The following is an interesting article and I wonder how long Dr. Hunt can remain at National Institute of Health once the powers that be get wind of this article.
Dr. Hunt is a social and cultural anthropologist. He has had nearly 30 years experience in planning, conducting, and managing research in the field of youth studies, and drug and alcohol research. Currently Dr. Hunt is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Scientific Analysis and the Principal Investigator on three National Institutes on Health projects. He is also a writer for American Thinker.
Another Failed Presidency
An article from American Thinker by Geoffrey P. Hunt
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we’ve seen several failed presidencies—led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait—they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China.
But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What’s going on?
No narrative. Obama doesn’t have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn’t connect with us. He doesn’t have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don’t align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.
But not this president. It’s not so much that he’s a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task—all contributory of course. It’s that he’s not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn’t command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don’t add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don’t make sense and don’t correspond with our experience.
In the meantime, while we’ve been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he’s dissed just about every one of us—financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: “For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn’t give me enough time; if only I’d had a second term, I could have offended you too.”
Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state—staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year... With a new Congress, there’s always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.
Margaret Thatcher: “The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
“When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both.” - James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union
“The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.” – Tacitus
“A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn’t own.” – Unknown
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Justice oversight and likely corruption
Justice probing lawmaker with oversight over department
Mollohan's leadership of Appropriations panel seen as possible conflict
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
For three years, Rep. Alan Mollohan has chaired the important Appropriations subcommittee that controls the Justice Department's $65 billion budget. At the same time, he has been under a Justice Department investigation, according to documents and two sources briefed on the probe. The investigationhas centered on the West Virginia Democrat's finances and nonprofits he created and helped fund in his district, and has put him in the unusual position of wielding control over an agency at the same time it is probing his conduct and contractors he helped while in office. Some congressional watchdog groups, including the one whose complaints about Mollohan triggered the probe, think the House leadership has created a clear conflict of interest by allowing Mollohan to continue to chair the subcommittee.
"There are a hundred ways he can influence what happens with the department's funding -- without one vote. Everything goes through his committee," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group that alleged in a complaint that the congressman had not reported the nature and increasing value of his real estate investments. "If that's not a conflict of interest, I don't know what is."
Mollohan spokesman David Herring said the congressman dealt with the issue in 2006 by recusing himself from voting on specific budget accounts for the FBI, the attorney general's office and other investigative functions. Herring declined to release the letter describing that recusal to House leaders.
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Herring also said Mollohan is not aware of the Justice Department inquiry and has not been contacted by investigators.
Ethics inquiries into Mollohan date to 2006, when Boehm filed a complaint with the Justice Department. The complaint focused attention on Mollohan's assets, which had jumped in value from $562,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004. At the same time, he had steered $250 million in earmarks to nonprofit groups whose leaders were sometimes investors with him.
Mollohan initially cast Boehm's complaint as a Republican-funded smear campaign, but in June 2006 he corrected several previous financial disclosure forms and reported he had received a loan from a director of one of the nonprofits. He also hired a legal defense team, and spent more than $157,000 in legal fees in the 2008 election cycle.
In the spring of 2006, news broke that a federal grand jury in West Virginia was examining him. Back on Capitol Hill, then-Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) urged Mollohan to give up his seat on the House ethics committee, which he did.
After becoming House Speaker in January 2007, Pelosi defended her decision to let Mollohan remain as a powerful "cardinal" over the Appropriations subcommittee.
"Quite frankly, I think the Justice Department is looking into every member of Congress. I always say to everybody, 'You're now going to get a free review of your family tree -- past, present and future, imagined and otherwise,' " Pelosi said then.
A Pelosi spokeswoman said the speaker thinks Mollohan's recusal from specific votes addresses any potential conflicts.
After a flurry of subpoenas for nonprofit records in 2006 and 2007, the Justice Department probe went quiet. News that it was still underway was detailed in a document created by House ethics investigators that was secured by The Washington Post last month after a computer security breach. The document listed the status of ethics inquiries into more than two dozen members of Congress, and included a notation on the Mollohan matter, which also has been under separate review by the House ethics committee.
The records show that in July, ethics staff members said Justice Department lawyers asked that "the committee not move forward at this time" with its inquiry into Mollohan. It is standard practice for the ethics committee to stand down on its probe of a lawmaker to avoid a conflict if federal prosecutors have an active criminal investigation of the same person.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said agency policy prohibits her from confirming or denying that Mollohan is a subject of an criminal probe. She declined to comment on any potential conflict in his role overseeing Justice's budget.
Some argue that the leaked document confirms how poorly the secretive ethics committee polices its own. The House panel's investigation of Mollohan has been underway for three years, and no action was taken until a new committee staff revived the review this summer.
"What in the world is the ethics committee doing?" asked Sarah Dufendach, vice president of legislative affairs for Common Cause. "It's just insane that it has gone on this long. Either he should go reside in the penitentiary, or he should be cleared and come back to Congress. But we just don't know which, and that's intolerable."
Dufendach said she would not demand that Mollohan give up his subcommittee chairmanship because of the lack of answers from both the ethics committee and the Justice probe.
"Here we have a document that shows DOJ asked the ethics committee to stand down, like they're really running full steam ahead with this investigation," she said. "But all we know is they have been doing this for a really long time."
Mollohan's leadership of Appropriations panel seen as possible conflict
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
For three years, Rep. Alan Mollohan has chaired the important Appropriations subcommittee that controls the Justice Department's $65 billion budget. At the same time, he has been under a Justice Department investigation, according to documents and two sources briefed on the probe. The investigationhas centered on the West Virginia Democrat's finances and nonprofits he created and helped fund in his district, and has put him in the unusual position of wielding control over an agency at the same time it is probing his conduct and contractors he helped while in office. Some congressional watchdog groups, including the one whose complaints about Mollohan triggered the probe, think the House leadership has created a clear conflict of interest by allowing Mollohan to continue to chair the subcommittee.
"There are a hundred ways he can influence what happens with the department's funding -- without one vote. Everything goes through his committee," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group that alleged in a complaint that the congressman had not reported the nature and increasing value of his real estate investments. "If that's not a conflict of interest, I don't know what is."
Mollohan spokesman David Herring said the congressman dealt with the issue in 2006 by recusing himself from voting on specific budget accounts for the FBI, the attorney general's office and other investigative functions. Herring declined to release the letter describing that recusal to House leaders.
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Herring also said Mollohan is not aware of the Justice Department inquiry and has not been contacted by investigators.
Ethics inquiries into Mollohan date to 2006, when Boehm filed a complaint with the Justice Department. The complaint focused attention on Mollohan's assets, which had jumped in value from $562,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004. At the same time, he had steered $250 million in earmarks to nonprofit groups whose leaders were sometimes investors with him.
Mollohan initially cast Boehm's complaint as a Republican-funded smear campaign, but in June 2006 he corrected several previous financial disclosure forms and reported he had received a loan from a director of one of the nonprofits. He also hired a legal defense team, and spent more than $157,000 in legal fees in the 2008 election cycle.
In the spring of 2006, news broke that a federal grand jury in West Virginia was examining him. Back on Capitol Hill, then-Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) urged Mollohan to give up his seat on the House ethics committee, which he did.
After becoming House Speaker in January 2007, Pelosi defended her decision to let Mollohan remain as a powerful "cardinal" over the Appropriations subcommittee.
"Quite frankly, I think the Justice Department is looking into every member of Congress. I always say to everybody, 'You're now going to get a free review of your family tree -- past, present and future, imagined and otherwise,' " Pelosi said then.
A Pelosi spokeswoman said the speaker thinks Mollohan's recusal from specific votes addresses any potential conflicts.
After a flurry of subpoenas for nonprofit records in 2006 and 2007, the Justice Department probe went quiet. News that it was still underway was detailed in a document created by House ethics investigators that was secured by The Washington Post last month after a computer security breach. The document listed the status of ethics inquiries into more than two dozen members of Congress, and included a notation on the Mollohan matter, which also has been under separate review by the House ethics committee.
The records show that in July, ethics staff members said Justice Department lawyers asked that "the committee not move forward at this time" with its inquiry into Mollohan. It is standard practice for the ethics committee to stand down on its probe of a lawmaker to avoid a conflict if federal prosecutors have an active criminal investigation of the same person.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said agency policy prohibits her from confirming or denying that Mollohan is a subject of an criminal probe. She declined to comment on any potential conflict in his role overseeing Justice's budget.
Some argue that the leaked document confirms how poorly the secretive ethics committee polices its own. The House panel's investigation of Mollohan has been underway for three years, and no action was taken until a new committee staff revived the review this summer.
"What in the world is the ethics committee doing?" asked Sarah Dufendach, vice president of legislative affairs for Common Cause. "It's just insane that it has gone on this long. Either he should go reside in the penitentiary, or he should be cleared and come back to Congress. But we just don't know which, and that's intolerable."
Dufendach said she would not demand that Mollohan give up his subcommittee chairmanship because of the lack of answers from both the ethics committee and the Justice probe.
"Here we have a document that shows DOJ asked the ethics committee to stand down, like they're really running full steam ahead with this investigation," she said. "But all we know is they have been doing this for a really long time."
Beck on Murtha
Murtha gets award as scummiest congressman:
More Beck Videos http://www.glennbeck.com/content/videos/
More Beck Videos http://www.glennbeck.com/content/videos/
Monday, November 23, 2009
Recovery.gov cost/benefit
Spent 18 million to redesign the site which was supposed to improve information and transparency(What a nice word for feed you more bullshit with our political spin attached to it).
$18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site - The Note
And now for the results of the spin from the redesigned website:
Jobs Saved or Created in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist - ABC News
And for the Arizona spin report:
Stimulus-jobs figure deceiving
$18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site - The Note
And now for the results of the spin from the redesigned website:
Jobs Saved or Created in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist - ABC News
And for the Arizona spin report:
Stimulus-jobs figure deceiving
Memorial Liberty Bell
This is the first I’ve seen or heard of this bell, what an honorable thing for someone to do.
FROM A SIMPLER TIME!
This clip is 5 min long and worth the time. Have your sound on. It should bring back nostalgic times to many of you.
This is good. Hope you all enjoy.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&ved=0CBEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.daddy-o.us%2FCloseyoureyes.pps&ei=Y2cKS8KjCImKMf-87cAK&usg=AFQjCNFgM5388Spj4t9tcn6CixS4VFATXg&sig2=wLbwC2VApf8_PHaQAwpYgg
This is good. Hope you all enjoy.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&ved=0CBEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.daddy-o.us%2FCloseyoureyes.pps&ei=Y2cKS8KjCImKMf-87cAK&usg=AFQjCNFgM5388Spj4t9tcn6CixS4VFATXg&sig2=wLbwC2VApf8_PHaQAwpYgg
Sunday, November 22, 2009
My Son
Subject: my son
This is great, take a moment to read it, it will make your day! The ending
will surprise you.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had
everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often
sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very
courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was
notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A
young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands..
He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son
gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to
safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly... He
often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this
package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think
your son would have wanted you to have this..'
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the
young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the
personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes
that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered
to pay him for the picture.. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son
did for me. It's a gift.'
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to
his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them
any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his
paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great
paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his
gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid
for this picture?'
There was silence...
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous
paintings. Skip this one.'
But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will
start the bidding? $100, $200?'
Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see
the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!'
But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime
gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting...' Being a
poor man, it was all he could afford.
'We have $10, who will bid $20?'
'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son.
They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel.. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'
A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the
collection!'
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'
'What about the paintings?'
'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a
secret stipulation in the will... I was not allowed to reveal that
stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be
auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate,
including the paintings.
The man who took the son gets everything!'
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the
auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER
BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE
God Bless.
This is great, take a moment to read it, it will make your day! The ending
will surprise you.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had
everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often
sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very
courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was
notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A
young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands..
He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son
gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to
safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly... He
often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this
package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think
your son would have wanted you to have this..'
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the
young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the
personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes
that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered
to pay him for the picture.. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son
did for me. It's a gift.'
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to
his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them
any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his
paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great
paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his
gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid
for this picture?'
There was silence...
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous
paintings. Skip this one.'
But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will
start the bidding? $100, $200?'
Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see
the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!'
But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime
gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting...' Being a
poor man, it was all he could afford.
'We have $10, who will bid $20?'
'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son.
They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel.. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'
A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the
collection!'
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'
'What about the paintings?'
'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a
secret stipulation in the will... I was not allowed to reveal that
stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be
auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate,
including the paintings.
The man who took the son gets everything!'
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the
auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER
BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE
God Bless.
Merry Christmas Poem
T'was the month before Christmas
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Not Happy Holiday!
Join together and wish everyone you meet during the holidays a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Not Happy Holiday!
Join together and wish everyone you meet during the holidays a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
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