Friday, November 29, 2013

Something to Know - 29 November

Pat Oliphant
1.  The Affordable Care Act, yes has and and does have its problems in the rollout.  However, it is one of the single-most important and effective efforts by government to help solve a problem that the private sector has not been able to find solutions for the last .....well, since this country has had a history.   The right-wing Republicans have no intent in helping out.  In fact, its mantra seems to be Mitch "Turtle" McConnell's mission to see that Obama fails.  To that end, Timothy Egan of the NY Times offers this opinion:

2.  Do  you have any doubts that those gruesome anti-smoking ads, such as the dying patient wheezing away in his wheelchair, have had any impact?   Well, they are doing a better job than expected:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/opinion/the-power-of-cigarette-warning-labels.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

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Juan
 
I knew when my career was over. In 1965 my baseball card came out with no picture.
-- Bob Uecker

Something to Know - The Tea Party Christmas Gift Guide

Yes, the Tea Baggers have entered the Black Friday gift-giving mentality.  For a closer look on their limited outlook on stuff, here is an actual email (received this morning) of reading material that would present the Tea Party Patriot Christmas spirit for your friends:

Tea Party Patriots Gift Guide


Patriots,

Over the last several years we have read several great books that sum up our core values, define the philosophies that we believe in, and lay out paths to fixing the problems that face our nation. We wanted to share some of those with you as we are approaching the holidays in an effort to give you some ideas on what to buy your loved ones and friends for this very special time of year.

We have divided the list below into different sections.

In the Limited Government section you'll find books by Peter Schweizer that highlight what we're up against, Tea Party Patriots: The Second America Revolution which is a perfect gift for your friends and family who may not understand what the Tea Party movement is all about, and Mark Levin's new book about the need to re-balance the power between the states and the federal government.

If you want books to give you a better understanding of the Constitution, check out the Constitution section. If you or someone in your family is interested in learning more about Free Markets and the ideas of natural law and self-government then check out the Economics and Philosophysections. Common Sense Economics is great book to teach someone the basics of economics in an easy to understand way and Ameritopia is perfect if someone is really interested in getting into deep philosophy of different forms of government.

For children, check out the Just for Kids section. And finally, we wanted to give you some ideas that were entertaining and informational and you will find those in the FictionGreat Presidents, and Video sections. Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin highly recommends The Hunger Gamesseries for ages that range from her 5th grade twins all the way to grandparents. It's a great illustration of what happens when too much power is concentrated in one part of the country while being disconnected from the rest of the nation. The parallels to our current situation are alarming!

And finally, we'd like to recommend that you consider shopping at Hobby Lobby for things such as Christmas trees, decorations, lights, supplies, crafts, and gifts. They are continuing the fight against Obamacare and standing up for the First Amendment and for that we commend them. 

As always, we want to thank you for being such an important part of the movement. We hope that you and yours have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Together we are going to restore a fiscally responsible, constitutionally limited government so that free markets can thrive. 

Limited Government 
The Liberty Amendments by Mark Levin
Tea Party Patriots by Mark Meckler, Jenny Beth Martin
Extortion by Peter Schweizer
Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer

Constitution 
Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Rossiter
The Heritage Guide to the Constitution by Edwin Meese, Matthew Spalding
5000 Year Leap W. Cleon Skousen
Miracle of America Brian P. Trotter
Federalist Papers in Modern Language Indexed for Today's Political Issues Mary E. Webster

Economics 
How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People and Free Markets are the Best Answer in Today's Economy by Steve Forbes, Elizabeth Ames
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton & Rose Friedman
Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity by James D. Gwartney et al
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell

Philosophy 
Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot by Russell Kirk
Ameritopia by Mark Levin
Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin
Property and Freedom by Richard Pipes
A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell

Fiction
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games Box Set by Suzanne Collins
Empire of Lies by Andrew Klavan
We the Living by Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Hidden Order by Brad Thor

Great Presidents 
Coolidge by Amity Schlaes
Rendezvous with Destiny by Craig Shirley

Just for Kids 
George Washington: The Crossing by Jack Levin
Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans by Rush Limbaugh
Tea Party Coloring Book

Videos 
John Adams HBO Mini-Series
The Hunger Games Movie
Catching Fire Movie Tickets
Liberty Kids

Sweet Treats
The Confectional Cheesecakes
Janie's Cakes - Pound Cakes

 

In liberty,
Tea Party Patriots National Support Team



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Juan
 
Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.
-- Lenny Bruce

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Something to Know - 20 November

Jen Sorensen

Is it raining out?  Gloomy and cool?   Want to kill some time reading about the plight of the American Work Force in the last 40 years?   Take this on for a long read:
http://prospect.org/article/40-year-slump

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Juan
 
Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.
-- Lenny Bruce

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Something to Know - 19 November

Mike Luckovich
1.  Do you wanna change from tired old news about Obamacare website problems, and the attendant snarky comments?   Here's a different opinion on the latest news that there are about 40 Billion (or so) Earth-like planets out there in space.   Not that we are going to settle on any specifics, but you might want a change of pace.  If you really want to get into it, come up with a way to provide universal single-payer health coverage for all those aliens out there:

2.  Mexico has its problems. Deep poverty in many areas, and a failure of totally integrating its indigenous native Indians into society.  The drug cartel violence has ruled in many of its states, and has corrupted the justice system.   Perhaps if the United States were to de-criminalize many of the drugs and legalize marijuana, the money made from Prohibition would put an end to most of the criminal careers and activities on both sides of the U.S./Mexican border.  In one sense, the Mexican State of Guanajuato highlights the promise of building on education and jobs to reverse a dismal past and point the way to better governance:

3.  The NY Times editorial board is not on board with the GeeOpie's behavior on assigning total incompetence one Administration to all others.   The GOP noise wants to drown out any and all efforts by the Obama people without any Republican effort to do anything themselves to improve anything.   Okay, forget the other planets:

4.  The system of justice in the State of Alabama is as peculiar as some other historical and events in the past.  A trial by jury and the verdict by the jury in this state is subject to the perception of how the judge feels about his reputation and electability.   This is totally wrong, and immoral to our system:


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Juan
 
Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.
-- Lenny Bruce

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Andy Borowitz

The Borowitz Report

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

OBAMA SAYS AMERICANS CAN KEEP THEIR DAMN INSURANCE

POSTED BY 

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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Faced with a barrage of new questions about the Affordable Care Act, President Obama cut short a White House press conference today, telling the stunned press corps, "You know what? Everybody can keep their damn insurance."

Glaring at the reporters, the President continued, "You heard me. If your insurance is crappy, then you just go ahead and keep it—the crappier, the better. Let's pretend this whole thing never happened."

A vein in his forehead visibly throbbing, the President added, "You know, I really wish I hadn't spent the last three years of my life on this thing. I should've just gone around invading countries for no reason. That would've made everybody happy. Well, live and learn."

As the reporters averted their eyes from the President, many of them looking awkwardly at their shoes, he concluded his remarks: "All those people out there who want to repeal Obamacare? Well, guess what: I'll make their day and repeal it myself. Really, it's my pleasure. But I swear that this is the last time I try to do something nice for anybody."


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Juan
 
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart Udall

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Andy Borowitz

The Borowitz Report

  • NOVEMBER 14, 2013

REPUBLICANS BLAST OBAMA'S SUPPORT OF THEIR IDEA

POSTED BY 

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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — Moments after President Obama said he would allow insurers to continue health plans that were to be cancelled under the Affordable Care Act, leading Republicans blasted the President for agreeing with an idea that they had supported.

"It's true that we've been strongly in favor of Americans being allowed to keep their existing plans," said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "But now that the President is for it, we're convinced that it's a horrible idea."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) went further in ripping the President, calling Mr. Obama's tactic of adopting ideas proposed by him and fellow Republicans "beneath contempt."

"The President should be aware that any future agreeing with us will be seen for what it is: a hostile act," he said.

Minutes later, White House spokesman Jay Carney helmed a hastily called press conference, hoping to stem the quickly escalating coöperation scandal.

"The President understands that he has offended some Republicans in Congress by agreeing with them," Mr. Carney said. "He wants to apologize for that."

But far from putting an end to the controversy, the President's apology drew a swift rebuke from another congressional Republican, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who called it a "blatant provocation."

"If the President is going to continue agreeing with us and apologizing to us, he is playing with fire," he warned.



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****
Juan
 
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart Udall

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Something to Know - 13 November


 If you watched 60 Minutes for the last two weeks, you saw an account of "Benghazi", and then a retraction the following week.  Sloppy and very questionable journalism was displayed by CBS News, and a real black eye for the program and an even worse problem for Laura Logan.  This is a good account of what happened:

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"I didn't even have to go into the room to see who it was," a man calling himself Morgan Jones told Lara Logan, of "60 Minutes," on October 27th, remembering how he had glimpsed a body through the glass in a door. It was September 11, 2012, the night four American diplomats were killed in Benghazi.

JONES: I knew who it was immediately.
LOGAN: Who was it?
JONES: It was the Ambassador, dead. Yeah, shocking.

Logan looks shocked. And then, a few minutes later, when Jones—"a pseudonym he's using for his own safety," Logan says—reminisces about scaling a twelve-foot wall in a compound being overrun by members of Al Qaeda, she looks impressed. He encountered a terrorist, but, he says, "As I got closer, I just hit him with the butt of the rifle in the face."

JONES: Oh, he went down, yeah.
LOGAN: He dropped?
JONES: Yeah, like … like a stone.
LOGAN: With his face smashed in?
JONES: Yeah.
LOGAN: And no one saw you do it?
JONES: No.

Morgan Jones, the man who doesn't need to go into a room to know what he'll see, and is, somehow, seen by no one when he does what he has to do. Watching the exchange now, it seems almost doomed to lead where it has.

"We end our broadcast tonight with a correction," Logan said this Sunday. She used Jones's real name, Dylan Davies. After the broadcast, she said, "questions arose about whether his account was true when an incident report surfaced. It told a different story about what he did the night of the attack." Davies, she said, "insisted the story he told us was not only accurate, it was the same story he told the F.B.I. when they interviewed him." When "60 Minutes" learned on Thursday that, in fact, the F.B.I. report "was different from what he told us, we realized we had been misled, and it was a mistake to include him in our report. For that we are very sorry. The most important thing to every person at '60 Minutes' is the truth. And the truth is, we made a mistake."

This is an odd statement and an understatement. To say that the incident report "surfaced" and told "a different story" isn't quite adequate: Karen DeYoung, of the Washington Post, obtained it, and it was apparently already among the papers turned over to Congress. The discrepancies extended to Davies's location that night: he was not in the compound at all but, rather, in his "beach side villa." ("We could not get anywhere near," the report read.)

Skepticism might have set in around the point when Logan recited how Jones, alone and unseen, "scaled the twelve-foot wall of the compound," and not later. On Monday night, Stephen Colbert produced a parody about a thirty-foot wall in the CBS newsroom beset by Hillary Clinton, swinging dangerous weapons—but self-parody is already in the "60 Minutes" segment, and has certainly been present in the Congressional response to the deaths in Benghazi. When Logan's report aired, Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been fixated on the idea of a conspiratorial coverup, saw it as more dark proof. If we hadn't heard about Jones, and the warnings he said he passed on, what else didn't we know? Graham cited "60 Minutes" as a reason for holding up the nominations of various ambassadors, an odd penalty, given that the incident involved a diplomatic outpost that could have used some help. After the report's integrity disintegrated, he said that he wouldn't give up.

"Correction," the word "60 Minutes" used, is a tricky one in this context. The program did not correct its report, in the sense of putting out an accurate version. The entire segment was pulled from its Web site. If the mistake was putting Davies on air, one might, in theory, imagine a correct version in which his interview is simply excised; that's impossible here, though. There is no report without Davies. He is either speaking or providing the point of view for more than eight of its fifteen and a half minutes; we rely on him not only for the sight of Ambassador Chris Stevens's body but for a phone conversation the two supposedly had a few hours before Stevens died—a particularly low form of fabrication, if that's what it is—as well as calls he says he had with Sean Smith, another diplomat who was killed; Libyan guards; and another unnamed American at the compound. ("I said, 'Well, just keep fighting. I'm on my way.' ") And he provides Logan with her guiding logic: "The events of that night have been overshadowed by misinformation, confusion, and intense partisanship," Logan says,

But for those who lived through it, there's nothing confusing about what happened, and they share a sense of profound frustration because they say they saw it coming.

Then we're introduced to Jones, the man with the gun who had it all figured out, and whom no one seemed to hear.

There are really two charges against CBS: that they were duped, and that the segment itself was an example, to borrow Logan's terms, of misinformation, confusion, and intense partisanship. Journalists make mistakes; sources lie. DeYoung's story ran in the Post on October 31st, and was followed up with passion elsewhere. (Dave Weigel has written aboutMedia Matters's role.) CBS lost some sympathy by apparently accepting, for a number of days, Davies's explanation that the incident report, which was in his voice but didn't have his signature, was the byproduct of lies he told a supervisor out of his immense respect for the man whose orders he hadn't followed. Perhaps Logan thought that tracked; her apology-preview appearance on CBS's "This Morning" only partly clarified the thinking. She was still defending Davies days after DeYoung's report, telling the Times that the criticism was political. "We worked on this for a year. We killed ourselves not to allow politics into this report." Then came the F.B.I. report, and there went the clarity Logan claims to have finally found in Davies's story.

It's a sad aspect of this story that Logan claims the segment was more than a year in the making. Where did the time go? In the fairly long piece, Logan fails to offer any real statement about the Administration's perspective. Only two other people are interviewed on camera. One is a military man who doesn't understand why the diplomats didn't get out of Benghazi months earlier. Another is a diplomat who doesn't understand why, at the critical moment, significant military forces didn't move into Benghazi from across the border. Davies, who is somehow supposed to tie these threads together, doesn't understand why, on the first day he first arrived in the city, he found Libyan guards "inside, drinking tea, laughing and joking" rather than looking sharp, and why everyone didn't heed a private contractor, like him. Not that Davies is identified as such: he's a "security officer," Logan says. "A former British soldier, he's been helping to keep U.S. diplomats and military leaders safe for the last decade." (Nor does she mention that his book, promoted in the segment, was published by Simon & Schuster, a unit of CBS, something she has admitted was a mistake.) But who knows what Davies said before or during the attack. His account is about as good as a spilled cup of tea, making the rest unreadable.

Those military and diplomatic questions deserve better answers, ones about policy choices rather than half-discerned conspiracies. You wouldn't know from Logan's report that the United States was engaged at the time in a historic and violent transition in Libya, in which the Qaddafi regime was overthrown with the help of our forces, or about that revolution's disordered denouement, or about the Obama Administration's decision to ignore the War Powers Act. Libya is presented as nothing but a place with a diplomatic mission and Al Qaeda's black flags in the street. Brave men swinging rifle butts are thwarted by craven ones in Washington who won't move their "military assets" into the country.

This is Benghazi, the story that burns all sides, those who use it as a weapon as well as their targets. (It seems to hurt less if one has no shame or a serious primary challenger, as is the case with Lindsey Graham.) That is largely because of how they pick their battles: Sunday-morning talking points; what word the President used; demands for more documents without, it would seem, the willingness to actually read what they say. The image of a rampaging Hillary Clinton is not far from the actual rhetoric around the story, which will only be revved up if she runs in 2016. She has, in some impatient, tone-deaf testimony, already provided some footage for commercials. It is strange to remember, given what a drag it's been on Obama's agenda, but Romney was the one most hurt by Benghazi in the debates, when Candy Crowley, the moderator, said that he was wrong about the President not saying "terror" in the Rose Garden immediately after the attack. Benghazi the scandal is full of absurdities. Libya, the real country, is the scene of its own national tragedy, and an American one, the walls of which have barely been scaled.



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****
Juan
 
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart Udall

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Something to Know - 12 November

Pat Oliphant
1.  When voters are able to see who is financing the political ads (usually negative) on the campaign trail, populist voters have a tendency to reject the aims of the big-buck scions who try and take over local elections,  Here is a case in point in Iowa:

2.  Continuing with local political will, the minimum wage issue hardly gets anywhere on the federal level, where big-buck corporations pretty much rule the rules.  However, on the home front, voters are much more amenable to raising the wage rate.  It really is sad that each individual city or state can get it done, but Congress, for obvious reasons, cannot:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/opinion/redefining-the-minimum-wage.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

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****
Juan
 
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart Udall

Andy Borowitz

The Borowitz Report

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

ISSA ACCUSES OBAMA OF TRYING TO MAKE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT WORK

POSTED BY 

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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an explosive accusation, the House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) today charged President Obama with "using all the resources at his disposal to make the Affordable Care Act work."

Accusing the President of participating in "a wide-ranging conspiracy," Mr. Issa told reporters that "behind closed doors, the President has quietly assembled a high-tech brain trust that is working around the clock to fix the Healthcare.gov Web site—at government expense."

Rep. Issa said that he would call for a new round of hearings and would subpoena "all those persons suspected of being involved in the ongoing plot to fix Obamacare."

"This is a conspiracy, if you will, that goes all the way to the top," Rep. Issa said. "If there is a plan to fix Obamacare, what did the President know about that plan and when did he know it?"

Rep. Issa concluded his remarks on a defiant note, drawing a line in the sand: "If the President thinks he is going to repair that Web site so that it works when anyone tries to access it, I've got news for him: not on my watch


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Juan
 
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart Udall

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Andy Borowitz

The Borowitz Report

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

STUDY: AMERICANS SAFE FROM GUN VIOLENCE EXCEPT IN SCHOOLS, MALLS, AIRPORTS, MOVIE THEATRES, WORKPLACES, STREETS, OWN HOMES

POSTED BY 

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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A new study released today indicates that Americans are safe from the threat of gun violence except in schools, malls, airports, movie theatres, workplaces, streets, and their own homes.

Also: highways, turnpikes, libraries, places of worship, parks, universities, restaurants, post offices, and cars.

Plus: driveways, garages, gyms, stores, military bases—and a host of other buildings, structures, and sites.

National Rifle Association C.E.O. Wayne LaPierre applauded the study, saying that it reinforced his organization's long-held position that the United States does not need additional gun laws. "This study makes it abundantly clear that Americans are in no danger of gun violence except in these isolated four hundred and thirteen places," he said.

He added that he hoped that the study would spark a conversation "about the root cause of mass shootings: people who recklessly show up at places where they could be shot at."



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Juan
 
Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.
-- Vance Packard

Monday, November 4, 2013

Andy Borowitz

The Borowitz Report

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

OBAMA HAS LIED TO AMERICAN PEOPLE, SAYS LYING EXPERT

POSTED BY 





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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—President Obama has imperiled his second term by lying to the American people, one of the nation's foremost lying experts said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The accusation carried weight, observers said, coming as it did from a legendary figure in the high-stakes world of competitive lying.

He was harshly critical of Mr. Obama's fibbing, calling it "amateurish at best," contrasting the President's lack of lying experience with his own half-century of dishonesty.

"The American people deserve a President who is a world-class liar," he said. "Sadly, they do not have that President."

Speaking from experience, he said that he had learned "the hard way" just how difficult lying can be: "Just when you think you've gotten away with it, there's someone with a hidden camera catching you telling the truth."

He said that it was possible that the President "might grow as a liar" in the remaining three years of his term, but he was not optimistic.

"Lying isn't something you can just pick up on the job," he said. "Maybe President Obama would be better off leaving it to us professionals."



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Juan
 
Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.
-- Vance Packard

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Something to Know - 4 October


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1.  The Republicans, and their fellow Tea Baggers are now in the same league of picking on the poor.  It is getting old and it is not giving the Right any good PR.  It is also a miserable way of caring for our fellow Americans:

2.  Again, the right-wing extremists are guilty of funneling dark money through a laundromat of fake groups to hide the fact that they are using vast sums of wealth to control our political process.  California has opened up this can of worms to show how it can be exposed and be stopped - hopefully:

3.  CNN, on their website, had a a good presentation of how income inequality affects one location in Louisiana.  The intent of the piece seems to present the condition of the social and economic hardships in one area of our country.  The basic facts, as laid out, apply to other areas of our country.  What do we do?  Some say we can help, while others offer no help at all.  What do you think?:
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Juan
 
Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.
-- Vance Packard