Tuesday, July 3, 2012
… some of the songs are absolutely great.
Puts me back in the Red Garter, Gerdie’s Folk City, or the other clubs in the 60’s Village.
Just listened to “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, I don’t think I ever heard that one before.
It reminded me of all the anti-war songs I heard in the Sixties. I was a fool in those days. It took a long time for me to understand.
“Blown In The Wind”. “Billy Don’t Be a Hero”. “Bring Them Home”. “Eve of Destruction”. “Give Peace a Chance”. “Blowin in the Wind”. “One Tin Soldier”. “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”
I heard the words. I even understood the words. I sand the words.
I just didn’t “grok” the concept like I do now.
And, let’s not forget “Leaving on A Jet Plane” that at one time was Our Girl’s and my anthem.
It was funny peculiar to me then, I believed what I was told. Today it’s just sad.
Unfortunately, the anti-war Left is merely a guise for the Socialists to campaign on. (You can tell it’s a ploy because with “their party” in the White House, there are no anti-war demonstrations.)
One reason, I support Ron Paul is because he is the ONLY candidate that “gets it”.
Every boy and girl should be on something coming home.
And, oh by the way, if you in the Third World mess with them or with us again, you’ll get more a lot more than what that country song promises — a boot up your ass. We’ll make your country a glass parking lot.
I’m an anti-war little L libertarian, but I’m not an isolationist or defenseless. The one valid function of Gooferment is defense. Defense; not offense.
So why are we trying to be the world’s policeman?
Sigh!.
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Leave a Comment » | 
Political | Tagged: Irish Pub Radio, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, TUNNIN | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Friday, June 29, 2012
The 5 Best Tax Changes We Won’t See
Bischoff: How Congress could make the tax code simpler and fairer with a handful of easy tweaks.
http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/income/the-5-best-tax-changes-we-won-t-see/?cid=djem_sm_dailyviews_t
*** begin quote ***
Stop Double-Taxing Social Security Benefits
Did you know that you pay federal income tax on the Social Security tax that is taken out of your paychecks? Well, you do. Even worse: When you start receiving Social Security benefits, up to 85% of that money can be taxed again. This is double taxation folks. Retirees who are at very low income levels don’t have to pay this double tax, but those who are further up the retirement-age income scale get socked with it on anywhere from 50% to 85% of their benefits. Is it unfair? Of course! But your Congress likes this revenue stream and isn’t going to fix the problem until millions of seniors start demanding it.
*** end quote ***
Social Security was estimate as a negative 5% return. Haven’t seen an analysis like that lately.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: 50% to 85%, Social Security, tax code | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Thursday, June 28, 2012
FROM RUSH LIMBAUGH
*** begin quote ***
The chief justice was hell-bent to find a way to make this law applicable, so he just decided, you know what, as a tax increase, it works, because there’s no limit on the federal government’s ability to tax. And it’s right there in the preamble of the Constitution, right there, Article 1, Section 8, the general welfare clause, it’s been established Congress can tax whatever, whoever, whenever, how much they want. Even when they don’t ask for it, the Supreme Court is gonna find a way to make what they want to do legal because John Roberts said it’s not our job here to forbid this. It’s not our job to protect people from outcomes. It’s not our job to determine whether it is right or wrong or any of that. We just get to look at it. We can’t forbid this. This is what the elected representatives of the people want.
No, the elected representatives of the people were deceived. Remember yesterday I asked you, if this decision went this way, what was your initial reaction going to be. And how many of you were deflated as you can be because of the way this was reported? The first thing that came down, the mandate, unconstitutional, that was the first thing everybody reported. Mandate unconstitutional, big sigh of relief. And then within moments, wait a minute, wait a minute, we’re reading further. Hold it just a second. The mandate’s unconstitutional, but the court has decided it’s a tax, and therefore it’s okay.
*** end quote ***
The Socialists and Communists have won.
The battle, that began with Wilson and the Income Tax, the Federal Reserve, and World War 1 form the “peace candidate, has culminated in the official End of the American Experiment.
The Republic actually ended with Abraham Lincoln.
The demise of the American Education System, captured by the Social Progressives, enabled by the Women’s Vote, has score another victory for the effort to end American exceptionalism.
For decades, from when I heard it from Harry Browne in the 1970’s, the Gooferment courts can be counted on to find the Gooferment’s abuses “Constitutional”! The Little L Libertarains have long argues that expecting justice from the Gooferment’s “courts” is like expecting mercy from the Sheriff of Nottingham by appealing to King John.
I can’t say that I am surprised.
And, all the bluster that this will energize the Right is just smoke.
“We, The Sheeple” have in Amerika in essence a One Party System that the Communists in the USSR are envious of.
We have to begin, or in the case of us Little L Libertarians, continue the battle for the heart and minds of the Great American Spirit in the young and the class rooms around the country.
The journey of a million miles begins in the classrooms with the minds full of mush. The Communists have robbed these children of their birthright. That is the right to succeed or fail on the sweat of their own efforts.
The drone have taken over the hive. Where will we find freedom and liberty?
******
Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Amerika, communism, Gooferment, SOCIALISM | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
http://southbrunswick.patch.com/articles/long-awaited-route-27-intersection-upgrade-gets-green-light-from-dot
Long-Awaited Route 27 Intersection Upgrade Gets Green Light from DOT
Davy James | Jun 22, 2012
*** begin quote ***
Route 27 and Beekman Road intersection to be widened, along with installation of a right-hand turn lane and a new traffic signal.
*** end quote ***
How about a series of synchronous lights from Henderson Road to Beekman Road say every 200 feet. When North South is red, they are all red. This would give the (imho very dangerous) “cross traffic” a chance to enter the roadway safely. The pedestrians might not have to play “you bet your life” to cross.
And if some one was really an “engineer” there would left turn arrows in advance of the green northbound and trailing the green south bound.
And, let’s get really wild and crazy, and expect all the Gooferment traffic planners to turn the durations longer during the midnight to 6am period and shorter during the other hours.
Then let’s do some tuning for special conditions accident on RT1 and everyone diverts to 27.
Yeah, I know, I’ve lost my head. Remember the Titanic was designed by experts and Noah was an amateur.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: DOT, Gooferment, Gooferment Roads, New Jersey, NJ, Route 27, South Brunswick Township | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Monday, June 25, 2012
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/19/kan-company-suspected-42m-medicare-fraud-penis-pum/
Medicare-claims fraud suspected for penis pumps
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
*** begin quote ***
A new report by federal auditors says a Kansas-based company may have paid out as much as $4.2 million in potentially fraudulent Medicare claims for penis pumps, and the auditors are asking the company to refund the government the money.
The Health and Human Services inspector general said it sampled 100 claims made with Pos-T-Vac, the Dodge City-based penis-pump manufacturer, and found improprieties in more than half of payments for what are known as “male vacuum erection systems.”
*** end quote ***
Why should anyone be surprised?
The topic is funny.
I renew my claim that a 1% deductible paid by the insured would solve this problem completely.
Ever seen a bunch of old folks split a check?
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: half of payments, Health and Human Services, inspector general, Medicare | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Sunday, June 3, 2012
http://lewrockwell.com/lazarowitz/lazarowitz44.1.html
The Right To Marry
by Scott Lazarowitz
*** begin quote ***
Once, again, the “gay marriage” or same-sex marriage distraction is in the news and on the talk shows. Some people say it is a societal or cultural issue that government must address, and others say it is a religious issue.
The same-sex marriage issue is a private issue. And yes, the individual has a right to marry.
Who the hell is the government to allow or forbid private people to establish their own voluntary associations, relationships, contracts and marriages?
Regarding the right to marry, while the Bill of Rights does not mention that specifically, the Ninth Amendment does state that “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
There are an infinite number of rights that human beings have. Each individual has an inherent right as a human being to one’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as long as one doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s same right.
Based on this right of self-ownership, each individual has an absolute natural right to do with one’s life, one’s person and property as one wishes, as long as one is peaceful. Unfortunately, statists and politicians do not understand this.
*** end quote ***
As pro-life pro-choice little L libertarian, I think marriage is between a man and woman for the purpose of raising children. (Yeah, yeah, I know all the arguments about that.)
BUT, I also think that what anyone else does is NONE of my business.
Communities, Churches, and individuals can form their own opinions. Without my help or the Gooferment’s force.
Peace.
No one should ever be forced to do or abstain from anything.
So to the Gooferment should not be picking winners and losers via tax or benefit policies.
Just stay out of the bedrooms and all the rooms.
While there is some modest State interest in ensuring that “children” are provided for, they are the future citizens. At some point in their “life”, they have God-given rights. We recognize “rights” as a way to maintain peaceful cooperation amount equals.
The essence of all human problems seems to originate with the meme that one human can “force” another to do, or not do, something.
The proof is drugs in prison.
So too is the meme that “marriage” is any concern of the State.
MYOB!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: allow private people, forbid private people, gay marriage, Marriage, MYOB, Right To Marry | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/obama-and-his-pot-smoking-choom-gang/
May 25, 2012 12:54pm
Obama and His Pot-Smoking ‘Choom Gang’
*** begin quote ***
Unlike Bill Clinton, Barack Obama never tried to say he didn’t inhale.
In his 1995 memoir “Dreams of My Father,” Obama writes about smoking pot almost like Dr. Seuss wrote about eating green eggs and ham. As a high school kid, Obama wrote, he would smoke “in a white classmate’s sparkling new van,” he would smoke “in the dorm room of some brother” and he would smoke “on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids.”
*** end quote ***
Now that we have a pot head as Prez …
… as a little L libertarian, I’ve always thought that our “drug policy”, “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”, was a best “misguided”, at worst “corrupt”. We have too many examples, anecdotal evidence, of pot not being as “bad” as booze, of high achievers who “inhaled” …
Don’t you think we could have a national dialogue about “drugs”, “drug policy”, and factual evidence?
We have mj prohibition because of hemp’s competition with the politically connected paper industry.
We have mj prohibition because of Hollywood’s “reefer madness” propaganda.
We have mj prohibition because of its association with the black community.
We have arguably ¼ of the federal prison population due to mj.
We have sick people, who need it and have no alternative for them. Not an effective alternative. Never mind a cheap alternative.
Ignore that not everyone who has a medical mj RX needs it. There are folks who legitimately need it (i.e., AIDS, chemotherapy patients, glaucoma).
Since the Chinese dynasty, there has been a residual addiction rate. Regardless if addicts were sentenced to death in China. Dealers were imprisoned for long stretches in Southeast Asia. No “public policy” makes a dent in the problem.
If the Gooferment can’t keep “drugs” out of its prisons, then perhaps we need a better strategy?
Walmart and Walgreens seem to be able to restrict access to stuff from minors.
So, why can’t we shift from the “punishment” meme that is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient to a “treatment” meme.
How much worse could we do?
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: (pseudo) War on (some) Drugs, AIDS, BHO44, Bill Clinton, chemotherapy patients, drug policy, glaucoma, Obama, Pot-Smoking, reefer madness, WJC42 | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
ere’s some discussion of the issue of the Obama mandate and a quote I hadn’t heard before.
http://intellectualoid.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/breaching-the-wall/
Tipsy Teetotaler
Sensitively dependent on initial conditions.
Posted by: readerjohn | May 26, 2012
Breaching the Wall
*** begin quote ***
I’m starting to entertain the thought that a litmus test for bad guys versus good guys is that the former want to limit religion by arbitrary state redefinition, the latter to limit government to the terms of the Constitution.
I’ve been concerned with religious freedom pretty keenly since well before I set foot in law school, and I know that this issue is one where, whatever his other defects, Romney stands in stark contrast to Obama and his administration. “We’re all Catholics now.”
*** end quote ***
I think that he’s hit the nail on the head.
Limit Gooferments; not people!
# – # – # – # – # 2012-May-29 @ 07:32
Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: 2012, BHO44, Catholics, Mitt Romney, Obama mandate | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Sunday, May 6, 2012
http://www.infowars.com/rand-paul-launches-campaign-to-end-the-tsa/
Rand Paul Launches Campaign to End the TSA
New legislation would abolish government involvement in airport security
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Thursday, May 3, 2012
*** begin quote ***
Senator Rand Paul has issued a press release in which he vows to lead the charge to “end the TSA” and put a stop to the needless and humiliating groping of toddlers and grandmothers.
*** end quote ***
A good place to start … close the “security theater”!
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Rand Paul, TSA | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Friday, April 20, 2012
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-govt-may-be-bigger-than-you-think/
Business Report: Gov’t May Be Bigger Than You Think
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 6:45pm by Becket Adams
*** begin quote ***
But the tax break isn’t counted as spending. In fact, while the check for $2,100 is classified as “federal spending,” the tax break doesn’t even show up on the federal budget. So when you hear a policymaker talk about lowering the deficit or expanding/reducing the size of government, most of them don’t factor in tax breaks.
The CNN report goes on to argue that because tax breaks get the same results as government checks (e.g. giving homeowners deductions on mortgage interest, giving tax credits to “green” energy companies, etc), they’re practically interchangeable, right?
Not quite: the government check is directly funded by taxpayers while the tax break comes at a cost to no one.
But this is not to say that tax breaks should be disregarded from the deficit discussion. As taxes generate income, and fixing the deficit is all about balancing revenue with expenditures, then tax breaks should be included.
*** end quote ***
That makes me ill.
Bigger?
Seriously. Are you kidding me!
23.7%
Argh!
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Business Report: Gov’t May Be Bigger Than You Think
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 6:45pm by Becket Adams Becket Adams
Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: “green” energy, Bigger, CNN, deficit, homeowners deductions, mortgage interest, tax breaks, tax credits | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Thursday, April 19, 2012
DOL forcing media to use government computers | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/dol-forcing-media-use-government-computers/479421
April 13, 2012 4:39pm
DOL forcing media to use government computers
by Mark Tapscott Executive EditorShare
*** begin quote ***
Unrest is simmering in some quarters of the Washington news universe regarding changes in the way the Department of Labor (DOL) manages its pre-release media “lockups” on sensitive data like weekly jobless benefits and unemployment.
For years, journalists participating in the lockups have shown up at DOL at the appointed time, then entered a limited-access area to receive the new data and prepare news stories for release as soon as official embargoes end.
The system insures that major news organizations get the data as soon as possible and allows journalists covering the release get a jump on providing analyses and opinion about the data.
*** and ***
Fillichio reminded participants that there are only 20-30 seats available for the lockups and that priority will be given by DOL in selecting participants to those that “are primarily journalistic enterprises.”
He also offered a one-sentence assurance that “the department will not consider editorial or political viewpoints in making credentialing decisions.”
*** and ***
In other words, journalists will no longer be allowed to bring their laptops or other equipment to the lockups, they will have to use government-supplied equipment, described by Fillichio as including “a virtualized desktop running a Windows operation system, a web browser, word-processing software, an Adobe Reader application and secure file transfer capability. Equipment provided will not have wireless networking capability. Provisions will be in place for news organizations to transmit their stories over the Internet.”
The changes evidently are in response at least in part to worries that some of the non-traditional news organizations allowed in recent years to participate in the lockups may not be using their access simply for journalistic purposes.
Since the stock market can rise or fall by hundreds of points as a result of such a data release, making sure nobody gets an advance peek at the data is critical to insuring the integrity of the process.
*** end quote ***
Does anyone see the problems in this story?
(1) DOL won’t pick based on “political viewpoints”? TO even say that IMMEDIATELY raises a red flag an tells me that is EXACTLY what they are going to do.
(2) What’s a “primarily a journalistic enterprise”? So, as a blogger, I’m shut out. Sorry, excuse me. Put the DIKW (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) and release it to the Universe at the same time. The Press should get it at the same time as everyone else. Otherwise they are the “house organ”.
(3) Why am I the taxpayer paying for computers to benefit some segment of the business community? Are the costs of each seat in the “lockup” being paid by the organization renting them?
This whole concept STINKS!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Department of Labor, journalists, Labor, major news organizations, official embargoes, political viewpoints, pre-release, primarily journalistic enterprises, Unemployment, weekly jobless benefits | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
I r an fat old white guy injineer. Did anyone else find the equation “fascinating” and “written wrong”? Subliminal message? Or a statement about “teachers”? P.S. IMHO teachers ARE “underpaid” because they are “on the dole”, currently “wards” of the Gooferment, inextricably tied to it, and are also slaves to their “union” who’s “in bed” with the Democratic Party “machine”. Not that anyone asked.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: dole, teachers, teachers' unions | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Monday, April 9, 2012
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-57408827-504564/appeals-court-fires-back-at-obamas-comments-on-health-care-case/
Crossroads
April 3, 2012 3:42 PM
Appeals court fires back at Obama’s comments on health care case
By Jan Crawford
Topics Supreme Court
Updated 6:55 p.m. ET
*** begin quote ***
(CBS News) In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president’s bluff — ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.
The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president’s comments yesterday about the Supreme Court’s review of the health care law. Mr. Obama all but threw down the gauntlet with the justices, saying he was “confident” the Court would not “take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
Overturning a law of course would not be unprecedented — since the Supreme Court since 1803 has asserted the power to strike down laws it interprets as unconstitutional. The three-judge appellate court appears to be asking the administration to admit that basic premise — despite the president’s remarks that implied the contrary. The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power, the lawyer said.
*** end quote ***
I think this is an epic struggle for the American Experiment.
I’m not sure that this is goign to end well.
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1 Comment | Political | Tagged: Appeals court, BHO44, Obama, Obama's comments, Supreme Court, the judiciary | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Thursday, April 5, 2012
http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/pulling-out-of-afghanistan-now
March 30, 2012
Pulling Out of Afghanistan NOW
Posted by James Wilson
*** begin quote ***
Quote of the Day: “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” – Robert M. Gates
2012 has been bad for the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. That’s why I wrote to my Representative and Senators telling them to pull the troops out.
The hard-wired message reads…
Remove our troops from Afghanistan now.
*** end quote ***
What more does one have to say?
This is one reason I support Ron Paul.
We can add Korea, Japan, Germany, Iraq, … <insert all the other countries that we have troops in> … and Iran.
Oh yeah, we haven’t invaded there … YET … officially. (What do you bet we have scouts out? I would if I was the General who’s gonna get stuck with this duty.)
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Afghanistan, Africa, American land army, Asia, downsizedc, Middle East, Out of Afghanistan NOW, U.S. occupation | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Friday, March 30, 2012
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/canada-raise-retirement-age-67-report-184156915.html
Canada ups retirement age in bid to balance budget
By Michel Comte | AFP
*** begin quote ***
Canada’s center-right government called for the retirement age to be raised and for major public service cuts Thursday, in an austerity budget that aims to balance the books by 2016.
Tackling unpopular measures that many industrialized countries are being forced to consider as their populations age, the Canadian government said its budget would help the country move a step ahead.
“Other Western countries face the risk of long-term economic decline. We have a rare opportunity to position our country for sustainable, long-term growth,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in the House of Commons.
*** and ***
Flaherty said old age security and guaranteed income supplement benefits worth up to a total of Can$15,000 and now paid out at age 65 would be offered only at age 67, starting in 2023.
He also announced the withdrawal of the Canadian penny from circulation later this year, saying it costs more to produce than its face value. The move will save the government Can$11 million annually.
*** end quote ***
Seems a simple modest change. Will it make THAT much difference to folks who are 55 now.
I’d prefer something a little more dramatic at a much earlier age. Like 40’s go till they are 70. 30’s go to 75. 20’s go to 80.
And an annual “mark to market”. Remember life expectancy is supposed to top 100 in our life time.
I’d index it to inflation and means test it. If you’ve got 10M$, then you shouldn’t need the dole. Spend down to 10 and climb aboard.
Of course, ideally, everyone would be responsible for their own retirement. Like it was in the old days.
But then we were a free country!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: age 67, balance the books, Canada, life expectancy, long-term economic decline, long-term growth, retirement age, starting in 2023, unpopular | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Saturday, March 24, 2012
http://youtu.be/v1Vu-V6nEZM
NEWSBUSTED, who’s usually razor sarcasm I enjoy, in this episode, has a graphic that labels BHO44 “the worst president ever”.
imho, jury is still out, but he’s not even close to breaking into my second tier.
Sure he’s more corrupt than most say Clinton, who sold nights in the Lincoln bedroom, is still ahead of him. He’s not as inept as Grant, and honest man who was “run” by cronies. He hasn’t killed as many people as FDR / Truman and the A-bomb of Japanese civilians.
So, I’d dispute “the worst ever”. He has a long way to go to displace Lincoln.
See my “worst” page here on the blog for my reasoning. You’ll see he’s not even in the second tier. Let alone anywhere near Lincoln.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: BHO44, NEWSBUSTED, worst | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Thursday, March 22, 2012
http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/stunning-video-gop-leaders-cheat-ron-paul/?cat_orig=politics
WND EXCLUSIVE
Stunning video: GOP leaders cheat Ron Paul?
‘Like tyrants they are, they said, ‘That’s it,’ and ran out the door’
by Drew Zahn
*** begin quote ***
The Athens-Clarke County GOP met on Saturday, March 10, to vote – among other things – on delegates to represent the county at district convention, from there to attend the state and national conventions.
But shocking video shows the meeting’s chair pushing through a list of pre-selected delegates over the objections of the convention and promptly declaring the meeting closed, a startling turn of events that took exactly 21 seconds.
Ron Paul backers, who made up a majority of the seated precinct delegates and had hoped to nominate their own choices for district convention, were stunned.
By their count, also captured on video, more than 20 of the 30-some delegates present had voted no to the slate of delegates offered, yet Athens GOP Chairman Matt Brewster first declared, “The ‘ayes’ have it,” then ignored loud calls for a vote count, before quickly concluding, “There is no other business to discuss; the convention is now closed.”
*** end quote ***
And you’re surprised?
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Ron Paul | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/supremes-no-tv-cameras-at-obamacare-arguments/?cat_orig=us
DOCTOR’S ORDERS
Supremes: No TV cameras at Obamacare arguments
But agree to release audio recordings of proceedings on same day
*** begin quote ***
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court rejected requests from news organizations Friday for live, televised coverage of this month’s historic arguments on President Barack Obama‘s health care overhaul, but agreed to release audio recordings of the proceedings on the same day.
*** end quote ***
“We, The Sheeple” are paying for the show and we can’t get a video out.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Obamacare | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Friday, March 16, 2012
http://lewrockwell.com/napolitano/napolitano44.1.html
Can the President Kill You?
by Andrew P. Napolitano
*** begin quote ***
Can the president kill an American simply because the person is dangerous and his arrest would be impractical? Can the president be judge, jury and executioner of an American in a foreign country because he believes that would keep America safe? Can Congress authorize the president to do this?
Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder attempted to justify presidential killing in a speech at Northwestern University law school. In it, he recognized the requirement of the Fifth Amendment for due process. He argued that the president may substitute the traditionally understood due process – a public jury trial – with the president’s own novel version of it; that would be a secret deliberation about killing. Without mentioning the name of the American the president recently ordered killed, Holder suggested that the president’s careful consideration of the case of New Mexico-born Anwar al-Awlaki constituted a substituted form of due process.
Holder argued that the act of reviewing al-Awlaki’s alleged crimes, what he was doing in Yemen and the imminent danger he posed provided al-Awlaki with a substituted form of due process. He did not mention how this substitution applied to al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son and a family friend, who were also executed by CIA drones. And he did not address the utter absence of any support in the Constitution or Supreme Court case law for his novel theory.
*** end quote ***
Can you say: “star chamber” or “kangaroo court”?
Obviously, the answer is yes. It was “yes” at Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the Pihilly AIM house.
“We, The Sheeple” let “them”, politicians of both flavors, get away with it.
When do “we” stand up and say, “stop”!
# – # – # – # – # 2012-Mar-08 @ 21:19
Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: al-Awlaki, due process, Fifth Amendment, kangaroo court, Napolitano, President, public jury trial, secret deliberation, star chamber, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Thursday, March 15, 2012
http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2012/03/cutting-education-costs-by-cutting.html
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Cutting education costs by cutting degree requirements is a bad idea
*** begin quote ***
I can understand the motivation among the governor and legislators to reduce the state’s education costs, but this proposal just strikes me as silly. Cut wages, make the class sizes bigger, reduce the number of options, whatever, but don’t just cheapen the degrees offered by Indiana’s colleges and universities.
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How about emulating the University of Phoenix online learning over the inet? Watch the teachers’ unions scream as that sacred cow gets gored. How about getting the Gooferment out of the “education business”? Don’t let them run it. Don’t let them pay for it. Don’t let them legislate about it. If the Gooferment ran supermarkets like they do schools, we’d all starve! Argh! Separate School and State.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: education business, online learning, teachers' unions, University of Phoenix | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/obamas-irs-on-warpath-against-tea-parties
WND EXCLUSIVE
Obama’s IRS on warpath against tea parties
Government requiring names, addresses, contacts, relationships
Published: 12 hours ago
by Bob Unruh
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“Basically, we’re objecting to information that the IRS is requesting that is beyond the scope of its legitimate inquiry.”
On the ACLJ website, several questions from the IRS were quoted:
(1) Do you directly or indirectly communicate with members of legislative bodies? If so, provide copies of the written communications and contents of other forms of communications.
(2) Please describe the associate group members and their role with your organization in further detail. (a) How does your organization solicit members? (b) What are the questions asked of potential members? (c) What are the selection criteria for approval? (d) Do you limit membership to other organizations exempt under 501(c)(4) of the Code? (e) Provide the name, employer identification number, and address of the organizations.
(3) Do you have a close relationship with any candidate for public office or political party? If so describe fully the nature of that relationship.
“The quoted requests are merely the tip of the iceberg,” the ACLJ said. “We’re still reviewing the IRS letters and will have more information as we complete our review.”
The report continued, “Critically, the demands we’ve seen are made not in response to complaints of wrongdoing but instead in response to applications for exemption. In other words, the IRS appears to be conditioning the grant of exemptions on the extensive violation of the tea party’s fundamental First Amendment freedoms.”
*** end quote ***
It’s apparent that there’s a Nixon style enemies list.
How does one fight the IRS with a First Amendment argument?
It revolves around the “charitable deduction”. Guess you just have to forego that.
“We, The Sheeple” better wake up. Could be you next!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: BHO44, charitable deduction, First Amendment, IRS, Obama, tea parties | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Sunday, March 4, 2012
http://peadarroe.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/a-woman-said
A Woman Said
Posted on February 24, 2012
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What follows was part of a discussion on a well known “social media site”. I copied it because I thought it said a lot about a great divide in our country, the one between two kinds of people, two generations, two different world views, two different cultures. It was occasioned by the appearance of a cartoon showing the President of these Untied States wearing the clerical robes of a pope. It was s satirical cartoon designed for strong reactions, and it got them. People objected to the artist’s robing Obama as the Catholic Pontiff, commented on his support for abortion and his refusal to recognize the conscience rights of Catholics. Someone, a young woman, wrote:
I find it disturbing, but I’m mostly offended by the commentary it represents. I don’t like Obama, but I don’t find him to be any more “tyrannical” or arrogant than any other President we’ve had. Calling him a Communist really just illuminates one’s complete misunderstanding of communism, and the equation of abortion with the Holocaust as well as the implication that requiring insurance to cover birth control is equal to abortion, just pisses me off.
*** and ***
As for the requirement that private employer’s insurance policies cover contraception – I could go on at length about the necessity of hormonal birth control for many women (such as myself) for entirely NON-birth control related reasons (if I don’t take it, I get terrible cysts due to my endometriosis – cysts that may very well prevent me from getting pregnant in the future when I choose to) – but also that I don’t think an employer, whether or not it’s the Catholic church, should be making the medical decisions of its employees. Removing one area of coverage allows others to be chipped away at – and employers and insurance companies may find it in their interest to lower premiums by not covering many routine [JR: My emphasis.] and/or necessary procedures they chose not to agree with for whatever reason.
*** end quote ***
Stepping out from the pro-choice / pro-life debate for a moment, I’d suggest that we all focus for a moment on the word “routine”. To me that means, “ordinary and predictable”. And, are we talking about “insurance”? Where a bunch of folks with the same random risk profile pool their premiums to be paid out when that fire, flood, or tornado hits. Here we have a lady arguing that we, as a society, should “insure” “oil changes for our cars.” Where is the random disaster in an “oil change”? Went to aa Jiffy Lube / Oil Well / or some such place last week. In and out for under $100 in ½ hour. Now envision if it was insured. Call 1-800-thrid world country, file a report, yada yada. No way that was going to cost under $100 and less than ½ hour. In principle, it’s the same. Forcing “insurance companies” into the position of paying for “routine” stuff is just wrong. So, if this is NOT about “insurance”, then it must be about “politics”, propaganda, and manipulation. So this circles us back to the pro-life / pro-choice debate. Because it’s OBVIOUSLY NOT about “insurance”. imho. ymmv.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: A Sad Fact, Abortion, Choice, Freedom of Conscience and tagged Rights, Freedom of Religion, Insurance, Invincible Ignorance, Murder, Obama, Politics, pro-choice, pro-life, pursuit of happiness, Religion, Reproductive Rights, routine, satirical cartoon, The News, unborn fetuses, unwanted pregnancies | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Saturday, March 3, 2012
http://www.keywestlou.com/2012/03/weather-yesterday-was-fantastic-once.html
Saturday, March 3, 2012
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The hit topic was Rush Limbaugh’s abuse of a Georgetown University female student. Sandra Fluke. Sandra testified before a Congressional committee earlier in the week in support of birth control. She believed it should be available free to women under Obama health care.
Limbaugh referred her as a “slut” and “prostitute.” His theory basically was that if Sandra wanted her contraception pills paid for by another, she wanted to have her sex paid for. Any woman who wanted her sex paid for was a prostitute.
*** end quote ***
Sorry, but I agree the sun has affected your legal mind. Negative rights?
If I have to pay for this woman’s birth control, then I am slave. The only rights a human is entitled to is negative ones. (Like John Locke said.) No one can prevent me from speaking; they don’t have to listen, but they can shut me up.
Positive rights — a “right” to healthcare, condoms, unionize — enslave some one to some extent. DO the doctors have to work 50% for free? Do the condom makers have to give away their product? Do workers have be enslaved to a Big Union and a Big Company at the same time? Positive rights create a requirement that someone provide them. Who?
Sorry, but imho, you are just flat wrong.
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1 Comment | Political | Tagged: birth control, Congressional committee, Georgetown University, Negative rights, Obama, Obamacare, Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Thursday, March 1, 2012
http://biggovernment.com/dturbull/2012/02/22/the-effects-of-dependency-programs-more-harm-than-help/
The Effects of Dependency Programs: More Harm than Help
by Donlyn Turnbull
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Aside from the dire economic outlook, equally important is the harm social dependence is causing for people who enter the system and become stuck.
It’s not called “in-dependency” programs for a reason.
Whoever controls your money and your choices controls you. And when you lose that ability, you begin to stop taking responsibility for your life. Dependency programs breed more dependency and can create the same psychological effects as people involved in abusive or other severely difficult situations.
Many people assume if you are in a bad situation you will do anything to escape it. However, the truth is, “If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in”. It’s the very definition of a psychological effect proven in the 1960’s by scientist Martin Seligman, called “learned helplessness”.
When people begin to believe they can’t help themselves they eventually stop trying.
The Administration is allowing people to become fully dependent on them for their basic needs like food and access to health services, even encouraging it. The more they rely on the Government, the more Government has control of their lives and the less people feel they are capable of escaping their situation. Without responsibility and choices, they give up.
An excellent example of this was presented in a study in 1976 by Langer and Rodin. It showed the effects of nursing home patients who were given responsibility and choices as opposed to those “where conformity and passivity is encouraged and every whim is attended to.” The latter dramatically declined in overall “health and well-being”. The study was extended to homeless shelters.
When people were given both responsibility and choices they were much more likely to find work and a place to live.
A continuation of the same study showed “increased-responsibility conditions” have very positive long term effects as well.
*** end quote ***
I remember my Mom saying to me, when I complained about this or that, “Fix it!”, “Do Something About It”, or “That’s Not My Problem”. And, heaven help me, if I said I was bored. She’d find something that I needed to do. Later in life, when “stuff happened”, as it always does, she’d say: “That’s life; deal with it.” or “Well, what are you going to DO about it?”.
I’ve made many bad decisions in my life. Done dumb things for which a price had to be paid. Squandered tons of money. Burned bridges, spilt milt, and regretted so many missed opportunities. Some, due to NOT making a conscious decision, but many due to a deliberate choice. Good decisions go bad through what I’d call bad luck. But the vast majority of my “disasters” were of my own making.
(In writing this, I wonder what “choices” I missed completely. That’s not “shoulda, coulda, and woulda!” thinking. It’s just realizing that there maybe have been “hidden” options that I’m not even aware of or just didn’t see as a choice.)
I’ve heard this before form the lady who runs a welfare to work charity in Mercer County. How the State Welfare bureaucrats want their “Clients” to stay on the dole. She has to literally retrain people to think independently. She has great success stories which just proves to me that people are beautiful when they are free of these artificial constraints.
I’ve long thought that the Gooferment shouldn’t be in the charity business. Just prevent force and fraud, and allow people to suceed or fail on their own.
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1 Comment | Political | Tagged: Control, homeless shelters, in-dependency, increased-responsibility conditions, learned helplessness, nursing home patients, taking responsibility | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/it-is-not-per-se-a-tax-sebelius-contradicts-administrations-legal-defense-of-obamacare/
Government ‘It Is Not, Per Se, a Tax’: Sebelius Contradicts Administration’s Legal Defense of Obamacare
Posted on February 28, 2012 at 8:23pm by Mytheos Holt
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In a stunning video from a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee today, Kathleen Sebelius contradicted the Obama administration Department of Justice’s official stance on the individual mandate by denying that the mandate was a tax.
*** end quote ***
These folks in the District of Corruption can’t ever get their stories straight.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: House Ways and Means Committee, Legal Defense of Obamacare, Obamacare, Sebelius | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/my-plan-to-balance-the-budget/
GOVERNMENT ON A DIET
My plan to balance the budget
John Stossel: ‘We’re on the way to becoming Greece – while our ‘leaders’ stand and watch’
*** begin quote ***
The military is about a fifth of the budget. I want to support our troops, but we could do that and save money if the administration would shrink the military’s mission to what it is supposed to be: protecting us from external threats. We cannot put America on a road to solvency without cutting military spending, too.
Of course, what will really bankrupt America are entitlements, especially Medicare. That’s the big one.
Why even call it an entitlement? Are we entitled to the money? People think we are, but the money is taken from the taxpayers – by force. The program is totally unsustainable. We now live so long that most of us get back about three times what we paid into these programs.
So we have to raise the retirement age, maybe index it to life spans, and turn Medicare into an insurance plan that sustains itself. That will mean that if I want the latest in high-end medicine, I have to pay for it myself.
We’re on the way to becoming Greece – while our “leaders” stand and watch. A catastrophe is happening before our eyes, but the politicians won’t act to avert it. How did they ever end up with enough power to sink our society?
*** end quote ***
This is easy to say but hard to do.
Too many vested interests; too few patriots.
What happens when the <synonym for excrement> hits the air movement device?
I feel for the future generations. Hope they all learn Chinese.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: catastrophe, high-end medicine, Medicare, military spending, retirement age | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Reinke Faces Life 
POLITICAL: The battle between the administration and the judiciary
Monday, April 9, 2012http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-57408827-504564/appeals-court-fires-back-at-obamas-comments-on-health-care-case/
Crossroads
April 3, 2012 3:42 PM
Appeals court fires back at Obama’s comments on health care case
By Jan Crawford
Topics Supreme Court
Updated 6:55 p.m. ET
*** begin quote ***
(CBS News) In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president’s bluff — ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.
The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president’s comments yesterday about the Supreme Court’s review of the health care law. Mr. Obama all but threw down the gauntlet with the justices, saying he was “confident” the Court would not “take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
Overturning a law of course would not be unprecedented — since the Supreme Court since 1803 has asserted the power to strike down laws it interprets as unconstitutional. The three-judge appellate court appears to be asking the administration to admit that basic premise — despite the president’s remarks that implied the contrary. The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power, the lawyer said.
*** end quote ***
I think this is an epic struggle for the American Experiment.
I’m not sure that this is goign to end well.
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