The New York Post, The Washington Times, and The Dallas Morning News

According to The Washington Times, The Washington Times, N.Y. Post and Dallas Morning News — three newspapers that recently endorsed John McCain — have been kicked off Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plane in the final days of his campaign.  These papers have covered his campaign from the beginning, but because they have had the audacity to endorse John McCain, their coverage is no longer welcome.  This is amazing.  This man has no respect for freedom of speech unless the speech totally agrees with his ideas.  Hang on to your hats if this man is elected–we will be in for the fairness doctrine, a heavily policed internet, and a civilian ‘military’ force inside our borders to do who knows what.   I am beginning to wonder if anyone is paying attention to what Barack Obama is doing.  I heard someone at a rally after his infomercial on Wednesday saying that she would not have to worry anymore because when she voted for Obama, she would no longer have to worry about filling up her gas tank or paying her mortgage–he would help her.   We really need to take a deep breath before we vote on Tuesday.

It’s October 30th, Do You Know Where Your 401K Is?

Your 401k is in immediate danger if the democrat party takes control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.  There was an article in The Online Wall Street Journal on October 23 about a hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee held earlier this month.  The article links to an article in Workforce Management detailing plans to end tax breaks for people contributing to their private 401k accounts and to take over those accounts (similar to the way Social Security accounts are managed (managed?)).  The plan would introduce ‘security’ into 401k accounts, but would limit their positive growth (and prevent negative events like the recent market crash). 

Since the Social Security money has essentially been stolen since Congress opted out of it in the 60’s, I think we would have to be totally insane to give the government the money we have personally put aside for retirement.  If you run the numbers for Social Security out about fifteen years (look at the number of retirees versus the number of workers), you realize that the plan in its current form cannot survive.  The ratio of workers versus retirees will be such that the system will collapse under its own weight.  Since the money in the Social Security ‘lockbox’  was stolen long ago, there is nothing there to make up the difference in income and outgo.  When the system was designed in the 1940’s, the average lifespan was not much more than 65, and the system only had to support people for a year or two.  We live longer now, and therein lies the problem.  It is possible that today’s retirees will still be alive to collect Social Security in forty years.  The system was not designed for that.  Congress is not under Social Security, so they have no incentive to fix it, and there are hoping to be out of office by the time it collapses.

  Again, it matters how you vote.

Confessions of an Obama Blogger

There is a site run by the PUMA’s (Party Unity My A__), women who supported Hillary Clinton, but were upset at the way Hillary was treated by Barack Obama.  It’s a bit of an edgy site, but it is interesting.  Posted there right now at Hill Buzz is a comment entitled “Confessions of an Obama Blogger.”  The lady who writes the article lists the tactics of the Obama campaign.  When you read the tactics and think about some of the events in the campaign, it is chilling.  For example–

“The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.

We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obama”

We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.

We did this the whole primary and it worked.

Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc.

This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues.”

The article is an amazing read.

Civilian National Security Force?

Barack Obama has called for a Civilian National Security Force.  There is an article at Little Green Footballs quoting what Barack Obama has said about this force.  He wants to force to be as well funded as the US military.  He wants to force to achieve ‘national security objectives’.  After seeing the article at Hot Air detailing how far the Obama campaign was willing to go in its search for negative information on Joe the Plumber, I really don’t want to let these people form a civilian national security force.  Take a look at the smear campaigns against opponents, the illegal contributions, the illegal voter registrations, and the questionable associates.  We need to think about what an Obama presidency will do to the freedoms we all value.

Remembering Before You Vote

September 11, 2001 seems a million years away.  The war on terror doesn’t seem like a reality.  Unless you lost someone on September 11 or in the wars that have followed, it all seems very distant.  We don’t need to dwell on September 11 or the war on terror, but we do need to remember that the people who brought us September 11 are still out there plotting.  There is a slideshow of images of September 11 at Little Green Footballs under ‘slideshows’ in the left hand margin of the site.  It’s not a bad idea to look through the slides every now and then to remember what happened, the bravery of many people on that day, and what we are up against.

Just a note, Charles Krauthammer on Special Report the other night commented on the US raid into Syria.  He pointed out that if your objective is to kill a terrorest leader, you use a predator drone.  If your objective is to bring something out–a person, computer, or something else, you send in people.  I wonder how many attacks on our troops and possibly on our country will be stopped because of that raid.

Voting From Your Park Bench Residence

When America began, only property owners were allowed to vote.  Today, that would be seen as horribly discriminatory.  The theory was that only people who had a stake in the country should be allowed to make decisions about governing it.  I think that position is more than a bit extreme, but I think we now have found the other extreme.

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that a Federal judge in Ohio has ruled that homeless people must be allowed to list park benches and other non-buildings as their addresses so that they will be able to vote.  This is the reason judges matter.  The potential for fraud in registering people without valid addresses is amazing. 

I don’t want to see any group of people disenfranchised, but I question the wisdom of this decision.  Isn’t it more important to find a way to bring these people back into society rather than to send them to the polls to vote?  What things influence the votes of this group of people?   Do we have any way of checking their citizenship?

Again, I’m not for discrimination, but this seems a bit extreme.

The LA Times Tape That Has Not Been Released

I’ve been hearing about this tape since the weekend, but I didn’t print the story because I wasn’t convinced the tape actually existed.  Well, evidently it does.  According to Little Green Footballs, the McCain campaign has asked the LA Times to release the tape, and the newspaper has refused.

The videotape is alleged to be of Barack Obama toasting former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi, at a party attended by radical Palestinian activists and former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

The LA Times excuses for not releasing it–

* “We did report on it. Why aren’t you happy with that?”

* “There are ethical problems with releasing the tape.”

* “No comment.”

In another story about the LA Times, Variety reports:

“Another 75 editorial staffers were let go at the Los Angeles Times on Monday, including numerous reporters and editors involved in arts and entertainment coverage.”

The media has made its choice for President, regardless of the cost.  Many Americans have seen through the game and are getting their news from other sources–hence the growth of the internet.  It remains to be seen if the average American (is there any such thing?) will do his own thinking about the candidates or will assume that the media is showing him both sides of the story.  The bottom line is simple–we all need to pray for our country and its election process.

 

Where Do I Vote?

The American Thinker has an article today talking about a New York democrat activist who has registered to vote in Ohio (a swing state) rather than New York.  If you follow the link in the article, it will lead you to the website of Dr. Warren Throckmorton who evidently has been following similar stories.  At present, there are approximately 150 people registered to vote in Franklin County, Ohio, with dubious residency.  According to the article:

“No telling how widespread this is. Vote Today Ohio and similar groups are in major Ohio cities and at large state universities. I have reported on this before. Obamatravel.org helps fund people to make these trips. Here is the mission of Obamatravel.org:

Welcome to OBAMAtravel.org. This site is designed to help volunteers from non-swing states get to crucial swing states by connecting them with the resources they need.”

Dr. Throckmorton is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Grove City College and Fellow for Psychology and Public Policy at the Center for Vision and Values which is a part of Grove City College. For more about him and his work, go to DrThrockmorton.com.

There is nothing wrong with working for a political campaign in a state other than your home state; however, registering to vote in a state where you do not meet the requirements of residency (or registering to vote in two states) is illegal.

It is my hope that anyone found guilty of this type of manipulation of the electoral process would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

 

 

Massachusetts Ballot Questions

The following information is taken directly from The League of Women Voters website:

Ballot Question 1

“A PROPOSED LAW TO ELIMINATE THE STATE INCOME TAX”

This proposed law would eliminate the state personal income tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2009.  The personal income tax applies to income received or gain realized by individuals and married couples, by estates of deceased persons, by certain trustees and other fiduciaries, by persons who are partners in and receive income from partnerships, by corporate trusts, and by persons who receive income as shareholders of “S corporations” as defined under federal tax law.  The proposed law would not affect the tax due on income or gain realized in a tax year beginning before January 1, 2009.  The proposed law states that if any of its parts were declared invalid, the other parts would stay in effect.

Supported by Committee for Small Government at http://www.smallgovernmentact.org

Opposed by June Michaels, Fiscal Policy Specialist, Coalition to Fight Income Tax Initiative. 
        
978-546-3863, macluj@comcast.net 

 

Ballot Question 2

“AN ACT ESTABLISHING A SENSIBLE STATE MARIJUANA POLICY”

Summary: This proposed law would replace the criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, to be enforced by issuing citations, and would exclude information regarding this civil offense from the state’s criminal record information system.  Offenders age 18 or older would be subject to forfeiture of the marijuana plus a civil penalty of $100.  Offenders under the age of 18 would be subject to the same forfeiture and, if they complete a drug awareness program within one year of the offense, the same $100 penalty.

For further information see:

http://norml.org/

http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_index.php?page=4

http://www.darema.org/

http://sensiblemarijuanapolicy.org/

 

Ballot Question 3

“AN INITIATIVE FOR AN ACT TO PROTECT GREYHOUNDS”

Summary:

This proposed law would prohibit any dog racing or racing meeting in Massachusetts where any form of betting or wagering on the speed or ability of dogs occurs.  The State Racing Commission would be prohibited from accepting or approving any application or request for racing dates for dog racing.  Any person violating the proposed law could be required to pay a civil penalty of not less than $20,000 to the Commission.  The penalty would be used for the Commission’s administrative purposes, subject to appropriation by the state Legislature.  All existing parts of the chapter of the state’s General Laws concerning dog and horse racing meetings would be interpreted as if they did not refer to dogs.

For further information:

·       http://www.grey2kusa.org/
·      
http://www.protectdogs.org/

·      
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x875593895/Keeping-the-fight-vs-dog-racing-on-track
·      
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/13/race_to_the_ballot/?page=2

Please see the League of Women Voters website for further information.

There are good reasons for votes on both sides of all of these questions.  Please consider the issues carefully before you vote.

“The Constraints of the Constitution?”

There is an article and video posted at the American Thinker of an interview that Barak Obama did on Public Radio station WBEZ-FM in 2001.  He talks about the need to break free from the ‘constraints’ of the Constitution in order to redistribute wealth to the black poor.  We have been giving money away to both black and white poor since the 60’s, and all we have done is destroy the families of the poor in the process.  Will these people ever realize that we have lost the war on poverty.  We need to declare defeat and go home.  I don’t mean that we should not help the poor–we should.  We need to do it in a way that does not foster generational poverty.  If money can be given to the poor at the local level, the local authorities know who is able to work and who is not.  They also know who is spending the money on drugs and alcohol and other addictive behaviors and who is using the money as a bridge to get out of poverty.  We were much better off when a neighbor would quietly leave a bag of groceries on someone’s front steps because they knew that the head of the household was out of work.  We were better off when the chuch fulfilled its mission to take care of the poor–not depend of the government to subsidize them.  Giving people money without asking them to earn it or without holding them accountable for their behavior is neither wise nor effective in fighting poverty.

Power Line Meets The New York Post

Scott Johnson of Power Line Blog has written an article for The New York Post detailing his findings on the lack of security controls on credit card donations to the Obama campaign.  The controls that were lacking on the Obama website were not lacking on either the McCain or Hillary Clinton website.  Noted in the article–

“According to journalist Kenneth Timmerman, the Obama site did not ask for proof of citizenship until just recently – in contrast not just with McCain but also with Hillary Clinton. Sen. Clinton’s presidential campaign required US citizens living abroad to fax copies of their passports before it would accept donations. By contrast, foreign donors to Obama can just use credit cards and false addresses.”

Unfortunately, if Barack Obama is elected, this type of fraud will not be investigated and will probably become a standard feature of some future campaigns.  Does anyone actually believe that if Barack Obama is elected, the investigation of Tony Rezko, ACORN, and the Chicago political machine will be allowed to continue? These are things we all need to consider.

Dean Barnett

There is some bad news to report today.  Dean Barnett has passed away at the age of 41.  He had cystic fibrosis and had been in the hospital in Boston for a few weeks.  If you are not familiar with Dean, his work at the Weekly Standard often appeared at Robinson and Long  and he occasionally guest hosted for Hugh Hewitt.  He was a serious red sox fan and was very quick to state how fantastic a team they were (in any circumstances).  He was a gentleman, and I am sure he will be missed.  There is more about him at Hot Air.  Heaven has gained a really good political commentator.

A Letter From Detriot

The following letter to the editor appeared at the American Thinker blog today.  I must admit I was rather surprised at the content.  I wonder how many more democrat party members there are who are thinking that way.

letter to the editor
As to the inevitable claim of either “racism” or “fraud” or both, the Detroit newspapers reported this week that  98% of eligible voters in Michigan are registered. This simply isn’t possible. As to why we have reached such a stunning level of involvement, the papers reported that the new registrations were, surprise, in heavily-Democratic areas.

I know people who still believe that Bush shouldn’t have won in 2000 (possible, I guess) and had Ohio stolen from Kerry in 2004, although even Rolling Stone debunked that. As to ACORN or unlikely registration levels elsewhere…not to mention Obama personally threatening tv stations that run ads he doesn’t like…no mention.

By the way, I am not only a lifelong Democrat, I am a former party activist–precinct delegate, state platform committee, county party committee, etc. And I’m voting for McCain. I’d like to tell you that people in certain groups I belong to respond that well, they disagree, but I’m making a choice rational, intelligent, decent people can make. I’d like to report that, but you can just guess what the response actually is.

Best,

Alex Bensky (Detroit)

Directly Quoted From National Review Online

What appears below is directly quoted from Mark Steyn at National Review Online:

Tamping down enthusiasm   [Mark Steyn]

I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from readers at Governor Palin’s rally in Florida, which appears to be of zero interest to the press:

I went to the Palin rally in Tampa this morning.  Tons of people there – (?? 15-20k?)
But I was interested to look at the media pen after reading your previous post. I don’t know what to compare it to – and it is Sunday – but as you had alluded to before it was a ghost town.  There were many tables set up for media to sit with their laptops, etc….  I saw two laptops and one other guy with a blackberry.  Other than that there may have been one or two photographers there…… that’s it.
 
Hasselbeck was great and she started out by saying how nice it was for her to get to talk for 5 min without being interrupted!
 

Another reader tells me Governor Palin called him “Barack the Spreader“. You go, girl!

Do You Believe There Is A War On Terror?

Do you believe there is a war on terror?  If so, and you live in Southeastern Massachusetts, you may not want to vote for Barney Frank.  There is an article at SouthCoastToday.com  about a meeting Barney Frank had with their editorial board and the comments he made.  He calls for a twenty-five per cent cut in military spending and an increase in income taxes for people he thinks can afford to pay more.  One of the quotes I found interesting–

“Also, he said, “we’ll increase the federal share of medical care so states won’t have to lay off people.” Unemployment insurance benefits won’t increase, he said, but the period of collecting them will, and eligibility requirements might be relaxed.”

The boldface type is my addition.  Why would you relax eligibility requirements on collecting unemployment?  Generally speaking, when the government subsidizes something, we get more of it.  Why do we want more unemployment?  Also, just a note, historically when you raise the minimum wage, umemployment rises.  That is part of what is feeding into the current jobless rate.  Even in good times, if the cost of hiring an employee goes up, a company is more likely to hesitate before doing it.  Companies realize that if they lay off a person, they will pay a penalty to the state unemployment fund, so rather than take a chance on incurring an extra expense because they can’t afford to keep an employee, they won’t hire one.

Aside from his role in the current crisis with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Barney Frank has ideas that will not protect our country from terrorists who want to destroy it.

Irony, Anyone?

There are two seemingly unrelated stories in the news right now that are interesting to look at for a preview of what a Barack Obama presidency would be like.  The first is from the American Thinker dealing with what happened when a reporter asked Joe Biden hard questions.  The reaction of the Obama-Biden campaign was fairly typical of Democrat political machines, but it’s interesting in light of the fact that the questions were not all that out of line with questions an average American would ask.  The second has a great deal of irony surrounding it.  The story is from The Columbus Dispatch stating that government computers were used to gather background information on Joe the Plumber.  It’s amazing to me that the party that was going to protect us from the Patriot Act because they objected to ordinary citizens possibly being investigated without proper legal procedures has taken the time to do just that to someone who asked the wrong question.  They were willing to give terrorists more privacy rights than they themselves have given to an ordinary citizen.  Enjoy your freedom of speech–the people who would like to run this country do not see the First Amendment as applying to everyone equally.

Further Information on Fraudulent Credit Card Donations

Mark Steyn has a post over at The Corner on National Review Online with an update on the credit card donations to the Barack Obama presidential campaign.  Evidently, when ficticious names are used with valid credit card numbers, the donations go through, and the cards are charged for the amount of the donation.  In order for the campaign to get this to happen, there are security features on the credit card acceptance programs that have to be manually changed.  The amount of “Chicago-style politics” in the Obama campaign is not surprising, but it is amazing that the press seems to be ignoring the story.

Voter, Beware of What You Hear

It has been reported lately that a lot of Republicans have recently switched their party allegiance and are voting for Barack Obama.  CNN recently ran a story on a “lifelong Republican” who would be voting for Barack Obama.  American Thinker did its own research on the subject and came to some rather interesting conclusions.

Finally, Some Good News!

According to an article in  Hot Air The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that opium production in Afghanistan will plunge by almost one third this year.  That’s good news for the U.S. troops, bad news for junkies, and bad news for the Taliban.  Hopefully, we will be able to help the Afghanis come up with other ways to make a living.

Fiscal Responsibility Begins At Home

Despite record fund raising in his presidential campaign, Barack Obama isn’t staying within his budget.  According to Boston.com, a website not known for its conservative views, the Obama campaign is spending amazing amounts of money on TV–in Florida running almost 16,000 ads to McCain’s almost 5,000.  Keep in mind that this media blitz as well as the money behind it are the result of a broken campaign promise–to fund his campaign with public funds.  There is so much question about fraudulent credit card donations, foreign donations, and fraudulent voter registrations, I hope after the election is over, we have a President honest enough (who cares about the future of the country enough) to do some serious investigation into this campaign and election.

Are we all rednecks?

After Jack Murtha and Barack Obama began calling a lot of us rednecks, I got curious about exactly what a redneck is.  Actually, I’m not at all sure I have the answer (I live in Massachusetts, which may be part of the problem.  There may be a cultural divide here that I am not able to overcome.)  Anyway here is a link to a song called  Redneck Date on www.Amaze.fm.  You may actually have to register and login to get the link, but please do, it’s worth it.  I may live in Massachusetts, but I may be a redneck. 

I Love Charles Krauthammer

Real Clear Politics has an essay today by Charles Krauthammer on the reasons why he is voting for John McCain.  I like Charles Krauthammer because he has a way of cutting through the noise and fluff and getting directly to the point.  In this article he does exactly that.  At the end of the article, he contrasts the reactions of McCain and Obama to the crisis in Georgia.  Obama talked in terms of moral equivalence, McCain knew who the bad guys were.  Who would you rather have in the White House?

This Could Never Happen Here. Or Could It?

When I saw this article yesterday, it didn’t register.  On closer examination, maybe it should have. Power Line Blog is reporting on the nationalization of retirement accounts in Argentina.  Doesn’t sound relevant, does it?  Look again.

This is from Investor’s Business Daily on Thursday, October 23.

“Yet U.S. Democrats in Congress are mulling like-minded moves to scrap 401(k)s and transfer them into government-managed “guaranteed retirement accounts” with a 3% return, according to James Pethokoukis of U.S. News & World Report (full disclosure: Pethokoukis is a former IBD reporter).

Before they charge ahead, they should look at what happened since Argentina’s announcement: Its stock market lost 23% of its value in two days, for a 57% loss since January. The losses spread to other markets in Brazil, South Africa and Spain.

Markets don’t like expropriation of private property — including savings. And this takes away a key source of private capital. Moreover, one quarter of private pension assets were by law invested in Argentine stocks, making up about a quarter of the bourse’s value. So the seizure of pensions amounts to government ownership across the entire private sector.”

Do you really want the people who have thoroughly robbed the Social Security Fund to be able to do the same to your 401K (or 101K as things are right now!).  Even if they do not take them over, there are committees in Congress now discussing taking all 401K related tax breaks away from worker who contribute to them and employers who sponsor and match employee contributions.  Be careful how you vote–a Democratic Congress without a Republican President to keep it in check would be a disaster for the country, the economy, and private enterprise.

I Love The Internet!

There is a new website on the internet.  It’s called www.amaze.fm

Amaze.fm is a community of music makers and lovers hoping to restore some of that lost quality to what we call “popular” music.

Artists upload their music to be listened to, rated, reviewed, and tagged

Fans choose the songs that make it to the radio by listening to and rating songs weekly

Each week the highest rated songs from Amaze.fm gets played on nationally-syndicated radio.