White House Can't Find "Lybia"

Clarice Feldman made the best joke of the week when she noted that the botched attempt by Obama's administration to get Americans out of Qaddafi's reach could well have been because there is no such country as the one posted on their web site. The country is spelled Libya, not Lybia, as they had it. Clarice's comment, "Maybe they couldn't get planes or boats there because they couldn't find Lybia on any Atlas."

ROTFL

She could be right.

Obama's Problematic Mideast Messages

Caroline Glick zeroed in on the preposterous U.S stance on Israel in the UN this week. We vetoed a UN resolution criminalizing Israeli policy which allows Jews to build on their own property and then permitted US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and Secretary of State Clinton to condemn their own veto.

WTF? Is that what Obama meant by winning the future?

Climate Change Con Artists Still At Work

Paraphrased from article by Christopher Booker - February 26th, 2011 - London Telegraph

A new study published by Nature on February 17th has been presented to 'prove' that climate change will increase flooding around the world. It was produced by a group paid for by the re-insurance industry that stands to gain billions from increased premiums. As usual it is both produced and embraced by two of the foremost proponents of "global warming", Professor Peter Stott of the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre and Dr Myles Allen, head of Oxford’s Climate Dynamics Group. They are always a part of any of the scam results promoted by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

When checked out though, this report is totally bogus. As noted by one person who evaluated the claims, Willis Eschenbach, a very experienced computer modeller: “When your results represent the output of four computer models, fed into a fifth computer model, whose output goes to a sixth computer model, which is calibrated against a seventh computer model, and then your results are compared to a series of different results from the fifth computer model, but run with different parameters, in order to show that flood risks have increased from greenhouse gases... ” you cannot pretend that this is “a valid representation of reality”, let alone “a sufficiently accurate representation of reality to guide our future actions”.

This represents “trying to pass off the end-result of a long daisy-chain of specifically selected, untested, unverified, un-investigated computer models as valid... peer-reviewed science”.

Once again the "global warming" spin machine has embraced the report and started touting the need to have government increase taxes and fees without any attempt to honestly evaluate the report.

Inner Banks - Quote Of The Day

"The President has done nothing about the crisis in Libya except give a press conference in which he called the situation 'unacceptable,' then proceeded to accept it. He’s holding consultations about having meetings to design a committee that could help the world 'speak with one voice to the government and the people of Libya'... "

-- John Hayward


My comment - Meanwhile people are dying by the thousands. Keep on planning to do something Obama. Let us know when you have a plan. Of course I am sure the plan to 'speak with one voice' will involve you giving another speech off your teleprompter.

Inner Banks Humor

A senior citizen in Bertie County was overheard saying ... "When the end of the world comes, I hope to be right here in Bertie County."

When asked why, he replied, "I'd want to be in Bertie County because everything happens here 20 years later than in the rest of the civilized world."

An Actual Craig's List Personals Ad

To the Guy Who Tried to Mug Me
in Downtown Savannah night before last.
Date: 2009-05-27, 1:43 a.m. E.S.T.

I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend's purse and earrings. I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message.

First, I'd like to apologize for your embarrassment; I didn't expect you to actually mess in your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday, and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening. Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head ... Isn't it?!

I know it probably wasn't fun walking back to wherever you'd come from with that brown sludge in your pants. I'm sure it was even worse walking bare-footed since I made you leave your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. [That prevented you from calling or running to your buddies to come help mug us again]. After I called your mother or "Momma" as you had her listed in your cell, I explained the entire episode of what you'd done. Then I went and filled up my gas tank as well as those of four other people in the gas station, -- on your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 150 gallons and was extremely grateful! I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go's, along with all the cash in your wallet. [That made his day!] I then threw your wallet into the big pink "pimp mobile" that was parked at the curb ... After I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the entire driver's side of the car.

Later, I called a bunch of phone sex numbers from your cell phone. Ma Bell just now shut down the line, although I only used the phone for a little over a day now, so what 's going on with that? Earlier, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA's office and one to the FBI, while mentioning President Obama as my possible target. The FBI guy seemed really intense and we had a nice long chat (I guess while he traced your number etc.).

In a way, perhaps I should apologize for not killing you ... But I feel this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your threatened crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these rather immediate pressing issues, and can only hope that you have the opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps reconsider, the career path you've chosen to pursue in life. Remember, next time you might not be so lucky. Have a good day!

Thoughtfully yours,
Alex

P.S. Remember this motto ... An armed society makes for a more civil society!


I love this! I really don't know if it is a real Craig's List Personal Ad. I got it as an anonymous email. But I hope it was. I had to post it. I just had to. [Grin]

Update 2/23/11 - Since I posted this I was informed that the details of the actual Craig's List posting were found to not exactly match the details of the crime that the victim who posted it experienced, as if that somehow or another invalidated the anger at criminals expressed. My thought? It is still funny and the essence, that criminals are scum who should be persecuted by armed citizens, is absolutely just. I'll let it stand.

Inner Banks Perspective

Inflation is rapidly increasing, perhaps to hyperinflation levels.

National bankruptcy is imminent and both parties are fiddling around arguing over a 2% cut while we borrow 25% of everything we spend.

National Debt will increase as much this YEAR as it increased in a four year TERM of George W. Bush -- who we used to think of as a profligate spender until Obama taught us the real meaning of the term.

Interest costs on the national debt will triple this year.

The Middle East is exploding, Islamist extremism on the rise, and Republican leadership is claiming to be happy with Obama indecision.

The war on drugs has created massively profitable cartels who are using the profits we have sent them to invade our borders and kill our citizens.

Our courts are collapsing with corruption as extortion, blackmail, and revolving door sentences make a mockery of justice.

Unemployment among our young is approaching 40%.

We have adopted a treaty which our treaty partner insists blocks our right to defend our nation from nuclear missiles.

Our President is appointing massive numbers of public officials, referred to as czars, without the Constitutionally required approval of the Senate.

I could go on and on -- but just this short list has become so depressing that I simply cannot continue. I'm going to take a nap. Call me if anything positive happens.

Inner Banks Economics - Inflation Is Coming

"Imagine that during the time it took to drink a cup of coffee, the price of that cup of coffee doubled."

-- Annonymous


Ben Bernanke is proving to be one more of the legion of historical figures who thought that by his brilliance he had conquered the tricky process of fueling a recovery through flooding the nation with currency without triggering inflation. Looks more and more like he is just as deluded as such egotists have always been.

Inner Banks Humor

The federal budget has been increased by more than a trillion dollars in the last two years and is now up to three point eight trillion dollars. However our legislators cannot figure out how to cut even a hundred billion from that recently bloated budget. Instead they are screaming like stuck pigs that their favored constituencies cannot survive if one hundred billion is cut.

That is by the way, two percent of the budget. TWO PERCENT! One hundred billion is only ten percent of what they have recently increased our expenditures by! Has any thought been given to reversing the last two years of vast increases and then cutting another 2%?

Progressives see no problem with raising taxes by fifteen percent. A FIFTEEN PERCENT tax increase on just those who currently pay all of our taxes! Never a dime on that 50% who do not currently pay ANY taxes. Of course that should be easy because it is YOU the taxpayers, not THEM the tax receivers, that have to make the cuts in your expenditures, not theirs.

Does that make sense to you?

"Hoggardnomics" - Brings Out The Patriots In Bertie County

by John Davis
Merry Hill, NC

My memory works differently than a lot of politicians and likely so does yours. Don’t forget this during election 2012...

In November 2010 -- At the November 15th Bertie County Commissioners meeting the Roanoke Chowan Herald reported on a request by the Bertie Board of Education, for a salary increase for BOE members. The Herald reported:

At Monday’s Bertie County Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Rick Harrell noted, “I did some math and came up with $15,000 that this (the increase) could cost in a year (five board members times $250 a month for 12 months).”

The Herald went on to report that the chairman of the commissioners followed:

Vice-Chairman L.C. Hoggard, reading from a pre-prepared statement, said, “I can appreciate the members of the school board or any person feeling that there should be additional compensation for what they are doing. I know that as a Board you have been working hard for the students and parents of Bertie County. In times of prosperity there would probably not be a second thought about granting you your request. However, notice what I said, “in times of prosperity.” We are facing a harsh economic reality in this country, state and in our county. People are struggling. People are losing their jobs. My fear is that for us to grant a raise for anyone at this point would be a slap in the face of what is decent for today’s situation.”

He continued, “The school board, like us commissioners, have been elected and called to serve the best interest of our citizens. Sure there are token measures of appreciation to board members, but we serve because we want to protect the best interest of our public and its citizens. Based upon principal (sp), I cannot agree to a raise for any public servant at this point. This may be something that we can look at once the tide of economic downfall starts to change, but at this point we need to stay put and send the message that our students and citizens come first. I would have to vote no, at this time.”

Commissioner Wallace Perry added, “Well stated, and I totally agree with you.”

Harrell stated, “I totally agree with you too.”

In February 2011 -- In the February 9th edition of the Bertie Ledger, Bertie Commissioner Chairman, L.C. Hoggard, defended the decision of the commissioners in granting Lamb's raise in September 2009 with the statement --

"The salary was extended two years ago and we could not predict the economy". He then went on to say, "But we have good fund balances now and we have frozen pay raises and hiring in the county for now".

Mr. Hoggard appears to be defending the commissioner’s decision to give Mr. Lamb a raise in September of 2009, by saying that the commissioners could not have predicted in September 2009 the tougher economic times we would face in November 2010. We have entered the age of “Hoggardnomics” where the laws of supply and demand are bent to the whims of whatever political explanation is needed at the time. Economists debate on the beginning and end of the great recession, but center around it starting in late 2007 or early 2008 and ending sometime in late 2009 to early 2010. What is not debatable is that the largest one day drop in the Dow Jones stock index occurred in September 2009. Now maybe Mr. Hoggard and his merry band of economists/commissioners could not predict November 2010, but they approved Mr. Lamb’s 42% raise in the same month as the largest single day drop in the Dow Jones Stock Index (778 points). It is really a shame that Mr. Harrell’s economic calculator, which worked so well in November of 2010, was on the blink in September of 2009. Did it really take 15 months of economic hell for our commissioners to find their “common economic sense” or was November’s prepared statement simply political grandstanding at its finest.

Mr. Hoggard says the commissioners have frozen pay raises and hiring for now, but when did they do that? The 778 point DOW drop in September 2009 was after Congress did not pass the $700 billion bailout bill. Every political leader with a brain and some resemblance of public accountability knew the time for austerity started in September of 2009. Every leader everywhere that is, except the Bertie County Commissioners. September 2009 was NOT “a time of prosperity.” Using Chairman Hoggard’s emphasis, please notice what I said, NOT “a time of prosperity”. Thanks for the slap in the face Chairman Hoggard.

As Commissioners Wallace Perry and Rick Harrell, agreed with Chairman Hoggard’s statements in November 2010 and voted with him in September 2009, everything said here applies to them as well.

The word on the street is that Mr. Hoggard and Mr. Perry have met with Alton Parker to discuss paying a new Superintendant $160,000 per year. Reportedly both commissioners have said the county will support this with funding. If this occurs it is only the commissioners creating political cover for their mishandling of Mr. Lambs increase.

In the end these are symptoms of poor and arrogant leadership that we as citizens have allowed to occur. Sometime we take for granted what occurred 235 years ago when government (the English Crown) did not listen or respect the wishes of the people it served. In the last week, I have seen the citizens of Bertie County awakening from our great slumber.

We are in for tougher days as the upcoming tax revaluation must mean lower revenues for the county unless our tax rate per hundred increases or soil types change how farm land is rated for use tax. We all need to leave our “firesides” for a while. It is time to refresh the tree of liberty a little bit.

This is NOT a time for sunshine patriots. There is hard work to be done. I hope to see you at the next commissioners meeting set for Monday February 28th at 7 PM.

An Attitude of Arrogance Breeds A Culture Of Corruption

by Dean Stephens
Colerain, NC

A County Manager is a public employee who is often the subject of controversy. Bertie County Manager Zee Lamb is no different. However, it is usually positions on public issues rather than a manager’s salary that causes the conflict. That has changed. This time Lamb and the commissioners are on the hot seat for a pay raise that has people on all sides of the political spectrum upset. Public records indicate that he will be paid $144,000 in the coming year, or a 42% raise over his salary last year.

A 42 percent pay increase in one year? It is claimed this was done based on a renegotiation of his contract. That answer does not satisfy me. Does it satisfy you? It is not Mr. Lamb who I am upset with. It is our County Commissioners. The following is why.

In a time of national economic crisis, with the federal budget running nearly 1.5 trillion dollars in the red, with national unemployment more than 9% (actually more than 15% if you count people who have exhausted benefits or young people whose unemployment is nearly one out of every two because they cannot find starting jobs) our nation is close to the hardship levels of the depression era. At this time, how can our County Commissioners think that any public employee deserves a 42% raise? The Bertie Commissioners claim they gave him the raise in 2009, so they could not plan for today’s tough economic times. Have they been asleep at the wheel? The economy was even worse in 2009 than today. Plus they have denied all other county employees any raise at all. Do they really not understand how inappropriate this huge raise is?

The attitude is reminiscent of a comment by a union official when excessive federal pay and retirement benefits became an issue. National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said the comparison was faulty because it "compares apples and oranges." She insisted federal accountants, for example, perform work that has more complexity and requires more skill than accounting work in the private sector. What? Does anyone really think that public accounting is more complex than tax accounting requirements in the private sector? As a former CFO who had to hire tax accountants -- I will challenge that assumption as unmitigated arrogance. And that is the problem.

Arrogance is a typical characteristic of government today. Recently that led to an example in Bell, California, where every Commissioner except one participated in a scheme to pad their $6,400 salary through hidden committees with hidden compensation. Except for that one commissioner who only got the standard salary, all others were receiving pay that increased their compensation up to more than $100,000 a year. This attitude, left unchecked, resulted in the Bell City Manager manipulating the system to receive more than $1.5 million in pay and providing for an early retirement of $800,000 a year, for life. FYI, Bell California is only slightly larger than Bertie County.

We have seen this same pattern of arrogance leading to corruption in Bertie before. A former School Superintendent, John Smith, started to spend our money as if it was his own. When the auditors caught him, he expressed regret and offered to reimburse the county for personal gifts he had given to friends and relatives and charged to the county. A supporter insisted that the offer to repay meant he had done nothing wrong. County Attorney Lloyd Smith was asked to comment on this offer and he provided an analogy that I still remember. "If you rob a bank, but offer to return the money when you are caught, does that mean you did nothing wrong?"

Today, public employees are paid more than employees in private business. They get significantly better benefits. They get outrageously better retirements at earlier ages. That did not use to be true. Since it is much harder to fire poor public employees, it used to be true that pay, benefits and retirement was less than private employees. This was in exchange for the greater job security, easier working conditions and certainty that retirement was not going to be taken away because of a company going bankrupt. All those are still true. So why has public pay gone up?

I contend it is related to the arrogance of public officials forgetting that they are doing the people's business. This arrogance always leads to corruption over time. There is no indication we have returned to the corruption of the earlier Bertie official, yet I cannot fathom how our County Commissioners thought a 42% raise was not an intolerable violation of their public trust. If not reversed, I predict corruption is where it will lead.

I don't see that Mr. Lamb did anything wrong. In any negotiation, everyone has the right to ask for whatever they can get. It is our Bertie County Commissioners who have made the mistake. This raise they appropriated for Mr. Lamb is outrageous. With their attitude, what other mistakes are they going to make with our money? How long will it be before they think like the Commissioners in Bell California?

Lamb’s Salary Questioned

by Thadd White - February 10th, 2011 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

More than 50 people gathered here Monday night to express concerns about a salary increase given to the Bertie County Manager... According to information from the North Carolina Institute of Government, the salary of Bertie County Manager Zee Lamb was increased from $101,725 in 2010 to $144,000 in 2011. That $42,275 increase was the subject of discussion amongst those who spoke at the public comment section... Lamb’s salary is higher than any of the four county managers in the region. Hertford County Manager Loria D. Williams is paid $94,961 while Northampton County Manager Wayne Jenkins is slightly behind at $92,795. Gates County Manager Toby Chappell makes $80,508 annually.

I am appalled at the increase, yet I am also concerned that the increase be blamed on Zee Lamb. It is intellectually dishonest to deny a person their right to get the best deal for themselves they can get. The problem is not Zee. The problem is the County Commissioners -- who do not seem to understand the idea that they are responsible to protect the people's interests. They failed. There is simply no way that granting anyone a 42% raise in these tough economic times is in the public interest or morally defensible. What in the world were these Commissioners thinking? They still do not "get it." Why do they think it is moral to stonewall the public and refuse to answer the questions being asked? Because that is what they are doing. This is just as arrogant as their first mistake.

Inner Banks - Politics

Looking out the window of my house on the Chowan River, the yard is covered with snow for the fourth time this year. This is despite the fact that we have avoided 3 other major snow storms by only a few miles, as the weather went just far enough north that little snow fell here in Colerain even though it brought Washington DC to a halt all 3 times. This is more cold weather and snow in our region than anyone alive can ever remember. With the 4 that hit us and the 3 that barely missed, today could easily have been the 7th major snow storm in an area that has rarely seen two storms in one year.

Serious scientists are reporting the evidence building up to suggest we are entering, at the least, another little ice age if not a major ice age. At the same time, global warming fanatics are raging that these scientists should not be allowed to report these findings because they do not want it to be true.

What is happening in Washington? Hearings are being held to stop the Obama EPA from unilaterally enforcing a huge increase in energy costs to stop a hypothetical global warming they still insist is the most serious risk we face. Despite the lack of scientific proof, even contradictory evidence, Obama has claimed to accept the premise that America must charge forward with a war against global warming as if the case is settled.

The global socialist movement decided more than 20 years ago to promote global warming as a political solution to increase governmental power and central planning. This agenda has been reported and well proved. The czars of the Obama administration, all from the global socialist movement, have publicly dedicated themselves to this political agenda. How can we trust anything they say about global warming when this corrupt agenda of the left is so well known?

Global warming is not science, it is politics.

1860 Political Winds Against Slavery

One of the most contemptible lies still spread by progressives within the Democrat Party is the lie that America supported slavery when it was really only Democrats who defended that evil. The following map shows the truth about our abolitionist dominated nation which was rapidly eliminating slavery from our country in the middle of the 19th century even before the civil war. In 1860 there were 33 states.

Eleven states (shown in red below) were slave states, where the political power within those states still defended slavery even despite a significant minority within those states who opposed the continued tolerance of this evil.

The reality is that most of our founders had opposed slavery since before Independence and only tolerated it for some Southern States to assure their support to gain victory against the British, the greatest power in the world at that time. Forgive the editorial comment. Back to 1860 and our map.

Five states (shown in light blue) were so-called slave states where the majority of the people opposed slavery but where it had not yet been ended as a legal institution. However it was clear that was going to happen shortly.





Seventeen states (shown in dark blue) were free states, where laws tolerating transit by slaves were either already ended or in the process of being ended. They were overwhelmingly dominated by abolitionist sentiment and the majority of the citizens were committed to ending slavery in toto throughout America. In those states a slave could no longer even be brought into the state without immediately gaining their freedom. They were the same states that had ended the importation of slaves to America early in the century.

The practice of slavery was about to end even in that portion of America where it existed. The trend was undeniable.

Faced with this reality -- the Southern States seceded as a desperate act to defend the abomination that slavery represented. Recognizing this reality, why is it that America is still considered by progressives and blacks to rightfully be punished for this evil? The opposition to slavery in America was so strong that the pro-slavery minority left our nation and were only allowed back in when the evil had been abolished?

By what bigotry is this evil blamed, not on the people who lost the civil war defending it, but blamed on the people who defeated the evil at the cost of massive bloodshed?

In a related irony, many blacks of today try to claim they "built America." Yet the truth is that the wealthy region of our nation in 1860 was the 17 states that had banned slavery, where few blacks existed, and where the workers who can be credited with building our nation were overwhelmingly white.

Even in the South, where the black minority were overwhelmingly slaves, they only constituted 13% of our population. Such a small minority can hardly claim to have "built" the South. Most of the more skilled jobs in the South were dominated by free white workers even during the period when slavery existed. Yet the damage to the economy caused by the lack of productivity of the slave institution was the primary reason the South was poor. In the generation following the demise of slavery, the wealth of the South increased significantly because it freed itself of the unproductive institution slavery had represented.

Yet today, America is blamed for this institution even by blacks who voluntarily immigrated to our nation after it ended. That hypocrisy is intolerable and contemptible. It is time the hypocrisy stopped.

Inner Banks Humor - Politics

Progressives in the Democrat Party are adamant that Republicans must adopt a more civil tone in politics. To show us what they mean, they held a protest calling for somebody to “string up” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, or “send him back into the fields” or “cut off all his toes and feed them to him one-by-one.” To be sure we did not miss the lesson they made a video and posted it on the Internet.

This certainly helps Republicans understand what Democrats mean when they say "civil." We got it.

Ronald Reagan Happy Birthday Mr. President-- We Miss You

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004

President Reagan would be 100 years old today... or as Reagan himself so often insisted as this annual event came around, it is the 61st anniversary of his 39th birthday.





I don't know how long they will remain up, but lucianne.com posted some great videos of Ronald Reagan, including the fabulous "A time for choosing."
lucianne.com/article/pageid=Reagan_Bday
You should check them out.

Inner Banks Humor

A poster on lucianne came up with the best line of the day. I forgot to write his site name down or I would give him credit.

"Our weatherman says another cold front is moving in this weekend. We are expected to get six more inches of global warming."

Inner Banks Humor - Bloomberg Cusses Woodchuck

Chuck [the Woodchuck] lives at Staten Island Zoo and is the city's official woodchuck for the Groundhog Day ceremony in which the Mayor of New York traditionally participates. However Mayor bloomberg became the first Mayor to be bitten by the rodent a couple of years back.

This year his new home featured a plunger-style device which pushed the furry fiend out into the cold.

"I love the plunger. That was so much better than having to reach in and let the little sonofabitch bite you," Bloomberg said.

What the Mayor did not realize was that he was on video when he made the comment.

Oops.

Inner Banks Philosophy

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Inner Banks Politics

"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others."

-- James Madison, Federalist No. 48


Bipartisanship is the process by which the planned balance of powers of our founders is subverted by corrupt politicians to increase the power of government over its citizens.

-- Dean Stephens

Inner Banks Humor - Obama

When he introduced the new Obama catch phrase, "Winning the future", I wondered if the White House realized it is the title of a best seller by one of their main adversaries, Newt Gingrich. He has used it so much it is nearly synonymous with Newt.

The next day, Sarah Palin pointed out the mnemonic for their new phrase is also a well known texting message. WTF stands for "what the f**k?" and is a crude expression meaning "do you know what you are talking about?"

Somehow both of these situations point out just how poorly the current White House works. They are constantly surprised and embarrassed by their lack of awareness of what is happening in the world. When you hear Obama say "winning the future" means growing the size and power of government and spending more money you can't help but feel the only proper response is WTF?