.

NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Friday, January 31, 2014

Sandra Fluke 'strongly considering' run for Waxman's seat



The Prefect Democrat
  • Sandra Fluke only passed the California Bar in July 2012.  No job skills, no meaningful contribution to her community and the desire for "free" crap paid for by taxpayers.  In other words, she is the perfect Democrat.


The People's Republic of California  -  Lawyer and women's rights activist Sandra Fluke (D) is "strongly considering" a run for Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-Calif.) seat.

"I'm flattered that I'm being discussed as a potential candidate, especially for Rep. Waxman's seat, considering his incredible legacy," she told The Hill in a statement. "A number of folks I respect very deeply have reached out today and encouraged me to run. I am strongly considering running. I'll be making my decision soon," reports The Hill.


Fluke, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, made headlines after House Republicans refused to let her testify on birth control and Rush Limbaugh personally attacked her on his radio show. She became a campaign surrogate for President Obama and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2012. She now lives in Los Angeles.

But she's far from the only Democrat giving the race a hard look after Waxman's morning announcement Thursday that he'll retire at the end of this term. The Hollywood-based district is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Sources told The Hill that Santa Monica Mayor Willie Brien (D), the grandson of former California governor and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren (D), is seriously mulling a bid. California state Sens. Ted Lieu (D) and Fran Pavley (D), and state Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D) are also considering running.

Other potential candidates mentioned by Los Angeles and California Democratic strategists include Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Blumenfield (D) and L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (D) — both of whom are close to Waxman — and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel (D).


Hugging the Los Angeles Coast
The Leftist 33rd District runs from Beverly Hills to the coast of Los Angeles County.  At one point Conservative Republican Robert K. Dornan represented much of the district.  But the district has moved more and more to the left over the years.
.
By 2012 the "Republican" candidate had to re-register as an independent to avoid the party label.  Current voter registration is 44% Democrat to 27% GOP.  The district should remain in Democrat hands.


California's 33rd Congressional District - 2012
PartyCandidateVotes%
DemocraticHenry Waxman171,86053.96%
IndependentBill Bloomfield146,66046.04%
Totals318,520100.0%
Democratic hold

R

Scarlett Johansson Backs Israeli Company



Scarlett Johansson
  • Actress quits charity to support an Israeli company that employs some 900 Palestinians in the West Bank.
  • Bravo!!!  Scarlett may back Democrats, but she has proven that she can think for herself and will not allow people to bully her and tell her what she is allowed to believe.


Actress Scarlett Johansson has quit as global ambassador for Oxfam after the aid group deemed the role “incompatible” with her promotion of an Israeli firm that has a factory in the occupied West Bank.

Johansson, 29, appears in an advertisement for home drinks carbonation firm SodaStream, which is due to air during the US Super Bowl on Sunday.

It has already been seen more than 4.5 million times on the YouTube video-sharing website.

The Hollywood star has worked for Oxfam since 2005 but the British-based aid agency said she had stepped down due to her role with SodaStream reports Newsmax.

A statement released by Johansson’s spokesman Wednesday said the 29-year-old actress has “a fundamental difference of opinion” with Oxfam International because the humanitarian group opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, saying they are illegal and deny Palestinian rights.

“Scarlett Johansson has respectfully decided to end her ambassador role with Oxfam after eight years,” the statement said. “She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She is very proud of her accomplishments and fundraising efforts during her tenure with Oxfam.”






Muslims black out pigs' faces in New York Times



Just Say Oink
It is way past time . . . say no to pig censorship


A handful of pigs' faces have been censored in the Malaysian edition of the International New York Times, it seems.

The black marks were the work of Malaysian printing firm KHL, which blotted out the faces in a story about farming in the United States, according to the Malay Mail. A representative said it was their policy to obscure pigs because Malaysia was "a Muslim country".

There is no law banning pictures of pigs in Malaysia - a secular country with many faiths - but local media are careful not to offend Muslims who make up two-thirds of the country's 28 million people, the Malay Mail says reports BBC News.

A government spokesperson said the images were not outlawed, but that publishers should bear in mind "the sensitivities of various cultures". There appears to be increasing concern about offending Muslims in the country - last year a TV provider ran a warning ahead of a documentary about Pope Francis, and allegedly cut the words "Ya Allah!" from an Indian film this month.

In 2005 the children's film Babe was banned from cinemas because of its subject matter, and the similarity of the title to the Malay word for pig - "babi". Complaints from viewers saw the ban overturned, however, and it appeared on television the following year.


Thanks to Blazing Cat Fur for a heads up.





 

School dumps children's lunches in the trash



Retard Alert!
School workers take lunch away from students
in mid-meal and throw it in the trash.


Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents.

"It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," said Erica Lukes, whose 11-year-old daughter had her cafeteria lunch taken from her Tuesday at Uintah Elementary School.

Lukes said as far as she knew, she was all paid up. "I think it’s despicable," she said. "These are young children that shouldn’t be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up," reports the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district’s child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches.

Taking Food From a Child
Kevin Conway said his daughter (both pictured) called him crying to say that the school
had refused to give her lunch because their account was in debt. He had never been
told about the negative balance.
 
As a result, the child-nutrition manager visited the school and decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue, he said.

But cafeteria workers weren’t able to see which children owed money until they had already received lunches, Olsen explained.

The workers then took those lunches from the students and threw them away, he said, because once food is served to one student it can’t be served to another.

Olsen said school officials told the district that their staffers typically tell students about any balances as they go through the lunch line and send home notifications to parents each week.

The district attempted to contact parents with balances via phone Monday and Tuesday, Olsen said, but weren’t able to reach them all before the child-nutrition manager decided to take away the students’ lunches.

"If students were humiliated and upset," Olsen said, "that’s very unfortunate and not what we wanted to happen."

Olsen released an updated statement that was also posted to the district’s Facebook page.

“This situation could have and should have been handled in a different manner. We apologize,” it said. “We understand the feelings of upset parents and students who say this was an embarrassing and humiliating situation. We again apologize and commit to working with parents in rectifying this situation and to ensuring students are never treated in this manner again.”


There is no doubt, the people running
the country are retards.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Terminators - Google buys military robotics and AI companies



Google Buys Artificial Intelligence Firm
  • Google has purchased a military robot company and an artificial intelligence company.  Take one guess what they plan on building.  Yes, people are that fucking stupid.  The human race is doomed.  Maybe it's for the best.


STORY #1  -  Google will buy London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMindThe Information reports that the acquisition price was more than $500 million, and that Facebook was also in talks to buy the startup late last year. DeepMind confirmed the acquisition to us, but couldn’t disclose deal terms.

The acquisition was originally confirmed by Google to Re/code.

Google’s hiring of DeepMind will help it compete against other major tech companies as they all try to gain business advantages by focusing on deep learning. For example, Facebook recently hired NYU professor Yann LeCunn to lead its new artificial intelligence lab, IBM’s Watson supercomputer is now working on deep learning, and Yahoo recently acquired photo analysis startup LookFlow to lead its new deep learning group.

DeepMind was founded by neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, a former child prodigy in chess, Shane Legg, and Mustafa Suleyman. Skype and Kazaa developer Jaan Tallin is an investor.

This is the latest move by Google to fill out its roster of artificial intelligence experts and, according to Re/code, the acquisition was reportedly led by Google CEO Larry Page. If all three of DeepMind’s founders work for Google, they will join inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who was hired in 2012 as a director of engineering focused on machine learning and language processing.

Kurzweil has said that he wants to build a search engine so advanced that it could act like a “cybernetic friend.”

(Tech Crunch.com)

See our recent stories:
A Terminator for the Marine Corps
.
Terminators being built by the Defense Department
.
Sex Droids - The US is falling behind Japan
 

Google buys 8 robotics companies
in 6 months



STORY #2  -  Google's acquisition of military robotics maker Boston Dynamics has certainly gotten tongues wagging but has left one key question unanswered: Why?

Media reports about the deal didn't provide much insight other than to note that Boston Dynamics makes cool stuff. The search engine giant has named Andy Rubin, who oversaw the development of the Android operating system, to head its robotics endeavors, which the company has without irony called a "moonshot." A spokesman for Google confirmed the acquisition but declined to answer any questions.

"The deal is also the clearest indication yet that Google is intent on building a new class of autonomous systems that might do anything from warehouse work to package delivery and even elder care," according to the New York Times.
.
Boston Dynamics' robots such as Cheetah, which can reach speeds up to 29 miles per hour, BigDog, designed to traverse rough terrain, and the anthropomorphic PETMAN, which is designed to test chemical protection clothing, are certainly cool looking and could easily be mistaken for something coming out of a science fiction movie. The company, which is profitable, does a brisk business with the U.S. Department of Defense. It was founded in 1992 after being spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"We have had a great time building unusual robots and bringing them this far along," says Marc Raibert, the company's founder, in an email statement, adding that the entire company will stay under Google ownership. "Now we can take them to the next level and push them much further ahead."

(CBS News)


New Military Robot (EATR) Can Feed on Dead Bodies?





Detective Del Spooner:  Is there a problem with the Three Laws?
Dr. Alfred Lanning:   The Three Laws are perfect.
Detective Del Spooner:  Then why would you build a robot that could function without them?
Dr. Alfred Lanning:  The Three Laws will lead to only one logical outcome.
Detective Del Spooner:  What? What outcome?
Dr. Alfred Lanning:  Revolution.
Detective Del Spooner:  Whose revolution?
Dr. Alfred Lanning:  That, Detective, is the right question. Program terminated.

Anti-Gun laws force Beretta to move from Maryland to Tennessee



Democrats drive Gun-Maker out of Maryland
Socialist Democrats drive 300 jobs from
Maryland to pro-gun Tennessee


Italian gun-maker Beretta USA plans to make Gallatin its manufacturing base in the United States, announcing plans Wednesday to invest $45 million in a firearms plant that will initially employ 300 workers.

Tennessee’s reputation as a gun-friendly state was key to the Sumner County city landing its biggest economic development win since clothing retailer Gap Inc. opened a distribution center two decades ago.

“This is a platinum project,” Gallatin Mayor Jo Ann Graves said. “It’s an international company. It’s well-known, it has an excellent reputation and we’re very excited that they’ve chosen (us) over eight other states,” reports the Tennessean.


As a result of choosing Gallatin, Beretta will be eligible for tax credits, infrastructure and job training grants from the state. Details also are being finalized for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes grant from Gallatin.

Beretta, meanwhile, is negotiating with Gallatin officials to buy 100 acres at the Gallatin Industrial Center off Airport Road, where the manufacturing and research and development facility will be built. Construction should start by May, with production expected to start during the first quarter of 2015.

The site Beretta is pursuing is part of the 200-acre expansion phase of the Gallatin industrial park. Western Reflections and Laminate Technologies are among tenants in the first phase, which is 90 percent full.

Beretta USA’s choice of Gallatin came after nearly a year-long search for a location to expand U.S. manufacturing outside of Maryland, where the world’s oldest manufacturing dynasty, operating since 1526 in Italy, employs about 350 at a factory in Accokeek. After Maryland passed stricter gun legislation Beretta expressed frustration about the new laws and said it might be looking for a new home for that factory.

The Gallatin plant will make firearms for Beretta’s sporting and tactical product lines. The company is privately owned and operated by members of the 15th and 16th generations of the Beretta family.


Socialist Venezuela now feeling the effects of food shortages


 
Socialist Food Shortages
  • Communists can't even make toilet paper or grow food.  But they stay in power by bribing the mouth-breathing voters with endless "free" crap stolen from other people.


And so it begins... Old Soviet-style bread lines at Venezuela mercados, stretch around the block 

From Reuters via CNBC, "No flour? No fish? Venezuela's chefs get creative amid shortages":

A sushi bar in Caracas makes tempura with ground oats and cornstarch to replace increasingly scarce wheat flour. 
A Spanish restaurant, seeking to keep its fare affordable, revamps its paella recipe by removing exorbitantly priced prawns. 
Restaurateurs selling "arepas" - the grilled corn pancakes that are a staple across the country - make them a bit smaller to stretch their unsteady supplies of corn flour.
A Spanish restaurant, seeking to keep its fare affordable, revamps its paella recipe by removing exorbitantly priced prawns. 
Restaurateurs selling "arepas" - the grilled corn pancakes that are a staple across the country - make them a bit smaller to stretch their unsteady supplies of corn flour. 
Venezuelan diners continue to eat well despite soaring inflation (56%) and chronic food shortages, largely thanks to Herculean efforts by chefs to obtain prized foodstuffs and juggle menus to slow the rising prices.

Months old, maggot-infested wheat and corn is in many cases, all that's left 

Venezuelan Market
Socialists say, "Chew slowly and make the food last longer."
Capitalists say, "Chow down and come back for thirds."

Continuing:
In working-class canteens and high-end bistros, staff say finding basics such as flour, milk or chicken - all scarce, in large part, because of currency and price controls - requires making repeated trips to markets and harassing providers. 
"I haven't been able to buy wheat flour or corn flour for more than a month. I'm working with what I had last year," said Eduardo Castaneda, 45, owner of La Guayaba Verde, or The Green Guava, in Caracas, which offers a modern spin on traditional Venezuelan food.  (Emphasis added.)
Venezuela's price controls require staple goods be sold at fixed rates that are at times below production cost, which often leaves them scarce because of the reduced incentive for companies to make or import them.
Toilet paper, rice and coffee have long been missing from stores, as the
Venezuelan President blames a CIA plot instead of Communism.

BLACK MARKET PORK 
Chavez's efforts to make food affordable have come at a price: In times of shortage, "unethical" (CNBC's word) entrepreneurs buy discount groceries and resell them on the black market.  Translation - That is called a FREE market. 
Authorities last month detained four people at the Budare del Este restaurant in the chic but gaudy Caracas neighborhood of Las Mercedes on charges of illegally buying subsidized food, including nearly a tonne of pork and half a tonne of chicken. 
"Those products are meant to meet the needs of Venezuelan families, not to line the pockets of scoundrels," wrote the Communist Maduro in a series of incensed tweets announcing the operation. 
Bakers often seek to protect themselves from wheat flour shortages by building up stocks to meet holiday demand for breads and cakes. If they get inspected, however, they risk accusations of hoarding. 
The owner of the lounge-bar restaurant said the combination of product shortages and potential legal pitfalls leaves him feeling like "a bullfighter in the ring waiting to see which beast I'm going to face. 
"You wake up every morning and within around 45 minutes you realize some product has gone scarce, and you'll spend the rest of the day figuring out what to do."

LR PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: If you wish to avoid consumption of maggot-infested food here in the U.S., under Obama's increasingly Venezuela-style socialist state, you may want to check out this website: "Preppers Food Storage Check List" survivalistblog.net. 

Thanks to the Libertarian Republican for a heads up on this story.


Food lines in Socialist Venezuela

ICE Officers Plead With GOP to Stand Up to Obama



Come on in, the water's fine
Welcome to the Rio Grande Aquatic Park.  Large
families are welcome.  As always this ride is free
of charge.  Someone else will pick up the tab.



(National Review)  -  Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council, the union representing officers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, issued a statement Tuesday ahead of President Obama’s State of the Union address.
 
Crane blasted the president for his repeated refusal to meet with ICE officers at the White House, and asked House Republican leaders to consult with ICE personnel as they work to outline their immigration reform “principles”:
 
According to news accounts, the President has once again invited illegal immigrants to the State of the Union – and yet the President still refuses to meet with ICE officers. We have a President who will provide those illegally in the US with the seat of honor at one of the most important events of the year, but ICE officers who serve under him are unwelcome in the White House.  
This is symptomatic of the President’s continued demonstration of contempt for immigration officers and his blatant disregard for Congressionally-enacted law. ICE officers are forced every day to release violent offenders back into the streets; we are prohibited from enforcing immigration violations and document fraud and from cracking down on illegal employment; we are prohibited from enforcing public charge law to protect taxpayers; and we are forced to catch-and-release illegal aliens who are not ‘priorities’ even when officers’ believe there is a threat to public safety.  
We are pleading with House Republicans to stand up to the Obama Administration’s abuses and to support ICE officers. I am therefore alarmed to read that House Republicans are working with prominent amnesty proponents instead of reaching out and working with ICE officers. Any immigration principles crafted by House Republicans should be crafted in consultation with the ICE personnel who know firsthand what is wrong with our immigration system and how to fix it.  
House Republicans must work with ICE officers, and investigate the abuses and misconduct at DHS, before moving any legalization bill – otherwise, they are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. ICE officers do not have the connections, funds or votes that powerful special interests and billionaire CEOs can deliver. We are just 5,000 law officers responsible for enforcing immigration law for tens of millions of visa holders and illegal immigrants in all 50 states and two territories — it is a losing battle that puts American safety at risk.  But we hope to have justice and a concern for public safety on our side, and I hope House Republicans will support us in our uphill fight to ensure the constitutional rule of law in America.


A Blast from the Past Cartoon

.
The "compassionate" Republican Conservatism of George Bush.

Nothing Changes
Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) confirmed Wednesday that Republicans are looking
to give illegal immigrants legal status right away, with the chance for a
green card—and citizenship—down the line.
Wall Street Journal

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Top House Seats to Change Hands in 2014 - Part 3




It's Marx vs. Conservatism
If the Democrats win the House plan on the US becoming
a one-party People's Republic like Venezuela


Democrats look very unlikely to pick up the 17 seats they would need to retake the House majority, and they could lose seats. 

At the six year mark for an incumbent President the opposition party has picked up 30 seats on average in the House.  From my viewpoint that projection is too high for 2014.  I think a 20 seat GOP pick up in closer.

Here are ten congressional districts most likely to flip from one party to the other this November according to the National Journal.

See our previous stories for districts one to ten and for districts 11 to 20.

Here are districts 21 to 30 likely to flip.


21. Illinois-12—Rep. Bill Enyart (D) is running for reelection
Culturally, this downstate seat—bordered by Kentucky to the south and Missouri to the west—looks a lot like the type of Democratic district Republicans have flat-out assimilated, Borg-like, over the past few years, though Democrats still maintain a slight generic edge here. Enyart won his freshman term more easily than Republicans were expecting, though they think state Rep. Mike Bost could give him a run for his money.

22. Georgia-12—Rep. John Barrow (D) is running for reelection
Barrow ran a flawless 2012 campaign against a flawed opponent—and he still won with just under 54 percent. Such is life for the last remaining House Democrat in the Deep South. Romney won the seat by 12 percentage points, and Barrow's ceiling is too low for comfort no matter how much even House GOP strategists grudgingly praise his political survival instincts. Republican Rick Allen's deep pockets could play a role here.

GOP Congressman David Valadao won in a nearly impossible
deep blue California district.
Valadao for Congress.com



23. California-21—Rep. David Valadao (R) is running for reelection
By presidential performance, this is the second-bluest seat held by a House Republican, so the relatively untested Valadao has to look over his shoulder a bit. But those numbers also obscure some major issues for Democrats in the Central Valley. Former Senate staffer Amanda Renteria has Democrats excited and may prove to be a strong campaigner, but her party just lost a 2013 state Senate special election in a district that largely overlapped with the 21st.

24. New York-19—Rep. Chris Gibson (R) is running for reelection
Gibson has proven a great electoral fit for the district, even as Obama carried the Hudson Valley seat in 2012, but investor Sean Eldridge (who is married to Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes) brings connections and cash to bear on the race, which has Republicans nervous. They've already begun savaging Eldridge as a carpetbagger out of touch with the median voter, while preemptively wincing at what might happen in an expensive race. Democrats tried and failed in 2012 to convince area voters that they should support a Democrat for Congress if they were going to support Obama; that will an important page in the playbook again in 2014.

U.S. Army Colonel Joe Heck won his Las Vegas, Nevada seat in 2010 by a narrow margin.  He was re-elected in 2012 with only 50.4% of the vote.  Without patriots like Colonel Heck winning is tough seats the Marxists would have total control of our government.
Heck 4 Nevada.com 


Nevada's 3rd congressional district election, 2010
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanJoe Heck128,91648.13%
DemocraticDina Titus (inc.)127,16847.47%
IndependentBarri Michaels6,4732.42%
LibertarianJoseph P. Silvestri4,0261.50%
Independent AmericanScott David Narter1,2910.48%
Totals267,874100.00%
Republican gain from Democratic

 

25. Nevada-03—Rep. Joe Heck (R) is running for reelection
Heck beat back a Democratic challenge in 2012 rather easily considering the seat's narrow lean for Obama, and Democrat Erin Bilbray might be a tougher matchup when all is said and done. The big issue in this race so far has been immigration. Heck has endorsed a pathway to citizenship, but he has opposed the bipartisan Senate bill for comprehensive reform, and the biggest immigration vote he took in 2013 was one to defund Obama's executive Dream Act-style program. Bilbray has had trouble landing punches on the issue, but Heck could be a gauge of how immigration reform affects Republican prospects in diverse districts.

26. Illinois-10—Rep. Brad Schneider (D) is running for reelection
Democrats finally captured this district in 2012, when it was the bluest GOP-held seat in the country, after years of failed efforts. That type of seat often stays put once it finally flips, but former Rep. Bob Dold proved himself to be a reasonable Republican fit there last term and can run against Congress now, instead of as part of it. Illinois Democrats and Florida Republicans may have a similar worry this cycle: Keep an eye out for whether unpopular Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn suppresses enthusiasm for Schneider north of Chicago.

27. Pennsylvania-08—Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R) is running for reelection
Fitzpatrick's easy victory last cycle means that Democrats' first-time candidates have to prove they can make the seat competitive, though its another district that split between Obama and a GOP congressman. This is another state where Democrats hope an unpopular governor (Tom Corbett) drags down Republican performance down-ticket.


GOP Rep. Michael Grimm
This former Marine won a New York City
seat by a narrow 52% - 47% margin.
Grimm for Congress
28. New Hampshire-02—Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D) is running for reelection
Kuster/span> has only been in politics for a few years, but she has already accumulated a startling record of public gaffes, including grabbing a camera from a tracker, trying to grab the microphone from then-Rep. Charles Bass during a debate in 2012, and, most recently, dismissing a series of aggressive questions at a town-hall meeting. The district is Democratic-leaning—Kuster barely lost in 2010 despite that year's Republican wave—but it is not immune to the nation's political swings, and Kuster may prove to be a liability to herself. A small-sample poll from WMUR last October showed her unfavorability higher than her favorability rating, in contrast to her in-state Democratic colleague Shea-Porter, who represents a less friendly district.

29. New York-11—Rep. Michael Grimm (R) is running for reelection
Democrats' latest challenge to Grimm will be better-funded than their last, thanks to former New York City Councilor Domenic Recchia's connections, and the race looks set to be nastier, too, with Recchia and Grimm already going back and forth raising ethical issues about each other. Recchia is from Brooklyn, not Staten Island, but Democrats are betting he can still make a stronger push there even as Grimm argues he's more in tune with the district. This is one of just a handful of districts where Obama improved on his 2008 showing last election, though it's hard to say how much of that might have been a temporary effect of Hurricane Sandy.

30. Texas-23—Rep. Pete Gallego (D) is running for reelection
As with some previous districts, the numbers—including a Romney win here in 2012—dictate that Gallego stay on the watch list. But the NRCC quietly kept recruiting in this vast West Texas district after all three Republican candidates were already running, which sends a frank message about how the GOP views their prospects. Part of the problem: Former Rep. Quico Canseco, the best-known of the three Republican contenders, was savaged by Democratic ads last cycle, with lingering results on public opinion.


For the full story go to The National Journal.


Me, Myself and I - A Study in Obama Narcissism




nar·cis·sism  (när′sÄ­-sÄ­z′É™m) also nar·cism (-sÄ­z′É™m)
n.
1. Excessive love or admiration of oneself. See Synonyms at conceit.
2. A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.
3. Erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one's own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.
4. The attribute of the human psyche charactized by admiration of oneself but within normal limits.



As we are already well aware of, Obama likes to talk about . . . Obama. Here’s the breakdown from this week's State of the Union address:

“I” 50 times.

“My” 11 times.

“Me” 8 times.

“Me” 3 times (including one “let me be clear”).

“As president” 2 times.

Full text of the speech here.




Who’s ‘godless’ now? Russia says it’s U.S.





Putin seizes on issue of traditional values
  • “Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values.” - - - President Vladimir Putin
  • Putin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the KGB.  Today he is a defender of Christianity.


MOSCOW - Washington Times  |  At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.”

More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian Orthodox Church hurl the same allegation at the West.

“Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. “Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.”

In his state of the nation address in mid-December, Putin also portrayed Russia as a staunch defender of “traditional values” against what he depicted as the morally bankrupt West. Social and religious conservatism, the former KGB officer insisted, is the only way to prevent the world from slipping into “chaotic darkness.”

As part of this defense of “Christian values,” Russia has adopted a law banning “homosexual propaganda” and another that makes it a criminal offense to “insult” the religious sensibilities of believers.

The law on religious sensibilities was adopted in the wake of a protest in Moscow’s largest cathedral by a female punk rock group against the Orthodox Church’s support of Putin. Kremlin-run television said the group’s “demonic” protest was funded by “some Americans.”

Church - State Alliance
Putin and Patriarch Kirill seemed on best terms during his
most recent inauguration in 2012.
 
Vladimir Putin (R) kisses Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill during an
Orthodox Easter service in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow.


Putin’s views of the West were echoed this month by Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow, the leader of the Orthodox Church, who accused Western countries of engaging in the “spiritual disarmament” of their people.

In particular, Patriarch Kirill criticized laws in several European countries that prevent believers from displaying religious symbols, including crosses on necklaces, at work.

“The general political direction of the [Western political] elite bears, without doubt, an anti-Christian and anti-religious character,” the patriarch said in comments aired on state-controlled television.

“We have been through an epoch of atheism, and we know what it is to live without God,” Patriarch Kirill said. “We want to shout to the whole world, ‘Stop!’”

Other figures within the Orthodox Church have gone further in criticizing the West. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a church spokesman, suggested that the modern-day West is no better for a Christian believer than the Soviet Union.

Soviet authorities executed some 200,000 clergy and believers from 1917 to 1937, according to a 1995 presidential committee report. Thousands of churches were destroyed, and those that survived were turned into warehouses, garages or museums of atheism.

“The separation of the secular and the religious is a fatal mistake by the West,” the Rev. Chaplin said. “It is a monstrous phenomenon that has occurred only in Western civilization and will kill the West, both politically and morally.”

The Kremlin’s encouragement of traditional values has sparked a rise in Orthodox vigilantism. Fringe groups such as the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers, an ultraconservative movement whose slogan is “Orthodoxy or Death,” are gaining prominence.

Patriarch Kirill has honored the group’s leader, openly anti-Semitic monarchist Leonid Simonovich, for his services to the Orthodox Church. The Banner Bearers, who dress in black paramilitary uniforms festooned with skulls, regularly confront gay and liberal activists on the streets of Moscow.


Read more: The Washington Times.com



Democrats Still Believe in Slavery




Democrats Want You to Work for Free
From the more things change, the more
things stay the same department.


In this week’s State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to ask members of Congress to pass a nearly 40% increase in the federal minimum wage.

A new Employment Policies Institute (EPI) analysis shows that the vast majority of the bill’s sponsors are legislating with a  “do as I say, not as I do” approach: Fully 96% of the House and Senate sponsors of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 do not pay their interns.

In other words, the same Members of Congress who are supporting a 40% wage hike on private sector employers are simultaneously failing to provide any wages to their own employee interns.

See IJ Review.com




Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Congressional Corruption - Everyone is on the take



"Corruptus in Extremis"
  • We are ruled by a government of whores.
  • Let's boil this down, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans give a shit about the average American.  Washington is one giant pig trough of corruption and everyone is lining their pockets with cold hard cash.


Retroactive Bribery  -  Bribery is simply a matter of timing.  If you take an envelope full of cash for "services rendered" while in office then you go to jail.  But if you take that very same envelope for "services rendered" after you leave office then it is a job related bonus.  Legal bribery.

The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation found that former congressional staffers who take jobs as lobbyists make considerably more than the average lobbyist with no government attachments, showing the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street.

According to the study, both former staffers who list their previous congressional office and Hill alumni who choose not to advertise that information make substantially more than the average contract lobbyist.

Between 1998 and 2012, the median revolving door lobbyist who disclosed his congressional office earned $87,680 more than the median revolver who did not. In 2006, the difference was a little more than $122,000 reports the Daily Caller.

As of 2012, the median salary for a lobbyist who listed their former place of Hill employment is slightly above $300,000 and a former Hill staffer who did not reveal this information takes in around $280,000. Lobbyists with no government experience barely make it past six figures.

Here are the top five congressional offices that brought in the highest annual median salary per lobbyist between 1998 and 2012:

  • Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer: - - -  $641,095
  • Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill First: - - - - - - $630,619
  • Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus - - - - - $576,275
  • Mississippi Republican Sen. Trent Lott: - - - -  $418,268
  • Louisiana Democratic Sen. John Breaux:  - - -  $415,433

Hoyer was House Democratic leader, Lott and Frist Senate Republican leaders. Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee, on which Breaux once served.

Some congressional offices have established larger footprints on K Street than others.

Here are the top five offices with the most former staffers-turned-lobbyists:

Pennsylvania Democratic and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter : 27
Mississippi Republican Sen. Trent Lott: 25
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy: 21
Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Frist: 20
Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison: 19


Corporatism Rules America
Wall Street raped the financial system with phony home loans and imploded the economy causing a Depression.  The criminals who did this are then bailed out with taxpayer cash by the politicians who looked the other way rather do proper oversight.  No one on Wall Street went to jail and the "fines" paid by the banks were covered by cash from the Treasury or the Federal Reserve. 
.
The political liars and their aids who made it all possible are rewarded with retroactive bribes in the form of high paying jobs as lobbyists or in corporations for services rendered. 



There's no Democrats and Republicans.
"There are no sides. There's no Sunnis and Shiites. There's no Democrats and Republicans. There's only HAVES and HAVE-NOTS. 
.
This is a country, where the Secretary of Defense can go on T.V., and tell the American public, oh, that "This is about freedom! It's not about oil!" And nobody questions him, cuz they don't wanna hear the answer, because it's a lie! There are only so many places at the table, Gunnie. Now, are you on the INSIDE, or are you on the OUT?"
Senator Charles F. Meachum
Shooter (2007)