Category: Uncategorized

Say it! SAY IT!!! They’re Muslim Terrorists!!!

On By kingsjesterIn Politics, Uncategorized5 Comments

muslimsignLast night, as I watched President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be upon him) congratulate Law Enforcement Officials on the capture of the second New Boston Massacre Suspect, I listened to the president dance a Politically Correct Liberal two-step, as he refused to identify the religious/political ideology of the two Chechan brothers, just as his minions in the Main Stream Media have refused to identify this fact, since the story broke.

My mind, unique space between my ears that it is, flashed back to this famous scene between the late great Rodney Dangerfield, and the late , great Sam Kinison, in the movie Back to School. Kinison is a history professor, and Dangerfield is the successful businessman father of an under-achieving freshman, who decides to go back to school, to be there for his son.

rodneysamKinison: You remember that thing we had about thirty years ago… called the Korean conflict?

Yeah. Where we failed to achieve victory.

How come we didn’t cross the 38th parallel…and push those rice-eaters back to the Great Wall of China…and take it apart brick by brick…and nuke them back into the f!@#in’ stone age forever?

How come? Tell me? Why? Say it! Say it!

Dangerfield: All right, I’ll say it.

‘Cause Truman was too much of a p!@sy wimp…to let MacArthur go in and blow out those commie b!@#ards!

Kinison: Good answer. Good answer. I like the way you think.  I’m gonna be watching you.

For anybody with more than 2 working brain cells, (and, I know that leaves out a lot of Liberals) once the brothers were identified as Chechan, it was game over.

Chechnya is one of the more politically unstable regions in Russia’s North Caucasus, dating back to when, in 1991, it attempted to declare its independence as the Soviet Union dissolved.

Militant Islamists were blamed for an bunch of high-profile bombings and hostage-takings in Russia, the worst ones being the 2002 killings of 129 people inside a Moscow theater and the 2004 bloody massacre that left more than 300 dead in a Beslan school.

In October 2010, in an attack on Chechnya’s regional parliament, three suicide bombers killed six and wounded 17.

Chechen rebels have also proudly admitted to the November 2009 bombing of a high-speed train that killed 28, an August 2009 suicide truck bomb attack that killed 25 at a police station, and an August 2004 Moscow subway station bombing that killed 10.

The vast majority of all the violence associated with the region has remained in North Caucasus, with the New Boston Massacre being the first report of alleged Chechen terrorism spreading to the West.

Islamic militants from Chechnya have spread into neighboring areas in recent years, and were suspects in near-daily attacks against police and the government in the nearby Russian province of Dagestan.

Officials in Russia have insisted for years that the Chechen insurgents were linked with Al Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

So, why have Liberals, in the MSM, and elsewhere, been so afraid to call Muslim Terrorists, Muslim Terrorists?

Is it because of that heinous practice, known as Political Correctness?

We’ve all been a victim of it. And, it’s not just the Liberals who practice it.

A short time back, a young Libertarian lady, who just happens to be Black, had posted an article in a Facebook Page for Conservatives and Libertarians, featuring Patti Davis, the Liberal (and crazy) daughter of Former President Ronald Reagan. Davis had come out as the moral arbiter of some issue, and I pointed out that she was not fit to be the “moral arbiter” in any situation, as, to torque off her Dad, and make a political statement, she had posed topless for the cover of Playboy in 1994 with a Black guy, standing behind her, cupping her…umm…chest.

Both the young lady and her husband, who happens to be White, jumped on me, like I was some sort of RAAACIIIST, because I stated the obvious.

archiesammyTimes were different, back in ’94. Just as they were different back in the 70s, when Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear created All in the Family, starring the great American actor, Carroll O’Connor. The misadventures of Archie Bunker and his family could not be a hit today. Our tolerant American Liberals (and others) would not allow it. And, the lessons learned from that ground-breaking television series would be lost.

Perhaps, the reticence by the Media to identify the religious/political ideology of the two brothers is something else: loyalty to President Barack Hussein Obama.

They have a lot invested in The Lightbringer. They have campaigned endlessly for him, and the majority of “Broadcast Journalists” share his vision for a Socialist Utopia America. Additionally, the White House has been known to send e-mails and make telephone calls to these bastions of journalistic integrity, when they want something swept under the Oval Office rug.

The fact that these murdering terrorists are Muslims, does not reflect well on our dhimmi President. In fact, it proves that Smart Power! is anything, but.

Additionally, the fact that these two got into our sovereign land in the first place, shows the folly of relaxing our already-porous Immigration Laws (Sorry, Sen. Rubio.).

With the resounding defeat of Obama’s Gun Confiscation Bill, and now, in the aftermath of the New Boston Massacre, the Obama Administration and their Main Stream Media lackeys are bailing, just as fast as they can, in order to save Obama’s sinking Ship of State.

Oh, but, just wait.You ain’t seen nothin’, yet.

Doubling down on stupid, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will insist on trying the surviving Muslim Terrorist in Boston, thereby endangering its citizens by setting the stage for retaliation, instead of tossing him in Gitmo, and throwing away the key.

But, hey. What do I know. I’m just an ignorant old Conservative cracka’, living here in America’s Heartland.

Until He Comes, 

KJ.

The “Great Society”…49 Years Later

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized4 Comments

questionmark2What is it about the number 47?

Back during the Presidential Race, the “Severely Conservative” Republican Party Legacy Candidate, Mitt Romney, stirred up a hornet’s nest by stating that 47% of Americans were receiving some form of Government Entitlements, such as SNAP, Welfare, etc. I t didn’t really matter that he was absolutely correct. He was considered a rich out-of-touch, uncaring, old white guy, from that moment on. He was positively vilified by President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), the rest of the Democratic Party, and their willing minions in the Main Stream Media.

Romney was attempting, rather indelicately, to make the point that, with this American Freedom that we have been blessed with, also comes the burden of responsibility. Romney was trying to illuminate the fact that American is still the Land of  Opportunity, and that “God helps those who help themselves”.

I don’t believe that the Republican Presidential Candidate was attempting to be malicious by calling out the 47%. He was merely trying to paint a verbal picture as to how the sense of entitlement, that is held forcefully by some Americans, and has been facilitated by the Democrats, has spun way out of control, becoming an immeasurable burden on American Taxpayers, and an immense anchor, holding our economy back.

It was that same selfish sense of entitlement that fueled the backlash against “Mittens” by America’s low information voters, who were certainly egged on by their “plantation masters”, the Democratic Party, and their “Straw Bosses”, in the Main Stream Media.

Yesterday, the number 47 came up in the National Media once again, as it was reported that 47% of American Babies are now being born out of wedlock.

To the Wayback Machine, Sherman!

Back  in the 60s, President Lyndon Johnson (whose big hand I once shook, at his ranch, as a little boy, after his presidential term) and the Democrats, brought forth a plan, called “the Great Society”. It was decided, in order to ensure that everyone would have an equal opportunity in America, that Uncle Sugar would step in to fill in the gaps.

Two seminal pieces of legislation were passed.

First, the Civil Rights Bill that JFK promised to sign, before his assassination, was passed into law. This Act banned discrimination based on race and gender in employment and ending segregation in all public facilities.

It also helped to cement in stone, minorities’ loyalty to the Democratic Party, which continues to this day.

The second bill that LBJ signed into law was the sweeping ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 1964. It created the Office of Economic Opportunity whose stated purpose was to attack the roots of American poverty. A Job Corps was then established to provide vocational training.

A preschool program designed to help disadvantaged students arrive at kindergarten ready to learn, named HEADSTART, was then established. Then came VOLUNTEERS IN SERVICE TO AMERICA (VISTA), which was set up as a domestic Peace Corps. Schools in impoverished American regions would now receive volunteer teaching attention. Federal funds were sent to struggling communities to attack unemployment and illiteracy.

What Johnson told Americans, as he campaigned in 1964, was that the establishment of this “Great Society” was going to eliminate the problems of America’s poor.

It had the opposite effect

The Great Society created a dependent class, which, instead of diminishing as it’s members joined the workforce, increased from generation to generation, relying on the federal government to provide their every need.

Uncle Sugar became Mother, Father, Preacher, and Doctor to generations of Americans. This “plantation mentality” continues to this day.

I know. I spent from January 2011 – June 2012 working in our county’s WIN Job Center.

While at this Employment Office, I was able to observe folks down on their luck, struggling to find work and survive in this economy.

I also saw American families whose existence living on the Government Dole, had become generational.

It is these people whom Obama and the Democrats continue to hypnotize into believing that Uncle Sugar loves them, and is their only solution to surviving a stifling existence.

They are so, so wrong.

The strength and vitality of America does not come from the benevolence of a Nanny-state Federal Government.

As the greatest American President of our lifetime, Ronald Reagan said:

The nine words you never want to hear are:  I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.

Being enslaved to the Government Dole steals one’s ambition.  It takes away any impetus or desire to create a better life for yourself and your family, to challenge yourself to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and pursue the American Dream.  It makes you reliant on a politically-motivated spider’s web full of government bureaucrats who view you and your family as job security.

I watched American citizens trapped in this web of government bureaucracy,  so numbed of any initiative that they once had, that they seemed offended that they actually had to prove that they inquired about three jobs that week in order to keep their “benefits”.  Others seemed puzzled that they had to search through the state data base and pick out a job that they wanted to talk to an interviewer about receiving a referral to, and weren’t just simply handed a job when they walked through the door.

Now, you tell me that 47% of Americans of child-bearing age, don’t have enough self-control, self-esteem, and moral turpitude to actually get married before they bring an innocent life into this world?

I’m not a bit surprised.

Welcome to the Democrats’ “Great Society”.

Until He Comes,

KJ

With Freedom Comes Responsibility

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized4 Comments

americaneagleflagHave you ever thought about what it truly means to be free?

Does “Freedom” mean that you can run naked down the street and then through a playground of young children? Does it mean that you can marry a 9 year old? Does it mean that you can smoke a lid of marijuana, go out and get in your car, have an accident, and maim or kill somebody?

Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

What did he mean by that? Was he merely speaking of the inner workings of the Federal Government, which he and the Founding Fathers so masterfully designed?

Or, was he talking about this complex matter known as American Freedom?

Ronald Reagan said,

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Was Ronaldus Magnus speaking about our Freedom as a nation? Or, the freedom of the individual?

The answer is yes. Both.

President Reagan knew how fragile this precious thing called freedom is. So did Dr. Franklin.

Dr. Franklin, along with our other Founding Fathers, pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor in pursuit of it.

When he made that now-famous quote to Mrs. Powel, he was expressing his worry that seceding generations, having attained their freedom so easily, might grow lackadaisical and so spoiled by it, that they would squander it through self-indulgence. Franklin was, in fact, so leery of losing this new republic that he said,

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

He was afraid that Americans would rely and trust those in power over them to the extent that they would surrender their freedom to them.

Sound familiar? Does the phrase “gun control” ring a bell?

I know that it is a phrase which you have no doubt heard before, but, as I write this blog, we are closer to losing this fragile American Freedom, than we have been since my parent’s generation, known as “the Greatest Generation”.

Please allow me to relate to you a story about my Daddy (a Southern colloquialism denoting a male parental unit), an average young man, tossed into a situation beyond his wildest imagination. One of those “fight or flight situations” all the psychiatrists like to theorize about in the Halls of Academia.  However, this was no theory. This situation was as real as it gets:

By the time the sun set on June 6, 1944,more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded, and more than 100,000 had made it ashore, capturing French coastal villages. Within weeks, supplies were being unloaded at Utah and Omaha beachheads at the rate of more than 20,000 tons per day. By June 11, more than 326,000 troops, 55,000 vehicles, and 105,000 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches. By June 30, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Allied forces crossed the River Seine on August 19.

There has never been an exact count of the sacrifices made on D-Day. Although, it is estimated that more than 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded, or went missing during the battle. 209,000 of those who lost their lives were Allied forces.

Among the young men who stepped off those boats, in a hail of gunfire, was a fellow named Edward, whom everyone called Ned, from the small town of Helena, Arkansas.  Already in his young life, Ned had been forced to drop out of school in the sixth grade, in order to work at the local movie theater to help support his mother, brother, and sister faced with the ravages of the Great Depression.

He was a gentle man who loved to laugh and sing, having recorded several 78 rpm records in the do-it-yourself booths of the day. And now, he found himself, a Master Sergeant in an Army Engineering Unit, stepping off of a boat into the unknown, watching his comrades being mercilessly gunned down around him.

Ned, along with the rest of his unit who survived the initial assault, would go on to assist in the cleaning out of the Concentration Camps, bearing witness to man’s inhumanity to man.

The horrors he saw had a profound effect on Ned.  One that he would keep to himself for the remainder of his life.  While my older sisters and I knew that he served with an Engineering Unit in World War II, we did not know the full extent of his service, until we found his medal, honoring his participation in the Invasion of Normandy, going through his belongings after he passed away on December 29, 1997.

There are a number of Americans nowadays who seem to believe that “Freedom” is merely a personal thing, a state which is unaffected by any unethical, immoral, or irresponsible actions committed by those around them, including family, friends, or strangers. They, in turn, seem oblivious of their responsibility to other Americans, as we all attempt to protect and nurture this fragile thing we call “Freedom”.

Our Legacy of Freedom, bequeathed to us as American citizens, is not  just the blessing of being a free people, but, the responsibility that goes with it, as my Daddy knew all too well…

a responsibility to our family, our friends, our fellow citizens, and the Author of Our Freedom as Americans, Our Creator.

A responsibility that is our charge to keep.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

Sarah: Plain (Spoken) and (Standing) Tall

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized5 Comments

palin-newsweekLook out, all you stuffed shirts in the Halls of Power up in DC. Sarah’s coming!

The Artic Fox has been freed of her captivity as a Political Pundit for a Moderate Cable News Channel, which lately has been dangerously flirting with embracing some of the Liberal-leanings of its sister news channels.

“It’s my understanding that Gov. Palin was offered a contract by FOX, and she decided not to renew the arrangement,” a source close to Palin told RealClearPolitics’ Scott Conroy, one of the few reporters who has largely covered Palin fairly throughout the years. “She remains focused on broadening her message of common-sense conservatism across the country and will be expanding her voice in the national discussion.”

A source close to Palin confirmed to Breitbart News that Palin declined FOX News’ offer to renew her contract, and the two parties seem to be parting amicably.

Bill Shine, an executive vice president at FOX News, said in a statement, “We have thoroughly enjoyed our association with Governor Palin. We wish her the best in her future endeavors.”

Palin was a paid contributor for three years at FOX News after she resigned from Alaska’s governorship in 2009.

During the 2012 primaries, those looking to see if Palin would run for the Republican nomination watched closely to see if she would resign from the network in order to pursue the presidential nomination. But FOX News and Palin never parted ways in 2012, and Palin ultimately decided not to run for president.

She made her announcement that she was not going run for president, though, on Mark Levin’s show. She also made an impromptu appearance on CNN during the network’s Republican primary coverage. Like she did at the Iowa State Fair in 2011, Palin impressed reporters with her impromptu interviews. However, because of her FOX News contract, Palin could not go on other cable and mainstream media networks to discuss politics, policy, and cultural issues. Now, she will be able to talk on other networks besides FOX News.

Palin–since she now does not have a television contract–will also be free to run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 if she so chooses.

Stephen K. Bannon, who produced a documentary about her, The Undefeated, interviewed Former Governor Palin for Breitbart.com. Here are some excerpts:

1. What’s next for you?

Short term: I encourage others to step out in faith, jump out of the comfort zone, and broaden our reach as believers in American exceptionalism. That means broadening our audience. I’m taking my own advice here as I free up opportunities to share more broadly the message of the beauty of freedom and the imperative of defending our republic and restoring this most exceptional nation. We can’t just preach to the choir; the message of liberty and true hope must be understood by a larger audience.

Focus on the 2014 election is also imperative. It’s going to be like 2010, but this time around we need to shake up the GOP machine that tries to orchestrate away too much of the will of constitutional conservatives who don’t give a hoot how they do it in DC. DC is out of touch, obviously. Voices on the right like Mark Levin, Rush, and the writers here at Breitbart have come out strongly against the “go along to get along” politicians who wave the white flag before the battle even begins. We’re not going to be able to advance the cause of limited constitutional government unless we deal with these big government enablers on our side. And this all ties into the problem of crony capitalism and the permanent political class in the Beltway. We need to consistently take them on election after election – ever vigilant.

As far as long-term plans, the door is wide open. I know the country needs more truth-telling in the media, and I’m willing to do that. So, we shall see. And always in the center of it all I have an awesome, full, exciting, and large family living in a very unique part of America that keeps me hopping! I love it!

2. Where do you think the country stands at the beginning of the President’s 2nd term?

Before the November election I wrote that we all know what Obama’s second term will look like because we’ve seen his first. I said: “We know what we will get from a second Obama term. We will get the same failed policies. We will get Obamacare locked into law. We will get a debt crisis. We will get more inflation and higher gas prices. We will get tax increases. We will get fewer jobs. We will get more small businesses collapsing under the weight of higher taxes and unfair regulation. We will get more corruption and crony capitalism favoring the Obama administration’s friends. We will get less domestic energy development and increased dependence on terrorist sponsoring foreign regimes for our energy needs. We will get a ‘blame America first’ foreign policy that bows to our enemies and snubs our friends like Israel and leaves America and the world less safe. We will get less opportunity and security for ourselves and for our children.”

Predicting the future has never been easier because here we are! Already we see higher taxes, a stagnant economy, the same inflationary monetary policies, Obamacare looming like a dark cloud over small businesses, yet another demand for “debt ceiling” increases, continued stonewalling about the tragic Benghazi attacks, a Secretary of Defense nominee who has a history of being antagonistic to our ally Israel, and the attack on our Second Amendment rights by an administration that has no respect for the Constitution or the separation of powers.

The problem is that some on the Right are now skittish because of the lost 2012 election. They shouldn’t be. Conservatism didn’t lose. A moderate Republican candidate lost after he was perceived to alienate working class Reagan Democrat and Independent voters who didn’t turn out for him as much as they did for the McCain/Palin ticket in 2008. Granted, those same voters also didn’t turn out for Obama as strongly either. We had an election defined by a biased media plus millions of voters who sat it out in disgust. As long as we allow the media and GOP establishment to tell us who our nominees must be, we can expect to lose. I’m not interested in losing. America’s next generation can’t afford another loss.

3. The MSM have declared both you and the Tea Party dead and buried. Reaction?

I was raised to never retreat and to pick battles wisely, and all in due season. When it comes to defending our republic, we haven’t begun to fight! But we delight in those who underestimate us.

Indeed, Governor. They gravely underestimate us. 

There is a Culture War, which has been going on in our country for a while now, between the Republican Establishment up in the Northeast, and Conservative Americans, living in the Heartland.

What’s getting my goat is the hubris involved. Now, I have several dear Conservative friends in the NE, heck, my bride is from MI, moved down to MS 30+ years ago and used to do reenactments on the Confederate side.

That being said, the “Northeast Republicans Club’s” standard, as exemplified by their last Convention, and the subsequent Presidential Candidate Nomination of Mitt Romney, is to look down their noses at the rest of the country, as if we are a bunch of hicks, because we still believe in Reagan Conservatism.

They view Sarah the same way. They believe that anyone who is not from Hahvahd, some other Ivy League School, or, their region of the country, is a stupid bumpkin.

I suggest that they leave the Northeast sometime and travel throughout the Heartland of this great country.

They might learn a thing or two about Conservatism.

I, along with Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, and many others, am a Reagan Conservative…and, proud of it.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Moochelle’s Vegas Trip: Let Them Eat Arugula!

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized4 Comments

President Barack Hussein Obama has had a testy relationship with Las Vegas during the three years of his reign…err…presidency.

Boston .com has the story:

President Barack Obama has a Sin City problem that won’t go away.

Obama is counting on Nevada’s support for re-election next year. He easily won the Las Vegas Valley in 2008 and will probably win the largely Democratic, urban center again next year.

But some Nevada state officials and residents of this economically ravaged state have been fuming over comments they perceived as rants against the tourism industry since he first made them two years ago, and Republicans are hoping that fury will point voters in their direction.

The friction resurfaced as Obama visited a Las Vegas neighborhood Monday as part of a nationwide tour to sell his jobs plan. The stop came as Republican presidential candidates, business titans and former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman maintain that Obama has twice disparaged Las Vegas tourism — this Western swing state’s largest employer.

The jabs are notable because casino-dependent Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and Obama can’t afford to have voters blame him as his Republican rivals try to convince the nation that they would do a better job of turning the stalled economy around. Nevada’s unemployment remained steady at 13.4 percent last month.

“He said it more than once,” said former Nevada Gov. Bob List, a national Republican committeeman. “You can’t un-ring the bell. You have to live with what you say. It just shows a lack of understanding of the engine that drives the state.”

The feud began in 2009, when Obama admonished corporations using federal bailout money: “You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.” A year later, Obama warned families against gambling away college tuition: “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

The call for financial responsibility didn’t sit well with some Las Vegans, and Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Nevada all lashed back at the time. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Obama’s most prominent ally in Congress and Nevada’s senior senator, told Obama to “lay off Las Vegas.”

With Obama campaigning for a second term, the president’s critics are eager to call the outcry to mind.

“Perception is reality,” said Republican Rep. Joe Heck, who represents southern Nevada. “After those statements were made, we had conventions call and pull out, so it did in fact cost Las Vegas business.”

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who won Nevada’s caucuses in 2008, pointed to Obama’s Vegas statements while campaigning here last week. He reminded voters of them in a statement sent out before Obama landed in Nevada Monday.

“My guess is it did not help when he talked down Las Vegas as a convention city, did it?” Romney told dozens of supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in Las Vegas last week.

Obama tried to make amends Monday during a fundraiser with business leaders at the Bellagio casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

“I love coming to Vegas,” he said. “The only people who love coming more is my staff. I would not be surprised if some of them missed the plane accidentally.”

But the president did not allude to the tensions when he later spoke on a residential street in Las Vegas. In all, he spent only three hours in Nevada Monday.

Amanda Hulsizer, 31, said she appreciated that Obama stopped by her street, but she said he hadn’t completely redeemed himself for his earlier comments.

“You don’t only blow money in Las Vegas, you can just as easily blow money in California at Disneyland,” she said after the president’s speech. Her husband lost his job on the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas saw 3.3 million visitors in August, 2.8 percent more than the same month last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. But gambling revenues were down 6.7 percent for the same period in Clark County, home to the glittering Las Vegas Strip and the vast majority of Nevadans.

Just like his promises, it seems that all of Obama’s opinions come with an expiration date, also.

ABCnews.go reports that.

It’s spring break for the Obama daughters and mom has taken them West for the week. Michelle Obama and her daughters visited Mount Rushmore Wednesday to see the monument where four U.S. presidents are immortalized in stone on the soaring mountainside.

Now the Obamas have arrived in Las Vegas for a private family visit.

At the depths of the recession, President Obama seemed to disparage Las Vegas visits, at one point warning hard-pressed Americans, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

There is lingering dismay in the Las Vegas travel and tourism industry but, during the political campaign, Obama has been a frequent visitor on official and political trips to the swing state of Nevada.

The first lady’s private schedule with Sasha and Malia in Las Vegas is short. They travel on to California for publicly announced events, including a San Francisco political fundraiser Friday, the Saturday commissioning of a new Coast Guard ship in Alameda, and then a chance to meet music sensation Taylor Swift.

Michelle Obama is to present Swift with an award at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles.

Bless Taylor Swift’s big ol’ Christian heart.  I know she’ll be gracious in accepting the award from Moochelle.

“You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.”

The president told corporations that they couldn’t…but, evidently, it’s okay if his family does.

A President, a Prayer, and a Memorial

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

D-Day, also called the Battle of Normandy, was fought on June 6, 1944, between the Allied nations and German forces occupying Western Europe. To this day, almost 67 years later, it  still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. Almost three million troops crossed the English Channel from England to Normandy to be used as human cannon fodder in an invasion of occupied France.

That fateful evening, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came on radios from coast to coast and led the following prayer:

My Fellow Americans:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest — until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment — let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace — a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Rep.  Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) has sponsored a bill to add a plaque or inscription of Roosevelt’s galvanizing prayer to the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.

There’s a roadblock, though.

The Obama Administration.

Fox News reports that,  during a Congressional Hearing on the bill last Thursday:

Robert Abbey, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, said any plaque or inscription of the prayer would “dilute” the memorial’s central message and therefore “should not be altered.”

“It is not a judgment as to the merit of this new commemoration, simply that altering the Memorial in this way, as proposed in HR 2070, will necessarily dilute this elegant memorial’s central message and its ability to clearly convey that message to move, educate, and inspire its many visitors,” Abbey said in written testimony.

Abbey explained to lawmakers that altering the memorial would be contrary to the Commemorative Works Act — a law that prohibits “encroachment by a new commemoration on a existing one.” It also respects the design of the “completed work of civic art without alteration or addition of new elements.”

But, Mr. Abbey…aren’t you about to alter the MLK Memorial to correct a mistake?

Or , is the fact that this is a Christian prayer, the real reason you and your boss are opposed to adding it to the memorial?

Yeah…that’s what I thought.

Obama and the Occupy Movement: Of Hubris and Reality

On By kingsjesterIn Politics, Uncategorized5 Comments

Yesterday was a day of heretofore unheard of hubris.

Allow me to present my case by giving you two examples.

First, the wannabe hippies known as the Occupy Movement declared their co-dependence…errr…I mean independence…or something.

The following is from a  Google page they created named The99PercentDeclaration:

WHEREAS THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION PROVIDES:

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.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

WE, THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in order to form a more perfect Union, by, for and of the PEOPLE, shall elect and convene a NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY beginning on July 4, 2012 in the City Of Philadelphia.

I. Election of Delegates:

The People, consisting of all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18, regardless of party affiliation and voter registration status, shall elect Two Delegates, one male and one female, by direct vote, from each of the existing 435 Congressional Districts to represent the People at the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in Philadelphia. Said Assembly shall convene on July 4, 2012 in the city of Philadelphia.

The office of Delegate shall be open to all United States citizens who have reached the age of 18. Election Committees, elected by local General Assemblies from all over the United States, shall coordinate with the 99 Percent Declaration Working Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the99declaration/) to organize, coordinate and fund this national election by direct democratic voting. The Election Committees shall operate like the original Committees of Correspondence did before the first American Revolution.

Who in the name of Thomas Paine (obligatory Revolutionary War reference) do they think they are?

There’s a big difference between you and our Founding Fathers, kiddies.  They weren’t funded by Communists.

Meanwhile…, as reported on wsj.com:

Douglas Schoen, a veteran Democratic Party pollster who has also worked for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, sent a researcher from his polling firm down to Zuccotti Park last week to conduct what appears to be the very first professional survey of the protesters in New York. The face-to-face interviews with 198 people informed an essay by Schoen in The Journal’s opinion pages.

Putting aside Schoen’s analysis — the subhead on his piece pegs the protesters as “leftists out of step with most American voters,” if you’re curious — let’s focus instead on the raw data, which he was kind enough to publish on his personal website. The findings are quite surprising.

The protesters as a group are young, but Zuccotti Park is not nearly the youth-only movement depicted in the media. While 49% of protesters are under 30, more than 28% are 40 or older. Only one-third of the crowd considers themselves Democrats — nearly the same portion who say they don’t identify with any party. (Zero respondents labeled themselves Republican.)

Schoen finds reason to be skeptical of the protesters’ professed motivation: the inequities of the U.S. economic system. “The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%),” he writes in his essay. But those numbers might not be the best way to assess the economic health of the protest group.

…just 56% of protesters voted in 2008, and of those 74% voted for Obama. Crunching the numbers, it would appear that only 42% of the Zuccotti Park crowd has ever cast a presidential ballot for Obama.

The president looks likely to improve his standing with the protesters in 2012. The survey found 48% would vote for his re-election, even though a slim 51% majority of the protesters disapprove of his job performance.

Only 48%? But…but…President Barack Hussein Obama has done everything right…or so he  told Jake Tapper in an interview for ABC News:

I guarantee it’s going to be a close election because the economy is not where it wants to be and even though I believe all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones, we’re still going through difficult circumstances. That means people who may be sympathetic to my point of view still kind of feel like, yeah, but it still hasn’t gotten done yet. This is going to be a close election and a very important one for the American people. The thing I hope the most is that everyone is going to be paying close attention to the debate that takes place because it could determine not just what happens over the next four years, but what’ll happen over the next 20 or 30 years.

What we have hear are two examples of hubris overcoming reality.  According to gallup.com:

As regards our first example of hubris,

Americans are more than twice as likely to blame the federal government in Washington (64%) for the economic problems facing the United States as they are the financial institutions on Wall Street (30%).

And, as far as the president’s opinion of his flawless presidency, his viewpoint is definitely in the minority.  Per gallup.com, only 39% of Americans approve of the job that Obama is doing.

No wonder Obama has thrown his support behind the Occupy Movement.

They’re both strolling down that divergent path from reality together.

Warren Buffett: A Study in Hypocrisy

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized9 Comments

In a New York Times op-ed piece last month, Billionaire Investor Warren Buffett voiced the complaint that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers.

According to Buffett, he and his rich friends “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.”

This, as you now know, led President Barack Hussein Obama, to name his latest “Soak-the-Rich-to-Improve-the-Economy” scheme, which he unveiled yesterday, the Buffett Plan.

Apropos, since both the plan and its namesake, positively reek of hypocrisy.

So, how does Buffett get away with not paying a whole lot of taxes?.  As Peter J. O’Reilly, writing for Forbes.com, explains it,  the answer is very simple:

…Berkshire Hathaway does not in fact pay dividends. Mr. Buffett’s secret which you can find blasted all over the Internet is one of his famous quotations:

Our favorite holding period is forever.

You only pay income taxes at any rate on realized appreciation. An investment with a holding period of forever incurs a capital gains tax of 0%, while all along the holder can be getting wealthy from appreciation. That’s the real reason Mr. Buffett does not pay a lot of income taxes.

He protects his wealth by reinvesting it.  His money in the bank (taxable income) represents only a small percentage of his real income.  Therefore, he will be able to handle a tax increase with ease.

For example, an article posted on 9/13/11, on wsj.com, reports that:

Warren Buffett is likely to make at least $1.2 billion from an investment in General Electric struck during the heart of the financial crisis in October 2008.

GE confirmed today it plans to repay Buffett’s $3 billion investment, which helped prop up confidence in the conglomerate as the financial world was being torn apart. Under the terms of the deal, GE owes Buffett a 10% repayment premium, or $300 million, on top of his $3 billion returned investment.

In addition, GE agreed to pay Buffett a 10% annual dividend, or $300 million a year, to rent his seal of approval. That means Buffett will have accumulated $900 million in cumulative dividends, assuming GE repays the preferred-stock investment in October. The $900 million would buy nearly 42 million 20-ounce T-bones at Buffett hangout Piccolo’s in Omaha.

And, more importantly, he cheats.  From Americans for Limited Government’s netrightdaily.com:

According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.

According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.”

Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, who was alerted to the controversy by a federal government lawyer, said, “The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade. Mr. Buffett’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009. Yet he says he’d happily pay more. Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

Apparently, not paying taxes in full is an annual occurrence under Buffett’s watch. Considering the size of the company, the amount of unsettled taxes could total in the tens of millions.

A great deal was made in the MSM about Buffett’s pledge to give away 85% of his considerable fortune in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill and Melanie Gates Foundation.  In July of this year alone, he gave a gift of $1.5 billion to the charity, of which he is a Trustee.

However, Shira Ovide told us the rest of the story in an article found on wsj.com on 7/7/11:

At the beginning of July each year, Buffett hands over chunks of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is all part of plans Buffett kicked off in 2006 to give away the bulk of his vast fortune to charity.

The Gates’ foundation, helmed in part by the former Microsoft CEO and longtime Buffett buddy, has the enviable task of spending Buffett’s gift. In 2006, the donation had a value of $30 billion, making it the biggest philanthropic largess in history.

Under the system Buffett put in place when he announced his massive donation, the number of shares he hands over declines by 5% a year. Still, Buffett predicted that the value of the donations would “trend higher” along with the price of Berkshire stock. This year, that didn’t happen.

The latest donation of 19.3 million Class B Berkshire stock is valued at more than $1.5 billion, based on today’s closing share price. The value is less than last year’s stock handover of 20.4 million shares, because of a slight dip in the value of Berkshire stock since last July.

And this is the man whom the president is holding up as a shining example?

Obama has named a bill after a guy who does everything that this punitive proposal is supposed to “fix”.

Hypocrisy,  thy name is…well…take your pick.

Obama’s Economic Plan: A Touch of Class…Warfare

On By kingsjesterIn Politics, Uncategorized5 Comments

In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx theorized that a social class is formed when its members achieve class consciousness and solidarity. This happens when those who make up the social class decide that they are being used and abused by those who hold power over them, by means of money or station in life.  That is when the class conflict, or class warfare begins.

That social class will then bond together over their shared interests and form a common identity.

Per Marx, that lower or working class (the Proletariat) will then rise up against those that are exploiting them (the bourgeoisie).

In Marxist theory, the stage after the proletarian revolution when a society is changing from capitalism to communism, marked by pay distributed according to work done rather than need, is called socialism.

Per the hill.com:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said President Obama is practicing “venture socialism” with his jobs proposal.

The conservative Tea Party favorite played off the term “venture capitalism” in criticizing Obama’s ideas for improving the economy.

“I would love to be able to work with the president on something, but he’s basically practicing what we call venture socialism. He’s basically taken the approach where it’s the government that needs to stimulate jobs,” DeMint said Wednesday on Fox News’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

DeMint said the difference of opinion on the government’s role in job creation between some Democrats and Republicans makes it difficult to compromise on economic issues.

“There are a number of Democrats … and this is the scariest thing of all, who really believe that government spending is the major part of our economy,” DeMint told Van Susteren.

He added that there is a “polar-opposite vision” on what makes America work.

DeMint called for a moratorium on regulation, reform of the tax code and an opening up of energy supplies to help create jobs.

“It’s not that we’re not willing to work with [Democrats] and compromise in a lot of ways, but the president has just sold out to big labor, to radical environmentalists — and this isn’t a partisan comment — all you have to do is look at every bill he’s tried to pass,” DeMint said.

Evidently, Obama’s venture socialism pays pretty well…for his friends, anyway.  Yahoo.com reports:

The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses and the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.

The deal, which was reached late Friday, also includes a $2- to $3-per-hour pay raise for entry-level workers over the life of the contract and guarantees more union jobs, the people said.

Both persons asked to remain anonymous because the details of the contract haven’t been reviewed by all local union leaders.

The GM deal will serve as a template for contracts that still must be negotiated with Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. It would set the pay and benefits for 112,500 U.S. auto workers. It also sets the bar for pay and benefits at nonunion auto companies and other industries across the country.

The contract is the first since GM and Chrysler received government bailouts to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009. GM earned $4.7 billion last year.

Workers have to approve the deal before it can take effect. A vote is expected within 10 days.

In addition to the bonuses, workers could get profit-sharing checks that exceed the $4,000 that workers earned last year.

However, Obama does not plan on rewarding those Americans who actually create jobs and hire other Americans, thus providing “fuel” for America’s economic engine.

Obama is proposing a new base tax rate for the wealthy today as a part of a long term deficit reduction. This tax hike is supposedly meant to make sure that millionaires pay at least at the same percentage as middle income taxpayers.

Sharing the misery, instead of sharing the wealth.

The desperately flailing chief executive has decided to call it the “Buffett Rule”, in honor of Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who, in a New York Times op-ed piece last month, voiced the complaint that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers.

According to Buffet, he and his rich friends “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.”

The tax rate increase on the upper class would be in addition to $447 billion in tax hikes on us regular Americans that Obama is seeking in order to pay for his short-term spending and tax cutting plan which he euphemistically named the American Jobs Act.

Margaret Thatcher, in a TV interview for Thames TV This Week on Feb. 5, 1976, said:

…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.

Indeed.

Europe’s Looming Financial Crisis: Is America Next?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics, Uncategorized6 Comments

Do you remember the Lehman Brothers Disaster?  No.  It wasn’t some accident like Mrs. O’ Leary’s cow starting the Great Chicago Fire.

Here’s a history lesson, courtesy of The New York Times:

Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850 by two cotton brokers in Montgomery, Ala. The firm moved to New York City after the Civil War and grew into one of Wall Street’s investment giants. On Sept. 14, 2008, the investment bank announced that it would file for liquidation after huge losses in the mortgage market and a loss of investor confidence crippled it and it was unable to find a buyer.

In March 2010, a 2,200-page document laid out in new and startling detail how Lehman used accounting sleight of hand to conceal the bad investments that led to its undoing. The report, compiled by an examiner for the bank, concluded that, among other things, the firm’s demise was the result of bad mortgage holdings and, less directly, demands by rivals like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, that the foundering bank post collateral against loans it desperately needed.

Lehman also used a small company — its “alter ego,” in the words of a former Lehman trader — to shift investments off its books, according to an article in The New York Times in April. The relationship raised new questions about the extent to which Lehman obscured its financial condition before it plunged into bankruptcy.

It is no secret that Europe is in the middle of a government debt crisis.

However, now, worry is spreading across the continent that one of Europe’s major banks may fail, which would, in turn, ignite a financial panic such as one sparked by Lehman’s bankruptcy in September 2008.

European leaders, trying desperately to stave off financial disaster, have come up with a plan to use hundreds of billions of euros of bailout money to prevent any major bank from failing.

The catch to the plan lies in the doubt concerning the ability of Europe’s banks to last through the crisis, since some of them are having a harder time procuring the loans they need for their daily operations.

Meanwhile, our banking corporations, in an attempt to protect themselves, are increasingly cautious of making new short-term loans in some cases and are in the process of refusing to conduct business with their European business associates, a strategy while helpful to our country, will magnify the funding problems of European banks.

Withdrawals such as these, only on a much larger scale, basically forced Lehman to declare bankruptcy, as banks, hedge funds and others stopped doing business with them, oblivious to the fact that their actions contributed to a much broader market crisis.

If this disaster comes to pass in Europe, America would be next in line due to the symbiotic relationship of the world’s financial system.

Furthermore, the banking systems of other nations could topple like dominoes in a line.

The financial markets began showing their growing concern over the situation yesterday.  Stocks in the United States and Europe fell 1 percent and European bank stocks fell 5 percent or more after losing heavily in recent weeks.

European bank shares are now at their lowest point since March 2009, mirroring the situation following Lehman’s collapse.

Investors continued to buy United States Treasury bonds, however, as yields on two-year bonds briefly touched 1.90 percent, the lowest ever, before closing at 1.98 percent.

Per George Soros, a.k.a. “The Puppet Master”, things are not looking good:

This crisis has the potential to be a lot worse than Lehman Brothers. That is why the problem is so serious. You need a crisis to create the political will for Europe to create such an authority, but there is still no understanding as to what the authority will do.

Soros was referring to the lack of an authoritative pan-European body to handle such an huge banking crisis.

Why is Soros complaining?  This is the type of situation that this financial vulture lives for.

From one of my previous posts, Black Thursday…Almost:

George Soros set up the now famous Quantum Fund as one of the world’s first Hedge Funds. It took money from the wealthy and invested in risky but potentially highly profitable international deals.

It did very well out of the collapse of fixed exchange rates in the 1970s and the deregulation of global capital markets. By 1980, George Soros was worth more than £16.5 million and his fund £67 million. The stage was set for his intervention in the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a system established in 1979 for controlling exchange rates within the European Monetary System of the European Union (EU) that was intended to prepare the way for a single currency.

Around spring 1992, Soros had decided that the pound would have to be devalued because it had been pushed into the Exchange Rate Mechanism at too high a rate.

He knew that the Bundesbank was in favor of a devaluation of both sterling and the Italian lira and believed it would have to happen because of the disastrous impact that high British interest rates were having on asset prices.

Soros spent the next few months in preparation to profit from that devaluation. He borrowed sterling heavily, reportedly to the tune of £6.5 billion, and converted that into a mixture of Deutschmarks and French francs.

On Black Wednesday, September 16, 1992, Soros won his bet.  The UK Conservative government was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) due to pressure by currency speculators, most notably Soros himself.

In the following days, he took care of business, paying back what he borrowed and ending with a profit of around £1 billion.  At the same time, Soros bought as much as £350 million of British shares, gambling that equities often rise after a currency devalues.

He later admitted that his actions had benefited no one but himself.

If I were the financial  and political leaders of Europe and America, I would keep an eye on The Puppet Master.

But, then again, no one asked me.