I am very afraid for this country. It looks like we are set to elect an unproven socialist with questionable ties and even more questionable judgement.
We see the Obama kids, supporters of his who compare him to the messiah, and preach the two hallow words of "hope" and "change".
Well, hope and change were promises the Bolshevik made during the October Revolution of 1917. Sadaam Hussen, Adolf Hitler, the Iranian Iatollahs, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot all made the promises of "Hope" and "Change".
Gullible and stupid people believed them and followed those leaders into the abyss.
I see the same thing with Barack Obama. He makes great speeches and makes empty promises of hope and change. Aided by willing accomplices in the media, he has been asked no tough questions. Those that dare question Dear Leader (such as Joe the Plumber) are attacked by the media and the liberal elite. They read his garbage and pry into his history.
Meanwhile his associations is ACORN and Bill Ayers are not questioned.
Wake up people! This man is a dangerous person. Aided by what will look like a filibuster proof majority by the Democrats he will push through legislation that will practically run this country and damage institutions such as free speech and gun ownership.
Please please America, wake up. You will be sorry if you elect this man. We will also lament his election not long after it happens.
Here are the 10 planks in the road to Communism as written by Karl Marx.
How many of these are in effect, or proposed by the Democratic Party?
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
Kelo anyone?
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
Ask Joe the Plumber after his discussion with Obama about "spreading it around"
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
The Democrats are for the "death tax"
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
See the bailout of 2008
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
Democrats support the Fairness Doctrine
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
Staunch support of labor unions might be this?
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
Barack Obama wants to offer free college education to anyone who wants it!
Anywhere else 70% would be a passing grade. When it comes to moving towards socialism, 70% is failing us and failing Capitalism.
We mentioned earlier how Obama is a socialist. He has socialist Statist tendencies. A lot of what he does and his supporters do show eerie parallels to the kind of leader worship other statist socialists exhibit.
An example was the singing Obama kids. Just do a Youtube search for that. Then there is the OBAMA channel on Dish Network.
Now comes a story about his advertisements in Video games.
Ads for Barack Obama will appear in a total of 18 video games, including the extremely popular "Guitar Hero" and "Madden 09" — but only in certain states, the Obama campaign confirmed Tuesday."These ads will help us expand the reach of VoteforChange.com, so that more people can use this easy tool to find their early vote location and make sure their voice is heard," said Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro.
Screenshots of Obama ads in the racing game "Burnout Paradise" began circulating around the Internet Monday.
This guy is getting creepier and creepier. He is almost Orwellian in his reach. It may be good marketing, but it gives me the chills.
Obama is a typical Karl Marx loving redistribution of wealth socialist. He said as much to a plumber.
Barack Obama told a tax-burdened plumber over the weekend that his economic philosophy is to "spread the wealth around" -- a comment that may only draw fire from riled-up John McCain supporters who have taken to calling Obama a "socialist" at the Republican's rallies.Obama made the remark, caught on camera, after fielding some tough questions from the plumber Sunday in Ohio, where the Democratic candidate canvassed neighborhoods and encouraged residents to vote early.
"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."
"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
That sounds like socialist to me. I find it funny that as the rest of the world runs away from Socialism, we are set to elect someone who is the most liberal of all the great western nations. More liberal than Germany, France, or England.
Open your eyes America!! This man is a sociliast!!
I hate Republicans, I fucking hate Democrats. That pretty much sums up how I feel about politics now.
The other day, the Prell Girl (John Edwards) said that he thinks everyone should give up their SUVs. Whatever. First of all, he lives in the south. It is nice and warm all the time there. In the Northeast where I live, we can get some pretty nasty snows. We need SUVs or something like that to get around.
Secondly, I just got a baby seat for our upcoming offspring, and the oversize base and seat barely fit into our small cars. My Subaru and my wife's Honda both barely fit these over designed contaptions in them.
Don't get me wrong, I like a good safe car seat. But the government mandates super high engineering standards on them. If you have more than one child, you HAVE TO have a large vehicle. The contraptions that are government mandated don't fit into smaller cars. The same small cars that environMENTAL nuts like the Prell Girl want you to drive.
So people drive big cars to fit all the oversized baby stuff that is big because of government regulations. Even if your kids are 10 years apart, the government still wants you to have your 4th grader in his/her own booser seat, which takes up space. You have a 10, 7 and 2 year old, there is no way, no possible way that you can fit them and all that stuff into an econobox.
It proves my theory that every single government regulation has an opposite and even stronger reaction. You want us to have these burdensome baby things, then don't bitch when people start driving gas guzzlers.
This is crazy. I can't believe that people are against bottled water.
Concerns about the bottled-water industry, and increasing corporate control of water, are growing across the country," said Gigi Kellett, director of the "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign, which aims to encourage people to drink tap water.San Francisco's mayor banned city employees from using city funds to buy bottled water when tap water is available. Ann Arbor, Michigan passed a resolution banning commercially bottled water at city events and Salt Lake City, Utah asked department heads to eliminate bottled water.
Of course, these people want you to spend your money on their city water. It all comes down to economics. If you are spending money on Aquafina, you aren't spending it on public water.
I think it's funny that they complain about people drinking too much sugary soda, so we drink water and they complain about that.
I drink tap water at home because I have a well and it tastes good. If I go to the office or somewhere where city water is involved I buy bottled water because I don't like my water to taste like a swimming pool.
Plus where are these city employees supposed to fill their glasses? From water fountains? From the sinks in bathrooms where we wash our hands?
I also looked at the group behind this all. Think outside the bottle or as their website name is , stop corporate abuse. This group is a bunch of socialist anti-capitalist thugs who want to control our lives by increasing government regulation and United Nations Intervention.
Come on, get a clue people.
My local state sentator in Pennsylvania government lost my vote. He's a Republican. Believe it or not, the Democrat assemblyman has so far not pissed me off, he voted against it. The "IT" I am referring to is the smoking ban. Smoking persay is a sidebar. The point of losing my vote is the idea behind a smoking ban.
Sorry Senator, but even high school civics students understand that driving is a privilege that occurs on publicly owned property (roads), while private property ownership is a right. A property owner’s right to allow patrons to enter, and to partake of a legal activity – smoking – far outweighs the inclination of any particular patron to dictate the terms of allowable activity upon the property owner and other patrons.Senator Corman’s profound misunderstanding and under-appreciation of our Constitution and of civil liberties is what is driving nanny state policies such as a smoking ban.
Very well said. The fundamental belief in Liberty keeps me from supporting any such bill.
Here is how the General Assembly voted
This is frightening. How much in the way of government intrusion into our lives and pocketbooks do we have to put up with before we go to war on this issue? The revolutionary war was fought for freedom, but also because of taxes on tea and a burdensome monarchy?
As the Republic slowly dies and our freedoms slowly erode, I blame the many useless politicans in Washington and in every state capitol across this country.
The only power I have is to vote. I vow here and now to never ever vote for an incumbant again. If in 4 years every single elected offical is new, then we would have a great start.
Michael Moore's new movie Sicko comes out on June 29th. Already it's getting a lot of publicity.
Yesterday he was on the Howard Stern show which gave all the feel good libs on the show reason to wax philosophic about how great a taxpayer funded single-payer system would be. I'm not going to argue that. I'll let smarter peole do that for me.
Like the Sacramento Bee. They wrote a nice article on it.
I work in the public sector and most everyone I work with is great. The problem is most of them are big time liberals.
I was talking to my boss the other day and I was discussing with her possible names for my wife and my baby. I mentioned I like the name Reagan if it's a girl. She asked why and I told her it was after Ronald Reagan. You could tell the disgust in her voice. She did not like my admiration for Ronald Reagan.
Now, I was too young to know all of Ronald Reagan's achievements. But having been born in 1975, the first President I really had any memory of was Ronald Reagan. When the space shuttle blew up in 1986, my school ushered us into our classrooms and we watched television coverage of it. It included comments from President Reagan, momemts like those stick in my head.
Years later I also came to know a few eastern block europeans who spoke highly of Ronald Reagan. Most of eastern Europe came to think of Reagan as a savior, the one who stood toe to toe with the USSR and won.
Which brings me back to my dear friends. They routinely speak about and pine for the days of Bill Clinton. They matter of factly inject him into conversations whenver politics are brought up and talk about his Presidency the way most of us whould speak about things like gravity and the Earth being round. That is they just are under the impression that it is a given that EVERYONE knows he was the best President.
I admit he was alright, but he had his flaws. So did Reagan. But unlike my Clinton admiring co-workers I can acknowledge his flaws and talk about them. But Bill Clinton? To them he did no bad deeds whatsoever.
Our Governor, Ed Rendell, wanted to shift taxes for schools away from property taxes and partially into an increased local income tax.
We resoundly rejected the proposal.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Pennsylvania voters said "no deal" to lower property taxes in return for higher local income taxes.In 142 school districts reporting results of their tax-shift referendums early Wednesday, voters in only three appeared to accept the trade-off, according to returns posted early Wednesday on a Department of State Web site. The 142 represent more than 25 percent of the state's school districts.
The proposed tax shift was touted by the Rendell administration as a chance for homeowners to increase the size of the property-tax cuts they will receive once the state distributes slot-machine gambling revenue to school districts.
But voters weren't interested.
Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell, said opposition likely reflected voter confusion.
No we are not confused. We just know that if you rasie one tax to promise a lower tax later it just means that both taxes will go up.
Again, it appears that Philadelphia thinks they control the whole state. Instead of dealing with their own problem, they want to force their will down the will of the whole state. Of course fast Eddie is more than willing to cow tow to Philthydelphia.
Fed up with foot-dragging in Harrisburg over gun control, Philadelphia is now taking its case to court. City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke said last night that the city plans to file a lawsuit today in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court alleging that the General Assembly has failed in its duty to protect the residents of the city."It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the General Assembly is unwilling or unable to act," Clarke said in a telephone interview last night. "We have no choice but to go to court."
Straw purchases have proliferated dramatically because the state has failed to enact laws that rein them in, he said.
In a straw purchase, somebody legally acquires a firearm and then sells it to somebody else who is not eligible to own one, such as a convicted felon on parole or probation. Critics say that straw purchases are responsible for much of the firepower on the city's streets.
In addition to authorizing the suit today, Council intends to approve eight gun-control measures that have been languishing in Council for more than a year, Clarke said.
Among other things, the bills call for limiting handgun purchases to one a month, and for owners to report any guns that are lost or stolen, Clark said.
David Kairys, a professor at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, said that the laws Council is expected to enact today should be valid because of the city's Home Rule Charter. But the charter's power is diminishing, he said.
"The legislature and the Supreme Court have so undercut it that it's hard to say we have home rule anymore," said Kairys, who in the 1990s led the city's legal team in an unsuccessful court challenge against handgun manufacturers.
He said he could not comment on the particulars of the lawsuit to be filed today because he hadn't seen it.
Clarke said that while several members of the city's Harrisburg delegation had worked tirelessly on the gun-control issue, they had not been able to sway their more-rural colleagues to their side.
"The fact that we are approaching 150 murders means that we can no longer wait for them to get their act together," he said. As of midnight Tuesday, 137 homicides had occurred in the city.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Angel Cruz (D., Phila.) that called for gun registration and an annual fee of $10 a gun triggered a massive outcry from opponents who said they felt the legislation threatened their right to own guns. Several lawmakers who initially supported Cruz's measure have since backed off.,
The long time liberal establishment has led people to believe that their life is hopeless. Instead of creating jobs, they give handouts. Instead of supplying an education they have welfare programs. These big cities with big liberal policies are all destroying all of us.
Al Gore won accolades and an Oscar for his film, An Inconvienent Truth. The film about global warming is the poster movie for people pushing the green agenda.
Now the man behind the movie chastizing us all for using too many of the Earth's resources is himself, well a typical liberal hypocite.
A day after receiving Oscar glory for a documentary on global warming, former Vice President Al Gore was called a hypocrite by a Tennessee group saying his Belle Meade home is using too much energy.The home’s average month electric bill topped $1,359, according to the group.
“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk (the) walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.
Electric bills obtained by The Tennessean, however, showed that Gore is paying a premium on his bills to be part of the “green power” program. Gore purchased 108 blocks of “green power” for at least each of the last three months, according to a summary of bills from Nashville Electric Service.
That’s a total of $432 a month spent to pay extra for solar or other renewable energy sources. NES power – outside this program - is derived largely from coal, which emits carbon, a green house gas.
The green power purchased by Gore in those three months is equivalent to recycling 2.48 million aluminum cans, or recycling 286,092 pounds of newspaper, according to comparison figures on the utility's Web site.
Gore’s movie details how greenhouse gases are trapping heat next to the earth, causing a changing climate with melting ice caps and more violent storms.
“Every family has a different carbon footprint,” said Kalee Krider, a spokeswoman for Gore.
The Gore’s 10,000 square foot house on Lynnwood Boulevard doesn’t have a small one.
So I get heat from greens for burning coal and wood to heat my 2,000 sq foot home. Even though Al gets a greater percentage of his electricity from green resources the raw amount he still gets from non green sources is still probably double what mine is.
So for liberals it is live as I say, not as I do.
Governor Rendell of my homestate of Pennsylvania wants to increase the sales tax, to 7%. Making it the second highest in the nation.
He calls it tax shifting. It is meant to reduce property taxes. But we heard that 4 years ago when he pushed gambling parlors down our throats. Since then, just about every other tax in the state has gone up.
My property tax continues to rise. My income tax went up. The "Occupational Privelege" tax went from $10 a year to $52. My Per Capita local and state went up. Every single tax went up in the state. The governor has not shown a history of ever lowering a tax, so why would we believe him when he says this recent set of tax hikes will lead to lower property taxes. Nothing he has done in the past 5 years in office backs up his assertions.
Ed Rendell is a socialist scumbag. Five years ago he promised property tax relief if we only allowed gambling. Well, we have gambling and not only has my property tax not gone down, it has gone up a couple hundred dollars a year.
Plus he raised income tax, and now proposes more tax hikes including an increase in our sales tax, a new tax on our electric bill, and new taxes on cigars.
--Increase the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. About half will be combined with slot-machine gambling revenue to provide about $900 million in property-tax cuts. --Impose a new electricity consumption tax amounting to about 45 cents a month for the average household, to pay off $850 million in borrowing for alternative power development and energy conservation. --Increase municipal solid-waste disposal fees by $2.75 per ton, for hazardous-waste cleanups and the environmental stewardship fund. --Impose a new tax on oil companies' gross profits and exempt those companies from the state's corporate net-income tax. --Increase the cigarette tax from $1.35 to $1.45 per pack, levy a new tax on other forms of tobacco and impose a new 3 percent payroll tax on employers who do not provide employee health benefits.
Read the story here
Our esteemed Governor, Ed "Fast Eddie" Rendell is only less than a week into his second term, and already he is showing his true socialist roots.
In a bold plan, he is pushing for universal health care. He is suggesting an increase in tobacco taxes, a "fair use tax" on employers, and a new never before seen tax on smokeless tobacco and cigars.
Rendell's insurance coverage proposal would impose a "fair share" tax on employers who do not provide health insurance equal to 3 percent of their payroll, increase the state's $1.35-per-pack cigarette tax, and tax smokeless tobacco and cigars for the first time. That money would be supplemented with federal matching dollars, Rendell said.The other states have taken varying approaches to paying for expanded insurance. Vermont, for example, relies on cigarette tax increases and a per-employee annual fee imposed on business that do not offer insurance, while the California proposal includes doctors and hospitals among those who must help pay.
Rendell acknowledged that the Legislature has been reluctant to tax smokeless tobacco and cigars, but said it was only fair to tax all tobacco products.
"How can we sit there and tax cigarette smoking and not tax smokeless tobacco and cigar smoking when we know the health risks and the cost to the overall public health system are just as great?" Rendell said.
Officials would not immediately say how much the proposed insurance expansion would cost or elaborate on the size of the proposed tax increases, saying that Rendell would provide those details in his Feb. 6 budget address.
Rendell is a true socialist. Four years into his administration, and we still have yet to see the promised property tax relief he promised would be the foremost priority of his first term. My guess is that what he considers property tax relief is really tax redistribution.
Hey Ed, how about you first deliver on property tax relief? You already raised fees on just about everything from property transfers to vehicle registrations. Maybe then we'll consider your ill-advised Marxist agenda.
The Democratic Party as it once was is dead. They party of FDR, John F. Kennedy, and Harry Truman. The party that once truly did stand for what we now consider conservative principles is gone.
This was not so much a campaign against incumbants, but a campaign against people who disagree with the far left fringe.
The people I mentioned earlier, primarily FDR and Kennedy. People who modern Democrats claim as great historical Democrats, would probably have the same thing done to them today. Both were hawkish pro defence Democrats who pragmatically looked at other issues. Kennedy himself also subscribed to the proven fact that lowering taxes grows the economy.
Let's sit back and watch the Democratic Party destroy itself.
Governor Ed Rendel just signed into law an increase in the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15 over the next two years. People for the increase say that it is needed to help people get out of poverty. They don't realize that most emplolyers already pay over the minimum wage. And the ones that do pay only the minimum wage do so because the jobs they have are low skilled jobs, most are teens that are just starting out.
But raising the minimum wage will really hurt the people that it is meant to help.
The fine Governor of my home state of Pennsylvania wants to tax windfall profits. He says that the taxes are unfair.
"The profits are ungodly; there is no excuse for this," Rendell said. "Oil companies should not be permitted to drain Americans' bank accounts to collect record-breaking profits."
But when you really look at it, thier profits were only about 10%, the same as Hershey foods made selling candy bars.
To be sure, oil companies have reaped huge profits in recent years. Exxon Mobil Corp., for example, reported $36 billion in net income last year on sales of $371 billion. That's a profit margin of 10 percent, the same as the Hershey Co. made selling candy.
So it is okay for a candy company to reap profits, but not another publicly traded company, just because it sells oil? Both companies are beholdant to their shareholders. As a shareholder of either company I want to see massive profits. It means more money for.
Plus, the "windfall profits" are a sign that something is wrong in the supply and demand portion of the economy. It means that we do not have enough gasoline.
Windfall or supernormal profits are any profits in excess of normal profit and are above and beyond that necessary to keep entrepreneurial resources in their current usage. However, windfall profits are a vital component to a smoothly operating economy. Windfall profits serve as a signal that there are unmet human wants. Let's look at it with a simple example.
Suppose there's a disaster wiping out food resources in Harrisburg, Pa., and I live in Philadelphia. Prior to the disaster, bread prices in both cities were $2 a loaf. I buy a truckload of bread, cart it to Harrisburg and sell it for $20 a loaf, earning huge windfall profits. When the word gets out that there are profits to be made, what do you think happens? If you said other people will start carting bread to Harrisburg, bakers will start working overtime to produce more bread, people who formerly used their oven to bake cakes and pies will switch to baking bread, there'll be bread conservation in Philadelphia and elsewhere and eventually bread prices will start to fall in Harrisburg and windfall profits would vanish, go to the head of the class. While some might find people earning windfall profits objectionable, the result of their actions, getting more bread to Harrisburg, is precisely what's desired.What if politicians said, "People are profiting from the misery of others, and we're going to impose a bread windfall profits tax"? Say they legislated a 100 percent tax, taking all of the $18 of windfall profits. Would you expect to see people making all those efforts to get bread to Harrisburg? Suppose there were huge startup costs for companies to expand their operation or onerous regulations for people to get into the bread business, would that be good news or bad news for people in Harrisburg?
What prevents a robust supply response to changes in scarcity conditions in the gasoline market? U.S. oil refining capacity is now less than it was in 1980, and since that time there's been a 25 percent increase in demand. Because of costly environmental regulations, it's been 30 years since a new refinery has been built. According to the American Petroleum Institute, over the last 10 years, it has cost the oil industry $47 billion to comply with costly and sometimes useless environmental controls. There are restrictions on exploiting the huge oil reserves in Alaska, the Gulf and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Tax the oil company? How about let the companies expand production and refining of gasoline.
Kim Du Toit makes a good point. As a person licensed to carry a firear in my home state of Pennsylvania, I am still forbidden to carry it in New Jersey. In other words New Jersey won't accept the fact that Pennsylvania trusts me enough to carry my Glock, and considers that law null-and-void in Jersey.
But if New Jersey passed a law giving homosexuals a right to marry, they would be pissed if we didn't recognize THEIR laws.
Seems like a double standard?
You bet.
For all Glenn Beck fans, trade in your Cheesesteaks for Lox and Cream Cheese, your Orange and Black for Yankee pin stripes.
CNN's Headline News has signed conservative radio host Glenn Beck for an hourlong talkshow in hopes of building on the ratings momentum generated by a revamped primetime lineup anchored by "Nancy Grace." The signing of Beck, expected to be announced today, will add a fourth show to HLN's primetime in addition to "Grace," "Showbiz Tonight" and "Prime News Tonight.""Glenn Beck is the next piece of the puzzle," said HLN prexy Ken Jautz. "Glenn's style is self-deprecating, cordial; he says he'd like to be able to disagree with guests and part as friends. It's conversational, not confrontational."
Beck, a former top 40 deejay who became a nationally syndicated talkshow host five years ago, recently moved his radio studio from Philadelphia to New York City to be closer to HLN studios.
New show will debut in April, though a timeslot has not been set. Jautz said any of the existing shows could be shuffled to accommodate Beck but none will be cancelled.
Net will look to build Beck into the type of TV personality that could siphon viewers from Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough and other conservative hosts.
The addition of Beck is the latest move for HLN, which added a primetime schedule in February in the first major programming shift in the net's 22-year history.
Ratings had been flat for nearly a decade when CNN brought in Jautz from CNN Europe a year ago to introduce primetime programming that would win new viewers without cannibalizing CNN.
Idea behind the changes is that viewers looking for the headlines have already seen them on the Web or on TV by primetime, so the net needed to come up with a schedule of shows to entertain and inform.
The changes gave HLN the fastest-growing show in cable news in "Nancy Grace" and the highest ratings in its history, up 16% in total viewers and 65% in primetime from a year ago.
HLN finished the year averaging 234,000 viewers per day and came very close to unseating MSNBC as the third-rated cable news net. It tied MSNBC in the adults 25-54 demo, on which advertising is bought and sold.
HLN has spent the last several months giving screen tests to dozens of news personalities -- including other radio hosts -- to find someone with enough TV charisma to carry an hourlong show.
"As part of the continued evolution of the network, we wanted another primetime show," Jautz said. "We didn't look for a conservative, a liberal or anyone of a particular ideology. It was about getting the best talent that would resonate with the most viewers."
Beck is tied for eighth with a national radio audience of 2.75 million, according to Talkers magazine. More importantly to HLN, however, Beck is third in the 25-54 demo, according to Arbitron, behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
Beck's five-year-old show is carried by a little more than 200 stations, but he achieved his aud without any distribution in New York City or Los Angeles.
While conservative, Beck is avowedly apolitical, and his show is a highly produced mix of interviews and opinion.
On Monday, he opened his show with a nostalgic mix of Martin Luther King Jr. Day speeches and followed with these hot-button questions: "What percent of whites are racists? What percent of blacks want things handed to them?"
Later, Beck poked fun at his own show: "It's a holiday weekend. We're practically phoning it in!"
In the coming weeks, HLN will hire an executive producer and staff for the show.
I'm sick of New York being the center of everything.
It seems the world is soon to be less one union thug organization.
And yesterday, merely hours into the paralyzing job action, Michael T. O'Brien, the international president of the parent union, the Transport Workers Union of America, urged the city's transit workers to abandon the strike and return to work immediately. He said the parent union would provide no money or other assistance to Local 100.Those two facts - a lack of unanimity among its own leaders and an absence of help from fellow transit workers across the country - could complicate the union's ability to hold up under the mounting public criticism, enormous fines and escalating attacks by the city and state's top political leaders.
In a Brooklyn courtroom, where a state judge imposed fines of $1 million a day on Local 100, the union's own representatives made clear their vulnerability, saying they had only $3.6 million in cash. The union even found itself contemplating the sale of its West Side headquarters as a way to withstand the penalties.
"This begins the process of crippling the union," Arthur Z. Schwartz, a lawyer for Local 100, said of the steep fines.
So they are getting fined a million dollars a day, that means by Friday we will be getting an early Christmas present. One bankrupt union. Also the overpaid idiots who are out carrying signs and picketing (probably the most exercise these guys get in their whole lives) will be fined two days pay for each day off work.
And the strike was called because of the bad offer by MTA?
Mr. Toussaint explained the authority's final offer: wage increases of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent over the next three years; a requirement that new workers pay 6 percent of their pretax earnings toward their pensions; and an additional holiday to mark the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I would gladly give 6% of my salary to be ensured a pension. I pay 6% of my salary now to my IRA which by no means I will have a comfortable income from it when I retire. I would love a pension period, and these guys don't want to pay for it????
I say they should be fired
SEPTA, or South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority has gone on strike. Despite the fact that they are currently running a $55 million defecit, and that those in Harrisburg are trying to bail them out by raising taxes and automotive fees, the greedy union pigs aren't happy.
"For almost two years, we haven't had a wage increase. We haven't had a disability increase in 13 years. We haven't had a pension increase in almost four years," SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said.
I haven't had a wage increase either, I havn't had a disability increase, I haven't had a pension increase either. Wait, I don't get a cushy pension. I have to pay for my retirement out of my pocket.
I don't feel bad. All I heard from the legislature lately is that we have to bail out SEPTA and give them more state funds. But if they are losing so much money, require state aid, AND STILL GO ON STRIKE? I say fire every single one of those picketers.
Morgan Spurlock, the same filmmaker who made the anti-McDonald's documentary Supersize Me is out with a new show on FX called 30 Days.
Covering such topics such as religion, homosexuality, minimun wage, and the environment, this show is definately liberaly bent. In some shows devout Christians have to live 30 days as a Muslim, a conservative "homophobe" has to live in San Fransisco, and a bunch of "typical Americans" have to live "off the grid".
Read the synopsis of that episode and see the liberal bias dripping from the words:
Two 30-year-old professionals who are friends and typical Americans—i.e., ravenous consumers of fossil fuels such as gas and electricity—go ‘back to the future’ and learn to live without the natural resources that will be depleted from our earth in the not-too-distant future. To do this they’ll uproot themselves and move to an ‘eco village’ in Missouri to live 100% OFF THE GRID. As they set up house in a former 3,000 bushel grain bin, they will sustain themselves on a clean power such as solar and wind, recycle all their waste (both food and human), live in a car-free culture, grow and eat only organic foods and conserve their water use with solar showers and rain-catch systems. Can these fossil fuel addicts wean themselves from their consumptive habits without their lives falling apart? Will they thrive in a community that is the total opposite their New Jersey neighborhood? And will the ecological solutions they learn stick once their Thirty Days are up?
That write-up takes makes a lot of assumptions.
How about showing a Liberal having to live the life of a Conservative. Move a Left Coast liberal to rural America, make then get a job, go to church, attend a rally for America. Then we'll see who the fish out of water is.
David Souter, the liberal Supreme Court justice who penned the decision that allows governments to seize property for private use, is having his house targeted for redevelopment and seizure through eminent domain. That is, if a developer gets his way.
On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.
The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."
I would be fitting afterall.
The Supreme Court of the United States, in another attempt to totally destroy our country, has ruled today that it is ok for governments to seize private property for other private needs.
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses — even against their will — for private economic development.ADVERTISEMENT
It was a decision fraught with huge implications for a country with many areas, particularly the rapidly growing urban and suburban areas, facing countervailing pressures of development and property ownership rights.
The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.
It used to be that they'd only take your property if they were putting in a road or something. That was bad enough. Now if Donald Trump wants to put a casino on your property, and you don't want to sell, the government can seize your land, and then sell it to Trump.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
If someone tried to take my land, I would not go without a fight. If the government tried to take my land, you would see a standoff in a fashion reminiscent of Ruby Ridge.
Mark Levin was right, The Supreme court is destroying America.
Sandra Day O'Connor, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas voted against it.
Don, over at Anger Management, has a great breakdown on the decision, including some good points against ANY sort of government seizure of property.
Leave it to Californians to come up with stupid taxes. But a county in North Carlolina takes the cake. Right now they have the "Rover Fee". That is a fee of $10 per year for neutered pets, $75 for pets that still have their franks and beans.
They want to change that to a "tax" to ward off those pesky people who don't pay the fee.
DURHAM -- Durham County officials say replacing the current annual dog and cat fee with a tax would put some teeth into their efforts to collect thousands of unpaid dollars.Only about 50 percent of the fee money is being collected on the county's 53,800 licensed animals, said Cindy Bailey, animal control administrator.
At the current fee of $10 per animal for neutered pets, the 50 percent rate translates into $269,000 in uncollected money. At the current fee of $75 per animal for un-neutered pets, the 50 percent rate would equal more than $2 million. The actual sum lies somewhere in between.
They are doing this because, afterall, people who don't pay their "fees" are evil SOBs.
"The honest people are paying and the irresponsible people are not," Bailey said.
Proving that we should be allowed to own guns to protect against tyranny of asshat tyrants like these guys the article goes on to explain what will happen if you don't pay this "tax".
People who fail to pay would face the same consequences as not paying other taxes. The pet charge could be taken, for example, from their state tax return or their wages.Commissioner Lewis Cheek said the county should consider enforcing a penalty for not paying the tax, such as 10 times its amount.
"I would hope we make the penalty so great that it really doesn't make sense [not to pay it]," Cheek said.
The position would require a new government position, paying about $31,000. But you have to figure when the union requires the position to be full-time, with benefits, vacation, and all that, the $10 tax for fixed pets, and $75 tax on unfixed pets won't stay at that rate for long.
I say they have a recall election to get that Cheeky fool out of office. That way it doesn't make sense to [to pass it].
The robes masters in the United States Supreme Court said it's ok for a dog to sniff your car without probable cause.
Over at The Agitator, he describes why this is so dangerous.
Isn't the court supposed to protect our rights? Maybe I read the constitution with the mentality of just some layman, but maybe I can see it as a regular human and not a lawyer in a robe would. Is that too bad?
What do the French eat? I was in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. While visiting my favorite cigar bar I looked across the street at a famous 4-star restaurant, Le Bec Fin.
I had to ask the following question: Just what the hell is French food?
I know Germans eat Potato salad, Red Cabbage and Sausage. Chinese eat moo goo gai pan, Indian food is pretty straightforward. Hell, even I know that Jamacians eat Jerk Pork.
But what exactly does a Frenchie eat on a given day?
Whatever it is, it makes them constipated and ugly.
It seems that Kofi was sad to see his son using the U.N. for illegal reasons.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday he was "very disappointed and surprised" that his son had continued to receive payments until this February from a firm that had a contract with Iraq's oil-for-food program, the subject of numerous corruption investigations.Annan told reporters that he had been working on the understanding that payments to his son, Kojo Annan, from the Swiss-based firm Cotecna Inspection S.A. stopped in 1998 "and I had not expected that the relationship continued."
But on Friday, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Kojo Annan's lawyer had informed the independent panel appointed by the secretary-general to investigate allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program that the younger Annan continued to receive monthly
And if you were reading the news at all in the most recent weeks you will see that France was involved as was Germany.
Lets do some basic deductive reasoning. No need for Sherlock Holmes here. France, Germany, and the U.N. were getting kickbacks from Iraq. They opposed freeing Iraq (thus negating their kickbacks).
Anyone still want to defer to these assholes?
I didn't think so.
A point I would like to make is that Arafat was euthenized. He probably had a treatable illness, and if the terrorist was sent to a first world country like the United States for treatment, he'd still be selling bombs to children.
But instead he was sent to France. France, where their socialist utopia lead to ten thousand dead Frenchies during a heatwave, sending the world market for frog legs and Jerry Lewis DVDs in a downward spiral.
You see, a socialist health system like in France, just can't cope with minor problems like a sweaty brow, nor can they properly treat whatever ailed the ditry bastard named Arafat.
Gee, for once I am glad for socialism.
From the land of socialist healthcare, England, comes the story of a man with a nail in his finger. After going to the E.R. and waiting for 20 hours, he pays out of pocket to get his GP to do it for him.
With the nail embedded in the middle finger of his left hand Mr Milne, 54, went to the hospital's A &E department, arriving at about 2.30pm and was seen by a doctor at 3.40pm.He said he was then sent to Ward 39 at around 5.30pm, examined and X-rayed.
He said he was then told that he would need to be operated on by a plastic surgeon who would not be able to do it until later that night.
When the doctor made his last round at about 7pm, Mr Milne claims he was told that he would not be operated on until 9am the following morning.
After spending the night in a hospital bed, he said he was seen by a consultant who told him that there would be a further delay until lunchtime. At 12.30pm, he was told that it would be a further few hours.
It seems that all the stories we hear are true about the great nationalized healthcare that John Kerry envisions. Long lines, inferior service, and all that.
The trouble with nationalized healthcare isn't so much that the government is involved, but that no one else is. When there's a lack of incentive to improve, because of a lack of free market pressures, you have crappy service.
Well if Lurch gets elected be prepared to have discussion on the merits of socialism.
Just recently, despite the horrible George Bush induced budget deficit, Congress has voted to give itself a pay raise.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With little debate, House lawmakers on Tuesday included themselves as part of a pay raise that all federal employees will receive next year.The cost-of-living raise would be the sixth straight for members of the House and Senate, boosting the salaries of lawmakers, now $158,100, by about $4,000 in the new calendar year.
I guess deficits are bad when it is caused by wars to protect us, or tax cuts to stimulate the economy. But when deficits are partially caused by too much spending and pay raises for civil servants it's ok.
Sure.
I didn't watch any of the convention last night. Sorry, I was drinking beer and watching sports. I needed a break.
One thing that I did do is reflect on the olympics. We kicked ass and took names, but the European Union used it as a way to pit all of Europe against the United States.
Mr Prodi turned the Athens games into a political football, boasting that our bag of 30 medals helped the EU trounce America and China.He said: “The Games were a huge success thanks to their unique spirit and smooth organisation but also because EU athletes did so well.
“In 2008 I hope to see the teams in Beijing carry the flag of the European Union alongside their own national flag as a symbol of our unity.
Talk about new world order. These people in the Union of Socialist Euorpean States love to make everything a contest between us and them. That's one reason they opposed us in the war.
Also about the Olympics is the patriotism and American flag waving we witnessed whenever we saw one of our fine athletes win a gold medal. I was proud to be an American, and had a tear in my eye when they played our national anthem (partially because they butchered it so much).
But the pride that I witnessed in our country and pride in the Olympic spirit was evident in the high ratings. American want a distraction and need a reason to be proud in this country. They got it, and it is no wonder why Bush is surging ahead in all polls.
Michelle Malkin has a geat take on the problems with socialist healthcare.
It is an especially good read today for two reasons. First, the bearded socialist Paul Krugman had another mindless column in the Left York Times. Second, liberal press is spinning the the news today of the increasing number of uninsured. (ignoring the fact that a lot of those counted as having no insurance are the rich who don't want any, and the illegal immigrants who don't deserve any).
Like Michelle, I admit there is a problem with our health care system. But it really didn't start until HMOs popped their ugly heads in 1973, thanks in part to Ted Kennedy, who now blames Bush for the health insurance crisis.
If you want to see more about why single payer systems suck, look no further than France.
I was skimming the web, wasting time at work during my lunch break (yeah thats it, my lunch break), when I came across the web site of Babs. That's Barbara Streisand for those uninitiated.
Here is an excerpt from her take on the "myth" of big government
We also have to understand the connection between taxes and spending. It is our taxes that pay for these services, so Bush's two big tax cuts for the wealthy will, eventually, result in a cut in the services that all Americans depend on everyday, unless the tax cuts are repealed.
Do you want to know what "big government" gets you? Just take a look at how France's Socialist utopia of a cradle-to-grave caregiving government led to more than 10,000 dead people from a huge heat wave. Because the healthcare system is not based on profits, and is run by the government it can't afford anything longer than 35 hour work weeks, with a full month of August off for vacations. Just read this article by Paul Johnson for detailed description.
Second, it wasn't tax cuts for the wealthy. I am not wealthy at all, and I got a tax cut. Does she even know what "wealthy" means? Well according to the IRS, anyone making over $90,000 a year. That means an elementary school principal and her state police officer husband are, by definition, wealthy.
The top 50% of wage earners pay about 96% of the taxes. Sure they got a generous tax break, but someone like Bill Gates pays more in taxes in a year, than I will probably make in my entire lifetime.
Some lefties say that the rich will just go out and buy a BMW with the money, while welfare mommies won't have enough foodstamps to have another illegitimate child.
I say let them buy the car. It's spending which drives the economy. The salesman will get a commission, the guy who built the car will get a paycheck, and the economy will chug along and grow. Praise capitalism. AMEN.
Lefties get all pissed when you call government "Big Government", but regularly chide Big Tobacco, Big Gun, Big Fast Food, Big Oil, and so on.
Which should be more despised. An entity like the bloated federal government which lives by snatching 50% of people's paychecks before they ever see it, or an entity like businesses which create jobs, build prosperity, and offer goods and services which are desired by the public?
In a class called Sociology of Developing Countries the great (and recently returned) Don Watkins notes something strange about his textbook.
It appears the word Capitalism does not appear in his textbook. I think the reason they are still "developing" (ie. third world like Ethiopia, Canada) would be because they are not Capitalists.
There's no complete explanation for why some countries are affluent while others are poor, but there are some leads. Rank countries along a continuum according to whether they are closer to being free-market economies or whether they're closer to socialist or planned economies. Then, rank countries by per-capita income. We will find a general, not perfect, pattern whereby those countries having a larger free-market sector produce a higher standard of living for their citizens than those at the socialist end of the continuum.
If you want to learn more read the wise cigar afficionado, Walter E. Williams
The French speaking candidate for President, John Le'Kerry's idea is to "make healthcare affordable and available for everyone" In case you aren't up on your liberal doublespeak, that means, "Universal Healthcare".
One of the most socialized healthcare systems in the world is in France, where unemployment continually hovers at around 12% due to the oppressive anti-business tax system to pay for gold fillings for everyone.
To keep costs down, hospitals cut corners, and are generally not innovative.
Look what happened last year during a
heatwave in France:
French hospitals could not cope with a repeat of the heatwave which killed almost 15,000 people last summer, a prominent doctor said on Thursday.Patrick Pelloux, an emergency doctor who led attacks on the government over its handling of the 2003 heatwave, said there were not enough hospital beds or staff available.
An official report blamed the heat-related deaths on poor organization, a lack of communication and key staff being away on holiday.
The government's plan, to be active from June 1 to October 1 each year, includes a new weather and health alert service, a database of people at risk from heat-related illness and a response plan for hospitals and voluntary aid workers.
Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in May a special committee had been set up to ensure emergency units received an extra $600 million set aside over five years. But Pelloux said funding was still insufficient.
"If there is no real willingness to make the public hospitals more dynamic in all sectors, we will again see disasters and important bottlenecks in emergency services," Pelloux said.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's conservative government is trying to reform France's expensive health care system, long hailed as one of the world's best.
Under the heatwave plan, a "heat risk" map updated at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. will be sent to the media, along with advice and recommendations from the Health Ministry.
Douste-Blazy has also said he aims to increase overtime to ensure experienced staff are always available.
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15,000 people? As a percentage of the population, that would mean about 75,000 dead over here.
But 15,000; That's more than died in the "alleged illegal" war in Iraq. It seems like France's Liberal Socialism has killed more people than any Neocon in this country has. |  "Pickin grapes for $45 Euros an hour sure is sweet!!" |
