Category: Politics

Gun Control: Bloomberg and Carrey…Dumb and Dumber

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

bloomberg2carreyThere is one axiom that I have found that pertains to Liberal’s in both DC and Hollywood: They always believe that they are the smartest person in any room they walk into. In regards to gun confiscation, they believe that they know more about gun safety that Americans who have been around guns all their lives.

Allow me to tell you about 2 well-know Liberals , of like minds, whose combined brain power would not operate a 25 watt light bulb.

New York City’s Nanny Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has launched a $12 million advertising campaign aimed at those Senators who are wavering in their opinion about gun confiscation.

The rich, clueless Liberal expresse a warning on Meet The Press yesterday, that this was just the beginning:

I have a responsibility … to try to make this country safer.

If I can do that by spending some money, and taking the NRA from being the only voice to being one of the voices, so the public can really understand the issues, then I think my money will be well spent and I think I have an obligation to do that.

If 90% of the public wants something, and their representatives vote against that, common sense says they are going to have a price to pay for that. (Actually, the majority of Americans are against gun control, Mr. Mayoe.)

Bloomberg launched the ad campaign, which will start airing Monday, in a dozen states where Bloomberg believes key senators can be swayed. The ad features a rifle-toting hunter making the case for background checks.

I don’t think there’s ever been an issue where the public has spoken so clearly where Congress hasn’t eventually understood and done the right thing,.

…I don’t think we should give up on the assault weapons ban, but clearly it is a more difficult issue for a lot of people.

Meanwhile, in Hollyweird, formerly relevant actor Jim Carrey, has written a liltte ditty, aimed at us rednecks who have guns in our homes.

The formerly popular actor sent out a Tweet on February 2nd which read,

[Anyone] who would run out to buy an assault rifle after the Newtown massacre has very little left in their body or soul worth protecting.

Yesterday, Carrey sent out the following Tweets, proving that all of those times in the movies, when he played a complete idiot…he wasn’t acting:

  • The important question is “Do we possess guns in America or do guns possess us?”
  • Hunters hang animals up on their walls.I kill mosquitos bt their little heads r hard to mount! ‘COLD DEAD HAND’ Funny Or Die 12:01am Mon ;^P
  • Some ppl hate when i talk about guns so I decided to sing about it! Check out COLD DEAD HAND 12:01 AM Monday on Funny Or Die and itunes! ;^P
  • ‘Cold Dead Hand’ is abt u heartless motherf%!@ers unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids.Sorry if you’re offended by the word safety! ;^}
  • How abt developing more non-lethal forms of selfdefense?Too sensible?!’Cold Dead Hand’ 1min aft midnight 2night on Funny Or Die n itunes ;^P
  • I repeat,HOW ABT DEVELOPING MORE NON-LETHAL FORMS OF SELF-DEFENSE?! TOO SENSIBLE?!!!Why the hell are rubber bullets ILLEGAL?FOD 12:01am ;^}
  • No 1 is answering my suggestion of developing non-lethal self-defense! I guess that wouldn’t satisfy our national addiction to violence! ;^}
  • Gun folks are afraid that control won’t stop with large magazines. Their nervousness is far less important than the safety of children. ;^]
  • I’d like to respond to all the conservative bundits out there personally but I’m far too busy NOT stumping for the gun companies! ;^P
  • Over a million ppl have been killed by guns in the US since John Lennon was shot. Look no further than your own backyard for WMDs! {8^•

Great career move, Carrey. This should make you as popular as the Dixie Chicks.

I would like these two gentlemen to kindly explain how taking  away the guns of law-abiding American citizens, is going to protect us from the criminals who will still have guns.

Liberals live under the delusion that, since they believe that they are the “smartest person in the room, and “care more” than other Americans, that we should consider them experts at everything. They also believe that we (especially those of us who do not live in the Northeast Corridor or on the West Coast) do not know how to run our own lives, and therefore, we should allow them to run our lives for us.

There is a reason why Obama’s popularity ratings are beginning to tank.

Americans get up on our hind legs when tyrants, foreign or domestic, attempt to take away our freedoms, as assigned to us by our Creator, through our Founding Fathers.

I hope that Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Carrey do not plan a trip down to Mississippi any time soon. Some of my neighbors are liable to tell them how they feel about their attempts at gun confiscation.

And, it won’t be pretty.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Of Palm Sunday and Two Very Different Entries Into Jerusalem

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

palm sunday1Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

anda on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” – Matthew 21:1-9

Today is Palm Sunday. The day when we, as Christians, remember our Savior’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, riding on the back of a donkey. Churches this morning across our nation will celebrate with hymns and anthems proclaiming the greatness of our Holy and Sovereign Lord, as children spread palm branches down the aisles of their church.

As the most important week in our Christian Faith begins, an important week in our nation’s relationship with God’s Chosen People is drawing to a close.

President Barack Hussein Obama, (mm mmm mmmm) has wrapped up his visit to the Holy Land.  While there, this prince among men has managed to torque off both the Israelis and their Muslim neighbors, alike.

In Obama’s Key Speech of the week, given last Thursday, he said,

…the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.

…Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable – that real borders will have to be drawn.

…Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see.

As I have written before, the Palestinians are the gypsies of the Middle East. They have never had a homeland. There has never been a country named Palestine.

However, the previously-mentioned, prince among men, is determined to give them one, anyway.

Before he left DC for The Holy Land , Obama met with two pro-Hamas Groups, as beforeitsnews.com reports,

President Barack Obama met with several controversial anti-Israel Arab groups ahead of his visit to the Jewish state on March 20. Obama held an “intimate” gathering Monday with Arab American leaders and others to solicit advice and ask questions in preparation for his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week.

I doubt there was a similar meeting with Jewish leaders before a trip to Saudi Arabia, but hey the man did say that he would stand with the Muslims. That’s one place where he kept his word.

Included in the meeting was Haris Tarin, D.C. director of the controversial Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a Muslim-American group that has falsely accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs and has asked for Hamas and Hezbollah to be removed from the list of United States-designated terror groups.

This should come as no surprise, because Barack Hussein Obama has kept MPAC and its founder pretty close, despite a history of support for terrorism.

Also in attendance was the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a group that has called Israel an “apartheid state” and once presented an award to the author of an essay titled, “Zionism is a Form of Racism.”

ADC also has a predictable record of defending Hamas.In 1994, then-ADC President Hamzi Moghrabi said, “I will not call [Hamas] a terrorist organization. I mean, I know many people in Hamas. They are very respectable … I don’t believe Hamas, as an organization, is a violent organization.”

Then, as  his trip was drawing to a close, Obama, despite having to stop White House Tours, Regional Airports,and benefits for our Armed Forces, found some money to give HIS chosen people, as reported by The Times of Israel,

The US State Department announced on Friday that nearly $500 million in aid had been unblocked for transfer to the Palestinian Authority, months after Congress froze the funds in late-2012.

“To date, we have moved $295.7 million in fiscal year 2012 money… and $200 million in fiscal year 2013 assistance,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

The announcement came on the heels of US President Barack Obama’s first trip to Israel and the West Bank since assuming office in 2009.

However, Obama’s embracing of the Muslim Radicals hasn’t helped his popularity with them any. Yesterday morning, the official Twitter account of Hamas posted the following message,

Alqassam Brigades @AlqassamBrigade

#Obama: The #Jewish organ grinder’s #monkey.#Obamainisrael http://www.qassam.ps/opinion-6776-Obama_The_Jewish_organ_grinders_monkey.html … pic.twitter.com/rmsSAHx4qg

9:03 AM – 23 Mar 13

Obama, with all of his passion regarding his sympathetic claims that the Middle Eastern Muslims are not getting a fair shake and his vocal activeness regarding procuring a “Homeland” for the Palestinians, does not seem to realize that the Islamic Barbarians don’t respect his civilized sucking up.

Quite frankly, they view the current President of the United States as a dhimmi tool, to be used and discarded, after he has served his purpose.

And, if he doesn’t start paying attention to Genesis 12:1-3, things are not going to get any better…for him,or our nation:

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare: Will the Last American Doctor to “Retire Early”, Please Turn Out the Lights?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamadoctorI was literally raised by 3 doctors. No, I’m not some genetic experiment, like Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the movie “Twins” with Danny DeVito. I was born a severe asthmatic, caused by being born a month premature to a Mother 3 days before her 40th birthday.

These three men worked in the same clinic in Mid-town Memphis, TN. They later went on to become the chairmen of the Medical and Surgery Departments at a local hospital.

Some of my most vivid memories involve laying in one of their examination rooms, with oxygen strapped to my face, as my beloved Daddy waited nervously, by my side.

Asthma treatment back then, consisted of a swig of nasty-tasting yellow Triaminic Syrup, a shot of Epinephrine, an antibiotic shot (usually a Mycin drug), a prescription for prednisone to alleviate the inflammation, and a prescription for an anti-biotic (again, usually a mycin drug). Thank goodness, back then (1960s through early 1970s) Sears, where both of my parents worked, had a really good insurance plan.

My asthma persists to this day, but it has never stopped me. Once I got to high school, I became a gym rat, playing, and later, coaching and playing basketball and working out 6 days a week as a young man. However, at 54, that’s all behind me now…literally.

That being said, I owe my life to those three men of medicine, and the Greatest Healthcare System in the World.

Unfortunately, that Healthcare System, thanks to the megalomaniac who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, is about to go the way of the Dodo Bird.

The latest news revolving around the advent of this American Healthcare Destroyer, known as Obamacare, involves a survey which shows that 6 in 10 of American doctors plan on retiring within 1-3 years of this unwanted program’s inception.

How can a state-run Healthcare System function without any doctors? Answer:  it can’t.

I remember when I was singing with a 15 voice youth choir in the UK, back in July of 1978. My choirmaster’s husband, had some bad l”kippers (lox) one morning for breakfast, and got food poisoning. The hotel sent for a doctor and a nice young Pakistani fellow arrived. When asked how he wound up being a doctor in the UK, he replied that since the British Government took over healthcare, the older doctors had left the profession, and the British Government had to offer special incentives to foreign doctors to move to the UK and fill the empty slots.

Welcome to your future, America.

It has also come forward this week, that Obama and his minions are having trouble coordinating the establishment of the individual State Insurance Exchanges. These are the committees, made up on local hack politicians,  which were to be easy to use, like ordering pizza online, allowing users to fill out basic information, have the government database verify their eligibility, and then enable them to choose among competing insurance plans.

The lofty goals which Obama set for these exchanges have now been replaced with lowered expectations.

According to Henry Chao, an official at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services who is overseeing the technology of the exchanges,

The time for debating about the size of text on the screen or the color or is it a world-class user experience, that’s what we used to talk about two years ago. Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.

“A third world experience” is evidently what Obama had in mind all along.

But, hey…no worries. We’ll all be blessed with really good, cheap health insurance, right?

Wrong.

According to wsj.com,

The possibility of higher premiums has become the latest focal point of the political tussle over the health law, which marks its third anniversary Saturday. Republican lawmakers have held hearings on the issue, and six GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce committee wrote last week to more than a dozen insurers asking them to turn over internal analyses on the law’s impact on premiums and costs.

The insurance industry has also been talking publicly about big potential premium increases in lobbying for tweaks to the law.

The individual market includes about 15 million people, and around 18% of the roughly 149 million with employer coverage were at small companies, according to 2011 figures from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The individual market is expected to grow to around 35 million people by 2016 as a result of the law.

In a private presentation to brokers late last month, UnitedHealth Group Inc., UNH -1.09% the nation’s largest carrier, said premiums for some consumers buying their own plans could go up as much as 116%, and small-business rates as much as 25% to 50%. The company said the estimates were driven in part by growing medical costs not directly tied to the law. It also cited the law’s requirements that health status not affect rates and that plans include certain minimum benefits and limits to out-of-pocket charges, among other things.

Jeff Alter, who leads United Health’s employer and individual insurance business, said the numbers represented a “high-end scenario,” not an average. “There are some scenarios in which a member could see as much as a 116% increase or over,” he said, though others, such as some older consumers, could see decreases. He said the company dwelled on the possible increases because it was trying to prepare brokers to speak with clients facing big jumps.

There is a push up on Capitol Hill to make Obama have to drop his present “Cadillac” health insurance coverage, in order to experience the horror of this bureaucratic monster which he has created, for himself.

That’s not going to happen. King Barry and Michelle Antoinette will continue to have their cake and eat it,too.

In the meantime, I hope you have your ice floe reserved. I do.

Until He Comes,

KJ

“We’re Not Here to Rebrand a Party. We’re Here to Rebuild a Country”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

conservative1Those words were spoken by Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin during the Conservative Political Action Committee last Saturday.

And, as this week has progressed, we have found out exactly what she meant.

The Republicans, the Grand Old Party, if you will, are “preparing their aircraft” for 2016, like a bunch of Japanese Kamikazes preparing to take their final flight into oblivion.

Every day, since The Manchurian President’s re-Inauguration, new revelations seem to be originating from GOP Establishment Headquarters, deep in the bowels of the Beltway.

First, the rumors started swirling about a possible Jeb Bush run for the presidency in some sort of a vain glorious attempt to create the Republicans’ very own version of the Kennedy’s, minus Honey Fitz’ liquor smuggling and that whole “unfortunate incident” involving Teddy, a car, a bridge, and a beautiful young lady named Mary Jo Kopechne.

While I admire both Bush 41 and 43, I agree with the Rev’ruuuund Jacksoooon (as Rush says it). It’s time to “get out the Bushes!”

Ever since Obama ascended to the Throne of the Regime, the GOP has been doing their dead-level best to shoot themselves in their collective foot, and put themselves out of their misery. Instead of wisening up from their ill-fated attempts at winning the presidency throughout the running of Moderate Candidates, the geniuses of the GOP Elite have not only been holding on to their out-of-touch Moderation, they have been steadily moving on a Quixotic journey of embracing the cultural values of those clueless individuals known as “Liberals” or the “Looney Left”.

Not only have the Republican Power Brokers forgotten every cotton-pickin’ thing that they learned during the presidency of Ronaldus Magnus, they seem to be so enamored of the Democratic Party, that they want to be just like them.

In fact, the leader of the Republican Party, Speaker of the House,  John Boehner, recently said that he “absolutely trusts” President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

I hope Obama’s old “body man”, Reggie Love, doesn’t become jealous of their “special relationship”.

The GOP seems to be of the mistaken belief that, if they foreswear everything that the GOP has always stood for, completely alienating the Conservative base, which their party was founded upon, that they will gain a bunch of “swell new friends”. By promoting “Gay Marriage”, Gun Control, and a Path to Citizenship for illegal aliens (aka: amnesty), they believe that Homosexuals, *puff puff* Libertarians, and “formerly illegal” aliens will be beholden to them and vote them back into power.

Plus, the Republican Establishment has a lot in common with the Liberal Democratic Leadership: they both believe that they are “the smartest people in the room”, they both like to spend OUR money like sailors on 24 hour leave in Thailand, and they both believe that Reagan Conservatives, like myself, who live in Dixie and the rest of Flyover Country, are “bitterly clinging to their guns and religion”. They also seem to believe that morality is not an absolute, that ethics are situational, words are made for parsing, and truth is made for bending.

They also seem to be relying on the philosophy of  the Prophet of Global Warming, Al Gore and his role-model, P.T. Barnum, who once said,

There’s a sucker born every minute.

The GOP Elite somehow believe that if they place “social issues” on the back burner, or hold views similar to those found “across the aisle”, and make the American public believe that they are “fiscally Conservative”, that Americans will fall in love with the Republican Party.

There are some serious problems with this line of thinking by the Republican Establishment.

Ignoring “social issues” will not make them go away. Christians still make up 78% of our population, and our faith does not end when the preacher says,

Thanks for coming. We’ll see you next Sunday.

Further, as Ronald Reagan explained, Conservatism is a three legged stool:  Social Issues, Fiscal Issues, and National Defense.

For those of you who claim to be “Fiscal Conservatives”, you’re fooling yourselves.

By embracing “Social Liberalism”, you are not shrinking government…you are growing it.  Someone has to pay for the emergency services caused by a hedonistic lifestyle. Booze, pot, and umm…escorts (*cough*) cost money, and when things go wrong, i.e. accidents, shootings, disease, broken marriages, etc., the costs of these “social” matters, both emotional and fiscal, not only affect the individual, but family, friends, and strangers as well.

By tossing Reagan Conservatives, or “True Conservatives”, as we have been derisively called, aside, the Republican Party, and all those who call themselves “Fiscally Conservative and Socially Liberal” are  setting themselves up as the unwitting dupes of the Democratic Party and all of their nefarious schemes to “socially re-engineer” the Faith and Values Belief System of this country.

When Sarah Palin spoke of “rebuilding the country”, she was talking about far more than just the Herculean task ahead of us of repairing the economic damage done to our nation and its standing in the world, the Arctic Fox was also speaking about re-focusing our country on the things that made America the greatest country on the face of God’s green Earth.

Palin is a Christian American Conservative. So am I. We are a part of the Republican Party’s Conservative base, whom the Republican Power Brokers have treated so dismissively the last several years., which has only served to bite them in the hindquarters, come election time.

Now, they apparently are so arrogant and short-sighted, as to want to drive us away completely. 

As Ron White says,

You can’t fix stupid.

Apparently, the GOP wants to double-down on it.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The “Path to Citizenship”: Can You Buy Patriotism and Loyalty?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

jimmycagneyAs I came up with the title to this blog, the image of the late, great James Cagney, as the immortal George M. Cohan came to mind, singing and dancing in the biographical musical about the legendary musician/playwright/song and dance man.

Oh, I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.

I’m a Yankee Doodle Boy.

A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam,

Born on the Fourth of July.

That being said, among the hot button issues that both the Liberal/Socialist/dang-near Communist Democrats and the Vichy Republicans, as they attempt to “rebrand” the GOP to be more like the Dems, are focusing on, is the passage of a law promoting a “Path to Citizenship” for illegal immigrants. You know, individuals who snuck into our sovereign nation by entering “South of the Border, Down Mexico Way”. (Hey! That would make a great song title. Oh…never mind.)

I will not argue with you, that  a lot of these illegal, not undocumented, immigrants, work hard, at back-breaking nasty jobs. However, what about the fact that they are here illegally , do our elected officials not understand?

Let me try to explain it in a way even Joe Biden could comprehend. (I’ll use small words.)

Let’s pretend I broke into your house.  When you discover me there, you insist I leave.  But I say, “I’ve made all the beds, washed the dishes, did the laundry, and cleaned the floors; I’ve done all the work you don’t like to do. I’m hardworking and honest (except for breaking into your house). Not only must you let me stay, you must also add me to your insurance plan, educate my kids, and provide these benefits to my husband, too (he will do your yardwork, he’s honest and hardworking too–except for that breaking in part). If you try to force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house and proclaim my right to be there! It’s only fair, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I’m trying to better myself. I’m hardworking and honest…except for, well, you know. I will live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of selfishness and prejudice.

Oh yeah, I want you to learn my language so you can communicate with me.

Good plan..don’t you think?

Is this a behavior we should be rewarding?

What makes the current influx of illegal immigrants exempt from the rules and regulations that every other generation of immigrants to this country had to abide by in order to become legal citizens of the greatest nation in the world? By being here illegally, they are not entitled to the same rights as natural-born or naturalized American citizens.

And, yet, even as I write this, they are in our hospitals, taking advantage of our charity and the finest health care system in the world, and driving our streets, with either forged drivers licenses or those obtained from states who have acquiesced and given them to these “undocumented workers”.

This is in no way a human rights issue. Freedom is God-given, and with freedom comes responsibility. With citizenship comes responsibility, like paying taxes and making your own way.

My concerns about this whole “Path to Citizenship” business, can be divded into three bullet points. (Hey, I’m a VP of Marketing. What do you expect?)

1. Patriotism – Will these new “citizens” be willing to fly our flag above theirs? Will they be willing, if called upon, to serve in our Armed Forces, at home or abroad? Will they love this country, more than the one they left?

2. Loyalty – When these “new Americans” achieve the right to vote, are they all going to vote Democrat, so that they can receive more FREE STUFF? Is the Republican Party shooting themselves in both feet by pushing an outcome which will simply add new Democratic Voters? As I asked in the first point, will they honestly embrace our sovereign nation as their new home? Or, will they remain loyal to Mexico?

3.  Immigration – Are we rewarding illegal behavior, while at the same time, insulting all of the brave souls who have come here legally, seeking a better life for themselves and their families?

I understand that people want a better life for themselves and their children.  We are all immigrants in this land, except for American Indians, and they got here by crossing the Bering Straight.  But there is a huge difference between immigrating here legally and sneaking in illegally, between assimilating into an existing culture, and insisting on replacing a country’s existing culture with that of the country you left.

I’m all for assisting anyone in becoming a legal citizen of the United States, if that is their wish.  But, it must be done the right way, and they must accept responsibility for their illegal entry, show a willingness to learn our language, and embrace our American way of life, including respecting the American Flag.

So, let’s take this one step at a time.  Secure our borders.  Enforce the anti-illegal immigration laws.  And if the Federal Government won’t, the states, like Arizona, will have to pass their own laws.  America became a great nation because it is a melting pot of American-born and legally-immigrated citizens with a shared allegiance, not a multi-cultural United Nations with everyone loyal to their home country.

A wide-open Southern Border is as big a threat to the sovereignty of the United States as anything that our enemies can throw at us right now.  All of OUR SERVANTS, up on Capitol HIll, need to quit playing political games.  The safety of America is at stake .  SECURE THE BORDER NOW.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Holding the Easter Bunny for Ransom? The Devil You Say.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

obamaandtheeasterbunnyLast evening, as my bride was figuring out how to cook some chicken kabobs she had picked up at Kroger, I, of course, turned on the computer and headed over to The Drudge Report, where I saw the Headline “No Money for Bunny?”.

Upon reading the article, I learned that the Obama Administration has sent out a memo to those holding tickers to the annual Easter Egg Roll, slated for April 1st. While the memo does not actually say that The Manchurian President is cancelling the annual tradition, it does warn the ticket holders that the event might be cancelled, due to the sequester.

Finally, by using these tickets, guests are acknowledging that this event is subject to cancellation due to funding uncertainty surrounding the Executive Office of the President and other federal agencies. If cancelled, the event will not be re-scheduled. We will notify you if there are any modifications to this event.

Obama and his not-so-lovely missus were already politicizing the traditional event, having invited the family of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old who was gunned down by Chicago gang bangers, just one week after performing at Obama’s second inauguration.

Using the Easter Egg Roll as a photo op to push his Gun Confiscation Agenda, how…Machiavellian.

In 1878 President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House grounds to the displaced youngsters and the tradition of the Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn began. It has continued steadily ever since, interrupted only by bad weather and World Wars I and II.

Back in 1941, some 53,000 people attended the egg roll and 73 children ended up being separated from their parents. In modern times, generally under 20,000 attend the festivities.

Of course, if it happens, this would not be the first thing that Obama has petulantly cancelled due to the Sequester. He has already cancelled the White House Tour, needlessly penalizing America’s schoolchildren, and adults, too.

A government official, Charles Brown of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, had asked if he could spread any cuts from the sequester out, as to lessen the impact on his agency.  He received an e-mail in response, telling him

We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.

So, basically, boys and girls, we have a President of the United States, who is trying to make things as painful as possible for us, the very Americans he is supposed to be serving.

Yesterday, Obama mouthpiece Jay”bird” Carney was asked if the President would be forced to cut back his golf games and he and Mooch’s lavish vacations ,due to the Sequester. Carney’s reply forgot to take that left turn at Albuquerque (as Bugs used to say). It was all over the place.

Q All right. I wanted to follow up on this young woman’s question about the high unemployment out in places like Colorado, all around the country, especially in the minority communities — exceptionally high unemployment. And when there is government workers who may be furloughed, millions of Americans unemployed, and family budgets that have been cut, how does the President justify lavish vacations and a golf trip to Florida at taxpayer expense? And does he plan to cut back on his travel?

MR. CARNEY: I can tell you that this President is focused every day on policies that create economic growth and help advance job creation. We have presided over the past three years over an economy that’s produced over 6.3 million private sector jobs, and we have more work to do. And this President’s number-one priority is growth and job creation. When you come to —

In other words, FORE!

Y’know, I have seen snobbish, uncaring, self-serving politicians before. Heck, I’m from Memphis. We’ve had to deal with the Ford Family for years.

However, this fool takes the cake. Maria Antoinette would be jealous of the Obama’s shenanigans. This “man of the people” is  anything but. He and his wife are grifters, in the best tradition of Chicago’s fabled Backroom Politics. Political Dirty Tricks come as easy to them as breathing in and out.

So, today’s latest slight against The Lightbringer has tickled the He@@ out of me, if you will excuse the expression.

On Sunday nights, on The History Channel, a series titled “The Bible” has been running, which , naturally, follows Biblical History, bringing scriptures to life. It has turned out to be very popular. It is produced by Roma Downey, “Monica” of Touched By an Angel fame, and her husband, Mark Burnett.

Sunday night, the character of Satan, the fallen angel formerly known as Lucifer, The Light Bearer, was introduced.

I about had need of a Cardiac Cath, when I realized whom the character looked like.

obamasatan

Evil personified, Satan , the Adversary, looks exactly like President Barack Hussein Obama.

After all the under-handed, slimy, self-serving, political machinations the Manchurian President has pulled during his tenure as President of the United States, for the character of Satan to look exactly like him, leaves me with only one thing to say,

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Second Civil War: The Beltway Vs. The Heartland

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

pailinbiggulp2October before last, one of my bride’s favorite aunts, her namesake, passed away. So, we made the 21 hour drive up to Waterford Township, Michigan, from DeSoto County, Mississippi.  Waterford Township is located right outside of the vast wasteland known as Detroit. Anyway, what struck me while I was up there, was not so much the differences in Northern Culture and my beloved Southern Way of Life, but, rather,  the similarities.

We all spoke, basically, the same language. Although, they couldn’t figure out why I didn’t sound like Jeff Dunham’s redneck mannequin, Bubba Jay. Needless to say, it was an interesting week.

That being said, it struck me, while at lunch with friends, after church on Sunday, just how disconnected the professional politicians, pundits, and prevaricators (but, I repeat myself) up in the Beltway are from all of us average citizens out here in America’s Heartland.

I guess what really triggered this revelation was remembering Sarah Palin’s speech from CPAC’s Saturday Session, in which she spoke just like you or me, having a political discussion with our friends and family. She was bringing up some spot-on political points, when, all of the sudden, she got a mischievous smile on her face and began telling the audience how Todd gave her a wonderful gift the Christmas before last: a gun rack for her ATV. She talked about how cool it was, and then told the crowd that, for this Christmas, she gave Todd a new hunting rifle. She quipped,

Yep, Todd got the rifle and I got the rack.

As the stunned audience quickly broke out in thunderous laughter and applause, Sarah stood there, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, while, at the same time, reaching under the podium to retrieve a 44-ounce Super Big Gulp Diet Coke, which she slowly sipped from, still grinning, then holding it over her head , imitating Lady Liberty holding her torch. The picture of this seminal moment has since gone viral, much to the chagrin of Liberals, on both sides of the political aisle, whose heads have been exploding, like balloons which have blown up beyond their usefulness.

She also got a gig in on professional kingmaker, Karl Rove, he of the whiteboard fame, who was, unfortunately, not a very good prognosticator in the Presidential Election.

Rove made an appearance on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, where he basically called Governor Palin a quitter, attacking her like a petulant child , who had been criticized by his Mom, or a Liberal Democrat. Take your pick.

Getting back to the crux of the matter, there is a great divide between those who are supposed to be “the smartest people in the room”, those who are supposed to objectively report to us the news,  those who are supposed to be our civil servants, and us average American Citizens.

We, as Americans, out here in Realityville (as Rush Limbaugh calls it) tend to hold on to our Traditional American Values.  Of course, this Classic American System of Beliefs and Values, is what led Democratic President Candidate Barack Obama, to tell a bunch of donors on a campaign stop in Pennsylvania before the 2008 Election, that “us rednecks” were out here “bitterly clinging to guns or religion”.

That began an animosity between Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and average Americans, that did not dissipate with time. If, anything, his actions since ascending to the Throne of The Regime, have seemingly been designed to intentionally torque off average Americans, living in “Flyover Country”.

With his minions, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, firmly esconced in their seats of power in our nations legislature, our country continued a downhill spiral which rivals the Fall of the Roman Empire.

Americans rallied in 2010, to take back the House of Representatives, by forming a New American Tea Party, consisting of grassroots groups, which supported Conservative candidates, holding rallies to gin up support and get out the vote.

During all of this upheaval, where has the Republican Party been? I mean, the purpose of our two-party political system, is to have different points-of-view to choose from, right?

Well, evidently the Powers-That-Be of the Grand Old Party have forgotten the reason that they were sent up to Capitol Hill. For example,

House Speaker John Boehner says he ‘‘absolutely’’ trusts President Barack Obama, even though they have their differences.

Boehner told ABC’s ‘‘This Week’’ that the two have a good relationship and that they’re ‘‘open with each other … honest with each other.’’

How precious.

Recently, Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have stood up on their hinds legs, doing their jobs, speaking out for Americans., by holding forth on the Senate Floor, in a spectacular filibuster, protesting the Obama-suggested Sequester.

In response, older patriarchs of the Senate, John McCain, and his faithful dog, Lindsey Graham,  jumped on the Young Freedom Warriors, calling their behavior disrespectful, and these Fighters for Liberty, “Wacko Birds”.

After experiencing blowback from his constituency that made Hurricane Katrina look like one of those battery-operated handheld fans, McCain apologized.

But, the divide remains.

The Beltway continues its willing obliviance to the economic plight of average Americans, and disparaging of the Heartland of America’s System of Beliefs and Values, which have protected and sustained this country since its founding.

Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States once said,

 When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

If our servants on Capital Hill do not “straighten up” and remember that we are their bosses, and not the other way around, it could lead to civil disobedience, or worse.

I have an idea: Let’s just vote them out, before that happens.

Who’s with me?

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity – Mississippi Fights Back

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

americanchristianflag 2As I have related before, I live in DeSoto County, Mississippi, in the Northwest Corner of the state, right across Stateline Road from Memphis , TN, where I was born and raised.

A truly remarkable thing happened on Friday in the state of Mississippi. Governor Phil Bryant signed a bill into law. Okay. I know that you’re saying, “KJ, why is a governor, signing a bill passed by his state legislature into law, so remarkable?”

I’m glad you asked. Here is the bill:

House Bill 638

AN ACT TO BE KNOWN AS THE “RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS ANTIDISCRIMINATION ACT” OR “SCHOOLCHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES ACT”; TO PROHIBIT LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS FROM DISCRIMINATING AGAINST STUDENTS BASED ON THEIR EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS ON OTHERWISE PERMISSIBLE SUBJECTS; TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADOPT A POLICY THAT ESTABLISHES A LIMITED PUBLIC FORUM FOR STUDENT SPEAKERS AT SCHOOL EVENTS AND TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO PUBLISH A DISCLAIMER STATING THAT THE STUDENTS’ VIEWS DO NOT REFLECT THOSE OF THE DISTRICT; TO CLARIFY THAT STUDENTS MAY EXPRESS THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT RELIGION IN HOMEWORK, ARTWORK AND OTHER ASSIGNMENTS; TO AUTHORIZE STUDENTS TO ORGANIZE PRAYER GROUPS, RELIGIOUS CLUBS AND OTHER RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS TO THE SAME EXTENT THAT STUDENTS ARE PERMITTED TO ORGANIZE OTHER NONCURRICULAR STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND GROUPS; TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADOPT A POLICY REGARDING LIMITED PUBLIC FORUMS AND VOLUNTARY EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS; TO PROVIDE A MODEL POLICY ON STUDENT EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS AND STUDENT SPEAKERS WHICH SCHOOL DISTRICTS MAY ADOPT; TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-4.1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 37-13-4, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES THAT TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS MAY PERMIT THE VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION BY STUDENTS IN PRAYER, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 37-13-161, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES THAT LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS MAY ALLOW REFERENCES TO RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WHEN THE REFERENCES DO NOT CONSTITUTE AID TO ANY RELIGIOUS SECT OR A SECTARIAN PURPOSE, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

What this bill does is to allow students to initiate prayers in school and at student activities, to reference their religious beliefs in their schoolwork, both their assignments completed at school and their homework, as well. The bill also allows Mississippi’s students to speak to their classmates about their faith, to “give their witness” as we believers refer to our own personal testimony as to what God has done in our lives.

You will recall, in August of 2011, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a supposedly 13,000 member organization, led by a bitter ex-minister and his equally bitter wife, came down to the Magnolia state , to attempt to ban prayers at high school football games. They prevailed…sort of.

As I wrote, on August 27, 2011,  in a post titled ” The War Against Christianity in America – Battleground: DeSoto County, MS”:

DeSoto County Schools went along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s request, despite the disappointment of many students and parents.

And that’s when Americans started organizing.

Y’see, teammates traditionally would take a knee after the game to thank the Lord for a good game and His blessings and to pray for those injured during the game.  And their parents were bound and determined that their young men were not going to have that freedom taken away from them.

So, last night, instead of the coach telling the team to take a knee, the quarterback did.

Earlier, on Friday morning, students and parents held a prayer walk outside DeSoto County Schools.

As the bright, blessed day gave way to the dark, sacred night in DeSoto County, parents and students began to pray.

…Per the local newspaper, the DeSoto Times Tribune:

At the Olive Branch game, spectators began to pray the Lord’s Prayer in unison around 7:15 p.m. just moments before the Olive Branch High School Conquistadors and Memphis Trezevant took to the field.

The same was the case at Hernando High School just prior to kickoff against Pontotoc.

The Rev. Mike Coker, pastor of the Refuge Church in Hernando led a prayer outside Tiger Stadium before the game and encouraged people in the crowd to pray.

After the singing of the national anthem, people in the stands recited the Lord’s Prayer.

A large group of Horn Lake High School and Lake Cormorant High School parents also joined in saying the Lord’s just prior to the Horn Lake – Lake Cormorant football game at Horn Lake.

The group prayer was not sponsored by the DeSoto County School system and was led by parents, not teachers or administrators.

Here is, as my preacher says, is The Big Idea:

What Mississippi has done, in the passing of this bill, is to affirm Mississippians’ Constitutional rights as stated in the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It will be no shock, that come August, the FFRF will come back down, from the Great White North, with severe, frowning countenances, whining and crying that promoting faith in Mississippi Schools will be offensive and oppressive to those children who don’t have any faith. (Did he just say that?)

The problem they will have, is the fact that participation will be voluntary. They don’t have to include any references to REligion in any of their schoolwork. They do have to attend any Faith-based activities initiated by their fellow students. They don’t have to pray.

Let’s face it. Our children are under attack, by forces seen and unseen, by “princes and principalities”, if you will.

Through political ideology-driven curriculum such as Common Core and programs such as the president’s anti-bullying campaign, a seemingly innocuous program, whose stated purpose is to promote tolerance, and is actually an attempt to mainstream homosexuality, our schools have been invaded by the pestilence known as “progressivism”, or secular humanism. The same pervasive disease that is teaching our children that they are their own god, that there  there are no moral absolutes, and that ethics are situational.

I make no bones about it. I am a Christian American Conservative. I pray daily. And, as I write this, I’m preparing to go to church this morning. If it were up to Barack Hussein Obama, his minions, and those supposedly on “our” side of the aisle, whom I’ve labeled the “Vichy Republicans”, I would be forced to leave my faith at the church door. What they don’t understand, is, the Author and Finisher of my faith is not Obama, Boehner, or anyone else up there on Capitol Hill.

I answer to Someone waaay about their pay grade.

Progressives do not understand Christians at all. They believe that our faith is something that can be taken off and put back on again, as one would a shirt.

They don’t have a clue.

So, why did Mississippians back this bill, provides the impetus for it to be signed into law by our Governor?

Was it simply because we were mad at that bunch of carpetbaggin’ Yankees from the FFRF?

Nope. It’s For The Children.  

Until He Comes,

KJ

CPAC 2013: The Start of the Second Reagan Revolution?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

reaganThanks to The Petulant President overplaying his hand in the first two months of his second term as the Leader of the Free World, America’s Political Pendulum, which began swinging to the right with the 2010 Mid-Term Elections, is now seemingly traveling at breakneck speed. And, it’s about cotton-pickin’ time!

The CPAC Convention provides us ample evidence of this. What is CPAC, you ask?

In 1973, a small group of conservative activists met in Washington to discuss the future of the conservative movement.

This meeting, convened by the American Conservative Union, resolved that an annual event was needed to rally conservatives, share strategies and promulgate and crystallize the best of the conservative thought in America. This meeting was thus the birth of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In 1974, then-Governor Ronald Reagan was the featured speaker at the first CPAC Presidential Banquet. President Reagan’s 1974 speech set a strong, uncompromisingly pro-freedom agenda for the conservatives, building upon the foundation established by Senator Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign a decade earlier.

This speech and this CPAC were to become the catalysts for building a grassroots movement which has now, after 40 years, culminated in conservatism emerging as the dominant American political philosophy.

Taking place in Washington, D.C. each year, and now in regions across the country, CPAC educates, brings together and energizes thousands of attendees and all of the leading conservative organizations and speakers who impact conservative thought in the nation. From Presidents of the United States to college students, CPACs have become the place to find our nation’s current and future leaders and sets the conservative agenda each year.

Here are excerpts from the three best moments of yesterday:

Sen. Marco Rubio’s patriotism excited the crowd.

NBCNews.com reports that:

“We don’t need a new idea. The idea’s America, and it still works,” said Rubio, to major applause, anticipating that liberals would criticize his remarks for offering no new ideas.

…”Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot,” he said.

“The people who are actually close-minded in American politics are the people that love to preach about the certainty of science in regards to our climate, but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at conception,” Rubio added.

Providing his prescription for the GOP as it searches for a winning path forward, Rubio said: “Our challenge is to create an agenda applying our principles — our principles, they still work — applying our time-tested principles to the challenges of today.”

Then Gov. Rick Perry showed ’em how it’s done in Texas.

Realclearpolitics.com reports

“The popular media narrative is that this country has shifted away from conservative ideals, as evidenced by the last two presidential elections. That’s what they think. That’s what say. That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates in 2008 and 2012,” Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) said in his address at CPAC this afternoon.

Perry also slammed President Obama for undocumented illegal immigration being released from detention centers due to sequestration cuts.

“This president’s posture, it’d be laughable if he hadn’t taken it one step too far, dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets to make a political point,” Perry told the crowd at CPAC. “When you have a federally-sponsored jailbreak, and don’t get confused, that’s exactly what that is — when you’ve had a federally-sponsored jailbreak, you’ve crossed the line from politics of spin to politics as a craven form of cynicism.”

And, Sen. Rand Paul Hit the Vichy Republicans right between the eyes.

Realclearpolitics.com reports

The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don’t think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere. If we’re going to have a Republican party that can win, liberty needs to be the backbone of the GOP. We must have a message that is broad, our vision must be broad, and that vision must be based on freedom.

There are millions of Americans, young and old, native and immigrant, black, white and brown, who simply seek to live free, to practice a religion, free to choose where their kids go to school, free to choose their own health care, free to keep the fruits of their labor, free to live without government constantly being on their back. I will stand for them. I will stand for you. I will stand for our prosperity and our freedom, and I ask everyone who values liberty to stand with me. Thank you. God bless America.

The greatest American President in my lifetime, Ronald Wilson Reagan, spoke at CPAC in 1975. His speech was so “on point”, if you close your eyes, you can imagine him speaking at this year’s convention. Here are the highlights:

  • Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as the repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate.

  • Bitter as it is to accept the results of the November election, we should have reason for some optimism. For many years now we have been preached “the gospel,” in opposition to the philosophy of so-called liberalism which was, in truth, a call to collectivism.
  • I don’t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party” – when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the difference between ourselves and our opponents.
  • It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?
  • Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?
  • Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.
  • Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.
  • Let our banner proclaim a genuine tax reform that will begin by simplifying the income tax so that workers can compute their obligation without having to employ legal help.
  • Let us also call for an end to the nitpicking, the harassment and overregulation of business and industry which restricts expansion and our ability to compete in world markets.
  • Let us explore ways to ward off socialism, not by increasing government’s coercive power, but by increasing participation by the people in the ownership of our industrial machine.
  • A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.
  • I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view.

  • And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.

For the Republicans to remain a viable party, they must return to their small government Conservative roots.

A Moderate Republican Candidate will not win the Presidency in 2016.  Dole, McCain, and Romney are living proof of it.

Americans are ready for a second Reagan Revolution.

We already have the set-up man: Carter on steroids.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Welcome to the USSA: Now, About That “Right to Privacy”…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamabigbro Your personal information is no longer personal.

Per Reuters.com:

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of “suspicious customer activity,” such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to FinCEN.

The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.

The planning document, dated March 4, shows that the proposal is still in its early stages of development, and it is not known when implementation might begin.

Financial institutions file more than 15 million “suspicious activity reports” every year, according to Treasury. Banks, for instance, are required to report all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000, as well as suspected incidents of money laundering, loan fraud, computer hacking or counterfeiting.

“For these reports to be of value in detecting money laundering, they must be accessible to law enforcement, counter-terrorism agencies, financial regulators, and the intelligence community,” said the Treasury planning document.

A Treasury spokesperson said U.S. law permits FinCEN to share information with intelligence agencies to help detect and thwart threats to national security, provided they adhere to safeguards outlined in the Bank Secrecy Act. “Law enforcement and intelligence community members with access to this information are bound by these safeguards,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Some privacy watchdogs expressed concern about the plan when Reuters outlined it to them.

A move like the FinCEN proposal “raises concerns as to whether people could find their information in a file as a potential terrorist suspect without having the appropriate predicate for that and find themselves potentially falsely accused,” said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Rule of Law Program at the Constitution Project, a non-profit watchdog group.

Despite these concerns, legal experts emphasize that this sharing of data is permissible under U.S. law. Specifically, banks’ suspicious activity reporting requirements are dictated by a combination of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, which offer some privacy safeguards.

Speaking of records, are you aware that your medical records are in the process of being digitized?

JudicialWatch.org reports that

In a classic example of how government blows through your tax dollars, billions have been squandered on a faulty electronic medical records system that operates with no oversight and continues receiving big wads of cash from Uncle Sam.

It gets better; by the time it’s all said and done—in about four more years according to government estimates—American taxpayers will have been fleeced $6.6 billion! It’s all part of the Obama Administration’s hostile takeover of the nation’s healthcare system. The idea behind this plan is to switch medical records from paper to digital to create a centralized system that supposedly improves the quality of health care.

The overhaul won’t come cheap and the government is offering hospitals and doctors billions to switch to electronic medical records. The money has come largely from President Obama’s fraud-infested $787 billion stimulus which was supposed to jump start the economy and put Americans back to work. Instead the economy is a disaster as the nation suffers through a staggering $16 trillion (and growing) deficit and unemployment is at record highs.

This has not affected the cash flow to government programs, however. In this case the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the agency that cuts the checks to healthcare providers that agree to switch to electronic records. So far CMS has doled out $3.6 billion to 74,317 medical providers, but the agency doesn’t bother following up to assure the money is appropriately spent. In fact, CMS fails to verify if providers are meeting the required quality goals, according to a federal audit released this week.

Investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General warn in their report that the electronic records program is vulnerable to abuse. Furthermore, they say immediate efforts should be made to strengthen oversight and prevent tax dollars from being wasted. This is not an unreasonable request considering doctors receive up to $44,000 and hospitals a minimum of $ 2 million to switch from paper to digital records.

Here is the scary response, included in the HHS watchdog report, from the head of the CMS (Marilyn Tavenner) on the idea of requiring healthcare providers to prove they’re meeting quality requirements before they get U.S. tax dollars. It would be burdensome, Tavenner said, and it would “significantly delay payments.” Spoken like at true government bureaucrat!

Michelle Malkin adds:

Oversight is lax. Cronyism is rife. The job-killing and privacy-undermining consequences have only just begun.

The program was originally sold as a cost-saving measure. In theory, modernizing record-collection is a good idea, and many private health care providers have already made the change. But as with many government “incentive” programs, the EMR bribe is a tax-subsidized, one-size-fits-all mandate. This one pressures health care professionals and hospitals across the country into radically federalizing their patient data and opening up medical information to untold abuse. Penalties kick in for any provider that hasn’t switched over by 2014.

So, what’s it to you? Well, $4 billion has already gone out to 82,535 professionals and 1,474 hospitals, and a total of $6 billion will be doled out by 2016. But the feds’ reckless profligacy, neglect and favoritism have done more harm than good.

Don’t take my word for it. A recent report released by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General acknowledged that the incentive system is “vulnerable to paying incentives to professionals and hospitals that do not fully meet” the program’s quality assurance requirements. The federal health bureaucracy “has not implemented strong prepayment safeguards, and its ability to safeguard incentive payments postpayment is also limited,” the IG concluded.

Translation: No one is actually verifying whether the transition from paper to electronic is improving patient outcomes and health services. No one is actually guarding against GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). No one is checking whether recipients of the EMR incentives are receiving money redundantly (e.g., raking in payments when they’ve already converted to electronic records). No one is actually protecting private data from fraud, abuse or exploitation.

Little is being done to recoup ill-gotten payments. In any case, such “pay and chase” policing after the fact is a crummy way to run government in lean times — or in fat times, for that matter.

Allow me to summarize all of this for you. The bottom line is this: The Obama Administration is gathering information about us (The Proletariat) in a manner eerily reminiscent of the old Russian Politboro.

Americans are not going to be able to buy a Big Gulp or have a hangnail removed without the Federal Government knowing about it.

Ted Cruz, Republican Senator from Texas, hit the nail on the head, when he said,

I think President Obama is the most radical president this nation’s ever seen. And in particular, I think he is a true believer in government control of the economy and of our everyday lives. In my judgment, we are facing what I consider to be the epic battle of our generation, quite literally the battle over whether we remain a free market nation.

Hang tough, Americans.

Until He Comes,

KJ