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July 31, 2008
Moron Obama's Energy Plan:Inflating Your Tires
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Transcript:
"There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much! "
Wild Thing's comment........
ROTFLMAO
What no one is fainting???? No one is holding their arms up in the air chanting OH-BAM-AH???? I didn't hear one peep of...."YES WE CAN" !
Hussein inflated his head in Europe, he is stuck on inflating fer'sure! OH I could really have some fun with this one, but I will keep it PG rated. hahahahaha
I watched the clip on Fox today. The thing I noticed was the dead silence from the crowd. I had the feeling BHO knew he had goofed. hahaha
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:55 AM | Comments (14)
Terrorists New Underwear Fruit of the Boom! What’s left for the virgins? LOL
Terrorists develop ‘suicide underwear’
RAWALPINDI:
Would-be suicide bombers could be using explosives “underwear briefs” rather than explosives jackets to evade “conservative” body searches, sources said on Wednesday.
Sihala Police College forensic lab sources told Daily Times that the study of recent suicide attacks showed that suicide bombers used “explosives-laden” under-garments, briefs in particular, to carry out the attacks.
The sources said that the explosives could weigh between five kilogrammes to seven kilogrammes, made deadly by adding glass splinters, metal ball bearings and bullets.
The law enforcers normally search upper body parts sparing the “privates”, the sources said, hence assailants are increasingly using the lower body parts to dodge the searches.
The sources said that forensic experts were trying to devise methods to pre-empt suicide bombing. The experts have achieved successes in “Post Bombing Investigation,” the sources said, adding that resources are sharpening “Pre Bombing Investigation” techniques.
Wild Thing's comment........
OUCH! LOL oh my gosh I guess this gives new meaning to hot pants. How stupid they are to begin with and now this?
And they say that the islamists are stuck in the 7th century!! LMAO ...no pun intended..heh heh
Israel develops medical breakthroughs, Japan sophisticated consumer electronics, Germans excel at precision optics, the US cutting edge military technology, and the islamists come up with exploding underwear.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:50 AM | Comments (14)
Rabid Obama Supporter Ludacris zand His Obama Video
There's a new celebrity tribute to Barack Obama, but his campaign isn't exactly loving it.
The rapper Ludacris has a video, titled "Obama is here," that predicts the Democrat will win the presidency and urges blacks to get out and vote. It features footage of Obama dancing on the "Ellen Degeneres Show" and shooting hoops with US soldiers.
"you can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history the first black president is destined and it's meant to be the threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes so get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote! paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified!"
All of the Lyrics to Ludacris, Obama supporter
I’m back on it like I just signed my record deal
yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal
never should have hated
you never should’ve doubted him
with a slot in the president’s iPod Obama shattered ‘em
Said I handled his biz and I’m one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer
Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that b^$&%* is irrelevant
Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
if you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut!
and all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man
you can’t stop what’s bout to happen, we bout to make history
the first black president is destined and it’s meant to be
the threats ain’t fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
so get off your ass, black people, it’s time to get out and vote!
paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified
McCain don’t belong in ANY chair unless he’s paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw em like candy wrap
cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents
get out and vote or the end will be near
the world is ready for change because Obama is here!
cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here!
And this...............................
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26002
Late that year he met with the rap giant Ludacris in his Chicago office. Ludacris, who Pepsi dropped as a spokesman in 2004 after Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly exposed his putrid lyrics, said afterwards that Obama felt like family to him. In March 2007 Ludacris, whose hit songs include “Move B——,” headlined an Obama fundraiser in Atlanta.
Obama even recorded a voice over for a new album out this June from rapper Q-tip. Will it contain lyrics like these sonnets from another Q-tip song? “Close the door, ‘ight let a n—— rock. Cause we ‘bout to eat real s-—, not s-— slop.”
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Wild Thing's comment........
Is Obama going to RENOUNCE this intolerant attack on women, the elderly and the disabled?
The bus is waiting.
Let's see something like this......."Ludicrous isn’t the person I thought he was." mayb e???? Like he has with the others. Yeah, that will fly!
As usual, Obama hasn't condemned anything. One of his campaign people Bill Burton did! In fact in the past Obama called this guy a great artist.
Well one thing for sure this probably sealed the deal on the PUMA crowd ( Hillary's fans) where before some might have decided to hold their nose and vote for him now no one will.LOL Well at least the Hillary people will be ticked for sure.
Obama and his followers are extremely dangerous. They have some serious psychological issues that are overshadowed by a profound hatred of white Christian Americans. The damage they have in store for America will be irreversible.
Obama will set this country back on having equal rights and good racial relations.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:48 AM | Comments (10)
Obama tied to Iraqi government fraud?!!
Obama tied to Iraqi government fraud?
Hundreds of millions in deals with candidate's associates
Jerusalem
Sen. Barack Obama's office engaged in six months of negotiations with a company controlled by convicted criminal Tony Rezko to lobby the U.S. government to push through a nixed $50 million contact to train Iraqi security personnel at a site in Chicago.
The contract was awarded to Rezko's company while Aiham Alsammarae, a long-time, close Rezko friend and a contributor to Obama's campaign, served as Iraq's U.S.-appointed electricity minister.
Rezko was a major Obama fundraiser and associate for two decades.
Alsammarae also awarded another Rezko-controlled operation as part of a $150 million contract to construct a 250-megawatt electricity plant in Iraq.
Alsammarae later was arrested by Iraqi authorities for bilking the coalition government out of some $650 million. He was sprung from prison under questionable circumstances in 2006 and escaped from Iraq, where he is still wanted for questioning with regard to major financial crimes.
The information raises questions into the nature of Obama's relationship with multiple deals made by Iraq's Electricity Ministry while Alsammarae was in charge. Obama has ties to Alsammarae and to the recipients of several of the massive contracts Alsammarae handed out.
While he was the electric czar of Iraq for the Coalition Provisional Authority from mid-2003 until mid-2005, Alsammarae granted the $50 million contract to train Iraqis to guard electrical plants to Companion Security, a start-up_reportedly controlled by Rezko, his partner Daniel Mahru and a front man, Daniel Frawley, a former Chicago policeman. Frawley has multiple civil court judgments against him for his alleged failure to pay millions in outstanding bills.
The plan was to fly about 150 Iraqis to a site in Illinois for security training, which reportedly would include the use of_AK-47_machine guns.
Obama's office did not reply to repeated WND requests for comment. A working number could not be found for Frawley
The contract with Rezko's group was signed April 18, 2005, one month before Alsammarae left his governmental post.
But Iraq's new electricity minister aborted the deal, complaining the Companion contract was too expensive, according to a U.S. embassy official in Baghdad who spoke earlier this year to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the spring of 2006, Frawley and his company reportedly reached out to Chicago politicians, including Obama and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to bring pressure to revive the deal, arguing the business would be good for the state.
Frawley then reportedly reached out to Obama, who in 2006 was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, engaging in six months of dialogue petitioning the Illinois senator to write a letter introducing the Rezko-connected Companion company to senior Iraqi officials. Frawley met with Seamus Ahern, who runs Obama's Moline, Ill., office.
But Obama, who has denied doing political favors for Rezko, later claimed he did not known Rezko was involved with Companion.
Obama's office declined to help about the same time Rezko was indicted on charges of fraud.
Obama's spokesman Ben LaBolt said,
"The Senate staff had two meetings, one conference call and sporadically e-mailed with representatives of Companion Security about their request for Sen. Obama to write a letter introducing the company to senior officials in the Iraqi government."
LaBolt said Obama declined to help in the Companion deal, because "that is not the kind of action Sen. Obama usually takes for individual companies, and our staff concluded on that basis to decline the requested assistance."
LaBolt did not explain how Frawley could have survived the routine vetting of a petitioner by the U.S. Senate office staff when it was a matter of public record that his company was controlled by Rezko.
The nixed Iraqi government deal opens questions into the nature of Obama's relationship with agreements made by various associates with Iraq's Electricity Ministry while Alsammarae was in charge. Obama has ties to both Alsammarae and to the recipients of several of the massive contracts he handed out.
Alsammarae, a dual Iraqi-U.S. citizen, arrived in U.S. in 1976 and currently lives in Chicago and travels frequently to Amman, Jordan, where he maintains a residence despite still being wanted in Iraq.
Alsammarae has described himself as a close friend to Rezko, a former top confidante and fundraiser for Obama. Alsammarae and Rezko had been friends for nearly 30 years, since the two were classmates at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
WND reported Alsammarae posted more than one-third of Rezko's jail bond earlier this year, putting up as surety his $1.9 million Chicago home and two other properties.
Alsammarae contributed the maximum allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama's campaign, sending money six times in January, February and March. Obama donated the funds to charity in April, only after Alsammarae posted bond for Rezko.
As electricity minister, Alsammarae not only granted a Rezko firm the $50 million security training contract but also approved a contract with another Rezko company, Rezmar, to construct a 250-megawatt plant in the Kurdistani city of Chamchamal. That contract was granted to both Rezmar and the London-based General Mediterranean Holdings, which is headed by British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, who was also involved in a large real estate deal in Chicago with Rezko and others around Obama.
Auchi, a former Baathist who left Iraq in 1979, was convicted in 2003 in a French court of corruption in an oil deal that stretched back to the Saddam Hussein regime. Auchi denies the charges.
Auchi could not be reached for comment
In another connection to Obama, when Alsammarae was jailed in Iraq in 2006, his Chicago-based family reportedly contacted Obama's U.S. Senate office for information. Obama's office passed a written request to the State Department about Alsammarae Oct. 16, 2006, and received a reply from the U.S. consul in Iraq about a week later. The reply was forwarded by Obama's staff to Alsammarae's daughter.
It wasn't immediately clear how Alsammarae landed his electricity ministry job. He was an outspoken critic of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and publicly has supported Hussein.
In August 2000, Alsammarae, a board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, appeared in Washington alongside celebrities such as Martin Sheen and British politician George Galloway at a demonstration against U.N. sanctions on Saddam's regime.
Even as late as last month, Alsammarae delivered a press conference stating he hoped the insurgency in Iraq "would continue [against U.S. occupation] and avenges the Iraqi people."
American political insiders suggest Alsammarae received major insider help in securing his U.S.-brokered Iraqi government position. Unconfirmed reports point to Alsammarae's previous Baathist background as being a factor in his elevated status in post-Saddam Iraq.
Alammarae was accused in a federal filing during the Rezko federal corruption trial of being the recipient of a $1 million bribe from Rezko to deliver the original Companion deal. No charges have yet been filed, though the accuser is Daniel Mahru, the former partner in the Companion deal.
Alsammarae was the only cabinet-level Iraqi official to be convicted and jailed for misusing money during his time in office. In April, Alsammarae made an appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" to defend his troubled conduct in Iraq and in the U.S.
An Interpol warrant for his arrest, issued in 2007 at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's government, was taken down after Alsammarae was forgiven for some parts of his conduct by an Iraqi legislative initiative, according to Arabic-language Iraqi criminal court documents obtained by WND and translated into English.
Other charges are still pending, and Alsammarae has been warned by the Maliki government not to return to Iraq.
Wild Thing's comment........
Hey Osamabama, you got some ‘splainin to do. This is all VEEERRRY interesting!
Nixon and Agnew went down for less than this... Of course, they didn't have the media in their pockets like ObamaRama does.
Why Obama wants out of Iraq so bad comes down to these paragraphs
In another connection to Obama, when Alsammarae was jailed in Iraq in 2006, his Chicago-based family reportedly contacted Obama’s U.S. Senate office for information. Obama’s office passed a written request to the State Department about Alsammarae Oct. 16, 2006, and received a reply from the U.S. consul in Iraq about a week later. The reply was forwarded by Obama’s staff to Alsammarae’s daughter.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Alsammarae landed his electricity ministry job. He was an outspoken critic of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and publicly has supported Hussein.
In August 2000, Alsammarae, a board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, appeared in Washington alongside celebrities such as Martin Sheen and British politician George Galloway at a demonstration against U.N. sanctions on Saddam’s regime.
Even as late as last month, Alsammarae delivered a press conference stating he hoped the insurgency in Iraq “would continue [against U.S. occupation] and avenges the Iraqi people.”
.....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:47 AM | Comments (4)
"My concerns for America" by Jon Voight
My concerns for America
Obama sowing socialist seeds in young people
by Jon Voight
We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up.
Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.
The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.
The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away.
Those same leaders who were in the streets in the '60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that.
Thank God, today, we have a strong generation of young soldiers who know exactly who they are and what they must do to protect our freedom and our democracy. And we have the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, who has brought hope and stability to Iraq and prevented the terrorists from establishing a base in that country. Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we've almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake.
If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there's not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend.
Gen. Wesley Clark, who himself has shame upon him, having been relieved of his command, has done their bidding and become a lying fool in his need to demean a fellow soldier and a true hero.
This is a perilous time, and more than ever, the world needs a united and strong America. If, God forbid, we live to see Mr. Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way.
Wild Thing's comment.......
This is really a good column he wrote. Voight has been boldly speaking out against the Marxist positions of Barack Obama for awhile now. It takes big cojones for a Hollywood actor to speak out against socialists.It is too bad the way the showbiz industry is so socialist and communist. So this is extra nice to see this when an actor takes a stand.
....Thank you Jack. Jack's blog is
Conservative Insurgent
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM | Comments (8)
B.Hussein Obama Uses Race Card Yet AGAIN!
Obama in Rolla, Mo. yesterday
"John McCain right now, he's spending an awful lot of time talking about me," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said today in Rolla, Mo. "You notice that? I haven’t seen an ad yet where he talks about what he’s gonna do. And the reason is because those folks know they don’t have any good answers, they know they’ve had their turn over the last eight years and made a mess of things. They know that you’re not real happy with them."
Obama continued: "And so the only way they figure they’re going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they’re saying is, ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s... doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he’s got a, he’s got a funny name.'
"I mean, that’s basically the argument -- he’s too risky," Obama said, per ABC News' Sunlen Miller. "But think about it, what’s the bigger risk? Us deciding that we’re going to come together to bring about real change in America or continuing to do same things with the same folks in the same ways that we know have not worked? I mean, are we really going to do the same stuff that we’ve been doing over the last eight years? ... That’s a risk we cannot afford. The stakes are too high."
Obama made similar comments earlier in the day in Springfield, Mo.
Then in Union, Mo., this evening, Obama seemed to specifically accuse McCain and the GOP of peddling racism and xenophobia.
Obama said that "John McCain and the Republicans, they don’t have any new ideas, that’s why they’re spending all their time talking about me. I mean, you haven’t heard a positive thing out of that campaign in ... in a month. All they do is try to run me down and you know, you know this in your own life. If somebody doesn’t have anything nice to say about anybody, that means they’ve got some problems of their own. So they know they’ve got no new ideas, they know they’re dredging up all the stale old stuff they’ve been peddling for the last eight, 10 years.
"But, since they don’t have any new ideas the only strategy they’ve got in this election is to try to scare you about me. They’re going to try to say that I’m a risky guy, they’re going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he’s got a funny name and he doesn’t look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills and, and they’re going to send out nasty emails.
"And, you know, the latest one they’ve got me in an ad with Paris Hilton," Obama said, referring to a McCain campaign ad launched today. "You know, never met the woman. But, but, you know, what they’re gonna try to argue is that somehow I’m too risky."
McCain's newest AD
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Wild Thing's comment........
Whew wow Obama sure has a lot of resentment in his soul. Jealousy, race anger so many things. How childish he is with all the ...."he’s got a funny name and he doesn’t look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills"....what he is ashamed of his name and resents the past Presidents on our money? sheesh
There's a lot of racist stuff out there but it is all coming from Obama and his wife. Obama has to constantly point out that he is black ( or almost black ...whatever) . His racist comments were in the first few sentences in his speech in Germany that he made. So Obama is a total liar, HE is the one that is a racist! He wears it like a badge of feel sorry for me and vote for me because this is my claim to fame to be the first NON white to possibly be President. yadda yadda yadda
Not only has McCain not peddled any of it, he's condemned it.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:44 AM | Comments (9)
Feds Press Congress to Lift Oil Drilling Ban
Feds Press Congress to Lift Oil Drilling Ban
The U.S. Interior Department ratcheted up the pressure on Congress Wednesday to open more of the country's coastline to offshore oil drilling, a move petroleum companies have sought for decades.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said his department will lay the groundwork for selling undersea oil-drilling leases on the outer continental shelf, including areas now protected by a congressional ban. Republicans are pushing hard to end the moratorium, which was imposed in 1982 and covers most of the East and West coasts.
The Interior Department has no authority to lift the ban. But if Congress votes to open the coasts to drilling, the department could hit the ground running, selling leases as early as 2011. Exploratory drilling would probably begin a few years after that.
"Americans continue to struggle with high gas prices, and it's important that we do more to develop domestic sources of energy," Kempthorne said.
As a first step, the Interior Department will solicit comments from oil companies, state governors, environmental groups and others as to which specific stretches of seafloor should be leased for drilling. The department will consider areas that are already open - such as the Gulf of Mexico - as well as those that aren't.
The move pleased oil industry groups as well as politicians who want more offshore oil production.
"We've got to get off foreign oil. We've got to use our own domestic production," said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona (Riverside County), who introduced legislation this month to lift the moratorium. He said royalties from oil pumped off the California coast could be a boon to state government.
"I think it's a better solution than raising taxes," Calvert said. "Why don't we take advantage of the resources we know we have and help address the structural deficit problem in California?"
But leading congressional Democrats remain adamantly opposed to lifting the ban. They note that most of the estimated oil reserves on the outer continental shelf - about 79 percent - lie in areas that are already open to drilling.
"This is nothing more than a political stunt to divert attention from the high gas prices that have resulted from having two oil men in the White House," California Sen. Barbara Boxer said Wednesday.
Interior Department officials said Wednesday that they also want to increase the development of alternative energy sources offshore.
For two years, the department has studied leasing portions of the outer continental shelf to companies that want to build offshore windmills or install buoys that generate electricity as they bob up and down on the waves.
PG&E has proposed two such wave-power projects off the coasts of Humboldt and Mendocino counties.
The Interior Department's alternative energy effort will dovetail with the new push on offshore oil drilling, Kempthorne said.
"Alternative energy development and traditional energy development are not mutually exclusive," he said.
Although the department will ask for comments from governors, that doesn't mean the governors would be able to veto offshore drilling in federal waters near their states. States control the waters within 3 miles of shore, but can't directly control development farther out.
Kempthorne and other Interior Department officials emphasized on Wednesday their desire to work with the governors. But they said Congress would have to determine how much authority to give the states should legislators lift the drilling moratorium.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes offshore drilling. This week, the Republican governor touted an agreement with his counterparts in Oregon and Washington to work together to protect the coastal environment, an agreement that includes rejecting offshore oil drilling.
"The governor understands that people are frustrated with the soaring price of gas, but in California, we know offshore drilling is not the answer," said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page.
To see an interactive map of California's offshore oil rigs, go to sfgate.com/maps/oil
Wild Thing's comment........
Zipity do dah!! This is GOOD!
Now if Congress would get a brain and a heart we might start to see some of these politicians on the left and the rino's actually care about the citizens of our country.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:40 AM | Comments (4)
July 30, 2008
Bush Signs Housing, Economic Recovery Bill
Bush signs housing bill in private
With none of the fanfare that usually attends a landmark bill becoming law, President Bush signed the huge housing rescue bill just after 7 a.m. Wednesday, shortly after he arrived in the Oval Office.
Only a few aides and administration officials were present, including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steve Preston and James B. Lockhart III, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The White House announced the signing by e-mail moments later.
The bill, the biggest overhaul of housing law in decades, provides a lifeline for an estimated 400,000 homeowners facing foreclosure, and provides assurances to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose books are loaded with bad mortgages.
Usually such a bill signing is accompanied by a self-congratulatory ceremony, with souvenir pens for congressional leaders and for members, senators and chairmen who spearheaded the legislation.
But Bush initially vowed to veto the bill as being overly socialistic. He finally dropped his objection when he decided that it was better than nothing. In a rare split, House Republicans opposed the bill and business interests like home builders and bankers favored it.
The White House had said there would be no bill-signing event, with one administration official noting ruefully that they had no desire to trumpet the accomplishment of the committee chairmen, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
Here are some of the things that our nitwits just voted for: (from various news sources)
"The bill includes several cherished Democratic priorities, including the creation of a permanent affordable housing fund to be financed by Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's profits and the neighborhood grants."
"Democrats won concessions as part of the compromise, including a permanent affordable housing program to be financed by the two companies' profits and the $3.9 billion in grants."
"The 694-page bill would establish the $300-billion fund under the Federal Housing Administration to help distressed homeowners get more affordable, government-backed mortgages and get out from under exotic mortgages they cannot afford."
"Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said the housing bill had positive aspects. But she added, "I am troubled by the inclusion of an unlimited U.S. Treasury credit line to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" and possible government stock purchases."
"The bill would also create a new regulator for the GSEs with sharper teeth than the existing one, including authority over how much money the companies pay their top executives."
"The legislation also offers tax breaks to spur home-buying; sets up the first national licensing system for mortgage brokers and loan officers and raises the limit on the size of mortgages that can be guaranteed by federal agencies."
How they voted: House roll call on housing bill
The 272-152 roll call Wednesday by which the House passed a bill that aims to help homeowners facing foreclosure and to prevent mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing.
A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill.
Voting yes were 227 Democrats and 45 Republicans.
Voting no were 3 Democrats and 149 Republicans.
X denotes those not voting.
ALABAMA
Democrats — Cramer, Y; Davis, Y.
Republicans — Aderholt, N; Bachus, N; Bonner, N; Everett, N; Rogers, Y.
ALASKA
Republicans — Young, N.
ARIZONA
Democrats — Giffords, Y; Grijalva, Y; Mitchell, Y; Pastor, Y.
Republicans — Flake, N; Franks, N; Renzi, N; Shadegg, N.
ARKANSAS
Democrats — Berry, Y; Ross, Y; Snyder, Y.
Republicans — Boozman, N.
CALIFORNIA
Democrats — Baca, Y; Becerra, Y; Berman, Y; Capps, Y; Cardoza, Y; Costa, Y; Davis, Y; Eshoo, Y; Farr, Y; Filner, Y; Harman, Y; Honda, Y; Lee, Y; Lofgren, Zoe, Y; Matsui, Y; McNerney, Y; Miller, George, Y; Napolitano, Y; Pelosi, Y; Richardson, Y; Roybal-Allard, Y; Sanchez, Linda T., Y; Sanchez, Loretta, Y; Schiff, Y; Sherman, Y; Solis, Y; Speier, Y; Stark, Y; Tauscher, Y; Thompson, Y; Waters, Y; Watson, Y; Waxman, Y; Woolsey, Y.
Republicans — Bilbray, N; Bono Mack, Y; Calvert, Y; Campbell, Y; Doolittle, N; Dreier, Y; Gallegly, Y; Herger, N; Hunter, Y; Issa, N; Lewis, Y; Lungren, Daniel E., Y; McCarthy, N; McKeon, Y; Miller, Gary, Y; Nunes, N; Radanovich, N; Rohrabacher, N; Royce, N.
COLORADO
Democrats — DeGette, Y; Perlmutter, Y; Salazar, Y; Udall, Y.
Republicans — Lamborn, N; Musgrave, N; Tancredo, N.
CONNECTICUT
Democrats — Courtney, Y; DeLauro, Y; Larson, Y; Murphy, Y.
Republicans — Shays, Y.
DELAWARE
Republicans — Castle, Y.
FLORIDA
Democrats — Boyd, Y; Brown, Corrine, Y; Castor, Y; Hastings, Y; Klein, Y; Mahoney, Y; Meek, Y; Wasserman Schultz, Y; Wexler, Y.
Republicans — Bilirakis, N; Brown-Waite, Ginny, X; Buchanan, Y; Crenshaw, N; Diaz-Balart, L., Y; Diaz-Balart, M., Y; Feeney, N; Keller, Y; Mack, N; Mica, N; Miller, N; Putnam, Y; Ros-Lehtinen, Y; Stearns, N; Weldon, N; Young, N.
GEORGIA
Democrats — Barrow, Y; Bishop, X; Johnson, Y; Lewis, Y; Marshall, Y; Scott, Y.
Republicans — Broun, N; Deal, N; Gingrey, N; Kingston, N; Linder, N; Price, N; Westmoreland, N.
HAWAII
Democrats — Abercrombie, Y; Hirono, Y.
IDAHO
Republicans — Sali, N; Simpson, N.
ILLINOIS
Democrats — Bean, Y; Costello, Y; Davis, Y; Emanuel, Y; Foster, Y; Gutierrez, Y; Hare, X; Jackson, Y; Lipinski, Y; Rush, X; Schakowsky, Y.
Republicans — Biggert, Y; Johnson, N; Kirk, N; LaHood, Y; Manzullo, N; Roskam, N; Shimkus, N; Weller, Y.
INDIANA
Democrats — Carson, Y; Donnelly, Y; Ellsworth, Y; Hill, Y; Visclosky, Y.
Republicans — Burton, N; Buyer, N; Pence, N; Souder, N.
IOWA
Democrats — Boswell, X; Braley, Y; Loebsack, Y.
Republicans — King, N; Latham, N.
KANSAS
Democrats — Boyda, N; Moore, Y.
Republicans — Moran, N; Tiahrt, N.
KENTUCKY
Democrats — Chandler, Y; Yarmuth, Y.
Republicans — Davis, N; Lewis, N; Rogers, N; Whitfield, N.
LOUISIANA
Democrats — Cazayoux, Y; Jefferson, Y; Melancon, Y.
Republicans — Alexander, N; Boustany, Y; McCrery, Y; Scalise, N.
MAINE
Democrats — Allen, Y; Michaud, Y.
MARYLAND
Democrats — Cummings, Y; Edwards, Y; Hoyer, Y; Ruppersberger, Y; Sarbanes, Y; Van Hollen, Y.
Republicans — Bartlett, N; Gilchrest, Y.
MASSACHUSETTS
Democrats — Capuano, Y; Delahunt, Y; Frank, Y; Lynch, Y; Markey, Y; McGovern, Y; Neal, Y; Olver, Y; Tierney, Y; Tsongas, Y.
MICHIGAN
Democrats — Conyers, Y; Dingell, Y; Kildee, Y; Kilpatrick, Y; Levin, Y; Stupak, Y.
Republicans — Camp, N; Ehlers, N; Hoekstra, N; Knollenberg, Y; McCotter, N; Miller, N; Rogers, N; Upton, N; Walberg, N.
MINNESOTA
Democrats — Ellison, Y; McCollum, Y; Oberstar, Y; Peterson, Y; Walz, Y.
Republicans — Bachmann, N; Kline, N; Ramstad, N.
MISSISSIPPI
Democrats — Childers, Y; Taylor, Y; Thompson, Y.
Republicans — Pickering, Y.
MISSOURI
Democrats — Carnahan, Y; Clay, Y; Cleaver, Y; Skelton, Y.
Republicans — Akin, N; Blunt, N; Emerson, N; Graves, N; Hulshof, X.
MONTANA
Republicans — Rehberg, N.
NEBRASKA
Republicans — Fortenberry, N; Smith, N; Terry, N.
NEVADA
Democrats — Berkley, Y.
Republicans — Heller, Y; Porter, Y.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Democrats — Hodes, Y; Shea-Porter, Y.
NEW JERSEY
Democrats — Andrews, Y; Holt, Y; Pallone, Y; Pascrell, Y; Payne, Y; Rothman, Y; Sires, Y.
Republicans — Ferguson, Y; Frelinghuysen, N; Garrett, N; LoBiondo, N; Saxton, N; Smith, Y.
NEW MEXICO
Democrats — Udall, Y.
Republicans — Pearce, N; Wilson, N.
NEW YORK
Democrats — Ackerman, Y; Arcuri, Y; Bishop, Y; Clarke, Y; Crowley, Y; Engel, Y; Gillibrand, Y; Hall, Y; Higgins, Y; Hinchey, Y; Israel, Y; Lowey, Y; Maloney, Y; McCarthy, Y; McNulty, Y; Meeks, Y; Nadler, Y; Rangel, Y; Serrano, Y; Slaughter, Y; Towns, Y; Velazquez, Y; Weiner, Y.
Republicans — Fossella, N; King, Y; Kuhl, N; McHugh, Y; Reynolds, Y; Walsh, Y.
NORTH CAROLINA
Democrats — Butterfield, Y; Etheridge, Y; McIntyre, Y; Miller, Y; Price, Y; Shuler, Y; Watt, Y.
Republicans — Coble, N; Foxx, N; Hayes, Y; Jones, N; McHenry, N; Myrick, N.
NORTH DAKOTA
Democrats — Pomeroy, Y.
OHIO
Democrats — Jones, Y; Kaptur, N; Kucinich, Y; Ryan, Y; Space, Y; Sutton, Y; Wilson, Y.
Republicans — Boehner, N; Chabot, N; Hobson, Y; Jordan, N; LaTourette, Y; Latta, N; Pryce, Y; Regula, N; Schmidt, N; Tiberi, Y; Turner, Y.
OKLAHOMA
Democrats — Boren, Y.
Republicans — Cole, N; Fallin, N; Lucas, N; Sullivan, N.
OREGON
Democrats — Blumenauer, Y; DeFazio, N; Hooley, Y; Wu, Y.
Republicans — Walden, N.
PENNSYLVANIA
Democrats — Altmire, Y; Brady, Y; Carney, Y; Doyle, Y; Fattah, Y; Holden, Y; Kanjorski, Y; Murphy, Patrick, Y; Murtha, Y; Schwartz, Y; Sestak, Y.
Republicans — Dent, N; English, Y; Gerlach, N; Murphy, Tim, Y; Peterson, X; Pitts, N; Platts, N; Shuster, N.
RHODE ISLAND
Democrats — Kennedy, Y; Langevin, Y.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Democrats — Clyburn, Y; Spratt, Y.
Republicans — Barrett, N; Brown, Y; Inglis, N; Wilson, N.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Democrats — Herseth Sandlin, Y.
TENNESSEE
Democrats — Cohen, Y; Cooper, Y; Davis, Lincoln, Y; Gordon, Y; Tanner, Y.
Republicans — Blackburn, N; Davis, David, N; Duncan, N; Wamp, N.
TEXAS
Democrats — Cuellar, Y; Doggett, Y; Edwards, Y; Gonzalez, Y; Green, Al, Y; Green, Gene, X; Hinojosa, Y; Jackson-Lee, Y; Johnson, E. B., Y; Lampson, Y; Ortiz, X; Reyes, Y; Rodriguez, Y.
Republicans — Barton, N; Brady, N; Burgess, N; Carter, N; Conaway, N; Culberson, N; Gohmert, X; Granger, N; Hall, N; Hensarling, N; Johnson, Sam, N; Marchant, N; McCaul, N; Neugebauer, N; Paul, N; Poe, N; Sessions, N; Smith, N; Thornberry, N.
UTAH
Democrats — Matheson, Y.
Republicans — Bishop, X; Cannon, N.
VERMONT
Democrats — Welch, Y.
VIRGINIA
Democrats — Boucher, Y; Moran, Y; Scott, Y.
Republicans — Cantor, N; Davis, Tom, N; Drake, N; Forbes, N; Goode, N; Goodlatte, N; Wittman, N; Wolf, N.
WASHINGTON
Democrats — Baird, Y; Dicks, Y; Inslee, Y; Larsen, Y; McDermott, Y; Smith, Y.
Republicans — Hastings, N; McMorris Rodgers, N; Reichert, N.
WEST VIRGINIA
Democrats — Mollohan, Y; Rahall, Y.
Republicans — Capito, Y.
WISCONSIN
Democrats — Baldwin, Y; Kagen, Y; Kind, Y; Moore, Y; Obey, Y.
Republicans — Petri, N; Ryan, N; Sensenbrenner, N.
WYOMING
Republicans — Cubin, N.
.
Wild Thing's comment...........
I wish he had held onto his veto threat! This sure is some way to build a nation of self reliant citizens, isn’t it? What a bunch of crappola.
They don’t care how much of our money they have to spend to bail out the people who foolishly bought more house than they could afford and speculators who bought houses in hopes of making a quick buck but are now stuck with them.
Our beloved country has decided to fold up shop. This country has withstood a lot over 2 plus centuries. This however I fear will come back to hunt us. This is not just a step in the wrong direction it is a giant leap off from a cliff!
God help us all
I have to say this..........Not only has Bush redefined and dumbed down conservatism, he is about to redefine and dumb down capitalism as well.
Those who voted yes must go. Out the bad in with the new.
We The People are no longer considered the sovereigns of this nation, by the Congress sitting atop ‘the hill’. We have become their subjects and unless we throw the bastards out of office and require our elected representatives hereafter to abide our goals and values, we will in fact be merely subjects.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 PM | Comments (9)
Pelosi: " I'm trying to save the planet"
Pelosi: 'I'm trying to save the planet'
Just call her Nancy the Navigator.
“I have always loved longitude,” Nancy Pelosi says before breaking into laughter. “I love latitude; it’s in the stars. But longitude, it’s about time. ... Time and clocks and all the rest of that have always been a fascination for me.”
“The Geographer,” Jan Vermeer’s portrait of a Dutch mapmaker staring out a window with a sea chart before him, is a favorite of the House speaker. But mostly, Pelosi is drawn to the explorers of the Age of Discovery — Balboa, Magellan, Vasco da Gama — all struggling at sea without an accurate way to measure East-West progress. And she is fascinated by the historic melding of science and politics in the race to find a solution, the modern chronometer — much as today’s world seeks answers such as an electric car battery in the energy debate that now consumes both Pelosi and Congress.
“Whoever makes that discovery, rules,” she says.
Eighteen months after taking power, the California Democrat will need to summon all her own navigation skills for the waters ahead.
She hit the national television circuit Monday with her new book, “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.” Next month, she’ll chair the convention in Denver that will nominate Barack Obama — “the next president of the United States. I feel very certain of that,” Pelosi says.
Yet with this success comes new danger — like explorers lost at sea without longitude. Until now, Pelosi has been perceived as a counterweight to President Bush. But after the Democratic convention in Denver, and going into November, voters will take a closer measure of her performance — and fairness — since Democrats could very well be the new ruling party, controlling Congress and the White House in January.
“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”
“I respect the office that I hold,” she says. “And when you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.”
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Hmmmmm, I wonder which planet she is talking about....heh heh
"On our home planet we call Nancy 'glphmxtx', because she's so stupid and mean, our birth-rate had dropped to near zero and everyone's lawn was dying......she's your problem now."
Wild Thing's comment.........
Let's see now, Obama is going to save Humanity and Pelosi the planet.
"I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently
I noticed recently that Pelosi always repeats sentences in an irritated, nervous manner. She can't form a comprehensible sentence.
I am so tired of these idiotic Democrats that have egos larger than God. Half wits who bask in the illusion of their intelligence. The Democrat jackass should be replaced with the word “narcissism.” She’s trying to save the planet while in reality she may not know which way is up if you asked her quickly.
She should immediately reduce her carbon footprint by ceasing all CO2 respirations!
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:55 AM | Comments (12)
Giving Inmate Terrorists More Opportunities (GITMO) Act of 2008
H.R. 6615: To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, D.C.
United States House of Representatives
H.R. 6615: To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to...
Bill Status Introduced: Jul 24, 2008
Sponsor: Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX]
Status: Introduced Go to Bill Status Page
You are viewing the following version of this bill:
Introduced in House: This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration.
Text of Legislation HR 6615 IH
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6615
To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, DC, where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 24, 2008
Mr. GOHMERT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
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A BILL
To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, DC, where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘Giving Inmate Terrorists More Opportunities (GITMO) Act of 2008’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States Supreme Court issued an opinion styled Boumediene v. Bush on June 12, 2008.
(2) Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the court’s majority opinion, held that foreign terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba have constitutional rights to challenge their detention in United States courts.
(3) This is an obvious effort on the part of the Supreme Court to micromanage the detainment and disposition of detainees in the War on Terror who are dedicated to destroying innocent people and the American way of life.
(4) The United States Supreme Court clearly needs increased opportunity to oversee the handling of the enemy combatants, as it has seen fit to take a greater role in managing the Global War on Terror, which is a duty previously exercised by the Executive Branch.
(5) There can be no better way for the United States Supreme Court to exercise its new self-appointed war powers than to house the prisoners whom it has taken a greater role in overseeing.
SEC. 3. TRANSPORTATION AND DETAINMENT OF ENEMY COMBATANTS.
(a) Transportation- The Secretary of Defense shall immediately transport all enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, DC, where the United States Supreme Court shall hold the prisoners on the Court grounds, confined by adequate fencing.
(b) Shelter on Supreme Court Building Grounds- The Secretary of Defense, in conjunction with Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of the majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush, is directed to provide shelter for the detainees outside the United States Supreme Court building, but on the building grounds. The Secretary of Defense shall provide guards to watch over the prisoners and shall implement a system to ensure that the prisoners receive the appropriate amount of food and water. Should the detainees need the use of restroom facilities, they shall use the facilities inside the United States Supreme Court building. The Chief Justice, if the Chief Justice so chooses, may perform the duties of Justice Anthony Kennedy under this subsection.
(c) Guard Duty- If any of the nine Supreme Court justices desire at any time to stand guard over the prisoners, or to provide the prisoners with their meals or water, or both, then the justices shall be permitted to perform these functions whenever they want.
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT.
If either the Secretary of Defense or any justice of the Supreme Court refuses to carry out their duties under this Act, then their respective department or court shall receive funding for the next fiscal year at half the level of funding appropriated for the current fiscal year, or until such time as the Supreme Court no longer desires to micromanage the prisoners who have sworn to destroy our way of life.
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Wild Thing's comment........
This is a legitimate Bill submitted in the House - and it is deadly serious.
Come get your prisoners, Justice Kennedy and the rest that voted on the last bill about GITMO.
Also Proposed is another bill to pay reparations to these “prisoners” for their unfair captivity.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:50 AM | Comments (6)
B. Hussein Pits Americans Against Illegals With His Lies
This ad uses Obama's own words to share his beliefs about how to deal with the problem of immigrants that don't learn English.
Hussein Obama swaggers across the stage lecturing the American people with an elitist and condescending attitude while declaring, "you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish! "
Source
12-20 million illegal aliens blatantly violated our laws when they came here illegally. They take jobs away from hard-working locals and legal immigrants who played by the rules and waited in line to have a chance at living the American Dream!
And what's Barack Hussein Obama's solution to the problem of millions of illegal aliens who REFUSE to learn our language or assimilate into our culture? In his own words:
"Understand this... you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish!"
But That's Not All Obama Said. . .
Barack Hussein recently spoke at the annual La Raza convention and accused United States law enforcement officers of TERRORIZING people!
According to the San Diego Union Tribune Obama said:
"The system isn't working... when communities are terrorized by (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing."
Communities "terrorized"...? Babies torn from their mothers while they are nursing...? Children coming home from school to find their parents have been secretly spirited away...? Is he serious?
Our frontline immigration officers put their lives on the line every day to enforce our laws and secure our liberties. To hear Obama talk, you would think they're jack-booted thugs! And that's a strange point of view coming from a man who associates with the likes of:
Weather Underground member William Ayers, who advocated a dozen bombings, including the bombing of the U.S. Capitol building in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972... Jodie Evans, a radical, anti-American activist who facilitated over $600,000 in aid to Islamic radicals in Iraq... Frank Marshall Davis, the anti-Christian radical and known member of the Communist Party USA who Obama looked upon as a "father," and let us not forget... The Rev. Jeremiah "God D___ America" Wright, a man who called this great country the "U. S. of K.K.K. A"
What Barack Believes... and Doesn't Believe...
Barack Obama believes that deporting illegals is ridiculous and impractical, he supports the DREAM Act for the children of illegal immigrants, He doesn't believe that we have allocated enough for the health care of illegal immigrants. He would not deputize Americans to turn in illegal immigrants, he supports government services provided in Spanish and granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
How Barack Has Voted...
YES on continuing federal funds for declared "sanctuary cities". (Mar 2008)
YES on comprehensive immigration reform. (Jun 2007)
NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007)
YES on establishing a Guest Worker program. (May 2006)
YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)
YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship. (May 2006)
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Wild Thing's comment........
I posted a before how Obama wants us to speak Spanish. But I didn''t know then of all the added things he had said in his speech. So this is important too seeing how he is once again siding with the illegals AGAINST Americans by the statements he has made.
Lies and being anti-American is what Obama excells at this. His speech makes it sound like Waco is happening again only on illegals . And how innocent the illegals are and how we are all so horrible for wanting people to come to this country like all of our families did years ago the legal way.
He says " the system isn't working" sheesh can't he at least come up with some NON democrat code words. We must have heard that phrase a thousand times from the left. I can't stand it!!!
....Thank you Mark.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:47 AM | Comments (11)
McCain Extends Olive Branch to Pelosi and Gore
McCain extends olive branch to Pelosi, Gore
Republican Sen. John McCain, engaged in increasingly sharp attacks on rival Barack Obama, pledged that if elected president, he would work closely with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, praising her as an effective leader and an "inspiration to millions of Americans."
"I respect Speaker Pelosi. I think she's one of the great American success stories," McCain said during an interview with The Chronicle prior to a fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
"We talk about (New York Sen.) Hillary Clinton and her inspiration to millions of Americans. Speaker Pelosi has been an inspiration as well" in a role that is "in many ways ... more powerful than the president."
And McCain also had high praise for the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore and his advocacy on the issue of climate change. McCain recently raised eyebrows in GOP circles by calling "doable" Gore's suggestion that the country could become entirely energy independent through use of renewable resources within 10 years.
"I agree with his goal," the Arizona senator said Monday of Gore's idea. "I may disagree with all the ways of getting there. But I again want to emphasize my respect for the former vice president's leadership on this issue and his continuous leadership. And I am in no way trying to get into a fight with him."
McCain said that while he differs with Gore on the importance of nuclear power, "I do believe that his goals and his priorities and the visibility that he's given the issue has been good for America and the world."
His praise for two Democrats who are regularly in the bull's-eye of the conservative talk radio and the right-wing blogosphere is likely to draw fire from Republican loyalists, who consider Pelosi and Gore to be the evil twins of liberalism.
"It drives the talk radio crowd nuts when McCain does not wage war on Pelosi and Gore," said Hoover Institution media fellow Bill Whalen. McCain, he said, likely was trying to reach out to moderate and independent voters during his San Francisco visit.
"McCain's "first instinct is not to go negative or go to the punch. He tends to pull the punch," said Whalen. That may have to end soon, he said, because "he's got two challenges ahead of him: Obama is hovering close to 40 to 50 percent in the polls, and has to be dragged down, and McCain is in the low 40s and has to be pumped up."
Pelosi's view
Pelosi has recently pounded McCain for what she said has been an energy policy that she argued is a virtual continuation of the Bush administration's failed efforts.
The speaker appeared at a San Francisco gas station earlier this month to charge that McCain has failed to take action on ideas that will reduce the price of gas at the pump now - including cracking down on price gouging, enacting a "use it or lose it" policy for oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres of undeveloped federal oil reserves and suspending the filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
McCain, asked about those criticisms Monday, sidestepped the direct issue of "use it or lose it." Although he did criticize her for failing to hold a vote on offshore oil drilling, he said he would extend a hand to work with her on a variety of critical issues.
"I promise you that I respect her," he said, "I will sit down with her when I'm president, and will say 'Let's work together,' " he said. "If (the late House Speaker) Tip O'Neill and (President) Ronald Reagan could, then certainly John McCain and Nancy Pelosi can. ... I think she's been very effective."
McCain also downplayed criticism from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - a Republican and an endorser - who dismissed the idea of lifting federal offshore oil drilling moratorium as "blowing smoke."
"I have said the states should decide. And Gov. Schwarzenegger has made his position clear. So has Speaker Pelosi," he said.
But he said as an added incentive to coastal states, "one of the things I would do is offer them a higher share of the revenues. There are certain budgetary problems that exist, as we all know," he said. "It's their coastal waters, and I would offer them more of the revenues."
John McCain in his own words
In an interview with The Chronicle on Monday, John McCain addressed a number of issues. Among them:
On Gov. Schwarzenegger's criticism that lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling is "blowing smoke":
"Gov. Schwarzenegger has made his position clear. ... The governor of Florida has had a different position. ... One of the things I would do is offer (coastal states) a higher share of the revenues. There are certain budgetary problems that exist, as we all know. It's their coastal waters and I would offer them more of the revenues."
On how he would handle sanctuary cities like San Francisco:
"I would push for federal action to carry out a federal responsibility. And a federal responsibility is immigration. ...If you have secure borders and you have a temporary worker program that has to do with tamper-proof biometric documents ... you address the issue of the 12 million people who are here illegally, and you don't have to worry about all that."
On former Vice President Al Gore's contention that America can be energy independent in 10 years:
"I don't think it's doable without nuclear power. I do believe we can become energy independent, but I think it will (involve) nuclear power, wind, solar. ... It requires all those things, including offshore drilling."
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Wild Thing's comment.........
At first I thought this was a satire piece, because McCain seemed to be coming around with his excellent ad called Pump and the other one about Hussein Obama and the wounded troops. Not that I thought hell froze over or anything, and McCain turned into a conservative but at least he was finally getting strong on some things FOR America.
But instead of this article being a satire, I think this entire election cycle is satire. We’re all being filmed and we don’t know it.
Doesn’t McCain know he’s p*ssing off 91% of Americans!?! Don’t suck up to Pelosi, McCain; she’s on very thin ice, she is one of the enmey within for pete's sake.
"I respect Speaker Pelosi. I think she's one of the great American success stories," McCain said during an interview with The Chronicle prior to a fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
Most people think prostitution has to involve sex.
I beg to differ.
And as far as ole Schwarzenegger. I could care less what he thinks, he has driven California into a bigger mess then it was already. He love that he has come to America and is grateful for all the opportunities and rewards for his hard work have been. That is good and the way it should be.....the American dream for sure. But hs is a rino more then ever, and has moved further and further to the left since becoming Gov. of Callif. He was always been socially liberal but politically conservartive for many years. That has changed a lot. Nick and I know him and are too ticked off at him to even communicate with him anymore. hahaha And I know him pretty well I used to date him eons ago before I met my prince charming Nicholas. Arnie has gone off the deep end totally especially about drilling for oil and the illegals having things handed to them. sheesh.
There is NO other person unless we want Obama to send us whirling into the madness of socialism and communism and marxism and the poor house to boot. But this slapping us in the face has got to stop, how much are we supposed to stand anyway. I mean is McCain running for President or is he running for a spot in the Obama cabinet.
Then here is the BUT or maybe.......
The other way to look at this is that McCain is choosing his battles. Its true, that a lot of people are getting frustrated with the Witch on the Hill, but McCain wants to avoid getting in the middle when Pelosi may end up hanging herself if people become sufficiently angry with her. If McCain wins, he may have to deal with her, so he is deflecting her for now and letting this play out without direct confrontation.
But for me the thing is that Pelosi, Reid etc, well they are the enemy and should be treated as such.
Meanwhile I continue to pray harder and harder for our country and for McCain too. There is power in prayer I believe that, and maybe He can get through to McCain on this stuff because I know none of us can.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:45 AM | Comments (8)
Otters Holding Hands
Vancouver Aquarium: two sea otters float around, napping, holding hands. SO CUTE!!
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Wild Thing's comment.........
I love how the one reaches out to grab unto the hand of the other one. So adorable!
....Thank you Lynn for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:40 AM | Comments (6)
July 29, 2008
With Obama Economic Freedom Is At Serious Risk
Democrat Barack Obama arrives in Washington on Monday. On the campaign trail, Obama has styled himself a centrist. But a look at those who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years shows a far more left-leaning tilt to his background — and to his politics.
Before friendly audiences, Barack Obama speaks passionately about something called "economic justice." He uses the term obliquely, though, speaking in code — socialist code.
During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. "I've been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served," he said at the group's 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.
And as president, "we'll ensure that economic justice is served," he asserted. "That's what this election is about." Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn't have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.
"Economic justice" simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It's a euphemism for socialism.
In the past, such rhetoric was just that — rhetoric. But Obama's positioning himself with alarming stealth to put that rhetoric into action on a scale not seen since the birth of the welfare state.
Obama also talks about "restoring fairness to the economy," code for soaking the "rich" — a segment of society he fails to understand that includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns.
It's clear from a close reading of his two books that he's a firm believer in class envy. He assumes the economy is a fixed pie, whereby the successful only get rich at the expense of the poor.
Following this discredited Marxist model, he believes government must step in and redistribute pieces of the pie. That requires massive transfers of wealth through government taxing and spending, a return to the entitlement days of old.
Of course, Obama is too smart to try to smuggle such hoary collectivist garbage through the front door. He's disguising the wealth transfers as "investments" — "to make America more competitive," he says, or "that give us a fighting chance," whatever that means.
Among his proposed "investments":
• "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.
• "Free" college tuition.
• "Universal national service" (a la Havana).
• "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").
• "Free" job training (even for criminals).
• "Wage insurance" (to supplement dislocated union workers' old income levels).
• "Free" child care and "universal" preschool.
• More subsidized public housing.
• A fatter earned income tax credit for "working poor."
• And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.
His new New Deal also guarantees a "living wage," with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation; and "fair trade" and "fair labor practices," with breaks for "patriot employers" who cow-tow to unions, and sticks for "nonpatriot" companies that don't.
That's just for starters — first-term stuff.
Obama doesn't stop with socialized health care. He wants to socialize your entire human resources department — from payrolls to pensions. His social-microengineering even extends to mandating all employers provide seven paid sick days per year to salary and hourly workers alike.
You can see why Obama was ranked, hands-down, the most liberal member of the Senate by the National Journal.
The seeds of his far-left ideology were planted in his formative years as a teenager in Hawaii — and they were far more radical than any biography or profile in the media has portrayed.
A careful reading of Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," reveals that his childhood mentor up to age 18 — a man he cryptically refers to as "Frank" — was none other than the late communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his "subversive," "un-American activities."
As Obama was preparing to head off to college, he sat at Davis' feet in his Waikiki bungalow for nightly bull sessions. Davis plied his impressionable guest with liberal doses of whiskey and advice, including: Never trust the white establishment.
"They'll train you so good," he said, "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that sh**."
After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.
His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America.
Obama reunited with his late father's communist tribe in Kenya, the Luo, during trips to Africa.
As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Harvard-educated economist, grew to challenge the ruling pro-Western government for not being socialist enough.He argued for eliminating private farming and nationalizing businesses "owned by Asians and Europeans."
His ideas for communist-style expropriation didn't stop there. He also proposed massive taxes on the rich to "redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all."
"Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed," Obama Sr. wrote. "I do not see why the government cannot tax those who have more and syphon some of these revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development."
Taxes and "investment" . . . the fruit truly does not fall far from the vine.
(Voters might also be interested to know that Obama, the supposed straight shooter, does not once mention his father's communist leanings in an entire book dedicated to his memory.)
Too much is at stake in this election to continue mincing words.
Both a historic banking crisis and 1970s-style stagflation loom over the economy. Democrats, who already control Congress, now threaten to filibuster-proof the Senate in what could be a watershed election for them — at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
A perfect storm of statism is forming, and our economic freedoms are at serious risk.
Those who care less about looking politically correct than preserving the free-market individualism that's made this country great have to start calling things by their proper name to avert long-term disaster.
Wild Thing's comment.........
This is such an excellent article!!!! This "ocialism" is out and out Marxism. We are in for a rough time if he’s elected and has a democrat congress.
This whole thing is getting scarier and scarier by the minute.
This list keeps growing:
* Speeches in stadiums filled with mesmerized, adoring audiences - Check
* An uninspiring background before meteoric rise - Check
* Creates his own new symbols of power - Check
* Associates with racists, hatemongers and violent radicals - Check
* A propaganda machine willing to show him only in the best possible light - Check
* Uses, “glorious leader” style Agitprop posters common in totalitarian nations
* Wants Secret Police force - Check
* Somebody powerful people think they can control - Check
* Often dismissed as a light-weight by his opponents - Check
* Seeks to replace God with the State - Check
* People adopting his name as their own - Check
* Inspires adoration art - Check
* Appropriates symbols of past German glory - Check
* Never plans on giving up power - Check (Obama to be president for the next “eight to 10 years”)
* A narcissistic megalomaniac - Check
* Brazenly Takes credit for other people’s accomplishments - Check
* Wants to build “youth” movement through State service - Check
* Acts as if in power before he is - Check
* Some followers believe him to be divine - Check
* Worshiped and aided greatly by the media - Check
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:55 AM | Comments (16)
Bush OKs Execution of Army Death Row Prisoner
Bush OKs execution of Army death row prisoner
President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private, the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military.
Bush said yes to the military's request to execute Ronald A. Gray.
Gray had had been convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area over eight months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg.
"While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
In the military courts, "Private Gray was convicted of committing brutal crimes, including two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. The victims included a civilian and two members of the Army. ... The president's thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous crimes and their families and all others affected."
Unlike in the civilian courts, a member of the U.S. armed forces cannot be executed until the president approves the death sentence. Gray has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since April 1988.
Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed by presidential approval since 1951 when the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal system, was enacted into law.
President Kennedy was the last president to stare down this life-or-death decision. On Feb. 12, 1962, Kennedy commuted the death sentence of Jimmie Henderson, a Navy seaman, to confinement for life.
President Eisenhower was the last president to approve a military execution. In 1957, he approved the execution of John Bennett, an Army private convicted of raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. He was hanged in 1961.
The death penalty was outlawed between 1972 and 1984, when President Reagan reinstated it.
Gray was held responsible for the crimes committed between April 1986 and January 1987 in both the civilian and military justice systems.
In civilian courts in North Carolina, Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms.
He then was tried by general court-martial at the Army's Fort Bragg. In April 1988, the court-martial convicted Gray of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes. He was unanimously sentenced to death.
The court-martial panel convicted Gray of:
_Raping and killing Army Pvt. Laura Lee Vickery-Clay of Fayetteville on Dec. 15, 1986. She was shot four times with a .22-caliber pistol that Gray confessed to stealing. She suffered blunt force trauma over much of her body.
_Raping and killing Kimberly Ann Ruggles, a civilian cab driver in Fayetteville. She was bound, gagged, stabbed repeatedly, and had bruises and lacerations on her face. Her body was found on the base.
_Raping, robbing and attempting to kill Army Pvt. Mary Ann Lang Nameth in her barracks at Fort Bragg on Jan. 3, 1987. She testified against Gray during the court-martial and identified him as her assailant. Gray raped her and stabbed her several times in the neck and side. Nameth suffered a laceration of the trachea and a collapsed or punctured lung.
The six-member court-martial panel returned its unanimous verdict after about two hours of deliberations. The panel also reduced Gray from Spec. 4 to private, forfeited all his pay and ordered him to be dishonorably discharged from the Army.
Gray has appealed his case through the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (then known as the U.S. Army Court of Military Review) and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Services. In 2001, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Silas DeRoma, who left active duty in 1999, was one of several military attorneys who represented Gray on appeal.
"It's disappointing news, as you can imagine," said DeRoma, who now works as a regulatory attorney in Honolulu for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said the basis for some of Gray's appeals focused on the prisoner's mental competency and his representation at trial.
Bush got the secretary of the Army's recommendation to approve Gray's death sentence in late 2005. Since then, it's been under review by the Bush administration, including the White House legal counsel.
Complicating the administration's deliberation was a case under review this year by the Supreme Court.
The court ruled in April to uphold the most common method of capital punishment used across the United States. The justices said the three-drug mix of lethal-injection drugs used by Kentucky and most other states does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling in the case of Baze v. Rees cleared the way for a resumption of executions nationwide.
It was unclear where Gray would be executed. Military executions are handled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Bush's decision, however, is not likely the end of Gray's legal battle. Further litigation is expected and these types of death sentence appeals often take years to resolve.
Wild Thing's comment..........
This man needed a bullet between the eyes a long time ago. I hope his sentance is carried out quickly. He’s eaten too many free meals at our expense already.
....Thank you Jack for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:50 AM | Comments (9)
To Our Media .....Winning Isn't News
Winning Isn't News
Iraq: What would happen if the U.S. won a war but the media didn't tell the American public? Apparently, we have to rely on a British newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq.
London's Sunday Times called it:
"the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror." A terrorist force that once numbered more than 12,000, with strongholds in the west and central regions of Iraq, has over two years been reduced to a mere 1,200 fighters, backed against the wall in the northern city of Mosul.
The destruction of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) is one of the most unlikely and unforeseen events in the long history of American warfare. We can thank President Bush's surge strategy, in which he bucked both Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington by increasing our forces there instead of surrendering.
We can also thank the leadership of the new general he placed in charge there, David Petraeus, who may be the foremost expert in the world on counter-insurgency warfare. And we can thank those serving in our military in Iraq who engaged local Iraqi tribal leaders and convinced them America was their friend and AQI their enemy.
Al-Qaida's loss of the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqis began in Anbar Province, which had been written off as a basket case, and spread out from there.
Now, in Operation Lion's Roar the Iraqi army and the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is destroying the fraction of terrorists who are left. More than 1,000 AQI operatives have already been apprehended.
Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, traveling with Iraqi forces in Mosul, found little AQI presence even in bullet-ridden residential areas that were once insurgency strongholds, and reported that the terrorists have lost control of its Mosul urban base, with what is left of the organization having fled south into the countryside.
Meanwhile, the State Department reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has achieved "satisfactory" progress on 15 of the 18 political benchmarks — a big change for the better from a year ago.
Things are going so well that Maliki has even for the first time floated the idea of a timetable for withdrawal of American forces. He did so while visiting the United Arab Emirates, which over the weekend announced that it was forgiving almost $7 billion of debt owed by Baghdad — an impressive vote of confidence from a fellow Arab state in the future of a free Iraq.
But where are the headlines and the front-page stories about all this good news? As the Media Research Center pointed out last week, "the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 were silent Tuesday night about the benchmarks" that signaled political progress.
The war in Iraq has been turned around 180 degrees both militarily and politically because the president stuck to his guns. Yet apart from IBD, Fox News Channel and parts of the foreign press, the media don't seem to consider this historic event a big story.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Thank you to our troops!!!!!! Let’s celebrate the heroes. I wish OUR media would write things like this and not only that but speak about our troops like this too.
....Thank you Mark for sending this.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:47 AM | Comments (8)
Twin Baby Moose and Their Mom With A Sprinkler
Twin baby moose and mother playing in sprinkler in Anchorage, AK. June 2008
The song was written and performed originally by Dolly Parton. The person who is singing it on this video is Alison Kraus, a blue grass singer.
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Wild Thing's comment.......
I LOVE this, how precious these babies are and their mom too. All of them enjoying the sprinkler and the babies playing in the yard with each other.
....Thank you Mark for sending this.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:45 AM | Comments (4)
Red Faces Over Obama’s Red Mentor
Red Faces Over Obama’s Red Mentor
By Cliff Kincaid
In a strange development, supporters of Barack Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, are openly debating the nature and depth of Davis’s commitment to the Communist Party and his relationship with the Democratic candidate. The debate has gotten heated.
This unusual debate, which is taking place on Obama’s official website, raises the question once again as to why Obama has not been asked by the major media about this relationship. Davis was identified as a Communist Party member by various investigative committees and acknowledged his party membership in a private letter obtained by John Edgar Tidwell, who was sympathetic to Davis and edited his books.
On one side of this debate is somebody claiming to be the son of Davis. On the other side is Alan Maki, a political activist and union organizer with a long history of involvement in left-wing causes. Indeed, Maki confirms that he has been a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a communist decades ago when he was in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
Although he doesn’t support Obama because of his ties to Big Business, Maki wrote a blog on the Obama website stating that he was grateful to Obama for bringing Davis to his attention, and that he, Maki, regarded Davis as his mentor, too. Maki announced establishment of a “Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change” and invited Obama supporters to join it.
Maki did his homework, which is more than most of our own media have done, and he obtained Davis’s books. It is absolutely clear, Maki stated, that Davis was a communist.
In his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, Obama cites
“Frank” as someone who gave him advice on various matters, including race, American values, and college, and read poems to him during his high-school years in Hawaii. One of Davis’s poems was a tribute to the Soviet Red Army. Another mocked the work of Christian missionaries.
Frank” was identified as Frank Marshall Davis, a controversial black writer and poet, by Gerald Horne, a writer for a CPUSA publication. Davis’s influence over Obama could help explain why the candidate associated with communists, socialists and anti-American figures through college and his political life in Chicago.
Maki says his intention is to use Davis’s writings “to advance the unity of working people to be a voice to be reckoned with by the Obama Administration, which to me, at this point, looks like will be an overwhelming landslide victory over the Republicans.”
Communist-style Change
Into the picture comes the person claiming to be the son of Frank Marshall Davis, who posted some comments on the Obama website in which he expresses the view that Maki and I are somehow in cahoots because Maki agreed to talk to me about his views on communism and Obama.
While Maki doesn’t personally like my conservative views, he was honest and forthright about his own political beliefs.
Tell the Truth
Clearly, there is an effort underway to sanitize or play down the Obama-Davis relationship and try to intimidate the major media into not covering it. But it is unusual, to say the least, that some of this effort is occurring on the official Obama website. The reaction, which makes the controversy even more newsworthy and significant, suggests that the truth is seeping out through other means, mostly in the alternative media, and increasing the pressure at least on Obama’s supporters to deal with the matter.
In another strange twist, Mark Davis claims some of his comments have been taken off the Obama website, but some freely remain (see comment 37) on the AIM website, which is open to a variety of views in the form of comments on posted columns. Some Davis comments were apparently deleted from the Obama website on the ground that they were “part of a racist, anti-Semitic hate campaign” against Maki. Davis insists they were not of that nature.
Eventually, if this controversy about Frank Marshall Davis continues to build, Obama could be personally forced by the media to respond, in the same way that former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro had to hold a full-blown press conference to answer questions about her husband’s alleged Mob connections.
Maki thinks it admirable that Davis was a communist, but the odds are that few Americans would agree with him.
It is a problem not only for Obama and his campaign, but for those who associated with and covered up for Davis.
If Mark Davis is truly Davis’s son, one would think he would know the truth and have inside information about his father. It’s difficult, of course, to determine a true identity based on the limited information available about this person on the Internet. But it is Obama’s website and should be taken somewhat seriously.
It is a long article and the rest can be found HERE.
Wild Thing's comment........
For most Obama supporters, having a communist for a mentor is a plus. The younger ones don’t know what a communist is. The older ones know and don’t care. Or don’t know and don’t care.
I’ve long believed that he media supports Obama because of their liberal bias. Then awhile back I realized that they want him elected because of their COMMUNIST bias.
Communists, Black Supremacists, anti-Semites, Weather Underground—you can learn a lot about a person by the company he keeps.
Barack's rallying cry.........Citizens of the world, unite!
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:44 AM | Comments (8)
Guantanamo Trial Views Graphic 9/11 Video
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba
(Reuters)
Prosecutors in the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver unveiled a graphic video on Monday of the September 11 attacks and other al Qaeda operations that is likely to play a repeated role in pending war crimes cases.
The video is entitled "The Al Qaeda Plan," an echo of "The Nazi Plan" made by Oscar-winning director George Stevens as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials of German leaders after World War II.
"Oh my God" was heard repeatedly as crowds watched the twin towers of the World Trade center collapse on September 11, 2001, in a vivid highlight of the movie shown over defense objections at the terrorism conspiracy trial of Salim Hamdan.
The six-member panel that will decide Hamdan's fate also saw footage of charred bodies stripped of flesh in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the body of a U.S. soldier dragged through the streets in Somalia in 2003.
Control tower conversations with one of the doomed September 11 planes were also included.
"The Al Qaeda Plan" was made for $25,000 by terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann for the Office of Military Commissions, which is conducting the trials of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo. Its 90 minutes of video clips depict the history of al Qaeda from its formation in 1988 through the September 11 attacks.
The commission's lead prosecutor, Col. Lawrence Morris, said the tape would be used in other trials but no decision had been made whether to use it in the trial of accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Hamdan's attorneys objected that the footage would prejudice the jury. "They're trying to terrorize the members," defense attorney Charles Swift told the court.
But prosecutors said the video helped illustrate the goals of al Qaeda training and ideology. "It is a very important part of the prosecution's case," said prosecutor Clayton Trivett.
Commission Judge Keith Allred approved the video, after first saying it would serve more to prejudice the case than to prove a point. "The planes crashing into the towers and the people screaming doesn't prove anything," he said.
A pivotal point of contention is the significance of Hamdan's role in al Qaeda. The Yemeni native was caught in November 2001 with two surface-to-air missiles in his car.
Defense attorneys say he was a lowly driver, but the prosecution has sought to portray him as a trusted bodyguard who helped bin Laden evade capture and stay alive.
The two sides have also skirmished over an expert's testimony on the laws of war. With Hamdan being tried as a war criminal under a 2006 U.S. law, the prosecution is seeking to show the United States was in a continuing armed conflict with al Qaeda well before the September 11 attacks.
Hamdan's attorneys have sought to demonstrate that the battle with al Qaeda did not reach the state of armed conflict until the September 11 attacks, which could make it harder for the prosecution to prove Hamdan's actions count as a war crime.
Separately on Monday, the Pentagon announced it had filed charges against another detainee at Guantanamo and released three from the detention center.
The Pentagon said Abdul Ghani was accused of attempted murder, material support for terrorism and conspiracy over accusations he fired rockets and planted bombs aimed at U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, and tried to kill an Afghani soldier in 2002.
The Pentagon said it had released three detainees -- one to Afghanistan, one to the United Arab Emirates and one to Qatar. It said more than 65 Guantanamo detainees are eligible for transfer or release subject to talks on where they will go.
Wild Thing's comment........
7 years later we are still dealing with the scum responsible for 9/11 only strengthens my resolve to kill them. Kill them all. Set the precedent now!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:40 AM | Comments (6)
July 28, 2008
General Petraeus Not Joining Withdrawl Bandwagon! Thank God!
Petraeus won't join bandwagon for Iraq withdrawal timetable
The top U.S. military commander in Iraq isn't buying the increasingly popular idea of a publicly stated timetable for American troop withdrawal.
Gen. David Petraeus, the Iraq commander, said in an interview that the situation in Iraq is too volatile to "project out, and to then try to plant a flag on a particular date."
With violence at its lowest levels of the war, politicians in both the United States and Iraq are getting behind the idea of a departure timetable. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was first, suggesting he would have combat troops home within 16 months of Inauguration Day. The idea got a big boost during his overseas trip last week, when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki indicated support for that general timeline.
During a Friday interview on CNN's "The Situation Room," Republican candidate John McCain, who had opposed setting a timeline, appeared to shift ground. McCain said that 16 months "is a pretty good timetable" but must be based on conditions on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has embraced "time horizons" as it negotiates with the Iraqi government a status of forces agreement over the future role of U.S. troops.
Petraeus said any timetable must have "a heck of a lot more granularity than the kind of very short-hand statements that have been put out."
"We occasionally have commanders who have so many good weeks, (they think) it's won. We've got this thing. Well we don't. We've had so many good weeks. Right now, for example we've had two-and-a-half months of levels of violence not since March 2004," he said from his office at Camp Victory.
"Well that's encouraging. It's heartening. It's very welcome. But let's keep our powder dry. . . .Let's not let our guard down."
Petraeus is pushing for what he says as a more nuanced debate as both U.S. and Iraqi political leaders are in campaign seasons, with many voters in both countries wanting to hear there is an end. Maliki is trying to sway voters in time for this fall's scheduled provincial elections by winning support from his political rival, firebrand cleric Muqtada al Sadr, who has called for a U.S. withdrawal date since 2004.
Throughout his tenure, Petraeus has argued for a drawdown based on conditions, saying that the last of the five surge brigades could leave earlier this month because Iraqi forces are increasingly capable of securing Iraq.
Petraeus said that while both Sunni and Shiite extremists groups are weaker, Iraqi security forces still face threats as the groups try to reconstitute themselves throughout Iraq. And because of that, U.S. and Iraqi forces must not assume that the battle here is won, he said.
Maliki's surprise spring offensive in the southern port city of Basra was a turning point in the security situation. It rid Iraq's second-largest city of militia control and bolstered the confidence of both the Iraqi people and military. But the Iraqi security forces turned to U.S. troops to help them win, leading some to call for a more cautious withdrawal plan.
Petraeus has said he believes there will be a "long-term partnership" in which the U.S. acts primarily in an advisory role to Iraqi forces, but with enough combat power to step in and help if major battles erupt. But he said that that like most things in Iraq, plans could change.
"We know where we are trying to go. We know how we think we need to try to get there with our Iraqi partners and increasingly with them in the lead and shouldering more of the burden as they are," Petraeus said.
"But there are a lot of storm clouds out there, there are lots of these possible lightning bolts. You just don't know what it could be. You try to anticipate them and you try to react very quickly. . . .It's all there, but it's not something you want to lay out publicly."
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Wild Thing's comment........
Please God I pray these men ( Obama and McCain) listen to General Petraeus and stop making this pulling out of Iraq with setting a date part of their campaign!!!!!!
Patreaus is a good man and an awesome leader. And why the heck aren't these men listening to the man in charge of the “troops on the ground?
With all this talk about this the insurgents must be cheering this topic. These things IMO are none of our business nor the insurgents. It is military and should be on only a need to know basis.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:55 AM | Comments (15)
Obama: "We'll make sure Palestinians have a state"
Obama: We'll make sure Palestinians have a state
WASHINGTON
"The Palestinian people are having a very tough time right now economically, and it is in US interests to make sure that they have a sense of hope and opportunity and a Palestinian state. I think it's in Israelis' interest as well," US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told NBC's Meet the Press Sunday on the heels of his Mideast tour.
"What I've said is that we're going to make sure that the Palestinians have a state that allows them to prosper as long as we also have certainty that Israel's security is not being compromised. I think it's in the interest of both parties, but we are the critical ingredient in terms of making sure that a deal actually gets done," he said.
"I give the Bush administration credit that the Annapolis process has gotten Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert in Israel and President (Mahmoud) Abbas in the Palestinian territories to have very serious and frank discussions. I think they have moved the ball forward. They may not be able to finish the job. They certainly can't finish it without serious participation by the next administration, and we've got to start early".
According to Obama, if the US can "solve" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "then that will make it easier for Arab states and the Gulf States to support us when it comes to issues like Iraq and Afghanistan."It will also weaken Iran, which has been using Hamas and Hizbullah as a way to stir up mischief in the region," he said, "if we've gotten an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, maybe at the same time peeling Syria out of the Iranian orbit, that makes it easier to isolate Iran so that they have a tougher time developing a nuclear weapon."
Responding to Meet the Press' Tom Brokow's remark that "anytime an American goes to the Middle East, goes to an Arab capital, on the street or in a corridors of power, they say, 'You just do whatever the Israelis want you to do, and the politicians come out here looking for Jewish votes',"
Obama said, "I don't think that's entirely fair. This is my second trip to Israel and the West Bank. And the first time that I went, I did meet with Palestinian businessmen, I did talk to Palestinian students in Ramallah.
"When you're in a region for a day, you've got a lot of boxes that you've got to check. And in Israel in particular, a big chunk of our day was meeting with not only the current prime minister, but former prime ministers and a whole bunch of people who intend to be prime minister. And it was important for us to make sure that we had covered our bases there," said the presidential hopeful.
Wild Thing's comment.......
Hey Obama, they don’t want a state. They want Israel pushed into the sea so they can turn the land into a garbage heap like everywhere else they reside.
"we're going to make sure that the Palestinians have a state that allows them to prosper "
Gosh, I didn’t realize that the Israeli/Palestinian problem was all about economics. Just give those poor peeps jobs and they’ll put down their weapons. Just like in South Chicago, eh Obama?
"...hope and opportunity..."
The Palestinians hope they have opportunity to wipe Israel off the map.
"Iran, which has been using Hamas and Hizbullah as a way to stir up mischief"
Stir up mischief, well that is one way to put bombing, and and killing innocent people and cutting off their heads.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:50 AM | Comments (15)
"When Barry Comes Flyin' Home Again.." by Russ Vaughn
"Best appreciated when humming the tune of the popular Civil War song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," or the Irish folk classic, "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye."Also, with sincere apologies to my Hibernian forbears whose folk lyrics and music I keep misusing for political purposes. Somehow, however, I think their Irish eyes are smiling." --- Russ Vaughn
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When Barry Comes Flyin' Home Again...
When Barry was comin' to see the troops, hooah, hooah;
The brass they made us jump through hoops, hooah, hooah.
With sand in our boots in sweat in the eye,
We stood in the sun ‘til we liked to die,
But it all was for naught, cause, "Barry we never saw ye."
He met all the generals sure as life, hooah, hooah;
He picked their brains about the strife, hooah, hooah.
But a private soldier he never met,
He's comin' home an' he still ain't yet,
But all we can say is, "Barry we never saw ye."
Our wounded off to Landstuhl go, hooah, hooah;
To stabilize there for America, Ho! hooah, hooah.
But Barry there ignored our troops,
To go to the gym and shoot some hoops,
So all our wounded can say is, "Barry we never saw ye."
So this whole damned trip was just a show, hooah, hooah,
Using us troops to make it so, hooah, hooah,
He wants to be our commander in chief
But has of our mission no true belief,
So all we can say is, "Barry the devil with ye."
When Barry comes flyin' home agin' hooah, hooah
We'll remember how Barry used us then, hooah, hooah
And vote for the warrior who bore the pain,
Who earned our respect that's John McCain,
And we'll all be verily sayin' "Barry we never saw ye."
Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66
....Thank you Russ.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (9)
The Hype of B.Hussein Obama
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Wild Thing's comment...........
If he wins I sure hope we don't have to watch him dance. This guy has NO rhythm, as seen when he attempts to dance and move around at the beginning of the video with Ellen Degeneres. It must be something that leaves the body when a person goes too far to the left.
This hype about Obama is all so sick!
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:45 AM | Comments (8)
July 27, 2008
McCain Interviewed About Obama Troop SNUB on "This Week" ABC this morning
This will appear on ABC News
on " This Week " show with George Stephanopoulos in an interview to air Sunday July 27th
ABC News' Mary Bruce reports: Sen. John McCain suggested today that it is fair game to question Sen. Barack Obama's decision not to visit wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his recent trip to the country.
"If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn’t visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event," McCain told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview to air Sunday on "This Week".
Obama's campaign reportedly cancelled the trip because Pentagon officials told the senator he could not make the visit accompanied by his campaign staff and because of concerns that the visit would be viewed as politically motivated.
But McCain questioned his rival's justification:
"I know of no Pentagon regulation that would have prevented him from going there -- without the media and the press and all of the associated people. Nothing that I know of would have kept him from visiting those wounded troops."
McCai