This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • EJ Dionne; stop beating this child

    Since the SCHIP bill was vetoed last week by an astute (finally) President and I had my say about the wisdom in halting irresponsible spending, I stepped out of the fight and deferred to much more capable bloggers who tore the Democrats’ to pieces. Bloggers like Michele Malkin, and Chickenhawk Express and Freeper ICWHATUDO who tore down the Democrats attempt to use a twelve-year-old boy as a poster child for President Bush’s veto.

    Well, this morning, I got my hackles up when I read Washington Post’s EJ Dionne’s “Meanies and Hypocrits” Dionne wrote:

    Okay, the Democrats are “fair game,” but a 12-year-old? No wonder nobody talks about compassionate conservatism anymore.

    Um, show me one blog where anyone attacked “a 12-year-old”? You can find plenty of examples where bloggers attacked his parents who apparently spent their money “keeping up with the Joneses” instead of paying for health insurance – but no one has gone after the boy.

    I made choices in my life that had to do with putting my children first while my own desires took a back seat. The major reason I stayed in the military after I became a father was to protect my family’s health, but the Army didn’t provide dental coverage for my family, so I paid for a dental plan. Know why? Cuz I just figured that it was my responsibility to my family. And I think people who don’t consider health insurance for their kids are just as guilty of child abuse as anyone else – and it’s not the responsibility of the federal government to parent for children.

    I wish I could remember what blog had it – but someone listed the States that had like 40% of Schip recipients who were childless. What’s the “C” stand for again?

    But Dionne continues along the child abuse vein;

    The real issue here is whether uninsured families with earnings similar to the Frosts’ need government help to buy health coverage. With the average family policy in employer-provided plans now costing more than $12,000 annually — the price is usually higher for families trying to buy it on their own — the answer is plainly yes. All the conservative attacks on a boy from Baltimore who dared to speak out will not make this issue go away.

    Maybe potential parents should take the cost of health insurance into account before they start a family – huh? I beat this into my son-in-law’s head after he married my daughter – it took some time, but he finally got it. Just before they got pregnant. Now they’re not destitute paying hospital bills for her difficult pregnancy – thanks to Gramps. Maybe there needs to be more people who aren’t afraid to coerce their family members into doing the responsible thing.

    Again, EJ, we’re not attacking the child – we’re trying to impress upon parents that protecting their child is their responsibilty – not ours. It takes a village to point out the local idiots.

  • GWU reacts to Kokesh’s latest theater

    The George Washington University newspaper “The Hatchet“, less than an hour ago has posted their reaction to the Adam Kokesh-led “free speech exercise” on GWU campus last Monday. Anyone hoping that a bit of outrage from students was warranted will be sorely disappointed;

    While the sponsors of the poster said they wanted to help the Islamic community by exposing the extremism of YAF, their actions ultimately defeated their well-intentioned goal. The central issues both sides want to debate – hate, racism and the threat terrorism poses to America today – were lost in a blame game.

    So it was the reaction of people opposed to Kokesh and his merry band of haters who muddied the message not that the message was muddied from the start. Hyperbole is never a good tool for communication.

    Many critics are calling for the expulsion of these students but the only technical offenses they are guilty of is the improper use of the University logo and of not obtaining permission to post the materials. Such an extreme act as expulsion would be inappropriate and only further exacerbate the situation.

    I wonder what the “editorial staff” of the The Hatchet would think if the message had actually been from an extemist Conservative student group – as most of the world thought from Monday morning until the culprits admitted their guilt that evening – in an email. Â

    The Hatchet also published some background on Kokesh little band of pseudo-illectual weinies;

    Freshmen Yong Kwon and Ned Goodwin and graduate student Amal Rammah were not available for comment Wednesday. Group members would not comment on when the group was founded, or why it was founded. It is not registered with the University.

    Though many students said they missed the satirical message, the group said the responses their fliers received are what they had hoped for.

    “I think we are pleased by how the students reacted to it,” Masri said. “The main point was to raise awareness and that is exactly what we’ve done,”

    Graduate student Adam Kokesh is the de-facto leader of the group. A veteran of the Iraq War and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kokesh was arrested by U.S. Park Police in September for hanging fliers advertising an anti-war protest.

    Kokesh said he and other members of Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness said the misunderstanding about the intent of their fliers arose because many people heard rumors of the flyers but did not read them.

    “The intent was to raise awareness of (Isamo-Facism Awareness) Week,” Kokesh said. “We understood that at first glance, the flier would be offensive.”

    So they’re pleased that their false depiction of YAF caused such a furor. I wonder what their reaction would be if I started passing out fliers depicting them as child abusers – just to make a point, of course.

    GWU students saved their real anger for Horowitz’ Islamo-Facism Awareness Week;

    “We’re only asking for dialogue and awareness,” Kokesh said.

    “I feel like it is plain human decency to be anti-racist, anti-bigotry,” said Maxine Nwigwe, a graduate student. “As soon as I heard about this week, I was outraged.”

    Senior Brian Tierney said, “We don’t believe that this kind of racist hate speech should come to campus unopposed.”

    I’ll bet Little Brian Tierney hasn’t even heard David Horowitz speak or read his writings – yet automatically it’s “racist hate speech”.

    The Hatchet also posted letters from students;

    While University officials are investigating the situation, there was no serious crime committed. These posters are not a hate crime or an expression of hate because all they do is bringing attention to the appalling campaign by the ultra-right youth. The only offense committed by the author(s) of the materials is impersonation and possible violation of the University’s postering regulations. Thus, University officials should concentrate their efforts on investigating “Terrorism Awareness Week” sponsored by YAF, which openly and loudly calls to fight Muslims.

    Denis Baranov, Junior

    And;

    Authors of posters still guaranteed free speech

    The “anti-Muslim” posters around campus Monday were ignorant, hateful and offensive. They were also free speech. The seven students responsible for the posters should be reprimanded for illegal posting on private property and using the University logo without permission. However, they should not be punished for the constitutionally protected content of their message.

    If anyone has a right to free speecxh, certainly a combat veteran like Adam Kokesh does. Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “Rather than stifle ‘bad’ or unpopular speech, the remedy is more speech, and the result will be an informed citizenry and a vibrant democratic society.” The GW Peace Forum, Tuesday night’s SA resolution and the plethora of student organization statements condemning the posters are appropriate responses to this “bad” speech. These satirical posters did exactly what free speech is supposed to do: encourage debate.

    Ironically, if posters such as these satirized a more-or-less government position in an “Islamo-fascist” state like Iran, the individuals responsible would likely be imprisoned, beaten or worse. GW should lead by example by not punishing people for free speech, no matter how ignorant that speech may be.

    Joshua Sacks, Sophomore

    So, like I said, anyone hoping for a little outrage from these minds of mush will be disappointed. It seems some of us are more equal than others. The writers and editors are obviously giving the Kokesh Klowns a pass because they’re well-credentialed Leftists – that’s a little sad, but not surprising. Before the leftists admitted their guilt, evey news program, every interviewee was calling for the heads of the conservatives that wrote the posters.

    I’d remind these very forgiving students at GWU that every writer of satire believes a portion of what they write to be true to some degree – that’s what makes it satire and not fiction. Â

    Kokesh is a criminal – a sociopathic, spoiled rich child with too much time on his hands. Chickenhawk Express ferrets out his background and digs up his father;

    Charles Kokesh, a Santa Fe venture capitalist, founder of a firm called Technology Funding and owner of the Santa Fe Horse Park….

    Typical of the 60s rich kids who protested that war. In fact, while his son is playing at being a hippie protester, Daddy is trying to organize a polo tournament at poloblogs.com.

    Michele Malkin has the letter from YAF to the GWU administration. The Sniper takes a few well-placed and well-deserved shots at Kokesh. Hot Air has the audio of his defense of his actions. Johnny Dollar’s Place has the video. Liberal D.C. Universe even sees the hypocrisy.

    Chickenhawk Express emailed me last night and told me that Kokesh is due for trial on his previous poster offense. (WTOP Radio)

    Adam Kokesh, Tina Richards and Ian Thompson appeared in court Thursday. The antiwar ANSWER Coalition says they could face up to six months in jail if convicted of the charge.

    The D.C. Department of Public Works fined the group for pasting hundreds of signs with an adhesive that city officials say makes them difficult to remove. Protesters have said the adhesive was water-soluble.

    The ANSWER Coalition has responded by suing the city, alleging their constitutional rights were violated.

    Their constitutional right to litter DC with garish yellow posters – as I said yesterday, those posters still litter the city, as well as some posters I saw in Bethesda from the March protest. For the story of his arrest, go to this previous post.

    Kokesh is a nuisance that no one holds responsible for his actions. In fact, he still calls himself Sergeant Kokesh at his blog – even though he was busted from the rank three years ago for smuggling an Iraqi pistol back to the States – I think that qualifies him as a phony soldier. Wonkette can barely control her drooling as she reports another Kokesh arrest at the Capitol back in April, while Kokesh himself admits to an arrest at Fort Benning in July.

    Since apparently someone else is paying for his misbehavior, I think it’s time GWU and the DC district courts teach his little punk-ass a lesson. GWU should suspend him for anti-social behavior (that’s three arrests on Federal property since he became a GWU student) and the District should toss him in cell for 6-months until he learns that when a cop tells him not to do something, he won’t just go ahead and do it anyway.

    Kokesh is double-dog daring – someone should take him up on it.

  • Carter or Cheney – who is more disasterous?

    That demented, half-witted old coot from Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the guy who ran for President in the South by declaring he would make America a system of “ethnically pure neighborhoods” in 1976 (yes, he did – no one remembers that line from the campaign do they?) has called Dick Cheney – our current Vice President – a diaster. I found this last night on Little Green Footballs;

    Former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday denounced Vice President Dick Cheney as a “disaster” for the country and a “militant” who has had an excessive influence in setting foreign policy.

    I guess that Jimmy Carter forgets that by the time he left office, Cuba had over run the West Coast of Africa spreading war and death in their wake, Cuba was also funding guerrilla operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Columbia, Panama and Peru. There were 10,000 Soviet combat troops 90 miles from the coast of Florida, Iranian students had seized our embassy and were holding hostages for 444 days – and the only response from Carter was an attempt to use the military he had let fall into disrepair which ended in deaths.

    At the beginning of his Administration, Carter walked the mile between the Capitol and the White House down Pennsylvania Avenue after his Inauguration as every President since Jefferson had done – but by the end of his Administration, his successor had to ride the mile in a bullet-proof limo with snipers and special police on every rooftops – as every President since has had to do. Carter made the world a dangerous place.

    Gateway Pundit reports that Carter at least finally admitted culpability in the Iran hostage situation yesterday;

    BLITZER: You know, you have been criticized for your handling of Iran when the Shah was in power, you know, in the late…

    CARTER: I have heard about that.

    BLITZER: In the late ’70s. Looking back all of these years, knowing what has happened, what, if anything, would you have done differently?

    CARTER: I would have had one more helicopter in our rescue mission, which would have brought all of the hostages out safe and free. And so I had to wait from April, around until five minutes after I was no longer president when all of the hostages did come home safe and free.

    Yeah, that would have done it – one more helicopter and he thinks he would have been re-elected. Sorry, Jimmy, but the Iran Crisis was just one symptom of the entire illness which was the Carter Administration.

    Well, Carter went on to claim that he “knows” the Bush Administration is torturing people (Breitbart);

    US President George W. Bush’s administration tortures detainees in defiance of international law, former US president Jimmy Carter charged Wednesday.

    “I don’t think it, I know it, certainly,” Carter told CNN television when asked if he believed the US administration allowed the use of torture.

    How? I’m pretty sure the Adminstration doesn’t brief your leaky ass, unless the torturees are telling you when you have them over for barbeque. More emotive drivel from the biggest dufus to ever walk the earth.

    Bloodthirsty Liberal calls Carter a “cheesed-off old geezer” and recounts his disgust with the GOP field of candidates. Carter made me a conservative less than two weeks after his Inauguration (shamefully, I admit I voted for him in my first presidential ballot), he should be slinking off into obscurity instead of reminding us what an idiot he’s always been.

    I’ve heard people complain that they’re ashamed to admit they’re Americans when they travel abroad because of the current President. Well, they don’t remember the crap Americans used have to take from the World over Carter. I’ve never been ashamed of being an American, but I got into a lot of bar room fist fights with Germans, Turks, French, Dutch, Danes and Spaniards who used Jimmy Carter as a way to put the country down (I was young, I don’t fight with fists anymore – I use a bat).

  • Judge orders ‘migras’ to stand down

    In this bizarre world in which we live, a San Francisco Federal judge has told Homeland Security Department and the Social Security Administration (notice the use of the word “security” in both agencies) to stop enforcing Federal law according to Washington Times’ Jerry Seper;

    A federal judge in San Francisco yesterday blocked plans by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens.

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued an order saying the agencies could not go forward with plans announced in August to send letters warning employers they face stiff penalties — including fines of up to $10,000 — if they hire workers whose Social Security numbers do not match their names.

    Judge Breyer, appointed by President Clinton in 1997, said the new work-site rules likely would impose hardships on businesses and their workers, adding that the plaintiffs had “demonstrated they will be irreparably harmed” if the rules are enforced.

    Hmmm – San Francisco, Clinton appointee, ignore the law…I’m beginning to see a pattern here. So the Administration – the branch of government which “executes” the laws (hence the name “Executive Branch”) of the legislative branch – has been ordered by the third branch of government – the judiciary – to stop enforcing the laws designed to protect American citizens.

    So I guess employers now know that they have another year to flaunt our laws and to exploit the underground population. And potential illegals know that they’ve got a year to get here and the terrorists know they have a year to hide in the illegal population to plan their next attack. So it works out for everyone – well, except the American people who’ve been calling for the laws to be enforced for the protection that enforcement might provide.

    But, see, this wasn’t a plan by the administration to begin enforcing any laws – the judge blocked the agencies from MAILING A LETTER (Effort to Curb Illegal Workers’ Hiring Blocked – Washington Post);

    In a 22-page ruling, Breyer said the plaintiffs — an unusual coalition that included the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — had raised serious questions about the legality of the administration’s plan to mail Social Security “no-match” letters to 140,000 U.S. employers.

    “There can be no doubt that the effects of the rule’s implementation will be severe,” Breyer wrote, resulting in “irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers.”

    Innocent workers and employers – who are employed and employing illegally – how are they innocent? They know they’re breaking the law, so what exactly are they innocent of? 

    What kind of Bizarro World do they live in out there? 

  • PW County protest weak, Frederick caves

    Two stories in the Washington post this morning about the on-going illegal immigrants problem. In Virginia, where Prince William County legislators ordered that county services wouldn’t be provided to people who refuse to prove their immigration status, a “day without illegals” fizzled according to Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang and Karin Brulliard in “Hispanics Protest, but Impact Questioned”

    A work boycott called to protest Prince William County’s proposed crackdown on illegal immigrants appeared to have limited impact yesterday as construction sites, restaurants and retail stores hummed with business as usual.

    The one-day stoppage, organized by the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders, did cause a smattering of businesses to operate with smaller staffs or close.
     
    La Azteca Latina, a small grocery in Woodbridge, closed after two hours while its owner and employees attended a rally. Ten employees of a waterproofing company in Woodbridge walked off their jobs in the morning, even though their employer threatened that they wouldn’t be able to work for the rest of the week.

    “We’re doing it for our own good. And if the boss doesn’t like it, well, we will look for other work,” said Ruben Garcia, 28, of Woodbridge.

    That’d probably solve a lot of problems – looking for other work. I’ve noticed that no one protests by working harder to prove their worth – only by stopping work. In this case, probably neither would have been noticed. When you call yourselves “Mexicans Without Borders”, you probably don’t do your cause any good, either. There are borders, and you wouldn’t be a Mexican without a border since Mexican isn’t a race.

    Meanwhile Frederick, Maryland caves in even though Prince William County, across the Potomac didn’t. In “Frederick Votes No On Denying Immigrants” Philip Rucker reports;

    In a 3 to 2 vote, Frederick County commissioners rejected a proposal yesterday that would have denied public services, including schooling, to immigrants in the United States illegally, deciding not to follow the lead of Prince William and Loudoun counties.

    But the Frederick board unanimously approved resolutions to Congress and the Maryland legislature calling on lawmakers to reform immigration policies. The resolutions state that the rapid influx of immigrants is creating social tension in Frederick and is taxing the local government, which is facing rising costs for Spanish-language interpreters and other services. 

    In other words, the county commissioners spinelessly decided to pass the buck to the state and federal legislators, instead of doing the job they’re paid to do. Imitating New Orleans’ residents after Katrina, Frederick’s government yells “help us!” at the cameras instead of taking control of their situation. Politically safe. Economically disasterous. If we stopped providing all of these goodies to the criminals who cross our borders without our permission, they’d stop coming.

    Yes, I watched the news last night and I saw all of the whining do-gooders cry that this legislation would “only hurt the children” of illegal immigants and that Frederick’s residents didn’t want that stigma attached to their reputation – look, folks, it’s not your fault that these parents decided to drag their kids to this country illegally. The illegal immigrant parents who made that conscious decision are responsible for their kids – not you – not us.

    I know, I have an anonomous commenter here who tells me there’s a special place in Hell for people like me because of these remarks against lawbreakers – I only hope that special place is far from the whining enablers that keep attracting lawbreakers to this country.

  • So who hung those posters at GWU?

    Monday morning while the rest of America was sleeping in enjoying their Columbus Day, nefarious forces were afoot on the George Washington University. The Washington Post article “Poster Was Aimed At Racism Authors Say” this morning explains the event;

    Fliers that appeared on the George Washington University campus carrying an apparently anti-Islamic message were produced by students who were attempting to mock those they thought were trying to stir fear of Muslims, a campus newspaper was told.

    The GW Hatchet, an independent campus paper, posted a story on its Web site late last night saying it had heard from those behind the fliers, who said they had been misunderstood. According to the Hatchet, an e-mail that it received from the students said the flier was not an attack on Islam but an effort “at exposing Islamophobic racism.”

    Yep, but who did people who were outraged about this attack initially? The Young Americans Foundation conservative group on campus. As if any serious political organization would use hate as a tool to recruit in this day and age – well except radical Leftists and Islamists.

    So who were the people behind it? Well, the Post declines to name them, but the GW Hatchet has no problem naming names;

    The students – Adam Kokesh, freshman Yong Kwon, senior Brian Tierney, freshman Ned Goodwin, Maxine Nwigwe, Lara Masri and Amal Rammah – said their motives were misinterpreted.

    Yep, Adam Kokesh – the little weasel to whom I’ve dedicated a whole category on this blog. And what was their intent? Squelching the free speech of conservatives, of course;

    Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness hung the posters in opposition to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, an event being held beginning Oct. 22.

    Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is a David Horowitz event. Just like the KKK leaflets in Manasas were intended to paint the anti-immigration movement there as a racist movement, this Kokesh-led abortion was meant to fan the flames of  hate against conservatives and those of us who are wary of Islamofacism. And it worked initially (from the WaPo, yesterday);

    “I was just really shocked that this sort of hatred exists on our campus,” said Najah El Bash, a sophomore from New York who is one of the leaders of the GWU Muslim Students Association. “You never think this would come so close to home, from people you’re in classes with. . . . It’s scary.” It had to be well-planned, she said, for so many posters to go up so quickly.

    Yeah, scary. It’s scary that people who who were cautious about blaming radical Islam for the 9-11 attacks is quick to point fingers at conservatives for this kind of childish rhetoric. I would hope that the George Washington University faculty will give Kokesh exactly what they would have intended for YAF if they’d found them responsible. But, fat chance. In fact, the local TV stations, after their initial reports of facists on the loose in the city, have dropped the story. Here’s a Fox 5 report that hasn’t been updated to reflect the solved crime since yesterday at noon. The local Telemundo news broadcast hasn’t changed either. I guess it’s too good a story when it’s sheet-wearing racists instead of non-sheet-wearing racists.

    By the way, those posters that Kokesh and his bunch got arrested for posting nearly a month ago that they claimed were an expression of their free speech? Well, they’re still all over the city – no one has taken them down. In fact, I saw a poster the other day from the March 17th protest. I wonder if the city has collected on their $20,000 fine yet.

    Hat tip to Kate for the early morning email on a slow news day. Michele Malkin has more, and Little Green Footballs was on it here and here. David Horowitz calls it a hate crime. LGF and Gateway Pundit write that YAF is being asked by the assistant director of student activities to apologize for the fake posters from YAF’s fake members.

    Samantha Sault of The Weekly Standard Blogs says colleges hate conservatives – I say colleges hate everyone equally. Why else would colleges so readily fill skulls of mush with inacurate and incomplete information?

  • Sowing unwarranted fear in the Latin community

    I read somewhere that the freedom of speech doesn’t include yelling ‘Fire’ in a crowded theater. If that’s true, then I suppose the freedom of the press doesn’t include yelling ‘Migra!’ in Prince William County as the Washington Post’s Pamela Constable does this morning.

    Although not yet enacted into law, the resolution passed by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors has created a sense of siege and solidarity throughout the county’s wider Latino community of about 30,000. Rumors circulate that people will be arrested if they board buses or drop off their children at school. Some legal residents, who bought homes and opened businesses, expecting to stay for years, say they are thinking of leaving.

    That seems innocuous enough, however, Constable, in two pages of writing, doesn’t ever tell us what the measure includes. You have to go elswehere to find out what this racist legislation is;

    The bill would require police to check the residency status of anyone suspected of breaking the law. The bill would also require schools, libraries, and swimming pools to verify the immigration status of anyone using county services.

    Oh, my goodness – how draconian. Imagine making taxpayers identify themselves before using the services they pay for with their taxes. imagine making criminals identify themselves. How absolutely horrible. Actually, I think it’s horrible that it hasn’t been done up to this point.

    A sense of seige. Having to identify yourself creates a sense of seige. Funny – I have to identify myself all of the time. My wife, the legal Latin immigrant, has to identify herself all of the time. In fact, in the DC area nearly everyone has to identify themselves constantly – we all have ID badges and pass through security every time we enter or leave a building. I don’t feel under seige. Of course, I might if I’d committed a criminal act and I was worried about being arrested all of the time – but that’s not the case. 

    And it appears that it’s working, according to Constable;

    Gilbert Mejia, a Salvadoran restaurant owner, was the host of a recent meeting at his La Frontera restaurant in Gaithersburg. He said the fear of arrest and harassment among Latino immigrants has become so widespread that business at his restaurant has fallen sharply this summer.

    “Look at this place. Normally, we would be full for lunch,” said Mejia, gesturing around a room full of empty tables. “People are afraid the attitude from Prince William will drift here, that Maryland will be the next target. I have been in this country 27 years, and I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars. We need to know what’s coming our way.”

    Of course, we can’t have a WaPo story without hyperbole;

    One was Jesus Calva, 40, who lives with his wife and two children in Lake Ridge, a woodsy townhouse community. Calva entered the United States illegally as a teenager and started working as a tree trimmer for $3 an hour. Today, he makes $27 an hour with a large construction company, and he helped rebuild the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. On his living room wall is a certificate of thanks signed by former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

    “I have always appreciated this country, and it really upsets me to hear about this law,” said Calva, who spoke briefly at last Tuesday’s hearing. Afterward, he strode outside, sat down on a curb and began to weep in frustration. “Even when I was illegal, I worked hard for everything I got, and I paid a lot of taxes,” he said. “If they don’t like us, why don’t they just say so? I love my home, but I don’t want to live in a place where I am hated.”

    Um, Jesus, no one has said they “hate” you. It’s just that those of us who’ve built this country into the economic and cultural powerhouse it’s become don’t want it to fall into the desperate morass of the other American countries. Anyone looking at this issue with open eyes (instead of a closed racist mind) would have to admit that illegal immigration needs to be blunted – now!

    Every story about immigrants in the Washington Post has some poor LEGAL immigrant whining that they’re going to lose their civil rights because they might have an accent or wear sandals or something. Like what happened to Cheech Marin in “Born in East LA” – a movie, not based on actual experiences, a work of complete fantasy – including the required happy ending. I’m pretty sure a check of ICE’s records would reveal that it’s never happened – I carry ID everytime I leave the house, I carry my passport everytime I leave the hotel in Central America. I really don’t see what’s so damn difficult about doing it here.

  • Do we really want eight more years of this? (Updated)

    After dealing with real scandals from the Clinton Administration (as opposed to overblown, fake scandals of the current administration), do we really want to subject ourselves to a replay? Have we already forgotten how they cleaned out the White House after they left and had to send stuff back – like some damn hillbilly family getting evicted from the trailer park?

    Here we are a year from the election and already we have Chinese criminals driving truckloads of money into the Clinton compound and Sandy Berger, the Clinton Administration’s own Maxwell Smart, is back on the payroll. Link from Little Green Footballs.

    From Bloodthirsty Liberal, I get the story that Clinton herself is pulling out the “vast right wing conspiracy” ploy again (retooled as “someone sent you that question” as if the questioner wasn’t smart enough to ask the question himself) to avoid answering questions that she doesn’t have the political huevos to be straight forward (while CNN admires the “heated exchange“). Video from Hot Air.

    Oh, and I had two heart attacks during the Clinton Administration and none during the Bush Administration. That should be reason enough for ya’all to stop her.

    Update:

    Continuing in the same vein, I read from the Wall Street Journal’s Jackie Calmes that Clinton, pandering to the ignorant masses, as per usual, is promising “savings incentives”;

    Mrs. Clinton will travel through Iowa and New Hampshire on a bus dubbed the “Middle Class Express” to propose new savings incentives so more Americans have 401(k) retirement plans, revenue bonds so states can refinance mortgages for those facing home foreclosures, and expanded college scholarships.

    Savings incentives? According to the Motley Fool columnist, Selena Marajian, our savings rate for 2005 averaged .05% of our national earnings. It’s been declining since 1984. you couple that with the fact that we feel the need to pay for health insurance for families with $60,000/year of income and it seems to me that government (specifically Democrats) are creating a climate of entitlement and dependence that’s nearly irreversible.

    President Bush cuts taxes – marginal rates for low income people were cut from 33% to 100% depending on their income, married taxpayers got another 20% reduction – yet the savings rate declined. Why? Because those low income people spent their tax reduction. (Actually, my tax reduction went straight into savings – but that’s me).

    So my point is; how does government think they’re going to influence people to save? They get a 20-30% raise from tax cuts and spend it. It’s just talking smack – what she does best. 

    Michele Malkin writes about another pyramid schemer shoveling thousands into the Clinton campaign.Â