not held up very well in the decade that followed.
The Kumbaya wisdom of African villages has deteriorated into an AIDS ravaged continent of civil war where young boys carry AK47s and troops and UN peacekeepers alike gangrape young girls.
...Hillary's test is not whether she can regurgitate liberal pablum on social issues, but whether she can deliver a military that is more than just a place to park her husband's ex-girlfriends.
Swapping child-rearing tips with Rosie O'Donnell ain't gonna cut it.
The Liter is proposing that as the new name for Des Moines' Stewart Square, the now home of the relocated societal misfits that are Occupy Iowa/Des Moines.
He better hope none of the cities resources will be wasted on Itchycoo Park.
What did you do there? I got high What did you feel there? Well I cried But why the tears there? I'll tell you why It's all too beautiful It's all too beautiful It's all too beautiful It's all too beautiful
Tell you what I'll do (what will you do?) I'd like to go there now with you You can miss out school (won't that be cool) Why go to learn the words of fools? What will we do there? We'll get high What will we touch there? We'll touch the sky
The President, with that you will respect my authoritah look, says we need to be patient and that the stimulus was not designed to work in four months.
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) is expected to be Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress.
Levin sounded the retreat signal on ABC's 'This Week'. "First order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy.
....and that, as a matter of fact, we need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months."
Mark Steyn paints a true picture of why last Tuesday was bad for America and the War on Terror.
"The jihad crowd....view of America is roughly that of the British historian Niall Ferguson -- that the Great Satan is the first superpower with ADHD. They reasoned that if you could subject Americans to the drip-drip-drip of remorseless water torture in the deserts of Mesopotamia -- a couple of deaths here, a market bombing there, cars burning, smoke over the city on the evening news, day after day after day, and ratcheted up a notch or two for the weeks before the election -- you could grind down enough of the electorate and persuade them to vote like Spaniards, without even realizing it. And it worked.
...we are all Spaniards now. The incoming speaker says Iraq is not a war to be won but a problem to be solved. The incoming defense secretary belongs to a commission charged with doing just that. A nostalgic boomer columnist in the Boston Globe argues that honor requires the United States to "accept defeat," as it did in Vietnam. Didn't work out so swell for the natives, but to hell with them.
What does it mean when the world's hyperpower, responsible for 40 percent of the planet's military spending, decides that it cannot withstand a guerrilla war with historically low casualties against a ragbag of local insurgents and imported terrorists? You can call it "redeployment" or "exit strategy" or "peace with honor" but, by the time it's announced on al-Jazeera, you can pretty much bet that whatever official euphemism was agreed on back in Washington will have been lost in translation. Likewise, when it's announced on "Good Morning Pyongyang" and the Khartoum Network and, come to that, the BBC.
For the rest of the world, the Iraq war isn't about Iraq; it's about America, and American will...."
I recently received an e-mail against illegal immigration.
Let's Say I Broke Into Your House.
Let's say that when you discover me in your house, you insist that I leave.
But I say, "No! I like it here.
It's better than my house. I've made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors.
I've done all the things you don't like to do. I'm hard-working and honest (except for when I broke into your house).
You are required to let me stay in your house.
You are required to feed me.
You are required to add me to your family's insurance plan.
You are required to educate my children.
You are required to provide other benefits to me and my family (my husband will do all your yard work because he is also hard working and honest, except for that breaking in part).
If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my right to be here.
It's only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I'm just trying to better myself.
I'm a hard working and honest person, except for well, you know, I did break into your house and what a deal it is for me!
I live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of cold, uncaring, selfish, prejudiced, and bigoted behavior.
Oh yeah, I DEMAND that you learn my language so you can communicate with me. Before you go calling me bitter, take a look at this Associated Press news report...
(Which the Ragister re-edited to read Feds Frustrated by Immigrantsand dropping the ILLEGAL part).
The story tells how Illegal immigrants armed with torches, hacksaws, ladders and even bungee cords are making it around a section of the border fence...
...agents have found holes cut with acetylene torches, hacksaws and even plasma torches — a high-powered tool that uses inert gas or condensed air to quickly cut through steel and other dense metals.
That is breaking and entering and the scientific community is united in that fact!
From both ends of the state Mike Gronstal is making news.
On federal deductibility the Sioux City Journal reports Gronstal says...
"Three-quarters of Iowans end up with the same deal or a better deal under this tax plan."
For Dummycrats, when it comes to taxes, the "same deal" is a good one.
Will the 173,821 Iowans that are getting the same deal, while other Iowans are getting a tax cut, think that's a good thing?
I would wonder why I'm getting screwed.
Gronstal continued...
"When it comes to a middle-class tax cut, an effort that will help 60 percent of all Iowa filers get tax relief..."
Dummycrats keep trying to sell this as middle class tax cut, but over 305,000 Iowans making under $125,000 will see a tax increase.
Here's and update for your report Gronstal, that's not relief!
Out of Cedar Rapids and the Gazette's coveringiowapolitics.com, Gronstal said the Governor's$750 million bonding plan “is an absolutely on our list.” An absolutely?
