No Bail

Mitt Romney has written a piece for the NY Slimes about the automotive industry bail out. I am surprised they printed it.

If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I never knew that his father was once the CEO for Ford.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.

Guess what the first recommendation is? Starts with a "U", ends with a whimper as the auto giants go bankrupt from jacked up wages demanding more pay for less work. At the same time, the company executives also need an ass kicking. The fact that the three major automotive CEO's flew their private $36 million corporate jets to Washington, DC, at an estimated cost of $20,000 for each flight is a travesty. They need their egos trimmed and their golden parachutes deflated.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

Isn't it funny how the other American automotive manufacturers like Toyota and Honda are not asking for bail outs? And please don't bother with the ridiculous argument that these companies are foreign owned and supported and yad yada yada. The Big Three blew it big time. And how is that?

The domestic manufacturers squandered their dominant position in the U.S. market en masse because they were consistently the highest-cost, lowest-quality producer in a game that the Japanese had single-handedly redefined to be one of lowest cost, highest quality. And now we are well into the second generation of buyers who, thanks to the Toyotas of the world, have never owned a domestic brand of car or truck.

But back to Romney. I think he wanders off the reservation here. He is alluding to some kind of a restructuring of the corporate structure and labor contracts. I don't think that is going to happen. The industry has been grabbing its ankles for far too long for the unions to let up now.

Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Unfortunately he is referring to his father's generation, a generation that knew hardship, sacrifice - and leadership. Those people are almost all gone now. The "me" generation is now in charge and I have little confidence in its ability to turn this situation around without first milking it for all it's worth, just as they have been doing for quite some time.

But except for the federal guarantees, I do agree with Romney's call that bankruptcy is the only salvation for these companies. Let them use this to reorganize they way they do business.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

Remember all those computer companies that were around in the late 1980's? How any of them went under? Tons.

I remember we had a large Wang optical disk document storage system in our department and we were concerned about the company being bought out. Then the company that bought it out was bought out. Eventually what was left of Wang ended up with Bull, Inc. Our tech guy nailed it almost twenty years ago - there were just too many systems around for someone not to pick them up and maintain them. There was too much money to be made.

The same applies to the Big Three. Let the market determine what will happen to the US automotive industry and not congressmen nestling in someone's back pocket.

Bomb Proof Tires

I have always been fascinated by military technology. As a 12 yo kid I used to write to the various Secretaries of the armed services asking for information on their various eapons. I would always get a very nice letter from some undersecretary along with a thick packet of wonderful stuff showing tanks, planes, ships, etc.
Now that my kid is in the Army, my interest in innovative technology towards life saving military applications is even keener. This CNET News article is welcome news for anyone with a loved one who goes in harm's way.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet- and a bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web so cool looking there's no need for hub caps.

This is hawt.

Resilient Technologies and Wisconsin-Madison's Polymer Engineering Center are creating a "non-pneumatic tire" (no air required) that will support the weight of add-on armor, survive an IED attack, and still make a 50 mph getaway. It's basically a round honeycomb wrapped with a thick, black tread.

The military wants an alternative to the current Humvee "run flat" tires, which despite the name, still need a minimal amount of air pressure to roll and can leave troops stranded after being shot or blown out.

There will have to be a trial or shakedown period, of course; but I hope that this goes out to the troops ASAP.

Beware The Kool Aid

The invitation extended by various bloggers and commentors to "drink the Kool-Aid" has been used so often that it has lost it's potency. I well remember the Guyana mass suicide and the shock I felt when I first became aware of it. It made no sense at all. How could people act like this? How could supposedly intelligent people let themselves be talked into something like this? Nearly a thousand lives snuffed out for the sake of .... what? Some suicidal nutjob preacher? How could he possibly talk these many adults into murdering their children? And we think that we and others like us are not susceptible to this type of manipulation.

Since then, events have conspired to dilute our sensitivity to tragedy; we are not as easily moved as we once were; we are not quite as innocent. Nevertheless, the admonition against drinking the Kool-Aid is still operative - a warning against complacency. We need to carefully examine our belief systems, for it is the ultimate foundation for our actions. And like any system it is built upon information, information passed on by reliable sources - like our parents and teachers.

Bruce Walker has written an insightful article at the American Thinker that deals with the abandonment of our traditional belief system - God, Country and Family - for something else.

We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described. Too many of us for comfort or solace have become just like the denizens of Jonestown: Orwell's children -- a new generation of creature enraged into constant militancy against eternal enemies, oblivious to the notion of a Blessed Creator, melded into the consciousness of the party hive, divorced from history, hypnotized by images, inoculated against reason, stripped of family, and existing only to serve the cause.

[...]What are the characteristics of the Orwellian state?

Start with God. He must go. The great Russian novelists knew this: "Without God, everything is permitted." In Oceania, God simply does not exist. The Nazis bragged that they would raise a generation "...without ever having heard of the Sermon on the Mount or the Golden Rule, to say nothing of the Ten Commandments." The Soviet persecuted anyone who followed the God of Jews and Christians. God is hounded in our world today. A generation of Orwell's Children are growing up without thinking about God at all or thinking that God is a silly idea cherished by sillier old fogies.

Truth must go too. Nazis embraced the "Big Lie." Soviets denied that honesty, per se, mattered. In Orwell's Oceania, the Inner Party members learn to even lie to themselves and to hold utterly contradictory beliefs at the same time. Truth and honesty have little meaning to Orwell's Children in our world. All truth is relative, all honesty a sham.

Have many Americans drank deeply of the liberal Kool-aid? Are we as a nation committing cultural suicide? Orwell's darkly prophetic book, 1984, describes how a totalitarian government assumes power and control.

Orwell even told us, by name, the professionals who would lead us into the nightmare of 1984: "sociologists," "teachers," "bureaucrats," "journalists," "professional politicians," "scientists," "trade union organizers," "publicity experts," and "technicians." (The term "community organizer" was unknown to him.) Those who enslave were those who taught students, who created the news, who sat in the halls of government power, and who defined official "truth" (at least truth de jour.)

But we can only be enslaved if we choose so. This is why our belief system is so important. We elect those who make the laws. We chose how we want the governemnt to act.

Orwell's Children live among us now, not in tiny numbers in weird Marxist cults like Jim Jones' People Temple, but as leaders of Congress, as the establishment of academia, as the producers of news and entertainment, as the administrators of public schools, as the "experts" in a thousand myriad and odd fields of putative "expertise." They infatuate our bored children with the only reality and the only diversion that many can find. They wait for the rest of us to grow older and to die.

[...]We are all anchored in belief, but it is what we believe that matters. We can believe in the lies of Big Brother, which change each day with the needs of the party or we can believe in the truth of a living God. We can become the children of Orwell or the special creatures of God. Everything -- our nation, our world, our families, our communities -- flows from that choice.

We will not be condemned because we did not educate our children.

We will be condemned for not passing on our beliefs to them.
We will be condemned for not protecting our cultural heritage - our freedoms.
We will be condemned for not helping them resist the lure of the Kool-Aid.

Senator Butterworth

It's scary....

Useless, Simply Useless

In this picture you see the news media protecting the public interest by interviewing and vetting Barack Obama during the election. This is probably the leg tingle that Chris "MSNBC's Golden Retriever" Matthews was referring to.

Now all of a sudden the media is reporting that unrepentent terrorist Ayers actually was a family friend of Obama and that Obama faithfully attended the church services of Rev. "God Damn America" Wright for twenty years.

So ... Obama throws these two under a bus, and the media resurrects them .... more than a week after the election is over.

What wasn't an issue is now an issue? What's changed? Oh, he's gonna be the President.

H/T to Protein Wisdom and Rotti Emperor Misha

El Paso Police Pinata

Three armed perps tried to rob an El Paso Special Operations police officer and then get away on a stolen motorcycle.
Bad idea. The cop used a .40 cal. stick to bust them open.
Two dead and the one perp survivor shot in both arms.
The pics are pretty graphic so if you have a weak stomach (sight of blood), you may want to pass this by.
Pics are below.
H/T to my brother Bob.

UPDATE: I have tried to find mention of this story somewhere, anywhere in a newspaper, snopes, or other media offering other than a blog and have not been successful. I find it unbelieveable that a cop could off three armed perps in this country and not have it splayed all over the place.

I did find a story from Cebu City, Philipines, where three armed men were shot to death on an overloaded motorcycle. Apparently they also were not wearing helmets. They apparently were suspects in an armed robbery and refused to stop for a police road block on or about 2 NOV 08 as reported here.

The three men refused to stop when flagged at a checkpoint and one of them, who was riding behind the driver, even pulled out a gun and fired prompting the police to retaliate.

The three were identified by relatives at the morgue of Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Nivel Hills.

SPO2 Rey Cuyos of the Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) identified the three dead as Abran Gabato, 28, single, and a resident of sitio Sandayong, Guadalupe; Wilner Ponce alias “Botong”, 31, of Lower Kalunasan, Guadalupe; and Totong Cabajar, of sitio Sandayong of the same barangay.

Gabato was reportedly the driver of the motorcycle with plate number GU1664.
The relatives of the fatalities, who the police believe were motorcycle robbers, said that they only learned of the incident from the media yesterday.

PO2 Michael Codaste of the Homicide Section said that the three sustained several gunshot wounds in their head and other parts of the body. Ponce was hit six times while both Gabato and Cabajar were hit four times.

UPDATE: I did a major review of all twelve photos here.

Put A Sock On It Flipper

First there was the movie "Jaws."

Now there's something else. From now on you may want to to swim with a cork.

Don't ever let your daughter date a dolphin. They're maniacs. I almost wish that dolphins saw us as food instead of this.

Is that a sardine in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

In as much as the object of Flipper's passion in this video is a man, I'm wondering if we should rename that fish Barney and put him in charge of, oh, I dunno, banks?

You can blame BisW (for the introduction) and Cracked.com for this travesty.

Ohhhhhhhh Cookie, you and your Navy buds like to talk about your experience in submarines where the dolphin insignia as worn a uniform breast pin. Are there any other underwater "experiences" you want to share, hmmmmm Cookie? Hee Hee

That reminds me of the COB and the coffee urn, huh Cookie? Now that's a classic.

Congrats To The Corps

Happy Birthday Marines! November 10, 1775.

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY MESSAGE - 10 NOVEMBER 2008

Sweet God, Please No

The idiot who helped set up the intelligence debacle that led to 9/11, the mouth breathing ignoramus who helped set up the sub prime disaster as Vice Chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) from 1997 to 2003 is now being considered for the position of Attorney General of the United States.

The one and only Jaime Gorelick.
We are so screwed. You might as well torch the Constitution with this loon at the DOJ wheel.

Hopefully They Will Hang

You really wish that certain organizations were immune from the usual run of buffoons, idiots, jackasses and homicidal miscreants that plague the rest of mankind. But no matter how you screen your potential employees, there are always some savages that manage to insinuate themselves into our most cherished and noble institutions.

Whenever someone confronts me with a tale about a corrupt cop I usually remind them that our public safety and military organizations do not order a new class of rookie candidates from a clone factory in northeast Idaho. We recruit them from the general population.

When my daughter was being recruited by the army, we were told by the recruiter that he is limited to just 30% of the population. The other 70% are either physically or morally unfit to serve in the armed forces. My wife and I were shocked to hear that. But the following events reveal how big a problem that is.

This week I read a story in my local paper about the murder of a young Marine and his new bride. I had to read it twice because I couldn't believe what I read. Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his wife Quiana Pietrzak were murdered in their home just outside the city of San Diego. According to police they were tied up, tortured and shot in the head. Qiana was also sexually molested before she was killed.

The Motive? Apparently robbery. Items from the Pietrzak home were found in the suspects' residences.

The suspects? Four other Marines. Two of them worked for Pietrzak at Camp Pendleton where he was a helicopter mechanic.
Words fail me... I hope they use rotted rope so they have to drop them a few times,

Hey Shipwreck

This is some funny stuff.


There are 15 episodes in the first season. Really, these things are a scream.

Thanks Danny

With all the bad news lately I was gratified to read this in the newspaper this morning:

Grocer Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is telling employees it isn't going to wait for suppliers to pass along lower food prices before passing those on to customers - a savings Wegmans estimates will reach $12 million.

The Rochester-based supermarket chain said it is lowering prices on hundreds of products right now and absorbing the loss.

"These are uncertain times. We know our employees and customers are very concerned and so are we," Wegmans executives Danny Wegman and Colleen Wegman told employees in a joint statement Thursday. "During difficult times like these, it's OK with us if we make a little less money."

My wife shops exclusively at Wegmans and has done so for years. It is probably the cleanest, most well stocked, friendliest grocery store in the Country. It is also noted as one of the best corporations to work for. My daughter, who is in the Army, worked for them in their flower shop while she was in high school. The morning paper had a color photo of a Wegman's employee on the top of the local section. It was a photo of my wife's cousin, Chris, who is a produce manager.

"Though the lower costs we expect in 2009 haven't arrived yet, we think it's necessary to lower prices now," said Natale. "As a family-owned business, we can accept leaner profits in order to put employee and customer needs first."

[...]The company said the price reductions aren't temporary price promotions but will be in effect "for an extended period of time."

Way to go Danny Wegman.

The democrat Sponsored Extortion Starts In 3...2...1...

The voting machines are still warm yet but the democrats are already itching to pay back the unions. This bribe will be disguised in the form of an automotive industry bailout for about $25 billion. Why? Read this from the lips of the AFL-CIO:

Here’s how union members made the difference in last night’s big win.
* Union voters supported President-elect Barack Obama 67 percent to 30 percent over Sen. John McCain. In the top-tier battleground states the difference was even more stark, with union members going for Obama 69 to 28—a 41-point margin.
* While McCain won among voters ages 65 and up, active and retired union members older than 65 went for Obama by a 46-point margin.
* While McCain won among veterans, union veterans went for Obama by a 25-point margin.

The auto manufacturers are looking at an underfunded pension debacle that has been brewing for year. Read this NY Times article from 2005:

The End of Pensions
By ROGER LOWENSTEIN

I. THE LATEST FINANCIAL DEBACLE
When I caught up with Robert S. Miller, the chief executive of Delphi Corporation, last summer, he was still pitching the fantasy that his company, a huge auto-parts maker, would be able to cut a deal with its workers and avoid filing for bankruptcy protection. But he acknowledged that Delphi faced one perhaps insuperable hurdle - not the current conditions in the auto business so much as the legacy of the pension promises that Delphi committed to many decades ago, when it was part of General Motors.

This was the same fear that had obsessed Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the storied president of G.M., who warned way back in the 1940's that pensions and like benefits would be "extravagant beyond reason." But under pressure from the United Auto Workers union, he granted them. And as future auto executives would discover, pension obligations are - outside of bankruptcy, anyway - virtually impossible to unload. Unlike wages or health benefits, pension benefits cannot be cut. Unlike other contracts, which might be renegotiated as business conditions change, pension commitments are forever. And given the exigencies of the labor market, they tend to be steadily improved upon, at least when times are good.

For the U.A.W., Miller noted forlornly, "30 and Out" - 30 years to retirement - became a rallying cry. Eventually, the union got what it wanted, and workers who started on the assembly line after high school found they could retire by their early
50's. "These pensions were created when we all used to work until age 70 and then poop out at 72," Miller told me. "Now if you live past 80, a not-uncommon demographic, you're going to be taking benefits for longer than you are working.

That social contract is under severe pressure."

This was writen three years ago. Now fast forward to 2008. Nothing has changed except all the strings have come off the public purse.

“Alan Reuther, legislative director of the United Auto Workers, said in an interview that the group is proposing lawmakers approve up to $25 billion in new loans for General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Corp and Chrysler LLC. Reuther said the aid would cover pledged contributions to a retiree health care trust, the Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association [VEBA], which was negotiated last year with the companies.”

What does this buy us, the people who are stuck paying for it? We get to support UAW janitors and lawn mower jockeys who make $65 an hour.

According to the National Review:Massive job cuts at General Motors, America's largest carmaker — coupled with the bankruptcy of Delphi, America's biggest autoparts maker — have provoked predictable handwringing from liberal pundits who worry that America is "losing its manufacturing base." But the wrenching change now buffeting the auto industry defies the usual press formulas. Just listen to Steve Miller a turnaround specialist who is steering Delphi's restructuring process. He exploded the myth of America's "endangered" union manufacturing jobs at his October press conference announcing Delphi's move into Chapter 11: "We cannot continue to pay $65 an hour for someone to cut the grass and remain competitive."

Take grass cutting. As defined by the current United Auto Worker contract negotiated with the "Big Five" (GM, Ford, Chrysler, and top parts makers Delphi and Visteon), an auto "production worker" is a job description that covers anything from mowing grass to cleaning the toilets. In the real world, these jobs would be outsourced to $8 an hour, no-benefit wage earners, but on Planet Big Five, these jobs get the same wages as any auto line-worker: an average $26 an hour ($60,000 a year) plus benefits that bring the company's total cost per worker to a staggering $65 an hour.

But at least the grass cutters are working for their pay. The UAW contract also guarantees that 12,000 autoworkers get full wage for doing nothing. On the heels of Miller's straight-talk, the Detroit News reported that "12,000 American autoworkers, instead of bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank." These aren't jobs. And they certainly aren't being "lost" to China."We just go in (to Ford's Michigan Truck Plant) and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," The News quoted one UAW worker as saying. "Otherwise, I've just sat."

On top of that, the Holy One of Chicago will seek to enforce an open ballots law where union officials can look over your shoulder when you vote on whether or not to create a union shop.

Legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to hold a private ballot vote in unionization drives, which critics say would lead to harassment and intimidation, has spurred a pitched battle between powerful labor unions supportive of Sen. Barack Obama and big business in the presidential campaign.

Seen by the AFL-CIO as a way to boost union rolls by hundreds of thousands of new members, the hotly-contested bill has become this year's No. 1 election issue for organized labor. Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has promised union bosses that the Employee Free Choice Act will become law in 2009 if he wins the presidency in November.

"We're ready to play offense for organized labor. It's time we had a president who didn't choke saying the word 'union.' A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers," Mr. Obama told the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia on April 2.

"I will make it the law of the land when I'm president of the United States," Mr. Obama told the labor federation.

Yuppers, now there's a changey hope for you right there. Payback is a gold plated bitch when you're the one footing the bill. My thanks to all you who just helped create the Union Thug Entitlement Program.

No More Excuses!

The Republicans earned this. They blew it when they abandoned the tenets of good government and tried to be democrats. In the aftershock, or afterglow depending on your political affiliation, of the election this much is clear - there are no more excuses for the democrats. They are now in charge and must accept responsibility for everything that happens.

My bet is that for the next four years it will be the same bait and switch that the democrats usually pull. But we have to remain adamant; you got all those voters to pull the lever for you based on your promises. Now pony up.

No.
More.
Excuses.

Time To Dig In .... And Relax!

I voted early this morning before I went to work. No lines, no waiting and no exit polls.

I don't plan to watch election results because I refuse to allow the media to play with my head.

Even if you average all the polling results, I think the polls are so screwed up, so biased, so skewed that you end up averaging a turd. It's brown and it stinks. This same turd called for Democratic wins in the last two Presidential elections - wrong.

It is a shame that the polls don't show how urban political machines corrupt the election process. Like the Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philadelphia as reported by Fox News. I'll bet no other media outlet will report this.

Update sometime later:
I promised myself that I would not watch any TV at all today, but here I am watching Neil Cavuto.

I promised myself that I wouldn't get twitchy but I am taking an extra aspirin just in case I manage to throw a wrench in the ol' pump again.

I promised myself that I would avoid caffeine for the rest of the day for obvious reasons but that's out the window too.

I promised myself that I would keep everything in perspective and trust God in all things. This lead from Lucianne.com helped:

Let's face it, it ain't all about us.

SO RELAX!

Aunt Zeituni

It appears that the Dems are throwing up a smokescreen about Obama's illegal alien aunt. The London Times scoped her out after reading about her in Obama's book. They dug around a bit and found her in a Boston housing project- no thanks to US print or electronic media or other sources.

The trail that led to “Aunt Zeituni”, the relative of Barack Obama who was traced by The Times last week, started with Mr Obama’s memoir, one of the most widely read political autobiographies of all time.

The Democrat campaign has implied that the story might have come from Republican sources – “the American people are ... pretty suspicious of things that are dumped in the marketplace 72 hours before a campaign,” said Mr Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod yesterday.

In fact, the story came from a book that has been read by millions, including just about everyone connected to the Obama campaign. Dreams From My Father was first published in 1995, and the story of how Mr Obama returned to Kenya in 1988 to trace his roots has become the cornerstone of his political biography. Yet the US media appears to have overlooked the passage indicating that at least one relative of Mr Obama’s had moved to America and might still be there.

Now maybe someone can find this out:

Is she registered to vote?

If so, then she broke the law and should be arrested and summarily deported.

Funky Gallup

The following information comes from a pollster, DJ Drummond, at Wizbang.

Don't buy into the numbers given out by the Gallup organization regarding this election:

In conclusion, Gallup is assuming that because some democrats in some states are showing up strong in early voting, that this means a blow-out is coming. In truth the lower-than-expected totals of actual voting, combined with reports that no state so far is reporting blow-out numbers, demonstrates that the election is highly volatile and far from over, and depends as it has all along on the three key components of voter turnout, who wins the independent voter support, and which way the undecideds break. Don't be fooled, this race is still red hot.

MacBarack

There's so much Obama bashing going on that it seems that everyone has gone baby-seal hunting. Hopefully the only thing left of the Obama election cartoon come next Tuesday night will be a pair of jug ears and a seething core of unfulfilled ambition.

All this is a response to the carefully crafted drama that is the Obama Campaign for President. As in a Shakespearean play the antagonist has presented himself as one thing but behind the scenes, sotto voce, all kinds of hell is breaking loose.

ACT I
Alas Poor Obama, I Know Him!
Dr. Thomas Sowell in the TownHall.com

Barack Obama has the kind of cocksure confidence that can only be achieved by not achieving anything else.

[...]The kind of self-righteous self-confidence that has become Obama's trademark is usually found in sophomores in Ivy League colleges-- very bright and articulate students, utterly untempered by experience in real world.

The signs of Barack Obama's self-centered immaturity are painfully obvious, though ignored by true believers who have poured their hopes into him, and by the media who just want the symbolism and the ideology that Obama represents.

The media hath borne him on their backs a thousand times.

[..]For someone who has actually accomplished nothing to blithely talk about taking away what has been earned by those who have accomplished something, and give it to whomever he chooses in the name of "spreading the wealth," is the kind of casual arrogance that has led to many economic catastrophes in many countries.

and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is!

The equally casual ease with which Barack Obama has talked about appointing judges on the basis of their empathies with various segments of the population makes a mockery of the very concept of law.

My gorge rises at it.

After this man has wrecked the economy and destroyed constitutional law with his judicial appointments, what can he do for an encore? He can cripple the military and gamble America's future on his ability to sit down with enemy nations and talk them out of causing trouble.

The good Doctor has another full page of beatings, bludgeonings and bloody bashings like this:

Add to Obama and Biden House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and you have all the ingredients for a historic meltdown. Let us not forget that the Roman Empire did decline and fall, blighting the lives of millions for centuries.

All that's missing is a sword fight.

ACT II
Julius Obama gets the shaft from his friend.
Et tu Hillary?
By Anonymous at RedState.com This Brutus in the making offers her qualifications:

[...]During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets you’ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top.

Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker.

I’m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. I’m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope.

So much for the introductions. Then she sharpens the Ginsu and conceals it 'neath her toga.

Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

1 – Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas – particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaign’s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it.

The first nick hits between the third and fourth right lumbar. Sweeeeet.

2 – Sarah Palin. Don’t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing – we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I don’t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them.

One good thrust deserves another.

3 – Obama’s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry “racism” whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all.

One sign of a homicide with a possible sexual context is when there are multiple stab wounds to the body. Hell hath no fury like a scorned campaign worker?

4 – The Bradley Effect. Don’t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true “toss up states”. The only two of these the campaign feels “confident” in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark.

This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% “refuse to respond” result. You can’t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the “hip” choice, and we all know it.

You can strain spaghetti with Obama's toga now...

ACT III
The cruelest cut of all.
Via the intertubes, Obama is shown the Ghost of Banquo. Mama Obama speaks her mind regarding her husband's qualifications in this 2004 video clip.




Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous campaign fortune, or to strangle this bitch right now...

Background Investigations For Most Jobs Except...

Most organizations do background checks for their prospective employees. If you slide an employment application across the table to an HR guy, he is going to pass it on so you can be "vetted" as they say in the trade. At a minimum they will look for a criminal history, financial history and your academic history. If you aspire to a job where you will be doing confidential work or have access to confidential/secret information, the process is expanded to include your entire history: your friends, your neighbors, every place you've ever lived, every job you ever worked, every school you attended and your performance there, every moving violation ticket you ever got, your mortgage and credit history - the list goes on and on.

This is what my daughter is now going through for her clearance. I went through something similar years ago for my cop job.

But not Obama. Not for the highest elected position in the United States. Not for a person who aspires to have access to all our secrets. Read this post from sohos.

Peggy Joseph's Excellent Adventure And A Nation Of Morons

This is the goal of the Democratic Party - Obama envisions a nation of upper and lower classes: a lower class of morons whose vision is limited to what they feel the government can give them; and an upper class of elites who use the lower class as an experimental lab rat for their socialist policies. This woman; Peggy Joseph, is excited because she feels that she is no longer personally responsible for her own judgement and performance in the market place. She is now free to make the same mistakes over and over and over again without fear of penalty. Free at last, free at least. Thank God she's free at last.



The entitlement mind set so inelegantly posited by this woman has been carefully nurtured since the War On Taxpayers Poverty was initiated during the Lyndon Johnson years. The corrupt Johnson administration couldn't bear to bomb Hanoi and reduce it to rubble, thus bringing the commies to their knees; but he did find the taxpayers' wallets as a secondary Target of Opportunity and started bombing the bloody s-s-snot out of that. With only a modest abatement during the Reagan administration, this attack has continued non-stop ever since.

Obama promises an even greater fiscal onslaught with Operation ChangeyHope lurking behind the curtains until after his coronation. Once the Crown of Compassion is firmly ensconced upon his noble brow, his administration will unleash a full furied frontal assault upon the American middle class.

My sincere apologies to Brutus:

Bankruptcy and inflation shall be so in use
And dreadful failed business plans so familiar
That accountants shall but smile when they behold
Their 401k's quarter'd by the hands of Barack;
All pity choked with custom of subprime deeds:
And Barney Frank's spirit, raging for revenge,
With Biden by his side come hot from the botox,
Shall in the Congress with a voice of Change
Cry 'Hope,' and let slip the capital gains tax;
That this financial deed shall smite those above $120,000
With lazy democrats, groaning for redistribution.

I saw the video clip in a few places but I got the post idea from commenting over to USA_Admiral.

I AM JOE

Graphic and story from Iowahawk

I am Joe. I also was a plumber of sorts. Instead of sewer pipes, I crawled around in cesspools of human depravity.

I did not unclog waste lines, I tried to unravel the mess that human beings make of things. I collected smears of brain matter and bone fragments. I photographed people who had been turned into pork rinds by fire. And I am truly pissed.

We are just starting to get a good idea of the immense political muckraking machine that lept into action as soon as some poor schmuck spoke out of line to the Annointed One in Ohio.

I am appalled at the misuse of government databases in this thinly disguised attempt to discredit and humiliate a private citizen. I use government databases at work and if I were to go on a curiousity jaunt through any of them without a legitimate reason, I could be arrested. Cancel that, I would be arrested.

The American public would have been much better served if the media had spent a tenth of the time vetting Obama as they have ripping Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher apart. There is much we do not know about the democratic candidate for President and this information is not forthcoming. The media should have vetted Obama as they did everyone else who has an "R" after their name.

But instead, we have been subjected to a never ending stream of irrelevant crap about people who cannot effect the way we live or how well we will survive the next few years.

Joe Wurzelbacher will not determine whether or not I will be able to deduct my 401k contributions from my gross income next year.

Joe will not be deciding whether or not to deploy troops to some future terrorist-ridden hell hole.

Joe will not have a say on whether or not the subprime mortgages will be allowed to continue to poison the equity markets.

Whether or not Joe has a good year will not determine how much I can help my youngest child meet her college costs.

I don't care if Joe hung around with murderous anarchists or if he screwed the pooch with a multimillion dollar education grant or if his pastor for twenty years hates America. Joe is not running for the highest elected office in the land.

All Hail Obama

Stolen shamelessly from Misha.

Safe At DLI

Our daughter made it to DLI in Monterey and the airline finally found her luggage. She and her friend didn't get in trouble. She went to sick call Monday and she does have a sinus infection. They gave her some antibiotics and she starts her classes in two weeks. Then she settles in for the next year and a half.

Obama's Homicidal Buddy Ayers

This is a 1982 clip from a former police informant who penetrated the Weatherman radical organization who says that Ayers and his fellow 60's terrorists were planning the creation of forced re-education camps, the murder of as many as 25 million Americans and the occupation of the United States by Russian, Chinese and Vietnamese troops.

If this wasn't so chilling it would be ridiculous, laughable. But looking back at this time in history, I can almost see these bandanna clad wannabe Che's plotting and planning and smoking weed like it was all going to go down the next week. My campus was filled with these fools. Hippie thugs, Obama's buddies.

PFC Hunter Levine

Over at the Rott, LC Crunchie posted a story about the plight of a 20 year old soldier who was terribly wounded in Iraq. His name is Hunter Levine and he is from Houston, TX.

An Army Mom by the name of Tammy got involved and has links to this site for everyone who has a heart to help our brave soldiers: armyhousehold6. You can join a growing network of concerned citizens who want to assist soldiers who are in very difficult circumstances.

Tammy relates the following information:

From 1SG Brian M. Disque
I know a young man who is in desperate need of help. His name is PFC Hunter Levine. He is 20 years old and hails from Houston, TX.

He was in my company and was wounded on 9 May, 2008 while conducting combat operations in East Baghdad. He received a very serious injury to his face, resulting in the loss of his entire bone structure, mouth, nose, and vision.

He was evacuated to Walter Reed Hospital where the doctors performed numerous surgeries to repair his face. I was fortunate enough to attend a Purple Heart Ceremony at Walter Reed while I was home on leave in June. I was also able to meet with Hunter’s father Beau.

Hunter was then transferred to a VA hospital in Palo Alto, where the best care for his vision would be available. He is a true fighter with a heart of gold.

Bad News
Unfortunately, I received some bad news from the hospital doctors. Lately, he has been resisting treatment and being somewhat combative with the hospital staff. He has had a few outbursts and the staff is real worried about him. It seems like a serious case of depression is setting in.

Although his wounds on the outside may look bad, they may never compare with the wounds he has on the inside. I spoke with him on the phone this evening, and he seemed real down. The reality is that he still has a long road to recover and may never see again.

This young man has everything to live for and is a true inspiration. He is exactly the kind of person we would all want in a brother, son, or friend. I feel obligated to try and rally some support for him. I know we have a lot of caring people out there who would love to do something special for an outstanding American who gave his all for his country.

Call to Action
If you know of any church groups, school room classes, or other benevolent organizations that would be interested in assisting this brave young man, please forward this message on to them. He is a pretty typical young man, so he likes sports and other typical young men stuff. A small care package with some goodies and such would mean the world.

Again, please forward this message to as many people as you know. It would be so great if we can all give way together and show Hunter that his country will never forget his sacrifices or service. He is down and needs our help.

Thank you for your support, it means everything.

V/R, 1SG
Brian M. Disque
C CO 2-30 IN

Contact Tammy if you would like to help this young soldier or LC Crunchie at the Rott.

Bravo Company Graduation, 1/48th Infantry Battalion

We returned home from Fort Leonard Wood last night around midnight. This morning we are pooped.

I don't know if I'll ever fly with Continental Airlines again. But I do know that I never want to step foot in the Newark Airport again.

Anyway, we left the house at 0715 to go to the airport and arrived at St. Louis around 1615. Once we got to St. Louis we were greeted by some of the nicest strangers you could ever meet. Then it was a two and a half hour drive to reach our Hampton Inn hotel in St. Roberts which is about four miles form Fort Leonard Wood. We checked in around 1900 , unpacked and got something to eat then collapsed in bed. Asleep by 2100.

We had a hasty breakfast and got to the base around 0710 the next morning. It's a good thing we left early. There was a two mile traffic jam in front of the base - tons of people going to work or attending other graduations.

We arrived at Baker Theater on Iowa Ave. and joined about 600-700 people who were there for their loved one's graduation. There were a few PR type videos and then the company Commander, Capt. Cole, introduced the graduates. He warned us that we are in his house and his house gets noisy. And then the house came down.

Everyone went nuts as Bravo Company marched in, all four platoons. Our daughter was 4th Platoon. It was amazing. Each platoon then marched separately onto the stage with their Drill Sargent singing their cadence. The soldiers then shouted their rank, last name and home state and marched off the stage. Here's part of it here but there is a 100 Mb limit on these clips and only this was small enough to fit.

There were special awards for outstanding effort. Our daughter got one for having a perfect physical fitness rating, 300 out of 300. And then it was over.

We got together at Shea Gym afterwards and met her three drill sergeants along with some of her classmates. There are not many pics here because, well, her MOS is mil intel, I don't know where her friends are being transferred for AIT and it just ain't a good idea to throw a clear pic of her face or her friends' around the Internet.

Then we took off to the PX for some shopping. A few hundred dollars later we finally got off base and asked her where she wanted to eat. We were almost back to the hotel and she yelled "Cracker Barrel!" It was the first non-fast food restaurant we drove by. She was just so desperate for non-Army food. She scarfed down her pulled pork sandwich with fries and sweet potato casserole like she just got out of jail.

We then returned to our hotel and just sat around talking for hours while she drank tea (no caffeinated beverages at all were allowed during basic training) and TheraFlu for her cold. We ate dinner at the same grill as the night before and had to have her back on base by 2045.

We drove back on base and walked her to her barracks ("You got five minutes Bravo!" yelled a female sgt. with a thick Jamaican accent). We left when the sergeants called everyone into formation (count heads to see if any one went AWOL).
This pic is as we were walking away. There are almost 200 soldiers in Bravo Company and they are all going to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) - many for medical training and transportation. Only three are mil intel and will fly to Monterey for DLI.

We slept in the next morning; our daughter called us at 0900 and said they were all outside the barracks sitting on their gear and waiting for orders. No one had a clue.

We left the hotel around 1100. At 1130 we stopped in Rolla, MO, for brunch. While eating our meal (thanks but no grits for me), our daughter called and said she was on the bus and had just left the base. The driver had just put "Ironman" on the bus's dvd system. She was on her way to St. Louis airport and her flight wouldn't leave until about 1600. Great! We could see her again in St. Louis for a little while.

We ditched the car at Enterprise (I will never rent another Corolla! It only had 2,800 miles on it when we rented it and the interior was falling apart already. It was an uncomfortable, annoying little car!) and grabbed the shuttle to the airport. We walked into the ticket area and it was a sea of green. Soldiers were lined up everywhere getting their boarding passes.

Our daughter found us and then we found a Starbucks. She was wearing her brand new ACU's. It was only an hour but you just hate to let the time go. But she is a soldier now and she belongs to Uncle Sam. We finally said our goodbyes for the last time and she walked away. She's so dawg goned little but she has the determination of a six footer.

The flight to Newark was late but uneventful. The Continental people in St. Louis were mocking Newark Airport as we waited for the plane to arrive. I just hate these little jets. The ERJ145 has only three aisles; one seat along the left side of the plane and two seats along the right side. You just can't get comfortable in it. Thank God I didn't have to use the rest room.

What can I say about Newark Airport? It is huge and under construction. When we landed I could see that there were lots of aircraft lined up ass-to-nose along the runways.

Continental contracts with a smaller provider for service to Syracuse and you fly these little turboprops that sound like insane angry eggbeaters. The actual flight only lasted about forty-five minutes and we were taxing around for longer than that trying to take off. The idiot captain binged us and said that we would be waiting four or five minutes to take off. Forty minutes later we were still on the ground.

We sat in the very ass end of the plane, a Bombardier Q-200 that seats only 39 people; any more passengers and you have to install meat hooks. The prop wash was shaking us like a terrier with a chew toy. Applause broke out in the cabin when the blasted thing finally took off. They should issue 'ludes as standard fare whenever you board these little stinking planes.

We got into Syracuse and drove home. Today it is raining and we're just putting things away and making calls.

Our daughter called about 1500. She is in the plane at LAX - she was not allowed on the flight from LAX to Monterey last night because she had a bad nose bleed. She called the base and offered to rent a car and drive the six hours to DLI, but they told her to catch another flight in the morning. One of her buddies from basic who is also assigned to DLI is still with her and refused to travel onto DLI without her. They drill it into your head not to abandon your buddy and this gal did just that. The guy that was with them left but I don't think he knew she was not able to fly.

The two of them spent the night at the LAX USO on a couch.

That darn head cold of hers.... she was blowing her nose so much that the discharge has been flecked with blood for several days in a row. She finally popped something. The USO people took good care of them; she slept about ten hours but she still sounds terrible..

She did the correct thing and called the base to notify them right away of her transportation issues. She is still worried that she may be in trouble. I told her that she is just following orders. They told her to grab another flight in the morning, nothing was said about waiting for the MP's to arrest her. I truly hope the soldier who stayed with her is not in hot water.

She really has to get herself to sick bay first thing.

Off To Lost In The Woods

Our daughter finishes basic training this week and the graduation exercise is Thursday. She'll now be a Spec-4 just in time to be shipped off to DLI in Monterey, CA, for a year and a half.

So tomorrow morning we fly to St. Louis. From there we rent a car and drive two hours to Fort Leonard Wood to partake in the festivities. Neither my wife nor I have flown since the late seventies so this should be interesting.

I was texting her at work today about the small aircraft we are going to fly in: "The Widow Maker" (a Bombardier Q400 to Newark with some crop dusting jobs along the way) and "The Angel O'Death" (a newer Embraer RJ 145 from Newark to St Lou). Things certainly have changed with the gas crunch.

Bombardier Q400

RJ 145

She has since decided to render herself semi-conscious for the entire trip with Dramamine washed down with vintage YooHoo .

We'll be back Saturday if the stinkin' Fokkers leave us alone. I'll be watching our six the entire way. See ya then.

It's A Hoe Down

Surprisingly enough, my knees don't feel too bad this morning. We went square dancing last night. Haven't done that in more than a few decades.

Adam, a friend of our daughter (the one in boot camp), is a junior transfer to Syracuse this year. He is one of twelve children from a small farm community just northeast of Binghamton. While at SU he is attending our church through one of our supported youth outreach ministries - Campus Bible Fellowship. A few weeks ago he invited us to a square dance that his parents hold twice a year on their farm, once in the spring and another in the fall.

In preparation for the festivities, yesterday morning I stopped at Leubner's Apple Farm to pick up a few fresh baked apple pies (snuck in an apple fritter for the road too). Can't remember when, but somewhere I remember hearing that you can't go to a square dance without bringing a pie.

Once you get away from the major upstate NY cities strung out along the I-90 and I-81 highways, there isn't much else but farms and forests. It took us about an hour to drive to the huge barn that Adam's parents have next to their house.

The farm is about two miles down a dirt road located off a minor well paved highway. From I-81 you travel east and then south about fifteen miles and see only a few homes; you pass though a small village that doesn't have a stop light. There is only one stop sign the entire way.

We left the house at about 6 pm so the sun was already starting to go down. When we pulled up at the barn an hour later it was completely dark and the temperature hovered right around freezing. The barn was large (five bays wide at least) and all lit up. There had to be seventy people either dancing or watching the activities.

There were several tables lined up in the rear of the barn, all covered with various snacks, finger foods and beverages. I stuck the apple pie near some donuts. Next to the tables was a car covered in a blue tarp. The rear end stuck out a few inches and I could see that it was a late 60's Pontiac. Adam's parents introduced themselves and asked who we were. Adam was dancing and waved.

Almost all the dancers were either teens or in their early twenties. Just a few were wearing a sweater or a jacket. Many of the young girls were barefoot. Did I say it was chilly? I could see my breath.

I am not much of a dancer, never have been. But I grit my teeth and we joined a square. The caller was very good, very patient and tried to explain every dance. The wife and I know "do sa do" and "swing your partner" from grade school. Everything else was a disaster. I thought allemande was where Rommel got his ass kicked in North Africa. Then I thought he called something about marmalade and we were completely lost. But we got though that sequence without humiliating ourselves completely.

Now it is time for refreshments. Ten minutes later it is time to dance, but now it is line dancing. Adam's mom says "This is for the young people" as Cotton Eyed Joe blares out of the speakers. She asks about our daughter in boot camp and we provide the details of our upcoming trip to Missouri. We talk for some time about the farm and our families. Most of her children are in the barn. She has wonderful kids - all home schooled.

The sequence is now made clear. A half hour of square dancing and ten to fifteen minutes of refreshments and socializing. The snacks are disappearing from the tables and our pie goes the way of all pastries.

Forty or so people are line dancing. I stay on the sidelines talking to Adam's mom who is holding her youngest, a 21 month old little girl, if I recollect her name is Sara. Sara hands me her cup of water and I have to take care of it for a while. I give Sara my empty cup of soda and she hangs on to it for a while. Pay back is sweeeet...

There is a rest and refreshments time out and I find myself talking to Adam's dad again. The Pontiac under the blue tarp belongs to his nephew and has been in his barn for the past five years. Time to dance again.

Now the caller is trying to hurt us. I think he is making this stuff up as he goes along just to mess with us. But we are all game and off we go. At least we are moving 'cause it is getting cold. I hold some girl's hand in a allemande and it is like I grabbed a cold dead fish. The teens are hopping up and down trying to get warm but they don't put their shoes or their sweaters on. I think my nose is running but by now I don't care.

The last dance is something called a "six and two" and the allemande left with a half swing is our undoing. No one gets it. We promenade instead and then just swing. I got a little dizzy and my knees are killing me. But we had a lot of fun and it was a great way to spend an evening.

Time to go home. My bride's teeth are chattering and she can't feel her feet. We got an hour ride ahead of us. Adam's dad passes the hat for the caller. We say our goodbyes.

Both on the way down and returning home we see a lot of deer. So many in fact that I drive slower because I am concerned that one will come running out of the dense cover that lines the roads and I won't be able to stop in time.

Adam invited me to hunt down here when the season opens. I haven't gone deer hunting in years and I just may take him up on it.

The Polls

There is something interesting about the latest AP/YAHOO poll posted on the front page of today's Drudge Report (10/17/08).

AP/YAHOO Poll of 873 Democrats; 650 Republicans shows OBAMA 44%, MCCAIN 42%...

The math works out this way:

A total of 1,523 people were polled: 873 Democrats and 650 Republicans. This breaks out to 57% Democrats and 43% Republican.

Yet Only 44% of the sample population voted for Obama - this works out to 670 for Obama and 640 for McCain with 17% (213) not voting for either one or undecided.

While the Republican percentage of the sample voting for McCain holds true for the total sample percentage, 43% vs. 42%, the Democratic side of the equation is definitely weaker, 57% vs. 44%, voting for Obama.

It may not mean a blessed thing and I am not going to try to determine what the party affiliations of the undecided are from the link (good luck if you're that ambitious); but like I said, it is interesting.

Force Obama To Put His Cards On The Table

I borrowed this from Cookie. I have heard of these accusations for some time now but this is the first time I have seen the video. It kinda blows you away. This video is about a lawsuit seeking to force Obama to prove he is a natural born US citizen.

Obama could squash this lawsuit in an instant -

JUST BY RELEASING THE DOCUMENTS!

But he refuses. And that makes me suspicious as hell.

We're Getting Closer To The Mark Of The Beast

Over the past few days I have been too discouraged to finish the two posts I started.
My wife and I both have 401K's that have tanked like everything else.
The election is up for grabs.
More than grabs, it is being grabbed - democratic voter registration fraud is rampant.
The democrats (and more than a few republicans too) responsible for forcing the subprime disaster upon us are not only getting clean away with it, but they have kept the campaign contributions made by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac execs into their political coffers.
Local governments are quaking in their boots at the economic downtown and what it will do to their budgets. People I know have already been told their services will no longer be required as of December 31.
Banks are being given the Corleone "or else" option in being federalized.

But then there is Psalm 73, verses 2 through 9:

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

In times like this there is a need for prospective and clarity. You have to get above the mess and look down at what is happening. The man who wrote Psalm 73, Asaph, did just that.

17Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
18Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
19How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

We look for reasons why things happen. Well, God is getting his ducks in a row. We are one step closer to the end times. This is why.

The Book of Revelations, chapter 13, calls for the mark of the Beast:

11And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The mark of the Beast is an economic control imposed on everyone who desires to do commerce. If you control a person's economic activity, for all intents and purposes you control that person.

And we are one step closer to that realization.

The government is getting nearer and nearer to complete control over our economy - and Europe is even further along that path. The technology exists now to accomplish this "mark" that will regulate all your economic activity- a microchip embedded under the skin will do the job nicely; very much like the ID microchips implanted in cats and dogs now.

This chip would contain all your personal information, bank accounts, credit, etc. As a matter of fact, it would be advertised as a means to eliminate a lot of fraud. Cash money would then be eliminated from the economy because everyone would be paid electronically. This would wipe out the underground economy; the government would know every dime you earned, where you earned it and who paid you. And you could no longer cheat on your taxes because you can't hide your income.

Just like mandatory preschool inoculation, give the government a chance and they will be mandating microchip implants in children to "protect" them from abduction.

And this economic crisis has all the earmarks of an artifically induced event. This would not have happened without the active participation of the government in relaxing lending restrictions for unqualified borrowers. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and many others fought hard to counter any attempts to rectify this situation.

Let me be clear on this: I am not suggesting that Obama and the democrats or anyone else is working for the Beast or the Antichrist or anything like that. But God works through events. He reveals His will through the nations. He is in control whether or not we know it and whether or not we like it. He is completely sovereign and we can trust in Him to accomplish His will.

Home On The Range

I took a little time and went to the range this weekend. I put 150 rounds through the Kimber and never again will I buy Wolf ammo.

I have been packing a sidearm since 1973 - revolvers and autoloaders of just about every caliber and make. I wore a S&W Model 4506 stainless for almost ten years as a duty weapon and threw thousands of rounds through it.

I have never seen a weapon get as filthy from gunpowder residue as my .45 Kimber Custom stainless shooting Wolf full jacketed round nose ammo. What is with this funky crap? I never shot it before and never will again.

UDATE
Add I forgot to mention this. I had two rounds that refused to feed properly. I have used five different automatics (three .45's, one 9mm and a .25) and never had this happen, not even a stove pipe jam.

Obama's Twisted Trail

I received this as an email today. I don't know from whence it originated, but I assume that it has been making the rounds.

I cannot verify the following but what I have done is imbed links so that you can refer to certain elements that are mentioned. I have also added some editorial comments in the midst of the narrative 'cause there is just too much happening in Obama's life for mere coincidence to account for.

This election has me very worried. So many things to consider. About a year ago I would have voted for Obama. I have changed my mind three times since then. I watch all the news channels, jumping from one to another. I must say this drives my husband crazy. But, I feel if you view MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with.

About six months ago, I started thinking 'where did the money come from for Obama'. I have four daughters who went to College, and we were middle class, and money was tight. We (including my girls) worked hard and there were lots of student loans. I started looking into Obama's life. Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. 'Barry' (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid [this is interesting ~sig94], both from Pakistan.

During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a 'round the world' trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia [this link would be better if they removed the colon cleansing banner ad ~sig94], next Hyderabad [WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? ~sig94] in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan, [Obama stayed with Chandoo's family; Chandoo likes to donate $$ to politicians and lives in Armonk, NY - he refuses to discuss his relationship with Obama ~sig94] where he stayed with his roommate's family, then off to Africa to visit his father's family[where his half-brother now lives in a old Tampex cardboard box ~ sig94].

My question - Where did he get the money for this trip? Nether I, nor any one of my children would have had money for a trip like this when they where in college. When he came back he started school at Columbia University in New York . It is at this time he wants everyone to call him Barack - not Barry. Do you know what the tuition [don't know if this is for a semester or for the entire academic year ~sig94]is at Columbia? It's not cheap to say the least. Where did he get money for tuition? Student Loans? Maybe.

After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000. a year. Why Chicago? Why not New York? He was already living in New York .

By 'chance' he met Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, born in Aleppo, Syria, [it appears that Aleppo could be a rats nest of terrorists ~sig94] and a real estate developer in Chicago. Rezko has been convicted of fraud and bribery this year. Rezko, was named 'Entrepreneur of the Decade' by the Arab-American Business and Professional Association'.

About two years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Do you have any idea what tuition [fast approaching $40 large a year ~sig94] is for Harvard Law School? Where did he get the money for Law School? More student loans? After Law school, he went back to Chicago . Rezko offered him a job, which he turned down. But, he did take a job with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. [looks like ACORN used this firm while shaking down various banks ~sig94]

Guess what? They represented 'Rezar' which Rezko's firm. Rezko was one of Obama's first major financial contributors when he ran for office in Chicago . In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama which Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendelland claims was instrumental in providing Obama with 'seed money' for his U.S. Senate race [lots of linky love here but it appears to be all indirect references to Mendelland's article and all the language is virtually the same ~sig94].

In 2005, Obama purchased a new home in Kenwood District [really now, how did Sen. Obama afford this primo piece of property? Community organizin' and edgamakayshunal grant fundin' must shure be profitable ~sig94] of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than asking price). With ALL those Student Loans - Where did he get the money for the property? On the same day Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price. The London Times reported that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born Billionaire loaned Rezko $3. 5 million three weeks before Obama's new home was purchased. Obama met Nadhmi Auchi many times with Rezko. [This sumbitch Auchi is papered out the ass ~sig94]

Now, we have Obama running for President. Valerie Jarrett [she is a native Irani and worked for Chicago Mayor Washington in 1987 as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development - is it me or does there seem to be an awful lot of financial shit flying around Obama? ~sig94], was Michele Obama's boss. She is now Obama's chief advisor and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz , Iran ! Do we see a pattern here? Or am I going crazy?

On May 10, 2008 The Times reported, Robert Malley [WHAT THE HELL? This sumbitch was Assistant to National Security Advisor Sandy Berger from 1996-1998! ~sig94] advisor to Obama was 'sacked' after the press found out he was having regular contacts with 'Hamas', which controls Gaza and is connected with Iran . This past week, buried in the back part of the papers, Iraqi newspapers reported that during Obama's visit to Iraq , he asked their leaders to do nothing about the war until after he is elected, and he will 'Take care of things'.

Oh, and by the way, remember the college roommates that where born in Pakistan? They are in charge of all those 'small' Internet campaign contribution for Obama. Where is that money coming from? The poor and middle class in this country? Or could it be from the Middle East ?

And the final bit of news. On September 7, 2008, The Washington Times posted a verbal slip that was made on 'This Week' with George Stephanapoulos. Obama on talking about his religion said, 'My Muslim faith'. When questioned, 'he make a mistake'. Some mistake!

All of the above information I got on line. If you would like to check it - Wikipedia, encyclopedia, Barack Obama; Tony Rezko; Valerie Jarrett: Daily Times - Obama visited Pakistan in 1981; The Washington Times - September 7, 2008; The Times May 10, 2008.

Now the BIG question - If I found out all this information on my own, Why haven't all of our 'intelligent' members of the press been reporting this? A phrase that keeps ringing in my ear - "Beware of the enemy from within"!!!

The question is begging for an answer - where is the media in all this?

UPDATE: I found the email here and there is a name attached to it; Naomi Regan. She is an American born author living in Israel. And she has more to say about the 2008 Presidential election here.