Inner Banks Humor - Politics
Valerie Jarrett is the Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, arguably the most powerful man in the world. However that does not appear to be her view of who is powerful. According to her, "I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we're going to speak truth to power. When we saw all of the distortions in the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death."
Ah yes. So Obama and his senior advisor are going to speak truth to the power of a citizen - carrying a sign saying "Stop buying votes with Public Money" or "No Death Panels" - this is someone you have to be afraid of?
A young college student or a retired grandmother is "the power" this President fears? This is who the man with his finger on the "go" button of the most powerful military force in the world sees as people he has to denigrate? The little man got his feelings hurt because they "distorted" things about him, awwwww.
Joseph And The Founding Fathers
Rory Richardson - Warrenton- August 4, 2009
I am sure most of you are aware of the story of Joseph and his "coat of many colors." He was a man who loved and trusted God. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, but he excelled in every situation and ended up as ruler over the Egyptian people. Only Pharaoh was above him.
Joseph ruled Egypt from the age of 30 until his death at age 110. Joseph's father and brothers came to Egypt and prospered.
Exodus 1: 6-7 reads, "And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them."
Joseph set the scene for everyone in Egypt to live abundantly and peacefully.
Our founding fathers did this for us in America. They, like Joseph, were men who loved and trusted God. This is why He blessed them with the wisdom (again, like Joseph) to set up a nation where people could be fruitful and prosper.
But Joseph and the founding fathers did not live forever. They died, and the lessons of their leadership were forgotten. A new king arose over Egypt, and he viewed the freedom and prosperity of the Israelites as a threat. So he set taskmasters (slave drivers) over them. He made their work harder and forced them to build supply cities for him.
Now we don't have slave drivers in America anymore. But we do have more and more regulations that make it harder to run a business. Remember, businesses are where the jobs are. We also have a higher and higher tax burden that makes it harder to provide for our families.
Our government was designed to be very limited, but it is looking more and more like the new pharaoh who did not know Joseph. Government is taking more control of our lives every day. We are not being whipped physically, but we are being whipped economically. And every lash diminishes our freedom.
Now, God delivered the Israelites. Some people have told me that they don't worry about these things because they trust God to resolve it. I trust God, too. But notice that God did not teleport the Israelites to the promised land. He could have, but He didn't. They had to walk. God wants us to have abundance. We are His children. But if we don't want it enough to do something about it, we don't deserve it. "But they had Moses." Yes, they did. Where is our Moses? He is you. He is me. He doesn't have to be one person.
We, the American people, have risen up to right many wrongs in our history. We must tell the new pharaoh (government) that we will not be controlled with new law after new law. Government involvement in health care and cap and trade will lash our wallets and our health. Please, don't just repeat what someone tells you. Seek to understand these bills and the impact they will have on us. This is a small step to preserving what our founding fathers risked their lives to give us: freedom. I just have one question. Will you walk?
Mr. Richardson is Chairman of the Warren County Republican Party
Inner Banks Humor
- Obama Communications Czar Confuses Her Chinese
There has been a great deal of outrage over the many communists in the Obama regime. One of Obama's communists who has stoked the controversy has been Communications Director Anita Dunn. When confronted for her praise of violent communist dictator Mao Tse Tung, she defended herself by claiming she was only quoting him... just like Republican Lee Atwater did. Two problems. One, she didn't quote Mao, she claimed him as a favorite philosopher.Two, Republican Atwater was fond of quoting the famous general and Taoist philosopher Sun Tzu who wrote "The Art of War" around five centuries before Christ lived. NOT Mao, the communist dictator who killed 70 million people while gaining control of China in the 20th century.
I guess to Anita Dunn (and obviously all the rest of the Obama czars who failed to call her on it) "all those Chinese just look alike."
Can you imagine the ridicule that would be heaped on any Republican who said something as stupid as what Anita Dunn said? Where is the NY Times? Where is CNN? Oh yeah. They are defending Dunn like they defend all of Obama's communist czars!
Silencing Voices
For School Choice
by Sheryl Henderson Blunt - Octover 27th, 2009 - The Weekly Standard President Obama isn't taking kindly to a television ad that criticizes his opposition to a popular scholarship program for poor children, and his administration wants the ad pulled.
Former D.C. Councilmember Kevin Chavous of D.C. Children First said October 16 that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had recently approached him and told him to kill the ad.
[Snip]
"We're losing several generations of kids," Obama says, "and something has to be done."
Of course that "something" better not include anything that the education unions feels hurts their members. Nor had you better disagree publicly with Obama. Do that and our first "dictator" will tell you what you are to think. Teachers come first. Students come last. That is the reason that our school systems have plunged into chaos for the last 40 years. Tenure and high wages are the only things the union cares about. Tenure so teachers can be incompetent without consequence. High wages so the union can increase its political payola to entrenched Democrat elected officials to protect the incompetent teachers. Current teachers are great at topics that are opinions, such as diversity and tolerance and hating all whites for being slaveholders. They are pretty lousy at teaching things like math and science and anything measurable.
Obama supports the unions. He will, like the unions, "talk" about losing kids. When the chips are down though, he backs the unions. His support for kids is really... just talk.
A Conservative Viewpoint
- “Nixifying” The White House
Article by Bob Steinburg - Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony
On the floor of the U. S. Senate last week, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., an aide to former President Richard Nixon, delivered a cautionary warning to President Barrack Obama. He asked him not to follow the path of the former president by developing a White House enemies’ list that ultimately led to his resigning the presidency in disgrace.
Anyone ever involved in politics has a certain degree of paranoia. With the opposition taking pot shots every day, politicians must either possess a thick skin, or be a masochist to survive. In Nixon’s case, he became delusional. He thought everyone was out to get him. Revenge was one way of striking back.
In 1971, Nixon’s special counsel, Charles Colson, developed an enemies’ list that included the likes of the president of the United Auto Workers Union, a liberal Washington newspaper columnist; a celebrated CBS broadcast journalist and the managing editor of the Los Angeles Times.
Nixon’s White House Counsel John Dean, in writing to a colleague about the enemies’ list said: we need to find out how best to “… use the federal machinery to screw our enemies.” Tactics included IRS tax audits, manipulating grants, controlling who received federal contracts, and pursuing litigation and prosecution when “needed.” Hundreds of additional names were eventually added to Nixon’s list, including many from the entertainment industry.
Three years into his presidency Nixon’s detailed enemies’ list began to formally evolve. Obama has only been president for 10 months, yet there are striking similarities in the economic and foreign affairs challenges facing both presidencies.
It appears there may be other similarities as well.
Nixon was trying to find a way to “win the peace” in Vietnam, fighting a war that was becoming increasingly costly and unpopular. A deficit crisis emerged as the nation’s spending almost doubled as a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). There were gas lines resulting from the Arab oil boycott and a recession ready to unfold. The economy was floundering, unemployment rising and the stock market was increasingly volatile.
Obama is facing two wars, national unemployment approaching double digits, a deficit problem of his own and faces significant organized opposition to his liberal agenda.
Like Nixon, Obama seems very thin-skinned. We learned that at the height of last year’s campaign. Some of his campaign members took it upon themselves to institute a sort of “truth squad,” threatening to prosecute anyone, including media outlets that printed or broadcast any information about Obama that they perceived as incorrect.
In the closing days of the campaign three large daily newspapers that endorsed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were denied access to Obama’s campaign bus. Nothing much has changed. Obama continues to assault Fox News, further proving that he and his staff remain in a campaigning state of mind.
Recently the U. S. Chamber of Commerce came under fire from the White House. Obama wants to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to “ensure transparency and fair dealing” on financial products such as consumer loans. The Chamber disagrees, saying that consumers are best served and protected through existing regulations and that the proposed new agency would make credit more expensive and less accessible.
Obama was furious the Chamber ran what he called a “completely false” ad campaign claiming that small businesses will be harmed with this new agency. With this White House you agree, or risk being marginalized, in spite of Obama’s campaign promise for more openness and transparency.
For an administration that appears to obsess over misinformation being spread by those opposing its initiatives, why are they so reluctant to share details of their own with the public? We’re told that the Democrat’s plan to reform health care will be sound, and fair to everyone. Economically it’s a win-win, they say- for the consumer as well as reducing the federal deficit. Well if the plans being discussed are going to be the panacea for what ails us, why do we hear few specifics from those on the left promoting it, and a plethora of particulars from those opposed?
Many folks feel the insurance companies are opposing health care reform solely because they will end up suffering a big time loss in profits that will reduce executive bonuses. While a convenient and simplistic argument, there is much more to their opposing national health care than that. These companies are fighting for their very existence.
Believe me, I’m no fan of the insurance industry. But the industry deserves the right to protect their interests and the future viability of their participation in the market place.
The insurance lobby has launched an advertising campaign against what they see as one more government intrusion into our lives. The ads point to countries like Great Britain and Canada which have national health care. They site statistical data that brings into question whether we would be taking a step forward or a step backward by gutting our current system in favor of national health care models.
Obama and the Democrat’s don’t like the ads and are pushing back. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., made a surprising appearance at a Senate committee hearing to support repeal of 60 year-old antitrust laws that benefit insurance companies. How’s that for getting even?
Whether it’s Fox News, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, insurance companies, banks, talk radio, town hall meeting attendees, tea party protestors, or Republican members of Congress- beware! There is an enemies’ list somewhere in the White House and maybe some of us are on it.
Nixon’s paranoia and the resulting negative impact it had on America may one day seem tame when compared to what’s unfolding now in the bunker at the White House. Perhaps it’s his ghost that’s stirring at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Inner Banks Humor
- Islam's War On The West
Some Syrian protest leaders needed large signs and wanted something other than the standard 'Death To Americans'. They needed them to be in English for TV. But most Syrians don't even write Arabic, much less English. So they hired an English-speaking civilian to translate and write their statements. Unfortunately, in this case, they were unaware that the 'civilian' insurance company employee hired for the job was a retired US Army Sergeant!
The picture is not doctored! Unfortunately the video of this protest rally never made its way to the Arab TV networks - but the results were PRICELESS!
Inner Banks Philosophy
By the power invested in me as dictator of the United States I hereby order you to buy health insurance... or you will be penalized as I see fit, including but not limited to stripping you of your citizenship in this nation.
Inner Banks Humor - Obamacare
Ewwwwww.
Inner Banks Philosophy
"Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne
Save The Planet:
Eat A Dog?
by Tanya Katterns - October 22nd, 2009 - The Dominion Post
The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found.
Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living.
This is the new guidance from Barack Obama followers of how to create a sustainable utopia. Get rid of pets that eat meat and replace them with pets that eat vegetation. Of course they would also really appreciate it if you would sell your SUV, become a vegetarian, and stop having human babies. The goal is to eliminate the human race to save the planet. They do not think these goals are funny. They are serious. Which is why we should not stop laughing at them.
My opinion? They are idiots. What do you think?
Degrees In Dishonesty
by Walter Williams - October 21st, 2009 - Front Page Magazine
Today’s college students are generally dumber than their predecessors. An article in the Wall Street Journal (1/30/97) reported that a “bachelor of Arts degree in 1997 may not be the equal of a graduation certificate from an academic high school in 1947.” The American Council on Education found that only 15 percent of universities require tests for general knowledge; only 17 percent for critical thinking; and only 19 percent for minimum competency. According a recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates proficient in prose literacy has declined from 40 percent to 31 percent within the past decade. Employers report that many college graduates lack the basic skills of critical thinking, writing and problem-solving and some employers find they must hire English and math teachers to teach them how to write memos and perform simple computations.
If you graduated from Bertie County High School before 1975, you probably have a better education than if you graduated from Harvard, last year. Even better, since over 91% of Harvard students last year were considered 'honor students', Bertie County graduates from earlier years are among the "best educated" in America, sort of.
Maybe they all should get Nobel Peace Prizes.
The refusal to grade honestly has made Harvard a laughing stock among the world's educators. Even as all standards have collapsed, Harvard is leading the field in making a mockery of the concept of higher education.
A Conservative Viewpoint
- Obama Is Foolish
To Ignore Fox News
Article by Bob Steinburg - Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony
When I was in marketing I was often sought for guidance by retailers seeking to expand their business into another area. Selecting the right location was one of their most important decisions. Getting it wrong could lead to financial catastrophe.
I’d always ask my expansion minded clients the following: If faced with a choice between locating your new store on a side of town where most of your competition would be, or on the opposite side of town with little or none, which would you choose? Invariably the answer was this: “Why, the side of town where I’d have the least competition, of course.” This seemingly logical answer is a primary reason why many retail ventures fail.
Ideally, a retail business needs to be located in an area where most folks are shopping for the products you sell. There you will find more potential customers than you ever would, had you chosen to avoid the competition by locating elsewhere. It’s always about the numbers.
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn is ignoring what the rest of the country knows. Instead of using the most watched network in cable news, the Fox News network, as an additional venue for her party’s message, she and President Barack Obama are avoiding and excoriating them.
Dunn recently told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” that Fox News operates “… almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent.”
Obama is no fan of Fox. Commentators like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck have been tough critics of his. Bill O’Reilly has also been rough on this administration. While most viewers have little trouble discerning between the aforementioned opinion shows and Fox’s news programming with the likes of Brett Baier and Shepherd Smith, the White House apparently views them as one in the same.
No such distinctions are drawn by Obama with other cable news outlets. Keith Olbermann, Chris Mathews and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC also have opinion shows and they regularly trash conservatives or anyone else daring to oppose this president and/or his agenda. Instead, they hold up almost any initiative undertaken by Obama and the Democrats with little objectivity or criticism.
Is criticism of the conventional media valid? A new Pew Research Poll found the public is losing faith in the mainstream media. Why? Because most folks no longer trust these news organizations to cover stories objectively or responsibly.
Two huge recent stories escaped the microscopic lens of supposed investigative journalists at mainstream media outlets. They were all scooped by Fox. One story involved the outing of Obama’s former green jobs czar Van Jones, an avowed Communist who abruptly resigned amid a firestorm of controversy. By the time the mainstream media picked up the story, Jones was already on his way out the door.
Then there was the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) scandal. Two young independent filmmakers presented themselves to various ACORN offices around the country as a pimp and his prostitute. They were seeking help from ACORN on how best to set up their bordello. They even feigned expanding this purported illegitimate enterprise by saying they intended to bring underage girls into the country as prostitutes. ACORN officials, without the blink of an eye, told them how to get around civil, criminal and tax laws that could lead to their detection and arrest. Because of this exposé shown only on Fox News, government funding for ACORN was cut off in spite of a few members of Congress like Rep. G. K. Butterfield, D-N. C., who incredulously voted to continue funding for ACORN.
Fox News, which has dominated cable news for the last few years, is only growing stronger. The numbers from Mediaite.com, a company that monitors viewership, suggest the White House’s attacks on Fox are helping it attract new viewers. Fox trounces the competition in prime time in the all important 25-54 age demographic. Fox has three times more viewers than MSNBC and almost five times the viewers of CNN during prime time. O’Reilly, Beck and Hannity’s numbers are even more daunting.
Last month Obama appeared on the entire major network Sunday talk show circuit-except for Fox News Sunday. That shows host Chris Wallace later called this administration “the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.” Wallace is certainly someone who should know. Son of legendary broadcast journalist Mike Wallace, 62-year old Chris formerly worked for NBC and ABC News. He also was a moderator of Meet the Press.
Like the retailer who should locate his new store where the customers are, so too should Obama sell his message where the majority of viewers are. Fox has already wooed former ABC News co-host of 20/20 John Stossel to its network and is reportedly in discussions with CNN’s Lou Dobbs. Fox is not going away. The sooner Obama acknowledges that and begins to include Fox in his news mix, the better his chance of reaching a large segment of America he’s currently not connecting with.
Inner Banks Humor - Politics
This email was received from JHAS777@aol.com. Don't know if he wrote it but it is pretty funny.
If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy.
A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.
If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a black man or Hispanic are conservative, they see themselves as independently successful.
Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.
If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it’s a foreign religion)
If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a conservative slips and falls in a store, he gets up, laughs and is embarrassed.
If a liberal slips and falls, he grabs his neck, moans like he's in labor and then sues.
If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A liberal will delete it because he's "offended".
American Humor
- Lots Of Categories
Many thanks to Canada Free Press for links to the site called troutwrapper.com
It is fantastic. One of the sections I like is a poem that is an ode to the Main Stream Media's code of ethics. Called -
All the gnus that fits
I know not what the truth may be,
I tell it as was told to me.
So If it's not true, please don't call.
I heard it was, and that is all.
That is certainly the code of the New York Times!
Inner Banks Humor - Politics
Change You Can Believe In!Thanks to lucianne.com for today's political party comparison. Which one of these two women reminds you of class?
Inner Banks Humor
A recent report says that Palestinians are losing faith in Obama. It echos earlier polls that say Israelis have lost faith in Obama. Is this unanimity of opinion on his incompetence the Middle East "agreement" Obama promised?
Jon Stewart Takes On CNN
This is a milestone. I don't watch Jon Stewart. He is always ridiculing things I believe in. Some people find that funny but it has never struck me in that way. So imagine my astonishment when this episode ridiculing CNN went viral on the Internet! (It is rather profane in places so don't click to watch unless you are ready to deal with some over the top language!) It is funny though.
Click here and then click on the thumbnail to watch video.
Inner Banks Humor - Sort Of
Top Quotes From This Year's Nobel Peace Prize Award Winner
Obama on political opponents:
"They Bring a Knife...We Bring a Gun"
Obama to His Followers:
"Get in Their Faces!"
Obama on ACORN Mobs:
"I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I'm angry!"
Obama To His Mercenary Army:
“Hit Back Twice As Hard”
Obama on the killer Iranian regime murdering their own people in the street:
(Silence)
Obama on keeping US troops in Iraq (2007):
The United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.
Obama arguing against keeping a baby alive after the baby survives an abortion:
"Essentially adding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision."
Response posted by Gateway Pundit
Truly, he is a man of peace.
With thanks to the Gateway Pundit - Click on the title above to visit the blog's home page - or read the original article here.
Inner Banks Humor - Church Bulletin
Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
Another Failed Presidency
by Geoffrey P. Hunt - October 11th, 2009 - American Thinker
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China ..
But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?
No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.
But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.
In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."
Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.
Good article.
Inner Banks Humor
- Obama Wins Heisman!
The Nobel is not the only award the president does not deserve. Mark Katz imagines the prizes yet to come.
by Mark Katz - October 11th, 2009 - The Daily Beast
As Barack Obama is busy drafting his acceptance speech he’ll take to Norway for the Nobel Peace Prize, former Clinton speechwriter Mark Katz is getting a head start on his remarks for other awards that even the president will admit he may or may not deserve.
Statement of President Barack Obama on Winning the Oscar for Best Actor
You love me!! You really love me!!
[PAUSE FOR LOUD, KNOWING LAUGHTER FOLLOWED BY THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE]
This is just the first of around a dozen truly funny jokes provided by Katz in this article. The mockery of Barack Obama is just beginning. You have to read them all!
A Conservative Viewpoint
- Those Pesky Numbers
Article by Bob Steinburg - Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony
Throughout last year’s campaign, President Barack Obama lobbied for health care reform. He hopes for the eventual passage of a bill that will enable millions of uninsured Americans to obtain affordable coverage.
On June 22, in a prime time news conference, Obama said 46 million Americans were without health insurance. Later, on September 9, while addressing a joint session of Congress and without explanation, he shifted the numbers downward to 30 million. Obama’s case for health care reform might be no less compelling, but what happened to the 16 million folks who inexplicably vanished? Either health insurance salesmen were very busy writing policies for seven weeks, or the president decided his credibility on the numbers warranted fine tuning.
The number of illegal aliens residing in our country is estimated to be somewhere between 12 and 20 million. Perhaps Obama split the difference and then deducted 16 million from the 46 million uninsured he and the Democrats have been trumpeting to us for more than a year. Democrats have said they have never factored illegal aliens into the mix. Obama’s sudden numbers’ revision might suggest otherwise.
Last week the U. S. Labor Department reported that through September the unemployment rate continues to climb. It is currently at 9.8 percent, a 26 year high. But that figure doesn’t tell the whole story. Unemployed adult men are at 10.3 percent, while teenage jobless numbers reflect 26 percent. Whites account for 9 percent of the unemployed, blacks 15.4 percent, and Hispanics, 12.7. In the last 21 months, unemployment has risen from 7.6 million to 15.1 million.
Unfortunately, politicians are frequently reluctant to give us all the numbers. They prefer to use only those that might help them make their case. In doing so they can create a false sense of urgency to move the public to support or oppose a specific initiative. We’re seeing some of that in the current healthcare debate and in discussions about unemployment. The discussions leading up to passage of last February’s stimulus is another example.
The late American writer Darrell Huff in 1954 authored, “How to Lie with Statistics.” It became the best selling statistics book in the second half of the 20th century. It outlines common errors, intentional and unintentional, associated with the interpretation of numbers and how they can lead to inaccurate conclusions.
Last week Obama seemingly caught a break in the health care debate when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the $829 billion Senate panel’s health care overhaul proposal would shrink the number of uninsured, while not adding one dime to the federal budget deficit. In fact, the CBO predicted the deficit would be reduced by $81 billion over the first decade. Good news so far, but how will Congress pay for it?
Part of it will be paid for by reducing spending on Medicare (a program projected to be broke in seven years) and other federal insurance programs to the tune of $400 to $500 billion. This will certainly raise the eyebrows of seniors and baby boomers, many of whom are already skeptics over what Obamacare will mean for them.
Additionally, a 40 percent excise tax will be levied on certain high-cost individual insurance policies. This is expected to generate another $20 billion. The rest of the money will come from annual fees on insurers, pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of medical devices. Those costs will most certainly be passed on to health care consumers.
The president tells us health care reform must be passed before the end of this year. It’s an “emergency!” Why then won’t it take full effect until after the next presidential election? While the benefits would not kick in for two and one-half years, the tax hikes and cuts to Medicare and Medicaid would begin immediately.
Remember the urgency of the president’s $787 billion stimulus approved in February? Vice President Joe Biden says it’s working “so well” that Democrats are considering some sort of second stimulus. A Rasmussen poll last week found 62 percent of Americans opposed to any further stimulus spending.
The CBO predicted last February that the recession would end on its own without any stimulus by the end of this year. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told a conference at the Brookings Institute that, “…the recession is very likely over at this point….but it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time.” I’ll say!
Has the stimulus helped so far? A recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57 percent saying the stimulus is costing too much while doing too little. If you’re among the unemployed you will undoubtedly agree.
Why haven’t more jobs been created? Obama acknowledges 70 percent of job creation is generated through small business. Yet less than one percent of the stimulus money was spent on this business sector. In addition, Democrats are tinkering with adding a carbon tax that will increase energy costs for all business segments while further exacerbating the energy sector. To create jobs small business needs more tax breaks, not further government restrictions, taxes and mandates.
The one thing all of us need to remember is that there are always going to be numbers behind the numbers. When government is proposing something that sounds too good to be true, history tells us it usually is. With our national debt continuing to soar into the stratosphere, this is no time for any American to be asleep at the switch.
Inner Banks Humor
Barack Hussein Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. If you think I am kidding, click on the title above to link to the Associated Press article. 2 years as Senator and 9 months as President, with not a single accomplishment other than giving great speeches spouting socialist dogma, and they give him the Nobel Peace Prize. The joke is they are serious!
The potential for mockery has concerned some of his supporters so much that the liberal web site Slate has suggested "Turn it down".
Too late to stop the mockery guys! Too late!
Even the Washington Post's Richard Cohen could not help but get in on the fun, touting the Nobel Prize for Literature being award to Sarah Palin for her promise to someday read a book! This was not even the funniest joke Cohen came up with. Read here for the entire article.
Obama is the biggest joke since they awarded the Peace Prize to Mikhail Gorbachev for losing the cold war... as a way to insult Ronald Reagan for winning the cold war. Norway is the most America hating nation on earth. Think this is an exaggeration? Here are a few of the other socialists besides Obama who have won in recent years:
Al Gore
Muhammad Yunus
Yasser Arafat Wangari Maathai Jimmy Carter Martti Ahtisaari
Mohamed ElBaradei
Kofi Annan
Nelson Mandela
Impressive list, no?
Best blog comment I read was from marianspeaks on Lucianne.com. "You mean the Al Gore Prize for Unending Mendacity with Jimmy Carter Cluster"?
Getting serious for a moment, I do not see how this cannot renew the accusation that Obama's campaign was funded by the global socialist movement and he owes no allegiance to America. His only allegiance is to the socialist movement that is dedicated to destroying America. He is NOT an American.
New High School
Remains Priority
by Thadd White - October 8, 2009 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald
School Board Chairwoman Emma H. Johnson said she believed the community was willing to help build a new school.
“I have always been taught that good schools are in communities where people are willing to pay for them,” Johnson said. “We have been asking for a new Bertie High School for many years and always been rejected. When the economy was good, we were rejected. Now that the economy is not so good, we were rejected. When will the time be right? I believe that the citizens will support it.”
What a joke. We wasted a fortune on the Taj Mahal Middle School and our children are still failing. Schools do not teach kids. Building a new high school is not about teaching our kids. It is about personal glory hunting by adults and so-called educators and their constantly money grubbing unions. This article is filled with quotes from people who do not live in our county and who will make big money if a school is built, claiming that we have to build a school or our kids are being cheated.
The cheaters are people who make claims like: "Ott also said a $25 million building project could create 300 new jobs in Bertie County and an economic stimulus of $35-50 million." There will not be 300 construction jobs, they will be temporary, and since the current school is already operating here, the net economic stimulus will be negligible. In fact, you would have to be an idiot to buy the argument that spending $25 million one time with a construction firm out of our area, with most of the money going to vendors out of our county, could have a beneficial impact of twice the total spent. If you believe that, you probably support this incompetent waste of tax payer money.
The next thing you can expect to happen is for our new Bertie high school to be supported by homosexual activist Kevin Jennings, the Obama regime's Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe Schools, Department of Education. Maybe we could even name it for him if we add homosexuality to the tolerance and diversity classes that have replaced reading, writing and arithmetic in our modern curriculum.
Take A Day For Your Health
Tallest Building In The World
Do you know who holds the highest position in the world?
Babu Sassi, a fearless young man from southern India, is the cult hero of Dubai 's army of construction workers. Known as the "Indian on the top of the world", Babu is the crane operator at the world's tallest building, the 819-meter Burj Dubai (819 meters is 2,687 feet - more than twice the 1,250 feet height of the Empire State Buidling). Babu's office, the cramped crane cab perched on top of the Burj, is also his home. It takes too long to come down to the ground each day to make it worthwhile...
Inner Banks Philosophy
"Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama's many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America-- Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, etc.-- at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?"
-- Thomas Sowell
A Conservative Viewpoint
- Holding State Legislators Accountable
Article by Bob Steinburg - Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony
While many Americans are somewhat informed about what’s happening on the national political stage with issues related to healthcare, ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Iran and Afghanistan, most are clueless when it comes to state politics. Folks in North Carolina are no exception. Just try to engage someone on state issues, especially in rural areas, to see if I’m right. You’ll generally either get either a blank stare or the comment, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
While some urbanites may be more attuned to what’s happening in Raleigh, most who live outside those areas are not. Consequently, these individuals frequently find themselves reacting to legislative decisions rather than being proactive in the process.
Regardless where one lives there certainly are opportunities to be better informed. The Internet makes information more readily accessible, although its not available everywhere and some of the information posted is not always reliable.
Those without access to the Internet must depend on local newspapers, radio stations and television for their news. Many papers are struggling to survive. Not only are they cutting staff, but also the news they provide. The smaller papers serving primarily rural markets, many weeklies, center the news almost entirely on local and regional issues.
Some areas don’t have local radio and if they do, it is unlikely to provide much state news. If listeners are able to pick up a signal from a larger station elsewhere the legislative news is often minimal.
Television stations have 30 minute blocks for local and state news. They focus primarily on the bigger and/or more controversial stories. In some rural areas, the television signals received are from stations located in adjoining states. In northeastern N. C. for example, most programming originates from Virginia. As a result, legislative news focuses more on Richmond than on Raleigh.
Voters not having information about bills being considered by the state legislature are unable to hold elected representatives accountable until after the fact. Thus representatives often get away with highway robbery and we don’t know it until our pockets have been picked. Examples abound in the recently approved tax raising, wasteful spending, education cutting state budget.
Democrats control both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion. They’ve held the reins of power for most of the past 125 years. They write the budgets and they pass the budgets. Yet every two years voters trot out to the polls and return the same party to power, with nary a thought given to what one party rule is doing to them and to our state.
Now that our legislators are home in their districts, how many of us have contacted them about their vote on this year’s budget? I know these “conservative” Democrats will tell you it was a tough year and that “We did all we could to look out for your interests.” But did they really?
Democrats tell us that preserving the education system is their top priority. Yet in this years budget they cut spending for education by $225 million.
They told us they were going to hold the line on corporate income taxes too, but they raised $100 million in new taxes on our state’s small businesses.
We were told if taxes had to be raised it would only happen to the rich. Well, I don’t know how you define “rich,” but Democrats raised taxes on everyone earning over $60,000. For those earning less than that amount, don’t feel shunned. You’re also paying increased taxes every time you visit the grocery store.
Speaking of groceries, how about pork? Democrats included plenty of that in this year’s budget including $26 million for Jennette’s Pier on the Outer Banks and $14 million for the athletic booster clubs at UNC and N. C. State.
Whenever Democrats raise taxes or create new ones, they tell voters the taxes won’t be permanent. They promise they’ll sunset (rescind) them at some point. Well eight years later the “temporary” sales tax increase of 2001 is still with us.
To be fair, state Democrats did keep one promise. They told us there wouldn’t be any new taxes this year. The only problem with that pledge is they raised our old taxes by $2.3 billion, a burden that will be shouldered almost exclusively by working families.
Waste and fraud are still very much with us too. Medicare continues to experience plenty of both-to the tune of $630 million over the last three years alone.
To insure state government lives within its means, we must insist they not spend what they don’t have. To check on your representative’s legislative spending habits contact either the clerk of the House or the clerk of the Senate to see how they’ve been voting.
Voters should insist that our legislature require a two-thirds vote for any bill that raises taxes, imposes a new tax or revives an expired tax. They should also be resolute in efforts to require the legislature to seek voter approval for borrowing money.
The entire budget meeting process needs to be open to public view with committee votes available on line the day they occur. Full input should be allowed from legislators in both houses and from both parties.
Voters need to elect representatives who will work to prohibit our legislature from imposing any unfunded mandates on local governments, schools or small businesses.
While we can’t control the content of the news we receive, adopting reforms will help insure our legislators become more accountable. Regardless of party affiliation, any legislator or candidate unwilling to embrace these and other fiscal reforms should be defeated at the polls next November. Only then can we have real transparency in state government.
CNN Fact Checks Saturday Night Live
ROTFL
I am sorry, I will try to get this posting done, but it is hard to type when you are laughing as hard as I am.
In an historical first, CNN could not let someone make fun of Barack Obama. I am serious. Never in the history of either SNL or CNN have jokes about our politicians triggered a vigorous defense of the President by a real news agency. Or at least one that pretends to be a real news agency. The CNN press corp is so much in the tank for Obama though, they actually responded to the jokes with criticisms about whether they were fair. In a total shock, they decided they weren't fair. What a surprise!
Click here to read the entire CNN defense of Obama.
All I could think of was, "Awww. The poor liddle Pwesident. Did CNN worry that he got his feelings hurt? The poor liddle Pwesident. Awww."
Blue Springs, Missouri
A local metal fabricator, William Cody, decided to express his lack of support for Barack Obama.
When questioned as to whether he thought the billboard was offensive, he said that he was plannig to change it, but refused to reveal what the new one would say.
Going Rogue
This is the cover for the new book by Sarah Palin. In an amazing first in the history of publishing, merely the announcement of the publication date caused pre-order sales to drive it to Number One on the Amazon Best Seller List.
It has also launched a new round of slanders and lies about Sarah Palin from her enemies among the liberals and socialists in the Democrat Party. If she is as flawed as they claim, why do they fear her so?
I love the title. The imagery of a rogue 'barracuda' (her nickname) seems so appropriate for the way she has scattered her detractors. Or how about a rogue elephant?
Obama Promotes Pedophilia
... or his regime is simply incompetent at vetting its nominees. That is what Powerline calls:
Two Possibilities Here
by John Hinderaker - October 1st, 2009 - Powerline
Why, exactly, would a President put someone who has advocated homosexual relationships between middle-aged men and high school or junior high school aged boys in charge of "safety" in American public schools? Who would do that? It's not as though Kevin Jennings' advocacy of such exploitation is a secret; on the contrary, this is his career, his claim to fame, his qualification for federal employment. One can only ask: is the Obama administration completely insane?
With that final question I have to suggest, maybe there are more than two possibilities here. I opt for the last one.
