I am reading about the tragic shooting in Milwaukee and the MSN home page shows a picture of an FBI assault vehicle. Our government police are beginning to look like…. our regular military. If you did not know better, where would you think this pic is taken from? 
Reminds me of this clip from Die Hard
http://youtu.be/oA7qiNcV060
So let me get this straight, Korean company gets $151 million, builds manufacturing plant with half , uses other half to buy materials to take back to Korea to….make batteries. So they are taking stimulus dollars and supplying a Korean company with it? And they are basically warehousing workers with nothing to do, so they can gain a property tax exemption. Looks like some other countries are laughing hysterically at the idiocy of this program, laughing all the way to the bank.
You be the judge:
The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:
*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.
Looking at the electoral map you can see that California has 55 electoral votes, New York 31, and Illinois 21. These states have some of the highest crime rates, worst educational systems, and billions in debt due to poor choices made over decades by your politicians. Yet most of the red states have brought their states back from the brink after the recession and are now seeing an uptick in jobs and revenue.
So why then is California still voting democratic? They have cities filing for bankruptcy, the public school system is a wreck, large businesses are fleeing the state due to relentless taxation and regulation, (see Comcast & Campbells Soup), and in all of their infinite wisdom, they brought back Jerry Brown, and have decided to build a high-speed rail that will cost $98.8 billion which frankly, you don’t have. Of course they do get federal dollars for the high-speed rail, but that is now MY money, going to a state that is in fiscal denial.
Why Californians? Why?
Is it that you have been so indoctrinated in liberal bullshit from grade school to college that you can’t see the forest for the trees? How can you as citizens side with politicians that have done nothing but raise taxes, implement ridiculous regulations, fail massively in the attempt to educate your kids, and watch large employers leave the state like rats jumping off a sinking ship, and at the same time, give themselves generous pensions and healthcare that are paid for by you the taxpayer. What is this blind loyalty?
Have you looked around at other states? Do you know that Texas, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Arizona are cleaning your clock and raiding your revenue pantry by welcoming your former businesses and the jobs/revenue that comes with them? In a perfect world everybody would be working and making hundreds of thousands a year, but this is the real world. Unicorns and fairy dust are not considered a reliable means of revenue. You can lean on that Hope & Change thing all you want, but like unicorns, it is not real.
So what are you hanging your fiscal hat on? What is the future generation, currently in grade school, going to do with the unsustainable and massive debt you have burdened them with by your head in the sand approach to your elected officials. This shit is not going to get better for you people.
You have 55 electoral votes, more than any state in the union, and you still vote for and idea that is currently destroying your state. And you put our country in peril because of that vote. Whichever political side gets the California vote, has the biggest foot in the door to the Whitehouse, and your continued blind faith in the democratic model, is threatening not just your state, but MY country as well. Wake up Californians, look at the electoral map and do some research. Look to the red states and see how their economies are doing compared to yours. Realize that you need to change your ways. Your weather may be beautiful but it will be hard to enjoy living in a cardboard box under the freeway.
Remember this guy? You people used to make good choices.
Stolen from the War Planner
ROMNEY:
– Graduated with “University Honors” from BYU (also known as “Highest Honors”, their most prestigious form of recognition, somewhat equivalent to valedictorian) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English; he’s not just a numbers guy
– Master’s degree in Business (Harvard, a Baker’s scholar: top 5% of business students)
– Master’s degree in Law (Harvard, graduated Cum Laude / with Honors, top 1/3 of his class)
– Earned both master’s degrees (business AND law) at Harvard University simultaneously (Could you do that? I couldn’t.)
– Had an incredible 80% success rate in private business and now worth between $200 and $250 million (compare this to Obama and many of Obama’s closest advisers who have never had to turn a profit or go hungry, and, no, don’t whine about workers Romney let go when investing in a company while at Bain Capital because you’d be forgetting to look at:
A) the fact that Bain was INVITED by the companies to have Bain invest in them; there were no “hostile takeovers” by Bain Capital and
B) the workers’ jobs Romney saved by saving a dying company and
C) the jobs he created after those struggling companies were turned around and started to grow again)
http://theweek.com/article/ind…
– Gave away his inheritance in 1998 to start / help fund the “George W. Romney Institute of Public Management” at BYU (his father, George Romney, died in 1995)
– As head of the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City) turned a potential loss (-$379M shortfall) into one of the few profit-earning Olympic games (+$100M profit)
– Donated his entire Olympic Games salary and severance package ($1.4M) to charity
– Put aside partisanship prejudices/trash-talk by successfully campaigning/winning the governor’s seat (2003 – 2007) as a Republican in a heavily Democrat-controlled state LONG before Scott Brown
– While governor of Massachusetts, at HIS request, served the people of MA at the salary of $1/year (that’s right, ONE DOLLAR)
– Turned Massachusetts’ budget from red to black while governor (- $3.0B to +$2.16B; that’s “billion” with a “B”)
– Cut taxes 19 times as Massachusetts governor (that’s not a typo, NINETEEN)
– As MA governor, developed a plan that would make deadbeats pay for their own health care (you may not like the MA health care law but that’s what it’s sole purpose was. Still don’t like it because of the mandate? Don’t move to MA.) (BTW, how would YOU have solved the MA healthcare free-loader problem and how would you have done it with an overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled state legislature like Romney had to work with?)
– “Service over self”. Romney endorsed McCain only 2 days after ‘Super Tuesday’ in 2008 when it became obvious McCain was the clear front-runner; America is more important to him than his ego (Can you say “He’s not Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum”?)
– Volunteer service to community as a church head pastor for 13 years all with ZERO pay (that’s right, none); 5 years as a “bishop” and 8 years as a “stake president”
– Would give ALL his Presidential salary ($1.6 Million total) back to the American taxpayers if elected (yes, he’s on record as committing to this)
– Voluntarily turned down enrolling in Medicare when he turned 65 on March 12, 2012
(in other words, he’s NOT sucking up our precious tax dollars because he knows he can, and therefore should, take care of himself)
– He also chose to NOT receive any Social Security payments upon turning 65 because, again, he knows he can take care of himself and therefore should not rely on our tax dollars to help fund his daily living
– Looks, talks and acts “Presidential”
– Released his last 2 years of filed tax records (2010 AND 2011) proving he’s not a tax cheat; paid $1.94 million in federal income taxes in 2011giving him an effective tax rate of 14.1%. AND, the private firm which prepared Romney’s taxes from 1990 through 2009 issued a letter stating that Romney paid 100% of the federal and state income taxes owed during those 20 years. The firm also said Romney’s average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.2% for those 20 years. Satisfied?
http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/2…
– Cares about his fellow man: gave $3,000,000 to charity in 2010 and $4,000,000 to charity in 2011; that’s $7 MILLION in just 2 years. Would you have done that? Romney did.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o…
– He’s pledged (repeatedly) that he’ll repeal Obamacare and REPLACE it with something better.
– And finally…..he’s N-O-T Obama
P.S. – If all one can say about a candidate is that they are a member of “X” church and ignore the talents and character of the person, that person does not deserve the privilege of voting.
Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits. The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year. Yet the teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase over four years at a time when most families are not getting any raises or are looking for work.
Chicago Public School already teachers enjoy the highest average pay of any district in the nation—$76,000 a year, plus benefits. (The CTU argues it is only $71,000 after taking out contributions for their pensions and health care.) The union wanted a 30 percent raise but has indicated it could settle for the 16 percent the city is now offering (raising average annual pay to $88,000).
Teachers pay only 3 percent of their health-care costs and out of every new dollar set aside for public education in Illinois in the last five years, a full 71 cents has gone to teacher retirement costs.
Monday morning, teachers showed up in force on picket lines as parents dropped their children off at 144 contingency elementary and high schools across the city, as well as at parks, libraries and YMCAs. (Daycare paid for by taxpayers anyone?)
Even as a chemistry teacher in Chicago Public Schools, Karen Lewis made her students work hard to find answers, according to one of her former principals. In 2010, Lewis defeated Marilyn Stewart, vaulting from the rank and file to union president. Teachers union officials declined to provide information on Lewis’ salary. But Stewart made $211,119 in 2009, her final full year in office. Lewis took over as president for part of 2010, and was paid $71,330 by the teachers union that year, records indicate. Lewis also is eligible for compensation from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and in 2011 she was paid $64,157 by that group, records indicate.
The union has a great deal of leverage in its strike. It can prevent more than 350,000 children from receiving an education. It has forced parents to find other ways of caring for their kids while they work. Many children will wander the streets—police are beefing up patrols to forestall trouble.
The union prefers having children pay this price to letting the district fire bad teachers. This is not exactly surprising. Unions serve their members’ interests first. No union would sacrifice its members’ job security to spare parents from a strike.
This is why collective bargaining does not belong in government—and why more states should emulate Governor Scott Walker’s (R–WI) reforms. No competitors exist to pick up the government’s slack. Unlike in the private sector, a government strike shuts down vital services entirely. The government exists to serve the common good, but unions exist to serve themselves. They should not have the power to shut down the government to get their way.
Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
The main players in the majority of information given via television, radio, and print media back Obama 10 to 1 in campaign contributions. So when does it become a conflict of American interest that the media gets to determine public opinion based on personal beliefs of their respective owner or CEO? How do you stop an information source that bleeds blue? How can you stop the liberal views of people who have been inundated with socialist ideology from their earliest school memories through college? And these same people are hired by like-minded individuals to spread the bullshit on the airwaves and high-speed cable lines throughout the country.
It may be time that any company considered a MAJOR news source like say NBC/ABC/CBS/Fox can’t donate to political campaigns. If the owner/CEO decides they want to donate some of his or her own money…..knock yourselves out.
I think I would like a law that eliminates media companies from contributing to various campaigns. Even as jaded as I am about any new laws passed just for the sake of passing new legislation to justify their vaunted position, like politicians do, eliminating the media from the process would do us some good.
If you have a car give away or a radio contest for whatthefuckever, you are not eligible as an employee of said company. Do the same with the media. You can’t play. Seems like a legit resolution to me.
All the major media companies, driven largely by their Hollywood film and television businesses, have made larger contributions to President Obama than to his rival, former Gov. Mitt Romney, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington-based research group that publishes the Open Secrets Web site. The center’s numbers represent donations by a company’s PAC and any employees who listed that company as their employer.
Even companies whose news outlets are often perceived as having a conservative bias have given significantly more money to Mr. Obama. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, for example, has contributed $58,825 to Mr. Obama’s campaign, compared with $2,750 to Mr. Romney. The conglomerate, which owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and the 20th Century Fox studios, gave roughly the same amount to Mr. Romney’s Republican primary competitors Rick Perry and Ron Paul as it did to Mr. Romney.
Other media companies have contributed more significantly to Mr. Obama, including Time Warner, owner of CNN and the magazine publishing house Time Inc. The company, which is based in New York and also owns Warner Brothers and HBO, has contributed $191,834 to Mr. Obama in the 2012 election cycle, compared with $10,750 to Mr. Romney. The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC and ESPN, donated $125,856 to Mr. Obama and $9,950 to Mr. Romney.
I wrote in an earlier post that when word gets out about the amnesty program for Dreamers, all hell would break loose on the border and thousands would come across to claim amnesty as a Dreamer.
Well, here is the proof. Not my assumption….these are the head dudes that deal with this element everyday.
Seems like Hope and Change was meant for people other than American citizens. What a shame.
http://youtu.be/Xb2_3R6oHSQ
So let’s take a look at the trancript line by line and you can decide what he meant. I will add my thoughts throughout. The video clip will be at the end.
“Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own.”
Really? I know may business owners who not only did it on their own, but needed government to get the hell out of the way.
“I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody
else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.”
These are the comments that prelude the big “you didn’t build that” gaffe. And these are the ones that are the most offensive. He say’s he is struck by the arrogance of business men who thought that they were smarter or more hardworking than anyone else, well in most cases, they may not have been smarter but they definitely worked harder than the average 9 to 5 worker bee. His smug thumb to the nose of these business men in this comment alone is telling of what he thinks about capitalism in America. Without a doubt it shows a disdain for business and a prelude to his big government thoughts in the next paragraph.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.”
I worked for a company whose owner quit school in junior high, worked for a few years, bought a backhoe, and started his own business. He now employs over 50 people. The only thing that almost made him close his doors was the housing crisis in 2008. And guess who created that mess? It was not private business, it was government intervention forcing banks to quit redlining and give anybody a home loan. This was a directive of the Clinton administration. If that is the help he is speaking of, please don’t help anymore.
“Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.”
Bingo! There it is. “the American system that WE have allowed”, that small two letter word “WE” is the most telling of all. In a nutshell, “we” the government “allowed” you to be successful. That’s it. That’s his thinking, “we” the government is all knowing and and can do whatever, whenever it decides, and apprently, they have decided to “allow” you to own a business.
“Somebody invested in roads and bridges.”
Your damned straight somebody invested in the roads and bridges. The American taxpayer and business around the country paid for ALL of it. What was Obama thinking? The money does not grow on the magic tree out back of the Fed. It has to come from US! How can he say this and think it would not come back to bite him in the arse. Is he really that naive? If so, that is a chilling reality that he is in charge.
“If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Who is the somebody else? We, the American taxpayer, made that happen. With every gallon of gas that you purchase, you are “building that!” The arrogance is staggering.
“The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”
Once again, who paid the employees to do the research and come up with an early sampling of networks, that eventually became the internet? The American Taxpayer you smug son of a bitch! Government is only functioning if taxes are imposed on it’s people to pay the salaries of it’s goverment employees. Senators, Congressman, interns, staff, Mr. Obama and his DOJ, EPA, DOE, USDA, ATF, FBI, CIA, bla bla bla is all owned and paid for by Americans…..PERIOD!
Now watch the video clip and look at his actions and the way that he makes these comments. The man is out of touch with reality. And if he get’s re-elected God help us all.
http://youtu.be/YKjPI6no5ng
How many countries have given a dime to the U.S.? They should not get anything from us. What level have we sunk to that we give VERIFIED terrorists anything? Get the hell out and let them self implode. I could give a shit less. And so should you. They get what they deserve!
The House agreed to a $650 million cut from Pakistan military aid Wednesday night as Republicans sought to tamp down demands for still deeper reductions because of conservative anger at the Islamabad government.
Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) first came to the floor demanding a $1.3 billion cut and initially won the endorsement of Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who was managing the defense bill on the floor. But ultimately a cut of $650 million was settled upon with the intention of reducing Pakistan’s funds by half.
Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, appeared to agree to the compromise, since it was approved by a voice vote. And the end result is to conform with prior cuts agreed to this spring as part of a defense authorization bill.
Nonetheless, the fresh cut follows on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent efforts to bridge the gap with Pakistan. And the combination of Poe’s inflammatory rhetoric and Young’s cheerful endorsement was not a reassuring for the Obama administration as it tries to rebuild relations.
“It is time for a new strategy with Pakistan,” said Poe, who described Pakistan as a “Benedict Arnold” nation. “More money is not going to solve the problem. … Pakistan is playing America.”
Once again it’s the Chicago way. You win an office, you own the world. No wonder she is campaigning so hard. She would have to use her own money on vacations if BamBam doesn’t get re-elected.
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained records from the United States Air Force and the United States Secret Service detailing Michelle Obama’s February 2012 President’s Day weekend ski vacation to Aspen, Colorado, with her two daughters.
Key details, including flight records for the Secret Service detail and the names of individuals who accompanied Mrs. Obama on the vacation, were redacted from the documents with the exception of two staffers. One was Meredith Koop, her personal assistant and style advisor, the other was her scheduler Kristen Jarvis.
As reported by the Aspen Daily News on February 18, 2012:
First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in Aspen on Friday afternoon and is here with her daughters for a ski vacation. Few details about her trip were available. Sources said she is staying at the home of Jim and Paula Crown, owners of the Aspen Skiing Co. She is reportedly skiing at Buttermilk today, where the Crowns, of Chicago, own a home on the Tiehack side.
FoxNews.com noted that the trip was the 16th vacation in three years taken by the Obama family. Judicial Watch first asked for the travel documents on February 21, 2012.
“No wonder we had to file a lawsuit in federal court and wait six months to get basic information on Michelle Obama’s luxury Aspen vacation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The costs of the Obama family ski weekend are staggering. These high-priced luxury vacations, and the lack of transparency about
them, are beginning to seem like an abuse of office.”
Judicial Watch previously obtained documents from the United States Air Force and the United States Secret Service detailing costs associated with Michelle Obama’s controversial August 2010 vacation to Spain. According to a Judicial Watch analysis, the records indicate a total combined cost of at least $467,585.
Judicial Watch also obtained documents detailing costs a June 21-27, 2011, trip taken by Michelle Obama, her family and her staff to South Africa and Botswana. Judicial Watch received mission expense records and passenger manifests for the Africa trip that described costs of $424,142 for the flight and crew alone. Other expenses, such as off-flight food, transportation, security, etc. were not included.
