"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it, have never known it again."
"Obama's health care proposal is, in effect, the repeal of the Medicare program as we know it. The elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access. Indeed, the principal impact of the Obama health care program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use. No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered.
It is so ironic that the elderly - who were so vigilant when Bush proposed to change Social Security - are so relaxed about the Obama health care proposals. Bush's Social Security plan, which did not cut their benefits at all, aroused the strongest opposition among the elderly. But Obama's plan, which will totally gut Medicare and replace it with government-managed care and rationing, has elicited little more than a yawn from most senior citizens."
"In a potentially alarming trend for the White House, independent voters are deserting President Barack Obama nationally and especially in key swing states, recent polls suggest.
... a source of the shift appears to be independent voters, who seem to be responding to Republican complaints of excessive spending and government control. "
Our Country Deserves Better deliberately produced this TV ad to be provocative and make this point: If you read these headlines about Obama's policies they sound more like something you'd expect from a regime in Iran - not here in the U.S.A. But sadly, these reports ARE about the United States and Obama's administration.
Our Country Deserves Better Committee was formed in August 2008, already has over 300,000 members, and has raised over $2 million dollars for campaigns like this.
Mark Williams has been involved with OCDB for some time. He was with us last month to talk about the Support Our Troops Troopathon. He rejoins us tonight with news about the controversial TV spot that is sure to raise liberal hackles (always an interesting phenomenon).
Watch the TV ad which will air on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.
This just in -- but you won't hear about it at Fox News or any other media outlet, other than World Net Daily, the only news organization faithfully following this story.
Two more members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of a proposal introduced by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla "to require presidential candidates to document their eligibility for the office under the U.S. Constitution, which requires Oval Office occupants to be among other things, a "natural born citizen" of the United States."
They joined Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; John Campbell, R-Calif.; John R. Carter, R-Texas; John Culberson, R-Texas; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; and Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, in support of Posey's H.R. 1503 plan.
Campbell spokesman Brent Hall said it just seemed logical to address the issue so that the question never reappears in future elections.
Besides the support that is growing in the U.S. House, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says he's in favor of both state and federal demands that future presidential candidates have a formal procedure to document their qualifications.
"The bill requires any federal candidates' campaign committee filing with the Federal Election Commission to produce a copy of the candidate's birth certificate," Coburn wrote. "If the bill makes it to the Senate, I will likely support it.
Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs posts news that you won't read elsewhere, unless you do hours of digging. And even then, you won't come up with stuff that can only come from "insiders" who keep her alerted to info the Obamaniacs et al don't want you to know, and the mainstream media will not report.
She does it without a formal staff. She's a hard working, indefatigable journalist. When does she sleep? Never, it seems. Pamela's sharp, a "smart cookie" not easily fooled, and the first kid on the block with breaking news about jihad's steady encroachment on our soil and infiltration of our government institutions.
The photo at left was taken last winter at a reception Pamela hosted for Geert Wilders during CPAC 2009. Pictured are Pamela at right, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, and yours truly.
I've written about Atlas several times on this site. She gets behind the right causes and has my support (and admiration) for her work ethic and dogged determination to report what the other media won't and don't: the truth about the enemy at our door. She's developed an enviable network of global resources and is on a first name basis with contemporary leading experts on Islam, Islamofascism, geopolitics and our Government. There's nothing else out there like Atlas Shrugs.
Having said that, Pamela posted an item today that I want to bring to your attention. Like much of what she reports, it is disturbing and controversial.But it is something you should consider, especially if you have a loved one serving our country in Afghanistan or getting ready to deploy there.
I have refrained from commenting on Obama's much lauded military moves in Afghanistan, as I had hoped my suspicions were might be wrong. No such luck. It made no sense to me strategically. It is a set up. A weak, aimless strategy to get our boys killed. I believe Obama hates our military and is decimating it from within and without. What is the mission by objective? The global jihad? Crushing Islamic supremacism? No, the humiliation of the US military and maximum death. Too few troops while Obama talks of negotiating with "moderate" Taliban. Huh?
Do I think he is setting up our troops? Yes, I do. The number of US deaths in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since Obama's military strategy was implemented.
July 6 was the highest one-day Afghan death toll of U.S. troops. Seven good men died. Where are the media blasts? The countdowns? The SCREAMS? Remember during Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was the daily broadcast of US deaths - recounted ad nauseum. Now, all quiet on the left wing front.
On the day of the largest one-day death toll in months for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, military officials and experts warned that the American public should brace for rising casualties as thousands of additional American troops pour into the region to confront a resurgent Taliban.
So far this year 73 American troops have died in Afghanistan, including seven on Monday, according to the U.S. military. At the current rate, 2009 would be the deadliest for the U.S. in more than seven years of fighting, surpassing the 132 killed last year, the military said.
Atlas Shrugs is the new media doing the hard work the legacy "state" media New York Times, CBS, ABC, NBC, and the cable news channels stopped doing a long time ago.
She's not getting rich doing it, and relies on advertising and the support of her readers to keep the site going.
If you haven't been to her site, acquaint yourself with it. Read her posts. And support her effort. She's one of the few brave souls who dares to defy enemies both domestic and foreign by aiming a blinding searchlight into the darkest, most foul corners of the world.
As Pamela herself would say, "It's disinfectant, baby."
"The fear on the street is palpable. Ever since the election of Barack Obama as President of these United States in November 2008, coupled with the election of a democrat party majority in both the U.S. House and Senate, concern for the United States and personal safety has ignited like a fire in dry grass. Sales of guns – black guns, rifles, shotguns and handguns (particularly 9mm) everywhere, have gone through the roof."
So writes Scott Wagner, a Police Academy Commander and community college professor who also commands a Counter Terror Training Unit in an article that's flying into email in-boxes faster than the click of a mouse.
Why?
You'll find out when you hear what this 29 year law enforcement veteran, deputy sheriff, and precision marksman has to say -- it's shocking... and alarming.
"Street cops and SWAT cops that I know from various agencies – rural, suburban and metro – in my area are scared. Cops that before November 2008 never gave much thought (that I knew of anyway) to politics or more importantly to gun rights.
For the most part, these are the guys that didn’t generally have any interest in shooting or gun ownership beyond keeping track of where their duty gun is, and a few of them didn’t even do that so well.
The guys I am talking about are some of the same guys who used to not even carry off duty on a regular basis- but not anymore. They don’t scare easily, defenders of the Constitution of this State and the United States (as our oath of office reads), have been buying ARs, survival gear, and all the ammo they can lay their hands on. All of them (or I should say “us”) have been discussing and have been acquiring guns to provide a layered perimeter defense."
Paste this into your browser and pour yourself a stiff one.
After WWI many U.S. soldiers moved to the California desert to find physical and emotional healing. In 1934, they erected a memorial to honor their fallen comrades, a single white cross, - a symbol used around the world to memorialize those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. View video here.
The ACLU and a federal judge in California want to tear it down. In fact, the judge has ordered the memorial covered from view while the case is on appeal.
Former NH Sen. Bob Smith, now a FL resident, is running for Senate again, this time for Martinez' seat. (We interviewed Smith on my radio show last night).
A friend emailed with a question:
How many politicians in history have been elected to the same office from different locations?
"If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation."
~ Samuel Adams, letter to Elbridge Gerry, November 27, 1780
Smith, who has lived in Sarasota for seven years after serving two terms as U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, was sitting on the sidelines and ready to retire, but became frustrated as a true conservative with the direction the country was going.
Republicans seeking the seat are Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio. U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is the top Democratic candidate for the seat Republican Mel Martinez is leaving after one term.Smith was elected to the New Hampshire House in 1984 after two unsuccessful campaigns and then was elected to the Senate in 1990.
In a span of a few months, Smith also ran for president, dropped out of the Republican party, became an independent, ended his presidential campaign and returned to the GOP.
Before entering the political scene, the Navy veteran was a teacher and a baseball coach, a school board chairman and owner of a real estate agency.
"President Obama is headed to Moscow in early July for his first ever U.S.-Russia summit. The administration, in an effort to "hit the reset button" when it comes to relations between the two countries, has in fact hit the delete button when it comes to ties with friends and allies in the region."
So now, nearly six months into the Obama presidency, the mainstream media has finally done a bit of the candidate background reporting it declined to do during the campaign — other than in Wasilla — and whaddya know? The New York Times unearthed a 1983 article called, "Breaking the War Mentality," that Columbia student Barack Obama wrote for a campus newspaper.
The article shows that Obama dreaded American "militarism" and its "military-industrial interests," while effusing enthusiasm for the dangerously delusional nuclear-freeze movement."
The relationship between the United States and Russia has never been comfortable. When we’ve been allies, it’s been an uneasy, wary alliance. When we’ve been enemies, it’s been fiercely competitive and dangerous.
In recent years, since the fall of the Soviet Union, we’ve been in an uneasy alliance cycle, of sorts. Now, the new American President has gone to Moscow to try to find ‘common ground’ and ‘reset’ our relationship with them.
The hopes for this trip are in the stratosphere of unrealistic idealism that embodies the Obama Administration. The reality is that there are low expectations for any progress being made.
VIERA -- Many came dressed in red, white and blue, but it wasn't so much for an Independence Day celebration. Instead it was a protest to draw attention to what some say is a "tax-and-spend government moving in the wrong direction."
About 3,000 opponents collectively criticized the current administration as a free-spending government that is leading the nation with a socialist agenda. They banded together Saturday at Space Coast Stadium for a Fourth of July "tea party."
"I see people more concerned about catching the latest episode of their favorite TV program than worry about freedom," organizer Matthew Nye, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida, told the crowd.
He said it's time "to tell the country and the world that no man is entitled to the fruits of the labor of another man. Do you hear me, President Obama?" he added to cheers of approval from the crowd.
Long before the 4 p.m. start of the event, crowds gathered to purchase $5 tickets that included a voucher for admission to the Brevard County Manatees-Daytona Cubs baseball game and fireworks show to follow.
Behind the flag in the foreground is another smaller flag. That's mine. I held it up for practically the entire rally -- sore arm today! Seated beside me in a white T-shirt is Kristinn Taylor, media spokesman for Free Republic.com, who broke a series of Sarah Palin-related story over the weekend, here, here, here, here, and here, which immediately went "viral" throughout the blogosphere.
Many of those attending said they shared in the fight against government policies gone awry.
"I'm here today to raise awareness to the laws that are being passed," said Merle Gelles, a retiree from Viera. "I resent the fact that people are passing laws without reading them."
Gelles carried a hand-made sign saying, "Clean the House and the Senate."
Sue Amarante, a registered nurse from Viera, said more people need to pay attention before the spending goes too far.
"People are so busy with their personal lives and they don't participate," she said. "I wish they were here."
Several speakers decried the direction the nation is headed and called on Americans to rise up to preserve their freedoms.
Rebecca O'Dell Townsend, a St. Petersburg lawyer, told the crowd they cannot be asleep any more to the government turning toward socialism.
"Socialism is immoral and illegal because it is illegal under our Constitution," she said.
Mark Fahl, a 27-year-old unemployed plumber from Palm Bay, said he was concerned about the economy and the so-called stimulus bills by government that are not making it any better.
"They keep printing money thinking that it is going to make it better," he said. "People are not happy about the way things are working."
Virginia Heard, a grandmother from Cocoa Beach, carried a sign: "If you are not outraged you're not paying taxes." The reverse side said: "Charlie Crist -- A tax and spend socialist."
Heard said there were several taxes and fees that were raised in recent months, including some that went into effect Wednesday. She said party affiliation doesn't matter to those concerned about the direction of government.
"It's not what party I belong to, it's abuse of my money," she said. "You don't know how I voted, do you?"
I've made the Space Coast my home since 1982 when I moved here to cover the Space Shuttle program for WESH-TV, the Orlando NBC affiliate. The first launch I saw in person was STS-5, the fifth shuttle mission. And as spectacular as shuttle lift-offs are, moon shot veterans say it ain't nuthin' compared to the rumble of the Apollo Saturn behemoth lifting off the pad.
There were still some remnants of the "moon shot" days when I arrived on this barrier island that juts out like a bump off Florida's east coast.
The walls of The Moon Hut, Ramon's, and Bernard's Surf restaurants displayed dozens of autographed photos of Mercury 7 and Gemini astronauts and celebrity stars who came to mix and mingle in the space program firmament. Everyone wanted to be in the space program orbit!
The Satellite Motel sign, now long gone, stood like a rusted sentinel along SR A1A in Cocoa Beach until both the motel and the sign were torn down.
I wasn't here for the early days which included the moon shots, so I missed a lot of the fantastic explosive growth, but I am so lucky to have met many of those who were part of it. People like NBC's Jay Barbree and Howard Benedict of AP, and astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, Bob Crippen, John Young, John Glenn, to name drop a few! (Saving that for a future post).
Bob Sieck, featured in the video, later was the launch director for dozens of shuttle missions. I got to know Bob while I covered the beat, and later as a colleague when I joined NASA as a Public Information Officer working at "The Dome" at the KSC Press Site, and for the next ten years with United Technologies as its media and public relations manager.
Folks like Bob Sieck in Launch Control (LCC) and Operations and Checkout (O&C) were the best, and it's been a highlight of my life to have worked with the "rocket scientists" who met JFK's challenge to send a man to the moon... and beyond. We're talking solid people. Dependable. Cool under pressure. And whip smart.
Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, families across the globe sat together in front of their TV sets, mesmerized, and watched Neil Armstrong make history as he took man's first steps on the moon.
This month, we will celebrate that magnificent accomplishment with the rest of America. I'll be writing more about it in the next couple of weeks. But in the meantime, here's a video that shows how we here are still "Moonstruck on the Space Coast"!
"Like us, the American founders lived during a time when supposedly worldly-wise thinkers developed philosophies that rejected God and moral ideas in favor of reliance on purely material passion and self-interest.
Yet they invited the nation to revere and celebrate the moral truths that justified their claim to freedom. If we mean for liberty to survive the crisis of our day, shouldn't we do likewise?"
~Alan Keyes
"Is American sovereignty and independence still worth a fight? What are you willing to risk? What are you willing to sacrifice today in the name of freedom and independence? "
~ Joseph Farah, World Net Daily
"The threatened return of the Chains of Tyranny triggers that transcendent call for us to assemble here today.
A sky filled with fireworks on the 4th of July could not have made more of an explosion than Sarah Palin's stunning announcement this afternoon that she is stepping down from the governorship of Alaska and will not be seeking reelection.
Speculation on Twitter, talk radio, and cable news began immediately after word came that she'd be making an announcement. Some suggested it might be a health issue. Others thought she might just be tired of the whole tawdry game of politics, and wanted out. But no one really knows. Yet.
Whatever her reason, I don't think Sarah Palin would have reached it without giving it a lot of thought. My initial take after watching her talk to the nation from the shores of Lake Lucille is that she's removing herself from the public arena... for now. I have a hunch she'll be back in a big way.
She says she's going to help other good people get elected. That tells me she's going to build her own network of political support and earn the chits that a national candidate must have to succeed in their own race. That takes time. Today she gave herself 16 months to help out in the 2010 pivotal races and build her support, her own political machine. Thomas Lifson expands on this in his piece at American Thinker.
Which ties in with her statement quoting Gen. Douglas MacArthur: “We are not retreating; we are advancing in another direction.”
So, whether it's a run for the White House -- or something else -- remains to be seen. After the news conference, Palin tweeted her supporters to “stay tuned” via Twitter. “We’ll soon attach info on this decision to not seek reelection.”
Tradition tells of a chime that changed the world on July 8, 1776, with the Liberty Bell ringing out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.
The Pennsylvania Assembly ordered the Bell in 1751 to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges, Pennsylvania's original Constitution. It speaks of the rights and freedoms valued by people the world over. Particularly forward thinking were Penn's ideas on religious freedom, his liberal stance on Native American rights, and his inclusion of citizens in enacting laws.
Composition: 70% copper, 25% tin, small amounts of lead, zinc, arsenic, gold and silver.
Size of "Crack": The "crack" is approximately 1/2 inch wide and 24.5 inches long. The Bell actually suffered a series of hairline cracks. The area around the crack was expanded in hopes of extending the useful life of the Bell. In the picture at right, note the hairline crack that finally rendered the bell unusable extending upward.
Bell Stats
circumference around the lip: 12 ft.
circumference around the crown: 7 ft. 6 in.
lip to crown: 3 ft.
height over the crown: 2 ft. 3 in.
thickness at lip: 3 in.
thickness at crown: 1-1/4 in.
weight (originally): 2080 lbs.
length of clapper: 3 ft. 2 in.
weight of clapper: 44-1/2 lbs.
weight of yoke: 200 lbs.
Length of visible hairline fracture: approx. 2' 4" (this and next measurement made by Park curator Bob Giannini in 1993)
Length of drilled crack: approx. 2' 1/2"
yoke wood: American Elm (a.k.a. slippery elm)
The Normandy Liberty Bell pictured at the top of this post is an exact replica of the Liberty Bell, and is tuned to the same E-flat note the Liberty Bell once sounded before it cracked in 1846.
A French individual, Patrick Daudon, commissioned this replica of the Liberty Bell to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. He chose the Liberty Bell because the Bell was struck seven times on D-Day by the Philadelphia mayor to spell out the word "Liberty." The Normandy Liberty Bell will tour the United States for a period of two years, starting in July 2005.
The Normandy Liberty Bell was first rung on June 6, 2004 on the shores of Normandy to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day. It was first rung in the United States on July 4, 2005 outside of the Liberty Bell Center on Independence Mall as part of the "Let Freedom Ring" ceremony.
Gary Kreep of US Justice Foundation is working on a video - what's it about? He'll tell us. ALSO - Int'l Forecaster Bob Chapman explains why a thorough investigation is needed about the firing of IG Gerald Walpin, despite Joe Lieberman’s apparent initial reticence to pursue it.
Dr. Bill Krissoff (right) enlisted in the Navy Medical Corps as a way to honor his son, First Lt. Nathan Krissoff (second from right), who was killed in Iraq a year ago. Also pictured are Bill Krissoff's wife, Christine (second from left), and son, Lt. Austin Krissoff.
Karl Rove wrote a piece about a military family that will fill your heart with gratitude and pride for such Americans. Christine and Dr. Bill Krissoff of California lost their oldest son Marine 1st Lt. Nathan Krissoff in a 2006 terrorist attack in al Anbar Province.
Their youngest son Austin, also a Marine, is now in his second tour in Iraq.
Rove tells how following Nathan's death, Dr. Krissoff, an orthopedic surgeon, asked that he should be allowed, at age 61, to re-enter the military and serve with his son Austin in Iraq. President Bush and Gen. Peter Pace approved the waiver, and today the father and son both serve our country in Iraq, Dr. Krissoff as a combat surgeon.
The story reminded me of last night's radio program when military historian and author Richard S. Lowry told us about a recent conversation he had with LTC Tim Karcher who was in Iraq. Lowry was interviewing Karcher by phone for a book he's writing about Fallujah.
Lowry had just learned that Karcher was severely injured last Sunday, when an EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrator manufactured and supplied by the Iranians) struck the personnel carrier he was in, shearing off both his legs. A short while later, 28-year-old Sgt. Timothy David of Michigan was killed by an EFP and small arms fire.
Lowry was understandably upset at the news, and spoke highly of Karcher, who he described as a warrior with a huge heart.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Timothy Karcher, left, and Iraqi government official Sameer al-Haddad sign documents during a ceremony transferring the joint security station in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City to Iraqi control in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, June 20, 2009. A U.S.-Iraqi security pact requires the Americans to pull back combat troops from cities by June 30 as a first step toward a full withdrawal by 2012.
It's men and women like the Krissofs, Karcher and David who make it possible for us this weekend to celebrate our freedom and independence from tyranny.
At the same time, it is men and women like us who must protect and defend that freedom and independence here on the homefront. Every single day, in every way. They fight on foreign soil. Our battle is here, where a domestic enemy seeks to destroy the very things our military servicemembers are bleeding and dying for. While they carry a weapon, we'll carry and sign and tell those scoundrels in Washington that the battle has just begun. And like our brothers in arms who won the war in Iraq, we must win the domestic war here.
The following was written by the original Tea Party protester, who was protesting with a sign -- alone -- two years ago this weekend, over the injustice perpetrated on him and Americans like him by the "powers that be". He's everyman -- every brave patriot who has reached the end of his rope and says "I'm mad as hell, and I'm NOT going to take it anymore." And then does something about it.
The Lone Protester Independence Day July 1, 2009
I had the privilege of attending the Patriot Expo in Columbia, South Carolina this past weekend and I was amazed at the number of organizations that were represented. There were 26 different groups from all over the state in attendance and the speakers were Peter Koenig, Thomas Moore and Harry McKay as Patrick Henry giving his ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ speech. And it was riveting. The passion that man puts in his words is enough to awaken the patriotic spirit in any American citizen.
I just wonder, is there any politician anywhere in this country that is of the caliber of Patrick Henry? Of the thousands upon thousands of politicians in this country, is there one like him? Is there anybody out there that is willing to speak up for the constitution and the American people?
Sometimes when I sit down in front of the computer the words are hard to come by, but the anger is always there. I wake up in the middle of the night and I can’t go back to sleep worrying about what else the future will bring, courtesy of my politicians. During the day I drive around the construction sites looking for work and the anger gets a little worse because there are my compadre’s from south of the border hard at work while my government forces me to fend for myself. I don’t have the right to support my family but criminals have the right to support theirs. The anger seethes just below the surface for what has been done to the people of this country without our permission.
What has been committed against us is criminal and the perpetrators should be in a prison cell instead of walking the Halls of Congress. If they were doing their jobs the FBI would have hundreds of investigations going on in Washington instead of wasting their time checking out tea parties. Most of the politicians would be scrambling for their lawyers instead of ways to rip us off. If the Supreme Court was doing its job they would be standing up for constitutional law and the American people instead of wasting their time on cases dealing with illegal alien criminals that profess ignorance when they get caught with fake documents.
I do not know about the average American citizen but I have had about all I can take from politicians that do not represent me anymore. I have had it with a bunch of crooks who can’t put their pants on in the mornings without some lobbyist hovering in the shadows, waiting to take a little bit more of our freedoms away. I have had it with politicians and their million dollar bank accounts wanting me to give up what little I have left so that the crooks can flourish. I want to see them in handcuffs and leg irons in court instead of free to finish killing this country because they deserve nothing less.
July the 4th is Independence Day, the day we declared our freedom from a government that ruled by tyranny. Very much like the one we have now. We had no rights under the British government and we have no rights under ours.
It is time for a new Declaration of Independence against the most oppressive tyranny that has existed in this country since we kicked the redcoats out. Our government is rotten to the core and needs to be cleaned out like an infestation of roaches. From life time politicians to a politically correct State Department to the idiots at Homeland Security who classify Americans like me as domestic terrorists, you have most definitely worn out your welcome.
Your grip on the reins of power in this country is almost over although you have not realized it yet. You continue like your crimes against America are going unrecorded but rest assured that someday you will be called to account for them because the American people will not forget.
From the Bookworm Room: (and you really must read the whole thing). Bookie's insight about Obama's stagecraft is brilliant -- and scary as hell.
Obama’s reluctance to expose himself to unscripted moments isn’t surprising, of course. It was when he went off script that he revealed his belief that the federal government’s purpose is to redistribute wealth. And even when he’s not redefining the American dream to bring it closer in line with the Soviet dream, his teleprompter-free moments reveal him to be a man of few words, most of which are “uh.”
Thanks to an outraged press corp and the blogosphere, Americans are now learning about the perversion of the traditional townhall concept. The new administration’s control over content, however, is even worse than staging completely fake question-and-answer sessions with “ordinary” members of the public. In a move that more closely aligns it with North Korea than with North America, the Obama administration is forcing people to listen to his message, whether they want to or not. This is the antithesis of the marketplace of ideas.
I have it on very good authority (an employee at US embassy in a major NATO country) that this year, in order to celebrate America’s (not Obama’s, but America’s) Independence day, all embassies have been ordered to install a big screen TV in a prominent location in order to play an endlessly looped Hillary Clinton speech for the duration of the festivities.
The UPS driver rang the doorbell. Bing Bong. Bing Bong.
By the time I got to the door, "Brown" had already done what it could for me, and as the familiar UPS truck drove away, I found a large, slender, rectangular white box leaning against the step.
It was from a publishing house, not an uncommon delivery from authors' publicists hoping to schedule their client on my radio program to discuss their book.
But I could tell by the size and shape of this box that this wasn't like (literally) hundreds of others I've received, usually in a padded envelope.
I slit open the seal with a letter opener, then lifted the lid.
Wow! Embedded on a dark blue platform insert was Sen. Jim DeMint's new book SAVING FREEDOM.
Just above the book, also embedded in this field of royal blue, was a writing pen and above that, a gold-edged embroidered patch depicting the American flag and Eagle. To the right of the patch, a dual-flag lapel pin -- Old Glory and the American Eagle. And to the right of that, along the platform's outer edge was a tea-colored parchment scroll of the U. S. Constitution, rolled and tied with a grosgrain ribbon of red, white, and blue. The entire presentation was beautiful, most impressive, and obviously timed to coincide with the upcoming Independence Day celebrations.
Fidelis Books, an imprint of B&H Publishing Group, outdid anything I've ever seen, and I have a wall library packed with books sent by publishers. Defined by its name which is Latin for "faithful," Fidelis Books is a new nonfiction and fiction imprint of B&H Publishing Group led by New York Times best selling author Oliver North.
Atop the book was a brochure that repeated the book's distinctive old Americana cover art, announcing the release date: July 4, 2009, and the publicist's contact info.
First thing I did after admiring the media kit? Made the call. We'll work out a date.
So stay tuned for an announcement of Jim DeMint's apearance on my radio program. Sen. DeMint previously joined us on my program in January of '08. We look forward to having him on with us again
Meantime, I have my Independence Day weekend reading, right here. DeMint's "SAVING FREEDOM, We Can Stop America's Slide Into Socialism". Here DeMint is interviewed by Glenn Beck on his show yesterday.
Is the radical leftist group ACORN squelching voices that dare to criticize it?
That's the distinct impression House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan) left last week when he told the Washington Times that he wasn't proceeding with an investigation of ACORN because "the powers that be decided against it."
Conyers refused to explain who "the powers" might be, but his spokesman Jonathan Godfrey twisted himself into a pretzel trying to spin the statement. The congressman was referring to himself as "the powers that be," Godfrey claimed.
Conyers has his own problems. His notorious wife Monica, a Detroit City Council member, who once threw a temper tantrum and called the council's baldheaded presiding officer "Shrek" as an insult when he reclaimed the floor, pleaded guilty Friday to felony bribery charges. On Monday she tendered her resignation.
Just three months before Rep. Conyers was convinced that looking into the affairs of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now was the right way to go.
During a March 19 hearing, he received testimony from Republican lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh about ACORN's alleged serial violations of tax, campaign finance, and myriad other laws. Heidelbaugh's testimony was based on the evidence provided by a former ACORN employee, Anita MonCrief, who explained the thoroughly corrupt inner workings of ACORN and Project Vote, its voter drive-organizing arm, to a Pennsylvania court last year.
Conyers was told about ACORN's "muscle for the money" program, its protest-for-hire services, its mob-style shakedown tactics, and how President Obama's campaign sent the group its "maxed out donor list" and asked it "to reach out to the maxed out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN."
At the time, Conyers described the allegations as "a pretty serious matter" and a fortnight later said he would "probably" order a probe. "That's our jurisdiction, the Department of Justice. That's what we handle -- voter fraud. Unless that's been taken out of my jurisdiction and I didn't know it."
On May 4 he unexpectedly pulled back, announcing that a probe of ACORN "appears unwarranted at this time." He refused to elaborate even though earlier the same day Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, revealed that ACORN and two former senior ACORN executives had been charged with 39 felony counts related to voter registrations.
A few days later Allegheny County, Pennsylvania District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. laid voter registration fraud charges against seven ex-ACORN canvassers. Cuyahoga County, Ohio prosecutor Bill Mason is also probing ACORN after a man who was registered multiple times by ACORN was indicted by a grand jury for fraudulent voting. The Ohio charge should be especially worrisome to ACORN, which claims as a matter of policy that illegal voting does not happen.
Since Miller, Cortez Masto, Zappala, and Mason are all Democrats you might expect ACORN, which also as a matter of policy insists the Republican Party is determined to destroy it, would refrain from claiming partisan persecution, but you'd be wrong.
ACORN lawyer Lisa Rasmussen said at a court hearing June 3 that election fraud charges laid against the group in Nevada were motivated by politics. "The politically motivated charges, such as those brought by the attorney general and secretary of state, just highlight the voter registration system that is broken," Rasmussen said in a Las Vegas courtroom.
As credible allegations of wrongdoing continue to mount against the group, it becomes increasingly harder to believe Conyers's claim that his hands were tied.
But then again why did anyone actually believe that Conyers, an ally of ACORN who until recently resisted calls to probe it, was serious about looking at the group?
In the fall Conyers, who garnered a 100% rating from ACORN in its 2006 legislative scorecard, called the organization that helps get out his party's vote "a longstanding and well regarded organization that fights for the poor and working class." In June 2008 he called America's corporations "capitalist predators" to wild applause at ACORN's national convention in Detroit.
It's not like there is a shortage of things to investigate.
ACORN and its taxpayer-supported labyrinth of affiliates owe millions of dollars in back taxes, helped cause the subprime mortgage mess, and may be using taxpayer money even now on partisan political activities.
There is the group's eight-year-long coverup of Dale Rathke's embezzlement of close to $1 million from the group. Dale is the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke. The group's national board threw the founder out last summer. When ACORN board members Marcel Reid and Karen Inman, who were appointed specifically to investigate the embezzlement, asked for the relevant financial documents last year, they too were shown the door. Soon after, Reid and Inman created "ACORN 8," a group that is trying to reform ACORN.
When Congress last investigated ACORN a decade ago it struck gold.
A congressional report noted that there was "apparent cross-over funding between ACORN, a political advocacy group and ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC), a non profit, AmeriCorp [sic] grantee" that is a major affiliate of ACORN. The government-funded AmeriCorps, which promotes public service, suspended AHC's funding "after it was learned that AHC and ACORN shared office space and equipment and failed to assure that activities and funds were wholly separate."
The report noted that, "AmeriCorps members of AHC raised funds for ACORN, performed voter registration activities, and gave partisan speeches. In one instance, an AmeriCorps member was directed by ACORN staff to assist the [Clinton] White House in preparing a press conference in support of legislation." ("Report on the Activities of the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities During the 104th Congress," Report 104-875, January 2, 1997.)
Who knows what Congress might find nowadays.
Meanwhile, a crackdown on ACORN critics with ties to the organization is underway.
It's possible ACORN's tough-guy approach has something to do with the closed-press meeting May 27 at the headquarters of John Podesta's left-wing Center for American Progress Action Fund. The meeting of liberal and radical groups was called to discuss how to use misdirection to take the focus off ACORN's increasingly well-publicized corruption. One of the groups, Alliance for Justice, used its website to advertise the crisis management meeting called "Reframing the Attack on Voter Registration."
ACORN is threatening the ACORN 8 because it's afraid of them and wants to shut them up. The group argues the ACORN 8 is violating ACORN's intellectual property by using the word "ACORN" in its name. ACORN lawyer and longtime left-wing activist Arthur Z. Schwartz of the New York City law firm of Schwartz, Lichten & Bright PC recently sent the ACORN 8 a "cease and desist" letter giving the group's members until June 30 (today) to close shop.
Reid says that won't happen.
ACORN is also suing whistleblower MonCrief to shut her up. ACORN finds MonCrief irritating because she has revealed much about the group's internal operations to the media.
Did ACORN also put the squeeze on Chairman Conyers?
Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy.
Using the FBI's unreliable Terrorist Watch List to Stop Gun Purchases
"Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D,CA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Jack Reed (D-RI) to introduce legislation to eliminate private transfer of firearms and close the nation's Gun Show loophole."
"There is no legal restriction on who can be placed on the watch list, nor is there presently any legal right to have your name removed from the list once it appears.
According to a 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office, an individual may be nominated to the list if they are subject to an ongoing counterterrorism investigation, or if the individual is the subject of a preliminary investigation “to determine if they have links to terrorism.” The second category potentially includes the entire population of world."
According to the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, a million Americans have been placed on this terrorist watch list without their knowledge. And they can be stopped from getting on a plane, getting a visa, or buying a gun.
The government's consolidated watch list, used to ID people suspected of links to terrorists, has grown to a million names since 9/11, and has drawn widespread criticism over the prevalence of mistaken identities and unclear links to terrorism. RINF reports:
Thousands of Americans who share common names with supposed terrorists—Robert Johnson, Gary Smith, John Williams, David Nelson, Jim Robinson—have been stopped from boarding planes or otherwise targeted.
The list includes at least one US senator, Edward Kennedy, and three members of Congress, John Lewis, Loretta Sanchez and Don Young, as well as a former US Attorney and an army sergeant flying home from deployment in Iraq. Particularly sinister are cases like those of James Moore, author of a critical biography of Karl Rove, entitled Bush’s Brain, and CNN reporter Drew Griffin, placed on the list in May 2008, shortly after he did a series of investigative reports critical of the Transportation Security Administration.
Obama and the White House are looking the other way as Sen. Frank Lautenberg et al ignore the fallibility of the secret FBI terrorist Watch List and try to ban guns from 1,000,000 U.S. citizens who don't even know they're on it.
Obama has deliberately and repeatedly lied to America's 90 million gun owners across the country when he insisted that he would not try to take away anyone's firearms. Now his silence endorses Lautenberg's latest attempt at banning guns.
Is your name on the FBI's Terror Watch list? You might not know unless and until you try to exercise your 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
Mark Tapscott chides us for describing the eight Republicans who voted for Cap and Tax as "traitors".
Another lame argument. What is with these guys? First John Hawkins and now Mark Tapscott? Come on! They are not thinking these things through.
One wonders if they're writing this pap just to get attention?
Tapscott's readers pull no punches in setting the record straight. And, and just for the record, I believe these eight Republicans AND all the Democrats who voted for this piece of crap bill ARE traitors.
They violated their oath to defend the Constitution, did damage to everything it stands for, voted on a 1300 page bill they didn't read, violated parliamentary order, and placed us in a perilous economic position that endangers our national security.
Those are traitorous acts. Period. These people should be led out of the Capitol building in handcuffs like the criminals they are. In another time, they'd have been hanged, and justifiably so.
Here's Tapscott:
Sorry, folks, but, as much as I agree this bill is a disaster for America, calling these eight RINOs "traitors" is beyond the line. Here's why: The word "traitor" has specific reference to national loyalty. Benedict Arnold was a traitor, as were spies like John Walker, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and Aldrich Hazen Ames. The traditional penalty for treason is death, though in recent decades that sentence has been all but forgotten in the U.S., though not in other nations.
Now, some wiser words from some Tapscott's readers who show more sense than Tapscott has. Let's hope Tapscott is edified before returning his fingers to the keyboard on this subject.
A vote to destroy the entire United States economy qualifies for the word "Traitor."
If destroying the country does not deserve the distinction of being called a traitor nothing ever will! And that is the goal of this bill.
It is a betrayal of the national trust. Taking action to approval a bill -- not even read -- that will damage the prosperity of the American people is treasonous.
From Dictionary.com traitor - 6 dictionary results trai⋅tor /ˈtreɪtÉ™r/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [trey-ter] –noun 1. a person who betrays another, a cause, or any trust.
Sorry, I don't agree. I think that all of the congressmen who voted for a bill that they did not read, but knew that the effect of the bill would do great harm to the economy and, in turn, national security are indeed traitors in the truest sense of the word.
They are traitors to the ideals this country was founded on not to mention that most of the stuff that I have heard about is flat out UNCONSTITUTIONAL. So yes - they have betrayed their oath of office and the country. Sounds like a traitor to me.
John Hawkins is so wrong about the Obama birth certificate issue, I don't even know where to begin to address his lame claims that the matter is settled, the birth certificate is authentic, and the rest of us are conspiracy freaks.
The arguments he makes are so easily refuted, I hope Town Hall didn't pay him for this unscholarly piece of... fluff. (One wonders who did cut him a check to come up with this asinine drivel?)
In a piece published at Town Hall, Hawkins attempts to convince the reader with three reasons why the search for Obama's authentic birth certificate (as well as all the other records he's hidden) is a conspiracist's wet dream.
First, he claims that because FactCheck.org pronounced the internet version of the COLB to be authentic, it is.
1) Many people, including some experts, have claimed that the certificate of live birth released by the Obama campaign wasn't legitimate. In all fairness to them, it can be difficult to judge some of the features needed to determine the authenticity of a birth certificate over the Internet. However, the people at FactCheck.org have seen the certificate of live birth provided from the state of Hawaii to the Obama campaign and it is genuine.
Evidently Hawkins missed the part about FactCheck.org being a tool of the Leftist Bill Ayers-Obama connected Annenberg Foundation. Did Hawkins do any homework?
Next, Hawkins posits that
2) Although Hawaii "state law prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record," the director of Hawaii’s Department of Health has certified that Obama does have a legitimate birth certificate on file in Hawaii.
And this next point? You're kidding me. This guy's so gullible, I've got some Sherwin Williams gold painted bricks he'd buy, no doubt delighted to be getting a deal on bars of 24 kt. bullion.
3) In a print copy of the 1961 Honolulu Advertiser, there's a notice that Barack Obama was born. In and of itself, this is a game, set, match conversation-ender on this subject unless people want to argue that this isn't genuine or that there was a conspiracy going all the way back to the day of Obama's birth to make him President.
Again, you're kidding me, right? Hawkins hasn't heard that anyone can place an ad in a newspaper? Hawaiian state law allows children born outside Hawaii get valid Hawaiian birth certificates (S. 338-17.8)
Folks, I'd be embarrassed to put my name on an article this pathetic.
Hawkins goes on to disparage those with legitimate questions about the legitimacy of Obama's background, in an ad hominem tactic more typical of the Left. Leading me to wonder, is Hawkins revealing his true political colors?
The piece resulted in dozens of responses from readers who patiently took the time to explain why Hawkins doesn't get it, even in light of mountains of evidence presented by brighter bulbs better able to present a well documented argument.
Double checking the date to make sure this wasn't an April Fool's Day reprint, I can only conclude that John Hawkins needs to do more reading and less writing. His scribbles have the intellectual heft of a toddler with crayons.
What do you bet she won't serve all five? What do you bet she won't serve more than a year, if that?
Was a deal struck with the "powers that be"? Drop the investigation into ACORN, and we'll go light on your wife?
Today, in a roundabout way, Vadum asks the same question.
Is the radical leftist group ACORN squelching voices that dare to criticize it?
That's the distinct impression House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan) left last week when he told the Washington Times that he wasn't proceeding with an investigation of ACORN because "the powers that be decided against it."
Conyers refused to explain who "the powers" might be, but his spokesman Jonathan Godfrey twisted himself into a pretzel trying to spin the statement. The congressman was referring to himself as "the powers that be," Godfrey claimed.
Conyers has his own problems. His notorious wife Monica, a Detroit City Council member, who once threw a temper tantrum and called the council's baldheaded presiding officer "Shrek" as an insult when he reclaimed the floor, pleaded guilty Friday to felony bribery charges. On Monday she tendered her resignation.
[...]
ACORN is threatening the ACORN 8 because it's afraid of them and wants to shut them up. The group argues the ACORN 8 is violating ACORN's intellectual property by using the word "ACORN" in its name. ACORN lawyer and longtime left-wing activist Arthur Z. Schwartz of the New York City law firm of Schwartz, Lichten & Bright PC recently sent the ACORN 8 a "cease and desist" letter giving the group's members until June 30 (today) to close shop.
Reid says that won't happen.
ACORN is also suing whistleblower MonCrief to shut her up. ACORN finds MonCrief irritating because she has revealed much about the group's internal operations to the media.
Did ACORN also put the squeeze on Chairman Conyers?
Glenn Beck said it today on his radio program -- we're on to it. The players are coming into focus.
...And we've got to get them out. And if you look at the analysis of who voted for it, for cap and trade, it wasn't ‑‑ I mean, we have all of the names.
You want to know what you need to do? You need to campaign against these people. You need to make sure that these people send a message to their colleagues in the Senate, "Don't vote for cap and trade."
Now's the time to do it. Because they voted and they think you're going to forget.
"Make sure they understand you're blanketing with flyers. I want you to know this is what your congressman just did."
This is so critical because ‑‑ we'll get into it later ‑‑ not because of the insanity that is in this bill but the fact that it was all special interest and, more importantly, it is the structure. We've got to stop paying attention to these bills the way we've been doing it. We need to look at the structure.
The power is being grabbed left and right. The system is being overwhelmed. They are not 1300 pages for no reason. They are 1300 pages with an additional 300 pages because they are burying things. What is it that they are burying? They are burying structure changes. They are taking our republic and they are changing the structure of it.
They are adding new departments and new overseers, people that answer to the president, people that don't answer to congress, people that don't have to be confirmed anymore.
That's what's happening. It's not just about cap and trade. Again, this is an illusion.
This guy is, Barack Obama ‑‑ you know, I had somebody tell me this. I had somebody tell me this and I don't know if I've said this on the air and I don't know if I've credited him. So I better not because I don't remember how it was said to me if not at this point.
But somebody who you would respect said to me, "We are looking at a president that is the closest to Thomas Jefferson we've ever had." And I said, wow, that's a slam on Thomas Jefferson. And he said, no, he understands architecture. He knows what he's doing. This guy is very, very smart. And I agree with him.
Now, I don't know if he's the architect of this, but somebody is an architect of ‑‑ this is not happenstance. There are massive changes coming our way, and people don't really understand it yet. But massive changes have happened already.
Michael Gaynor at Renew America has written a fresh piece about ACORN whistle blower Anita MonCrief, who appeared on my radio program June 2 and June 17 telling what she knows about Obama's army of thugs. (Gaynor was on my program June 19th).
"There's nothing more dangerous to the liberal Democrat leaders than an intelligent African-American man who thinks for himself, except an intelligent young African-American single mom who chose life for her baby, thinks for herself, has computer skills and was in the right place to learn the truth about ACORN."
ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief has learned that conservatives are not the "crazies" she had been told they are (which is not to say that there are NO crazies on the Right). If Ms. MonCrief had learned that before Election Day 2008, the result might have been different.
Last year, before Election Day 2008, Ms. MonCrief testified in a Pennsylvania state court about the Associated of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN.
Ms. MonCrief wanted both ACORN corruption to be exposed and then Democrat presidential candidate Obama to win.
Ms. MonCrief got both, but the powers that be at ACORN that Ms. MonCrief wants removed are still in control and set to benefit hugely from the legislation backed by the Obama Administration.
A lot of folks are scratching their heads to come up with an answer to the question: "How have we come to this pass as a nation?"
Here's my take on it:
We as a people have turned our face away from God and his Commandments. Were we more God fearing as our founders were, we would be more closely observing His rules for living with the gift of free will.
Our society as a whole, in its selfishness and complacency, has violated cardinal law, so now we suffer the inevitable consequences. It's really quite simple -- we've failed the test -- it's the failure of the human condition.
Quoting Alexander Tytler (Lord Woodhousley):
The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:
bondage to spiritual faith
spiritual faith to great courage
courage to liberty
liberty to abundance
abundance to selfishness
selfishness to complacency
complacency to apathy
apathy to dependency
dependency back into bondage
It will take great suffering before the people of this nation understand and are willing to do what it takes to survive and overcome what we've become. I fear that won't happen for at least another generation or two, if we haven't blown ourselves into oblivion before then.
We've already said Not One Red Cent for the National Republican Senatorial Committee because Sen. John Cornyn and the NRSC betrayed the GOP grassroots in Florida. Now, add the NRCC to the list.
What's the point of giving money to the national party if, on key votes, Republican members of the House are indistinguishable from Nancy Pelosi?
Why give money to the campaign committee whose job is to re-elect these RINO sellouts?
Mary Bono Mack, California
Mike Castle, Delaware
Mark Kirk, Illinois
John McHugh, New York
Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey
Leonard Lance, New Jersey
Dave Reichert, Washington
Chris Smith, New Jersey
Unless and until all eight of these swine announce their retirements -- or are defeated in next year's primaries -- I say the grassroots answer to the NRCC should be NOT ONE RED CENT!
A friend sent me a slide show filled with gorgeous photos of various types of aircraft. If you are an aviation enthusiast, these glamour shots will knock your socks off. There are 39 photos, and I grabbed a few because I suspect you'll enjoy them as much as I do.
And then I went into Airliners.net to grab some more. I could do a blog devoted entirely to flying machines, and maybe one day I will. There's just something about airplanes and flying that's such a turn-on...
Click on pix to enlarge to get the full effect. Oh, and there are thousands more at Airliners.net. It's where the cool people hang out. Zoooom...
He's the man whose name is heard time and time again. George Soros.
Just who is he and what's the deal with him?
Many suspect he's the master manipulator controlling the levers of power.
Discover the Networks has probably the most comprehensive "dossier" on this anti-semitic Hungarian Jew who detests America and everything she stands for and has made it his life's mission to destroy her.
There's more. Much much more if you have the stomach for it.
GEORGE SOROS
Multi-billionaire funder of leftwing causes and groups
Founder of the Open Society Institute
Stated that defeating President Bush in the 2004 election "is the central focus of my life"
George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary. His father, Teodoro Schwartz, was an Orthodox Jew who, in 1936, changed the family surname from Schwartz to Soros in order to enable his family to conceal its Jewish identity and thus to survive the Nazi Holocaust. In 1947 Soros' family relocated from Hungary to England. Five years later, George graduated from the London School of Economics. He subsequently worked for a London stockbroker.
In 1956 Soros, with meager personal assets, emigrated to the United States. He would go on to become one of the world's leading hedge fund investors and currency traders. In 1969 he started his enormously successful Quantum Fund, which, over the ensuing three decades, yielded its long-term investors a four thousand-fold gain on their initial 1969 investments.
In a $10 billion 1992 deal whose success was contingent upon the devaluation of the British Pound, Soros earned himself a $1 billion profit and the title, "the man who broke the Bank of England." To date, he has amassed a personal fortune exceeding $7 billion. In addition, his management company controls billions of dollars more in investor assets.
In 1979 Soros established the Open Society Institute (OSI), which serves as the flagship of a network of Soros foundations that donate tens of millions of dollars each year to a wide array of individuals and organizations that share the founder's agendas. Those agendas can be summarized as follows:
promoting the view that America is institutionally an oppressive nation
promoting the election of leftist political candidates throughout the United States
opposing virtually all post-9/11 national security measures enacted by U.S. government, particularly the Patriot Act
depicting American military actions as unjust, unwarranted, and immoral
promoting open borders, mass immigration, and a watering down of current immigration laws
promoting a dramatic expansion of social welfare programs funded by ever-escalating taxes
promoting social welfare benefits and amnesty for illegal aliens
defending the civil rights and liberties of suspected anti-American terrorists and their abetters
financing the recruitment and training of future activist leaders of the political Left
advocating America's unilateral disarmament and/or a steep reduction in its military spending
opposing the death penalty in all circumstances
promoting socialized medicine in the United States
promoting the tenets of radical environmentalism, whose ultimate goal, as writer Michael Berliner has explained, is "not clean air and clean water, [but] rather ... the demolition of technological/industrial civilization"
bringing American foreign policy under the control of the United Nations
promoting racial and ethnic preferences in academia and the business world alike
promoting taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand
advocating stricter gun-control measures
advocating the legalization of marijuana
When you consider the policies Obama has implemented in his short five months in office, you have a better understanding where it's coming from. Discover the Networks connects the nightmarish dots.
A friend who lives nearby loves life on the Space Coast. I'll let her tell you why, in her own words.
So...this was the BEST of my booty for the weekend...
Friday at the Crowne was a couple having a candlelight dinner on the beach...tiki torches, linens, etc...
Saturday the wedding photo was at Paradise Park (I walk up that way). The GROOM was putting together the arch along with his groomsman... awwwww. It was really cool looking!!! THAT'S what I want if I get to do it again (as I told you, yesterday would have been my 28th wedding anniversary - hope theirs lasts longer).
The other photo is of my booty today...The shell with the writing on it was really weird... on the backside it had written: John 3:16 + 4:22.
I had to dig out my Gram's bible to see what it the verses were...
Went to church this morning, was the first time in 100 years..... and then finding the shell later???? HOW FREAKY!!!!! IS THIS SOME SORTA SIGN?!?!!??!?! Maybe not... there were no flames coming out of my feet like I thought there would be - but STILL!!!!!
Then today, I caught a bluefish (in the photo)!!! The other pieces of glass were nice... a nice cubed green piece that must have been some type of bud vase or something... not seen anything like that before... and some really nice cobalt blue. Skyy Vodka must be the culprit for more discovery of this color of glass which is most rare.
Of REAL interest... the water was so flat and beautiful BOTH days. Lots of people fishing and floating on their rafts... Yesterday - about a dozen porpoises frolicked in the water - really close to shore... flipping and flopping!!! Lots of turtles coming up close too.
"There's never been any doubt in my mind that Obama is a phony. Most conservatives instinctively know this but Jack, your work and the word of your friends makes a very compelling case."
The above comes from a reader comment left at American Thinker where Jack Cashill's latest update lays out further proof that Obama's supposed autobio Dreams From My Father was NOT written by him, but by friend and hippie terrorist William "Bill" Ayers.
In today's piece, Jack tells of a gentleman who has spent months doing his own forensic research on the book...
Last week, the first email I received from Mr. West had in the message box "759 striking similarities between Dreams and Ayers' works." This claim seemed so outsized I did not take it seriously. When I was unable to open the documents, I emailed Mr. West back, asked him to reformat, and then forgot about the email. He resent his documents a few days later.
This time I was able to open them and was promptly blown away. Mr. West's analysis was systematic, comprehensive, and utterly, totally, damning. Of the 759 matches, none were frivolous. All were C-level or above, and I had no doubt of their authenticity. I had been gathering many of them in my own reserve waiting for a book-length opportunity to make my case. Mr. West had done the heavy lifting. He even indexed his matches. This represented months of works. As I learned, he had been patiently gathering material since November when he first began building on my own research.
Bill Ayers was no one's ghostwriter. The now overwhelming evidence strongly suggests that he used the frame of Obama's life and finished it off with his own ideas, his own biases, his own experiences, his own passions, his own friends, even his own romances, all of this toned down just enough to keep Obama viable as a potential candidate.
I would argue that Ayers played Cyrano to Obama's Christian. His personal history was too ugly for him to woo Roxane/America himself. But Obama -- "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," as Joe Biden reminded us -- could and did make America's heart melt.
[...]
Too much is at stake for the latter.
The experts in the field have told me to stick with old-fashioned literary detective work, and I have done just that. Mr, Midwest has helped. His most recent contribution is a good example of keen-eyed detection.
Just as I began this post with a comment from a reader, I leave you with another:
"Ayers and Obama almost certainly go way back together at least as far back as the early 1980s in New York City, where they went to school a few blocks from one another around Columbia University - in fact Obama lived even closer to Ayres college (Bank St. College). They were both radical Leftists at the same time in the same Upper West Side New York neighborhood in the 1980s. Malcolm X was a hero to both of them and this was the slain Malcolm's neighborhood and the neighborhood where he was assassinated.
Ayers was fixated on and idealized Blacks and their experience. Who enters Ayers life? The part African-American, Marxist Obama. Obama became Ayers’ “Great White/Black Hope.” Ayers became more than the ghostwriter of Obama’s books; he became the ghost-writer of his life.
Ayers must have thought he himself could never become a politician, given the fact that he and his wife Bernardine and the terrorist organization, the Weather Underground bombed government buildings and murdered innocents.
In his Marxist domestic and international agenda, Obama is still puttin’ on Ayers."
My inbox is stuffed with email messages from friends who are positively fuming about yesterday's passage of the energy "Cap & Trade" bill (American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, H.R. 2454).
One friend said if he was in Washington, he'd have a commando squad toilet paper Capitol Hill with rolls specially imprinted with the energy bill.
Furious, disgusted, frustrated, coming to a full boil doesn't begin to describe the anger they're feeling today. Many of them are from my area, where Florida Democrat Rep. Suzanne Kosmas voted FOR the measure. Read this emailer:
This should not be surprising. Ms Kosmas, like all other congressmen and women are nothing more than puppets.
I actually met with her just after the crash and pleaded with her to do something about the lack of help for small businesses. I told her that Small Business owners were in desparate need. Banks had frozen money very quickly and put hundreds of thousands of small businesses out of business and without small business providing the majority of jobs, there could not be a recovery.
After telling me how excited she was to have been on Air Force One with Obama, she mentioned she had about 90 seconds with him. She stated she was a former small business owner herself but had very little power in DC. She felt she had to vote for the stimulous because every single economist she heard from recommended it.
I didnt have a problem with that, didnt even have a problem with her excitement about being on AF1 but being patronized, knowing that we were getting an "ear" but no true help bothered me. I wrote hundreds of letters, made hundreds of phone calls and sent as many emails.
I have a stack of responses thanking me for contacting them and dont forget to donate to their campaign.
We the people have no power, we are at their mercy. Neither party is responsible and the only solution to many of these issues is term limits for congress.......something that they will never ever vote for......so......there really is nothing we can do except to continue to make some noise.
There's a lot of frustration in that message. Here's another...
Well, once again we did act and once again we got, uh yeah...NOTHING but higher taxes.
There has to be a better way, because Nancy Pelosi just gained millions with her investments in the same companies that will now benefit, as will some others in Congress and of course Al Gore benefits financially as does GE who owns the station that just provided the Pres a free ride with health care.
I believe if it can be proven these folks pushed this through bill knowing they would benefit they should immediately be removed, but of course who will do that? NOBODY!
That's right folks we have already missed the boat and the country is ALREADY gone. Again, I ask is anyone getting a group together to go to Washington for the 12? Hate to say it, but "calls to action" are a joke to them and I'm not sure how much longer I'm willing to waste my time. They do not care....
Congress, be warned. Things are coming to a head. You will rue the day you didn't adhere to the Constitution, the day you didn't listen to the people you represent.
I have also been e-mailing and calling Cong Kosmas' office. In my latest e-mail I explained how Americans will turn on this congress in 2010 when they start paying $5-8.00 a gallon for gasoline, their utility bills quadruple, and prices go sky-high.
The only thing that could save them is if Obama consolidates his Communist dictatorship and we end-up with an "Iran election."
"Americans will turn on this congress". I think we already have. If the last summer's Amnesty bill, last Fall's TARP and stimulus bailout didn't do it...
People asked after the Texas sovereignty resolution a month or so ago and the Rick Perry news conference, what next?
Well, time to assert that sovereignty. A federal injunction can be issued when one can show the harm - increased costs to sovereign states, businesses and individuals of sovereign states through cap and trade - and the foul, unconstitutional acts by the federal government - there is no constitutional authority for the federal government to address either issue.
I wish some governor would seek an injunction against nancy Pelosi even calling for the vote, or against Obama signing any subsequent bill/law.
And this, written by Sher Zieve...
The time for a nationwide protest against our "lawmakers" has come — I am no longer referring to them as our representatives as they have stopped representing We-the-People.
The volume of calls placed on Friday to the US Capitol switchboard and our Congressional Reps again shut it down and voice mailboxes were full. The calls placed were reported to be 10-1 AGAINST Obama's and Pelosi's plan to raise energy prices to we the consumers by at least 100% and in most cases 150-200%.
Despite We-the-People (now We-the-Peons) telling the House of Representatives to vote "NO," after reportedly being strong-armed and threatened by Pelosi and Obama House members voted "YES." And, they voted on this bill that most of them admit they DID NOT READ.
Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu (ret) has been saying it all along:
One consequence of President-elect Obama and his party's victory is that the issues that provoked their sharp criticism during the campaign are now about to belong to them. President Bush's wars will soon be Obama's, and the question of what to do about the much-maligned detention/interrogation facility at Guantanamo will soon sit upon Obama's Oval Office desk... more
Over at the left blog Balloon Juice, John Cole is warning: "Prepare for an anti-Obama Shit Fit"
Not only will this infuriate a certain portion of Obama’s base, but using an executive order for this also completely undercuts any defense regarding his inaction on DADT (ed: Don't Ask Don't Tell). I’m not sure what will be funnier- the hysterics of the PUMA crowd or the idiots on the right wing who will crow that Bush has been vindicated, completely missing that the executive order will be issued in order to help Obama repudiate Bush’s handling of Gitmo.
Either way, this will be a long week."
Already the left wingers are slinging it. Comments from Balloon Juice's peanut gallery are pouring in. Here's a tasty sample:
"Obama has thrown himself under the bus and slapped us all in the face."
Aaah, yes, the Messianic One has crapped on his base, and they're surprised that he's betrayed them. Cue the music: How does it feel to be on your own? Like a rolling stone?
Obama took a late night Friday dump on you. Time's up. Eat it and weep.
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Jules Crittendon has a decent round up with links to other commentary that will bring you -- if not joy, at least some degree of smug satisfaction. Bush was right.
World Net Daily is reporting that a "certified copy" of the original Mombasa "document" has been found.
On eBay.
Item No. 160344928067, at least as of today, is described as "a certified copy of President Barack Obama's Kenyan Birth Certificate."
The seller, identified by the user name " colmado_naranja," states, "President Barack Hussein Obama II was born in The Coast Provincial Hospital at Mombasa in Kenya at 7:24 PM on August 4th, 1961."
Meanwhile, attorney Mario Apuzzo -- who's been on my radio program several times, gives this update on his website on the Kerchner et al v Obama & Congress et al Lawsuit. (Boldface emphasis is mine.)
The defendants' (Obama, Cheney, Pelosi, Congress) motion to dismiss the lawsuit was filed today and is posted on the PACER system as Document 27. A copy of defendants' (Obama, Cheney, Pelosi, Congress) motion and supporting brief are available in the right frame of this blog.
We all know that we have seen months of stalling from the defendants (Obama, Cheney, Pelosi, Congress).
We fully expected this dismissal motion which Obama has previously used when he was a mere candidate. The difference now is that Obama is the putative President and not simply a candidate with a 1st Amendment right to run for political office. As the putative President, Obama must show that he is qualified under Article II of our Constitution.
We also know that Congress failed to exercise its Constitutional duty to properly vet Obama prior to confirming him as President at the Joint Session. The motion return date is July 20, 2009. We, of course, will file opposition to their dismissal motion prior to that date.
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World Net Daily is reporting that the judge hearing Apuzzo's case challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to be president has taken the unusual step of describing the dispute as a serious constitutional issue and further has begun adding letters of comment from the public to the court record.
Word of the action by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider in Camden, N.J., comes from attorney Mario Apuzzo, who is handling the Kerchner vs. Obama case.
Apuzzo filed his lawsuit in January on behalf of Charles F. Kerchner Jr., Lowell T. Patterson, Darrell James Lenormand and Donald H. Nelson Jr. Named as defendants are Barack Hussein Obama II, the U.S., Congress, the Senate, House of Representatives and former Vice President Dick Cheney along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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The sixth U.S. Congress House Representative has signed on to co-sponsor HR 1503. Congressman John Campbell (R-CA 48th District) is the latest to co-sponsor the bill written and sponsored by Bill Posey (R-FL) -- my congressional representative, byt the way.
This bill would prevent Presidential candidates running in future elections, including 2012, from hiding and sealing their birth and other records and require the political party for the candidate to file the necessary birth records and any other sought corroborating evidence which would be necessary to prove that they are a "natural born citizen" and eligible for the office of President under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.
An enemy at the gates is less formidable for he is known and carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself... for the traitor appears no traitor: He speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their faces and their garments, he appeals to the baseless that lies deep in the souls of all men.
He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is to be less feared." ~ Cicero
Please call the R.N.C. (1-800-445-5768) Demand Chairman Michael Steele take action to sanction the six States Republican Parties from helping these Representatives in 2010. When grassroots organizations can get 44 Democrats to cross the isle, in the majority, to have this done to our country from our party, time to give them Specter's number.
Mary Bono Mack, California Mike Castle, Delaware Mark Kirk, Illinois John McHugh, New York Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey Leonard Lance, New Jersey Dave Reichert, Washington Chris Smith, New Jersey
Well, it's come full circle -- my initial observation of unusual activity on this website by the Simon Corp -- the same company that has shut down the July 4 Atlanta Tea Party -- has been reported, complete with screen shot of my sitemeter, on World Net Daily.
Read the entire story here... it's mind boggling to see how the dots connected from my site to the article below, which is linked to several others, as you'll see.
A REVOLUTIONARY IDEA Obama supporters shut down Atlanta tea party Wait until days before event to object to 'political' nature
"The apparent plot was uncovered when blogger and radio talk show host Andrea Shea King noticed an unusual amount of traffic coming to her site earlier this month," he wrote.
"On June 16, Andrea Shea King e-mailed me, questioning a heavy burst of Sitemeter traffic coming from Simon.com. She included screencaps of the traffic," he wrote.
One screen shot has been embedded, revealing extended visits from Simon.com:
I read this piece by L.E. Ikenga yesterday and thought it a brilliant assessment of who Barack Obama really is. Evidently Rush Limbaugh thought so too. He read it to his listeners today.
Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.
Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign "isms", instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas.
The tropes of America's racial history as a way of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the African Colonial.
Before I continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970's from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from -- also sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo heritage and my place of birth. Of course, none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to -- but at the same time it does.
My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel. Many conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like myself -- those of us who know our history -- have seen this movie before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring inconsistencies:
"Why would [a government plan] drive private insurance out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical." --President Barack Obama
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
"You just don't get it, do you, America?"
But Polls Say People Want Government Health Care...
The Leftmedia were in overdrive this week backing up their man Barack Obama on the issue of government health care.
Before ABC even had the chance to broadcast a prime-time infomercial from the White House, The New York Times released a poll purporting to show that "Americans overwhelmingly support" health care changes, including that "most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector." Try not to spew coffee on your keyboard. In the end, "72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan."
As we have noted before, this is nothing more than pollaganda -- the use of polling to drive public opinion -- especially when, in this case, the poll is stacked two to one with Obama voters.
ABC employed plain old propaganda in its special newscast from the White House Wednesday -- "Prescription for America." Reporter David Wright opened the broadcast by saying, "Expectations are low, but the need is obvious." And given that ABC was reporting on our "broken system," it was not surprising that, when asked, all 164 handpicked audience members agreed that "change" is needed. Depends on the meaning of change...
Then, for 45 minutes, President Obama took a break from running the banks and automakers to explain to Americans why he should run health care too. No wonder the newscast was dead last in the ratings.
Besides the overarching problem that any government plan is unconstitutional, details of the plan remain sketchy -- a cause for alarm. In fact, House Democrats released another plan just days ago. Notably, the House plan includes a government-run option that will "compete" with private insurers and use Medicare rates for paying health care providers. The plan also calls for stricter regulations for employers, including a mandate that they must either provide coverage or pay a tax of 8 percent of their payroll. However, small businesses would be exempt, and those who do provide coverage would receive tax credits.
Naturally, as details shift, so does the estimated cost. Most estimates are still north of $1 trillion over 10 years, though paying for the plan is not yet part of the plan.
One of Obama's key claims is that "you can keep your plan if you want to." What he means is that the government won't specifically mandate that anyone lose coverage, but the effect of his policies would be to cause many individuals to lose their benefits. America's Health Insurance Plans, the nation's largest trade group for health insurers, warned of "devastating consequences" from a government plan.
In a letter to Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the lead author of the health care bill, the group said that a public health insurance option "would dismantle employer-based coverage, significantly increase costs for those who remain in private coverage, and add additional liabilities to the federal budget." This is painfully obvious to us, but the power brokers in DC aren't interested in a market-based approach.
In fact, though Democrats claim that the government would compete on a "level playing field" with private insurers, Obama says his plan "is an important tool to discipline insurance companies." As Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute says, "The government can subsidize its plan with tax revenue from other taxpayers. The government can enact regulations that favor its plan over other private insurers."
Indeed, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) quipped, "Having the government compete against the private sector is kind of like my seven-year-old daughter's lemonade stand competing against McDonalds."
Based in Central Florida, Andrea Shea King hosts a talk show on BlogTalk Radio weeknights at 9 Eastern. She previously hosted shows at WDBO-AM, WMMB-AM, and WMEL-AM, was an anchor and reporter at WESH-TV (Orlando) and a columnist for Florida Today newspaper.
She also worked as a Public Information Officer for NASA and delivered the pre-launch commentary for the ill-fated space shuttle Challenger the day it exploded over Florida's coast. She subsequently worked with the President's Commission on the ensuing investigation with astronaut Bob Crippen and others, authoring the definitive report detailing the investigation's chronology, which was included in the final report to President Reagan.
Andrea left NASA to manage communications and public relations for an aerospace division of United Technologies Corp., assisting Pratt & Whitney's successful effort to collaborate with the Russian Space Agency in developing a hybrid rocket.
After ten years with UTC, she left to establish her own PR firm and return to broadcasting.
She writes a weekly column at World Net Daily.
She graduated from Emerson College with a BS in MassComm-Broadcast Journalism.
"THE FIRST LADY OF SPACE COAST CONSERVATISM" -- THIRDWAVEDAVE
I host my internet webcast program weeknights at 9 Eastern on Blog Talk Radio.
We take a daily, topic-driven look at news and issues that have or will have impact on your life. The program frequently features top tier national experts, fascinating guests, and a give-and-take discussion with listeners on the issues.
Mr. Not-So-Popular
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Although the sycophantic media insists that Obama is more popular than
Jesus, the numbers are showing a precipitous decline in his popularity.
Rasmussen Re...
Chief Judge Williams steps down
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Karen Williams, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth
Circuit, has resigned due to illness. Judge Williams has been on the Fourth
Circu...
White House Press Corps:No Reporters Allowed!
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A pathetic parody of journalism:
Much of the White House press corps spent the Fourth schmoozing with White
House staffers, catching performances by the F...
Banks Build Better Mousetrap
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Is there truly any reason to trust financial institutions these days?
Developments within the credit card space have exposed the true colors of
these insti...
A far-away wake for a long-lived lady
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Will be out most of the day, traveling some distance to attend the wake of a
long-lived lady who has finally passed. Blogging will be very light. But
I’ll ...
Obama The Elected Moron
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By Alan Caruba
It’s not that long ago that former President George W. Bush was being
characterized as a dimwit. In truth, because he was not a smooth talke...
Iran Burning . . .
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metaphorically, so far—thank goodness. But the protests today are
widespread. As usual, I’m redacting the origins of all Tweets related to
Iran, just to be...
Helping the troops by screwing them
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Greyhawk points out how a new policy "protects" our troops who are renters
from forced moves when their landlords are foreclosed on. Turns out this
simply ...
Snowe Jobs
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The fact is that many of the Senate Republicans' top recruits are, in
varying degrees, moderates: Charlie Crist in Florida, Rob Simmons in
Connecticut, Mar...
Readership is growing
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As you know, there was some tampering with my previous two blogs and this is
the third one. Very rapidly it climbs in popularity amongs the readers.
After ...
Michelle’s Bag Cost $900 – Not $6K
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The latest fashion trends from our rulers, via the New York Daily News:
White House denies manufacturer’s boast that First Lady carried their $5,950
bag Ju...
Let Them Eat Cake
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From Fearless Reader on June 1, 2009, “I know you've already seen more than
your fair share of hard times. I will not pretend the hard times are over.
Dif...
And While the Rockets Filled the Air...
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...gunfire chattered into a devastating Afghan night ..claiming the life of
a young American soldier.
Radio Patriot and Andrea Shay-King has sent this a...
Scraps for the Needy
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This past weekend in worship Indian River City United Methodist Church gave
away a little over $10,000 to its members and friends. The purpose of the
givea...
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