Immigration Issue Sets President Obama Up For Failure!

        OK.  So now the Republicans are kicking into high gear about the immigration crisis at the Mexican/U.S. border.  Once again, they are setting their president up for failure.  They have cranked up their machine and they have caused a whirlwind of press, sound bites and debate about the current immigration issue at our border. They have repeatedly called for  their president to act, and have gone as far as criticizing President Obama for not going to the border to see the crisis for himself.  In an obvious, political maneuver they turned his decision to stay away from the border into "his Katrina moment."  Mark my words; watch during the coming days, Fox news will continue to report about President Obama's absence from the border.  It will be subtle one-liners and small shots, but they will keep his decision to avoid the border in front of us for as long as they can.  This is what they do and its not just the Republicans.  Both sides take great satisfaction in first; calling for action, then criticizing whatever action is announced, and then when the opposition try's to put those plans into motion, they will do whatever they can to disrupt and obstruct , said plans.
        They get a lot of mileage out of this obstructionism.  Think about the constant and relentless debate, interviews, headlines and of course the best grandstand of all.  The Senate Hearings.  Keep watching; there will be some form of a hearing or committee meeting to discuss how this immigration issue is being handled.  Does it surprise us that during a time like this, how many of our senators, and their staffs become Monday morning experts about immigration law?  These our men and women who will tell us that they don't even read bills and legislation they vote on, but now they all know everything there is to know about immigration.  Some of these "experts" didn't even know where Mexico was two weeks ago, and now they stand with the talking heads every day and try to break it down for the common man.  It's amazing. While they are telling us how much they know, they are also telling us, how much their President doesn't know.  I don't know about you, but I am pretty much fed up with all of them.  Frankly; I would prefer that they talk to each other, and stay off the airwaves.  It doesn't help, that this is the worst congress we've had in the last 100 years. 
     According to Fox News, President Obama has asked for 3.7 billion dollars to fix the immigration and border crisis.  The Fox report indicated that Texas Republican Representative and Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mike McCaul stated; "Our view as House Republicans is that we're not going to write a blank check."  Really?  OK, Mr. Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, what is your plan?  Surely the Republicans have a plan.  After all, they have been making noise about immigration reform for a decade.  Mr. McCaul what should we do, and how much will it cost?  It's easy to oppose a plan, it's much harder to create one.  Where is your bill?  Is it winding its way through the committee process?  You've been the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee for over 18 months, surely you have some idea about how to fix the current problem.
        The Texas Governor, Rick Perry met last week with our President, and he has stated that he will not comply with President Obama's request to convince the Texas congressional delegation to agree to his request for the emergency funds.  "He doesn't need this amount of money", Perry told Fox News. OK, so now Rick Perry is also an expert on this matter.  What is his plan?  The Fox report did indicate that Perry has called for sending National Guardsmen to the boarder until more U.S. Border Patrol agents are trained and ready for action.  Perry told Fox; "This will allow the Border Patrol Agents to get back to what it does", said Perry. Responding to reports of agents now spending much of their time doing paperwork and accepting arriving families at the border, instead of performing Law-enforcement duties." Oh.  So that's the fix?  That's the inexpensive answer to all of our border problems?  Quit being ridiculous Mr. Perry.  We need a lot more answers to this problem than just more "Law-enforcement duties".    This problem has been growing and getting worse since April and your answer is; we need more policemen?  The call for more law enforcement, and the refusal to provide much needed financial support to address this problem are a means to an end.  This "end" has nothing to do with fixing the immigration issue here.  The "end" is about throwing up road blocks and hurdles, which our President will have to jump over, if he hopes to make any headway with this crisis.  I smell another Executive Order on the horizon. 

Nothing Good About Hate

"Moms With Guns founder shares Obama pic on Facebook, adds ‘where is an assassin when you need one"  A recent post from the founder of Moms With Guns has led me to wonder why this type of FaceBook post is even conceivable.  Ok; I get it!  1st amendment, 2nd amendment, blah blah blah.  Founder and leader of the organization  Moms With Guns, Kathy Perkins found her self in a bit of trouble this week, when her hatful post was removed from Facebook.  (According to RAWSTORY.com)
        The cycle of hate continues and here is a good example.  What makes someone hate this man, to the point of threatening him with assassination?  Was this simply a case of a tongue-in-cheek comment?  Was it an innocent FaceBook quip?  I'm not so sure.  This woman runs an organization that's all about guns.  When you mix tongue-in-cheek with bullet-in-chamber comments, and those comments are directed toward the leader of our nation, it's going to be taken seriously.  I am offended that someone who clearly comes from this kind of a place of hatred and ignorance would threaten my president. 
        While I hope Ms. Perkins comes to experience the wrath of our Secret Service, FBI and Legal system, I am still left with the question of the bigger picture. When did this become OK?  When did we stop respecting the office of our President?  I don't agree with everything our President does, but like most Americans, I don't joke about killing the man.
        I think that we have somehow lost our way.  In our country, we have gone from talking about our problems to spewing hatred, buying into misinformation, and working ourselves up into a shark-like fanatical frenzy.  What has changed?  Why do we do this now and thirty years ago this would have been almost unheard of.  In my opinion it has a lot to do with the twenty-four hour news cycle.
        Everyday we watch as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and HLN come on the air, and attempt to fill the airwaves with content.  They tell us the news, the weather, and sports information, and this fills about 20% of their airtime.  So if you're a news director how do you fill the other 80% of your available time?  You begin by finding a news-worthy source to come on the air and voice opinions.  Now who might that be?  These opinions have to be interesting, well articulated and presented by someone in a position of authority or who has knowledge about the subject.  Who do you book to come on your show?  You reach out to the one group of people, who are ready to talk about anything, anytime, anywhere.  These people do not need a lot of preparation.  They can and will come on your airwaves with short notice, ready to spew facts and information and it doesn't even matter if the statistics, and facts they will talk about are based in truth.  They can and will pontificate about anything.  You call any politician in America and if you are CNN, Fox. MSN or HLN you've get your time slot filled, and it's all you care about.  As the News Director you wont check the facts they will talk about.  Why should you? The politician wont take the time or wont have the time to check their own facts, they've got to get to the studio.  As long as this politician sticks to their parties talking points, anything else they say will be spontaneous and improvisational.  Let the cycle of hate begin!  The 24 hour news cycle has propagated the 24 hour hate cycle.  There is a direct correlation between the hate cycle and this news cycle that we set our watches by.  Read the Fox & Friends headline that went along with their post.  Interesting that a news organization can stir the hate with such a simple headline attached to the photos. 
         It is this hate cycle which led Ms. Perkins to make her tongue-in-cheek, bullet-in-chamber comment.  It is this ill-conceived, ignorant statement (and the responses to it) that shines a light on the symptom of hate.  Ms. Perkins may well end up in court, and she will probably spend a few long hours in a dark room with a bright light in her face, but the real hate has little to do with this woman.  She is simply a puppet and a reaction to the 24 hour news cycle. We are in a frenzy of division and hatred and there doesn't seem to be a light up ahead. 

Backlogged immigration courts face new deluge!

Are we really surprised?  Are we?  This is not a new issue.  We have been hearing about immigration, immigration reform, immigration issues and immigration legislation for well over a decade.  Why do you think that now it has escalated to a higher level?   It's simple.  The parents are fighting, so now is the best time.  Our do-nothing congress couldn't find a roll of toilet paper in a pulp mill so now is the perfect time. Until or unless we get serious about our problems and issues, the world will continue to move on without us.  This is a symptom, but it is not the problem.  Do you really think people would just walk across the borders of some other country's.  I am not making a statement here about whether or not immigration is a good or bad thing for our country.  What I am trying to espouse is this:  If our laws don't allow for foreign citizens to simply walk across our borders, and if we don't want to accept bus loads of children, who will burden our systems, (Immigration, health care, law enforcement and more) then we need to quit blaming each other and do something about it.  Instead of making this about politics, sound bites, and 5th grade posturing, our congress and our president need to go to work and solve these types of issues.  Put troops on the borders, this is an invasion and we need to start acting like it.  I have no problem with people who want to live and thrive in our country.  But we have laws and regulations which are in place for a reason, and they are not being followed.   Let's tell our lawmakers to go to work!  That's what we're paying them for.

U.S. Suspends Hundreds Of Millions In Aid To Pakistani Military

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is suspending and, in some cases, canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military, in a move to chasten Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.
Coupled with a statement from the top American military officer last week linking Pakistan’s military spy agency to the recent murder of a Pakistani journalist, the halting or withdrawal of military equipment and other aid to Pakistan illustrates the depth of the debate inside the Obama administration over how to change the behavior of one of its key counterterrorism partners. 
Altogether, about $800 million in military aid and equipment, or over one-third of the more than $2 billion in annual American security assistance to Pakistan, could be affected, three senior United States officials said.
This aid includes about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border to combat terrorism, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in training assistance and military hardware, according to half a dozen Congressional, Pentagon and other administration officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the politically delicate matter.
Some of the curtailed aid is equipment that the United States wants to send but Pakistan now refuses to accept, like rifles, ammunition, body armor and bomb-disposal gear that were withdrawn or held up after Pakistan ordered more than 100 Army Special Forces trainers to leave the country in recent weeks.
Some is equipment, such as radios, night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts, which cannot be set up, certified or used for training because Pakistan has denied visas to the American personnel needed to operate the equipment, two senior Pentagon officials said.
And some is assistance like the reimbursements for troop costs, which is being reviewed in light of questions about Pakistan’s commitment to carry out counterterrorism operations. For example, the United States recently provided Pakistan with information about suspected bomb-making factories, only to have the insurgents vanish before Pakistani security forces arrived a few days later.
“When it comes to our military aid,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Senate committee last month “we are not prepared to continue providing that at the pace we were providing it unless and until we see certain steps taken.”
American officials say they would probably resume equipment deliveries and aid if relations improve and Pakistan pursues terrorists more aggressively. The cutoffs do not affect any immediate deliveries of military sales to Pakistan, like F-16 fighter jets, or nonmilitary aid, the officials said.
Pakistan’s precise military budget is not known, and while the American aid cutoff would probably have a small impact on the overall military budget, it would most directly affect the counterinsurgency campaign. The Pakistani Army spends nearly one-quarter of the nation’s annual expenditures, according to K. Alan Kronstadt of the Congressional Research Service.
While some senior administration officials have concluded that Pakistan will never be the kind of partner the administration hoped for when President Obama entered office, others emphasize that the United States cannot risk a full break in relations or a complete cutoff of aid akin to what happened in the 1990s, when Pakistan was caught developing nuclear weapons.
But many of the recent aid curtailments are clearly intended to force the Pakistani military to make a difficult choice between backing the country that finances much of its operations and equipment, or continuing to provide secret support for the Taliban and other militants fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan.
“We have to continue to emphasize with the Pakistanis that in the end it’s in their interest to be able to go after these targets as well,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told reporters on Friday en route to Afghanistan.
Some American officials say Pakistan has only itself to blame, citing the Pakistani military’s decision to distance itself from American assistance in response to the humiliation suffered from the American commando raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as rising anger from midlevel Pakistani officers and the Pakistani public that senior military leaders, including Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful army chief of staff, are too accommodating to the Americans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/world/asia/10intel.html?_r=1

Finally!  It only took a few months but it looks like our government got wise to the nonsense the Pakistani government calls friendship.  We provide millions in aid to a country which is providing funds to; and working with the Taliban.   What did we know and when did we know it?   Isn’t it just possible that we had some clue before we took out Bin Laden that Pakistan was not all they said they were?   

Undefeated’ trailer hits the Web with premiere coming soon

Conservative filmmaker Steve Bannon released the trailer for his upcoming documentary of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Bannon previously told The Daily Caller that “The Undefeated” shows Palin is “no Caribou Barbie.”
Beginning with family photos and home videos of Palin, the trailer jumps to conservative media personality Tammy Bruce. “Like a Marine, she runs toward the danger,” Bruce says of Palin. “It wasn’t something that daddy gave her. It wasn’t something the machine prepared the way for.”
The trailer teases viewers with a taste of what’s to come with the final version: showing how Palin dealt with oil executives and corruption within her own party in Alaska during and prior to her time as governor.
Radio talker Mark Levin and publisher Andrew Breitbart appear in the trailer talking about how they could care less about the Washington GOP order.
“She represented a threat to so many establishments,” Breitbart says in the trailer. “To hell with the establishment because the establishment has put us in this position in the first place.” (Die hard organizers wait for Palin to make a move on 2012)
Levin talks about how Palin’s misrepresented in the media and by the establishment GOP. “I don’t give a damn if the phony intelligencia like it or not,” Levin says. “The liberal media don’t matter to me. The Republican establishment don’t matter to me.”
The film hits select theaters next Friday, July 15.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/07/%e2%80%98the-undefeated%e2%80%99-trailer-hits-the-web-with-premiere-coming-soon-video/#ixzz1RTyY8SLq

I'm confused.  Wasn't she defeated? 

New EPA rules to devastate coal industry

The coal industry is crying foul over new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations which they say will be among the most be costly rules ever imposed by the agency on coal-fueled power plants.
The result, industry insiders say: substantially higher electricity rates and massive job loss.
“The EPA is ignoring the cumulative economic damage new regulations will cause,” said Steve Miller, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). “America’s coal-fueled electric industry has been doing its part for the environment and the economy, but our industry needs adequate time to install clean coal technologies to comply with new regulations. Unfortunately, EPA doesn’t seem to care.”
Thursday the EPA announced that they have finalized additional Clean Air Act provisions, collectively known as “The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule” to ostensibly “reduce air pollution and attain clean air standards,” by requiring coal companies in 27 states to slash emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide by 73 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from 2005 levels by 2014.
According to the EPA, these emissions travel across state lines and contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution.
The rule will replace a similar 2005 standard called the Clean Air Interstate Rule. EPA claims that the new rule will result in a savings of $120 to $280 billion in annual health and environmental benefits as well as save 13,000 to 34,000 lives. (EPA stimulating environmental regulations abroad)
While the EPA’s alleged benefits are lofty, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton cautioned that the new rules will come with a hefty price.
“The goal for these rules should be reasonable regulation that protects public health and the environment while also preserving economic growth. Unfortunately, the unprecedented pace at which the administration is issuing major new rules that impose new costs and regulatory requirements on states, employers, and consumers fails that basic test,” said Upton. “By issuing multiple regulations for the energy and other sectors at such an accelerated rate, EPA has turned regulation from a manageable tool into an unpredictable moving target that makes it difficult for companies to invest and create jobs.”


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/07/new-epa-rules-to-devastate-coal-industry/#ixzz1RTvDsnG8

Oh; I suspect they'll be alright.  Coal and oil baby . . . . . .

Joint Chiefs Chairman: Pakistan 'Sanctioned' Journalist's Killing

WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. military officer says the Pakistani government "sanctioned" the killing of a journalist last month, but said he could not tie the death to the country's powerful intelligence service.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the beating death of Pakistani reporter, Saleem Shahzad, and the reported abuse of other journalists is no way for a government to move ahead. He says it is a way to spiral in the wrong direction.
Shahzad's death was widely blamed on Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, but the ISI has denied involvement. His death was followed a few weeks later by the beating of another Pakistani journalist by men wearing police uniforms.
Mullen is the first top U.S. leader to publicly link the killing to Pakistan's government.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/mullen-islamabad-sanctioned-journalist-killing_n_892424.html

And we call them our friends!

NOT GUILTY Of First-Degree Murder

After 33 days of testimony, 400 pieces of evidence and more than 90 witnesses, the jury in the Casey Anthony case has reached a verdict.
After just a day of deliberation, jurors informed the court at midday that they had reached a decision, and both sides in the case were ordered to assemble in the courtroom.
Anthony has been found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. She was also found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. But she was convicted on charges of misleading law enforcement.
The case against Anthony was mostly circumstantial, but as it unfolded she was portrayed in the trial as a promiscuous, self-centered woman who became a cold-blooded killer. The motive, prosecutors alleged, was to allow her to live a carefree life without her daughter.

The state's case theory was that a desperate Anthony used chloroform to subdue her daughter and then suffocated her with duct tape. Anthony then fabricated fantastic lies to cover up her deeds, they said.

Anthony's attorney Jose Baez told the jury his client was the victim of an abusive upbringing.

According to Baez, Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, were home alone on June 16, 2008, when they noticed Caylee was missing. They began a frantic search, looking under beds and in the garage. Then George Anthony took the search outside to the above-ground pool where they found a lifeless Caylee floating in the water, Baez said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/casey-anthony-trial-verdict_n_890173.html#s303265&title=Casey_Anthony_Verdict

Well; what did we expect?  I think the tragedy here is that a little girl has died and the only thing we can focus on is our outrage with the jury’s decision.  Do I think Casey did it?  My opinion (from what little I know) is that she did.  Do I think the State was able to prove its case?  Yes; if you could see it through the fog the Defense used to obscure it.  The Defense team did its job!  With each bit of circumstantial evidence brought forth by the State of Florida, the Defense was able to plant a seed of doubt.  Doubt was the only thing Baez had in his toolbox and he used it like an artist uses the color fuchsia.  Fuchsia is an ugly color, but when used correctly it can bring a painting to life.  Don’t blame the jury.  Don’t you dare blame the jury!  They did their job.  They are a product of a world the Defense team and the Prosecutor created.  Their truth in this is the reality of everything they observed in the courtroom.  When all is said and done we cannot ask any more of them.  Everyone did their jobs; everyone, and yet nothing that happened in that courtroom will bring that little girl back.  We are a land of laws and whether we like it or not, today our laws worked.  You can’t have it both ways.  You can’t have “innocent until proven guilty” and then convict someone without proof.  This case was chalk full of evidence, but it was sorely lacking proof.  We will never know the whole story.  We will never have the confessions, the admissions or the proof we seek.  What we have left, as the jury files out and the books are finally closed on this case is our angst and frustration that a little girls death will never be vindicated.  Our only solace, our only relief comes from the knowledge that in the unlikely event that the tables were ever turned, we too might be granted the same benefits of the doubt and the same considerations, and the same opportunity for a defense team like Ms. Anthony’s. 

San Francisco Police Kill Man On Transit Platform

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man reportedly armed with a knife on a Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform in San Francisco was shot and killed by police, transit officials said Monday.
BART spokesman Linton Johnson said dispatchers received a call of a "wobbly drunk" on the platform of the Civic Center/UN Plaza station at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Two transit officers arrived and then reported shooting a man, who died about an hour later.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the man killed was the same person originally reported to be drunk. Investigators reported finding broken glass and knives at the scene
One BART officer suffered cuts and bruises on his arm. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave, as is standard policy.
Neither the shooting victim nor the officers involved have been identified, though BART officials said the dead man was white, as was one of the officers. The other officer was described by the agency as Asian.
BART is battling an image problem after a white officer shot and killed an unarmed black passenger on New Year's Day 2009 at a station in Oakland, a killing that sparked widespread debate and prompted racial unrest in that city.
Johannes Mehserle quit the police force shortly after the shooting and was later charged with murder for shooting Oscar Grant in the back while Grant was pinned face down on Oakland's Fruitvale station. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after testifying he meant to use his Taser rather than his gun. He recently was released from prison after serving half of a two-year sentence.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/04/bart-shooting-san-francisco-transit-
officers_n_889934.html

Just because you can, does that mean you should?  OK; I wasn’t there, but this guy was drunk and he had a knife.  I know a knife can kill a person, but the man welding it was drunk.  The BART officers carry a Taser.  Was it just easier to shoot this drunk passenger or did you really feel your life and the lives of others was in danger?  I hope you pulled the trigger for all the right reasons. 

Top San Francisco Attorney Questions Proposed Circumcision Ban

(RNS) In a potential blow to the proposed San Francisco circumcision ban, the city's top lawyer has concluded it is unconstitutional to ban the practice as a religious ritual, but allow it as a medical procedure.

The measure, now headed toward the Nov. 8 ballot, would ban nearly all infant circumcisions.

A lawsuit arguing that no California city can regulate a medical procedure that is allowed by the state will be heard on July 15. The plaintiffs are a group of Jews and Muslims, groups that practice ritual circumcision.

Should they win, a narrower ban exempting medical circumcision could apply only to circumcision as a religious practice. And that would defy the First Amendment, according to a brief recently filed by the city attorney.

"San Franciscans cannot be asked to vote on whether to prohibit religious minorities from engaging in a particular religious practice, when the same practice may be performed under nonreligious auspices," wrote Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart.

The proposed ban, sponsored by groups who are opposed to what they consider the genital mutilation of boys, has angered Jews, Muslims and others who consider circumcision to be a parent's choice.

"The city's response was completely political," said Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, an anti-circumcision group that did not sponsor the proposed ban, but supports its intent.

"It is not aimed at Jewish circumcision," Chapin said. "It's aimed at the involuntary circumcision of all minors, irrespective of religion."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/top-sf-attorney-questions_n_890687.html

Some things are better left alone.  There is a lot of baggage attached to this issue.  It is a matter of cultural and religious beliefs.  In my opinion this issue is not up to the state and it is not up for debate.  Leave it alone! 

Jail Inmate Files Pornography Case

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. -- A Michigan jail inmate says he's being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because he can't have pornography.
In a handwritten lawsuit, 21-year-old Kyle Richards claims his civil rights are being violated at the Macomb County Jail. Richards says denying his request for erotic material subjects him to a "poor standard of living" and "sexual and sensory deprivation."
The Michigan Department of Corrections tells The Detroit News that prisons allow some pornographic material, though it's banned at the jail. The American Civil Liberties Union says prisons have a lot of leeway.
Richards was charged with bank robbery after police followed a trail of snowy footprints and dropped money to his apartment from a bank robbery scene in January in Fraser, north of Detroit.
Richards pleaded guilty. Sentencing is Aug. 2.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/04/jail-pornography-case-lawsuit-porn_n_889597.html

And if there was porn, you would be complaining that you're being subjected to porn against your will.  Shut-up and do your time.  Do you really want to look at government issued porn? 

Motorcyclist Dies On Ride Protesting Helmet Law

ONONDAGA, N.Y. -- Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.
The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse.
State troopers tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets.
Troopers say Contos hit his brakes and the motorcycle fishtailed. The bike spun out of control, and Contos toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/03/motorcyclist-dies-helmet-protest_n_889427.html

The universe has a way of adding an exclamation mark to irony.  I feel bad for this man and his family.  I also believe it is a riders right to choose.  My choice; a helmet every time, but others do not believe as I do, and that’s fine. Think of the lives this accident has changed and think about the fact that a helmet could have prevented the chain of events that will now follow.

Michele Bachmann: As President, I'll Create 'Real Jobs' For Obama

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Republican candidate Michele Bachmann spent Saturday shaking hands in Iowa diners and strolling through a bustling farmers market as she tried to capitalize on her early popularity in the state that kicks off the presidential campaign season.
An Iowa native, the tea party favorite ranked nearly even with GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney in a recent poll of Republicans likely to participate in the state's lead off caucuses next year. But just six weeks before the state's closely-watched straw poll, the Minnesota congresswoman has done little to campaign or set up an organization here.
Beginning her first sustained campaign trip to Iowa as an announced candidate, Bachmann introduced herself to audiences from Iowa City to Des Moines in a new campaign bus emblazoned with her name. She spent much of Saturday posing for pictures and signing autographs rather than in meetings with key GOP activists.
"I have every confidence our team is going to deliver," Bachmann told The Associated Press after meeting about 100 supporters and politically curious Iowans at a stop in Marshalltown. "I am going to be here in Iowa campaigning all through July."
Proof that her Iowa campaign was still coming together met Bachmann in Iowa City, where she met about 100 weekend breakfast regulars and Republican activists at the Bluebird Diner near the University of Iowa. Local resident Sheila Reiland told Bachmann's campaign chairman in the crowded diner that she signed up last week on Bachmann's website to volunteer but had heard nothing from any campaign staff.
"She is my candidate, and I want to do what I can to help her," said Reiland, a registered nurse who went to Washington, D.C., this year to attend a health care rally Bachmann headlined. "But I haven't heard anything back."
Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, acknowledged having a lot to do in a short time since the Iowa Legislature was in session until Thursday. But he told Reiland: "You will be hearing from us."

Story continues below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/03/michele-bachmann-obama-jobs_n_889554.html

I don’t think this is the time to be smug.  I wish you luck, but I’m afraid you will turn out to be a non-issue.  Wing nuts and loony tunes tend to find their way to the back of the line as we get closer to election time.  You will say or do something very stupid and before it’s over you will find yourself living in Alaska next door to that other wing nut.  At least on a clear day you’ll be able to see Russia from your front yard. 

Hugo Chavez Undergoes Surgery To Remove Tumor

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told his countrymen Thursday night that he underwent a second surgery in Cuba for the removal of a cancerous growth.
Chavez said in a televised talk that the operation took out a tumor in which there were "cancerous cells." He said the second surgery was done after an initial June 10 operation in which a pelvic abscess was removed.
He called his situation "this new battle that life has placed before us."
It was unclear what type of cancer is involved or what Chavez's treatment will be. He said it had been a "fundamental error" to not have taken better care of his health through medical checks.
"What a fundamental error," Chavez said.
Chavez did not say how much longer he expected to remain in Cuba recovering.
He said the first surgery was for a "strange formation in the pelvic region that required an emergency operation due to the imminent risk of a generalized infection."
After that first surgery, Chavez said, doctors began to suspect other problems. A series of tests "confirmed the presenced of an abscessed tumor with the presence of cancerous cells, which made necessary a second operation that allowed for the complete extraction of the tumor," he said.
Chavez said his condition has been "evolving satisfactorily while I receive a complementary treatment to combat the different types of cells found, and thereby continue on the path to my complete recovery."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/hugo-chavez-cancer-tumor_n_888382.html

Wow!  A tumor; really?  To my untrained eye that looks an awfully lot like a microphone. . . . .

White House salaries slide up

The 2011 White House salary report is out, and it shows that 141 people are paid more than $100,000 a year in President Barack Obama’s White House. Another 201 people on the staff of 454 are paid more than between $100,000 and $50,000.
That’s a jump from the last year of President George W. Bush’s tenure, when 130 people were paid more than $100,000, and 137 people were paid between $50,000 and $100,000.
The pay is good, especially when those staffers help govern a country with a stalled economy,  at least 9.1 percent unemployment, extreme deficit spending and a debt of at least $14 trillion.
But it is far less than what most of the employees graduate to when they move to a civil-service job – complete with a bump-up for local cost-of-living – or to a lobbying firm on K Street. (Uncle Sam shelling out big bucks for government jobs, GOP says time to cut)
Also, their salaries are relatively small compared to the influence they have on federal spending and on citizens’ lives. If Obama’s 2010 budget was divided equally among his 454 White House staffers, they’d have $7,832,788,550 each to spend. That’s $7.8 billion per staffer, from the first employee on the list, Adam Abrams, all the way down to No. 454, Mark Zuckerman.
Neither Obama nor Vice-President Joe Biden are part of the payroll.
The salaries range from $172,200 all the way down to a bizarre $0 a year, the salary of three White House employees. Not counting the president, 21 people share the title of top earner, among them: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, advisors John Brennan, David Plouffe, and Valerie Jarrett speechwriter Jon Favreau, and the president’s chief of staff, Bill Daley.
In Bush’s 2008 White House salary report, the lowest-paid of 447 staffers struggled home with S33,400 per year. There were two of them, but there was also another 100 people paid less than $40,000, out of total payroll of $33,193,021.
Obama’s White House is more generous with the taxpayer’s money. Not counting three unpaid employees, no-one in Obama’s house is paid less than $40,000. The two lowest-paid staffers take home $41,000, and 110 people take home salaries of up to $50,000.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/01/white-house-salaries-slide-up/#ixzz1R3WaOyUG

What a surprise!  When will our government figure out that we pay them?  Why can they raise salaries when the rest of the country is suffering?  How do they justify this nonsense?  I will tell you how. . . . .  we let them.  Through our complacency at the polls and our silence they do whatever they want.  Will we ever figure this out; as voters?  They have their own gyms, restaurants, services, perks, trips, expense accounts and we pay for it all.  While the bulk of our population earns less in a year than what some of the folks make in a month, we continue to vote them into office and condone their elite lifestyle.  We have ourselves to blame. . . . . . .

Feds put damper on big pot farms

OAKLAND, Calif., July 2 (UPI) -- Plans to build a large marijuana-growing facility in Oakland, Calif., were stymied when the Obama administration clarified its position on the issue.
In a letter to federal prosecutors, U.S. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said plans some cities and states have for "multiple, large-scale, privately operated, industrial marijuana cultivation centers" are against the law.
In a Los Angeles Times report, Cole said Obama's hands-off policy on medical marijuana patients was "never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law."
"Unfortunately, this is a step backward," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access. "We kind of regard this as kind of the equivalent of 'don't ask, don't tell.' Obama made certain campaign promises, and he's not carrying through on them."
Cole's letter put a damper on one Oakland man's plan to convert 172,000 acres of aging and empty warehouse buildings into a medical marijuana-growing center.
Jeff Wilcox said he commissioned a report concluding his proposal would be worth $59 million annually, and could send up to $3.4 million to city coffers each year.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of medical cannabis for a wide range of conditions, from back pain to migraine headaches.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/02/Feds-put-damper-on-big-pot-farms/UPI-42481309613555/#ixzz1QxZic3L3

A 172 acre pot farm?  Wow!  I thought corn was the crop of the future what with ethanol and alternative fuels.  I am hoping to become a farmer some day and I have a new plan.  I am developing a new fuel based on the cannabis plant.  It’s called cannigas. You will be able to sit at a stop light and ease the migraine pain of the guy behind you.  Think about it!  Finally; there’s a fuel that’s good for the climate and eliminates headache pain.  When my new fuel hits the market there will be a lot less road rage.  With cannigas you can relieve aches and pains, drive a green car, and become a much happier commuter.  Your car will get 42 miles to the gallon, and if it doesn’t . . . . .  you won’t care.  You can throw your GPS away.  With cannigas if you get lost  . . . . . . you won’t care. They say that Americans are addicted to their cars. . . . . not anymore.  While cannigas may change your driving habit; it is not addictive! 

Michele Bachmann Defends Federal Funds To Husband's Clinic

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann is deflecting questions about federally subsidized health dollars that have flowed to her husband's mental health clinic.
As the tea party hero tours the nation attacking the size of federal government, the Minnesota congresswoman has come under heightened scrutiny over public dollars flowing to family business interests. That includes $137,000 that Bachmann and Associates has received for treating patients in Medicaid-backed programs.
NBC's Michael Isikoff reports:

The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information request.

The Los Angeles Times reported last weekend:

Michele Bachmann lists the Lake Elmo, Minn.-based clinic — which aims to provide "quality Christian counseling in a sensitive, loving environment," according to its website — as one of her assets on her financial disclosure forms.

Bachmann press secretary Alice Stewart issued a statement Wednesday contending that it "would be discriminatory" for the clinic to turn away Medicaid patients. She says Marcus Bachmann's business has the responsibility to provide the care "regardless of a patient's financial situation."
Neither Michele nor Marcus Bachmann would respond to questions about the arrangement during a campaign stop in South Carolina.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/michele-bachmann-medicaid-funds_n_887107.html

Oooooohhhh watch the flameout begin.  OK; maybe this is on the up and up, but if you look in my front yard you will find that I have raised the bullsh*t flag.  I just can’t bring myself to trust a politician, and I think once the rocks are turned over we will see that there is more than moss.

GOODBYE GLENN

Glenn Beck stepped down from his Fox News show on Thursday after two-and-half tumultuous, controversial years at the network.
He kept the chalkboards to a minimum, and shed no tears. He also shied away from too many specific recollections about his show. Instead, he broadly reminisced about what he said he had learned from the experience, repeatedly praised Fox News for allowing his show to air and professed his excitement for his next step: the Web TV channel known as "GBTV."
Beck said that the reason for his departure from Fox News was simple: there was more that he wanted to do. The show, he said, was really a movement "that belongs in your home. It belongs in your neighborhoods. Not really television." He repeatedly directed viewers to his website, where the next chapter of his professional life will be centered.
The show featured many of the things that made Beck famous—long monologues, high emotion, mentions of God and Hitler—but, in some ways, was hardly representative of the show that made him, for a few years at least, a cultural icon and a lightning rod.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/glenn-beck-fox-news-last-show_n_888155.html

Well the day has finally come.  “The show, he said, was really a movement "that belongs in your home.”  I would agree that the GB show was in fact a movement that belongs in your home.  Now let me think what other movements might one have in their own home?  . . . . hhmmmmmm.  The report says that Glenn was a lightening rod.  Again I agree; a lightening “nimrod”.  GB stands for GoooooooodddddBbbbyyyeeeee!

Justice Ginsburg Worries About Supreme Court's Politicization

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed concern over the increasing influence of politics on the Supreme Court in a recent interview with USA Today.


"What I care most about I think most of my colleagues do, too," the liberal leaning justice explained, "is that we want this institution to maintain the position that it has had in this system, where it is not considered a political branch of government."


While Ginsburg wouldn't say if her worries about the court's politicization pertained to the actions of any of her colleagues specifically, she did point to the growing divisiveness of the judicial nomination process as evidence that political leanings were working their way into the system.


From USA Today:
"It will take a real statesman to blow the whistle" to stop the pattern, she said. Ginsburg, who was nominated by President Clinton in 1993, was approved on a 96-3 vote. She said she doubted she would enjoy the same bipartisan support today.


Ginsburg went on to describe a particular case in which the court ruled -- 5-4, along ideological lines -- to overthrow a $14 million judgment granted to a former death row inmate convicted of murder after New Orleans prosecutors withheld evidence that might have proven his innocence.


USA Today relays her comments:
"It was an instance of extreme injustice. I thought that the court was not just wrong but egregiously so," she said. She said she decided not simply to let the written statement speak for itself, as is the usual practice, to bring attention to a criminal justice system that "had misfired."


"I was doing it to influence my colleagues and (lower court) judges who could stop this kind of thing," she said of prosecutors' concealing exculpatory evidence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-court_n_888861.html

Now you’re worried?  Now?  It hasn’t occurred to you before that perhaps this might be a problem with the Supreme Court?  The High Court it seems; is not-so-much about justice as it is about deciding who is right.  The more political it becomes the less it checks and balances the other two branches.  Justice is not about being right or wrong.  When two attorneys from opposing sides of the question argue, believe me; they both believe they are right. It is the duty of the court to decide; “what” is right; not “who” is right; according to the law.  When politics is at play the decisions become too easy and more importantly these decisions will be unjust.  The courts should not decide who is wrong and who is right.  The courts are called upon to decide whether or not the law was broken or it wasn’t.  We are a land of laws, but more and more we are a land of politicians.  What happened to our compass, and how did we get so far off course?

Pippa Middleton Apparently Not 100 Percent Single

While Prince Harry dispelled rumors about his love life late last week, telling reporters, "I'm 100 percent single," best friend Pippa Middleton took a different route.
She stepped out to Wimbledon on Wednesday to watch the men's single quarter final between Andy Murray and Feliciano Lopez.
The bad news -- she was seated between her parents, Michael and Carole, and her supposed boyfriend Alex Loudon. The pair was rumored to have split earlier this month after Duchess Catherine's sister had been spotted out with her ex, George Percy. But it appears that the Divine Miss P is still off the market.
And the worse news: so is her dress. InStyle.com reports that the NW3 by Hobbs linen shift with a square neckline and gold buttons has already sold out on Hobbs.co.uk and JohnLewis.com.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/pippa-middleton-alex-loudon_n_887162.html

Ahhh the Divine Ms. P enjoys tennis and the company of her parents and boyfriend; just your average day at the court with 30 or 40 photographers snapping your every move.  Leave the girl alone and let her enjoy herself!  It’s not like she’s playing the freaking game.  She is a spectator; a mere member of the audience.  Did your tripod break and your lens just happened to swing toward the lovely Ms. Middleton?