PS: I am back!

$200m-a-day' cost of Barack Obama's trip to India will be picked up by U.S. taxpayers. President Obama's trip to India will cost the U.S. $200m-a-day, it was reported today. The visit - part of a 10-trip to Asia - will take place amid unprecedented levels of security in the city of Mumbai, where terrorists killed at least 173 people two years ago. Extreme measures to ensure the safety of President Obama. Details of the three-day visit which begins officially on Saturday are not being confirmed, but Indian Press reported the President was expected to spend the first day visiting the Taj Mahal Hotel and meeting survivors of the attacks. The second day will reportedly see the President and First Lady meeting Mumbai school children and University students while the final day will involve a trip to New Delhi. The visit could spark fury in the U.S. where officials are battling to reduce a record budget deficit, and heap further misery on beleaguered Democrats in the mid-term elections. (Embarassing for the White House that the Europeans know what message was sent by the electorate.) Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1325990/Obamas-200m-day-India-visit-picked-US-taxpayers.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz14MmZbt5F

AUSTIN – Speaking at a Democratic fund-raiser this afternoon, President Barack Obama slapped at two well-known Texas Republicans without mentioning either by name: George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor in the White House, and Rep. Joe Barton , R-Arlington, who could chair the House energy committee if Republicans regain control of the House.       Obama addressed more than 200 supporters crowded into a ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The unemployment rate among all Americans ages 16 to 19 is 27.6 percent, an all-time high, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That means one in four teenagers who wants a job cannot get one or lost one.

Boehner on Monday offered 10 possible names for what he called the “union-boss bailout” bill:   -- Save Our ‘Stimulus’ (SOS) Act -- ‘Recovery Summer’ Bailout Act (Cash for Flunkers) -- Delivering Unions a Major Boost (DUMB) Act -- Helping Election Expenditures, Hurting American Workers (HEEHAW) Act -- Democracy is Strengthened by Clearly Leveraging and Optimizing Special-Interests’ Effectiveness (DISCLOSE) Act -- Holding Union Bosses Over Until Card Check Act -- Rescuing Incumbent Democrats Is Costly (RIDIC) Act -- Summertime Cash for Union Bosses Instead of Spending Cuts for Taxpayers Act -- Frivolous Act of Ineffective Largesse (FAIL) Act -- Naming These Things Hasn’t Gotten Us Anywhere, So Why Bother? Act

   I will submit that the video does show that the VP is saying it with a bit of 'tongue in cheek,' it still shows that he (along with his Democratic allies) view taxpayers with disdain. Taxpayers are merely the vessels by which the government is funded. We are much like the serfs of feudal Europe. Our ancestors fled the Continent to practice the freedom of Religion as well as protesting Taxation without Representation. It seems to me that we have gone full circle. Our royalty is the political class that at its top is the king, President Obama, and his royal court is the Democratic party. The MSM has simply become the sycophantic tool by which the royal class passes its edicts.

John Harris, Blagojevich's former chief of staff, testified Wednesday in the former governor's corruption trial that three days after the Nov. 4, 2008, presidential election, the ex-governor told Harris he felt confident Obama knew he wanted to swap perks.      "The president understands that the governor would be willing to make the appointment of Valerie Jarrett as long as he gets what he's asked for. . . . The governor gets the Cabinet appointment he's asked for," Harris said, explaining a recorded call. (Emphasis mine)

• HealthCare Reform- really a move to a single-payer 
• Executive power grab- the czars which are not Congressionally mandated, debated nor approved
• The killing of states rights- attacking Arizona for its duplicating and enforcing of Federal law regarding immigration
• The government takeover of banking, the auto industry, singlehandedly attempting to kill the oil industry in American
• The blantant misrepresentation of experts in its Moritorium on deep water oil drilling
• Union payback for its support- financial reform, during the oil spill not immediately suspending the Jones Act

     I don't have time right now to keep going. I am in the middle of painting our dining room...

The interview describes McChrystal, 55, as "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with Obama. The article says that although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Obama appointed McChrystal to lead the Afghan effort in May 2009. Last fall, though, Obama called McChrystal on the carpet for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops. Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/ap/in-article-top-us-general-in-afghan-war-accuses-us-ambassador-of-self-serving-betrayal-96861669.html#ixzz0ranKYyZz

A defensive President Obama sought Thursday to quell doubts about his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, insisting that his administration has been " href_cetemp>President Obama sought Thursday to quell doubts about his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, insisting that his administration has been "in charge" from the moment it began and bristling that critics who accuse it of being sluggish to react "don't know the facts." But at times during a 63-minute news conference in the East Room of the White House, the president seemed to undercut his own argument. He enumerated a litany of fumbles and lapses... (*Emphasis mine)

TAPPER: ...How can you say that everything that can be done is being done, with all these experts and all these officials saying that’s not true? OBAMA: Well, let me distinguish between — if the question is, Jake, are we doing everything perfectly out there, then the answer is, absolutely not. We can always do better. If the question is, are we, each time there is an idea, evaluating it and making a decision is this the best option that we have right now based on how quickly we can stop this leak and how much damage can we mitigate, then the answer is yes.

"It just looks like he's not involved in this," Carville said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." Visibly agitated, Carville said: "Man, you got to get down here and take control of this, put somebody in charge of this thing and get this moving. We're about to die down here."

Dear Senator Boxer:      I could no longer sit quietly as the Senate pushes forward with the current financial reform package as put forth by Senator Dodd. I write to ask that you withhold your support until certain provisions are either removed or substantially changed. Specifically, I call your attention to the following provisions:      •Institutionalizing “too big to fail”: Section 113 creates a Financial Stability Oversight Council, who is tasked with identifying firms that “pose a threat to the financial security of the United States if they encounter “material financial distress.” The net effect of this provision sets these firms aside as worthy of Federal bailout, thereby signaling to the marketplace these firms are thus less risky, even if they take on undue risk. Smaller firms are subject to greater risk and by extension face greater cost.      •Bailout Fund: Section 210(n)(1) sets up a $50 Billion fund with taxes on financial firms, subsequently paid by the consumer, which can be counted as a deductible business expense, placing more burden upon the taxpayer.      •Open Line of Credit with Treasury: Section 210(n)(9), the FDIC is effectively granted a line of credit to the Treasury Department that is secured by the value of failing firms in its control, providing another taxpayer financial support.      •Derivatives Reform: the bill authorizes a “one-size-fits-all” derivatives reform. This provision calls for separation of derivatives trading by financial institutions. This reform makes it more cumbersome and more costly for smaller firms, and ultimately, again, creates greater risk rather than lower.      •Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Nothing is done to reform these Government Sponsored Entities one of the greatest causes of the bursting of the housing bubble. Reform of these two, huge, GSEs is paramount to successful financial reform. It is necessary to relieve the taxpayer from having to support these failing, costly mortgagors. Fannie and Freddie have paid little back of the $125 billion of taxpayer bailout funds and are likely to continue their risky practices.      There is more to object to, however, these are a few of the more important features that must be changed in order to make financial reform successful. I ask that you vote NO; I would ask that you withhold support for this bill until these changes are made. I thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely,

1. Obama may have lied about conversations with convicted fraudster Tony Rezko Blagojevich's lawyers allege that Rezko admitted breaking the law by contributing "a large sum of cash" to a public official. Blagojevich's attorneys say that public official is Obama. Obama said that Rezko never relayed a request from a lobbyist to hold a fundraiser in favor of favorable legislative action. But the point may be moot: regardless of Obama talking/not talking to Rezko, Blagojevich's attorneys say that Obama refused the request regardless. Redacted portion: However, the defense has a good faith belief that Mr. Rezko, President Obama’s former friend, fund-raiser, and neighbor told the FBI and the United States Attorneys a different story about President Obama. In a recent in camera proceeding, the government tendered a three paragraph letter indicating that Rezko “has stated in interviews with the government that he engaged in election law violations by personally contributing a large sum of cash to the campaign of a public official who is not Rod Blagojevich. … Further, the public official denies being aware of cash contributions to his campaign by Rezko or others and denies having conversations with Rezko related to cash contributions. … Rezko has also stated in interviews with the government that he believed he transmitted a quid pro quo offer from a lobbyist to the public official, whereby the lobbyist would hold a fundraiser for the official in exchange for favorable official action, but that the public official rejected the offer. The public official denies any such conversation. In addition, Rezko has stated to the government that he and the public official had certain conversations about gaming legislation and administration, which the public official denies having had. Redacted footnote: The defense has a good faith belief that this public official is Barack Obama. Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/The-Six-Secrets-You-Need-to-Know-From-the-Blagojevich-Filing-91848634.html#ixzz0lwGgOGI2

The Declaration of Independence's proclamation that "all men are created equal" with "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has proved to be happily elastic. It still sings to us today, thanks to the struggles and sacrifices of many Americans who gave blacks and women the equality denied to them in 1776. In contrast, the early Progressives' talk of an "industrial age" and an outmoded Constitution sounds like the language of an age now long past. Their faith in centralized planning seems naive in a time when one unpredicted innovation after another has changed lives for the better. Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Tea-partiers-embrace-liberty-not-big-government-89556562.html#ixzz0jloIl0nV

 

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.” Thomas Paine   "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."    -Ben Franklin In the Continental Congress just before signing    the Declaration of Independence, 1776.