On Toward Winter

   Sept., 2011. This month the headlines concerning the economy are horrendous, as usual.  A Reuters headline reads, "Consumer morale stagnates," and the Wall Street Journal headlines (in the order of occurrence) have been as follows: "Factories Pull Back As Worries Pile Up;  White House Downshifts on Jobs, Growth;  Job Growth Grinds to a Halt;

   Do we see a pattern here?  One would certainly think so.  Can this situation be reversed?  The primary thoughts on this are that it will be difficult to impossible to be able to expect substantial positive changes under the current national administration.

   That’s another headline for you — one you haven’t seen.

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   Well, Obama has made another speech.  This time he calls it his "Jobs Plan."  To most of us it was yet another warmed-up version of most of his other speeches over the last few years.

   He once again said a lot of things he thinks we want to hear, regardless of the fact that the actions of his administration are dedicated to an entirely different direction.

   Also, as the Patriot Action Network has observed, "Obama used his bully pulpit to say, in essence, if those Republicans do not pass his jobs bill immediately, without review, they should be politically lynched."

   Also observed, "In his typical, manipulative, deceptive fashion, Obama said several right things, such as government getting out of the way of small business, while his administration does the complete opposite." No surprises there.

   We’re also seeing Obama presenting a more than $300 billion dollar package (as noted by Bloomberg). He’s calling for tax cuts with plenty of new spending. As Senator Rob Portman (a member of the deficit-reduction committee) commented, "He has just added to the debt tonight with additional ideas."

   The total cost, as noted in The Wall Street Journal, comes to at least $447 billion.  And, as noted by Thomas J. Donahue therein, "Instead of temporary tax breaks and more spending, we need permanent tax incentives, development of our energy resources, and entitlement reform."  Lots of luck on that one.

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   More is unveiled and, as reported in the WSJ, "The prospects for President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan grew dimmer as he unveiled the fine print of how it would be paid for — primarily through tax increases that Republicans said would destroy jobs, not create them."

   In a later edition of the paper, it was also revealed that, "Obama’s proposal to limit charitable tax deductions punishes those who receive, not just those who give."

   And more and more we are finding that Obama’s "tax the rich" policy will stifle the jobs growth.  It doesn’t seem to be a matter of just closing loop-holes in the tax code, it’s more a matter of adding significant tax burdens upon those who already carry an enormously heavy tax load.

   Another thing that should be considered, even if every last cent that the wealthy makes should be confiscated, it would hardly make a dent in our enormous debt.  It would, however, destroy the jobs creation engine.  But of course they don’t want you to consider that.

   Additionally, we are finding that a number of Democrats are beginning to balk at the heavy-handed Obama tax plan.  As reported by Fox News, a Democratic Senatorial aide was quoted as saying, "This is the time for new ideas, not re-fighting old battles for short-term political gain."  He was somewhat disparagingly referring to Obama’s new tax proposals.

   Similar quotes are trickling in, as you might imagine. It is not a happy time for anyone in America.

   The unsubstantiated federal raids that have closed down the great American "Gibson Guitar" company has created repercussions of fear throughout the American business community.  And it is only one of quite a number of such federal moves against the business establishment.

   We have not only learned that no actual charges have ever been filed against Gibson Guitar, all claims made have, so far, been proven to be utterly false.

   And, in addition to all of that, Chris Daniel (KMJ Radio) has released a startling transcript of his conversation with Gibson’s owner, Henry Juszkiewicz, a part of which is as follows:

   "Chris: Mr. Juszkiewicz, did an agent of the US government suggest to you that your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of American labor?  Henry: They actually wrote that in a pleading.  Chris: Excuse me?  Henry: They actually wrote that in a pleading.  Chris: That your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of ours?  Henry: Yes. Yeah. They said that explicitly."

   And of course we wouldn’t want to also suggest that the Gibson’s owner’s notably conservative political donations would ever have had anything to do with the initial actions against the company.  Of course not.

   Ask yourself this, what does this sort of thing suggest that our nation has become?  And, while you’re at it, you might also ask yourself if you plan to remain sitting right where you are right now and not actually try in any way at all to get America back.

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   The gradual destruction of American business continues, as also reported by the Patriot Action Network.  "In the Weekly Republican address, Rep. Peter Roskam provides examples of job creators facing ‘government barriers to job creation’ including ‘our unsustainable debt, the constant threat of higher taxes, and excessive regulations.’ "

   And rising costs of federal and state unemployment insurance taxes are giving our struggling businesses a disastrous one-two punch that seems to be destroying any real chance for a recovery.

   And of course the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is applying such a crushing, heavy hand that we even see memos surfacing from other government regulators that express genuine concern about the eventual outcome of it all.

   And, to add to that, Jon Christian Ryter reveals that, "On June 9, 2011 Barack Obama issues Executive Order 13575 creating the White House Rural Council that will exercise broad unconstitutional municipal powers over the food, fiber and energy production in rural America." As he further reveals, it "...calls for the federal government to assume control over just about every aspect of rural America."

   As Senator John Barrasso reports in The Washington Times, "Regulatory overreach is smothering the economy. ... Since the start of the year, the administration has proposed more than 340 regulations at a cost of more than $65 billion to job creators."

   And let us not forget the Labor Department.  They are doing more than trying to send our aircraft manufacturing into a tailspin.  As reported by Trottman and Whelan in The Wall Street Journal, "The Labor Department is investigating pay practices at many of the top companies in home building, hitting them with a broad demand for records that has led to complaints of regulator overreach."  You can count on it being all that and much, much more.

   And this endless harassment also now includes the wonderful outdoor "Bass Pro Shops."  The government is suing the company because they claim that non-white employees weren’t hired as clerks and as managers in their stores.  Of course the company assures everyone that no intentional bias is ever condoned or practiced.

   And, as if all of that is not enough, the regulations from that Dodd-Frank bill are expected to kill many thousands of additional jobs.  Frankly it just keeps going on and on like that.  And there is no end in sight.

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   Further examples of Wall Street Journal headlines for this month include: "August’s Retail Sales Reflect Stalling Recovery;  Commercial Real Estate Is Starting to Wobble; Housing Slump Hits New Mortgage Loans; Freddie Faulted on Reviews;  Student Loan Defaults Are Growing, and the Worst is Still to Come."

   And, added to that we find the Washington Times headline, "Supercommittee members awash in lobbyist money."  And Bloomberg reports that, "The U.S. poverty rate rose to the highest level in almost two decades and household income fell in 2010, underscoring the lingering impact of the worst economic slump in seven decades."

   Now there is most certainly no doubt as to what has been happening, and there shouldn’t any longer be any doubt as to why these things are happening.

   What is in doubt is what you are going to do about it.

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   It isn’t enough to just look at the tragedies of the failed stimulus, or the destructive business controls, or any of the other ruinations.  We must act to reverse these terrible events.

   Some (although all too few) are doing just that. Some are trying to rescue the students of America — to bring back our science, our history and our future. And some are beginning to realize we must develop sophisticated retraining programs that can help to put people back to work in the ever-changing employment environment.  And that not only means high-tech training, it also means blue-collar training as well.

   The public is also needed to get behind the various Congressional investigations into some of the more blatant abuses and breakdowns.  And there is so much more that must be done.  It is all a very daunting task, but public pressure on elected and appointed officials can sometimes have a positive effect.

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   We have been made aware of the fact that North Korea has spent a lot of time and money developing a very good counterfeit American $100 bill.  It’s so good that it passes for the real thing almost everywhere.

   But it doesn’t seem to matter so much because, thanks to Obama, the genuine $100 bill is worth almost the same amount.  So, how is that, you say?  For all the reasons you have learned in these chronicles and so much more, too numerous in examples to be made easily available in anything less than in a massive encyclopedia.

   And all they can say is we must take more money away from the job creators.  Further taxing the wealthy, not doing so by closing unfair tax loopholes — just taxing them all more and more — that is their answer.  And certainly we cannot really begin to start solving the problem by seriously reducing the massively bloated size of government, which would seriously start to reduce the huge amount of taxpayer funds being poured into the public trough.

   But they can’t really do that, now can they?  They choose to keep on keeping on the way they always have, making small compromises only, when they feel they have to.  And so, on it goes, with just the interest alone on our current national debt calculated as approximately 1.2 billion dollars every single day.  An unbelievably irresponsible situation to be sure.

   And even a few of them have actually finally admitted responsibility.  As The Daily Caller revealed, "Vice President Joe Biden told Florida radio station WLRM that voters should hold President Barack Obama, not former President George W. Bush, accountable for the poor state of American’s economy."

   Well, I guess someone is going to be taken to the woodshed for that revelation.  And, in the meantime, we are reminded of that classic popular definition of "insanity."  It’s described as being when you do the same thing over and over and over again, and still somehow expect different results.

   And then of course there is also an interesting definition for the "brain dead" personality.  It is those who refuse to see what is actually happening and who is doing it, no matter what it ends up doing to them in the long run.

   The question is, how many do we have in our nation today who are afflicted with that growing insanity and how many are becoming the walking brain dead? Who among you might that be?  And, might they ever be reasoned with?

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   The report card for Obama and his administration is incomplete, but so far it scores with the lowest marks possible.  This according to a growing number of concerned citizens everywhere.  Yes, that’s the conclusion from reports and comments coming from every quarter.

   And, the final report, from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, concludes that the major Gulf of Mexico blowout and spill was not only the fault of the BP oil company, it was also, without doubt, the fault of the government regulators and inspectors.

   And of course Obama had promised that his regulators and inspectors would do their job better and more comprehensively than under any other administration.  So much for that.

   We also find the White House doing what it can to eradicate the Sept. 11 "Patriot Day" remembrance and replacing it with what is described as a more politically left-of-center "National Day of Service."  It is seen as a part of their general re-writing of history.

   On Obama’s Muslim front, we discover such gems as from the Fox News report that quotes the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ message to our president, saying "You promised me a state by September, 2011.  I hope you will deliver."

   However, an unnamed Palestine Authority official was quoted by a number of sources as saying, "We were told to wait for Obama’s reelection ... but after the reelection, the U.S. said the schedule will short to reach a Palestinian state."  Evidently Obama plans to legitimize the Arab "state" that is sworn and dedicated to the destruction of Israel and all Jews everywhere. Evidently.

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   As Obama continues to talk we are reminded of his endless promises, such as for transparency in government.  Michelle Malkin tells us (in The Washington Times) that such nominations as Ron Sims "...to the No. 2 post at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ... " is not exactly an example of an individual prone to transparency.

   As Michelle reports, "Mr. Sims key accomplishments in the Pacific Northwest have involved illegally keeping taxpayers in the dark."  He was a Seattle-area county executive of very questionable reputation with regard to such matters as openness and who knows what else.

   What can only be described as blatant dishonesty from Obama on so many issues, is quite clearly described by Stephen Moore in The Wall Street Journal. "While running for President, Mr. Obama promised ‘pay as you go budgeting,’ and in February 2009, during his ‘fiscal responsibility summit’ he sounded like Ronald Reagan when he said that ‘this is the rule that families across this country follow every single day, and there’s no reason why their government shouldn’t do the same.’  But the Obama government isn’t doing the same.  It is doing the opposite."

   Mr. Moore also noted that, "In 2008 he pledged he would ‘go through our federal budget — page by page, line by line — eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that we do operate in a sensible, cost-effective way.’  That hasn’t happened."

   He showed us further that, "Mr. Obama says he wants to make America less dependent on foreign oil, but he called again for raising taxes on domestic oil and gas production.

   And on and on goes the Obama lying machine.  And little by little, America does seem to be wising-up to this snake oil salesman.

   As exampled by a statement by a leading Democrat from Oregon who was quoted in The New York Times saying, "In my district, the enthusiasm for him has mostly evaporated.  There is tremendous discontent with his direction."  Well, I should think so.

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   Have you been following Obama’s trail of destruction?  Do you remember when the far-left extremist Rosa Brooks was appointed to an important position in the Defense Department?

   Do you remember The Wall Street Journal reporting that Steve Rattner, Obama’s "Car Czar," was found to be under three criminal indictments for serious wrongdoing?

 Do you recall when it was estimated that approximately 30% of American business is now under the financial control of the government?  It involves everything from bail-outs, loans, special grants, all-controlling government contracts, mortgage relief programs, special guarantees, new controls, new regulations, etc., etc.

   The list of all of this is very long — it’s almost endless.  But then, you know that, don’t you?  But perhaps you may not be aware of what the famous historian Will Durant said: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

   Read it and weep.

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   More bad news this month, as a result of Obamacare.  As the Journal reports on-line: "The health insurance premiums paid by employers rose sharply this year, with the average annual cost of family coverage passing the $15,000 mark for the first time, according to a major survey.

   Also, as reported in The Washington Times by Donald Lambro, "Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, testified before the House Budget Committee in February that Obamacare will result in 800,000 fewer jobs at a time when well paying jobs are in short supply."

   Some solutions being applied to all of this mess, seem to be that more and more public employees are opting out for almost any available alternate plan. Private families and the self-employed everywhere wish they could do the same as they find rates rising and health plans being discontinued.

   Is that why Nancy Pelosi said to pass it and then find out what’s in it?  Evidently so.

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   Along with just about everything else, our national security is reaching ever higher degrees of dangerous insecurity.  As reported "Inside the Ring" (Washington Times): "Pentagon technology security officials met with General Electric officials on Sept. 1 to discuss security concerns related to the transfer of jet avionics technology to China.

   And, from Joseph Farah’s G2 bulletin (WND):  "As the nation observes the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, experts are warning that the U.S. is effectively defenseless against an electro-magnetic pulse attack or a far less expensive radio frequency attack on the nation’s critical military and civilian electric and electronic infrastructure."

   This is far more serious than you ever might imagine.  A truly effective EM pulse attack on America could be expected to knock out all communications, transportation, all electricity, computer systems, just about everything that functions in our entire civilization.  Yes, it’s that serious.

   And, as all the many threats and other concerns mount, CNN informs us that, "Iran plans to send ships near the Atlantic coast of the United States."

   And what are we doing about all of this?  We are not doing a very good job of facing the fact that our U.S. military inventory is getting old.  And the maintenance and replacement costs can be expected to be many billions of dollars.  But don’t worry, we most likely won’t be spending very much in that area.  Thanks to the current administration’s accelerated spending spree in so many wasted areas, we just don’t have that kind of money available any more.

   But of course something has to be under way with regard to our defense, right?  As reported in The Washington Times: "The Obama administration has been secretly working on a review of U.S. nuclear weapons in what officials say is part of the White House effort to make deeper cuts on strategic nuclear forces."

   Try to sleep well tonight.

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   In his latest campaign joint-session, Obama said, "The only thing preventing us from passing these bills is the refusal by some in Congress to put country ahead of party."

   What most of the lame-media didn’t bother to tell you is what the Patriotic Action Network revealed: "House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent President Obama a letter reminding him that the House has passed a dozen bills that would spur job creation and the economy. However, the Democrats in the Senate have refused to even consider all but one of the House measures."

   It’s nice to know that Pinocchio is alive and well.  It’s just that we would really rather not have that long-nosed fibber as the President of our nation.

   And let us not ignore other comments such as reported by the News Observer in a quote by North Carolina Democrat Governor Bev Perdue who said: "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.  I really hope that someone can agree with me on that."

   Naturally the public response to that was not what one would describe as friendly.  So, as you might expect, the Governor did some damage control by saying it was all just a little joke.  Well, it was obviously not a joke and no one was observed chuckling when she said it either.

   Even without all of that, it’s going to be an interesting election year, what with such enormous scandals surfacing.  We have what seems like unending voter frauds, unfounded federal destruction of businesses, the Fast and Furious Mexican weapons deal, the Solyndra solar fiasco, the Light Squared mess, the uncontrolled union violence, and an endless number of other shameful situations that just go on and on, forever.

   We also would like to call everyone’s attention to the embarrassing fact that even after two years of congressional control, followed by three years of additional presidential control, the Democrats find that we now have Latinos as the largest group of poor children in America — for the first time.

   And, as reported by Walter Williams, "Overall U.S. unemployment is 9.1 percent.  For white adults, it’s 8 percent, and for white teens, 23 percent.  Black adult unemployment stands at 17 percent, and for black teens, it’s 40 percent, more than 50 percent in some cities."

   The main media is more than a little reluctant to highlight these very embarrassing statistics, so the Democrats are hoping their minority supporters won’t notice.  They haven’t for many years, so there’s good reason to suspect they won’t know and they won’t react.  The Democrats believe they’ve really got them under their thumb.  Only time will tell how true this may prove to be.

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   This month, on Labor Day, Obama shared a stage with Teamster Union president Hoffa, when the union boss called upon his "army" of militants to "take these sons of bitches out."  Sorry for the raw language, but that is exactly what he said and you know how many within those unions react to such rhetoric.

   As the Associated Press reported, right around that same time period: "Hundreds of union longshoremen held security guards hostage for hours at a port in Longview, Washington."

   And there are so many other examples of physical attacks, the breaking of windows, destroying or damaging vehicles and often times outright looting. And much of the time, few to no arrests are ever made.  Gee, I wonder why.

   But there is a silver lining that shows up every once in a while — a silver lining in that dark cloud of despair in our difficult times.  As reported in The Washington Post: "With the outcome of his own reelection effort 14 difficult months away, President Obama suffered a sharp rebuke when voters in New York elected a conservative Republican to represent a Democratic district that has not been in GOP hands since the 1920s."

   The report by Paul Kane further noted that, "The defeat came as Republicans trounced Democrats in another special House election in Northern Nevada where Republican Mark Amodei led Democrat Kate Marshall, 56 percent to 39 percent almost from the start."

   Let us hope that this trend is a harbinger of the future — and of a reparative future for a renewed America.  Let us hope.

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   Corruption is everywhere — it really is.  There are those little towns like Quartzsite, Arizona, where now there are charges of a rigged election, to the many even more serious national corruptions.  Actually, as far as this writer is concerned, they are all important.

   We’ll give you just one example:

   It’s about the questionable ethics of SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro.  As detailed so very well in The Wall Street Journal, we shall start with a "...remarkable report from SEC Inspector General David Kotz disclosing how the SEC’s former top lawyer, David Becker, directly handled matters relating to the Madoff fraud case despite his mother’s $2 million investment with the firm, to which he and his brothers were heirs."

   As further explained, "The conflict here would seem to be obvious, and Mr. Becker did at least disclose it — to Mrs. Schapiro, shortly after arriving at the SEC in February 2009.  ‘I did precisely what I was supposed to do,’ he told Congress.  ‘I identified a matter that required legal advice from the SEC’s Ethics Office.  I sought that advice, received it and followed it."

   However, as further divulged, "...that still leaves the role played by Ms. Schapiro, who never told her fellow commissioners about the conflict, going so far as to let them vote on how to divide up the Madoff assets, a change from which Mr. Becker stood to benefit.

   "Only in February, after Mr. Becker was named in a clawback lawsuit by Madoff trustee Irving Picard, did the commissioners learn of the conflicts by reading the press."  Are you surprised?  You shouldn’t be.

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   And the corruption payoffs go on.  Another interesting example would be as reported by Fox News: "Undocumented workers collected $4.2 billion in a certain tax credit last year, up from less than $1 billion five years ago, according to a new audit.

   Think of it this way:  You can break the law by breaking into this country and then you could be handsomely rewarded for your trouble.  And all of that at the taxpayer’s expense.  Isn’t that wonderful?

   Just another fun example of how things are in the new American amusement park.

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   Another questionable activity unearthed by The Wall Street Journal: "...the president urged Congress to pony up roughly $200 billion in taxpayer money to ‘provide more jobs for teachers and more jobs for construction workers’ and more money to carry out other state and local activities.

   Now here’s the kicker, as further disclosed, "These vast contributions to the coffers of state and local governments, though pitched as a jobs bill, are in reality the latest in a series of bailouts for the debt-ridden state and local governments.

   "They are of special benefit to states in ‘blue’ [Democratic] regions of the country where the president’s most fervent supporters reside."  That’s a very creative way to buy votes, now isn’t it?  Most ingenious.

   This whole business was researched and reported by Paul E. Peterson and Daniel Nadler.  Mr. Peterson is the director of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance.  Mr. Nadler is a research fellow within that program.

   I do believe these gentlemen know what they’re talking about.

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   There are always those who might prefer to say that I am only presenting a few examples which they might like to convince you are exceptional and not a part of an extensive pattern.  So for them, I hereby offer you a little larger collection, which, if added to all the many other examples you may have read in this continuing chronology, will give you a more substantial number (though still only a fraction of what is out there).

   As offered by The Patriot Action Network:  "A United States Air Force general is blowing the whistle on another White House scandal, but few in the news media seem to be listening.

   As further revealed, "Republican lawmakers say that after Falcon’s visit (to the White House), the Obama White House allegedly tried to push through a LightSquared proposed wireless network regardless of the objections emanating from military commanders who believed the project could disrupt key U.S. satellite systems."

   In another example:  "We are trying to keep up with all the voter fraud allegations happening in several states.  Two high-powered Democrats in Florida were just arrested for election fraud.  The press release seems to forget to mention their party affiliation, but they are Democrats."

   And, "In Navada, a contract between SEIU Local 1107 and Clark County — where voting ‘glitches’ were reported — makes SEIU the sole union representative for voting machine technicians."

   And, "In North Carolina, Sam Laughinghouse of New Bern said he pushed the button to vote Republican in all races, but the voting machine displayed a ballot with all Democrats checked."

   And, "What is happening with the major voter fraud case in Houston?  Nothing.  A big Obama activist is connected to this scandal."

   And, "Is Winston-Salem State University going to remain as an early-voting site after they were caught sending emails promoting Democratic candidates in the general election?"

   And, "Let’s not forget Michelle Obama talking to voters, inside a polling station, about voting for her husband.  Her excuse was to say she didn’t know the law (even though she is a lawyer)."

   And, "The Yuma Sun, praising tow organizations, ‘Mi Familia Vota’ and ‘One Vote Arizona’ for going door to door and submitting more than 3,000 voter registrations in Yuma County right before the deadline for registering voters.  The groups submitted over 20,000 registrations statewide.

   It should also be noted that almost all of the registrations turned in were listed as Democrats.  It should also be noted that the "Mi Familia Vota" group is very closely tied to SEIU.

   And on and on one could go with an almost endless procession of corruption.  Unfortunately, it would take an army of volunteers to list them all and a library of books to contain them all.

   This is what we are facing all over the nation.

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   The Justice Department’s problems seem unending. Add to that, Jim McElhatton’s report in The Washington Times that, "Michael E. Horowitz, President Obama’s nominee as the Justice Department’s top watchdog, has earned more than $4 million since last year as an attorney representing the likes of Pfizer Inc., Dow Chemical Co., and Cablevision Systems Corp.

   "But he is keeping the identities of nearly a dozen other clients secret on newly filed ethics forms."  We understand that the Democrat lawmakers are not planning to let a little thing like that get in their way.

   Also, in this same national weekly, the top investigative reporter, Michelle Malkin, informs the readers that, "...the Justice Department announced it was shuffling Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives out of his job.

   "Melson told Congressional investigators that he said ATF’s senior leadership ‘moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the deputy assistant director for field operations down to the group supervisor’ after ATF whistleblowers went to the press and Capitol.

   "But according to Melson, he and company were ordered by Justice Department higher-ups to remain silent about the reasons for the reassignments."  Well now, that certainly makes things perfectly clear, doesn’t it?

   As Congressman Issa said, " ‘Fast And Furious’ is felony stupid at all levels."  And as we are hearing elsewhere, Eric Holder and the president need to be fully investigated for their responsibility in this and so many of the other growing nightmares.

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   On the legal front this month there is both good news and bad news.  The bad news first, as reported in the WSJ:  "Where there’s money, there are trial lawyers, and their latest hope for a jackpot is a lawsuit against an industry in political disfavor with the Obama Administration: for-profit colleges."

   And, as reported in The Washington Times:  "U.S. taxpayers risk losing more than a half-million dollars from the collapse of solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc., but former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld and his associates stand to earn a windfall in fees representing the bankrupt company in coming months."

   And let us not forget the disgusting fact that the Obama friends and others who invested in Solyndra, have been put ahead of we, the hapless taxpayers, for payouts from the bankruptcy, by the White House. Wasn’t that nice of them to do that?

   And as a Center for Security Policy report reveals: "The Center for Security Policy’s report, ‘Shariah Law and American State Courts. ...’ evaluates 50 Appellate Court cases from 23 states that involve conflicts between Shariah (Islamic law) and American state law.

   Unfortunately, this is exactly what has been found to be happening in a growing number of incidents.  But then, with just about everything else breaking down, why not the rest of our principles as well?

   And what is that good news we promised?  Well, there’s not very much, but at least,  "A federal appeals court ruled that the 17-year prison sentence imposed on convicted terrorist plotter Jose Padilla was too lenient and threw it out."  This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.

   And, the Associated Press relates to us, "A former judge who orchestrated a massive kickback scheme involving for-profit youth detention centers was sentenced to 17 ½ years in federal prison, closing one chapter in a scandal that prosecutors said shook Pennsylvania’s judicial system ‘to its very foundation.’ "

   Well at least once in a while we get something right — not too often, but once in a while.

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   The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation communicates the following information: "The National Labor Relations Board just destroyed thousands of ballots.  I wish this was unexpected, but with the out-of-control Obama Labor Board, it’s exactly as we’ve feared and predicted.

   As noted in more detail, "...three former union lawyers on the National Labor Relations Board voted to overturn the Board’s pivotal 2007 ruling on the Dana Corp.

   And, to add further national disruption,  The Blaze gives the following blow-by-blow flow of quotations that one can only describe as disquieting to the extreme.  The quotations are as follows:

   "We are heros who need to create a crisis, SEIU’s Stephen Lerner at the Progressive Summit tells unions, community organizers and students.  They need to escalate their protests, break laws, occupy abandoned houses and spread the crisis all over the U.S.

   And the wild, inflammatory rhetoric grows as metropolitan families begin to hide their families and bolt their doors.  Is this the beginning of the end?  It damn well better not be.

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   On the Arabic front, we now hear that documents have surfaced that indicate the CIA has actually been working with the brutal Libyan government.  Seems like the right had doesn’t know what the left hand is doing with regard to government positions or operations.

   And, the WSJ reports:  "The United Nations nuclear agency says it is ‘increasingly concerned’ that Iran has conducted experimental work to develop nuclear weapons, in particular on warheads to deliver nuclear payloads."

   And, "Six independent film makers were detained in Iran, the British Broadcasting Corp. said, denying an Iranian media report that the group was made up of broadcaster’s staffers."

   And, "A bomb exploded outside New Delhi’s High Court, killing 11 people and injuring more than 60 in an act of suspected terrorism in the heart of India’s capital that further heightened concerns about the nation’s security vulnerabilities."

   And headlined: "U.S. Accuses Pakistan of Militant Ties."  And with the Reuters’ release: "Pakistan warned the United States to stop accusing it of playing a double game with Islamist militants and heaped praise on ‘all-weather friend’ China."

   And that’s what’s really been happening out there.

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   I think we need to take a long look at the Muslim extremist problem in today’s world as seen from a somewhat longer time frame.  I believe we all need to come to the realization that what we have here is something that’s been around for some time and it’s not going to go away anytime soon.

   It’s like this:

   In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated by a Muslim extremist.

   In 1972, a number of Munich Olympic athletes were kidnaped and massacred by Muslim extremists.

   In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over and those therein were taken hostage, by Muslim extremists.

   In the 1980s, a number of Americans were kidnaped in Lebanon and held by Muslim extremists.

   In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up, with terrible results, by Muslim extremists.

   In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year-old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim extremists.

   In 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked in Athens and a U.S. Navy diver was murdered while trying to rescue passengers, by Muslim extremists.

   In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed and destroyed, with a total loss of life of all on board, by Muslim extremists.

   In 1993, The World Trade Center basement parking area was bombed by Muslim extremists.

   In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim extremists.

   In 2000, the U.S.S. Cole was hit by a suicide bombing in Aden, Yemen and 17 American sailors were killed and 39 others ere injured, by a Muslim extremist.

   On 9/11/2001, four American airliners were hijacked and two were used to destroy the World Trade Center in New York and one was flown into the Pentagon building in Washington, DC and a final airliner managed to be diverted and crashed by passengers. The many thousands who died were killed by Muslim extremists.

   In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnaped and murdered by Muslim extremists.

   And throughout the Middle East, many thousands of Arab men, women and children have been massacred by many hundreds of bombings, by Muslim extremists. And the killings are still going on.

   No matter what the political left tries to tell us, there is a clear and horrendous pattern here that has come down to us through the years.  It is a bloody trail that no one with any sort of reasonable mind can mistake.

   Thank God there are dedicated souls who take the time to keep this message going throughout the Internet.  It is a lesson that everyone should see.

==========================

   We have all seen Obama’s Solyndra fiasco and other solar promotions go down in economic flames, with the bankruptcies and the FBI raid and similar actions. If nothing else, it all is certainly dramatic.

   We remember Obama saying that, "Companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."  And then we learn that one of this company’s big investors is the George Kaiser Family Foundation, and the big oilman behind that, bundling campaign funds from all over for Obama’s original presidential run in 2008.

   As the unraveling moved forward, The Wall Street Journal observed that, "Watching the denials of paternity in Congress, you’d think that failed solar company Solyndra was a political orphan instead of a former Administration darling and favorite of the President and Vice President."

   As further noted, "Committee Democrats and two Administration officials tried to pin the tail on the Bush Administration by noting that the Solyndra loan consideration began before President Obama took office. ...

   "However, in the Solyndra case, the Bush Administration’s review board declined in January 2009 to act on the loan proposal, calling it ‘premature.’ "

   And then, as reported by the Associated Press reporter Matthew Daly, "The Obama administration ignored repeated warnings about a clean-energy loan program that has become an embarrassment for the White House amid the collapse of a California solar energy company that received more than $500 million in federal loans.

   And now, as reported in the WSJ:  "If you thought that the $535 million Solyndra scandal had chastened the fearless venture capitalists of the Obama Administration, think again.

   And let us also call your attention to Aaron Klein’s WND report that reveals,  "President Obama’s nominee for Commerce secretary served as chairman of the board of a solar energy company that recently received a $1.37 billion federal loan guarantee — the largest the Department of Energy has ever given for a solar power project.

   "Now that company, BrightSource Energy, is attempting to build the world’s largest solar power plant, amid concerns such ventures may be too risky an investment for the federal government."  Gee, why would anybody think that?

   Oh yes, we might also mention that the dominos are beginning to fall.  As reported by The Wall Street Journal, "Solar-power equipment maker Sterling Energy Systems Inc. has filed for bankruptcy, adding to a wave of troubles in the solar industry. ... The filing is the latest in a string of U.S. solar company bankruptcies."

   A few scientists have dared to suggest (as this writer has as well) that the potential is certainly great for capturing energy from the sun, but a great deal more R.&D. efforts will be required.  Science hasn’t as yet caught up to the pie-in-the-sky dreamers.  We still have a long way to go.

==========================

   The inconsistencies and preferred treatments in the federal government’s handling of climate and energy issues have become grossly unfair and very obstructionist.  Every which way they go they seem to do far more harm than good.

   A couple of good examples, from the growing stack, would be Mark Hemingway’s contribution in The Weekly Standard and a key editorial in the WSJ.

   Mark tells us, "Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly?  Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer.

   What doctors and scientists can’t understand is that hardly anything at all could ever easily escape from the inhalers.  What is expelled goes into the lungs of the individual who needs the relief.  Doesn’t the government understand that?  Evidently that’s just too complicated for them to grasp.

   The second example, from the Journal, tells us that, "The U.S. Attorney for North Dakota hauled seven oil and natural gas companies into federal court for killing 28 migratory birds that were found dead near oil waste lagoons.

   "You may not be surprised to learn that the Administration isn’t prosecuting wind companies for similar offenses."  Frankly, the dishonesty of this is appalling.

==========================

   Other little bits and pieces concerned with our climate and our energy includes such gems as yet another well known scientist moving away from the more absolute position of the environmental left.

   This time, as reported by Newsmax magazine, "Nobel Prize-winning physicist and erstwhile Obama supporter Ivar Giaever has resigned as a Fellow from the prestigious American Physical Society to protest the organization’s promotion of manmade global warming fears."

   As this writer, and so many others, have suggested, our planet has historically shown an undulating pattern of temperature variations that have had no significant connection with the human inhabitants.

Statistically, human influence and the influence of other forms of life have made contribution to the weather patterns within the troposphere, but an increase in solar energy output or a significant volcanic eruption can easily outpace almost any other factor by a very large margin.

   That does not mean we need not behave responsibly with regard to our planet.  That means we don’t need to react in an extreme and irresponsible manner.

   Another of those bits and pieces would be the announcement by the Ford Motor company of the development of the smallest automobile engine they have ever put together.  It’s a three-cylinder, 1-liter engine they plan to put into the Ford Focus in 2012.

   They say it will offer 118 horse-power and will step right out there with the best of them.  Ford (which the taxpayers didn’t have to bail-out) is proving to be one very innovating company.  Way to go!

==========================

   How are things going on the educational front?  You shouldn’t ask.  According to the College Board test administrators, the current high school SAT reading and writing scores have hit the lowest level that has ever been recorded.

   And in the Atlanta Public School system, which had registered some of the highest standardized test scores ever, it was found that a considerable number of the educators (teachers and principals) have made these high scores possible by cheating.

   And as reported by The Blaze, "The San Antonio Tea Party was part of a panel supported by a local public radio station. ... The topic of discussion: the DREAM Act and the problem of illegal immigration.  Jonathan Bryant, a government studies teacher, from John F. Kennedy High School attended the event along with some of his students (who, according to Bryant, may be illegals). ...

   "After the president of the [tea party] group affirmed his support for the laws governing illegal aliens in the schools, Mr. Bryant just couldn’t contain himself. ... The Texas teacher called the tea party president a ‘Nazi.’ " Evidently various n-words are all right so long as they are levied against folks who are grassroots or conservative in their origins.  So it would seem.

   We are also seeing our federal government and even many lower levels of government, through various officials, encouraging and even assisting in efforts to shut down successful charter schools and voucher programs, even as they continue to throw billions of taxpayer’s dollars at failing public school systems.  They seem dedicated to rewarding failure at every opportunity.

==========================

   There is an anonymous letter from a Florida teacher that has been circulating around the Internet that is very interesting.  Normally I do not pick up on anonymous sources, but I can see that, to keep her career from possibly being placed in jeopardy, she (or he) needed to remain unidentified.

   Also, I have heard so many other comments out there, from known sources, that are just like this.  This writer feels it should be shared.  A part of it is as follows:

   "One student of mine from the Dominican Republic told me that she didn’t want me to find a job for her after she finishes my program because she is getting housing from our housing department and she has gotten a PELL grant, which paid for her total tuition and books, plus gave her money left over.

   "She also told me she was not going to be a U.S. citizen because she plans to return to the Dominican Republic someday and that she loves her country, not this country."  Well, maybe so, but I’ll bet she certainly loves all those free goodies that she is getting, which, I might add, most of the rest of us mere citizens cannot get.

   And such is the way things are.

==========================

   The dishonest main-stream media continues its usual practices and with the usual results. NBC, The New York Times and so many others continue to make their claim that tea party get-togethers are populated by racists and other kinds of extremists and are little more than home-grown terrorists.

   That’s rather interesting since the violence is showing up on the left, not the right.  And so many of the tea party groups are very enthusiastic supporters of Herman Cain and other responsible black leaders.

   So, how is that blatant dishonesty going for the left-leaning media?  Well, Janet Robinson, New York Times chief Exec. has had to announce that the third-quarter ad revenue is expected to fall 8% more than was originally forecast.

   And, of curse, Senator John Kerry still would like to offer government financial support for the New York Times owned, Boston Globe.  Oh yes, that’s the paper that has given so much promotional political support to Kerry.  Well of course.

   And meanwhile, the Tribune Company — which owns the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, etc., etc. — remains firmly ensconced in the state of bankruptcy.  And, the Washington Post is cutting back on leased properties in Virginia and Maryland.  They need to tighten their belt.

   That’s right, the general public has become thoroughly disillusioned with them all.  In fact, as Bob Unruh (WND) reports,  " A new poll suggests that main street America may not be all that impressed with mainstream reporters, with only one person in 10 between the Atlantic and Pacific stating they trust the ‘national news media’ a great deal.

   "That’s according to a new scientific telephone survey of nearly 1,100 respondents conducted Aug. 20-22 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.93 percentage points. It was done by Wenzel Strategies."  Perhaps we should just step aside and allow the metro papers and the broadcast network news to just continue to commit suicide.  We will most likely be all the better for it.

   And meanwhile, we have other things going on. Glenn Beck has taken his popular television show in a brand new direction.  He and his company, Mercury Radio Arts, have set up a large internet "television" operation (GBTV) that is hoped will open a great new venue for investigative and commentary and involvement broadcasting.

 It’s a gamble because it will cost a little money for individual subscriptions.  The question is, will that be something that enough folks will be willing to pay for, when they are getting so much Fox reporting and entertainment programing almost for free (except for the cable or satellite subscription, of course)?

   I guess all we can say is, time will tell.

==========================

   The attack on Christianity continues to move forward.  As reported by The Patriot Action Network:

   "Vanderbilt University has placed four Christian student groups on ‘provisional status’ after a university review found them to be in non-compliance with the school’s nondiscrimination policy.  If they remain in non-compliance, the student Christian groups risk being shut down.

   And, "Fourteen year old Dakota Ary attends Western Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas.  He is an honor student, plays football and has never been in trouble. ...

   And, "A San Juan Capistrano [California] family has been fined for holding regular Bible studies in their home in violation of the city’s zoning code. ... The city of San Juan Capistrano has fined Charles and Stephanie Fromm $300 for their regular Bible study groups, according to a statement from the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute."

   And San Diego area Westview High School teacher Brad Johnson  "...was told by a federal appeals court that his boss had a right to tell him to take down religious posters from his classroom walls."  The banners had such phrases as "In God We Trust" which is engraved on our money.

   History will not speak kindly about this era of the persecution of Christians in the former United States of America.

==========================

   Grassfire Nation is reporting some very disturbing news:  "Late last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took what is being called ‘the final step’ toward implementing their illegal Net Neutrality regulations.

   I realize that this sort of thing is hard to believe, but it is really happening.  And yes, it also put into serious jeopardy the ability to maintain such web sites as ours, which offers you news and other current history and opinions that are only available so completely on such web sites on the Internet.

   They are all vulnerable now to the ideological whims of the new all-powerful central government that is being put in place.

   Another nail in our coffin.

More Winter For Our Economy

   October, 2011.  Our economy is what it is, and it isn’t pretty. It was announced that our budget deficit has reached $1.3 trillion.  And, as you might have expected, the latest census data shows us that the top income totals in our nation are to be found in the greater Washington DC area.

   And the mountains of federal paperwork is growing exponentially in concert with the nightmare.  By way of example, it has been noted that it was estimated to be 6,283,620 hours of paperwork to comply with the new Federal Reserve Volcker rule.  Isn’t that going to be fun?

   It would seem to this writer that using the tools and procedures suggested to us by most of our politicians and federal agency directors, to solve the serious problems of our economy, is way too much like trying to cut the grass with a pair of scissors.

   The Wall Street Journal headlines for this month include such stimulating news as — "Stocks Log Worst Quarter Since ‘09;  Market Nears Bear Territory;  Metals, Crude Oil Slip on Bernanke, Growth Concerns;  Factory-Goods Orders Show Decline;  Housing’s Job Engine Falters;  Bleak News for Americans’ Income;  Stocks Slide Back Into Red;  Pain Spreads to Biggest Banks;  Appliance Sales Tumble;  Slow Recovery Feels Like Recession."

   The headlines were in chronological order. For a follow-up with full details, you may want to check out the full Journal. (That’s why we source just about everything here — so you can verify and get the full story.)

==========================

   Once again we follow the current administration’s efforts to deal with our problems.  And, once again, it’s the same old story over and over again.

   As reported in Newsmax Magazine, there seems to be, "A two-pronged attack from the FDA and a new bill introduced by Dick Durbin that would make supplements more expensive — and harder to get."

   Bill O’Reilly examples such difficulties in what he sees as "Wrecking the economy in the name of compassion."  He further notes in The Washington Times that, "...47 percent of people in this country, both citizens and non-citizens, are receiving one or more federal benefit payments.  That is the highest entitlement percentage in US history."

   And, in that same publication, Michelle Malkin reminds us that "In February 2009, President Obama signed the trillion-dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Nearly $115 billion was earmarked for education."

   As she noted, it was "...predicted the law would hold the jobless rate under 8.5 percent.  The actual unemployment rate in October 2009 skyrocketed to a whopping 10.2 percent."

   And, "In August 2010, President Obama ... lobbied hard for the so-called ‘EduJobs’ bill — $26 billion more to bail out bankrupt states, school districts and public hospitals."

   Obama and his cohorts, "...promised the jobless rate would be down to 7.9 percent.  The actual unemployment rate in August 2010 was 9.6 percent."  And now, of course, "Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are pushing for a ‘mini’ $30 billion union jobs package for teachers (with $5 billion to mollify police and firefighters unions)."

   And also, "...funding fantastical green school construction jobs (earmarked for unionized-only contractors in an industry that is 85 percent nonunion)."

   If such a mess should ever manage to get passed, don’t expect any different unemployment results than the miserable statistics we have always ended up with.  As Michelle observes, they keep, "...getting in wrong over and over again."

==========================

   There seems to be an almost endless number of missteps being made by our current federal government.  There is everything from the new Volcker regulations (which is so gigantic a volume that the regulators seem unsure as to what to regulate) to actions and restrictions that are clearly job killers.

   These problems have been highlighted in a number of publications, including Human Events, where we find a most revealing report that offers the following:  "Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, testified before the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight, and Government Spending on Sept, 13."

   Part of his testimony went as follows:  "In my own business, securities regulations have prohibited me from hiring brokers for more than three years.  I was even fined $15,000 expressly for hiring too many brokers in 2008.  In the process I incurred more than $500,000 in legal bills to mitigate a more severe regulatory outcome as a result of hiring too many workers.

   "I have also been prohibited from opening up additional offices.  I had a major expansion plan that would have resulted in my creating hundreds of additional jobs. Regulations have forced me to put those jobs on hold."  Now there is a good example of the Democratic job creation machine in action.

==========================

   Human Events has also come up with an interesting list of "green job fiascoes."  Among them is, of course, Solyndra. And then there is also this one:  "The bailout that General Motors received from the government came with a price.  The carmaker was tasked to create the ultimate green vehicle.  The result — the Chevy Volt — is a product with an exorbitant price tag that nobody wants to buy."

   And there is, "Evergreen Solar Inc., of Massachusetts, which received $58 million in stimulus money and other government largesse, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August."

   And let us not forget, "The city of Seattle received $20 million in federal stimulus money to help homeowners make their houses more energy-efficient.  Some 16 months later, 14 jobs were created and three homes were weatherized."

   "...‘Green Vehicles’ received $500,000 from the city of Salinas, Calif., and another $187,000 from the state of California as it promised to create 70 new jobs making an innovative three-wheel electric car with a $25,000 price tag. ... The company folded without making a single car."

   "...Before Republicans took back the statehouse in Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Ed Randell helped support ethanol producer Bionol Clearfield with $27 million in grants and loans, and by issuing $67 million in tax-free bonds.  But even a deal with Getty Oil to buy the fuel couldn’t save the venture from going belly-up two years after its founding."

   And, to top it off, "Clark County, Nevada, which happens to be the home of the gambling mecca of Las Vegas, received $490,000 in stimulus money from the U.S. Forest Service to plant trees in urban neighborhoods. ... The stimulus that resulted from the grant to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state created 1.7 jobs (one full-time employee and one part time) and 11 temporary jobs."

   Human Events does a marvelous job reporting things like this.  It’s yet another publication I look forward to reading every week.

==========================

   Next, we find out that the FisKer electric car company, "...with the approval of the Obama administration ... received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work."  (Thank you Patriot Action Network for that informative report.)

   And, as we might expect, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has come out with harsh criticism for the credit rating firms, and especially Standard & Poor’s.  It’s not unlike this writer receiving a credit downgrade for heavy debt and irresponsible spending and then turning around and reporting the credit rating firm as irresponsible.

   The only reason that our left-wing government can get away with that sort of thing is because our left-wing media lets them get away with it.  It’s as simple as that.

==========================

   Adding to the hundreds of other business leaders who have finally begun speaking up, we now also have the president of the Consumer Electronics Association president, Gary Shapiro, who was quoted in the Washington Times this month saying a few choice words.

   "President Obama’s regulatory team is hurting U.S. competitiveness and slowing the growth of the economy because its members’ lack of business experience."  As reported by Tim Devaney, "Mr. Shapiro accused Mr. Obama of driving a mindset that ‘business is evil.’ "

   Also we are now hearing about internal communications within the "Fannie" and "Freddie" mortgage empire that suggest that top management people within those organizations, as well as the government regulators, were warned. Along with Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and all the other Obama people, it would seem even the top leadership within the mortgage giants were not interested in what was about to happen.

   Also, James J. Mulva, the chairman and chief executive officer of Conoco-Phillips had this to say in the Wall Street Journal:  "Even after 103,000 jobs were added during September, unemployment remains at 9.1 %. Counting those who have given up the job search or accepted a part-time job, economists calculate actual unemployment at a staggering 16.5%.

   Where can growth and new jobs come from? Mr. Mulva tells us, "One source is the natural gas industry, which is already generating jobs by the thousands, all without government subsidy.  And it can generate more, if we unleash this resource’s full potential."  The question is, will the Obama government allow it to happen?

==========================

   Senator Harry Reid was down to his usual standards this month when, from the floor of the Senate he proclaimed that "Private sector jobs are dong just fine.  It’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers."

   Once again it would seem that the only way Harry can ever make both ends meet is when he has his foot in his mouth.  As RedState.com has noted,  "According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, government workers have the lowest unemployment rate of any industry or class recorded — at 4.7% — while the national unemployment rate is 9.1% — nearly twice that of public sector workers."

   Meanwhile, it would seem that Obama’s jobs bill isn’t all that he wants us to believe it is.  As you may recall from the news reports, "President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill failed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Democrat-controlled Senate, despite a White House push that accelerated in the 11^th hour."  (Fox News)

   And now the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke is warning us that our economic recovery was (and possibly still is) "close to faltering."  And, believe it or not, he even admitted that the White House shares the responsibility for this.

   And now Democrats in the House are calling on Obama to sack Edward Marco, who is the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and we also hear that the top man in Freddie Mac is going to quit the government run mortgage monster.  Are we seeing the beginning of an exercise sometimes referred to as "the rats leaving a sinking ship?" No, I wouldn’t really call them "rats."  However, the pattern seems eerily similar, don’t you think?

   It might be interesting to also note some comments by Jeffrey T. Kuhner in The Washington Times. "Is America in its twilight years? Patrick J. Buchanan argues it is.  Americans, especially conservatives, should heed his warnings.

   "The very future of our republic is at stake. Mr. Buchanan has written the political book of the year — and maybe of our time."  The title: "Suicide of a Superpower."  This writer is inclined to say, "Where have you been?"

   A book was published way back in 1999 titled, "Good-bye, America?"  You may not have read my book — hardly anyone did.  Perhaps most folks were not as yet ready to face what was to come.  And, of course, the liberal media managed to bury it fairly well back then.  Too bad.

==========================

   With all that has been happening, there has been a very modest growth of our economy.  Unfortunately, this has not been because of our federal government — it has been in spite of our federal government.

   However, it would seem that once in a while a very rare moment occurs when it seems the government may actually be getting something right.  As reported by The Wall Street Journal, "The fees employers pay to bring temporary workers into the U.S. will be used to train American workers for jobs, as part of a $160 million grant program the Labor Department is undertaking to help businesses curb reliance on foreign workers for some highly skilled jobs."  Let’s hope they actually do this right.

   In another area --- Some people would like to be able to give one or two interest-free loans to family members or friends to help them through these hard times.  That shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s their own money.  They should be able to do something like that if they want to, right?

   Wrong!  Tax experts tell us that a person can end up with all sorts of problems with the IRS.  It would seem that there is hardly anything that is yours anymore.

   Well, at least there is a little bit of push-back in a few areas. More and more people are rallying in support of the Gibson Guitar Company, which, it would seem, has been almost completely destroyed by our federal authorities for no legitimate reason that can be substantiated.  Good luck.

==========================

   We all know what’s been happening on Wall Street in New York and in several other cities in various parts of America. From all we can gather, they are the anti-just-about-everything occupiers of public property.  And, unlike the tea party rallies, they don’t just come and make their statements and go home.  They don’t remain peaceful and clean up after themselves.

   What they say and what they have done is most revealing.  It shows us all the vast and disturbing differences when the "left" tries to do its pitiful imitation of what the "right" has done.  It shows us all what they are truly made of.  It is most revealing.

   They have actually taken up residence in public areas, with all the accompanying filth and safety hazards.  They have blocked streets and bridges.  Some have gotten into drugs and public sexual acts.  They have caused havoc everywhere.

   As WND tells us, "Stephen Lerner, a controversial anti-capitalist SEIU organizer, is one of the forces behind the protests on Wall Street and nationwide, according to quotes obtained by a socialist activist who doubles as a Washington Post columnist.

   "...Lerner recently laid out a mass economic protest plan intended to bring down the stock market, and boasted his plan could be used to cause a new financial crisis.  His ideology prompted some conservative critics to go so far as to label him as an economic terrorist."  As reported in The Washington Times, "The movement has spread in recent weeks to Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Boston, Kansas City and elsewhere.

   "It is unclear what its agenda is beyond overturning our capitalist system and everything that flows from Wall Street, which is the capital investment that is the life blood of our economy."  And further (as written by Donald Lambro), "They are in very large part confuse, uninformed young people who have picked the wrong economic targets for their grievances.

   We also see that the unions have been very quick to take advantage of the situation.  The AFL-CIO, Teamsters and the SEIU are all there.  And what about the naive youths and young adults?  New York magazine talked with about 50 of them.  They found that 84 percent didn’t seem to know anything about the Dodd-Frank Act and as many as 64 percent didn’t know what the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) was, although they were right there where they are.  And those were just a couple of examples.

   Ted Nugent summed it up with his observation that, "Useful idiots are protesting against the wrong fat cats."

==========================

   The Patriot Action Network checked the "occupiers" out thoroughly and came to some interesting conclusions:  "There is some question as to which sense is first alerted to the on-coming presence of the Occupy Wall Street crowd.  Do you hear them first or do you smell them first?

   "...Next is the smell.  You guys ever heard of soap, anti-perspirant, personal hugiene? ... Also you’ll see areas set aside for ‘media’ (books, brochures, tracts, posters, T-shirts) celebrating the many virtues of Communism,"  among other things.

   "Here you’ll see and listen to an Occupy Wall Street leader ‘educate’ the unwashed masses in certain rights they need to work and fight to get, including, and I’m not kidding, the right to have sex with animals."  And of course the signs are everywhere.  "The revolution is here!" and "Death to Capitalism!" and "Support Communism!" and "Destroy Wall Street!" and "Socialism Rules!" and "America is The Great Satan!"

   And with all of this and so much more, the vast majority of our left-wing media thinks its all a wonderful expression of free speech, while they recall the Tea Party outings as being "angry and profane" (from the New York Times).  The Occupiers and the Tea Parties are as different as night and day, but definitely not the differences suggested by the liberal journalists.

==========================

   The New York Post was there as well and added its observation:  "Lured by cheap drugs and free food, creepy thugs have infiltrated the crowd of protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park for Occupy Wall Street, The Post has learned.

   In San Diego they came to occupy the civic center area.  And three Southwestern College professors were reported holding an "Occupy Democracy Event" to rally youths for participation.

   And, as reported by the local NBC station in San Diego (but not the network),  "A total of 51 Occupy San Diego protesters were arrested. ... Members of the public and employees in nearby buildings complained to the police of human and animal feces, drug use and litter on the premises."

   Bob Unruh (WND) reports:  "The dark scourge of anti-Semitism has reared up at many ‘Occupy’ protests across the country, and the subject could well become a campaign 2012 issue as Republicans have been quick to point out to voters that many Democrats, including the President are aligning themselves with the protests.

   And who or what is behind all of this, you may ask?  We have seen video footage of Obama friend Bill Ayers teaching revolutionary theory at Occupy Chicago.  And World Net Daily informs us that, "A public relations firm closely partnered with the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation represented last week’s anti-Wall Street march past millionaires’ homes in New York."  Frankly, the left is deeply involved with all of this just about everywhere.

   And with all the violence and general law breaking, there has started to be such activities as fighting and even rape. Oh, it’s a real hoot.

   Finally, as reported by Meghan Barr, for the Associated Press, "Fed up with petty crime, the all-night racket of beating drums, the smell of human waste and the sight of trampled flowers and grass, police and neighbors are losing patience with some of the anti-Wall Street protests around the U.S.

   And The Boston Herald reports that, "Two Occupy Boston members have been arrested on drug charges, Boston police said yesterday. Bostonians Isaac Bell, 34, and Charlene Dumont, 31, were both charged with distribution of a Class A drug (heroin) and possession with intent to distribute a Class A drug within 1,000 feet of a school zone, police say."  All of this seems to have happened in the presence of a 6-year-old child, as also reported by the Herald.

   And as the American Nazi Party announces that it stands in solidarity with the occupation movement, Karl Rove reports, in The Wall Street Journal:  "At his recent news conference, President Barack Obama praises Occupy Wall Street, saying, ‘It expresses the frustrations that the American people feel.’ Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the protesters, saying, ‘God bless them for their spontaneity.’ Vice President Joe Biden claimed the protesters had ‘a lot in common with the tea party.’ "

   So, violence and other lawlessness is just an expression of frustration and it’s all really a lot like the tea party?  Then I guess pigs can fly and the moon is actually made out of cheese, right?

==========================

   We knew it was going to happen because it almost always seems to happen, every time a Republican begins to look like some kind of possible threat to a left-wing Democrat in any kind of political activity — they unleash every sort of unfounded charge or smear they can manage to create.

   They keep doing it because they can’t really run on any successes in office (you have to have them to run on them). Lucky for them, they have a blatantly supportive national media always willing to hang on their every word.

   Two good examples in today’s news include a totally anonymous accusation of suggestive behavior against Herman Cain (which seems to have been proven to be baseless) and a very questionable smear by Manuel Roig-Franzia against Marco Rubio.

   As reported by Human Events, "Manuel Roig-Franzia has a well documented history of being an apologist for the Cuban communist regime and a hater of the Catholic church.  He is also now writing a book on Marco Rubio.

   The Miami Herald wrote:  "The Washington Post just released this interesting story headlined ‘Marco Rubio’s compelling family story embellishes facts, documents show.’ The paper flagged a clear inaccuracy in his official Senate biography that states the Senator’s parents ‘came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.

   The actual truth is that when they returned to Cuba, things began to start to move in bad and even dangerous directions, so his parents had to get out and stay out, of course.  (I do believe the term "flee" would not be inappropriate.)

   Nothing that Rubio has said seems to be inconsistent as far as we can tell.  His family was a part of "a community of exiles" in the Miami area.  The real truth is as simple as that.

==========================

   And while the media has a feeding frenzy over any invented negative they can find concerning any leading conservative, including such generalizations as Bill Mahr’s, "If you’re racist, you’re a Republican," — with all of that, there is little to no attention paid to such things as Human Events and the few other conservative publications have been willing to report, such as:  "Vice President Joe Biden now says he didn’t make a reference to rape, and got testy with Human Events when we asked if he would like to retract his comments that the number of sexual assaults would increase if Republicans don’t sign on to Barack Obama’s latest ‘jobs’ proposal."

   Biden was then quoted as saying, "I didn’t use, no no no ... Let’s get it straight, guy.  Don’t screw around with me."  Then finally, as noted by Jason Mattera:  "Then Biden confirmed that he indeed did talk about rape in terms of the President’s spending measure.  ‘Murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise,’ if the Democrats agenda isn’t passed, he added."

   This writer saw the video and you can be sure, that’s exactly the way it was.  And on and on it has gone like this, as exampled by so many of the stories reported herein — stories that were never really run with any prominence or not run at all in most of the media.

   As you can see, the truth is might hard to come by these days.  That’s why I make this heartfelt effort here.

==========================

   The impact of the growing negatives in the American political spectrum has begun to become extremely noticable. A growing number of Democrats have been observed keeping a discrete distance between themselves and Obama.  A few Democrats have even dared to openly criticize either Obama or his policies.  Human Events has reported on a few interesting examples of this.

   "Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) Last week called the President’s plan to raise taxes ‘terrible,’ and said he does ‘not believe we should be increasing ordinary earned income taxes on any level.’ Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said the Obama Administration ‘has not shown the leadership to combat gun violence.’ "

   Audrey Hudson’s article also noted that, "Senator Jim Webb, strategist James Carville, and Rep. Maxine Waters are just a few notable Democrats who have been strongly criticizing President Obama as of late."  One might also add Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to that list.

   And James Freeman, under the headline:  "The Exasperation of the Democratic Billionaire" (in The Wall Street Journal), quoted Mortimer Zuckerman in an extensive interview.  " ‘It’s as if he doesn’t like people,’ says real estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman of the president of the United States.

   " ‘Barack Obama doesn’t seem to care for individuals,’ elaborates Mr. Zuckerman, ‘though the president enjoys addressing millions of them on television.’  The Boston Properties CEO is trying to understand why Mr. Obama has made little effort to build relationships on Capitol Hill or negotiate a bipartisan economic plan."  This from one of the top Democratic party supporters.

==========================

   ObamaCare still remains in intensive care.  Well, what can one expect from a health care plan that was written by a committee whose chairman said he just doesn’t understand it, was passed by a Congress that never read it through, and didn’t really care that much anyway because they aren’t even covered under the damned thing anyway.  What can you expect from that, something reasonable?

   And now Pelosi tries to defend the almost 2,000 Obamacare waivers by saying, "They’re small. I couldn’t speak to all 1,800 of them, but some of the lists that I have seen have been very, very small companies.  They will not have a big impact on the economy of our country."

   That’s what Nancy Pelosi said in a CNBC interview.  We beg to differ with you Ms. Pelosi.  Some are not so small at all. One glaring example would be McDonalds — not exactly a little hole-in-the-wall outfit.

   And now MSNBC’s Tom Curry has reported that, "The Obama administration announced that it has suspended one piece of the landmark health care law which the president signed last year.  Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told Congress in a letter that the CLASS Act, which was supposed to provide a new voluntary long-term care insurance program, was unworkable since no actuarially sound way could be figured out to run the program."

   And now Eric Odom, the Media Director of the Liberty News Network tells us that, "A new investigation coordinated by ‘Operation Rescue’ and ‘Protect Defending Life’ exposes an abortion clinic for not only performing late-term abortions, but also utilizing Medicaid to pay for the procedure once approved as a patient.

   And now a special report from the Institute of Medicine (an advisory board) is urging that we have affordable health plans.  And Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and Dr. Scott W. Atlas, a Stanford University Medical Center professor have even come up with a plan for serious alternatives to government run healthcare.  That’s what we understand.

   Whatever happens, it won’t be simple and easy.  It will take an enormous amount of work to get ourselves properly untangled from the Obamacare mess that we have now.  And then we’ll have to start all over again because the system we had before was inadequate and going broke.  Whatever happens, it’s going to be painful.  That’s for sure.

==========================

   With all that has happened, the Obama bunch remains the same.  The bad things keep coming at us, from every angle. We see that the sister-in-law of Obama’s influential White House transition director, John Podesta, became a lobbyist for a wind power company that just happens to have been awarded a $135.8 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

   We see there are a number of Muslims with Muslim Brotherhood connections, closely involved with the White House.  As World Net Daily reports, "One is Rashad Hussain, Ambassador to the 52-nation Organization of Islam Conference. ... Before joining the White House as a lawyer, Hussain regularly spoke to Brotherhood front groups and defended Brotherhood leaders like Sami al-Arian."

   Another associated with Obama is Delia Mogahed, who writes Obama speeches, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt."  Such is now what once was the spiritual center of our nation — the White House.  We see a video of Obama speaking at a union hall in Pittsburgh, telling everyone he has instructed his advisors to push through stimulus projects without the approval of Congress.

   We see Obama claiming that he wants to rebuild our roads, hoping that no one is smart enough to remind anyone that he was a part of the stalling of a major highway bill since 2009. We see, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, "The President has — for the fourth time in his administration — proposed to limit the value of the charitable tax deduction. ... The white House wants to steer your charitable giving to pet causes."  (This was detailed by Howard Husock, vice president for policy research at the Manhattan Institute.)

   We see, as revealed by WND, "Newly resurfaced photographs show President Obama appearing and marching with members of the New Black Panther Party as he campaigned for president in Selma, Alabama, in March 2007. BigGovernment.com posted the photographs, reporting that the images were captured from a Flickr photo-sharing account before they were scrubbed."

   We see a video that shows Obama leaving a recent meeting with Congressional leaders, after Cantor told the President that Republicans would not vote for his proposed tax hikes. We see that Obama then grabbed his things and stormed out of the meeting, actually kicking the door open on his way out.

   We see Michelle Malkin’s column in which she writes that, "The Pleasanton (CA) Weekly was bullied by the White House ... over a benign article that irked the administration because it made Michelle Obama look snooty.

   "The Boston Herald was spanked by the White House for running a front-page op-ed by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney."  And her examples go on and on and on.  Do you think maybe that tells us something about Obama?

   Yes, there’s a lot to be seen, if one looks beyond the usual empty-handed journalism that we are normally fed.

==========================

   Sandra L. Staats reports, through the Patriot Action Network, "The Federal Election Commission ruled that a Guyana-born American citizen could file papers and raise money to run for president of the United States.  But the agency also told the prospective candidate, Abdul Hassan, that his campaign may not receive federal matching funds because he was not born in America."

   This writer would like to direct the attention of the Federal Election Commission to a very special paragraph from Section-1 of Article II of the Constitution of the United States of America.  The paragraph (never amended) reads as follows:  "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

   What is wrong with those people on the Commission?  Are they also now going to be treating our Constitution the way so many of our judges have come to do?  Does our Constitution have no relevance at all anymore, unless it suits the whim of those in a position of power?  What do you think?

==========================

   One of our signs of our time might be described as a bumper sticker I saw not long ago.  It read: "Guns don’t kill people.  Drug cartels armed by our government kill people."  It stands as an example most apropos for our trying time.

   That botched federal gun-running probe is but the latest in a long line of irresponsibilities that seem to have connections to Eric Holder and his Justice Department.  He vehemently claims that, "My testimony was truthful and accurate," but that’s not at all in agreement with what has been revealed through the growing Congressional investigation.

   As reported by Bob Unruh (WND), "One member of Congress has started using the word ‘accessory’ in talking about members of the Obama administration who had their fingers on the pulse of the Operation Gunrunner ‘Fast and Furious’ stunt under which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered gun dealers to sell weapons to unqualified buyers, who then dumped them into the Mexican drug cartel civil war.

   Mr. Unruh put it very diplomatically.  In fact, it would seem, to this writer, that Holder is either extremely incompetent in his job or he has knowingly been very dishonest about the whole dirty business.  And this is far from being the first indication of his possible dishonesty.

   As Jerry Seper reports in The Washington Times, "In 2001, the House Government Reform Committee questioned the accuracy of Mr. Holder’s depiction of what he did as deputy attorney general in the last-minute pardon by President Bill Clinton of fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose former wife, Denise Rich, had donated $1.3 million to Democrats."

   Another example that Mr. Seper offers is:  "Two years earlier, Mr. Holder came under fire for refusing to tell a Senate committee whether the Justice Department had recommended against Mr. Clinton’s offer of clemency to 16 Puerto Rican nationalists a month after then-Attorney General Janet Reno said their release posed a national security threat."

   And as Thomas Sowell noted in an article in the same publication, "Attorney General Eric Holder became a key figure epitomizing the view that government’s role in racial matters was not to be an impartial dispenser of equal justice for all, but to be a racial partisan and an organ of racial payback."

   And as Jerry Septer noted in another article in the Washington Times:  "In a blistering letter, Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Mr. Holder that it was time for him ‘to come clean to the American public’ on what he knew and when about the weapons investigation, saying Mr. Holder has made numerous statements about the operation that have ‘proven to be untrue.’ "

   And Holder’s Department of Justice has gone off the deep end in other areas as well.  There is that example of property seizures, such as the Tewksbury, Mass. motel that was taken because it was found that some guests got involved in drug offenses.

   And, as reported by "Terrorism Watchmen" and other groups, "Top Justice Department officials convened a meeting where invited Islamist advocates lobbied them for cutbacks in anti-terror funding, chages in agent’s training manuals, additional curbs on investigators and a legal declaration that U.S. citizens’ criticism of Islam constitutes racial discrimination."

   All I can say about Holder and his so-called Justice Department is — watch out America!

==========================

   The Solyndra mess just keeps keeping on.  The Wall Street Journal reveals more, including email arguments and warnings that, "...went as high as Valerie Jarrett, a confidante of the president, and Ron Klain, then chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden.  In one email, Mr. Klain said that Solyndra and other clean-technology energy ventures could go ‘belly-up’ by Election Day 2012."

   As the month moved forward, Grassfire Nation revealed that, "Numerous sources are now reporting that California-based solar panel company, Solyndra donated $7,500 to the California Democratic Party and company employees had also contributed more than $20,000 to Democratic candidates..."  That, in addition to all the other much larger Democratic political donations.

   Additionally, "Even worse, the Detroit News reported that the Obama administration was so eager to give Solyndra taxpayer money, energy Secretary Steven Chu ‘personally approved more cash even though they had already defaulted on one loan.’ "

   And of course most of us recall how Solyndra executives took the "Fifth Amendment" rather than reveal anything that might suggest a criminal act.  This was in front of an official House committee investigation.

   But of course Holder and Obama and the rest of his gang couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong, now could they? Maybe, as with everything else, we can find some way to blame it all on George Bush, right?

==========================

   Other exposures include an interesting revelation by Chuck Neubauer in The Washington Times.  "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, a real estate developer and investment banker, stands to make millions of dollars in a previously undisclosed residential real estate project in California as a partner with the father of a woman Mrs. Pelosi helped become ambassador to Hungary, records show."

   We also hear that Senator Feinstein (D-Calif.) is suggested as having a serious conflict of interest that provided a substantial government contract for her husband’s company. And there are so many others like that.

   And, as if that weren’t enough, Bob Unruh (WND) reports that, "A group that monitors elections in Minnesota and roots out fraudulent votes is warning ballot fraud is on the rise across the nation, and if unchecked, the ultimate consequences would be an electorate that simply doesn’t believe the system works and refuses to participate — ‘a total breakdown in the cohesion of American society.’ "

   Most disturbingly, there is an element in American politics that really does seem to want that to happen.

==========================

   With regard to the media, it seems often to be much like Peter Funt put it:  "So much media, so little news."  Or, in some instances, there’s lots of news, but so much of it is blatantly false, to the utter shame of the once great field of journalism.

   Grassfire Nation points to a glaring example of this malpractice (one small example out of so many).  "The liberal media are openly promoting the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ effort, providing enormous coverage and creating a direct comparison to the Tea Party movement.

   TheTeaParty.net states that, "The continuing comparisons between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movement are absurd.  Pundits and prognosticators in the media are saying that this is the left’s version of the same grassroots fervor that is the hallmark of the Tea Party."

   By way of example (?) they point out that, "A speaker at Occupy L.A. belittled the nonviolent civil disobedience of Gandhi and instead called for a slaughter along the lines of the bloody French Revolution.  ‘So, ultimately, the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means ... Long live revolution!  Long live socialism!’ "

   And, as it was observed, "The blood thirsty crowd cheered loudly as the speaker praised socialism and called for the violent overthrow of American capitalism."  And that’s just one of many, many examples.

   Calling for slaughter, long live socialism, overthrowing American capitalism?  And the filth, the drugs, the blocking of streets — somehow all of this is like the Tea Party?  Well, maybe that’s just the best that the left can do, and if it is, it’s indeed a very sad example of what they’re made of.

   Most informed readers remember the happy, relaxed, patriotic Tea Party events and how peaceful they were and how they cleaned up after themselves, to the point where it looked so clean that it seemed as though no one had even been there.  And the way much of the media handled it, they did all they could to minimize the events — almost as though it had never happened.

==========================

   If you should ever happen to wonder how well our aberrant media is doing these days, be assured it’s doing as badly as ever.  Circulations are dropping, viewers are leaving, ads are shrinking.  They’re doing just fine.  They never seem to learn and it seems they never will.

   Of course some of the "big pockets" on the left are doing about the only thing they ever can think to do — they throw money at the problem, like that Mexican billionaire Carlos Sim who once again pours more money into The New York Times, increasing his ownership therein.

   We also see NBC’s "Today" show isn’t doing so well either. And in general, the audience numbers are slipping for that network and for the others as well, for newscasts and for some of the other programing, too.

   Brent Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center issued an interesting letter in which he states that, "The research shows that by a 5-to-1 margin, ABC, CBS and NBC morning hosts have employed an adversarial liberal agenda when questioning this year’s Republican candidates.

   "It is completely different from the treatment these same shows accorded Democratic primary challengers in 2007."  It is understandable that he concludes, "Viewers are tuning out in droves because they are sick and tired of such undeniable bias."  The stats show that’s exactly what has happened.

==========================

   Our educational system continues to be the very serious problem it has been for such a long time now.  Every time an academic improvement is won or a skewed priority is fixed, it is realized for what it is — a very small repair in the massive damage of a very large system.  What is needed most of all is for a complete realignment of the entire system.

   This is what must be done.  Meanwhile, the countless problems continue to surface, as seen through the comprehensive reporting of authors like Robert Spencer in Human Events.  He tells us, "The International Islamic News Agency (IINA) reported that ‘in a bid to run correct news reporting about Muslims, two American universities have launched a project to teach journalists how to tackle Islam-related issues.  Titled, Covering Islam in America, the project was co-launched recently by Washington State University and the Poynter Institute’s News University.’ "

   But, as revealed, the "...course is actually predicated on the assumption that Muslims and Islam are getting negative press coverage.  This is ... absurd.  After every jihad plot and jihad attack, journalists fill their publications with stories about pious, wise Muslims fearing a ‘backlash’ — a backlash that never comes."  Naturally a course correction that would fully explore the very serious problems that non-Muslims face all over the world — that is not to be considered. Of course not.

   We can also turn to the failing state of California where we see that, "California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 499 into law that goes a step further in providing preventative care for children 12 and over to prevent contracting STDs or drug related diseases such as hepatitis B.  The new law provides for vaccines for HPV, HIV and hepatitis to be made available to teens without parental consent or knowledge."

   This information has been brought to us through the Patriot Action Network.  And with it we find ourselves wondering why the emphasis is on an assumption and acceptance of early sexual activity rather than on abstinence and personal dignity as an important core behavior.

   Let us also not forget that, in many school districts around the nation, it has become so serious a crime to try and send your child to a better public school than the child might have been attending, that in some districts special contract investigators will sometimes even follow kids home to be sure they are actually attending the "correct" school.

   If they find they are not, in some districts the parents can be subjected to prosecution and even jail time!  Yes, it’s actually happened.  This is how bad things have gotten in some of our schools.

   Bill and Melinda Gates have been very concerned about many of the problems we have with our children’s education, not only here in America but all over the world. It would seem they really understand that a comprehensive and truly meaningful education is a key component to all our futures.

   They have gone on record concerning such things as our current academic performance rating system, which passes almost all teachers automatically.  They suggest it very defective and actually quite fraudulent.  They also are of the belief that educators could learn a great deal from the business community about the improvement of performance.

   There is so much to be learned by everyone, not just the students.

==========================

   The terror topic remains Islamic as always.  And as AP reports, "Terrorist groups have expressed interest in obtaining some of the thousands of shoulder-launched missiles that have gone missing in Libya."  As further revealed, "Libya was believed to have about 20,000 such missiles in its arsenals before the civil war began in March, Andrew J. Shapiro said.  Although many were destroyed by NATO air strikes, thousands are missing."  Mr. Shapiro is the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs.

   We also understand that Islamists have struck in Somalia (Africa).  It’s the al-Shabaab militant group and they killed between 50 to 100 in Magadishu, the capital of that besieged nation.  African Union forces are doing all they can to clear the region.

   And, while all of that is going on, both Iran and Syria have been sending funds to North Korea and, as announced by the WSJ, "U.S. authorities said they foiled an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, a rare instance where Tehran is accused of fomenting terrorism on U.S. soil."

   You might also want to check out Mona Charen’s news article in the Washington Times, in which she writes, "If the Iranian government doesn’t frighten you, you haven’t been paying attention.  The regime in Iran has been killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan for many years and has sworn countless times in the past 30 years to preside over the destruction of the United States."

   As she further notes, the current assassination threat on American territory, "...was only one of several violent attacks Iran was planning to perpetrate on American soil.  It seems safe to say that President Obama’s outreach to the mullahs is not going well."

   With all of this, it is still to be considered as just a part of the much bigger battle plan.  This ranges from Iran’s infiltrations into Latin America, to such reports as bylined by Thomas More on the Internet where we read that, "Muslims have created ‘no go zones’ across Britain and France where it’s too dangerous for Christians to enter.  Muslims entered these nations as immigrants, but refused to assimilate.  They have conquered parts of their host countries without firing a shot.

   This writer certainly hopes that this is an exaggeration.

   However, as Islam Sharia Watchmen reports, "Steve Eckley, Senior Vice-President of Hutton Hotel, has caved to Islamic supremacists’ demands and canceled our entire ‘Preserving Freedom Conference’ scheduled for November 11 in Nashville.  Eckley notified us that they will not honor our contract.  He said he has been getting threatening letters and calls."

   The Watchmen group further stated that, "This is the second time in no less than a week that a major hotel has capitulated to intimidation and demands to enforce the blasphemous laws under Sharia here in America.  Opposing the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the earth is now forbidden in the war of ideas."

   And we have received other reports and many Internet narratives and seen so many videos.  It can’t all be one massive plot of exaggerations, now can it?

==========================

   The Iranian leadership and other revolutionary conquerors in the Middle East and elsewhere are really celebrating.  After all they have done, the major American response is that we are pulling out of Iraq.  It sends a clear and unmistakable message and they definitely got that message.

   It has been officially announced by the White House that our fighting forces will be gone from Iraq by years-end.  Watch what happens next.  The would-be new world conquerors will be ready to move in.

   Meanwhile, the Israel National News reports that, "Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has bested Hamas’ generosity and is honoring [the newly] freed terrorists with a $5,000 grant [each], partially funded by the United States and the European Union. Meanwhile, Hamas urges more kidnappings."

   And there is a verified report circulating all over the Internet stating that,  "The White House’s official web site, August 10, posted a story entitled ‘Islamic Relief USA Starts Its First Summer Food Services Program’ boasting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now helping this Islamic group get its program started. ... Islamic Relief USA has ties to Hamas.  How many other groups with ties to terror organizations are working with the USDA?"

   With all good intentions aside, let there be no mistake as to what sort of world we are actually helping to build.

==========================

   Other security issues that also involve everyone’s safety, as reported by Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal: "Shortly after the end of the Cold War, an American defense official named Phillip Karber traveled to Russia as an advance man for a visit by former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci.  ‘We were meeting with Russian generals,’ Mr. Karber recalls, ‘and we met a three-star who told us they had 40,000 warheads, not the 20,000 we thought they had.’ "

   With regard to China, Mr. Stephens continues,  "In December 2009, as part of the celebrations marking the 60the anniversary of the People’s Republic, the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] announced to great fanfare that the Second Artillery Corps has built a cumulative total of 3,000 miles of tunnels — half of them during the last 15 years."

   As further observed, "The extent of the tunneling was hard to square with the supposedly small size of the Chinese nuclear arsenal, which is commonly believed to be in the range of 240- 400 warheads.  ‘So they’ve built 10 miles of tunnel for every warhead?’  Mr. Karber recalls asking himself.  ‘That doesn’t make sense.’ "  All of that tunneling "Would suggest that China would have somewhere in the order of 3,000 warheads today,"  Bret Stephens speculates.

   So, just how nice and friendly is this well-armed China?  In one Washington Times article we read that, "U.S. officials said there is evidence linking hackers in China to recent cyber-attacks on Japan’s main defense contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries."  And of course you may recall the United States has had some of those attacks on our industries and our military as well.

   In another Times story, "The lead article in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper ‘Global Times’ on Sept. 27 contained an alarming call for a declaration of war against Vietnam and the Philippines, two nations that in recent weeks launched the loudest protests against China’s sweeping maritime sovereignty claims in the South China Sea."

   And what had we suggested would happen with weak international leadership under Obama?  And what has been happening all over the world?

==========================

   The battle for our survival is being fought on so many fronts. As the Patriot Action Network reported, "The Washington, D.C. office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that a Catholic University violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers."

   That’s amazing.  It’s a private school and it’s a Catholic school.  Why on earth would very sensitive, devout Muslims be there at all?  There is something very peculiar about this.

   And, as pointed out by Drew Zahn (WND), "A board of county commissioners in North Carolina is asking the Supreme Court for help.  It’s members don’t believe they should have to forbid volunteers from mentioning the name of Jesus in prayers offered before their meetings."

   The American Civil Liberties Union and a separation of church and sate group are behind it, as you might have imagined.  They stand against over 200 years of original American interpretation and common practice, of course.

   And to add to the persecution, the Obama administration wants more government and court control over what is said in our churches and how they administer their calling. "Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School vs. EEOC" is most certainly a case in point.  And there are so many others.  They are everywhere.  It has truly become an oppressive time for many of the Christians in America.

==========================

   Attacks against beloved American symbolism within our nation continue on as always.  Jihad Watch reports that, "Parents of children at an elementary school in Colorado are furious after the American flag was lowered at the multi-cultural school and replaced with a Saudi Arabian flag.  As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, someone at Bauder Elementary School in Fort Collins appears to have lowered the American symbol while raising that of the Muslim country in its place."

   The Blaze reports, through Madeleine Morgenstern that "Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and the Mexican pledge of allegiance. ... It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas, a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border."

   As usual we check these things out thoroughly.  In this case, a student videoed the "event."  We have seen that video.

==========================

   As you may realize, this writer has always believed in reasonable planetary husbandry (with emphasis on "responsible").  But I have also felt that this should not be a matter of forcing requirements that do significant damage to lives and economies in the process.

   So, what is one to make of a situation revealed in The Wall Street Journal by Tamara Audi who tells us that "...a recent federal decision to designate a portion of the Santa Ana River as a protected habitat zone for the ‘sucker’ [a tiny fish] has local water officials protesting that the plan is a threat to the future of a vast region southeast of Los Angeles known as the Inland Empire."

   This writer knows that region — a place that has already been severely damaged by confiscatory, inept urban renewal projects (in San Bernardino) and by our economic collapse under the current administration.  Frankly, it’s an area that can’t take much more.  It could end up dry and desolate, like other portions of California that have been similarly treated by over-exuberant environmentalists in positions of power.

   And what are we to think about those environmental protesters who evidently would rather we remain beholding to Middle Eastern terrorist oil than to allow a more reasonable and environmentally considerate Canadian pipeline?  Where is the logic in that?

   You can just imagine the considerable number of good examples that we could also include, if our available space was infinite.  But, even then, would enough people care?  Does our movement toward a national suicide matter any more?  Let’s hope it does.

==========================

   Robert Bryce wrote a very interesting opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, making a number of thoughtful points that might be worth considering.  Among his comments we find:  "During the decade that Al Gore dominated the environmental debate, global carbon-dioxide emissions rose by 28.5%.

   "Regardless of whether it’s getting hotter or colder — or both — we are going to need to produce a lot more energy in order to remain productive and comfortable."  Mr. Bryce also noted that, "According to the International Energy Agency, the U.S. is now cutting carbon emissions faster than Europe, even though the European Union has instituted an elaborate carbon-taxing/ricing scheme.

   "The U.S. is producing vast quantities of cheap natural gas from shale, which is displacing higher-carbon coal. Meanwhile, China’s emissions jumped by 123% over the past decade and now exceeds those of the U.S. by more than two billion tons per year.  Africa’s carbon-dioxide emissions jumped by 30%, Asia’s by 44%, and the Middle East’s by a whopping 57%."  Now there is a bunch of inconvenient truths I’ll bet most folks never knew about.  Mr. Bryce, the author of these comments, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

   We might also suggest a comment for examination, made by Phil Jones of the UEA Climate Research Unit and reported by the BBC.  His comment:  "There has been no statistically significant warming since 1995."  So there you are.  Some experts are making claims in one direction and some in the opposite direction.

   And, on the political front, as reported by Stephen Dinan in the Washington Times:  "The EPA’s internal watchdog said last week that the Obama administration cut corners in evaluating the science it used to back up its 2009 finding that carbon is a dangerous pollutant and can be regulated under existing federal law."  I have no doubt as to what sort of regulation they have in mind.

   And so it goes.

==========================

   A while back (March 2, 2010) ABC News told us that there are more than 700,000 sex offenders in the United States, that the recidivism rate is 24% and that crimes against kids offers an average sentence of no more than 3 years.  What about offenders not caught yet, unsuccessful (incompleted) sexual offenses, offenses and offenders not reported?  One can only imagine what the final numbers might end up being.

   We are told that our criminal system of law is so greatly flawed that such figures cannot help but be the inevitable result.  Even so, some predators feel most of the courts are still not liberal enough for them.  We understand that some are migrating to places like the state of Vermont where they feel they will face little more than a catch and release policy that is particularly helpful to their "special interest."

   In other areas of our legal breakdown, Michael Morton walked out of a Texas prison this month, as a free man, after serving just under 25 years for murder.  It was a crime that DNA evidence now shows another man is connected to, not Mr. Morton.

   Now this freed convict is doing all he can to fully investigate his former prosecutors regarding their investigations, performance, and the possibility of withheld evidence.  Frankly this is something we all should demand each and every time something like this happens.  But we tend to look the other way, don’t we? — After all, it isn’t our lives being destroyed, right?

==========================

   We have seen that there are so many organizations and even businesses that seem dedicated to just about everything that is counter to the most basic values and directions that we have all cherished in America.  I never could understand why.  I guess I’ll just have to realize that organizations and businesses are made up of people, and some people would take our nation apart and remake it in a strange and foreign image that can only conclude the Great American Experiment.

   Of the many we see that seem so dedicated in this direction, there is, of course, the ACLU, ACORN, SEIU, and so many more — many who are partaking of taxpayer funds. Everyone from AARP, GE and La Raza (The Race) have done so, by doing everything from avoiding taxes as if they are a legitimate non-profit group, or getting government grants, or getting special treatment for government contracts, or any number of other "tricks."

   La Raza (The Race) is an excellent example of this, as reported by Townhall.  They have pointed out that, "...the organization more than doubled its cash intake from $4.1 million in 2009 to $11 million in 2010.  This, after Obama appointed La Raza senior vice president Cecilia Munoz as his director of intergovernmental affairs."

   It’s an organization that is intensely racial and Mexican national in its nature and thoroughly dedicated to open borders and full amnesty for the illegal aliens, and all sorts of public funding and special treatment.

   And then there is the infamous Planned Parenthood organization and companies like Progressive Insurance whose leadership is well known for its financial support of the far, far left in America, and whose insurance turns out to be one of the more expensive being offered, in spite of their claims.  (That figures.)

   We just thought you’d like to know about things like this.

Almost The End of Another Year

   Nov., 2011.  As usual, during this difficult period, the stocks have fallen again, with the S&P and Dow posting, this month, the worst Thanksgiving week on record since way back in 1932.  Yes, of course one can expect the excuses will be found to also bring us a mechanical correction and a spring-back now and again, but the trend still remains more like one step up and then two down.

   It is also a time when we are finding that American Airlines has gone into bankruptcy (a recoverable Chapter11, we hope).  And we find our United States Postal Service reporting a $5.1 billion loss for last year. (And it’s not doing any better for this year either, except for the upper-level bonuses that were certainly not justified.)  It might also be added that our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has been revised in the downward direction for the Third Quarter of this year. And, as Bill O’Reilly has noted on Fox News and in The Washington Times, "Americans are right, the country is in decline."

   Again, we remind everyone of our 1999 book, "Good-bye, America?"  We could see it coming, even way back then.

==========================

   I’m sure most of you are aware of the continuing drop in home prices.  You can add to that the continuing difficulties of the government financed and government controlled mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  And, as you might have expected, Freddie Mac got another $6 billion of our taxpayers’ money — to help it with its current $4.4 billion debt.

   And, as you might imagine, "Lawmakers moved ... to slash pay for employees at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, presenting the latest challenge to federal regulators overseeing the firms’ operations. ... Fannie and Freddie declined to comment." (As reported in The Wall Street Journal.)

   And, as further reported by the WSJ, in yet another area of responsibility, "Concerns are rising that the Federal Housing Administration [FHA] could run out of money if the economy doesn’t recover soon."  The signs aren’t good — not good at all, in any direction one might turn.

   Our cities are in trouble as well.  Birmingham, Alabama (Jefferson County) has filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s in trouble as well.  A judge has voided its bankruptcy filing so that perhaps the state can take over the obligation.

   It is also becoming even more apparent that the public union looting of our cities has created much of the problem. Little by little, municipal officials are beginning to address the problem.  It’s about time.

==========================

   On the energy front, The Washington Examiner tells us that "President Obama’s United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by canceling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest.  The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing."  It might be added that an estimated 200,000 jobs may have been lost due to this delay.

   In another example, Human Events reports that "Key factions within the Democratic Party have been locked in a furious battle pitting jobs against the environment, with President Barack Obama in the hot seat to make the final call on a massive new pipeline project that also promises energy security. ...

   "But after nearly three years of environmental reviews, 39 months waiting for Obama to approve the presidential permit, and new reports that the decision could again be pushed until after the election, TransCanada tells Human Events the delays could force them to sell their product elsewhere, specifically to China." Among other important losses, 20,000 jobs are estimated being held in the balance with this one.

   And The Wall Street Journal informs us that "A Massachusetts energy company that received a $43 million U.S. loan guarantee has filed for bankruptcy protection, in a new black eye for the Obama administration’s clean-energy program."

   The company is the Beacon Power Corporation — one more nail in our coffin.

==========================

   We are all too much aware of the grandiose promises of everything from political cooperation to helping the people.  And how is that working out for us? The Associated Press reports that "The ranks of America’s poorest have climbed to a record high — 1 in 15 people, new U.S. Census data shows."

   And, as William McGurn reports in the Wall Street Journal, "...it may have been outlined best by two Democratic strategists in a publication for the left-leaning Center for American Progress.  Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin made headlines for making official what everyone has known unofficially for some time: The Democratic Party is abandoning the white working class."

   With all of that you can add the expiring tax breaks at the end of this year, among them: Our mortgage insurance premium deduction, the home-energy tax credit of up to $500, the 2% Social Security tax cut, that $4,000 higher-education tax deduction, and any charitable contribution of your IRA assets.  All of this and much more is coming our way at the end of this year and next year unless Congress is able to get a good hold on this mess and their efforts aren’t canceled out by the president.

   We’ll see what happens to you soon.

==========================

   After extensive internal wrangling and histrionics, the super-committee deficit panel closed its tattered briefcases and staggered out into the night.  As could be expected, their utter failure took its toll on the stock market, as it also can be expected to take its toll on the people of our nation.

   As Jeb Hensarling noted in The Wall Street Journal, "Democrats refused to accept anything less than $1 trillion in tax hikes and refused to offer meaningful reforms to health-care entitlements."

   The Democrats from the panel and throughout the party want extensive tax increases on those who have had the unmitigated gall to be successful.  They say the wealthy don’t pay their fair share but the Dems are not interested in actually solving the problem by closing loopholes and ending unfair exceptions.

   Another point that the Democratic party doesn’t seem to want you to consider is the actual mathematics which clearly shows us that even if the IRS were to confiscate every single penny that is made by every person who dares to have an income of $100,000 a year or more, the amount of money collected would hardly be enough to run the gigantic federal government for 60 short days.  (That figure could vary a little, depending on how you "qualify" income and other factors.)

   So, what can we do?  It always comes down to the only realistic recourse, which is to cut down the size and spending of government.  That’s what it will take.

==========================

   World Net Daily adds input about the corruptive misery with its revelation that "President Obama’s ‘stimulus’ legislation helped to fund an education initiative associated with Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, according to a recently released book."

   The book’s title:  "Red Army: The Radical Network That Must Be Defeated To Save America."  Of course we all know of Obama’s close political ties to Bill Ayers.  I’ll leave it to you to connect the dots.

   On GBTV we also find that "Video of Joe Biden recently surfaced in which the Vice President is singling out former NJ Governor Jon Corzine as a key contributor to the Obama fiscal policies we are seeing now.  That would explain a lot, considering Corzine’s bankrupt company, MF Global, can’t seem to find $1.2 billion of investor money.  It just vanished with nothing to show for it."  Not unlike the enormous amount of money that Obama and his people have spent and has also somehow disappeared, with little or nothing to show for it.

   Interesting, yes?

==========================

   On the European front, the economic picture isn’t any better.  The Federal Reserve (in the U.S.) is warning about the European economic instabilities as the turmoil seems to be spreading throughout the continent.

   Most European countries had embraced the more socialist approach early on.  It wasn’t difficult for them. Historically they are used to more dictatorial central governments of one kind or another.

   Now it is beginning to dawn on at least a few of them that the time has come to pay the price, and the process is not a pretty sight.  We see the collapsing economies and we see the riots.  (With that in mind, we now must decide what we want for America.)

   On the positive side, there is a new German coalition that is taking a serious look at entitlements and has plans to make notable income-tax cuts.  There are plans like that in America as well.  There just has to be a way figured around a Democrat controlled senate and the current president.

   If that can’t be worked out, it will have to wait until the Nov., 2012 election.  Let’s hope we can hold on until then.

==========================

   We have learned, from bitter experience, that we can’t really depend all that much on our government to help us out.  We need to reach out to one another and we need to reach deeply within ourselves for many of the real answers.

   We are learning that the so-called "clean energy" has failed us in many, many ways.  But the oil and gas industries are beginning to generate actual jobs of genuine lasting consequence.  The prosperous state of North Dakota shows us that.

   And, might you have seen those great full-page ads by Starbucks and the Opportunity Finance Network? It’s part of a national project to help create new jobs in America.  It’s a good example of what people can do when they decide not to wait around for the government any more.

   Some are also turning to legal gambling to create new jobs and provide needed tax revenue. Unfortunately, hardly anyone ever stops to consider the promise of riches that is almost never fulfilled for the hapless gambler who loses so much and sometimes everything.

   One of the most important things to be considered may be the embarrassing fact that quite a number of skilled jobs can’t seem to be filled.  Why?  Because we’re not preparing available workers for those jobs. Maybe we should be doing something about this? Maybe.

==========================

   Our many problems don’t just generate out of thin air.  A great many of them seem to be coming to us courtesy of the current administration in the White House.  Grassfire Nation informs us that, "USA Today reports, ‘newly uncovered emails contradict’ what the White House has said regarding lefty fundraiser and Solyndra investor George Kaiser.

   We also see, from Jim McElhatton in The Washington Times, that, "New emails in the congressional probe of failed solar panel maker Solyndra LLC are raising sharp questions about claims that a fundraiser to President Obama never got involved in pushing for loans to the now-bankrupt company.

   Also Deborah Solomon revealed, in The Wall Street Journal, that "Solyndra LLC postponed a layoff announcement until the day after the 2010 midterm elections, following a push by the Department of Energy for a delay."

   That whole mess gets dirtier and dirtier with every passing minute, doesn’t it?

==========================

   As Paige Winfield Cunningham tells us in The Washington Times, it would seem that Obama and many of the lawmakers just can’t seem to swear off those addictive special tax breaks.  "President Obama has repeatedly called for doing away with special tax breaks he says litter the tax code, but he himself has recently proposed yet another new carve-out to push businesses..."  into yet additional hiring mandates, by way of a special tax dispensation.

   As further noted, "The tax code is now littered with more than 200 credits, deductions or other tax expenditures, and the number has risen moderately over the past five years to reach roughly $1 trillion in revenue that the government would otherwise be collecting."

   Might we have something to learn here? I believe so.

==========================

   The intrepid investigative journalist Michelle Malkin writes in Human Events about "Obama’s half-billion-dollar crony drug deal."  She asks, "What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, big labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual?  Answer: Another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama approved crony deal.  Move over Solyndra.  Here comes Siga-Gate.

   The outrages seem to continue like that in an almost endless line of uncontrolled abuses.  We do find, however, that some of what is happening gets so outrageous and in-your-face that even our corrupt legal system can no longer ignore the most blatant among them.

   As Douglas Belkin informs us (in the WSJ), "A federal judge sentenced a former fund-raiser for President Barack Obama to 10½ years in prison for his role in a kickback scheme while he was an adviser to convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich."

   "...Mr. Rezko [the man in question] helped raise money for Mr. Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign and later assisted the young Senator in buying a home in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park."  It was a very strange and questionable deal at best and a lot worse in all likelihood, as you may know (from previous exposure herein).

==========================

   The breakdown of the rule of law and honorable behavior in general goes up to the highest levels of government at this time.  Here are just a few examples (beyond what we have already exposed so many times and in so many ways throughout these "Concerns" pages of this GettingAmericaBack.org website).

   As reported by Phil Kerpen in The Washington Times, "...the [Democrat controlled] Senate decisively rejected President Obama’s ‘jobs’ plan.  The same day, in Pittsburgh, Mr. Obama explained to his union allies that he would move forward regardless.  ‘We’re not gonna wait for Congress,’ Mr. Obama explained, ‘We can act administratively without additional congressional authorization and just get it done.’ "

   And, on other high levels, The Wall Street Journal shows, "Some 830,000 Connecticut customers are only now having their power restored after a snowstorm knocked out the state’s grid last month — but the Environmental Protection Agency continues to claim that its regulatory agenda won’t degrade U.S. electric reliability.  The reality is that the EPA’s own staffers are — or used to be — worried, and their political superiors have erased the warnings."

   Want more?  Then we invite you to get a copy of Phil Kerpen’s new book, "Democracy Denied."  As Erick Erickson reports in Human Events, "It is a book that fastidiously chronicles the extent to which the Obama Administration has bypassed Congress and sought to impose its leftist agenda on the country without a vote being taken by any elected politicians."

   When you read it, don’t forget to look over your shoulder and wave good-bye.

==========================

   Ben Howe of RedState.com is credited with having helped break the story of "...the Democratic National Committee discriminating against Charlotte-area businesses for the 2012 convention because its workers were not unionized."  One businessman came right out and said, "We were just told that we cannot accept bids unless they are from companies that are unionized."

   Red State further noted that, "Politico also had another Charlotte business owner who was told the DNC was looking to use union labor for its convention."  And additionally, John Monteith, a Charlotte, NC print shop executive was told that he would not be awarded any contracts in conjunction with the upcoming 2012 Democratic National Convention to be held in his town because "his shop was not unionized."

   And, "Charlotte company Webb & Partners were also told to look elsewhere if they weren’t unionized. Webb & Partners project management firm owner Sherwood Webb says he heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. ‘They said we will be using union labor.’ "

   As one friend has since observed, "It’s more like it was straight from the Democratic donkey’s mouth, or perhaps from the other end."

==========================

   Remember when our Obama government swooped down upon the unsuspecting Gibson Guitar factories in Tennessee?  As Kimberley Strassel reports in The Wall Street Journal’s Potomac Watch, "The suggestion was that Gibson had violated the Lacey Act — a federal law designed to protect wildlife — by importing certain India ebony.

   The article goes on to clearly establish this fact in great detail.  We should also point out that the main man behind Gibson Guitars just happens to be a donor to political and other activities that just happen to be politically incorrect — in other words, conservative.

   Next, let us turn to Scott Kilman’s report in the same publication, in which he states, "The U.S. Labor Department, trying to force Cargill Inc. to settle job-discrimination allegations lodged by the agency, is seeking to cancel meat contracts it says are worth more than $550 million that the closely held Minneapolis commodity-processing giant has with the U.S. Military."

   And what has Cargill said about all of this? As further reported, "Cargill ... denied the discrimination allegations, which it said were based on the department’s faulty interpretation of historical hiring statistics ‘and not reality’ said Mike Martin, a Cargill spokesman, who added that 84% of Cargill’s Springdale workers are minorities."

   And now we are also hearing that Lisa Jackson’s Environmental Protection Agency seems determined to take over the responsibility of American automobile design — it would seem, much to the detriment of the auto manufacturers.

   What’s going on here?  Are these and so many other examples a dismal display of phenomenal government ineptitudes or purposeful destructive acts against American free enterprise?  You make the call.

==========================

   And what is our President doing while his wrecking crews are at work?  Well, in the early part of the month the WSJ informs us that, "President Barack Obama traveled overseas this week to try to cajole European leaders to resolve a debt crisis that could weaken the U.S. economy.  He left largely empty-handed."  Well of course.  He can’t even begin to get his fiscal act together here on the home front and he’s going to tell them how to do things over there?

   The next is another embarrassing example of his rather extensive lack of knowledge.  (Remember his "corps" mispronunciation, his 57 states statement, etc., etc.?)  Now he seems to be referring to Hawaii as a part of Asia.  He certainly must know better than that. He had lived in Hawaii.

   And finally, there is the liberal MSNBCs Chris Matthews who seems to have discovered that the shine may be off the apple.  Here is the major part of the recent transcript of him on Weekends with Alex Witt:

   "What are we trying to do in this administration?  Why does he want a second term?  Would he tell us?  What’s he going to do in the second term?  More of this?  Is this it?  Is this as good as it gets?  Where are we going? Are we going to do something the second term?  He has yet to tell us.

   I’d believe those stories, Chris.  I’d believe.  And it scares the hell out of me.

==========================

   With all that’s been happening, let us not forget what’s happening to Herman Cain.  Everyone has realized that if Mr. Cain was to become the Republican presidential candidate, the Democrats would no longer be able to wield their powerful race-card ploy.

   Herman Cain would have to be stopped at all cost. What ever it would take would have to be done to stop him.  That meant trashing Mr. Cain in every way possible.  And, of curse, that meant using imagination and invention.  And that brought about exactly what happened.  We remember when the left-wing pit bull attorney Gloria Allred was engaged and brought forward a domestic that was let go by Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman in California, when it was discovered that the domestic was an illegal alien.  Ms. Allred did all she could to twist the facts into a confusing knot that finally managed to fatally damage the candidate.

   And then we saw when one of Herman Cain’s accusers came forward, there was Gloria Allred once again, orchestrating the event, and helping to bring about the same end results.  As Mona Charen put it, it was, in many ways, like "The ‘Borking’ of Herman Cain."  (A reference to a similar character assassination of conservative Judge Robert Bork.)  And just you wait ‘till they create their garbage to smear all over Newt Gingrich.  Democrat strategists seem to love to do that sort of thing you know.

   Then, as time moved along, we heard that one of the Cain accusers works on the Obama team.  And we heard that another one lived next to a leading Democratic strategist who was a good, close friend of the accuser.  Are we on to something here?  I wonder.

   And then Jonathon M. Seidl reported in The Blaze about the allegations that one of the accusers, Sharon Bialek, "...had an interesting embrace with Herman Cain at a Tea Party convention last month.  That accusation isn’t coming from just any random observer, however. It’s coming from a major radio host at Chicago’s WIND-RADIO."

   And, as the Chicago Sun-Times told it, "They hugged each other backstage in a full embrace like old friends. She grabbed his arm and whispered in his left ear."  This is one of the women that then made strong sexual accusations against the man.  Was this not one hell of a set-up?  It most certainly seems so.

   And now, as Jonathan Weisman points out in The Wall Street Journal, "Obama campaign leaders are said to believe Mr. Romney will be the nominee, and they want to undermine his image."

   Fair warning.  It’s coming.  Obama has no successful record to run on.  All he and his minions can do is to try and divide people, throw the race-card out in every direction, and invent every gross deception and falsehood that is possible to create, in the hope that enough American voters will be incapable of seeing through what is done and will not be able to actually think for themselves.  They’re counting on that.

==========================

   And now we come to Barney Frank.  Human Events put it best of all, as reported by Jason Mattera.  "The man who was complicit in bringing the American economy to its knees in 2008 won’t go down as, well, the man who was complicit in bringing the American economy to it knees.  Not if the ‘mainstream’ media has anything to do with it, that is.

   The Human Events report goes on, "Unlike the Times, the Washington Post did mention Frank’s, er, interesting partner choices over the years, one that resulted in the infamous ‘allegations involving his relationship with a male prostitute who worked out of the lawmaker’s Capitol Hill townhouse.’  (Side note: The Washington Post frames the boyfriend as someone who ‘worked’ out of Barney’s house? I guess that’s one way to put it. Another was that Barney Frank’s Washington, D.C., apartment was also operating as a gay brothel, of which Frank denies he had any knowledge.

   And there you have it. As is often the case, many of the villains of history are lionized by those disreputable ones who have the public pen and seem to also have a broken ethical compass to guide them. Something to remember when you read the paper or watch the national evening news.

==========================

   Once again on the election front, the Democrats are pushing their major "voter protection" efforts to eliminate all reasonable voter registration and voting identification and verification procedures, opening the way for massive voter fraud throughout the nation.  It is felt to be essential if they are to retain control.

   Major efforts are also under way to continue their redrawing of districts to favor the Democratic party candidates.  This is being done in state legislatures and in federal courts (as in Texas) when they find they can’t do so through legislatures they don’t control.

   Historically, this coming Presidential election will be going down as one that is replete with every dishonest attempt that can be initiated to create an elective outcome favorable to the far-left that is now clearly in charge of the once honorable and proud Democratic party.

   If they succeed in their endeavor, the American era will be over.  This is the only conclusion that this writer could come to, after reviewing the chronology of our decline and its source.  Now it is up to us — each and every one of us.  What will it be, America?  What will it be?

==========================

   We now all see what a world of difference there is between "Tea Party" events and the "Occupy" protests. Mallard Fillmore sees the Occupy demonstrators as so very down with corporations, except of course the ones who make their social media communicators and other such toys.  (Thank you Bruce Tinsley and The Washington Times.)

   In that same publication, Thomas Sowell sees, "In various cities across the country, mobs of mostly young, mostly incoherent, often noisy and sometimes violent demonstrators are making themselves a major nuisance.

   So, wild with their new-found sense of power, the Oakland protesters called for a general strike of support from the public.  And how did that work out?  It didn’t happen.

   Then the New York Post caught a nice morning brawl between Occupiers near Wall Street, on a very clear video (which this writer watched).  Just like the Tea Parties? Sure.  If you’re high on something you might come to that conclusion.

   Then CNN reports, "Occupy protesters returned to the streets of Atlanta, a day after a police crackdown on a gathering organized by the movement resulted in the arrest of 19 people."  Then Channel 10 (in San Diego) reported that Occupy protesters in that city are raided by police for a second time and camping set-ups are cleared out, along with weapons and drugs.  And Roger Ogden puts out a call to help small businesses that were shut down by the San Diego Occupy activities.  And this wasn’t the only place where this problem occurred.

   As reported by Jana Winter at Fox News, "Small business owners and local residents fed up with the ‘Occupiers’ at Zuccotti Park in New York are planning a counter-protest and news conference of their own, to make clear the crowd has long overstayed its welcome — and that businesses will not survive if the ‘occupation’ continues."

   Then Reuters news service reports, "Tensions were rising at anti-Wall Street protests in three western cities ... as demonstrators in Portland, Salt Lake City and Oakland defied orders by police to dismantle their camps."

   Then GBTV reports that, "Once again, just when you thought Occupy protests couldn’t get any worse, they do.  Two shootings at separate Occupy events have left two people dead.  One was an alleged self-inflicted wound at Occupy Vermont and the other was a murder at Occupy Oakland."  Amazingly, a local reporter setting up for a live broadcast caught the gunfire on tape — and then the Occupiers, according to the report, tried to block cameras from recording what happened.  (This writer saw that tape and it was all too real.)

   Then The Blaze reveals, "Over the weekend, Adam Kokesh (‘Adam vs. the Man’) headed down to Occupy D.C. ‘Anti-Capitalist Teach-In,’ where he captured some curious comments from participants.  Among the bizarre statements to come from protesters was the notion that Occupiers may be organizing within the military in an effort to see a ‘revolution’ unfold."

   Then Reuters news service reports that, "Violent confrontations between police and protesters at two University of California campuses have drawn a new cadre of students into the Occupy Wall Street movement and unleashed what some historians call the biggest surge in campus activism since the 1960s."

   Through it all there yet remains one important though overlooked truth.  Disruption is not a part of free speech.  That lesson needs to be learned well by a lot of authorities and politicians everywhere.

==========================

   With all the unrest within our borders that we seem to have so much difficulty dealing with, what are we doing with the serious threats from our actual national border?  Let’s take a look and see what’s happening.

   One good example, brought to light by Bob Unruh (WND): "The federal government has sent a collection notice to the family of a Border Patrol agent who was jailed and fined for pulling on the arms of a handcuffed suspect to get him to comply with orders, according to a charitable organization working on a defense for Jesus E. Diaz Jr.

   You can add to that the Maryland nightmare where the so-called "DREAM Act" will evidently allow illegal aliens to attend college in that state and at in-state rates that it is suggested can be expected to crowd out many local, legal state residents who would like to have a higher education.  (As revealed by Newsmax Magazine.)

   And, as Grassfire Nation informs us, "Fox News reported that our Capital City, Washington, D.C., became a sanctuary city after Mayor Vincent Gray signed an executive order formalizing the existing ‘don’t-ask-don’t-tell’ policy prohibiting police from inquiring about the immigration status of people they stop or arrest."

   And now Patriot Update informs us that, "Established 15 years ago, the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is a seemingly innocuous administrative requirement that the Internal Revenue Service assigns to anyone who is employed and pays taxes.  According to the IRS website, the numbers are used for federal tax reporting only.  But since ITINs, as they are commonly known, are issued to wage earners regardless of immigration status, they’ve frequently been abused by the aliens who hold them."

   This report reveals that, "The ITIN’s improper use is once again in the news.  The Federation for American Immigration Reform, in its recent analysis ... revealed that according to the Department of Treasury’s Inspector General, more than $4.2 billion in additional child credits were paid out in 2010 to illegal immigrants.  In 2005, the pay-outs totaled $924 million.  This program allows low income earners to claim a $1,000 per child credit. If the household ends up with no additional tax obligation — as most alien families do not — then $1,000 is paid to them."

   And now GodfatherPolitics.com is informing us what we are hearing from many quarters of late. "Information surfacing from grand jury indictment reveals that the illegals are intentionally hunting U.S. Border Patrol agents for the express purpose of killing them."  We should add that there is, at this time, a limited number engaged in such warfare tactics.  But it really does seem to be happening, and regardless of the number so engaged, it is a very serious situation.

==========================

   On other matters we find that even a U.N. agency has accused Iran of pursuing the development of nuclear weapons.  Unheard of, I know, but the situation has now actually gotten that bad.

   As detailed in The Washington Times, "Iran has carried out extensive development of nuclear weapons, including work on a warhead for a medium-range Shabab-3 missile and preparations for an underground test, the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed in an internal report Nov 8."  This excellent reporting was done by Bill Gertz.

   In spite of this, China and Russia are not on board with the rest of the world with regard to serious sanctions against Iran.  In fact, as reported in this same publication, "China is continuing to provide advanced missiles and other conventional arms to Iran and may be doing so in violation of U.N. sanctions against the Tehran regime, according to a draft report by the Congressional U.S. – China Commission."

   Let us also remember that while president, Clinton allowed our missile guidance technology to be shared with Communist China.  And now, as reported by Shaun Waterman in The Washington Times, "Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, criticized the Obama administration’s policy on science and technology cooperation with China.  ‘Any efforts on our part to reach out to the Chinese communists, to engage them on matters of technology is, quite frankly, not just naive, it is dangerous,’ Mr. Rohrabacher said."

   We just never seem to learn.  I can only hope we don’t end up paying an ultimate price for our irresponsibilities.

   And, while we’re in these areas of concern, we might take note of Devlin Barrett’s article in The Wall Street Journal in which he reports that, "...the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a trove of secretly recorded videos and photographs from Operation Ghost Stories, the U.S. probe that netted 10 Russian spies last year.

   "Some of the spies operated in the U.S. for more than a decade, in one of the most sensational espionage cases since the end of the Cold War."  Like I said, we just never seem to learn, do we?

   So, what are we doing about all of this? Michael Austin tells us, in this same publication, that, "With resources thinning and China rising, the U.S. Air Force is all the more vital — yet it’s due for major budget cuts."  And Rowan Scarborough reports in The Washington Times that, "The Army’s top officer told Congress on Nov. 2 that he would have to cancel nearly every new weapons system now planned if automatic, across-the-board spending cuts of $1 trillion-plus hit the Pentagon."

   And as if that is not enough, " ‘We will not be there to deter our potential adversaries,’ Gen. Joseph Dunford, who as assistant commandant is the nation’s No. 2 Marine, told the House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness."

   Let us hope that such words will have value other than as historical insight when pulled from the ruins of this once mighty nation.

==========================

   On the Islamic front, the news shouldn’t surprise anyone.  Nobody seems to know what is going to happen next in Egypt, but whatever it will be, don’t expect love and good wishes.  In Libya it would seem that the new power base will be an Islamic Shariah government.

   Meanwhile, the Arab League is putting pressure on the current Syrian government.  The question is, what will come after the fall?  And in Pakistan — first there is our elimination of Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound and then there is a confusing fire-fight in the uncontrolled border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

   Since these things happened within Pakistan and since a few members of their military were fatally engaged in the border skirmish, many in that country have become outraged (as they are rather often) and the government is drawing ever further from us and closer and closer to Communist China and others we would hesitate to call our friends.

   And let us not forget the Iranian assault on the British Embassy in Tehran and their continuing supply train to their surrogate terrorists in Iraq.  If the government in Iran doesn’t manage to collapse, we can expect the entire Middle East to eventually be set on fire.  And in regard to Iraq, the now retired primary Army General John M. Keane has gone public and is saying that our current pullout schedule will lead to an absolute disaster.

   Not always do the generals wait until retirement before opening their mouths.  As Reuters reports, "Major General Peter Fuller, a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was relieved of his duties ... after making comments critical of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a senior U.S. defense official said. ... Fuller told the Politico newspaper that Afghan leaders were ‘isolated from reality,’ the official said."

   That is a fatal error if I’ve ever heard one.

==========================

   When things start falling apart, as we have seen they are doing, corruption is one of the front-runners.  And we see this everywhere, from the inappropriate diversion of public funds to the deepest forms of political corruption.

   We see cities like Portland, Oregon using funds intended for much needed water and sewer responsibilities, diverted to a building for the local Rose Festival foundation.  We see school funds used for the city operational expenses in Ecorse, Michigan.

   And there’s so much more.  It’s just not the pilfering of funds from Social Security anymore.  Everybody seems to be getting into the act.  But at least there are a precious few people who are actually asking about all of these things, Sarah Palin among them.  She queried, in the WSJ:  "Politicians who arrive in Washington as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires.  Why?"

   The answer to that is beginning to come to light and it doesn’t offer us a pleasant image of our Washington leadership.  Interested in the dirty underpinning?  If so, you may want to check out what WND refers to as, "Jack Abramoff’s autobiographical bombshell, ‘Capital Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington, Corruption From America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist’

   "...Most of the Washington power players thought Abramoff was gone and buried in a federal prison, and didn’t even realize he was released — let alone that he was penning what is clearly the most devastating attack on special interest power in decades."  This is a book that will wake you up — and should get you mad as hell.

   Another book that will help you in that direction is "Throw Them Out" by Peter Schweizer.  It reveals Washington corruption through "legal" insider trading, and all sorts of other interesting things.  And you thought you could get away with just reading my contributions?

   And then there was that recent "60-Minutes" TV report on widespread corruption in our nation’s capital, which featured Congressional insider trading. (As you may know, "insider trading" is when you are making market moves based on insider information that is not public — that gives you a very special advantage — that is against the law to act upon if you are in the private sector.)

   You can add to that, BigGovernment.com’s exposure: "80 percent of all $20.5 billion in Department of Energy loans went to President Obama’s top donors. Furthermore, some of those dwarf in size those given to Obama bundler George Kaiser, owner of the now defunct Solyndra.

   Well I guess so.  But even so this does seem to be, "The new economy: Tax hikes for all, tax relief for the well-connected, campaign contributions for the politicians," as stated by William McGurn in "Main Street" (in The Wall Street Journal).

   A few are fighting back.  As reported by Matthew Dolan, "A proposed new city charter on the Nov. 8 ballot [in Detroit] strengthens the City Council’s power to remove the mayor and other officeholders, imposes new ethics rules, tightens financial reporting requirements and creates a watchdog to oversee the mayor and his administration."

   Now if only we had something like that for federal administrations.

==========================

   Yes, our legal system has almost never been what it needed to be — what it should have been.  All one has to do is take a long and serious look at the racial and sexual harassment charges being flung about.  Far too many are being found to be politically motivated, financially motivated, attention motivated and motivated in every way imaginable other than fact driven, justice motivated.

   Of course there are many very real situations that need to be very seriously addressed through a genuine, properly working legal system.  But what this writer is talking about is erroneous charges being leveled against public figures and corporations where they hope to destroy a political career or to get a company to "pay off" because it costs so much to go into court — even when the accuser has made provably false accusations.

   Why is it that it never seems to occur to very many folks that one way to greatly reduce frivolous civil lawsuits is to institute the rule that the losing plaintiff (and the losing attorney) must pay all of the legal costs of the winner — with no escape allowed through bankruptcy?  Possibly a modified version of this might also be worth considering for criminal cases as well.

   There are also many other issues that need to be dealt with as well, such as spotlighted by the Reuters news service in this following release, this month: "High-profile accusations of child sex abuse in the United States have refocused attention on laws that are meant to protect the rights of the accused but in fact can help pedophiles escape prosecution.

   And in still other areas we find, as with a Fields and Emshwiller report in The Wall Street Journal: "An explosion of criminal prosecutions in the nation’s overextended federal courts has left civil litigants from bereaved spouses to corporate giants waiting years for their day in court."

   And there are comments like that reported by RedState.com the first of this month: "The Sheriff of Spartanburg County in South Carolina gave a news conference yesterday wherein he offered reason number 7,283 ‘...why I am a Conservative.’  You see, while the Occupy Wall Street movement is making those pesky women who’ve been sexually assaulted and raped hush up (they aren’t good for The Cause), Sheriff Chuck Wright is walking the talk of true empowerment by encouraging women to arm themselves to prevent being violently assaulted."

   It was not all that much unlike a number of individuals in Pacific Beach, California who want people to hush up and look the other way with regard to the "inconvenient" sexual assaults that happen so often in their little beach community.  (It’s not good for business.)

   And in yet other areas we hear that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has declined to recuse herself from the upcoming Obamacare case, even though it is clearly understood she personally was directly involved in the development and support of that same Obamacare.

   And finally, as noted by ConservativeByte.com at the end of the month, "The Senate is set to vote on a bill today that would define the whole of the United States as a ‘battlefield’ and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.

   "The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president — and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself."  (Let’s hope this is something of an exaggeration.)

   With all of these many examples and so many more, I hope you are aware that precious little can be done until Obama’s Holder is removed from the thoroughly politicized Justice Department.

==========================

   Next, we have a very dangerous illegal alien from Mexico who was deported twice, has returned to the U.S. (illegally), and ended up in jail on a serious sexual assault charge and some government agency came along and sprung him— just turned him loose. He then preceded to go the rest of the way (why not?). He committed murder.

   Now the few investigative reporters that remain in America are doing everything they can to find out who released this animal and why, and the federal government is doing all it can to not comply.  This writer has a sneaking suspicion that it will turn out to be the Justice Department or one of the agencies or bureaus it controls.

   Meanwhile, Eric Holder, Obama’s man in control of the Justice Department, continues to face a grilling in front of a Congressional hearing.  And as you may know, Holder finally admits the Gun-Sting operation was an error, but still can’t satisfactorily explain the discrepancies between some of his earlier statements and now-released emails.

   As Human Events sees it, "Besides being mixed up in the ‘Fast and Furious Mexican fiasco, Holder was involved with the infamous Black Panther Party incident on Election Day 2008 where NBPP members threatened white, and Asian voters, along with campaign workers with deadly weapons.  The government made it plain that they had no interest in fighting discrimination against white people — the case was dropped.

   "And now Obama goes above and beyond with early voting options for the convenience of welfare recipients — while making it as difficult as possible for military personnel serving abroad (who tend to be Republican) to acquire timely ballots in order to have their vote count.  The Obama-Holder DOJ no longer functions as a true Department of Justice."  (Thank you VIP Women’s Group for bringing all of this to our attention.)

   A book we would like to recommend on this subject: "Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department" by J. Christian Adams.

   Someday maybe we will have a return of law and order.  We can only hope so.

==========================

   We are seeing critical cancer drugs coming into short supply due, they say, primarily to federal price controls.  We read Scott Gottlieb’s assessment in the WSJ which tells us that, "Until government price controls are lifted, the makers of generics will be unable to cover their production costs."  (Dr. Gottlieb is a highly knowledgeable and respected physician with considerable understanding of the prescription drug industry.)

   We also are hearing the increasing rumble of a doctor revolt with the number of folks now seeking benefits and treatment soaring.  The bureaucrats in Washington are doing all they can to apply restrictions and doctors’ payment reductions and it is taking its toll.

   In another area of the war on your health and well being, ConservativeByte.com reveals: "In cash-strapped Washington, President Obama’s $1 trillion healthcare law is presenting a tempting target for lawmakers seeking funds for other projects, as Congress last week raided the healthcare piggy bank for the third time in less than a year."

   And Liberty Council has sent us this alert: "Under Obama Care: Abortion access is growing — even into our public schools;  Healthcare costs now exceed many families’ budgets while services will soon have to be rationed;  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi overlooked a critical funding detail in their 2,000+ page bill and now the IRS may have to step in to ‘help’;  The Medicaid rolls of states will expand 20 to 50 percent and could not be supported even with a thriving economy;..." and on it goes.

   I wonder if any of our more thoughtful liberal friends might have learned something from all of this.  I most certainly hope so.

==========================

   The media is what it is and it is so very sad that it has, in general, become of such little consequence with regard to truth and honor.

   Jerrett Stepman informs us in Human Events, "In a report titled ‘Counting the Reasons to Defund: The 20 most Memorable Leftist Excesses of Public Broadcasting,’ the Media Research Center has exposed many of the follies and improprieties of the publicly funded media.

   Another example given:  "A regular contributor to PBS, Julianne Malveaux, said about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,  ‘I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease.’ "  And the examples go on, but you get the idea.  Isn’t it nice what your tax money is paying for?

   I imagine you might be finding that listening to or reading many of those intense, liberal/left advocates is, for so many of us, not unlike staring at the wide-open mouth of a very hungry snake.  It is a situation that some behavioral scientists say might make one wonder if all that vicious vitriol might be an integral part of their own deep-seeded self-loathing.  One might wonder.

   And how are the magazines and newspapers of the left doing these days?  Well, most magazines had a bit of a rebound after a notable period of decline but that’s over now.  Ads have dropped 6.8% and the future doesn’t look any better.

   Additionally, we see that once again the publisher and top level editors have hit the road at Newsweek. But of course once again the ownership will not take the editorial steps to move away from an often fictional portrayal of the news.  Therefore, do not expect their continuing failure to change.

   With regard to newspapers, Don Bauder, a former top-notch financial editor turned investigative journalist, put it best in The San Diego Reader this month:  "The numbers tell the story.  According to the Newspaper Association of America, industry ad revenue has dropped every quarter since the third period of 2006.  Newspaper revenues have plunged about 50 percent since then.

   Meanwhile, the more fair and balanced News Corporation has announced a 7% rise in revenue.  Now I wonder what lesson might be learned from this?  I wonder.

==========================

   Unfortunately "education" has really become quite an education for all of us.  They keep crying for more funds, telling us they’re not being paid enough, while, at the same time Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute) and Jason Richwine (The Heritage Foundation) report in The Wall Street Journal that, "Our research suggests that on average — counting salaries, benefits and job security — teachers receive about 52% more than they could in private business."

   And as Carl R. Gottstein Jr. tells us through The Patriot Action Network: "The Farmington, Michigan school district — Michigan Capitol Confidential reports — that in that district, the average gym teacher’s salary is $75,035, whereas teachers make $68,480 on average.

   Might you also be interested in where much of the rest of the money might sometimes be going?  Eliot Brown tells us in the WSJ that, "Across the U.S., new development projects are in short supply, given a cautious sentiment among lenders and investors.

   "The university is selling land to the developer for $1 million that it bought for about $9 million;  it is guaranteeing the $22 million construction loan on the 130-room hotel;  and it is leasing the full 150,000 square feet of office space."  Wow!

   All of this is going on at a time when statistics show us that we currently owe more on our college loans than we do on our credit cards.  And it’s a time when we are finding that there is a strong demand developing among employees for high-skill jobs that we seem unable to fulfill in our own country.

   In another area of education, Harriet McLeod (Reuters) reports:  "In the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, another university, the Citadel military college in South Carolina, revealed ... that it had investigated accusations against a camp counselor but took no action."  We understand there could be a number of other institutions in similar difficulties if the whole truth were to be known.

   And WND reports that, "An organization that monitors the U.S. government’s influence on education, and specifically on parents who choose to school their own children, is warning of a pending move in Washington." The report further notes that, "The measure could not only require parents who homeschool their children to teach certain government agenda issues, but also effectively remove much of the decision-making authority of local school boards and districts."

   Since this writer has mentioned the Chicago area in less than a brilliant light, I would also like to share a positive example with you from that area.  It seems that a comprehensive program of pre-school math is being developed in that city.

   This is something very special.  Leading educators and behavioral scientists tell us that early and well developed math concepts assist the development of reasoning, logical thinking and the skills for jobs later on in science and other technical areas.

   We should also add that if we are ever to return to solid core values here in America, we will also need to start teaching real American history and the concepts of ethics and an earned personal dignity.

   That’s our homework assignment for the day, America.

==========================

   And now we come to the continuing persecution of so many who would only like to have the once normal freedom of religion that we all used to enjoy here in this place we used to call The United States of America.

   This month Godfather Politics informs us that, "Two Colorado Women’s shelters lost government funding for their successful substance abuse programs because part of the process of turning the lives around of these women was reading the Bible.  In addition to dealing with substance abuse problems, the shelters provide transitional housing for the homeless and those struggling with addiction."

   Vision To America reports that, "After fielding complaints from parents about its ‘mature’ content, the Wall-Mart-owned retailer Sams Club has pulled a reported 10,000 copies of a ‘Bible’ off its shelves."

   Tony Perkins reports to us that, "Sometimes no decision is the worst decision of all.  As you may have heard, the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to intervene at a defining moment for religious freedom in America.

   Jon Christian Ryter tells us that, "As Commander-in-Chief of the United States military, Barack Hussein Obama reportedly issued an edict to enforce military regulations that require the removing of all Christian symbols and icons from all military chapels in the world on Nov. 23, 2011 after someone in the Afghan government protested the large chapel cross at the Christian chapel at Camp Marmal just outside Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan."

   And let us not forget this month’s Thanksgiving observance.  Among other things, our president chose to omit any mention of God in his Thanksgiving Day address.  (Well of course.  What did you expect?)

==========================

   Some out there still seem to liken the global warming claim to something akin to the end of the world. Carl Bialik would like us to know (as he wrote in the WSJ) that, "...a team of scientists recently tackled the job of cleaning up and organizing 1.6 billion temperature readings from two centuries and nearly 40,000 land-based locations.

   "...The process took nearly two years and has yielded a data set the project’s leader says can be analyzed in a matter of hours."  The conclusion that cannot be avoided is simply that, "...the Earth’s land has warmed by an average of about 0.9 degree Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-1950s."  Now isn’t that interesting?

   But of course there are still the wild-eyed ones who cannot seem to escape their apocalyptic fantasies.  As Human Events notes, "A few weeks after he launched a profanity-filled tirade at the Aspen Institute against critics of global warming, Al Gore is at it again.

   So we have rain, fire and drought, right?  How about adding inflamed demagogs to that list?

==========================

   The headline in Barbara Haislip’s article in The Wall Street Journal, around the middle of this month, reads: "New IRS Rule Creates (What A Shock!) More Paperwork."  And what is that all about?  The article tells us, "A new Internal Revenue Service rule could make life trickier for most businesses that get paid with credit cards — from online retailers to the local deli."

   As you might have imagined, "For small businesses, the new law ‘creates an administrative burden to separately account for different transactions — and to break it down month by month if they want to reconcile to the 1099-Ks they receive,’ " says Ms. Melissa Labant (American Institute of CPAs).

   Meanwhile the average state tax burden has grown 10.8% and of course the Democrats are not solving the loophole problem with big earners.  Instead they prefer to just propose a nice new additional tax levy on the top earners (who are also the ones who have the funds to create new jobs), whether they have been abusers of tax loopholes or not.  Well of course.

   You must remember that logic and reason are not allowed in the interactive dynamics of politics on the left.  When you realize that, all of these things that are happening will begin to be understood as inevitable results.

The End of 2011

   Dec., 2011.  This last month of 2011 was truly the end of a difficult year.  Banking instabilities dropped the market by around 100 points and then made an anemic temporary recovery that ended on the up side a little bit.

   A close examination of our current economic situation, coupled with political realities, suggest an improvement could be coming for 2012.  We see that most of the business community feels that the 2012 election could reverse the oppressive, dampening government operations of the current regime. Therefore, financial opportunities for development and expansion might be expected to begin to be acted upon in the new year and beyond.

   If this then shows some improvement in the economy, you will find that the Democratic leadership is already positioned to claim credit, even though such a causative relationship does not exist.  If the economy does not show notable improvement, expect them to declare everything from claimed Republican obstructionism to their old boogie-man George Bush as the responsible parties.  In either case they hope that most Americans won’t figure out what they are feeding you.

   And then we have such public quotes as "Business and industry have turned the corner," and "We are now passed the worst."  And then there is that one saying "...we are fortunate in having a President who sets us a shining example of that courage and initiative."

   It all sounds so very familiar, doesn’t it?  It’s always what is said at such times as this.  However, these particular quotes are actually from another time of national economic distress.

   The first two quotes are from former President Herbert Hoover in 1929 and then again in 1930.  The third quote is by the then Secretary of Labor, James J. Davis.  It would seem they all work from the same play-book down through the ages, don’t they?

   As with all our quotes, these quotes are also authentic.  You will find them, and a number of similar familiarities, in The Oxford History of The American People by Samuel Eliot Morison.

==========================

   Just in case you actually think things are getting better, you might want to revisit our debt situation. Even China is selling off its U.S. Treasury holdings as we reach an astounding $15 trillion national debt.

   It figures out to be a debt growth of approximately $49,000 every second, which come to around $56 billion every day!

   It may seem like nothing of great importance to some politicians but to those of us who must live in the real world, it is something of considerable concern.  In previous reports I have detailed just how much just one trillion dollars actually is.  It is mind-boggling — it truly is.

   As to our recovery — lots of luck.

==========================

   Some in media are trying to tell us that the tiny drop in unemployment to 8.6% is at least a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

   Many don’t seem to feel it means much at all. Conservative Byte tells us that, "It is a corrupt number. ... the number of people who have quit looking for work in the last few weeks is 315,000.  Those are the people who have thrown up their hands after 99 weeks or more of being unemployed ... they’re not counted."

   If this fact, and all of the other facts that should be considered — but are not — would be considered, our actual unemployment rate would be more like 15% to 20%.  That’s right.  Let’s actually add those in who are no longer looking, those doing minimal work in the underground economy, those on very short part-time employment, the scammers of the welfare system, various other criminal elements (not including Congress), and what might you get?  One can only imagine.

   One might also find Stephen Dinan’s report in The Washington Times to be of interest.  "The Unemployment Insurance program’s error rate has jumped as the program has grown during the economic downturn, paying out billions of dollars in improper payments in 2011, making it the second-worst program on the special government watch list."

   And it has a terrible record recovering money at all from those who were overpaid.  What a scam that’s turned out to be.

==========================

   How did all these most unfortunate events happen? Did these things happen in a vacuum?  I don’t think so.

   As noted in The Wall Street Journal, "The White House is on the political offensive, and one of its chief claims is that it isn’t the over-regulator of business." Really?  Well then, just who has been doing this over the past 3 or 4 years?

   The same publication has also noted that "Democrats have spent years arguing that private lenders created the housing boom and bust, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac merely came along for the ride.

   "This was always a politically convenient fiction, and now thanks to the unlikely source of the Securities and Exchange Commission we have a trail of evidence showing how the failed mortgage giants turbocharged the crisis."  And we know who was supposed to be watching the store, don’t we?

   You might also be interested in an open letter by Brian W. Sullivan that is still circulating all over the Internet.

   On Jan. 3, 2007 the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress.  "At that time: The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77;  The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%;  The unemployment rate was 4.6%;  The previous policies set a record of 52 straight months of job creation.

   And as further detailed, "Who took the third highest pay-off [in political contributions] from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? — Obama.  And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie? — Obama and his Democratic Congress."

   Oh, but aren’t we supposed to blame George Bush for all of that?  Well, of course, if only we will follow the bouncing ball of the Democrat’s karaoke prompts.

   So much for the blame game.

==========================

   So, with all of this going on, how is the business community doing?  Not so well.  There was a little up-tick of holiday sales but some companies are still in trouble.  For example, Sears must close as many as 120 stores.  The stats also show us a continuing decline in U.S. factory orders (for what little is left of our American factories).

   Research and development is up but the share of U.S. R&D funding is down along side of the China surge.  And the WSJ informs us that "...the Environmental Protection Agency issued a ‘draft’ report that the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing may have contaminated ground water in Pavillion, Wyoming."  As you might image, "The news caused elation among environmentalists and many in the media who want to shut down fracking."  Of course what the draft report and the sympathetic media didn’t tell us, but The Wall Street Journal did report is that, "...the U.S. Geological Survey has detected organic chemicals in the well water in Pavillion (population 175) for at least 50 years — long before fracking was employed."  Isn’t that interesting?

   It should also be noted that some businesses and financial institutions aren’t helping matters any with so many of the other problems we have out there.  Bank of America, once again stands out as a good — I mean "bad" — example.

   As WSJ’s Jessica Silver-Greenberg reports, "Bank of America Corp. and a debt collector it hired to go after deceased customers’ debts violated state law by repeatedly calling a Florida woman about paying the credit-card bill of her late husband, a Florida state court judge ruled this month.

   It was further reported that, "Bank of America and other major U.S. lenders hand over accounts of the deceased to firms specializing in death-debt collection. The collection firms then zero in on family members who they think might agree to pay some of what the dead person owed even though they have no legal obligation to do so."

   To consider this practice as despicable would be to put it politely.  It would seem a major clean-up is not just needed in the government sector exclusively.  So it would seem.

==========================

   The Wall Street Journal’s L. Gordon Crovitz sees our new financial regulations as being worse than the crimes and other problems they are intended to control.  And, more and more, the U.S. mortgage crisis and also the European sovereign debt crisis are seen as being caused by very bad policies and subsidized investments that also are deemed to be exceptionally poor.

   And in the world of U.S. home ownership, Reuters news service tells us that, "Prospective home buyers believe now is a good time to buy. ... It’s the sellers who are the problem, according to a study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association."

   It is a major problem. "The negative home-selling sentiment is strongly related to difficulty in finding buyers at desired sales prices, as well as a large overhang of mortgages past due or in foreclosure, the mortgage trade group said."

   And, as seen in the WSJ, "University Place, Wash. — long a model American community with high-performing schools, beautiful parks and rising real estate values, this city of 31,000 on the Puget Sound has lately turned into a reluctant showcase for the downgrading of America.

   It’s a most unfortunate experience being felt by municipalities all over the nation.  And it’s not going away any time soon.

   The Wall Street Journal put it very well (as usual) when it published the following comments this month: "President Obama is leading his regulators in an anvil chorus unlike anything in modern U.S. history.  So it is unsurprising but still instructive that independent students of regulation say the quality of the many rules they’re putting out seem to be at an all-time low.

   And Obama most gleefully tells us all that he’s on a roll — that such rules will just keep on coming.  How nice.

==========================

   Once again we ask what Washington is doing to ease our financial crisis and once again we get the same ‘ole answer.

   Donald Lambro tells us, in The Washington Times: "When Congress announced a ban on budget earmarks earlier this year, many believed that the wasteful spending practice had been killed once and for all."

   In your dreams.  "A six-month investigation by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, discovered 115 earmarks in this year’s defense authorization bill — 40 of them from House Republicans (many of whom ran against earmarks) and 75 from House Democrats."

   How do they continue to do this sort of thing (and with a straight face)?  "It turns out that this corrupt, backdoor spending practice that has wasted untold billions on pet projects back home is alive and well, though apparently cloaked in procedural and applicational mumbo-jumbo to make it look legitimate."

   And we see government employees everywhere cleaning up — and cleaning us out — like Princesella Smith "...who raked in [as a salary] $89,599 while operating the toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2011."  (From Human Events "Daily Events," an on-line column.)  And that’s just one sample of how your taxpayer-pockets are being picked.

   And then there’s the Human Events revelation that, "According to a recent report by the Heritage Foundation, a large number of U.S. states are currently giving in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants without extending them to all Americans, including legal immigrants."  And you know who pays for the losses in what would have been the appropriate revenue, don’t you?

   We also have the Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman showing us that, " ‘Robot dragons, video games, Christmas trees, snow cone machines, and chocolate — this is not a Christmas wish list.  These are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars this year.’  U.S. Senator Tom Coburn wrote that in the introduction to his ‘Wastebook 2011' report that was just released."

   As the report was further quoted:  "Over the past 12 months, Washington politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign in the federal government’s out of control spending.  All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not need, like the $6.9 billion worth of examples provided in this report.

   "The result: Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion."  So, how does that make you feel?

   There is no doubt whatsoever that the big spenders in Washington are still in top form and have won the battle in 2011.  Do you care?  I hope so.

==========================

   Well, it’s been quite a battle.  First the Senate blocks the various tax cut bills.  Then finally a puny two-month extension of the payroll tax break (instead of for 6 months or a year) was reluctantly agreed to by the Republicans.

   Meanwhile, the state of New York has approved a tax package that sticks it to the more financially endowed residents, big time.  And, as reported by Vauhini Vara (WSJ):  "California Gov. Jerry Brown filed an initiative to ask voters to raise state income taxes on the wealthy..."

   And as Nick Timiraos and Alan Zibel also reported in the Journal,  "Congress and the Obama administration are turning to an unlikely source to pay for the ... extension of the payroll-tax cut:  mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

   Well, that would really finish the deeply depressed real estate market.  Now won’t that be nice?  And, as reported in Newsmax magazine by Kelly Patricia O’Meara,  "Just in time for the holiday season, President Barack Obama is playing Scrooge by diminishing tax incentives for wealthy folks who give donations — a proposal many charities warn could be devastating to nonprofits."

   So it would seem just about everything is happening except of course actually cutting back on the size and cost of our gigantic, bloated federal government. Washington just doesn’t seem to get that at all.

   Now it would seem that everyone is looking for economic solutions — other than serious government cutbacks and downscaling (at least as we see in all too many of our politicians).

   As Kaja Whitehouse reports in The New York Post, "The Obama administration just gave Donald Trump and other casino titans a big, wet Christmas kiss.  In a stunning decision, the Justice Department has removed a major hurdle that kept states from legalizing online gambling."

   It’s the beginning of a push for new tax revenue sources — with little to no considerations for the poor addicted souls who will now find it very much easier to financially self-destruct.  How nice of our federal government to be so considerate.

   A more reasonable potential tax revenue solution might be the "Millionaire Subsidy Elimination Act."  As researched by Stephen Moore (of the Journal Editorial Board) and Walter E. Williams (Prof. Of economics at George Mason University) and published in The Wall Street Journal:  "...the top 1% of earners already pay close to 40% of all federal income taxes, a share that is almost double what it was in the 1970s."

   As further noted, "Raising Tax rates on high incomes, as Mr. Obama proposes, would only cut the deficit by about 6%, even assuming — wrongly — that those higher taxes wouldn’t slow the economy."

   It was then suggested that, "Cutting benefits to those who don’t need them is a better way to trim deficits than hurting the economy with higher tax rates."

   In other words, get rid of those millionaire tax loopholes and special benefits.  See, it’s not too difficult, is it?

   We are encouraged by the report by Newsmax magazine that tells us:  "GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama estimates that Congress has blown $350 billion since 2005 using various budget tricks.  Now he’s joining forces with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to propose legislation that would do something about it.

   "The bill would restrict or outlaw controversial practices that appear to downplay the level of federal spending including bogus emergency spending, phony rescissions, expense deferrals, and advance appropriations."  Well, good luck on that one — especially in the Democrat controlled Senate.

   Another suggested solution is to dismantle Redevelopment agencies and confiscate their funds, as California seems to be doing.  Not a bad idea when you realize such agencies routinely take property from some private owners to make it available to other private owners.

   Representative Mike Coffman suggests an even bigger step with his idea that it might be "time to kill Congressional Pensions and cut pay," as detailed in Human Events.

   This same publication has also outlined what it refers to as the "Top 10 most needed government reforms."  They are as follows:  "(1) Repeal Obama Care.  (2) Simplify the tax code.  (3) Enforce the border. (4) Entitlement reform.  (5) Reduce regulations.  (6) Energy production.  (7) Dump federal agencies.  (8) Balance the budget.  (9) Public-sector union reform.  (10) Get government out of culture."  See the newspaper for the details.

==========================

   Something needs to be said about the sheer volume of anger that is rising from those who have worked very hard, employed many, and have had the audacity to make a fair amount of money in the process.  (It’s a voice you may not have heard in much of our "edited" media.)

   These are people who take few deductions and pay a considerable amount in taxes and now find that somehow they are the villains — the dragons that Obama promises to slay with burdensome new tax obligations.

   Frankly, this sort of class warfare (or any sort, for that matter) is despicable under almost any description. And when you add that to the manufactured dirt and race-card applications, we see an administration that can only go down in history as a deep stain upon the honor of our national leadership.

==========================

   As Michelle Malkin reviewed, in The Washington Times,  "At the dawn of his administration, President Obama opined:  ‘A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency.’ "

   And what has happened? As Michelle reveals, "For three years, White House officials have rolled out countless executive orders and initiatives touting open government.  Just last week, they unveiled plans to move federal archival records from a paper-based to an electronic system."

   However, here’s where it gets interesting.  "...behind the scenes, Obama’s lawyers systematically have stymied public information requests, carved out crater-sized disclosure loopholes, fought subpoenas on scandals from Fast and Furious to Solyndra, and made routine the holiday document dump."  That’s it.  That’s what is really happening.

   You think that’s bad?  Washington Times Phil Kerpen tells us about the labor "enforcer" that Obama has appointed.  "Lafe Solomon is one of the most powerful bureaucrats in America and is about to get much more powerful.  He is the acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), best known for suing the Boeing Co. over the opening of a billion-dollar manufacturing plant that created thousands of jobs in South Carolina.  He also is suing four states — Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah — for enacting state constitutional protections for secret ballot voting.

   "He is about to inherit broad powers intended to be exercised by the NLRB itself, effectively making him President Obama’s newest czar."  It will effectively end what remains of the freedom of employment in America if that man is able to fully function as he intends to.

   And, as the Wall Street Journal editorialized,  "Say what you will about Obama Administration regulators, their problem has rarely been a failure to regulate, which makes the abdication of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC] especially notable — and dangerous for the U.S. power supply.

   "FERC convened a conference on the wave of new Environmental Protection Agency rules that are designed to force dozens of coal-fired power plants to shut down.  The meeting barely fulfilled the commission’s legal obligations, but despite warnings from expert after expert, including some of its own, the FERC Commissioners refused to do anything about this looming threat to electric reliability."  Remember this when the lights go out.

   And of course Obama continues to push for what he likes to call "social justice."  However, Thomas Sowell (in the New York Post) reminds us, "What do you call it when someone steals someone else’s money secretly? Theft.  What do you call it when someone takes someone else’s money openly by force?  Robbery.  What do you call it when a politician takes someone else’s money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him?  Social Justice."  Has he made the point?  I do believe so.

   And Ralph R. Reiland (in Human Events) tells us about how "Red Chinese crony Communism enriches party members."  Good Lord!  It’s just like in the Obama administration.  It’s really a very small world, isn’t it?

==========================

   Obama continues to show his strong bias for Muslims in an ever growing number of ways.  As reported on the Internet by Cowboy Byte (and by a number of others as well),  "Republicans are urging President Obama to reconsider his ambassador to Belgium after the ambassador told a conference in Europe that Israel is causing a new and understandable strain of anti-Semitism among Muslims in Europe, altogether separate from traditional hatred of jews."

   If you think that’s not a good thing (and it surely isn’t), wait ‘till you hear about what Godfather Politics has unearthed.  "On June 25, 1996, in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, a housing complex near Saudi Aramco (a Saudi national oil company) was targeted by terrorists.  A truck bomb was detonated just outside one of the buildings that housed US and foreign military personnel.  The explosion ripped the front of the building off, much like what happened in the Oklahoma City bombing.

 Continuing, it has been learned from very credible sources that,  "One individual with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and who has been indicated as having knowledge and possible involvement is Hadi Farhan al-Amiri."

   "With the implications surrounding al-Amiri, many survivors and the families of the victims of the Khobar Towers bombing are enraged by the callous inconsideration of President Obama who recently hosted a delegation from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that included al-Amiri."

   That’s right.  It was confirmed.  It happened.

==========================

   We just give you a few unfortunate examples of events and issues related to Obama each month. There are actually an almost endless number of examples one might examine, such as Vision To America reveals:  "In a speech delivered in Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, President Barack Obama argued that while a limited government that preserves free markets ‘speaks to our rugged individualism’ as Americans, such a system ‘doesn’t work’ and ‘never has worked’ and that Americans must look to a more activist government that taxes more, spends more and regulates more."  Well, that’s certainly revealing.

   A further close examination of that man in the White House comes to us by way of John Mercurio’s investigation in the Newsmax magazine.  Excerpts of interest include:

   "In private conversations, Democratic allies describe a president who relies on a tightening circle of advisers that includes few other than Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe, and David Axelrod.  He prefers smaller groups — even solitude — to the unruly bustle of crowds."

   He even remains distant and remote at the lavish parties (sometimes taxpayer paid) that are put on to raise political support in one way or another.  Mercurio dubbed him, "The Loner In Chief."  But in the end, it is we who are alone.

==========================

   The lack of justice on the federal level in America is becoming legend.  Holder’s Justice Department has, of course, blocked South Carolina’s voter identification law, saying it might be a problem for some African-American voters.

   South Carolina wants to provide assistance for all voters in obtaining proper voter identification, but the Justice Department just doesn’t seem to care.

   As The Wall Street Journal points out, "The Obama Administration’s re-election mobilization continues: Witness Eric Holder’s attempt to play the race card and perhaps twist the law in a campaign against voter identification laws."

   As further revealed, "Mr. Holder’s remarks are especially notable because they come as the Justice Department is reviewing voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina for ‘pre-clearance’ under the Voting Rights Act.  The states plans require voters to present photo ID like a driver’s license or passport to vote [with states providing other IDs if necessary], a measure endorsed by the Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker in 2005 to protect the integrity of the ballot."

   Mr. Holder doesn’t like that at all.  It was further noted that, "Indiana offered free voter ID cards to all citizens, so the inconvenience of picking up an ID at the Department of Motor Vehicles wasn’t an undue burden and was reasonably balanced by the state’s interest in reducing fraud, Justice Stevens wrote [in a Supreme Court majority decision].

   The only advantage that we can see for not having such reasonable voting IDs would be for those who are not legally eligible to vote or have already voted or are otherwise fictionalized and fabricated for the purpose of voter fraud.

   Yes, it’s a filthy business for Eric Holder to be involved in the way he is, but it is what we have come to expect from him.  And it would seem to be what we have allowed to happen, and continue to happen.

==========================

   In another infamous area, David Limbaugh, in a Washington Times piece shows us a, "...recent example involving criticism of attorney General Eric Holder over Fast and Furious, an operation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which was overseen by the Justice Department.  It involved the indirect sale of weapons to Mexican drug cartels, which resulted in some 300 killings in Mexico, including the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry."

   As further noted, "The scandal and Holder’s stonewalling have led to some 60 Congressmen demanding his resignation, and 75 cosponsoring a House Resolution calling for a ‘no-confidence’ vote on his performance as Attorney General."

   It also should be noted that, "President Obama, without betraying the slightest concern, has proclaimed his complete confidence in Holder."

   And what does Holder have to say about all of this? The Times report reveals that, "Holder said, ‘This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship, and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.’ "

   In one of his more direct whines he just simply said, "Critics don’t like me because I’m black."  So there you are.  If you can’t argue the merits of the case, just whip out that trusty ‘ole race card.

   How sad — how sad for us all.

==========================

   In still other areas, Jerry Seper reports in The Washington Times:  "Maricopa County [Ariz.] Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed ‘America’s toughest lawman,’ was accused in a scathing Justice Department report of violating federal law and the Constitution in his department’s handling of Hispanics it arrested and held in its jail system."

   "Sheriff Arpaio bitterly attacked the report during a late afternoon news conference, calling it a politically motivated assault by the Obama administration that will make Arizona unsafe..."

   Next we see that Obama (through Eric Holder) produces a lawsuit against South Carolina on the issue of the illegals who have broken into our country.  It seems to many to be a part of a diabolical scheme to make illegal aliens into legal residents, and ultimately, into Democratic party voters.

   And, as we find the Obama/Holder cabal casting their nets out further and further, local Quislings have been quick to dart out into the open, to take advantage of the situation.

   As Ray Hartwell reports in The Washington Times, "On the island of Guam, although all residents are subject to the Constitution and laws of the United States, local authorities are openly denying voting right to U.S. citizens of white, black and Asian extraction, illegally refusing voter registration to any Guam resident unable to claim ‘native’ or Chamorro racial classification.

   There seems to be little doubt remaining that both Obama and many of his appointees would face serious criminal proceedings if there was any reasonable degree of justice remaining in our seriously damaged nation.

==========================

   With all of this, and so much more, as you might imagine, Holder refuses to fire implicated aides over the Fast and Furious massacre.  As Chuck Neubauer put it in The Washington Times,  "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., during a rancorous House committee hearing on Dec. 8, dismissed Republican calls to fire top Justice Department officials involved in the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation and repudiated charges that his agency lied to Congress during the investigation."  Well of course.  What else would you expect from him?

   Michelle Malkin has also been digging further into the Holder messes and tells us, in the same publication:  "On Dec. 7, disgraced former Ill. Gov. Rod [Blago] Blagojevich received a 14-year prison sentence for scheming to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate seat, along with several other pay-for-play schemes."

   As Malkin revealed, "Holder and Blago go way back. Holder himself suffered selective amnesia about the relationship during his confirmation hearing.  He somehow ‘forgot’ to mention that Blagojevich had appointed him to probe corruption in Illinois casino licensing decisions."

   And as if that wouldn’t be enough, "Bill Richardson, former Democratic governor of New Mexico, disgraced former presidential candidate and failed Obama Commerce Secretary nominee, faced new reports of a federal grand jury into his possible violations of campaign finance laws."

   But never fear — Holder is here.  "In August 2009, Holder’s DOJ announced it was dropping federal corruption charges against Richardson after a year long federal probe into pay-to-play allegations involving one of his large political donors and state bond deals."

   Oh, there is much more.  Michelle Malkin does a very thorough, in-depth investigation into such matters. If we were to publish it all, it would end up the size of several books.  Come to think of it, that’s where you will find it all — in her many columns and in her books.  You might want to check that out.

==========================

   We have had a lot of problems generating from China.  We have had everything from lead in the paint on toys sold to our children to dummy electronic chips that were also sold to us by China and have, most unfortunately, been put in critical U.S. weapons systems.

   Now we see, in the new book "Bowing to Beijing," a Deputy Defense Secretary testifying before a Senate Subcommittee that, "We’re facing the possibility of an electronic Pearl Harbor ... There is going to be an electronic attack on this country some time in the future."

   A couple of years later he told another committee that, "We are at war — right now.  We are in cyberwar." That was more than a decade ago and the war is still raging.

   In another theater of the war, Miles Yu (Washington Times) tells us about another front line — this time in Iceland.  "The island nation is a strategic spot in the North Atlantic that is crucial for European security." Miles Yu quoted a former Islandic Ambassador to the United States, Einar Benediktsson, as noting that it was a vital link of great strategic importance.

   Mr. Yu continued, "But then in 2006, the United States unilaterally withdrew its military presence in the country, and after 2008, Island became one of the hardest-hit European states in the global financial downturn.

   "As a result, Island became a strategic vacuum and one of the weakest links of the U.S. - led NATO alliance. And the Chinese recently tried to buy a big chunk of Iceland."  I wonder why, if we are supposed to be at peace.  Or are we?

   Also, as reported by Mr. Yu,  "The small Indian Ocean Island nation of Seychelles, strategically located near both the Gulf of Aden and the Somali coast, hosted an unusual three-day ceremonial visit by an important guest two weeks ago:  Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie. Gen. Liang became the first ever Chinese defense chief to pay the island nation a visit.

   Oh yes, out of the goodness of their hearts, the Chinese military are doing that for them.  Sure they are.

   Next, we hear about Chinese hackers hitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website and we see serious French interference with the U.S. investigation into allegations that a French defense contractor illegally gave U.S. satellite technology to the Chinese government.

   And, according to Jens Kastner (as reported in Newsmax magazine):  "The United States’ ability to protect Taiwan is becoming tenuous."  The knowledgeable source of this statement makes it a very serious issue.  Mr. Kastner is an investigative journalist in Taipei who covers all cross-strait events and both Hong Kong media and for the British Aegis Defense Services.  He is considered to be a very reliable and truthful source of information from that region.

==========================

   World and national security continues to be a very serious situation just about everywhere.  And sometimes the headlines give us a glimpse of at least a bit of this strange international chess game.

   Worried nations are beginning to impose sanctions to try and keep Iran from becoming an atomic threat in the region.  With all those promises to wipe out Israel, growing concern is understandable.

   And now Iran’s first vice president is threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz if Iran’s oil exports are sanctioned.  This would cut off a large segment of much needed oil being transported from the Middle East to the rest of the world.  This, it is promised, would also trigger a military response from the Western allied nations.

   In another area, as reported by The Washington Times,  "Congress approved language in the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill that will restrict the Obama administration from sharing sensitive missile data with Russia."  It is really amazing that this should have to be done at all.  But that seems to be the reality of today’s White House.

   As additionally reported, "The legislation reflects congressional concerns that missile defense talks with Moscow will result in the compromise of velocity data for the Pentagon’s Standard Missile-3 interceptor, known as the SM-3."

   And, while that’s going on, Russia is now accusing the U.S. of torture, phone tapping and other abuses.  It seems to be right out of the play-book of the American left.  It seems to be a part of the negative, aggressive stance that Russia is intent on pursuing.  Welcome to the new Cold War.

==========================

   Stephen Dinan tells us, in the same newspaper, "Illegal aliens started nearly 40 percent of human-caused wildfires along the Arizona and Mexico border from 2006 to 2010, according to a new government report that backs up claims state lawmakers made during this year’s catastrophic blazes.

   And, what ever happened to that once prominent Sierra Club?  Before the illegals became an issue, that group was all over anybody and everybody who might trample an interesting plant or start a campfire in inappropriate areas (which was just about everywhere in the untamed western lands).

   When the illegals began to trample through the areas and start so many of the uncontrolled fires, they suddenly turned silent.  We understand it is because it was now politically incorrect for them to do otherwise. How sad.

   In another area, Bob Unruh (WND) reports that, "The wife of former U.S. Border Patrol agent Jesus Diaz, who was jailed over his treatment of a drug smuggler, says she’s outraged that the government has told her husband he won’t be allowed to return home to be with her or associate with any other law enforcement-linked member of his family while on probation."

   Mr. Unruh quoted the wife (also an agent), Diana Diaz as saying,  "I have to ask what does the DOJ want me to do:  I can’t retire.  I’m too young.  Divorcing him is not an option as he would still have to come around for the children."

   With the agent arrests and convictions, with the help of the freed smugglers, and the bad treatment that follows, the federal government looks like it’s doing all that it can to make border control practically impossible.  As more and more are observing, we are becoming a nation that is anything but the United States of America.  It is becoming another place that is entirely different and rather frightening.

==========================

   Oh but what about our wonderful TSA airport security?  Well, it never was wonderful and it doesn’t seem to be particularly secure either.  But they are really on the job, doing some really interesting things.

   As reported by the New York Daily News,  "An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search by agents at JFK Airport. Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1:pm flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes."

   "When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator."

   "As she tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap, she says, the metal bars banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash. ... She says the TSA agents showed no sympathy, instead pulling down her pants and asking her to raise her arms."

   In another example, local New York Cannel 10 reports that "Two women in their 80s put the Transportation Security Administration on the defensive this week by going public about their embarrassment during screening in a private room at Kennedy Airport. One claimed she was forced to lower her pants and underwear in front of an agent so that her back brace could be inspected.  Another said agents made her pull down her waistband to show her colostomy bag.

   It would seem, if you’re a little old lady, you’re really going to be targeted.

   So, what are we to do about our airport security?  K. Jack Riley (in Newsmax magazine) has a few reasonable suggestions.  "Because flights originating in the United States are at much lower risk of being attacked by terrorists than are flight originating overseas, the first opportunity would be to differentiate between domestic and international enplanements.  One way to do this is to subject travelers who wish to come to the United States to a higher level of scrutiny than those already in the United States."

   And who is this Mr. Riley?  He is vice president and director of the RAND National Research Division and director of the RAND Homeland Security Center.

   And might we add anything to this?  I do believe it not to be at all unreasonable to suggest that a little old lady in a walker just might be somewhat less of a threat than a much younger male Middle-Easterner. But of course that would be profiling, wouldn’t it?  And we can’t have intelligent considerations of that nature as a part of our security system.  That would be politically incorrect.

==========================

   We have examined our financial health and the health of our security.  Now let us look at the health of our healthcare.  John Stossel reports in Real Clear Politics:  "Mike Whalen, CEO of Heart of America Group, which runs hotels and restaurants, said that when he asked his company’s health insurance experts to summarize the impact of Obamacare, the three of them kind of looked at each other and said,  ‘We’ve gone to seminar after seminar, and, Mike, we can’t tell you.’  I think that just kind of sums up the uncertainty.

   A third example given:  "John Allison, former CEO of BB&T, the 12th biggest bank in America, pointed out how Obamacare encourages employers not to insure their employees.  Under the law, an employer would be fined for that.  But the penalty at present — about $2,000 — is lower than the cost of a policy."

   Just how do we manage to get out of this mess?  As reported by The Wall Street Journal,  "Senator Ron Wyden and [Representative Paul] Ryan are releasing a bipartisan defined-contribution health-care plan, as the Oregon Democrat and Wisconsin Republican explain. ... This is an important moment because it shows that the serious entitlement debate is taking place within the camp of choice and incentives, not the Obama status quo."

   As Wyden and Ryan tell us,  "Our plan would strengthen traditional Medicare by permanently maintaining it as a guaranteed and viable option for all of our nation’s retirees.  At the same time, our plan would expand choice for seniors by allowing the private sector to compete with Medicare in an effort to offer seniors better quality and more affordable health care choices."

   Let us hope that this is the beginning of the return of our nation, and its stability in all areas from the financial and our national and individual security to real and workable medical solutions.  Let’s make it positive and let’s get involved.  Let it be the beginning of a true American renaissance.

==========================

   The left in America, Obama’s principal support, is beginning to ramp it up.  We have people like David Axelrod, who is the primary director of the president’s reelection campaign, making such charges as with his belief that Republicans are willing to hurt the country just to hurt the sitting president.  Never mind who has been the architect of the greatest amount of damage over the past three or four years.  You’re not supposed to pay attention to such inconvenient truths.

   Another example:  The Daily Caller has reported that "Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson accused the tea party movement and the National Rifle Association of creating a ‘manufactured’ controversy over Operation Fast and Furious.

   "Johnson’s comments came during an interview with The Daily Caller outside the House Judiciary Committee hearing room."  The statement is absolutely ludicrous in the face of the overwhelming evidence in the case. But of course the main media didn’t make anything of importance out of it, as they unfortunately would have if a well known conservative were to make a similarly baseless statement concerning the left.

   And let’s add to that a claim made by another elected official on the left, as reported by TheHill.com: "Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) accused Republicans of pushing legislation that would poison more than 8,000 people to death as a Christmas gift to Americans.  ‘They have attached a poison pill — literally, colleagues — because it will kill 8,100 more people than would have otherwise been killed from pollution.’ "  She was evidently speaking of some sort of rider on a bill — an addition that she just didn’t like.  So this is the way she chose to put it — as she so often does.

   And "The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass."  But the House Republicans originally "...voted down the Senate’s two-month extension of the two-percentage-point payroll tax holiday to 4.2% from 6.2%.  They say the short extension makes no economic sense." (WSJ)  The Republicans finally voted for the shorter extension when they were faced with a Democratic stonewalling that would have done away with any extension at all.

   Meanwhile, the warning is out to any and all uppity Blacks who might dare to have an original thought that might be considered conservative.  "If you’re Black, you’d better watch your back."  Good advice, considering the left’s attacks on such Blacks, wherever they are found.

   And of course there are the proliferations of vandalism being committed all over the nation to cars with conservative bumper stickers, to properties that fly the tea party Gadsden flag, and even to a Ronald Reagan statue in Newport Beach, California.  Such behavior seems to be a trademark of the new Democratic party.  We see it everywhere.

   And the falsehoods are spreading everywhere.  As noted in an editorial from Human Events:  "The Washington Post wrote that the supercommittee’s undoing has thrust the ‘much-contested Bush tax cuts into the forefront of next year’s presidential campaign.’ As the Post goes on to note, Democrats will ‘portray Obama’s opponent in the presidential election as a defender of tax cuts for the rich."

   As these editorial excerpts further reveal, "Seeing that the Democrats are reviving their favorite campaign talking point, let’s review the facts about ‘tax cuts for the rich.’  First off, the measure President Bush enacted into law cut taxes across the board on everyone, not just the upper levels."

   "Then there are the politically savvy, but totally fallacious, calls for ‘shared sacrifice.’  Naturally the Democrats don’t use that phrase to describe the nearly 50% of Americans who don’t pay any federal income taxes, but instead those who already pay the bulk of all federal, state and local taxes."  Point well taken.

   As was noted this month, in the Wall Street Journal: "...last week the Democrats who run the [Ill.] state government ladled out $85 million in tax relief to the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, plus tax credits for Sears Holdings Corp. worth $15 million a year for the next 10 years."  Now who is pandering to the 1 percenters?

   Brandon Vallorani has exposed a number of the many liberal hypocrisies this month, through The Patriot Update.  Among them, we offer the following examples:

   "Liberals support the killing of unborn children in the name of convenience, choice, etc.  These children have committed no crimes; however, if that child survives abortion and grows up to commit murder later in life a Liberal will scream ‘injustice’ if that person is sentenced to death."

   These are some of the thoughts expressed by a number of conservatives who don’t understand the strange, convoluted mental processes that seem to be deeply imbedded on the left.  Perhaps you can see why it’s all so confusing to conservatives and also to so many others out there.

==========================

   Now we look at more of the deep corruptions in today’s American politics.  Let’s start with Crain’s Detroit Business and Nancy Kaffer’s observation: "There are about 560,000 registered voters in the city of Detroit.  But the 2010 U.S. Census found only 523,430 Detroiters over 18 according to Data Driven Detroit."

   With uncomfortable facts like this popping up all over the nation, it is no wonder that so many states are trying to solve the problem with the development of a workable ID system for voting.  As Jennifer Smith reveals in the Wall Street Journal,  "Millions more Americans will be required to show photo identification when they head to the polls under new state laws that take effect in 2012.

   But, as Alicia Powe informs us in Human Events, "The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ... accused Republican legislators around the country of purposefully trying to deny blacks the right to vote by pushing for voter identification laws."

   And, as might also be expected, Holder’s Justice Department has taken action blocking South Carolina’s new voter identification law.  All other actions are being taken, legally and otherwise, to try and block all efforts to protect the integrity of the American voting process.  It is expected to be a long and heated battle.

   With regard to other corruptions, Newsmax magazine has revealed that  "Nancy Pelosi and her husband doubled their stock investment on a highly sought after VISA IPO in a matter of only weeks, according to Peter Schweizer.  ‘She and her husband were given access to low price, pre-IPO share of stock — 5,000 shares that they were able to buy for $44 apiece and then they were able to see that value go up by 50 percent in one day, and then more than double in value withing a couple of weeks,’ he says, adding that the deal took place during Pelosi’s reign as Speaker.

   The book in which this and so much more may be found is "Throw Them All Out," a well researched effort by Mr. Schweizer.  It’s something worth considering?  Possibly so.

   In yet other areas of corruption, Aaron Klein (WND) reveals,  "The founder of an energy company that benefitted from deals involving hundreds of millions in ‘stimulus’ money made the maximum donation allowable to President Obama’s inauguration, WND has learned. Peter L. Corsell, founder of GridPoint Inc., contributed $50,000 to the inauguration."

   And it was further revealed on Fox News "Factor" that 16 out of 20 companies who were big receivers of Federal funds, were also strong financial backers of Obama.  And this sort of thing seems to be an everyday event in this administration.  And there’s no end in sight.

==========================

   Most of our most unfortunate media was down to its usual level this month.  It remains as it has been for a long, long time.  So many historic events don’t even make a tiny blip on their radar screen.  I remember when a great and colorful event at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was held, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan.  This writer could find absolutely no live coverage by any news source, except for the Fox cable news channel. And that sort of thing was typical, and remains so.

   However, NewsBusters tells us about the leftist radio talker Mike Malloy who, "...wished death on Thanksgiving for Florida Gov. Rick Scott.  ‘And then this miserable son of a b**ch has the audacity to go to a homeless shelter?  It’s a wonder somebody didn’t hold his head down in a vat of turkey gravy until he stopped squiggling!’ "

   "The Naples News reported Gov. Scott made a Thanksgiving Day visit and ‘joined a legion of volunteers Thursday at St. Matthew’s House in East Naples, doling out Thanksgiving dinners, taking orders for desserts and getting political advice from the jobless and homeless.’ "

   "Earlier in the show, Malloy ranted that tough-on-illegal-immigration Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio would have made a good Nazi death camp warden." That Mike Malloy is one sick puppy.  But he gets the coverage — after all he’s at least somewhat "politically correct."

   And we find Raven Clabough (of The New American) reporting Bill Maher’s irresponsible media behavior. As it was reported:  "Even as Denver Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow is arguably responsible for the Broncos turnaround season, helping them win the AFC West and win a spot in the playoffs, he continues to be the source of contention for some football fans who are offended by his staunch Christianity.

   These examples are evidently the sort of things that gets the air time on the lame-stream media.

==========================

   ABC News reported:  "A Santa-suited gunman who killed six people on Christmas morning was the estranged husband of one of the victims and the father of two teenagers who died in the massacre.

   That was the end of that report.  However, later on facts were brought out that showed,  "...the murderer was a Muslim, a fact that the media is downplaying. Aziz Yazdanpanah, a Muslim, didn’t like his daughter’s non-Muslim boyfriend..." (From Godfather Politics and other reliable sources.)

   Of course, as you see, there are some areas where the facts do get out.  As Conservative Byte reports: "Former Saturday Night Live actress Victoria Jackson is facing some criticism over recent comments she made on ‘Politichicks,’ a web talk show she co-hosts.  During a recent episode, Jackson contended that the Muslim Brotherhood — the same Islamist group that has been winning Middle Eastern elections — has infiltrated the American government at its highest levels.

   This isn’t the only source where we’ve been getting this sort of information of late.  It would seem to any reasonable observer to be something that needs to be seriously looked into.

==========================

   "Continuing the liberal media’s assault on the Tea Party movement, the New York Times is running stories about how the movement is losing support among voters.  The evidence they use is a recent poll that shows that Americans are fed up with government and with politicians in both parties.  Then they jump to the conclusion that the Tea Party is dragging down Republicans and strengthening Democrats’ electoral chances in 2012." (As reported by TheTeaParty.net.)

   Of course that is nothing more or less than invented propaganda that is clearly intended to be of whatever help it can be to the Democratic-left in the upcoming political election campaign.  As with all the rest of that sort of thing, it has no basis in reality.  It is the usual fiction.  That’s what we hear from just about everyone these days.

   And, speaking of the New York Times, The Washington Times is reporting that  "Six retired military analysts have written a joint letter to editors of the New York Times, protesting the 2008 story about them that won the Pulitzer Prize.  The story strongly implied that the retired officers, who served as commentators on television and radio, had received financial favors from the Pentagon."

   "Among the signers are retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney and former Pentagon official Jed Babbin."  So far we find no one who’s heard a word from the New York Times on this problem.  But we do expect they are holding on to their falsely won Pulitzer with a white-knuckle grip.

   And again, speaking of The New York Times, we hear that the Times CEO, Janet Robinson has found it necessary to step down.  It seems she has been less than adequate in the job of trying to turn the paper around to some semblance of profitability.  Maybe becoming an honest newspaper would help?

   We also have noticed that the New York Times has sold its group of 16 local papers which it has owned.  It will get proceeds to the tune of $143 million, which it desperately needs.

   It has also been reported, by The New York Post, and by other publications, that the New York Times sent more than 8 million emails in error that read, in part, "As a valued Times reader we invite you to continue your current subscription at an exclusive rate of 50% off for 16 weeks.  This is a limited-time offer and will no longer be valid once your current subscription ends."

   Then the Times director of communications sent an email to outside media reporters saying that,  "The email is SPAM and was not sent from The New York Times.  We are alerting subscribers immediately ...When we learn more, we will let you know."

   A few hours later, those confused subscribers received the following email:  "You may have received an email today from The New York Times with the subject line ‘Important information regarding your subscription.’  This email was sent by us in error.  Please disregard the message.  We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.  Sincerely, The New York Times."

   Good grief, they can’t get their story straight about anything, can they?

   I have also viewed that documentary, "Page One: Inside The New York Times."  It is a two-hour story by film-maker Andrew Rossi wherein he documents a year’s worth of noteworthy stories and setbacks at the paper.  Of course he doesn’t really get into such things as how they create and publish so many obvious falsehoods.  And it doesn’t really cover the one-sided political disposition of the publication.  It’s what’s known in the industry as a "puff piece."  I have another term for it, but it wouldn’t be polite of me to reveal it to you, if you know what I mean.

==========================

   Details are coming in to Bill Gertz’ Inside The Ring (Washington Times) about the Occupy DC encampments.  "Two encampments are fast becoming health hazards.  Numerous protesters also recently were sickened with unusual respiratory illnesses.

   It has also been reported, "An observer familiar with the McPherson camp said one distinctive smell coming from the park area is that of methamphetamine being smoked." It was also noted that, "Among the flags being flown by some protesters are those from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and al Qaeda."  Would we have such hazardous and lawless encampments if we actually had law and order in our nation?  Most likely not.

   Aaaron Klein (WND) reports:  "The recent executive director of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations’ South Florida chapter is a founder and spokesman of Occupy Miami."

   "Mohammad Malik is currently an activist with several other Islamic groups.  He has led hate-filled anti-Israel protests in which participants were filmed wearing Hamas paraphernalia while chanting ‘Nuke Israel’ and ‘Go back to the oven’ — a reference to Jews being killed in the Holocaust."

   WND also reports that "The so-called Occupy movement has just been caught red handed operating what appears to be a nerve center staffed by professional agitators deeply tied to groups funded by billionaire activist George Soros."

   And Audrey Hudson tells us, through Human Events - Daily Events:  "A key Republican lawmaker wants the Obama administration to explain its role in allowing ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters to illegally camp in a Washington D.C. park that was recently beautified with nearly half a million dollars in stimulus funds.

   "Rep. Darrell Issa (R. - Calif.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked the Interior Department this week to explain why protesters have been allowed to camp in McPherson Square illegally and destroy the public property." Again, it’s a matter whether we have law and order, isn’t it?

==========================

   In other areas of unrest in our nation, we hear from Matt Patterson (Washington Times) about union directions.  He tells us about Mr. Andy Stern.  "Mr. Stern, a former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), recently returned from a trip to China, where he had the opportunity to meet with ‘high-ranking’ government officials, who outlined for the former labor leader the authoritarian regime’s long-term economic plan.

   And, speaking of The Wall Street Journal, that paper also printed a news report that revealed,  "Boeing’s labor troubles took on political overtones in April when the National Labor Relations Board accused the jet maker of trying to illegally shift union work to a nonunion facility.  That triggered outrage at the Obama administration from the business community.  Some accused it of interfering in basic business decisions at a fragile time for the economy."

   Now Boeing has made a deal with the big International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.  "Under the deal, Boeing said it will build the 737 Max, the retooled version, at a union plant in Renton, Wash. [a union controlled state].  Boeing previously had said that work could go to another sate."

   That’s how such coercions work.

==========================

   The signs are not good in Iraq.  Reports show us that tensions are growing between the opposing ethnic and sectarian groups.  It’s an old story in that region and, with American withdrawal, it is coming back with a vengeance.  It’s also something that this administration was warned about and chose to ignore.

   And then, immediately following our troop withdrawal, all the agreements and compromises in Iraq began to come apart.  You saw the headlines.  On just one day alone there were at least 15 bombings all over the troubled nation.  The Shiite and Sunni radicals are back at each others’ throats once again, with help and encouragement from Iran, of course. And we expected something else?

   We note that, "A clandestine Iranian plot to kill a Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., draws chilling parallels to a deadly Iranian attack in 1992." (As reported by Roya Hakakian in Newsmax magazine.) And of course the attack of 1992 refers to the Iranian attack in a Berlin restaurant at that time.

   Dennis Ross, a counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, writes in The Wall Street Journal that,  "The history of the Islamic Republic reveals one thing clearly; pressure works.  Iran’s leaders make adjustments in their behavior when they feel they must. Ayatollah Khomeini, recognizing the high costs, ended the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in 1988, even though he likened doing so to being forced to drink poison from a chalice."

   But as also reported in this same publication, "The Obama Administration claims its economic sanctions will bring Iran’s nuclear program to heel short of war. So why is it working behind the scenes to neuter the latest sanctions that passed the Senate last week, 100-0?"

   As further reported, "Administration officials now say that if the U.S. closes its financial system to foreign banks that do deals with Iran, then U.S. trading partners might stick with Iran and deprive Americans of their business."  What is Obama trying to do here?

   Meanwhile, mysterious explosions have been detected in Iran that insiders suggest are doing damage to their nuclear program.  Or are attempts being made to assassinate one or more of the current leaders there?  Anything further said might jeopardize the effort, whatever it may be.

==========================

   In Afghanistan, the beginning of the withdrawal of America from that nation is slowly beginning.  Troops are pulling back.  Major projects are being terminated.

   In Pakistan, the U.S. has taken a good portion of the blame for the air strike that killed Pakistani troops by mistake, as the tenuous relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan begins to unravel.

   In America, Godfather Politics reports on "Shariah Law and American Courts," a special published document by the Center for Security Policy.  It’s summary statement is as follows:

   "Our findings suggest that Shariah law has entered into state court deisions, in conflict with Constitution and state public policy.  Some commentators have said there are no more than one or two cases of Shariah law in U.S. state court cases;  yet we found 50 significant cases just from the small sample of appellate published cases.

   It might not be so unusual to find that in a somewhat lawless nation, the court system might be found to have become rudderless as well.

   And then Godfather Politics reports on, "Joseph Biden saying that the Taliban isn’t an enemy of the United States.  If they’re not an enemy of the US, then they must be our friends?"  And of course the main media didn’t pay any attention to this whatsoever.

   And as this same source reports, "The Defense Department has reclassified the Fort Hood massacre as ‘workplace violence.’  We know that Maj. Hassan shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ (Arabic for ‘God is Great’) after firing a total of 214 rounds at his fellow soldiers."  We also know this is what is shouted by radical Islamist terrorists as they carry out their deadly deeds.

   Clearly, reason has no place in today’s central government authority in America.

==========================

   Since just about every other area of human endeavor and general involvement is under attack, one way or another, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to discover that the battlefield now also includes the Internet as well.

   As recounted by The New York Post, "Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-Va) asked US officials to seek a review of plans to add hundreds of Web suffixes beyond ‘.com’ and ‘.org.’  The expansion could cost ‘millions of dollars’ as companies and groups buy Internet domain names they won’t use to prevent others from abusing their brands, said Rockefeller."

   But that is just the beginning of our problems.  The government is doing all that it can to create any reason that might be used to impose government control over the Internet, a little at a time as necessary — building to the goal of complete federal dominance.

   As reported by Tim Devaney in The Washington Times, "The United States is unprepared for an international fight that’s brewing over whether the Internet will remain free from government regulations or fall increasingly under the control of emerging global powers, Federal Communication Commissioner Robert McDowell warned."

   Vision To America also added,  "SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), also known as H.R. 3261, could end free speech on the Internet, all in the name of protecting us from the nebulously defined on-line piracy problem. Sound like a noble idea until you realize that if passed, a new government enforcement agency will be established, funded by tax dollars, and filled with government bureaucrats who will have to justify their existence by investigating complaints from every malcontent trolling the Internet with a copyright claim." Well of course.

   Then a number of the founders and pioneers of the Internet published an open letter to Washington (and put it in full page ads in key publications).  They are extremely concerned about the dangers of the PROJECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act to the "...entrepreneurship, innovation, and creation of content and free expression online."

   They further state that such federal legislation will, "...have a chilling effect on innovation;  Deny website owners the right to due process of law;  Give the U.S. Government the power to censor the web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran;  and Undermine security online by changing the basic structure of the Internet."

   It is hoped that the politicians in Washington will realized that the election year is no time to be trying to do things like that to our Internet.

==========================

   Our education is enhanced by Paul Krueger’s report from Channel-39 in San Diego:  "Investigators are calling it a corrupt, ‘pay-to-play’ bribery scheme, involving South Bay schools and college boards [in San Diego, California].  Allegations of lavish meals, $100 bottles of wine, and Rose Bowl tickets that helped win multi-million dollar contracts for school construction." Ah ha!  So that’s where that money went.

   Another educational moment — Bob Unruh (WND) tells us,  "A Connecticut dad has accused an industry giant in education, ‘Scholastic,’ of delivering Occupy Wall Street propaganda to his 4th grade daughter in her school classroom."

   The details are most interesting and they show us one of the many ways in which our children are "selectively" educated to reflect a particular view of the world — not necessarily associated with the one we are actually living in, as you might have imagined.

   You can follow WND on the Internet for more details on stories of this nature — stories that don’t usually get coverage in the main media, as you know. That’s why we must do our own searching in many different directions to get the full picture.

   That’s why we must learn about our real history, current and past, and check to see how it is taught in our schools, in the books and in the classroom presentations.  Polls and detailed examinations and other procedures have shown us that many of today’s youth don’t really know much of anything about our national founding and of the values and directions that made us the great nation that we once were (and can be again).

   Of course it was never perfect.  We have always had to learn and adjust our efforts in the interest of fairness to others, but we were the ones who made the good choices actually work — far more than could a mere government.  It was our good morals, our good belief systems, our personal dignity that showed the way.

   May we bring these things back to light the way for many generations yet to come.

==========================

   And, with the environmental issue, we have an editorial comment from The Washington Times which speaks of, "The latest release of 5,000 emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU)."  As further revealed, "This leaked correspondence demonstrates just how unsettled it is. ‘Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a wealth of others,’ one scientist wrote.  ‘This is just downright dangerous.  We need to communicate the uncertainty and be honest."  Sure, like that will happen in this "Politically Correct" environment.

   And, in the meantime, Obama skips merrily along the road to his energy catastrophe.  As Mona Charen reports in this same publication, "It seems that, fresh from its success with Solyndra, the Obama administration is slated to spend $12 million to buy a biofuel/gasoline blend that runs $15 a gallon to power a portion of the Navy’s fleet in a demonstration project." Lots of luck with that one, as we have said before.

   In addition, as reported in the San Diego Reader, "An audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general has found that the Navy, in a hurry to spend funds appropriated by Congress in February 2009's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commissioned a series of expensive and wasteful solar energy projects, including one at Camp Pendleton.  ‘During project planning and selection, officials did not consider whether projects were cost-effective or analyze different types of energy projects to determine the best investments for meeting legislative energy goals,’ according to the September 22 report."

   Result?  "A Pentagon audit says taxpayers will lose $5.17 million invested in a Camp Pendleton solar energy installation."  And on and on it goes.  When and where it will stop, nobody knows.

   As Yuliya Chernova details in The Wall Street Journal,  "Long viewed as a remedy for the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, the solar industry is dimming as makers of panels used to harness the sun continue to fall by the wayside.

   However, David A. Patten writes in Newsmax magazine,  "The United States must once and for all shake off its addiction to imported oil, and they say the technology to accomplish that may soon be at hand."

   Unfortunately, we need to develop more cost-efficient methods of gaining energy, such as with nuclear and thermonuclear source development and through other concepts other than what we usually try. And we must rethink the manufacturing process that produces the batteries as well.  We must remember that everything we do is powered by energy, in one form or anther.  We’ve got a lot of serious work ahead of us.

==========================

   We have all heard it said that the Golden Rule means that those who have the gold make the rules. There are a number of sad souls who really do seem to believe that.  It also would seem that an individual known to us as George Soros (the billionaire), has really taken that to the extreme.

   We have noticed how he has taken great pains to give massive financial support to just about anything and everyone dedicated to turning our country into a very different place — a place that has no room for the freedom and innovation that made our great nation possible.

   Some of the latest news about this individual includes the Nationalist News report: "Obama guaranteed $10 billion to Brazil for oil exploration and development, and the largest stockholder is Soros. Obama stopped all deep drilling platforms so that Soros will have a windfall, costing 160,000 U.S. jobs, as well as $1.7 trillion in federal tax revenues from oil production?"

   However, in France we see, as reported in The Wall Street Journal by Max Colchester:  "The European Court of Human Rights ruled that French courts didn’t breach European law when they convicted billionaire investor George Soros of insider trading in the late 1980s."

   This is that person, as we have detailed for you before, who has admitted, in his own words, that he did some surprising things when he was young that he is not at all ashamed of.  As "Before It’s News" has reported, "George Soros says he feels no remorse for collaborating with the Nazis during WWII to send his fellow Jews to the death camps and steal their property." I’m not sure that he actually assisted in the effort to send them to the death camps, but he most assuredly did profitably confiscate as much of their property as he could.

   A real nice guy, right? And he hasn’t changed a bit.

==========================

   On the religious front we have learned, from TheBlaze.com, as reported by Billy Hallowell:  "Liberal radio pundit and former CNN host Bill Press has a message for Denver Broncos quaterback Tim Tebow:  ‘S-T-F-U [Shut the f**k up]’ about Jesus.  The leftist commentator used this acronym while speaking on his radio show this morning about his dislike for Tebow’s ‘in-your-face’ Christian faith.  ‘And you know what I want to say, S.T.F.U.  I’m tired of hearing Tim Tebow and all this Jesus talk,’ Press said."

   Well, I’ve seen Mr. Tebow in action and he isn’t pushing his belief on anyone.  He only pauses now and again for a brief moment on his knee to offer a couple of silent words of thanks.  It doesn’t interfere with the games. It doesn’t require anyone else’s participation or special attention.

   But of course if you are an aggressive atheist who feels rather insecure in an environment that might sometimes include a brief expression of a belief that is different from your own, you could, if you are not a very mature and understanding individual, end up going a little bit crazy.  It happens.

   It was also noted, by Robert Knight, in The Washington Times, that "The Hollings Cancer Center in Charleston, S.C., recently decided that a visit by Santa Claus might upset nonbelievers."  Even Santa? Evidently so.

   Mr. Knight’s further observations include some in the business community, "Shopping malls, which would go broke without Christmas, try their best to attract Christmas shoppers without mentioning Christmas." Some, but not all are like that.

   He further reported that "To the ACLU and other pro-atheist groups ... the government must be hostile to anything that offends atheists.  That makes atheism the de facto official religion, something the founders went out of their way to prevent."  Also noted:  In 1984, the Supreme Court said,  "The Constitution does not require complete separation of church and state;  it affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions, and forbids toward any."  Now isn’t that interesting?

==========================

   "For over 100 years, the politicians have usurped our freedom with promises of unearned wealth and security but have delivered tyranny.  Our forefathers fought the Revolutionary War to free us from the oppression of King George III.  Now politicians have established a new form of tyranny.  The American Revolution and our freedom are in peril.  The danger is as great today as it was when George Washington’s troops crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Eve in 1776." (From Felton Williamson, Jr. book, "21st Century Common Sense.")

   Another book worthy of your consideration: "Ameritopia" by Mark R. Levin.  In this outstanding work, you will see the historic search by humankind for utopia, in one form or another.  And you will see the failures.  And you will see the success of our great American experiment.  And you will see what we are now doing to what we had created.  It is a book that serves as a lesson that must be learned.

   To all of this I can only add, it is up to us.  2012 is the critical year.  It is the time of great choice.  It is the time that will test our resolve.  Will we cower, turn away and go peacefully into the night, or will we rise to the challenge?

   Making our statement and voting with intelligence is not enough.  We must reach out, convince others of the seriousness of this historic time of choice, and remain involved in this way.  Far too many seem willing to allow it all to dissolve away — to allow us to become a mere shadow of what we once were.

It is up to us, all of us.  We can save our nation or let it die.  It is your choice.