Google Truths re Obama?

I have set up Google alerts on various topics, Obama being one. In today's compilation of stories on Obama the following were listed in the order I've printed and when I read the titles one after the other, found it funny and possibly closer to the true state of things than I'd like.

Latin America leaders tell Obama to end Cuba embargo
Washington Post - United States
By Raymond Colitt COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil (Reuters) - Latin American leaders called on President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to lift the 46-year-old US ...

Russia Plans to Test Obama, US Diplomat Says
New York Times - United States... a missile shield in Europe, and it looks ready to test the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, a senior American diplomat said Wednesday. ...

Obama focuses on alternative energy and environment
Reuters - USA
By Deborah Charles CHICAGO (Reuters) - Insisting on the need to develop new forms of energy, US President-elect Barack Obama on Monday chose as his energy ...

Interesting Comments on the Call to Boycott Alabama Due to Bailout Stance

In Response To BoycottAlabamaNow.com Part 1
Dec 11th, 2008
by Bradley Hankins.
BoycottAlabamaNow.com was developed in response to Alabama Senator Richard Shelby response to the Big 3 Automakers (Chrysler, GM, and Ford) asking for the United States government to bail them out of the current mess they have gotten themselves in. They state that their mission is “to demonstrate Senator Shelby what the result will be by not supporting the state of Alabama and its industries.”
http://kayloo.com/2008/12/11/in-response-to-boycottalabamanowcom-part-1/#comment-528

The Big Divide

I saw the post on the Read My Lipstick Network blog about the liberal on-line pub writing about Steve Maloney, Team Sarah and our Network. I clicked the link and went wandering around the website. (http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_120308)

A few things really jumped out at me as I read some of the headlines and bits of the articles.

There are some mean, mean people in this world.

I just don't find that on the "right". Maybe it's there on the extreme fringes with some of the more radical groups. I haven't found any of those sites and haven't gone looking for them so may never come across them! On occasion I'll find a comment from someone on "our" side of the divide that I think crosses the line, but they are so obviously kooks that it's hard to take them seriously.

However, when I hit the Daily Koz, this new one that I've never heard of that RMLN was mentioned in, the Huffington Post and similar they seethe with hatred, snobbery, irritation and nastiness.

It's my way or the rocky highway with a boot to your butt to make you go faster.

The other thing that struck me is just how divided our country has become. There is no middle ground.

I'm not giving up my religion and I'm not going to deny it just to make happy with the libs.

I'm not going to say it's OK to kill babies just to make happy with the lib left.

They're not going to give in when it comes to trying to shut me up about God and my beliefs.

They're not going to be happy until everyone believes that it's OK to kill babies in the womb to make life easier for some women.

Most of us believe like Reagan that it's best to come from a position of strength not weakness.

Most of us know it's impossible to negotiate with terrorists and extremists.

We also know that spewing hatred at those who disagree with us isn't going to build any bridges. So why don't they understand that?

I don't know how to fix this one. I have many friends who are libs and we get along just fine. We agree to disagree. However, they don't have a problem with my belief system and they don't feel the need to make me deny God. They wouldn't dream of putting up a sign denying God next to a Nativity scene (like they're doing in the state of Washington). We don't talk about abortion as we know neither of us is going to convince the other to change their mind. No vitriol, no hatred. We've found a middle ground and I think of them as "true" liberals, not the hate mongers that wear that label as a badge of dishonor.

However, we're in a small town and the vast majority, including the libs, still cling to their guns and religion. Most have a respect for other points of view and don't see the need to slash and burn.

We're an aberration I think, based on what I see in the media, what I read on the self-designated liberal blogs and websites and what I see on television.

The divide is reaching into middle America, too, I think. It's probably just a matter of time before my liberal and conservative friends and I are sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch commiserating about the good old days when people could disagree with honesty and respect.

The New Capitol Visitor's Center, God and the Constitution

I saw the bit that Fox News Sunday did about the new visitor's center in our Capitol. It looked really cool and I thought it looked like a great place to visit. I was appalled at the cost ($621 million). Can you imagine what could be done with $621 million? Then I thought, well, if they're preserving history and teaching children and adults something they might not otherwise learn in school or elsewhere, if it might get someone interested in finding out more about our country and its' workings, maybe there was some justification (still not $621 million worth, but some).

Now I'm hearing what they've included and what has NOT been included. There will be a time in our world where God is no longer a part of our history or our present day if we don't stop this kind of revisionist history. The Godless are winning without ever having to fight simply because we don't pay attention. We have let so much already slide. If we were standing completely outside this world looking at a long timeline, would we be able to see how our freedom of religion is being eroded? Someday will someone be able to point the decisions that resulted in this country's downfall? How do we get past the apathy?

I received this earlier today from the Heritage Foundation. I've also seen some other things floating around these past few days about it. It's downright scary.

A Capitol Travesty

Like everything else that comes out of Congress, the initial intentions were good: to build a visitors center that shields citizens from extreme heat and humidity and provides greater security for people working in or visiting the U.S. Capitol. But what began as a $265 million project in 2000 ballooned into a $621 million boondoggle that finally opens today . Like far too many legislative proposals that pass through its chambers, Congress could not help but add its own priorities. Even though not included in the original design, the structure now features new offices for lawmakers, a theater, media studios and even a tunnel to the Library of Congress. This all-too-familiar runaway Washington spending is not even the worst part of the final product. That honor goes to the violence the center's "educational" exhibits do to the Constitution.

Article I of the Constitution begins: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." Section 8 of Article I then goes on to enumerate those powers, of which James Madison wrote: "If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."

But according to the Capitol Visitors Center, the Constitution is not about limiting powers. Instead, it created six "aspirations" that Congress is charged to realize. The explanation for the first aspiration listed, "Unity," falsely identified "E Pluribus Unum" as our nation's motto. Wrong. "In God We Trust" is our nation's motto. But do not expect to find any discussion of God in the new visitors center. "Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and righteous war" gets a mention, but any other indication that the Founding Fathers believed that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," like it says in the Declaration of Independence, has been safely sanitized by the political correctness thought police.

The liberal bias does not end there. The sixth aspiration, "General Welfare," celebrates the creation of Medicare in 1965. We can debate whether Medicare is, or is not, good public policy. But it is a travesty of history to pretend the Constitution requires it. Summarizing his thoughts after an early tour of the center, Heritage constitutional scholar Matthew Spalding wrote:

This exhibit is Congress' temple to liberals' "living Constitution," the eternal font of lawmakers' evolving mandate to achieve the nation's ideals. No fixed meanings here, only open-ended "aspirations." In this distorted view, the Constitution is an empty vessel, to be adapted to the times, as change requires. It means nothing -- or anything.

The center opens to the public today at 1 p.m. if you'd like to have a look at this travesty with your own eyes.

QUICK HITS

It appears increasingly likely that Al Franken will ask the Democrat-controlled Senate to intervene on his behalf in his recount fight with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN).

When the 2008 campaign books are closed, President-elect Barack Obama will probably be the first billion-dollar candidate.

On top of $90 billion for mayors, Democrats are planning to give away another $500 billion to states.

The CEOs of Detroit's Big Three automakers are back in front of Congress with their hands out today.

The head of the congressional panel monitoring the gigantic federal bailout says the government still does not have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis despite having already spent billions of dollars.

Obamadummies...

(Thanks Steve M. for send via email!)

This is from Jack Kelly's column in last Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It makes some critical points, and I hope you'll forward it widely. (http://post-gazette.com/forum/)

A Zogby poll released last week casts doubt on the notion it's conservatives who reflect stupidity and ignorance. Mr. Zogby asked a dozen questions of 512 Obama supporters, 55 percent of whom have college degrees.

.• 94 percent correctly identified Sarah Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter;
• 87 percent identified Ms. Palin as the candidate who said she "could see Russia from her house;"

• 86 percent identified Ms. Palin as the candidate associated with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party;

• 81 percent chose John McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned;

• 81 percent knew it was Barack Obama who said the government should redistribute the wealth;

• 53 percent knew it was Joe Biden who predicted that Mr. Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as president;

• 44 percent knew that it was Mr. Obama who started his political career in the home of two former members of the Weather Underground;

• 43 percent knew that Democrats controlled both the House and Senate

;• 28 percent knew it was Mr. Biden who had to quit an earlier campaign for president because he plagiarized a speech;

• 23 percent knew it was Mr. Obama who claimed to have campaigned in 57 states;

• 17 percent knew that it was Mr. Obama who won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot

;• 12 percent knew it was Mr. Obama who said his energy policies likely would bankrupt the coal industry.

Only 46 percent of the Obama supporters were able to answer half or more of the questions correctly.

Apart from the appallingly low percentage of Obama supporters who could answer the basic civics question of which party controls Congress, the results reflect more what the news media chose to emphasize in their reporting than the awareness of respondents.

What the news media chose to emphasize was trivia, slanted against the Republicans in general, Ms. Palin in particular, not all of which was true. (Ms. Palin never said she "could see Russia from her house." That quote came from Tina Fey, who impersonated her on "Saturday Night Live.")

That Sen. Obama said his energy policy would bankrupt the coal industry is rather more important than Ms. Palin's wardrobe, but if the news media chose not to report it (and most did not), then the Obama supporters polled can't be blamed for not knowing it.

The poll was commissioned by conservative documentary filmmaker John Ziegler ("The Path to 9/11"). Random post-election interviews he'd done with a dozen Obama supporters indicated a deplorable lack of knowledge, and he wanted to see how widespread it was.

Liberals assert that if McCain-Palin supporters were asked the same questions, they'd display a comparable level of ignorance. Mr. Ziegler has a wager for them. If a liberal commissions the same poll of McCain supporters and they do not score significantly better than the Obama supporters did, then Mr. Ziegler will pay the cost of the poll.

But if McCain-Palin supporters do significantly better, then the liberal must reimburse Mr. Ziegler for the cost of the original poll. I doubt Mr. Ziegler will get any takers.

Jack Kelly is a columnist for the Post-Gazette (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1476).

The Heritage Foundation --- Love this site!

I read about this on someone else's blog and had to go sign up for their "morning bell". Loads of good insights and info. I think this is the one Sean Hannity talks about all the time. I understand why!

The Perpetual Bailout Machine

Failure is a part of U.S. business culture. That is why Americans feel extremely comfortable buying tickets from bankrupt airlines, electronics from bankrupt retailers, and apartments from bankrupt builders. To paraphrase a popular bumper sticker: bankruptcy happens. Bankruptcy does not have to be the end for any business. Instead bankruptcy, under Chapter 11, offers court-supervised protection from creditors so that a business can reorganize itself into a new successful form. The larger and more complicated a company is, however, the more preparation it must do before it can enter Chapter 11. In fact the executives of businesses facing tough economic times have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders and creditors to develop a bankruptcy plan. Only the most irresponsible executives would shirk this duty, and only the most conniving would do so knowingly as part of an effort to blackmail the American taxpayer. Enter General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner.

Testifying before Congress yesterday, Wagoner admitted that GM has "put virtually all effort into avoiding" bankruptcy and has not worked out a detailed contingency plan. By contrast, Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli said his company has "looked at all aspects" of a potential bankruptcy filing and has "gone through advisers to help us think this through."

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Because of its refusal to make plans for a bankruptcy, GM is "courting a Lehman-like situation," said a person familiar with the matter. Lehman Brothers, the storied investment bank, collapsed into a court-protected reorganization unprepared to remain in business. "They are on the train tracks and won't get off them," the person said.

Moral hazard is the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk. By granting GM its desired bailout, the federal government would only encourage other CEOs to act as irresponsibly as Wagoner.

must also submit a working model for examination. If Congress, or the Obama Administration, grants GM its bailout, they will have created a perpetual bailout machine, one that prompts every troubled industry in the country to abandon their fiduciary duty to plan for the worst and, instead, come to Washington demanding their hand-out.

QUICK HITS

All three auto executives opted to fly their company jets to the capital for their hearings this week.

The NYPD is pressuring the Justice Department for a faster turnaround for getting warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The first independent investigation of the suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last year has bolstered U.S. claims that Damascus was building a secret nuclear reactor.

Federal employee unions see a huge opportunity to push their agenda with Obama as president.
Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb.

Nothing at all to do with politics... just cute and had to share

OK, it doesn't appear that the embed code works... so, here's a link: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/PerthPurplePenguin/vids/?action=view&current=cvUMHvLZ.flv

It's cure. It'll make you smile. Unless you hate animals.