Ground Zero Imam Travels on Uncle Sam’s Nickel!

"The State Department will be footing the bill for Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the controversial ground zero mosque, as he embarks on a tour of the Middle East.

Plans for the $100 million mosque have drawn strong criticism from 9/11 families, as well as prominent figures such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.

Rauf personally has become controversial because he refuses to acknowledge Hamas is a terrorist group and for his stated belief U.S. foreign policy partly was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

The trip’s announcement Monday raises concerns Rauf will be taking advantage of taxpayer dollars to raise money for the divisive project. But the State Department says the publicly funded trip intends to foster “greater understanding” about Muslim communities in the United States."

WHO GIVES A RAT'S ASS??

We already HAVE a "greater understanding about Muslim communities in the United States", and that understanding is that those communities are a potential threat to the security of our nation. Perhaps the trip is meant to "foster greater understanding about Muslim communities in the United States" among ARAB nations. If that's the case, then let Feisal Abdul Rauf pay for his own trip! Why should you and I have our tax dollars squandered on a junket for somebody who wishes us nothing but ill-will?

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE BUREAUCRACY IN WASHINGTON D.C.?

Obama's Motto

Conservative Kiosk Not Allowed At Mall

Here's an interesting story from WCNC in Charlotte, N.C.. The upshot of this story is that a man opened a kiosk in the Concord Mills Mall in the spring of 2009, only to be told that he would not be allowed to renew his lease upon expiration the last day of July 2009. What was he making available to the public that was so horrific the mall no longer desired his business? Was he selling pornography? Drugs? Alcohol without a license? No, he was offering none of those things.

Loren Spivack, the owner of the kiosk, was selling items critical of King Barack Obama's administration. Among the items he offered for sale were poster and bumper stickers bearing slogans like:

"Impeach Obama."

"Al Qaeda's favorite days: 9/11/01 and 11/04/08."

"Work Harder. Obama needs the money."

At least one passerby found them racist and bigoted, and took time to tell the mall in a letter and a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer. Racist?? I don't see anything racist in those political statements. There is no use of the of the dreaded "N" word, nor is there any reference to Obama being half white or the first gray president of the USA.

What I do see is an expression of disagreement with the outcome of the 2008 election and with the extravagant disbursal of taxpayer money by an administration too stupid to put any restrictions of use on the bailout contracts - if the government lawyers even bothered to make contracts! Perhaps that was just payback for financial support during the campaign...

I love our Constitution, because it guarantees us protection from so many things... and guarantees us protection of many other things. In fact, our founders felt it was so important to protect our RIGHTS to freedom of religion, freedom of speech (and by extension, freedom of expression) and freedom of the press, that they guaranteed those freedoms in the very 1st Amendment! I used to work in Concord N.C., 40-odd years ago, and I recall those folks as being God-fearing, freedom- and Constitution-loving Americans. Looks like they all died or moved away... and were replaced by yellow-bellied, left-wing, California Democrats. (We have America's left-wing, liberal, public education system to thank for those attitudes.)

For all the things our Constitution guarantees us, nowhere does it guarantee - or even suggest - that we have a right to never be offended. Here's an unusually clever idea - if you find things in a store that you find personally offensive... DON'T SHOP THERE! Organize a boycott, picket the store - exercise your 1st Amendment right to express your feelings about their products. In a free market economy, you have choices as to where you wish to spend your money. If enough people share your point of view, then the issue will become self-correcting when the store goes out of business in 6 months. Don't go whining to daddy about, "How dare they sell something with which I disagree... oh yeah, and I find it offensive as well!" As a margin note, I should also mention that the owner of the mall group, Mel Simon, is known as a generous contributor to Democratic causes and politicians, including Barack Obama.

Personally, I hope that Loren Spivack gets a first rate attorney, and sues the mall ownership into bankruptcy. For the complete story go to (copy-n-paste):
http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-072109-mrn-freemarketwarrior. 63b5b ce2.html

Bogus Tea Party Statistics - The Left Marginalizes Freedom of Speech

Looking back over the government- and media-reported Tax Day Tea Party counts, it seems that there were only "thousands" or "tens of thousands" disgusted American citizens participating in the event. I have been unable to find any realistic total figure published anywhere.

The closest figure I have been able to find was "15% of the parties have reported, and their total is 400,000", which extrapolates to 2,666,666 at 100%. That's TWO POINT SIX MILLION participants nationwide! However, the left-wing media is obviously unwilling to legitimize the movement by accurately reporting the total national number. If my math is only half correct it would still be 1.3 million angry Americans. Does a number that large deserve to be ignored... and labeled as "right-wing extremists who bear close watching"?

If the Government continues to ignore the voice of fiscal responsibility and conservatism, who knows what the final response will be? I doubt that these Americans will simply roll over and play dead, as the left desires, but available options are severely limited. A government that is unresponsive to the will of the people is a dictatorship.

I suppose I could be wrong about this, but it would require a much more active imagination than mine to convince me I was wrong.

Corporate Bailout Problem? Just Throw MORE Money At It!

The biggest problem in the corporate bailouts seems to be the corporate mindset, from which has come the "Corporate Culture". Lavish parties, excessive - and frequent - bonuses, Golden Parachutes, private jets, corporate cars, and out-of-control expense accounts, are just a few of the perks offered by most major corporations.

As enjoyable as these things may be to the recipients, they are extravagances that few major corporations can realistically afford in these hard economic times. If we are to save the economy, and the jobs of the wage earning employees (as opposed to the salaried white-collar management-types), we must change the Corporate Culture. Without the workers there is nothing to support the upper level liabilities. But, here's the rub - everybody wants those perks! Where does the wanting begin? That's hard to say. The marketing department wants to offer "incentives" to prospective customers, as do the outside sales people. Whether it's a pair of pantyhose given to the manager of a 7-11 by a vendor for better exposure space in the store, or a new car given to a fleet buyer for - say Hertz or Enterprise - it is nonetheless something that both buyers and sellers have come to expect. It's just a different part of the "entitlement culture" that has been growing like an insidious cancer since the 1960's. They see such incentives as investments rather than expenses. These things are given with the implied understanding that they will result in increased sales and productivity for the company providing them. Interestingly, our culture does not seem to see this as corruption. "Corruption" is an all-inclusive concept:

a: impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle : depravity
b: inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery)
c: a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct

What is "pure or correct" in a free-market economy is that a product either succeeds or fails on its own merit. It must be of sufficient quality and affordability to attract a large percentage of buyers, thereby generating enough income to survive in the marketplace... that would apply primarily to tools and other practical merchandise. When it comes to unnecessary, but desirable items (cars, clothing, entertainment items) you can add "attractiveness" to the short list of characteristics a "pure or correct" item should have. (I realize that these are substantially idealistic thoughts on my part.) Retailers - when left to their own devices - can easily determine which products/services are generating the most profit, and assign available exposure space accordingly.

The most egregious corruption comes from the ranks of "lobbyists" - people who are armed with corporate money for graft, and are paid primarily to pimp products and services to various government officials and agencies. Why is that? Because the best place to peddle corruption is to those who find corruption not only an acceptable business practice, but a desirable one! This practice gave us some amazing government issue items, such as: $800 toilets seats, $400 glass ashtrays, and $200 screws.

Eliminating the "Corporate Culture" may be impossible, for as long as there are people involved - and people are fallible - who prefer those outrageous benefits to the rewards of a solid work ethic, there will always be corruption, mismanagement, malfeasance, and backroom deals in both the corporate and political worlds. I should probably stop now... I'm beginning to convince myself that there are some benefits to a Marxist government-controlled society, and I know the trade-offs make that untrue!

I could be totally wrong about this... what do you think? Or, is thinking an activity you prefer to avoid?

Tea Bags and (Tea) Tax Parties ... Be Heard On Taxation

We have a couple of important dates coming up ... April 1st (not my choice for a date) has been set as the date for all concerned American citizens to send one tea bag to Washington D.C. as a gentle reminder that the government serves at our pleasure. (I'm aware that I've mentioned this before, in passing, during another post. I simply feel it is worth mentioning at least once again - in case you missed it.) I would suggest addressing your envelope to:

Current Resident
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C. 20500

It also wouldn't hurt to send one to both of your congressional and senatorial representatives. It's a cheap and convenient way to let those we elected to serve our country know that we are watching their performance, and that we are not particularly pleased. The whole package will only cost you about 50¢ each, and you don't even have to go out in the weather and carry a sign to make your displeasure known! So much for April 1st - let those fools know this is no joke!

Next item: As you are all aware, April 15th is tax day. There is an organized nationwide movement (in 40 states at last count). We have just witnessed how "responsibly" the Government is handling our tax dollars. That's right, OUR TAX DOLLARS! The Government has no money of its own - only that which we provide via taxation. Do you think Obama has a paper route? Or that Pelosi is a "nail technician" on the side? Those few supposedly revenue producing functions the government does have, like the Government Printing Office, operate at a loss. The Government just gave $165 BILLION of our tax dollars to AIG ... without placing any restrictions on its use! How stupid is that?? Go to your local lender and ask for $50,000 on just your signature. Then, when they ask how you plan to use the money tell them, "Any way I damn well please!". How successful do you think your request for funds would be? You would probably be thrown out of the building - from an upper-level window! The tax protest is not "anti-tax", it's anti-waste, anti-fraud and anti-pork. It's our way of saying ENOUGH!! Stop the bailouts, stop the stimulus, stop the borrowing, stop the spending, we have more than enough government, and too many taxes! To see if your state is among those participating go to (copy-n-paste):
http://taxdayteaparty.com/find.html

If you have an opportunity to be heard, and fail to take advantage of it, you deserve whatever the outcome.

I could be ... Nah ... NO WAY!

Was Thomas Jefferson Related to Nostrodamus?

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson

A Little Quick Math ...

A little quick math tells us that of the $410 billion Omnibus Spending Bill of which Nazi Pelosi is so proud (the governments operating capital for the remainder of 2009), and thanks to the "elimination of earmarks" promised by Barack Obama (there were only 8,570 earmarks in the bill - I suppose that's called "elimination" in the mystical language of politics), there was only $7,700,000,000 ($7.7 billion) set aside for those eliminated earmarks.

There are two ways to look at this, I suppose:

1. Pork accounts for just under 2% of the Omnibus Spending Bill, or

2. The mathematical mean average cost per slice of eliminated pork is only $898,483.08.

On the positive side, that is slightly less than $1 million per slice ... not much less ... but less. I'm glad our newly elected President has the intelligence to be a good steward of our tax dollars - I just wish he'd USE that intelligence!

Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle of Rum!

Arrrr, Maties! 'Tis the crewe of Cap'n Obama, sailing up the Potomac into D.C., and plundering the coffers of the United States of America ... and they're taking no prisoners. Instead they are putting the financial future of this country into jeopardy for the next one hundred years!

Most people, myself included, have no concept of the word "trillion" or what it represents numerically. Certainly most of us understand hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands, but the numeric concept becomes a bit blurry around the million mark, and from there on it's all downhill. Thanks to Alexander E. Braun, I have a few examples of what a trillion actually represents in terms that you may be able to get your head around:

A trillion seconds add up to 31,710 years. If you started your count while Egypt’s Great Pyramid was being built, you’d have over 26,000 years to go.

If you wanted your trillion dollars in $100 bills, you’d have to carry off 10,000,000,000 bills. This roughly adds up to 9,370 tons of paper—the U-Haul folks will love you!

Stacked one on top of the other a column of those $100 bills would reach 631 miles up, endangering low-orbit traffic, such as Shuttle flights, the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

A car going at 65 miles per hour would take 1,756,235 years to travel a trillion miles.

And those figures are just for ONE trillion. Do you have some idea now? The debt that the Obama administration is creating for our country via the $789,000,000,000 "stimulus package", including pork earmarks and interest, (which has also been referred to as the Generational Theft Act of 2009) will cost American taxpayers $3.27 trillion over the next 10 years. (That stack of $100 bills is now 1,893 miles high. Or, if you got your $3.27 trillion in $1.00 bills, you could construct a wall of bills [laid on their edges] 13.08 feet high extending from New York City to San Francisco.) Now, keep in mind that the only money the government has is that which they collect from the citizens in the form of taxes and fees for services. Even the left wingers that elected Obama are beginning to have second thoughts, although most won't admit it, because to do so means recognizing that they were stupid enough to be taken in by Obama's mezmerizing, but empty, oration. The Democratic Spend-A-Thon will surely cripple the country for several generations to come.

I wonder what the shortest time record is for the impeachment of a United States President ... and will we set a new record? Oh, no ... I forgot ... impeachment proceedings against a sitting President must be initiated by the Congress, the body of which is overflowing with socialist liberal lefties itself. No impeachment on the horizon! Somebody wake me when the revolution begins ...

A trillion here, a trillion there ... before long we're talking about serious money!

I suppose there's an outside chance that I could be wrong about all this ... but I'm NOT!