July, 2010. You may now realize, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, "President Obama guaranteed Americans that after health reform became law they could keep their insurance plans and their doctors.  It’s clear that this promise cannot be kept."  Now reports and notifications are beginning to accrue that make it painfully clear that new regulations and government induced cost adjustments are already starting to have a dangerous impact.  (By way of example, this writer has seen his prescriptions almost double and there is the promise of additional upward health cost adjustments for supplemental insurance in 2011.)  Another unfortunate example, as pointed out by WSJ: "This will hit Wellpoint, one of the biggest players in the individual market, particularly hard."  And, "Earlier this month Mr. Obama accused Wellpoint of systemically denying coverage to breast cancer patients, though the facts don’t bear that out."  And this growing mess continues everywhere.  So, as a result, we are seeing the beginning of readjustments and even mass exits.  We see reports and news stories about many doctors now selling their practices to hospitals or getting out of the medical profession altogether.  And, as The Wall Street Journal further reports, "Physicians are lining up to sell — and not just primary-care doctors, but highly paid specialists like orthopedic surgeons and neurologists." (Follow the Wall Street Journal for more of the unraveling details.)  It’s no wonder that now Rasmussen polls show a majority of Americans favoring repeal of the new, convoluted government healthcare system. Let’s hope it’s not too late.

   The sad saga continues as we see that many insurance companies find themselves forced to plan for an increase in fees for a number of medical services for seniors, the group of Americans who can least afford such increases.  As Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the AHIP, noted, "Washington can’t slash $200 billion out of Medicare Advantage and then try to shift the blame to the health plans that administer the program when those cuts (government mandated) inevitably result in higher premiums and benefit reductions for seniors." (The AHIP is the health industry’s major trade group.)  And the bad news only gets worse.  As The Wall Street Journal reports, "It’s now obvious that many millions will lose the coverage they have."  So, can anything be done about all of this? Originally attorneys general of 13 states filed a serious lawsuit in the federal court challenging the new government medical debacle.  We understand that the number of participating states has now grown to 20.  And of course another recourse is the November Congressional election.  So, it all seems to once again come down to you and me, doesn’t it?

   We are seeing examples of "Islamic Compliance" in more and more areas of our society now.  In our new government we have such things as a Presidential Directive for NASA to reach out to the Muslims around the world with what amounts to a special global affirmative action educational program.  No one seems to have figured out what NASA is supposed to be doing in such areas, but that’s just the way it is.  Another example would be how a guest columnist in a local Rutherford County paper (in Tennessee) was critical of extremist Muslim behavior and this had its paper forced off the shelves in area stores.  And we all recall the examples of American flags being taken down in schools and in other public places because it was said the flag might offend some people, such as Muslims. These are just a few of the shameful examples.

   J. Christian Adams, the former Department of Justice attorney who quit his post in deep disgust, published a detailed explanation in The Washington Times.  Within his statement he wrote that, "The New Black Panther case was the simplest and most obvious violation of federal law I saw in my Justice Department career.  Because of the corrupt mature of the dismissal, statements falsely characterizing the case and, most of all, indefensible orders for the career attorneys not to comply with lawful subpoenas investigating the dismissal, this month I resigned my position as a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney."  His reason includes the following: "Based on my firsthand experiences, I believe the dismissal of the Black Panther case was motivated by a lawless hostility toward equal enforcement of the law.  Others still withing the department share my assessment."  And he also noted that, "Incredibly, after the case was dismissed, instructions were given that no more cases against racial minorities like the Black Panther case would be brought by the Voting Section." And, equally disturbing: "We had indications that polling-place thugs were deployed elsewhere, not only in November 2008, but also during the Democratic primaries, where they targeted white Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters."  The extensive nature of the breakdown of law and order in America is becoming more and more pervasive and more and more frightening with each passing day.

   The New Black Panthers do seem to be greatly encouraged by the federal abuses of the American legal system.  Additional examples of their hateful rhetoric and their calls for violence and murder are surfacing.  A video featured recently on the American Geographic channel reveals New Black Panther spokesman Samir Shabazz telling a group of blacks, "You want freedom?  You are going to have to kill some crackers!  You might have to kill some of their babies!" ("Crackers" is a black derogatory reference to "white" people.)  Since a new Arizona law (that calls for verification with no civil rights violations) is considered to be racist in nature by our new government, how might the Justice Department see the Shabazz rantings?  It doesn’t see them at all.  Is it the end of law and order?  You tell me.

   ObamaCare seems to be unfolding very much like that poorly revamped Massachusetts state health system.  As The Wall Street Journal reports, "The future of ObamaCare is unfolding here: runaway sending, price controls, even limits on care and medical licensing."  And with Obama’s appointment of the "extremist" Donald Berwick to direct Medicare, we may be in for more trouble than we ever might have imagined.  Don’t think so?  Then consider what he had to say to Biotechnology Healthcare in June, 2009: "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care.  The decision is whether we will ration care with our eyes open."  You have been warned.

   The market continues to go down and then it rises a little — "mechanical adjustments" as speculators position themselves for short-term speculations and the inevitable little jumps.  But then, of course, it all goes back down again.  It seems to be a matter of one step up and two steps down.  And The Wall Street Journal headlines continue to offer the bigger picture: "Dollar Tumbles in Broad Retreat on Weak Data,"  and "Poor U.S. Data Pulls Yields Down,"  and "U.S. Jobs Picture Darkens,"  and "Even State Capitals Feel the Squeeze."  It’s not a pretty picture, no matter how the White House or Congress tries to spin it.

   As successful illegal immigration has become the major impetus for a massive invasion of the United States from the chaotic third-world nation of Mexico, the accompanying general lawlessness has made its mark.  Arizona is not the only state to feel its sting — but Arizona has felt it more than most.  It is fairly well known that Mexico City is the world’s kidnaping capital.  But now, Phoenix is second in line for that dubious honor.  And now the federal government has found it necessary to warn American citizens to stay out of three southern Arizona counties.  Why?  We are being told it is because armed smugglers from Mexico have made it too dangerous — too dangerous now in our own country.  One could go on about this problem but I’m sure most of you are aware of what’s been happening.  And now we come to the Obama administration’s answer to all of this — a lawsuit against the state of Arizona for trying to defend itself, (something the federal authorities have been unwilling to do properly).  It takes the form of a Justice Department argument that Arizona’s defensive law, goes beyond the similar federal law by requiring state police enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone who might be suspected as being an illegal alien.  What seems to be missing is the fact that only when persons are being questioned concerning another law enforcement issue — only then, identification is asked for, as it always has been for everyone.  The administration, through the courts, will most likely win the case, regardless of the facts.

   Even some Democrats are beginning to ask why the Gulf cleanup is going so painfully slow.  Experts, critics and knowledgeable residents from the Gulf area are suggesting there are many obvious things that can and should be done to move things along much more effectively but our federal authorities seem oblivious to or very resistant to such measures.  As exampled by the Associated Press report that, "Many fishing boats signed up to skim oil sit idle in marinas. Some captains and deckhands say they have been just waiting around for instructions while drawing checks from BP of more than $1,000 a day per vessel."  And, "The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. ... Only a small number have been accepted."  And there are so many other incomprehensible examples, as you might imagine.  So, what is being done?  Well, among other things, federal authorities have been making it very clear that both the public and the media are to stay beyond 65 feet of any equipment, or any workers involved in the cleanup or any effected wildlife. They’ve also imposed a "No-Fly Zone" over the area.  And the White House has appointed an offshore drilling commission to investigate the situation.  Any problem with that?  According to The Wall Street Journal, "Five Democrats on the Senate Energy Committee last week delivered an embarrassing rebuke to the White House, voting with Republicans to have Congress set up an ‘independent’ commission to investigate the BP disaster, bypassing the President’s appointees."  Why, you may ask?  As further reported, "The President’s seven-member commission contains not a single expert on drilling or petroleum engineering and is instead loaded with anti-oil and anti-drilling activists..."  What so many of us would like to know is, why can’t they do as good a job cleaning-up as they do covering-up?

   Everywhere you turn now, the lack of meaningful ethical behavior is astounding.  As noted in The Wall Street Journal, "Consider the trial of the former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, which is sucking in most of the president’s Chicago intimates."  As further reported, "The threat is that the trial offers evidence for a growing view that Mr. Obama isn’t so much ‘new politics’ as a typical Chicago politics."  Yes, as the trial moves along, the testimony most certainly does show the White House in an unflattering light.  And then there is that 2,319-page Dodd-Frank bill that, "...all but guarantees bailouts as far as the eye can see, while failing to address the real problems like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and our outdated bankruptcy code." (WSJ)  I guess it’s what we should expect from the politicians who helped create many of our financial problems in the first place.  And then there are Obama’s strongly union-oriented appointments and strongly union-friendly regulations and new government "union preferences" for contracts, etc., etc.  And there’s still the Sestak case and that one in Colorado and so on.  And, there is that Washington Times headline, "Postal boss was not sent packing despite shenanigans."  And now we see more about that shady "arrangement" we had mentioned before about where some of those gulf rigs will be going and who will profit.  Alaska Beat reports that, "According to Agence France-Presse (via the Calgary Herald) a Louisiana official says that offshore drilling rigs have begun pulling out of the Gulf of Mexico due to the six-month federal ban on deepwater offshore drilling.  Already, some service contracts are being terminated."  And with all of these many things going on, about the only reaction from our Congress is, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, "A congressional ethics office has begun examining eight House lawmakers to see if there were improper links between campaign fund-raising and the financial regulatory overhaul bill still before Congress, according to lawmakers."  That little bit of news leaked out around the middle of last month. Nothing else that seemed to be of much importance to our lawmakers, just that little bit of news.  So far, that’s about all there is.The once honorable and proud NAACP has evidently been reached by the new Chicago-type national political machine. People in both parties and independents from everywhere in America were stunned to find the NAACP issuing a resolution that claims racism within the Tea Party movement. As an original participant, deeply within the movement from the very beginning, this writer is very much insulted by the totally false charge that very clearly is an effort to blunt the national grass-roots effort to get our country back. That once meaningful NAACP should be deeply ashamed of what it has allowed itself to become.

   As Americans are turning away from the more conventional media sources in ever growing numbers, a few voices have risen out of the cacophony to suggest that the financially beleaguered networks and newspapers might serve the public better by surviving under government funding.  An excellent example of this sort of non sequitur would be a recent op-ed piece given to the Wall Street Journal by Leo C. Bollinger, the recent president of Columbia University.  (An examination of his viewpoint is an education in itself.)  He rightly states that new communication technologies, such as the Internet, have given the public new choices for information.  I have been a part of these new technologies from the beginning and can see why the thirst for the rest of the story has driven this growing exodus (something not mentioned by Mr. Bollinger). Yes, he was quick to note that, "Media budgets have been decimated as the Internet facilitates a communications revolution."  And, of course, his conclusion was that, "More public funding for newsgathering is the answer."  He points out what he evidently feels is a successful and very elaborate public regulation, through the FCC, of our broadcast industry with, "...requirements that stations cover public issues and expand the range of voices that could be heard."  Evidently the ivory tower of Columbia has not been scaled by such inconvenient truths as the fact that, since TV broadcast network news has practiced very serious omissions, broadcast radio has given birth to a large number of talk radio shows and networks, and at least one cable TV news network, to offer that previously illusive "rest of the story."  So much for government requirements.  Mr. Bollinger further noted how public broadcasting (PBS, NPR, etc.) operate, "...with direct public grants and a mission to produce high quality journalism free of government propaganda or censorship."  And how is that working out for us?  It is most certainly clearly understood that our public broadcasting system has become the bastion of the liberal (progressive) viewpoint.  And, of course, our university man was not going to miss mentioning that, "There are examples of other institutions in the U.S. where state support does not translate into official control.  The most compelling are our public universities."  No, not official government control.  But, unofficially, such places have become yet another bastion of liberal control.  It should also be mentioned that many who want to subsidize the liberal media are raising their voices about how the quick and easy Internet is so hard for metropolitan newspapers to compete against.  What they fail to point out is that talk radio and most fair and balanced newspapers are not doing badly at all.  The free market certainly knows how to make the point, doesn’t it? I would submit that it might not be such a bad idea to let that free market of ours sort things out on its own.  What do you think?

   Are there possibly one or two of you who might still be unaware of the extreme bias of most of our so-called media.  I would suggest that they explain to me why the weird Muslim outreach program put upon NASA was covered little or not at all by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, ABC World News, etc., etc. And explain to me why that bias concerning the New Black Panther group and that anti-white policy in the Attorney General’s office was not heard about on the NBC Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, the ABC World News, and was not covered in the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, etc., etc.  And, of course, a good portion of the news stories detailed in our "Concerns" web pages were also blacked out by most of the "lame-stream" media.  No wonder so much of our media is going under, financially.  People want to know. People are looking elsewhere.

   Far too much of our media has been all too quick to parrot Obama’s position about who is at fault for making it difficult to pass another extension of unemployment benefits and not looking for actually reasons.  The president may not want you to remember that he was adamant, last time around, about unemployment extensions being "funded" — definitely not "unfunded."  This time he did his best to push the new extension through as "unfunded."  The Republicans didn’t like that.  They wanted this one to be funded as well.  (Our debt is far too enormous at this point to handle it, as unfunded.) And it could have been done without adding to our debt.  It could have been paid for with unspent money from that stimulus package that was passed.  So, it’s all the Republicans’ fault?  One hopes the lame-stream media has trouble putting that one over on the American people.

   Almost everyone will be impacted by the new financial bill, being interpreted now by ten government regulatory agencies, now that it has been signed into law.  A number of economists suggest this could be a very risky situation, considering the current financial landscape.  And what is the current status of that landscape?  Reports are in that show risky lending behavior continues, a total of 96 banks have been seized so far this year, deflation concerns grow, and consumer confidence continues to drop.  And through it all, the Obama administration thinks more jobs can be created in manufacturing, without considering the inconvenient truth that the "service sector" is responsible for 80% of employment in America.  At this point, the future offers a very dark view, indeed.

   Jeffrey Ball has given us some of the most credible reporting on the Gulf spill, as published in The Wall Street Journal. Among the quotes we find: "The early signs of damage from the BP PLC oil spill are alarming, experts say.  Since the spill began in April, nearly 2,200 birds have been found dead, the biggest portion in Louisiana, along with nearly 500 sea turtles, about half of them in Mississippi, federal statistics say."  And another quote: "New research suggests oil may be poised to enter the Gulf food chain.  Scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi and Tulane University have found oil droplets in young crabs along a broad swath of the Gulf coastline, from Gand Isle, LA to Pensacola, Fla."  He also has reported on Oceanographer Samantha Joye’s findings.  She is studying the oil spills potential effects on Gulf marine life under the auspices of the University of Georgia.  As Jeffrey Ball noted, "Water samples that she and colleagues have taken show a more worrisome drop in oxygen levels than was reported by a separate group of federal researchers."  So much for the environmental legacy of the Obama administration.

   Fred Barnes made some interesting observations in The Wall Street Journal.  Among other comments, he wrote that, "...there’s liberal bias in the media, but there’s no conspiracy. The liberal tilt is an accident of nature.  The media disproportionately attracts people from a liberal arts background who tend, quite innocently, to be politically liberal." But then he found reason to have a second thought and added the comment that, "...after learning I’d been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I’m inclined to amend my response.  Not to say there’s a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listsery called ‘JournoList,’ to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism."  And Mr. Barnes also observed that, "Spencer Ackerman of The Washington Independent proposed attacking Mr. Obama’s critics as racists."  One of the most egregious recent examples would be such remarks from the NAACP President, Ben Jealous as, "The Tea Party movement knows that there are tens of thousands of dedicated racists and ultra nationalists in their ranks."  It was a false smear intended to diminish a popular citizens’ movement.  It ended up diminishing a once worthy organization, the NAACP.

   The violence in Arizona continues to escalate as videos circulate throughout the Internet, showing anti-white, anti-American and anti-Arizona protesters desecrating the American flag, waving Mexican flags, and in some instances, becoming violent.  And this is now being accompanied by youthful illegals identifying themselves and daring the authorities to deport them.  But of course you aren’t seeing or reading much of anything about these things in most of the media, are you?  And I’ll bet you’ve never heard about any American Latino groups standing in favor of Arizona (such as The Arizona Latino Republican Association).  I wonder why.

   We have received a news story about what one Laredo, Texas police officer calls, "...an act of war."  It’s about Mexican drug cartels crossing the border into U.S. territory near Laredo and seizing control of at least two American ranches.  And there’s the story about the new Arizona Citizens Militia.  It’s a desperate act of self-defense that, like the ranch seizures in Texas, have had a media exposure amounting to "almost none at all" to "none."  Something’s wrong here?  I guess so.

   It would seem we now have one of the most racial administration in all of our history.  We see the problem everywhere, from the Justice Department’s Eric Holder and his dismissed case of voter intimidation by a black group, even after the case had been won.  And the Holder Justice Department overruling of Kinston, NC local election procedures because Holder evidently felt minority voters cannot succeed without the Democratic party being specially identified.  And let us not forget the new Justice Department policy to not prosecute cases against blacks when they involve white victims.  And then there is the Obama appointed "diversity czar," Mark Lloyd.  He has suggested that white media executives should "step down" in order to allow a more appropriate (?) replacement by minority interests.  And then there was that charge of racial, anti-black slurs, as claimed by Rep. John Lewis, but that never seemed to have occurred. And then there is Gerry Hudson, a top executive in Obama’s favorite union (SEIU), who was quoted as saying that white workers in America are "...so f***ing rabidly racist."  And then there are the endless charges of racism against almost any who dare to criticize Obama or his administration about just about anything.  Even the tea parties are now being called racist by Obama minions.  There’s absolutely no end to it.  It’s a crying shame.

   We have the Donald Berwick  "recess appointment" (avoiding any Congressional hearing), to head the national Medicare and Medicaid Services.  The Wall Street Journal felt it relevant to offer such Berwick quotes about how he felt we, "...must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer...".  And there is also that quote from the Democrat Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus who’s reaction to the ObamaCare program was that he "...exulted that it would result in ‘a leveling’ of the ‘maldistribution of income in America.’  " As The Wall Street Journal put it, "ObamaCare, in short, is almost certainly the largest wealth transfer n American history."  Also in short, we evidently can all now look forward to becoming equally poor, across the board.

   Hardly anyone is surprised that the U.S. District Judge, Susan R. Bolton issued a preliminary injunction against that new Arizona law.  Among other things, it was once again reiterated that states cannot preempt federal law.  Interesting. Then that means state medical marijuana laws, sanctuary cities and similar state and city preemptions are all now illegal and must be vacated?  Is it not also like those states’ rights attempts (such as with "separate but equal" state laws) being struck down in favor of a dominance of federal law?  Or is this sort of thing going to be a matter of continuing a policy of "selective" recognition and enforcement?  Don’t be surprised with this answer either.

   Speaker Pelosi spoke of draining the swamp of corruption when the Dems took over some time ago.  But since then, the corruption grew to enormous proportions, and only now we find two of the Democrats finally facing charges, with many others still managing to avoid public charges or trials.  It should be remembered that Representatives Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters are only the tip of the iceberg.  It should be remembered, but will it be?

   The recession figures don’t look good.  Department of Commerce figures now reveal that earlier government reports were inaccurate.  Now we find that our GNP didn’t actually grow at all in 2008 and our economy actually shrunk 2.6% in 2009.  We also find that our trade deficit has gone up by 5% in May of this year (to $42.3 billion).  And even the White House has found it necessary to raise the 2011 deficit forecast to a whopping $4.4 trillion!  And with all of this, our "Housing Market Stumbles" (WSJ) and the jobless numbers remain pegged at 9.5% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,.... as our so-called "recovery" begins to lose serious momentum.

 

   August, 2010.  Under the direction and support of the Obama administration, the FCC continues to move forward in its effort to take control of the Internet.  This has been an area of intense activity in frequent opposition to our new regime, so the effort is going forward to attempt to rein it in.  It is starting with just the policing of broadband providers.  However, it has been made clear that it is ultimately intended for much more than that.  As the non-partisan TechWorld.com put it, "President Obama will be handed the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight."  The author, Alex Jones, further noted that, "It is feared that the legislation is aimed at bringing the Internet under the regulatory power of the U.S. government and is an offense against free speech."  Of course.  What else have we come to expect?

   As reported by Brian Carney in The Wall Street Journal, "Fannie and Freddie (the tarnished mortgage giants) have liabilities in excess of $5 trillion.  They have already directly cost taxpayers nearly $150 billion, with no end in sight."  As further noted, "They underwrite the vast majority of all new home loans, and they own or guarantee about half of all the mortgages outstanding."  It is a complete failure, and as such, casts an ominous shadow over the entire American economic landscape.  And the likes of Barney Frank and Cris Dodd, who we have previously documented for their major responsibility, still don’t seem to have a clue as to why things are going so wrong and why they share that responsibility.  Now there is talk of resurrection in some beltway circles and of termination in others.  But of course, whatever happens, Barney and Cris will never be held accountable — you can count on that.

   Remember how we were going to have a new era of non-partisan cooperation with no racial or class distinctions under Obama?  And what have we actually gotten so far?  What about the voter intimidations and threats of murdering the white "crackers" by the New Black Panther Party?  And what about Holder’s Justice Department decision to not enforce our laws when it’s blacks against white victims?  And what about the unfounded racial comments about the Tea Party movement from the NAACP podium?  And what about the considerable numbers of racially charged comments from the left-sided media?  And one could go on and on like this all day. The examples one could cite seem absolutely endless.  It would seem the new Democratic leadership has learned the fine art of "divide and conquer."  Interesting.

   As we all know, the economy showed a tiny "blip" of momentary improvement, which was immediately followed by White House claims of responsibility.  And then things got back to going bad again, so of course we hear that it has to be George Bush’s fault.  Evidently that means that, somehow, the former president is responsible for the loss of over 131,000 jobs in July? (Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.)  And the headlines and other bad news just keeps rolling in.  The "Forex" figures show the unstable economy beginning to pressure the dollar again.  Other statistics are suggesting that, outside of the jobless numbers given, over181,000 people have just stopped looking for work altogether.  The Labor Department job market survey makes it very clear that the U.S. labor market has lost any possibility of a real forward momentum.  We are also told that now 46 states are declaring a "budget shortfall."  Even MSNBC.com has conceded that productivity has fallen 0.9 percent in the second quarter.  And the Wall Street Journal reports that, "Incomes fall in most metro areas."  And even the Federal Reserve announces that the so-called recovery is slowing.  And then we start seeing stocks starting to slip and slide once more.  And all of this somehow manages to be George Bush’s fault?  That would be some trick.

   It is seriously suggested that the U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton practiced the "judicial legislation" that was expected and thereby passed down her decision on the Arizona immigration law that effectively guts that law, in spite of the fact that it follows the federal law, and in ways that even more comprehensively protects Hispanics.  It follows as one more act of war by the federal government against the state of Arizona or any other entity that is perceived to get in the way of the presiding agenda.  And, as a follow-up, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service comes out and actually, "...lists tools it says the administration has to ‘reduce the threat of removal’ for many illegal aliens who have run afoul of immigration authorities." (As reported in The Washington Times.)  And of course the open-border generated violence continues.  Among the many news reports you probably weren’t told about is the announcement by the Cochise County, Arizona Sheriff, Larry Dever.  He has found it necessary to pull his men back away from the border area because it has gotten way too dangerous.  And of course Mexico has refused to attend the 27th annual meeting of the U.S./Mexican border governors because it was to be held in Phoenix.  Perhaps they don’t want to have to face the problem right where it is?  Perhaps.  And let us not forget that the over 7,000 employees of I.C.E. have issued a scathing letter of no confidence for the leadership of I.C.E. and, it would seem, for our government in general.  And yes, this writer lives not very far from that border with Mexico.  These revelations are not just academic in nature.

   And now we have Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam who wants to build a mosque near "ground zero" in New York, even though there’s another one just a few blocks away.  It is what they like to do — construct a mosque as a sort of monument of victory over the infidels, in or near the point of their triumph.  And just who is this Imam?  He is what the liberal press calls a "moderate."  Among other things, he wants America to become compliant with brutal Islamic law.  And next we see Obama hosting a special Islamic "Ramadan" dinner in the White House for his Moslem friends, even as he cancels his participation in a Judaic-Christian National Day of Prayer for the second year in a row.  And at that "Ramadan" event he speaks of his support for the right and opportunity for such a "monument" to be built.  And a few days later, our Obama government announces that it will be spending $16,000 for that Imam’s special tour to the Mideast.  And in New York, Mayor Bloomberg bans any bus ads that suggest the preservation of the greater "ground zero" area that might show any images of that infamous 9/11 event. (So much for free speech.)  Of course free and very confrontational speech from the other side of the issue seems to be flourishing. Liberal pundits all over our country have been brought forward to declare that those who feel having a mosque built there is insensitive and inappropriate — those who feel this way are to be identified with every bad name and every indecent term they can apply.  Even the Pelosi mouth came in high and wide on this issue.  Se stated that, "There is no question that there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some and I join those who have called for looking into how this opposition to the mosque is being funded." (Nancy Pelosi on "KCBS" radio – Aug. 17, 2010.)  Well, a lot of victim’s families are involved and others who also care, but no major funding is coming in from anywhere that I know of.  Covert funding seems to be the procedure of choice on the left.

   And now we take another look at ObamaCare.  And how has it been doing?  Not so well.  There was that "recess appointment" of Donald Berwick to run the thing — that appointment that avoided the need for the usual Congressional hearing before confirmation.  And yes, there seems to have been good reason for that. Mr. Berwick seems to have some ideas that range all the way from radical to possibly even dangerous to your health.  And let us not forget Senator Max Baucus’ remark that it would somehow rearrange the, "...maldistribution of income in America."  And let’s remember that The Wall Street Journal brought out the revelation of the Tax Foundation that, "ObamaCare’s new ‘healthcare funding plan’ will shift some $104 billion in 2016 to Americans in the bottom half of the income distribution from those in the top half.  The wealth transfer will be even larger in future years."  A further revelation was noted that, "The President habitually promises that people earing under $200,000 will be exempt from his tax increases.  We now know they won’t be."  Even a number of Democrats are admitting that it is not turning out to be a popular program at all.  Even Bill Clinton admitted this but also added that they should just, "... put the corn where the hogs can get to it."  I guess somebody forgot to tell the voters in Missouri.  That state’s "Prop. C" passed by 71% — which establishes a state law that won’t allow the folks in that state to be forced to pay a penalty or a fine if they don’t have any health insurance.  And we can also add such worrisome headlines as, "Social Security Cuts Weighed by Panel" and "Americans Cut Back on Visits to Doctor." (WSJ)  So much for that wonderful new healthcare program.

   In times past, when at war, if someone had release several thousand classified military documents and thereby endangered the lives of many good people, you and I know what would have happened.  But that was then and this is now, and the leftist American regime is not expected to charge or prosecute a fellow zealot on the left.  And who is this founder of WikiLeaks who is responsible for all of this?  We understand he is what, in some areas, might be considered a criminal "hacker."  He also sits most firmly on the left, politically.  And, for a short time, he was recently accused of rape.  And even now he is a suspect with regard to a situation involving molestation.  We’ve got a real sweetheart here, right?  With America crumbling, they all seem to be coming out of the woodwork.

   You’ve probably seen the headlines and the stories about how so many of our schools are falling short, academically. We keep throwing money at the problem and we are most often faced with the usual disappointments, over and over again.  Two new books highlight this most serious problem, "Higher Education?" and "The Five-Year Party."  An overhaul is long overdue.  We are finding a number of teachers pushing their own personal ideology.  And we find the freedom of an open-minded scholastic environment more severely restricted with every passing day.  We see this in the majority of choices made for commencement speakers.  We see this in the harassment of guest speakers that are not considered to be "politically correct."  We see this in flag removals, questionable sex education, and condom distribution in lower grade levels.  We see all of this in a growing number of our American schools.  We see it in clear hostility expressed toward traditional religious views.  We see it with the protective retention of very poor and radical teachers. Growing numbers of thoughtful Americans are calling for change — real change.  And it is suggested that it should start with the changing of school boards, the removal of bad teachers, better textbook choices, and a general change in management throughout the system.  The grip of the unions has got to be broken.  The attitude of leadership has got to be changed.  Protective, damaging tenure has got to be eliminated.  Real American history and ethics must become required subjects.  Yes, it’s a long wish list, to be sure, but growing numbers are coming to the conclusion that these things are absolutely necessary.  And such things had better be dealt with very soon.  People like George Soros are funding such things as "Education for Transformation" to carry things even further into the pit of no return.  However, some genuine reform is being attempted.  Michelle Rhee, the Chancellor of the District of Colombia (DC) has begun to institute a new approach and a new teacher contract that could become a model for real national reform.  And new and improved charter schools are offering a great, new opportunity for black students as well as white kids.  (Although, no one seems to understand why the NAACP is so adamantly opposed to the idea.)  And let us not forget the courageous revamp of the schoolbooks in the state of Texas.  Of course none of these good things that are beginning to happen are perfect.  But they are a really good beginning.  And growing numbers of us would like to see this trend continue and grow — for the sake of our kids and, ultimately, for the sake of our nation.

   You probably didn’t notice anything about this in the lame-stream media, but a criminal complaint has been filed to disbar the new Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan.  Why, you might ask?  Well, it seems that while acting as an attorney for the then President Bill Clinton, she evidently authored some information that then became fraudulently accepted as "official findings" of a medical "expert panel" that clearly misled the federal courts, all the way up to and including the Supreme Court.  It was information involved with the murderous practice of partial-birth abortion and was most certainly not friendly to the efforts to protect life.  Will the complaint be successful?  Of course not.  The deck is stacked for one outcome only, and we know what that is don’t we?

   We have dangerous traitors like the "progressive" Julian Assange releasing approximately 76,000 classified U.S. military documents, and our government looks the other way. Never mind that the action curtails some critical international commitments and can be expected to cost countless lives. After all, he is politically on the left and a lot of slack must always be given for such people under the current administration in Washington.  In other words, some of them might not like to have such disclosures made but they will treat the event as far less disturbing when it’s a problem between political comrades.

   Obama’s people told us that we won’t be monetizing our debt (buying our own debt).  That’s what they said because it’s a sure way to accelerate the devaluation of our currency. So, what happened?  We are now doing exactly that.  And what else has been happening?  A group of concerned Senators (Republican) in Washington have released a detailed report that shows how wasteful and absolutely worthless that White House economic stimulus plan has been.  It covers 100 projects.  Consider it as just one more reason why our economy falters.  Thomas Sowell, in The Washington Times, speaks of this sort of thing as "Dismantling America behind Americans’ backs."  And he further notes that, "You will be paying someone else’s higher taxes, unless of course you can do without electricity and other products of heavily taxed businesses."  And the bad effects are starting to show up everywhere, even outside of the federal realm.  Cities like Oakland and Tulsa are being forced to drastically cut the police response time for reported crimes.  And more and more states are precariously balanced on the edge of bankruptcy. Things are going along just fine?  Sure they are.

   Much of the American media has become a shameful example of what one might expect in an iron-fisted dictatorship.  You may recall the big coverage given the now-debunked false claim of tea party racial slurs on March 20th, while at the same time, that media did not think it to be newsworthy or otherwise relevant enough to report another demonstration in Washington, DC, on that same day, where liberal (left wing) elements paraded with swastikas while making exceptionally derogatory racial remarks.  (Both examples were seen on video, so there is absolutely no doubt about what happened.)  Another sad example is about an angry black man who murdered eight white people where he worked, because they were white.  So how did the liberal press "spin" this one?  With a tear in its collective eye, The Washington Post put it this way: "To those closest to him, Omar Thornton was caring, quiet and soft-spoken.  But underneath, Thornton seethed with a sense of racial injustice for years that culminated in a shooting rampage Tuesday in which the Connecticut man killed eight and wounded two others at his job before killing himself."  This is how it’s done in the left-wing media in America today — if the perpetrator is black and the victims are white, blame the victims.  There are a massive number of other examples, as we imagine you probably know.  We just wanted to remind you with a couple of them.  And of course there are other illustrations that might be brought to your attention, as with the sale of the failing far-left "Newsweek" magazine.  It was announced that the solidly liberal Sidney Harman bought it for just $1.  What you may not have heard was that "Newsmax" magazine had made a generous offer to buy "Newsweek" and they were turned down.  The owner (The Washington Post) felt "Newsmax" to be more to the conservative side, which makes it totally unacceptable.  Of course the liberal media didn’t make note of that rather embarrassing fact.  But it did raise a ruckus about the News Corporation (which owns FOX News and The Wall Street Journal) when they realized that company made a generous donation to the GOP.  The Washington Post made a big fuss about that, as you might imagine.  But I don’t recall any mention of donations that were also made to the Democrats.  I can only guess it works only one way with them. And while we’re at it, let me remind you how the left-media pounds conservative talk radio with criticisms, even as not a word is said about things like this happening from their side of the political spectrum: "In my bones, in my very soul — in my heart I want to kick Fox’s a**!  I want to drive them into the ground!  I want to kick ‘em in the teeth on the way back to the huddle!  And then I want to turn around and lift my leg on ‘em — because that’s all they’re worth!" (The Ed Schultz radio show (Aug. 27, 2010).  So much for the liberal media.

   The "left" was not at all happy with the Glenn Beck event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on the 28th of this month. We were told to expect trouble and the rally was indicated, by The Washington Post, to be, "...a measure of the tea party’s strength."  Well, as usual, there were many parts of their pre-event comments that had no firm basis in reality — for instance, it wasn’t a tea party rally.  It would, however, serve as a measure of growing national interest in our honor, integrity and all with important religious considerations.  And it most certainly did that.  CBS was only inclined to allow an estimate of only around 87,000 people attending the event.  Much to our surprise, MSNBC suggested 500,000 or more.  Other estimates approached a million.  The "Restoring Honor" rally was a great success by any reasonable standards, but of course there were a number on the "left" that felt it should be trashed in any way possible.  If you saw the event on C-Span, or through other available channels, you know how inspiring it was, how peaceful it was and what a wonderful bunch they were, representing many different races and backgrounds. (And they even picked up all the trash and left the area clean and beautiful.)  But of course there were those who just had to suggest the possibility that it might not have been all that impressive — as written by Greg Sargent and given legitimate space by The Washington Post.  And there were others who were not so subtle.  Al Sharpton comes to mind with his comments of the event as being disgraceful, racist, race-bating, mean, petty, etc., etc.  In his own little rally several blocks away he was also spewing such statements about Beck’s event as, "They want to disgrace this day." (Words taken directly from the available videos.)  Many viewers were also surprised to hear other speakers at Sharpton’s event spewing very angry and furiously confrontational revolutionary rhetoric.  It was interesting to see the stark difference between the two events.  And of course, later on Howard Dean called Beck’s people a bunch of hate mongers. Even a NPR commentator called Beck’s rally a "pit of hatred." Oh yes, and the event seemed to qualify as only a little write-up on page 15 of The New York Times.  How nice.

   We assume you heard about the border agents’ National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, writing a scathing letter that disavows the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership as having, "...abandoned the agency’s core mission of enforcing U.S. immigration laws and providing for public safety."  That’s about as serious as it can get.  The agency’s answer seems to be little more than the headline provided the media and then published in The Washington Times.  It reads: "Lack of resources lets ICE nab only riskiest of illegals."  And so what has been happening? Well, Nogales International has reported shots fired at a U.S. Border Patrol agent from the Mexican side of the border.  U.S. border patrol agents were told, in this and in other such incidents, not to fire back.  Our current administration doesn’t want to create any sort of international incident.  And firing at Americans from Mexico didn’t create such an incident?  And then we have Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton striking down Arizona’s immigration act.  We can only assume that Judge Bolton is unwilling to follow Constitutional law.  We refer specifically to Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 which states, "In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction."  It has once again been made very clear that our Constitution has been scrapped.  And, as if that isn’t enough, our Obama government has decided to put the State of Arizona before the United Nations on some sort of human rights issue.  Arizona Governor Brewer wrote a serious reply to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which the Governor states that, "The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to ‘review’ by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional." But it doesn’t stop there.  The Justice Department has filed another lawsuit against Arizona with regard to the establishment of proper and legal identification as one of the requirements for employment in the state’s community colleges.  And a federal lawsuit has been filed against the Sheriff of Maricopa County (Phoenix area).  And who knows how many more are going to be fired off against the state in this very serious war between Obama’s federal government and the State of Arizona.  A few years ago, this sort of thing would have been considered as a particularly wild form of over-imaginative fiction.  My, how times have changed.

   At this point, observers are beginning to realize that the Republican Party has a more difficult job ahead for them, than one might normally realize.  Winning the November election is just the beginning.  Getting anything done in the face of extensive Obama vetoes will be an impossible task much of the time.  Proposals such as Republican Rep. Devin Nunes’ nuclear plan (which will reduce carbon emissions in a major way) will probably be stonewalled by the President as well. But the House of Representatives controls the purse strings to some extent.  This means Republicans might be able to limit some of the Democrats wild, uncontrolled spending and reduce some of our massive debt.  Since many see the Democrats so deeply entangled in so much activity that may involve the breaking of important laws, including Constitutional law — since such behavior seems to have become a major preoccupation for so many Democratic politicians, extensive Congressional investigations might be able to stop some of the havoc and destruction. (It has also been suggested that Eric Holder, and his Justice Department, should be one of the first examinations.)  In any case, getting there is still going to be a big part of the problem.  The election is not guaranteed.  Many Americans still remain pathetically apathetic.  And there are attempts being made to establish a serious Tea Party political party and there is that new Modern Whig Party.  Such efforts have the potential to water down any GOP sweep.  Yes, the one thing we know for sure — nothing is certain.

   First, we heard about what sounds like a rather far-out ideology from the words of Donald Berwick, our "unconfirmed but appointed" Medicare/Medicaid administrator.  Now we discover that several important health care organizations seem to have connections to a nonprofit "think tank" that Berwick co-founded and had directed.  And now just how well is this new healthcare doing?  Well, it’s a long way from full implementation but already the cracks have begun to show. As The Wall Street Journal reports, now "nearly a third of U.S. households have no life insurance coverage, the highest percentage in more than four decades, according to the research firm Limra."  And the American Council on Education and a dozen other groups have made it known that it may be expected to be almost impossible for institutions of higher learning to continue to make student health plans available. States are also taking a very close look at what seems to be coming down the pike.  As an example, Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota has taken steps to block their inclusion in a healthcare funding scheme they don’t want to be a part of.  The problems multiply and growing numbers, in and out of Washington are trying to figure how we can safely get around this growing mess.  It won’t be easy.

   We all know about the "Victory Mosque" being planned near Ground-Zero.  We also are aware of the demonstrations, for and against.  And even a few of you may have heard some of the "unfriendly" comments made by the leader of that planned mosque.  The man, Imam Feisel Aboul Rauf has declared America as an "accessory to the crime" of the 9/11 attack and "The United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaeda." and "In a true peace, it is impossible that a purely Jewish state of Palestine can endure."  And on and on he goes.  It was also discovered that the Imam Rauf is a taxpayer subsidized slum lord.  That’s what we understand.  Remember, all of this and more is possible under the rulership of Obama.  It should also be mentioned here that this writer has seen video of Obama in the Middle East, extolling his belief and support in the Muslim faith.  And, according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, our President swore to him that he was a Muslim.  And he was quoted as saying that, "I have a problem with some domestic issues. As soon as I finish with the healthcare question, you Muslims will see what I can do for Islam."  So what is happening now?  The Muslim Brotherhood, a coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations is bringing the leaders of 20 national Muslim groups to a special workshop presented by the White House to provide them with "funding, government assistance and resources."  Now you have it.

   Our massive regime in Washington moves ever onward to gain the control it wants over the Internet.  As posted in Freedom Watch and other Internet sites, by Bob Livingston, "Sensing Senators don’t have the stomach to try and pass a stand-alone bill in broad daylight that would give the President the power to shut down the Internet in a national emergency, the Senate is considering attaching the Internet Kill Switch bill as a rider to other legislation that would have bi-partisan support."  Those pushing for such dictatorial powers say an Internet Kill Switch is needed to protect our power, water and banking grids.  What they carefully omit telling you is that none of these vital services are directly connected to the Internet.  Lieberman says China has that arrangement already and so should we.  We should?  Why?  We can certainly see why China has gone in that direction, but are we planning on going that way, too?  The only really legitimate reason that we can uncover is that Obama wants that kind of power at his fingertips.  There is really no other reason that we can find. Ready to give it to him?

   We are all familiar with Obama’s announcement from the Oval Office, of the end of the major part of the military conflict in Iraq — an announcement that followed the earlier announcement of the same thing.  It seems that his "still running for office" presentation had no room for any admission that the plan, now completed, was initiated by the Bush administration and was originally opposed by the then Senator Obama.  I guess we will just have to chalk that up as one of those inconvenient truths that is best not spoken of, right?

   The dire Wall Street Journal headlines continue to pour in. "Dollar Falls Broadly,"  "Dow’s August Decline Is Deepest Since 2001,"  "Economy’s Troubles Worried Fed Officials," "Dow Industrials Fall to 7-Week Low,"  "FDIC Finds 829 U.S. Banks at Risk," and on and on it goes.  The great American economic engine has been severely wounded under this new administration.  It certainly is trying to recover on its own, but the fiscal decisions made by Obama and his political cronies may be more than can be overcome.  Many are hoping that changes in Congress in November will help.  We certainly hope so.

   Is there anything else that has not been mentioned, that we might do to change our poor American economy?  Maybe we ought to also consider House Minority Leader John Boeline’s call for the dismissal of the President’s economic team.  I know, that might not have any effect at all, but we can try.  We should also really give a very serious consideration of Representative Paul Ryan’s plan to balance the budget and recover our economy.  And we must directly address the very difficult problem that so many states and cities have gotten themselves into with budget-breaking pensions and unsustainable welfare requirements.  Whatever it takes — special legislation or Chapter 11 reorganization — this issue must be resolved.  And none of this will be done, through either party, without strong, public pressure.  In other words, once again it will be up to us.

   It is a frightening thought, but one can, in many ways, see our higher educational system as having become "progressive" re-education camps.  We have an enormous number of professors who command their academic fiefdom with an iron ruler.  Many of them have a strong philosophical and political viewpoint that runs hard to the left and, if you want a passing grade, you had damn well better consider what that means.  Yes, there are many, many examples of this problem.  And the Ayatollahs of Academia are having a field day under the Obama administration.  As reported not so long ago, by The Detroit News, "Washington has been taking over your schools. ... The immediate impetus for this has been the ‘Race to the Top,’ a federal competition for $4.35 billion in federal funds."  And who, might you ask, is pushing for the federal controls and standards involved with all of this?  As further explained, "...it’s the heavy hand of this super-unpopular federal government that’s shoving everything along."  And how is this happening?  Well, "If states want federal dollars, which were taken from their citizens to begin with, they must do as they’re told."  And it was also observed that, "Government schooling is almost always controlled by the people it employs because they are the most motivated to be involved in education politics. And, like most people, they would prefer as little outside accountability as possible. Conversely, more freedom means more competition, and that means real accountability — answering to customers — as well as constant innovation."  The article concludes with an ominous tone.  "So why are national curriculum standards the biggest federal takeover you’ve never heard of?  Because they need silence to survive."  This most illuminating essay was researched and written by Neal McCluskey, who is an associate director of the prestigious Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.  He is also the author of the book, "Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples and Compromises American Education."  We recommend this book and two others that suggest serious solutions.  They are "Crisis On Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities" by Mark C. Taylor and "Reforming Our Universities" by David Horowitz.  That’s your reading assignment, America.  And if you pass the course, maybe our school system can gain a passing grade.

   In this current climate in Washington, corruption is really thriving.  There is always a certain amount of it that must be continually weeded out, but under Obama and his gang in Congress, it has gotten so much out of control that some of it is even surfacing in the face of this period when most of this sort of thing is ignored as much as possible by those in charge.  We’ve given you names and the related incidents, a number of times before, and now here is an additional group — a number of Congressmen under investigation at this moment which includes Eddie Johnson, Joseph Crowley, Tom Price, G.K. Butterfield, Robert Aderholt, Joe Wilson, Solomon Ortiz, Alcee Hastings and former Representative Mark Souder.  This current bunch is being checked out for personal spending using official travel "per diems."  As you might have noticed, it includes both Democrats and Republicans.  Yes, we should keep after them no matter which party they claim allegiance to.

   As this month concludes, we look at some very disquieting official figures.  THE NATIONAL DEBT LEVEL: Over $13 trillion.  FEDERAL SPENDING: Over $3 trillion.  INTEREST ON NATIONAL DEBT: Almost $2 trillion.  SOCIAL SECURITY LIABILITY: Over $14 trillion.  MEDICARE LIABILITY: Over $76 trillion.  TOTAL UNFUNDED LIABILITIES: Over 110 trillion.  In addition to those figures, we offer the following — U.S. Unemployment: 14,574,460.  Actual unemployment (when adding those who’ve stopped looking for work, etc.): 25,306,325.  These figures are not an invention.  This is official. It is the reality for our nation at this time.

 

 

   You remember the many tea party rallies and that large Glenn Beck rally, right?  (And how well they behaved and how nicely they all picked up after themselves.)  As you may recall, not to be outdone, the left staged what they chose to call a "One Nation" rally in Washington on the first Saturday in October.  It had quite a list of supporting and participating organizations. There were countless revolutionary, progressive socialist groups and of course the Communist Party, U.S.A.  And of course SEIU was involved and Obama gave his seal of approval as well.  Who where some of the rest of the sponsoring and participating groups?  Well, there was the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, the New York Democratic Socialists of America and, naturally, the national Democratic Socialists of America.  Most of the signage on display included the expected contributions, such as, "Socialism for the 21^st Century," "Socialist Party, U.S.A.," "Capitalism is failing — Socialism is the alternative," and let us not forget that National Conference on Socialism banner that stated, "The present is struggle — the future is ours."  (This reporter personally saw all of this in the available and very extensive videos.  It was real.  It really did happen just like this.)  There were also such inflammatory statements as, "Let’s bring our fingers together and strike a blow!"  And, "Latino power! Latino power!" and all manner of other statements and signs involving union power, alternative sexual behavior, the Obama agenda, support for illegals, anti-Fox placards, etc., etc.  If you watched it, you could not have missed what this was really all about.  And how did it end?  Well, it didn’t actually end.  It sort of just petered out.  (And they left one hell of a mess behind them as they wandered off.)  It should also be noted that we learned from several sources that some East Coast high school students were required to attend in order to graduate.  Now wasn’t that nice?

   As NewsMax magazine has noted, "The incestuous relationship between politicians and public-sector unions who fund their campaigns is pushing the country toward fiscal ruin." And nowhere is that more apparent than with Obama’s good friend Andy Stern and his SEIU — a fast developing national union monopoly.  Andy has since moved on to bigger and better things now, we are told (watch out), but he and that union have done an enormous amount to finance and otherwise force the reelection of the likes of Harry Reid and to bludgeon the way forward in support of exposed, non-private voting on union takeovers (card check).  Is the American way, on the way — out?

   The documentary film, "We Will Not Be Silenced, 2008," has brought forward some excellent evidence of Obama and his "gang" using extensive strong-arm tactics to manipulate this last Democratic presidential caucus.  As film maker Gigi Gaston observed, "Obama people would stand at the door of a polling place and intimidate voters that were wearing Hillary buttons. Often times they would deliberately fail to locate their names in the registration books, or send them to incorrect precincts."  A Houston precinct worker added that, "The Obama camp’s philosophy is simple:  We have the numbers. We don’t have to follow the rules.  So they overwhelm the system with illegal signatures, create chaos and steal the election."  (Reported by The American Free Press.)  Interesting, yes?

   Abominable choices seem to ride an endless conveyor belt in Washington.  We see former postal authorities receiving large figure no-bid contracts with the U.S. Postal Service.  After his direct hand in the bursting of the mortgage bubble, we see Barney Frank getting yet another chance to whack the housing market.  We also see a man who shared the responsibility for blocking oversight of Fannie Mae, Thomas E. Donilon, chosen now as a national security advisor.  And the list goes on and on, rewarding bad behavior at every opportunity.  We can only imagine who will be next.

   We all remember how Obama used the teacher, Amanda VanNess, as an example of someone who would be helped by one of his federal measures, supposedly designed to save her job and the jobs of many other teachers and other public workers.  What most folks may not realize is that in short order she was, in fact, laid off.  It was another example of another failed federal measure.  One of the big problems was described in the Wall Street Journal with observations such as, "Teachers unions and the public school monopoly have long benefitted from wielding a moral trump card.  They claimed to care for children, and caring was defined solely by how much taxpayers spent on schools."  Charter schools have proven to be an exceptional alternative but are most often very difficult to come by.  As further stated by the WSJ, "The waiting list in Harlem to attend a charter is more than 11,000 and nationwide is an estimated 420,000.  The teachers unions continue to wield enough power to deny choices to these students."  In another article, by Deborah Kenny, the question was asked, "What happens to bright teachers stuck in schools that don’t have the right to hire by performance and build a culture of excellence?"  The answer is, most understandably — they quit.  (Miss Kenny is the founder and CEO of the Harlem Village Academies, a charter school system.)

   Now we’ve discovered that next year, your W-2 forms supplied by your employer will present you with figures that show an increase to reflect the "value" of any health insurance you’re provided.  And it doesn’t matter if you’re retired, because your gross income will still go up, by the amount indicated for any insurance your former employer paid for.  In other words, you’ll be required to pay taxes on a larger amount of money than you receive.  This has got to be some sort of mistake, right?  Oh, and let us not forget the expiring Bush tax relief.  Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will be phased out.  Taxes will be going up for those who are married and for those who have children.  The Death Tax is also slated to return.  Also expect higher taxes for savers and investors.  All of this, and so much more, from a President who promised us "No new taxes!" over and over again.  Remember?

   Now what is the Obama "gang" up to? Well the Target Corporation dared to make a donation to a Republican politician.  Of course it would be all right if it was a Democrat, but a Republican?  We can’t have anything like that, right?  As reported by The Wall Street Journal: "...within weeks the retailer found itself on the national left’s political hit list."  Attack ads erupted calling for a boycott of the chain.  And then there’s the Obama attack on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, claiming that the Chamber received donations from foreign contributors.  (Something that was denied and shown to be a totally false charge.)  However, foreign involvement on the Democratic side is not unheard of, as you may already be aware.  And then there is that now wholly owned Democratic party subsidiary, the NAACP, which made up a report that accuses tea party groups as bigots, anti-Semites, racists and anything else they could think of.  As someone who has been involved with the tea party movement from the beginning, this writer can assure you that none of my white, black and Jewish friends in the movement would ever be a part of anything like that — and the NAACP knows it and so does the Democratic party.  I guess we have now seen the segue from hope and change to fear and smear.

   I guess everybody knows about Juan Williams’ firing from NPR.  It is now hoped that many who have thought of NPR as an honest, open, public presentation, will give pause and re-examine what can only look like a very flawed operation.  Mr. Williams (a somewhat moderate liberal) had the nerve to suggest that, in the light of all that’s happened, he feels a little bit nervous getting on a plane with those dressed in Muslim attire, and he dared to be honest in this area during a discussion on the FOX Cable News Network.  NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said that Williams had veered from journalistic ethics and noted that, "Whatever feelings he has about Muslims should be between him and his psychiatrist or his publicist — take your pick."  (She later apologized for her remark, but not to Williams.)  And in a memo that she circulated to affiliates and others, she claimed that his comment violated NPR’s code of ethics, which she notes, mandates that journalists not participate in media that encourages, "...punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis."  Even a number of liberals who had been supportive of NPR for many years, joined with many others who point out the double standards and downright dishonest journalism that Schiller has allowed for years.  One example cited is how correspondent Nina Totenberg had no problem with her employment at NPR after making comments suggesting that Jesse Helms and his grandchildren be afflicted with AIDS.  Now there are calls to cancel any further public funding of NPR.  Let’s see how far that gets and what difference that ends up making with the way they skew their news and views.

   As Peter Berkowitz noted in The Wall Street Journal, "Our universities haven’t taught much political history for decades. No wonder so many progressives have disdain for the principles that animated the Federalist debates."  Mr. Berkowitz, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, showed how this and other factors are, "Why liberals don’t get the tea party movement."  Of course there are some on the left-wing who understand it all too well, and are determined to destroy the grass-roots effort in any way that they can.  One such group, the NAACP (highjacked by the far-left some time ago), has moved forward with an unsubstantiated smear campaign and, rather than apologizing for obviously untrue and inflammatory comments made about the America tea parties at a recent NAACP event, they have announced they will be monitoring the tea parties for "racist" activities. Growing numbers of Americans, black and white, are coming to realize that such NAACP activities have become a shameful insult to blacks everywhere.  Meanwhile, tea party folks, of every color, continue to move forward and, if they are able to help bring about significant electoral gain, they promise to apply meaningful pressure on the new Congress to do all that can be done to get our country back.  That seems to be the prevailing attitude.  It will be interesting to see what happens, won’t it?

   Through all these recent years, and continuing on as usual, most of the dying American media has at least remained consistent.  By way of example, Bill Maher, as a guesting public broadcasting icon on Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show stint, blurted out that Obama should just ram healthcare down America’s throat because people are "too stupid" to get it.  And there was the Huffington Post getting lots of exposure with Charles Bouley’s comment that Glenn Beck’s "Restoring America" rally was, "A great PR stunt, but that’s all it was." Other comments were not nearly so polite, unless of course they spoke of any left-leaning rallies or similar events.  Then it was more of an endless love affair.  And we see the polls promoted in the media where we often find that the answers really often depend on how the questions were asked and how many choices were offered.  And we see our entertainment television often dominated by extensive sex and intense violence, over and over again, endlessly.  The "Family Guy" show has featured such explicit, perverted content that we just cannot example it for you here.  Let me just say that some of it involves little boys, animals and just about everything else you could imagine.  "American Dad" is just as bad and even the children’s Nickelodeon channel has been willing to go crazy in that direction as well.  And there seems to be no end of this.  So no one should ever wonder why we have ended up with so much dysfunction in so many areas of our society.

   With all of our countless problems, have there been any solutions suggested?  Yes, quite a few. Among them, Congressman John Boehner’s plan to hold serious hearings to identify specifics and closely examine the possibility of market-friendly fixes.  This is clearly necessary for our economy and for our healthcare system as well, according to ever-increasing numbers of concerned citizens.  There is also a definite need for a redesign of a number of our "system" methodologies.  New ideas are being suggested for everything from advanced technical and chemical systems, to the redesigning of the way medical clinical trials are set up and conducted.  Changes are also suggested for real estate loan development.  As noted in the Wall Street Journal, "Despite the Dodd-Frank financial reform enacted in July, the mortgage market remains frozen and effectively nationalized." The solution suggested?  We simply have got to realize that we must privatize the mortgage market.  As further noted, "Europeans manage fine without Fannie and Freddie-type agencies."  Can we learn from all of this?  We can.  The question is, will we?

   As the time draws near, for the November mid-term election, we hear that the dead seem to be rising up and voting, giving new meaning to absentee ballots.  And illegal aliens, in Mexico’s newest metropolitan city, Los Angeles, have also voted by mail (with the help of others) and/or are getting ready to line up at the polls on November 2nd, according to instructions.  (This has been broadly reported but is very difficult to substantiate.)  And we find the Democratic machine working hard in other areas.  As reported in The Wall Street Journal, "Democrats and their allies are broadening their attacks on campaign spending by pro-Republican groups, hoping to force the disclosure of donors’ identities and curtail a lucrative source of financing for their rivals."  On another battlefield, Portland, Maine residents will vote in November on the unbelievable proposal that would provide legal residents who are not citizens the right to vote in their local elections (as reported by AP).  And no doubt you’ve heard about the hundreds of thousands of military ballots that probably won’t be counted.  (The military tends to be more conservative.) And Deroy Murdock, a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service wrote, "As former Voting Section prosecutor (at DOJ), J. Christian Adams testified under oath July 6 before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, he attended a November 2009 meeting in which Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes discussed the federal law that requires that local officials purge illegitimate names from their voter rolls.  Adams swore that Fernandes told Voting Section prosecutors:  ‘We have no interest in enforcing this provision of the law.  It has nothing to do with increasing turnout, and we are just not going to do it.’  " Murdock further reported that, "The U.S. Election Assistance Commission reports that Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Tennessee expunged precisely zero dead voters from their rolls between 2006 and 2008.  The same applies to numerous counties in Alabama, Rhode Island, and Virginia.  Either these places are experiencing an explosion in immortality, or they are violating federal law."  And he further noted that, "Several Iowa and North Carolina counties feature more registered voters than there are voting-age adults.  This condition plagues at least a dozen counties each in Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Texas.  Registered voters equal 104 percent of Baltimore County, Maryland’s voting-adult population; and, according to documents that Adams filed, 113 percent in Lincoln County, West Virginia."  If these examples, of the seemingly endless number that are available, are any sort of indication, it looks like we could have a very dishonest election, if one particular party has its way.  It has been suggested that a very large voter revolt will be necessary to compensate for the expected manipulations.  At this point, a return to law and order would be helpful.

   As if there aren’t enough front lines with raging battles to keep America safe, healthy, economically stable and politically free, another very important battlefield is involved with the drugging of America.  It is a war being raged over the legalization of pot and, often times, in close association with efforts to legalize all other dangerous drugs as well.  We see marijuana up for a vote in California (Proposition19) to legalize the drug for all adults, beyond the "medical marijuana" sham they have in place now.  And the push is on, all over the nation to establish a new concept of the old idea of  "high society."  The effort is being greatly assisted by most of America’s deficient media, that is so willing to limit disclosure of the serious medical consequences (now clearly established but blacked out in much of the media) and, in many instances, offer pot friendly promotional articles, thinly disguised and sometimes blatantly blunt in its supportive presentation.  We can only hope that a reasonable degree of understanding manages to penetrate the fog.

   Early this month the government reported that the unemployment rate is holding at 9.6% (17%+ actual unemployment when you count the exclusions and other accounting manipulations).  And The Wall Street Journal headlines don’t look any better either.  This month we find: "Dollar’s Fall Roils World," "Turkey and China To Shun The Dollar," "Document Mess Hits Fannie, Freddie," "Foreclosure Crisis Slams Into Banks," "Mortgage Damage Spreads," "Fannie, Freddie Elicit Grim Forecast," "Housing Gloom Deepens," and on and on it goes, and where it will stop, nobody knows.

   And what might be some of the more provocative activities in numerous educational institutions across the nation?  How about free condoms for grade school kids in Provincetown, MA?  And how about Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, giving a seminar at the University of Chicago in which he makes extensive anti-Semitic remarks punctuated with a general attack on white people?  And there is the Cambridge, Massachusetts public schools planning to observe Muslim holidays. (But don’t mention the Christian religion, right?)  And we have schools across our nation using the Howard Zinn book as a textbook.  And what did he write about?  As NewsMax magazine has reported, "Zinn’s twisted world view reduces our country to an evil, racist, imperialist, war-mongering empire."  And of course this is only one of many books in our educational systems that offer a sick and distorted, revolutionary view on how to think and act.  Isn’t that nice?

   Statistical records show that approx. 42,400 factories in America have been shut down since 2001.  And what else do we know?  We know that in 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold in the U.S.A. and not a single one of them was manufactured here.  We also know that approx. 1/3 of all U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost since the turn of the century. And now we find that the vast majority of American business is in the "service" industry.  Unfortunately, it’s raw materials, farming and manufacturing that creates wealth.  So, what remains?  Well, we’ve got GM, with the government owning 60.8%, and Communist China as the number one foreign holder of U.S. Treasury bonds.  And yet we go on with impossibly expensive entitlement programs that are massive and leave precious little for much needed infrastructure repair. All of this represents a formula for ultimate disaster.

   Obama seems to have problems even closer to home these days.  His good friend of long standing, the violently radical Bill Ayers has lost his bid to become a "Professor Emeritus" of the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Why?  It would seem because his book dedication to the killer of Robert Kennedy was too much, even for them.  And the mass exodus from Obama’s White House now includes everyone from Corey Ealons (Outreach African-American media), Lawrence Summers (Director of the National Economic Council), Jim Jones (National security Advisor), Mariano-Florentino Cuellar (Justice and regulatory policy advisor), Robert Kocher (Head of Health Policy at the NEC), Jeffrey Liebman (Deputy OMB director), Neera Tanden (Senior health reform advisor), Peter Orszag (Director of the Office of Management and Budget), and of course Rahm Emanuel (White House Chief of Staff). Expect the list to continue growing.

   Other news events this month include the very disquieting announcement that our current government lost the vital communication link with about 50 nuclear missiles for a short period of time.  Also, the U.S. Defense Department has announced that the "WikiLeaks" web site is planning on publishing massive new classified files stolen from our military computers.  And, as it always seems to be, our current White House and Justice Department once again does nothing about it.  And as if that isn’t enough, the latest Chinese Communist Party propaganda film, "The Great Achievement of Founding The Party," is sponsored by Cadillac (GM).  So much for the new Government Motors.  The insanities of our time seem absolutely endless.

   Here are 22 of the countless headlines from this month, as reported by TheBlaze.com.  (1) Rhode Island Democratic candidate for governor: "Obama can take his endorsement and shove it. ... He’s coming into Rhode Island and treating us like an ATM machine."  (2) Former ACORN official condemns spontaneous pledge of allegiance.  (3) NPR apologizes — but not to Williams.  (4) Turns out Obamacare really might undermine employer health coverage.  (5) Krauthammer confronts Totenberg over NPR hypocrisy.  (6) Maine city considers giving non-U.S. citizens voting rights.  (7) Beck hater disrupts National Anthem to protest.  (8) Communist Party USA leader throws support behind Democrats.  (9) Bailout spending continues despite administration claims.  (10) Crist confirms contact with White House in effort to get (black) Democrat to drop out of race.  (11) MoveOn activist chokes conservative at Arizona rally.  (12) Sign stealing and rock throwing mark Democrat tactics in Arizona race.  (13) John Kerry says America suffering from "know-nothingism."  (14) DNC Chief says Democrats shunning their party are "nuts."  (15) Democrats ask The Pentagon for information on GOP presidential hopefuls.  (16) Audience once again has to override The League of Women Voters to say the Pledge.  (17) Maher (PBS) says Americans are "Too stupid...They’re like a dog."  (18) CNN reports Florida Democratic candidate caught cheating. — Now caught lying.  (19) Disruptive Democrat arrested at Eric Canter campaign stop.  (20) MSNBC host ties founders to drugs: "Isn’t pot the way a lot of people pursue happiness?"  (21) Nevada voter claims Reid’s name was pre-checked on her ballot.  (22) Obama tells Latinos to "punish our enemies" on election day.  NOTE: Every one of these headlines is backed up by videos or other solid documentation on TheBlaze.com web site.

   Dirty tricks during this mid-term election period include such things as Obama’s people obtaining tax data on those they consider to be their foes (as reported in The Washington Times), and such things as Bill Clinton trying to cut out a Democrat they didn’t want running in the Florida Senate race (as reported in The Washington Post), and what about all those "election irregularities" that are starting to pop up?  Few think this sort of thing is going to do much for them, but it would seem they sure are trying.

   The fraudulent political activity just keeps growing and growing. In Cincinnati, Hughes High School students were caught being bussed to vote during school hours.  (One can only hope they were at least 18.)  Also they were given only Democratic sample ballots for Democrat candidates and then taken out for ice cream after they had voted.  How nice.  And the Associated Press reports that, "A federal appeals court struck down a key part of Arizona’s law requiring voters to prove they are citizens before registering to vote or casting ballots."  Well, I guess it’s also going to be like this in other areas with similar uncontrolled voting systems — a lot of illegals voting Democratic in our elections.  And, with early voting starting in Nevada, we are already hearing about more machine ballots with Harry Reid’s name already checked ahead of time.  I guess someone will need to check those machines.  And with SEIU holding the contract for servicing the voting machines, we couldn’t possibly have an incorrect conclusion for the election, right?  And next we hear about the Daytona Beach, Florida City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager being arrested on charges of committing absentee ballot fraud.  And then there is Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder allowing a deadline for overseas military personnel to receive their absentee ballots and cast their votes to expire.  So much for that primarily conservative voting block.  All of these things, and so much more, makes it very hard to imagine that the election isn’t rigged in every way they feel they can manage it.  Let’s hope it’s not enough.

   On the medical front:  We have seen the Social Security Administration report that shows over $89,000 in stimulus money was sent to prisoners and deceased persons.  Some are saying that it is understandable with the dearly departed since so many of them are said to have voted in this last presidential election (along with a considerable number of illegal aliens).  And now we are being told that some changes in one’s investment portfolio might very well raise one’s "Part B" premiums in Medicare.  And, as The Wall Street Journal has noted, "In the clearest evidence so far that ObamaCare is harmful in practice and an election-year liability, the Obama Administration has decided not to enforce some of the law’s ‘consumer protections,’ at least when the results are politically embarrassing."  On other aspects of the medical front we find that the 3M Company has indicated that it is planning to stop offering a health insurance plan for its retirees.  They identified the new healthcare overhaul as a key factor.  And the Principal Financial Group has announced that it is planning to halt the selling of health insurance altogether.  And the list goes on and on.  And remember back in August when Missouri voters chose to opt-out of ObamaCare?  Now it seems that folks in Arizona, Oklahoma and in Colorado are considering doing the same thing.  Oh, but when they pass this bill, we can read it and find out why we like it.  Isn’t that what they told us?  Did I miss something?

   Major socialist enclaves still dominate much of what we are inclined to call the East Coast and the West Coast.  The rest of the nation seems to have awakened to what they don’t want our nation to become.  We’ll see how that translates out with the coming November mid-term election.  Barney Frank’s male prostitution operation out of his home in previous times and his direct involvement in the bursting of the real estate bubble in current times, may finally have an impact on his re-election — that is, provided not too many Massachusetts voters are certifiably brain-dead.  The same conclusion can also be suggested for California, when considering everything from Jerry Brown’s overflowing bag of dishonest, dirty tricks, to his surprising admission that when he was Governor last time around, he used to "close the bars at night in Sacramento." And then there’s Harry Reid in Nevada.  He’s so confident that he doesn’t seem to really give a damn.  One wonders what he thinks he has locked in that we don’t know about.  Well, it won’t be long now.  Soon enough we’ll know how all of this comes out.

   Nov., 2010.  A series of cable news programs, Internet articles, essays, videos, investigative reports and similar communications have exposed what most certainly seems to be one of the most dangerous and nefarious individuals to inhabit this particular time in our human history.  Therefore, it was a serious shock to find he was given such a prestigious position as an op-ed contributor in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal, a publication not known for such a predisposition.  This writer often quotes the Journal because of its expressed and illustrated concern for truth and integrity. I can only imagine that it was some sort of effort to include "other" viewpoints.  Too bad they don’t seem to understand exactly who they gave such a prestigious pulpit to.  And just who is this infamous individual?  His name is George Soros. For those who may not realize who or what he is, we offer a little bit of history.  It seems that this individual was born in Europe quite a few years ago and, as a youngster, aided in the disposal of Jewish property, to the benefit of the Nazis — something we later heard him state he did not necessarily regret.  Further, "Mr. Soros has worked behind the scenes to destabilize and influence governments such as Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia, Georgia, Kosovo and the Ukraine.  In the process, he has plundered the countries’ natural resources."  (As quoted from The Washington Times.)  Now he is speculating against the dollar.  As further quoted, "Mr. Soros wants to repeat his legendary 1992 assault on Britain’s pound sterling, in which he nearly bankrupted London’s central bank and caused an economic crisis."  It is said he cleaned up to the tune of around a billion dollars on that particular currency manipulation.  And, as if that isn’t enough, it is also our understanding that he was convicted of insider trading in France in 2002.  We also hear that he has "financial interests tied to Latin American Drug cartels."  That’s yet another further quote — one that is not easy to understand.  In America, he is either a major contributor or the major contributor to the Democrat far-left, and as you might suspect, has been a major financial supporter of Barack Obama’s political ambitions.  The Washington Times has also noted that, "Mr. Soros is a hypocrite.  He claims to want higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulations.  But his (primary) investment fund is registered in the Netherlands Antilles, enabling him to dodge income and dividend taxes to Uncle Sam."  On his role of collapsing economies (as he seems to now be trying to do with America) he looks at it all with a kind of gigantic messianic ego.  This writer is personally aware of this from a video in which he clearly stated that, "I fancied myself as some kind of God."  And what was his Journal op-ed about, you may wonder?  He made a pitch for the legalization of marijuana, with of course no mention of the new and devastating medical findings concerning the great physical and mental health hazards associated with the drug.  This should not be so surprising since we understand his long-term goal is for the legalization of almost all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Now you know.  This actually seems to be who this man is. This, according to all the in-depth research we could muster. We certainly hope that his promotions, as featured in one of the few good publications we have left in America — we certainly hope it isn’t the beginning of the end for our nation’s vox populi.

   We have been learning exactly how secure our Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been making things.  One of the many problems is with the big container cargo vessels.  Source security, random inspections and intelligence are all far more porous and incomplete than you might imagine.  And air cargo is only subject to a limited, random screening that is very far from adequate.  And of course one must realize that the greater part of our border with Mexico is still wide open.  We cannot help but conclude that it is only a matter of time until we have a disastrous terrorist event.

   America for sale?  That seems to be the new mantra in Washington.  The world doesn’t have much helium, but our reserves of this strategic gas have been good, until now.  We kept it out of Hitler’s grasp.  We kept it restricted from the Communists during the Cold War.  However, as reported by the V.I.P. Women’s Group, "Congress ordered that all of the helium held in America’s reserves is to be sold off before 2015 — and at bargain prices."  Many scientists and economists are calling for a halt to this theft of our valuable resources, but to no avail so far.  In another situation, we have four leading Republicans from the House of Representatives most seriously urging Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to stop the sale of a Wyoming uranium mine to a division of the Russian nuclear agency.  (The same Russian agency that we are told had sold refined nuclear products to Iran.)  Have we lost our minds?  Evidently so.

   We are now hearing there will be a push to ban "earmarks" (additives that are not subject-related to legislation) in the new Congress as the Tea Party movement becomes a meaningful part of the new political equation.  It may be a tempest in the teapot for the progressive-left in America, but the grass-roots movement has become a new force in our land — a force clearly dominated by a large segment of the people of the nation.  The exception will be such areas as California where the new governor Jerry Brown (know as "Governor Moonbeam"), Senator Barbara Boxer and others of that ilk will preside over the bankrupt state.  To put it kindly one might say, the golden state has been deeply tarnished.  The end won’t be pretty either.

   Voter fraud reports have been pouring in.  The "right on target" investigative reporter Michelle Malkin reports (in The Washington Times): "Faced with multiple reports of early voting irregularities and election shenanigans across the country, left-wing groups are playing dumb, deaf and blind. Voter fraud?  What voter fraud?"  She further reports this aberration with: "The New York Times quoted a liberal voting rights advocate, Wendy R. Weiser, wringing her hands over individual Americans taking clean elections seriously."  Ms Malkin also show many other examples, including: "In Harris County, Texas, the voter registrar admitted that 20 percent of voter registration forms submitted by liberal activist ‘Houston Votes’ had problems.  Election whistle-blowers there are now being investigated by the Obama Justice Department and have been slapped with an ethics complaint by the Texas Democratic Party and a left-wing billionaire George Soros-funded group called ‘Texans for Public Justice.’ "  Even an NBC-Connecticut report by Bob Convors uncovers, "...a bag of uncounted ballots found in Bridgeport."  The report also shows the Connecticut Secretary of State declaration that the Democratic Governor’s candidate was, "...the ‘unofficial’ winner..." in spite of the opposition candidate leading by more than 8,000 votes at that time.  And "Those totals do not include any of the vote totals from the City of Bridgeport."  And then of course there are still those pesky problems with the Nevada voting machines (a problem for the early voters) which are being taken care of by the S.E.I.U. under contract.  No problem there, right?  And as usual, we could go on and on.  But then, by now you know the dance steps and whose tune is being played.

   Now there should be no doubt about the true nature of NPR, even for the liberal deniers of all facts not conforming to their myopic agenda.  As one national cartoon character noted (in front of an NPR microphone), "Here at NPR, we are so enlightened, tolerant, and open-minded, that we quickly fire anyone who utters anything potentially out-of-line with our open-mindedness."  And the fired former NPR analyst Juan Williams has now had his true moment in the sun, as his plight is now noted as "Williamsgate" and anyone who expresses any sort of discomfort when boarding an airliner with passengers exhibiting behavior and/or attire that identifies them as Muslim — well, such apprehension is now referred to as a "Jan Williams Moment."  Further reactions to the NPR liberal bastion includes an understandable comment from Pat Buchanan: "Proceed with NPR’s long-overdue execution." And Bill O’Reilly asks: "Why is NPR getting our money?"  Now let’s see if anything really happens over there.

   Think you’ve now heard the last of ObamaCare?  You should be so lucky. Government estimates had Medicare pegged at $12 billion by 1990.  That particular budget actually skyrocketed to $107 billion by that date.  As reported by WSJ, "To fix the cost problem, Medicare, in 1992, began using the ‘resource based relative value system’ (RBRVS), a way of evaluating doctors based on factors such as education, effort and specialized training.  But the system didn’t consider factors such as outcomes, quality of service, severity or demand." (Thanks, Richard Hamnon, for that interesting observation.)  Under this plan, primary-care doctors don’t do so well at all.  And now, under ObamaCare, many of these doctors are leaving their practices, have already left or have sold out or changed it drastically.  Lots of luck everybody.

   As it is now generally known, most of our TV broadcast and print media is so skewed to the left that much of what you see here never did get on the broadcast network news or in the vast majority of metropolitan newspapers.  It’s a sad commentary on our times and an understandable reason for the growing failure in so much of that errant media.  Examples of their irresponsible shortcomings are everywhere.  The New York times, which no longer even tries to hide or excuse their aberrations, was so willing to publish an image of the Virgin Mary covered with dung.  But of course they won’t show anything that might be controversial about the prophet Muhammad.  And the Washington Post was quick to publish a cartoon by Toles which makes very disrespectful fun of Catholic priests, but they refused to run a cartoon that happened to mention, but did not actually depict, Muhammad. And then we have that far-left rag "Vanity Fair" which has practically made an art form of Republican bashing.  Many detailed examinations (such as from the Media Research Center) have shown, with such networks as NBC, ABC and CBS, that, "...by a ratio of 35 to zero, the networks deemed tea party candidates as ‘extreme’ or ‘fringe.’  Let-wing Democrats received no such characterizations."  (As reported by The Washington Times.)  And this writer will never forget the opportunity to listen to an on-air recording of MSNBC commentator Lawrence O’Donnel, saying, "I am not a progressive.  I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive.  I’m a socialist."  Such rather frank revelations have been coming out a lot over the last two years.  The Obama presidential victory, and the accompanying capture of Congress (at that time), really emboldened them.  We can only hope this will backfire in a big way.  We can only hope.

   The mortgage mess in America continues unabated with the depression of the real estate market continuing and with millions of loan defaulters, living in foreclosed property for free, for now.  With all that the Congressional leadership has allowed with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government mortgage loan collapse, reform plans and procedures still won’t address the very dangerous major failure, for whatever reason.  And, as reported by Henry Tiger, the Treasury authorities could stop supporting their debt position, but they haven’t been willing to do so.  And with all of that, our government continues its efforts toward even greater control of the private sector, and even the IRS has merrily joined in with what is being referred to as "audits from hell."  We’re going to have a wonderful merry Christmas this year, aren’t we?  Oh that’s right, it’s frowned upon as being referred to as anything other than the "holiday season" in our new official circles.  Sorry about that.

   And here’s another update on ObamaCare.  Are you ready? As of January 1st, many are going to find the premium for "Part D" coverage will escalate.  And it has been estimated that, "...as many as one million Medicare recipients will have to choose new coverage."  (As reported in The Wall Street Journal.)  Many insurers now find that they must eliminate about 16% of the "Advantage" plans and 36% of "Part D."  In fact, it is now verified that $100 billion will be diverted from Medicare Advantage over the next 10 years.  We also have The Wall Street Journal reporting to us that, "Mr. Obama declared ... that ‘uninsured Americans who’ve been locked out of the insurance market because of a pre-existing condition will now be able to enroll in a new national insurance pool where they’ll finally be able to purchase quality, affordable health care — some for the first time in their lives.’ "  The Journal observation continued with, "So far, that statement accurately describes a single person in North Dakota.  Literally, one person has signed up out of 647,000 state residents.  Four people have enrolled in West Virginia.  Things are better in Minnesota, where Mr. Obama has rescued 15 out of 5.2 million, and also in Indiana — 63 people there.  HHS did best among the 24.7 million Texans.  Thanks to ObamaCare, 393 of them are now insured."  What happened to the 375,000 that were supposed to have been signed up by now?  Not to fear.  They have a solution.  They’re planning to make this new insurance option even cheaper — at taxpayers’ expense, of course.

   General Motors (now known as Government Motors) is in the news again.  The WSJ reports that, "According to documents filed with federal regulators, the (government) revamping left the car maker with another boost as it prepares to return to the stock market.  It won’t have to pay $45.4 billion in taxes on future profits."  This, from a company that has been bragging that they have repaid their government loan in full, while omitting that disquieting bit of information about the government still owning over half of the company.  (It has been suggested that Ford should file against them for unfair business practices.)  And as if all of that weren’t enough, a 104-year-old division of GM is to be sold to a mainland Chinese company.  And GM has announced it will be entering into a joint venture with another Chinese partner (SAIC Motor Corp.).  And, to top it off, that Chinese partner plans to buy a partial ownership of GM as well.  We understand that a growing number of Americans who would like to purchase an America car are now planning to make that a Ford product.  We need not wonder why.

   With the increased disintegration of our nation from within, it follows that corruption would be one of the four horsemen of our modern day apocalypse.  And it is everywhere.  The state of California is a good example.  It always is.  We have all heard about the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, California, right? The city government turned out to be a veritable orgy of corruption.  Other suburbs of "Smog" Angeles evidently didn’t want to be out done, as exampled by Temple City, Irwindale and Vernon.  We find that a number of other states are faring no better.  Alabama has had federal indictments of 11 people, so far.  This includes four state senators.  They are all being brought up on an alleged vote-buying scheme.  Other states could also be lined up in this infamous "show and tell," as you might imagine.  And you can add yet another example of corruption on the federal level, to add to the many we have already exampled in our continuing exposure.  As reported by Jim Meyers in Newsmax Magazine, "Astonishingly, congressmen and their aides are ‘legally’ permitted to trade stocks on deep-inside information.  Many are doing it and profiting handsomely.  If those on Wall Street did this, they’d go to jail."  And with all of the troubles in towns and states and in our nation’s capitol, how are we protecting the investigators and whistle-blowers who are bringing all of this out?  As reported by The Washington Times, "A federal government program aimed at protecting private-sector whistle-blowers does a poor job of investigating complaints of workers who are fired or blackballed after reporting violations and rarely win restoration, according to a government report (by the Labor Department)."  This is what disintegration is like from the inside.

   This writer has put together a composite of some of the more interesting ideas that we may expect could be put forward and/or we may want to have put forward when the new Congress convenes in January.  Some of these thoughts include revisions for the unemployment compensation process with considerations for less incentives not to work. This should also be coupled with the development of new and returning manufacturing operations in America, which would actually stimulate job availabilities, not to mention the addition of new wealth to the American fiscal equation.  It is also realized that this will most likely require import/export adjustments that will address the labor cost disparities in the foreign markets.  Also to be considered are the costs imposed by our government on employing workers, the tax burden, exorbitant health care expenses, excessive employee benefits, heavy-handed union mandates, unrealistic retirement programs, etc., etc.  Additionally, we might also want to seriously consider consumer tax cuts, government budget balancing, limiting the terms of all elected officials, severely limiting campaign funding, and putting politicians on an "incentive" pay scale.  (That would be most interesting.)  Might we also consider some form of a modified flat tax, in place of our current, cumbersome income tax structure?  And what about limiting the size of government pensions and making all elected politicians a part of the same health care system that we are forced to have?  And we most certainly will be considering an entirely new approach to our healthcare system — one that does not compromise our economy, our Constitution and our health.  And unions, special interests, power groups, big corporations, and foreign influences must be seriously curtailed in the many areas of their inappropriate influence.  And we could go on and on with this wish list, couldn’t we?  Consider this as just a beginning.  But a beginning is where you start.  What happens next is up to us all.

   It was always my understanding that the U.S. Department of Education was supposed to have been established for the primary purpose of improving the quality and result of the education of our children.  This was expected to be exampled by marked improvement in student test scores, drastically lowered drop-out rates and with similar indicators.  So why have senior high school student test scores been mostly flat since the 1970s?  And why are there so many drop-outs?  And why have we been endlessly pouring more and more funding into this system, with little or no results at all?  Interesting questions, yes?  Well, it seems as though there are a growing number of Tea Party candidates and many others who might be willing to completely abolish that failed Carter-era national educational agency and bring our schools back under the control of state and local authorities.  (In other words, back to the people.)  Many are also advocating new standards for the education of those who teach the kids, and an enlightened change in the school books and in the curricula.  As a point of observation, where have you ever heard of a grade school or a high school in America that offers a comprehensive, mandated education in "ethics?"  And what about the teaching of real American history — not the abbreviated, "politically correct" pablum that we have today?  Do any of these things matter?  Maybe they should matter.  Maybe they should matter a great deal.

   A check through professional sources has resulted in some startling information.  There are two very different scanners being used by TSA at the airports.  One is the usual X-ray scanning machine, which produces a cumulative ionizing radiation which can add up to a dangerous total of exposure over time.  And then there is the Millimeter Wave scanner which produces less radiation energy than a cell phone.  As reported by The Wall Street Journal, "The U.S. says it plans to have 500 of the scanners, which cost $100,000 apiece, installed in airports by the end of this year, with another 500 installed next year."  The TSA says the radiation level is inconsequential.  But that is only true with the Millimeter units, or something very similar to that.  We have attempted to find out which types are already in place and planned for installation.  So far, we’ve found no one who seems to know. (Or perhaps they have been told not to say?)

   Stephen Moore and Richard Vedder wrote, in the WSJ, about the, "...call for closing popular tax deductions, higher gas taxes and other revenue raisers to drive tax collections up to 21% of GNP from the historical norm of about 18.5%."  They also mentioned the plan by former Congressional Budget Office director Alice Rivlin.  It would impose a 6.5% national sales tax on all of us.  The thinking put forward is that this could haul in an added half-trillion dollars a year.  But Mr. Moore and Mr. Vedder would like to remind us that, "In the late 1980s, one of us, Richard Vedder, and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University co-authored an often-cited research paper for the Congressional Joint Economic Committee that found that ever new dollar of new taxes led to more than one dollar of new spending by congress."  And it was also noted that, "Subsequent revisions of the study over the next decade found similar results."  You have been warned.

   More and more of the most uncomfortable truth about Eric Holder and his Justice Department is beginning to come out, even in a little of the left-media (but not much there, of course). As noted in a stinging editorial in the WSJ, "Terrorist Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was acquitted ... on 284 of 285 counts associated with murdering 212 innocents, but the verdict on Attorney General Eric Holder was guilty as charged.  His strategy of force-feeding terrorists into the civilian court system has turned into a legal and security fiasco."  A few days later, a non-partisan 144-page report was issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that documents the ongoing DOJ cover-up in that Black Panther voter intimidation case with ties to Holder and with possible direct participation from the Obama White House.  It keeps piling up, doesn’t it?  But, as it would seem, the perpetrators just don’t give a damn.  It’s as simple as that.

   Now we hear from folks like Lori Montgomery, in The Washington Post that the government’s deficit panel is proposing curbs on our Social Security, cuts in a little of our spending, the removal of important, traditional tax breaks and many other surprises.  However, no matter how hard we try, we are unable to discover any really big, serious cutbacks in those massive areas of government spending, entitlements, etc.  However, the article does report, "...proposing to slay a herd of sacred cows, including the tax deduction for mortgage interest claimed by many homeowners, the tax-free treatment of employer-provided health insurance and the practice of letting retirees claim Social Security benefits starting at age 62."  We should also note The Washington Post headline that points out that, "Doctors Say Medicare Cuts Force Painful Decision About Elderly Patients."  Just one more decision of many that can be expected to be very painful to all of us, sooner or later.  Meanwhile, most government entities, on all levels and in most areas of our nation still continue to spend like there is no tomorrow.  Well, if they keep this up, there may be no tomorrow.

   As the year winds down, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) revs up.  Little old ladies from Nantucket, war weary soldiers returning from the Middle East, and young boys and girls are now all being subjected to security related "radiation therapy" (deep probe scans) or the other choice of an extremely personal "rub and feel" that would get the examiners arrested anywhere else.  Of course we hear that Muslim women wearing concealing "hijab" garments may be exempted.  We understand that this idea is probably the suggestion of Mohamed Elibiary, a new member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Mr. Elibiary has publicly honored the late Ayatolla Khomeini, has denounced the conviction of Hamas-connected members of the Holly Land Foundation for material support of terrorism.  He is also an open admirer of Sayyid Qutb, the godfather of modern jihadism.  (As reported by The Washington Times.)  And since we’re on the subject of exemptions, we might want to consider the Boston area flight school that was so happy to provide pilot lessons for 33 illegal immigrants from Brazil.  This, in spite of the counter-terror ban against enrolling illegals.  This was researched and reported by Michelle Malkin, who also noted that, "In 2005, aviation safety inspector Edward H. Blount of the Alabama Flight Standards District Office sent a letter to the TSA, warning of federal policies that were ‘fostering liiegal flight training by foreign individuals’ in the U.S. on improper visas.  Blout reported that he and another investigator were told by a TSA official that the agency was ‘not going to look at the visa status’ of pilot applicants."  In addition ABC News reported even a couple of years ago that foreigners were in flight schools in America in spite of security rules.  Yes, I know.  It does seem like the inmates are running the asylum.

   It is our understanding that possibly before the end of the year, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will preside over the beginning of a government take-over of the Internet.  It will seem to be a very small action at first, starting with an altered version of "Net Neutrality" — something the D.C. Circuit Court has already ruled that the FCC has no authority to do.  It is planned to eventually go well beyond that, little by little, until voices they are not in agreement with are stilled.  This sort of move is also planned for talk radio and any other area where a viewpoint is deemed as "politically incorrect."  Let us hope the new Congress will be able to stop this dangerous precedence. It is understood that if this sort of thing cannot be stopped, it just may be over for us all.

   Newsmax Magazine suggests that New Mexico may become the next Arizona.  "By trying to protect the environment, (national) legislators are making it more difficult for border agents to nab Mexican drug runners."  As it turns out, "A seemingly innocuous environmental effort to designate new conservation land could leave a gaping hole in America’s southern border and make New Mexico the new hotbed for Mexican drug cartels and smugglers of illegal aliens."  That’s what that Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks Wilderness Act in the Senate will do.  But will it help to preserve the wilderness? Of course not.  The endless migrations from Mexico will see to that.  The wilderness will only be trampled and burned and otherwise destroyed, for our brainless effort to protect nature. We will be staying out of the area and the desecraters will have full rein.  Full page ads have been launched to try and alert America to the overall problem of the illegals.  The heading and sub-head reads, "An Open Appeal To All Americans Who Believe In Representative Democracy — Say ‘No’ to Lame-Duck Amnesty/Citizenship Legislation."  It’s all about the so-called "Dream Act," — an absolute nightmare for all who would defend the integrity of our nation’s right to protect our border and our national form.  And then the Middle American News Reports that, "If illegal aliens don’t have to obey the law, why should anyone else?  That’s the question many are asking after the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the nation’s immigration agencies, began seeking to dismiss deportation proceedings against hundreds of illegal aliens.  The Houston Chronicle reported last month that federal attorneys in Houston started filing motions in immigration courts to dismiss cases against illegal aliens even though they and their attorneys had not asked for the motions."  And so, with all of this, and so much more, the successful invasion of America continues.

   As the month began, "The Federal Reserve, in a dramatic effort to rev up a ‘disappointingly slow’ economic recovery, said it will buy $600 billion of U.S. government bonds over the next eight months to drive down interest rates and encourage more borrowing and growth."  (As reported by Jon Hilsenrath in The Wall Street Journal.)  Not surprisingly, criticism has been pouring in from all over America and from all over the world — Germany, China, Russia and from just about everybody at the G-20 economic summit in Seoul, South Korea.  This was followed by national ads stating that, among other things, "The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation."  The ad was signed by a considerable number of fiscal luminaries, including: A former Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, a former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, a former Associate Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, a former Senior Economist on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, a former Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, and a Former Treasury and White House Counsel.  (All "former," from a time when such experts were not quite so mathematically challenged.) And how is the Fed decision going?  Interest rates have not fallen.  They have risen.  The Federal Reserve has found it necessary to downgrade their outlook for the U.S. economy. And China and Russia have decided to renounce the U.S. dollar and use their own currencies for bilateral trade.  (As reported by China Daily.)  Now you know what’s really happening.

   There is so much going on that it’s really hard to keep up with more than a fraction of the totality.  By way of one of the many examples, do you recall the volcanic eruption in the Indonesian area this last July?  Scientists report that the event added more than 42 times the chemicals and particulate matter than could ever be compensated for by the most extreme human environmental regulations.  And that doesn’t even count the massive clouds of industrial emissions coming from China.  And, speaking of inconvenient truths, Al Gore has finally begun to realize that, "It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol."  (From a recent talk by Gore in Greece.)  We can only imagine he just hasn’t found such a move to be particularly profitable for him. I imagine it’s a little less likely that he actually began to understand at least some small part of troposphere planetary science and even a bit less of the history of solar radiation.  In any case, whatever he may have learned, one can only hope he will continue the effort.

   As we all know, Australian Julian Assange released his third batch of classified U.S. documents near the end of this month. And, of course, our current U.S. government not only did nothing to try and stop him, the New York Times (in the U.S.), the Guardian (in England), Der Spiegel (in Germany), Le Monde (in France), and El Pais (in Spain), all received many of the documents well in advance of the general release and gave the story early coverage.  Not only was there enough time even for our bumbling, ineffective administration to act decisively on the matter, this current American government had months to act since the very first release was made.  And why was nothing done?  Could the quarter of a million diplomatic messages and other documents be considered as unimportant?  Could the lives endangered be considered insignificant?  Why has Julian Assange not been charged with espionage?  Many are saying such is the normal pattern of incompetence, as seen throughout this current administration. It also should be noted that the Army intelligence private (Bradley Manning), who stole the documents originally, seems to have quite a record of support from and/or other connections with far-left groups, some of which are heavily funded by George Soros.  You didn’t know about that?  If Manning leaned to the "right" you would have heard a deafening outcry from our Democrat politicians and from their puppet -media cohorts.  Of this you can be sure.

   The WSJ headlines for the month remain grim.  They have included: "Personal Bankruptcy Filings On pace for Five-Year High," "Freddie Mac Still Cautious, Posts $2.5 Billion loss," "Three More Banks Closed; Total Shut at 146 for 2010," "Dow Drops 178.47 in a Global Selloff," "States Raise Payroll Taxes to Repay Loans," "DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) Declines 39.51, Averts a Deeper Loss," and in Europe, "EU Bailout Plans Fail to Provide Calm."  It’s a difficult time for everyone and it only gets worse, but the extreme ideologues in charge in America will make no compromises they can avoid.