HENRY WAXMAN'S RETIRING!

Progressive Compassion

Jimmy Carter was such a compassionate progressive that rather than keeping the mentally ill within the confines of state mental hospitals —where they have a warm place to sleep, nutritional foods to eat, and around-the-clock medical care, he directed these people released into local communities. Of course, local communities could not adequately care for these poor souls, and so they began sleeping underneath highway bridges and overpasses, begging for food by holding up signs that misspelled the word homeless, and crossing over from physical and mental health statistical anomalies to those involving crime.

Good job, progressive movement —but don’t think for a minute that we don’t know what you’re up to.

Today, “mental disorder” is the leading diagnostic group for individuals regarded as disabled, receiving federal disability benefits. According to the latest Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program (yes, another taxpayer funded give-a-way), there are more than ten million Americans receiving disability payments, and of these, half have been enrolled in the program since 1995. Of the ten million, 35.5% have mental disorders, but this number shifts according to geographical location. For example, 43.2% of the disabled in Washington DC are mentally disabled, more than half of those in Massachusetts are mentally impaired (but we knew that, didn’t we?), and highest among the common diagnoses in Massachusetts was “mood disorders,” which is again no real surprise. The nation’s capital is the highest area for psychotic and schizophrenic disorders, but only if you include members of Congress.

So then, what is the progressive party’s solution? It is actually similar to the solution enacted by the San Diego, California city counsel some years back, who authorized the purchase of bus tickets to Phoenix, rounded up all homeless men and women, and sent them on their way. In other words, “go crawl under someone else's bridge.” It is nothing if not Sanger-esque.

Source

Note: I used the term "give-a-way" because it makes no sense to give a mentally disabled person some sum of money, and expect him or her to spend it on something other than drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. Like most leftist programs, this one throws money at an issue fully expecting the problem to go away. All it does, really, is give leftists the mistaken idea that they are compassionate. They aren't. Leftist programs ARE the problem.

~ Mustang Sends 

Z would like to add that the I've heard so many times over the years that the mentally ill do immeasurably better when they're on their meds and, the minute they're off, they resort to the terrible behavior they're on the streets for;  violent, withdrawn, etc...I'm wondering if it wouldn't be useful to make payments to these people contingent on their taking drugs, or SOME way they could be forced to take them, to the point that they could get off the payments because they've done so well and can be educated or trained for jobs, etc.


 

Stimulating?????

Our buddy Elmer's Brother emailed this to me....it's important to read and understand how the stimulus actually didn't work at all: It's a slow day in the small town of Pumphandle and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit. A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. (Stay with this.....and pay attention) The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op. The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit. The hooker rushes to the motel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. (Almost done...keep reading)               The motel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.               No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.               And that, my friends, is how a "stimulus package" works!

RIGHT?...Z

Obama; A children's book............God help us.

Great reading for the children of America.  (Z: you simply won't believe this):

MUSKEGON, Mich. – On the heels of a controversial children’s book about Barack Obama – which stated “white voters would never vote for a black president” and that “Barack’s former pastor” said “God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens” – comes a new lesson that casts America’s 44th president in a messianic light. Literally.  Here's an excerpt from the book!!!

(Z: OH...so the drugs and smoking weren't HIS fault...it's "what it means to be black?"  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???)
 
And – surprise – it’s Common Core-aligned.

The lesson plan and accompanying visual presentation were authored by Sherece Bennett, and is for sale onTeachersPayTeachers.com. It’s all based on a book titled, “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope,” by Nikki Grimes.

In one passage, a young Obama sees beggars and wonders, “Will I ever be able to help people like these?”

“Hope hung deep inside of him,” the book adds.

Another excerpt from the book reads: “Before dawn each morning, Barry rose – his mother’s voice driving him from dream land. ‘Time for learning English grammar and the Golden Rule. Be honest, be kind, be fair,’ she taught him.”

The story continues: “One morning, he slipped on the name he’d been born with. The name of his father, Barack. For the first time in his life, he wore it proudly – like a coat of many colors.” 

Uh oh – another Obama-inspired Biblical reference in a government school! But there’s no controversy here. Leftists will use God and the Bible, in instances such as these, when it appropriately fits their propaganda purposes.

No story about Barack Obama would be complete without mentioning his work as a community organizer. The book describes those days in dramatic fashion:

“The work was grueling, with stretches of failure, and puny patches of success. Door-to-door Barack went, early mornings, late nights, pleading and preaching, coaxing strangers to march together, to make life better for everyone.

“He worked as hard as a farmer, planting the words ‘Yes, we can!’ like seeds in spring.

“Impatient, Barack kept wondering if those seeds would ever sprout. He worried that the hope in him would fade away.”

This mythical interpretation of Obama was the #1 New York Times bestselling picture-book biography of Obama, according to Amazon.com.

Bennett’s lesson calls for students as young as third grade to read Grimes’ book and do a number of activities, including making a collage of Obama:

“Have students bring in magazines and photos of President Obama. Have students create a collage about Barack Obama based on the information from the text. The collage should represent pictures and words about Barack Obama.”

Grimes’ book and Bennett’s lesson plan are more fitting for an authoritarian regime in which children are taught to deify and praise their dear leader. One can almost envision teachers in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran using similar books and lessons.

Thankfully, that’s not the American way, which makes these learning materials completely unsuitable for our classrooms.

Still, given the large number of activist teachers in the U.S., there’s a very real possibility this is the version of Barack Obama’s history many of our young students are learning in a school near you. (end of article)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?   WHAT ARE PEOPLE THINKING?  THIS IS AMERICA?
 

z

The Olympics

Would you go to the Russian Olympics? Should our teams go?

Terror threats...and yes, they're from islamists again.

I posted this recently and only one commenter responded because I had another far more timely piece up. SO.........now THIS is pretty darned timely and I wonder ...WOULD YOU GO?  Would you have your family go it you were an Olympian?  Should Obama do more?  We know Bush was taunted for not acting against 9/11 threats.. After all, the left likes to say, Bush knew "planes might hit,"  ...and the left still, today, says he did nothing to thwart the attacks....as if he should have grounded all planes until terrorism was over :-).   SO........will Obama get the same nasty treatment if Sochi goes bad?

And, by the way, please be praying it doesn't.

z

Sunday Faith Blog

My father is very much on my mind today.   Today, we're gathering to remember him twenty years after he passed away.  I believe he was one of the finest men who ever lived in the entire world.   I really do!

"Well done, good and faithful servant."  Matthew 25:21
Would that we all are deserving of that amazing statement.










Thanks, Dad.

I hope some of you will share stories about your dads today........I'll see you later tonight.

Z

Is Our Government Trustworthy?

We have to begin this conversation with the revelation of inappropriate close coordination between Democratic politicians, executive branch appointees, and leftist activists. Recently discovered are emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Environmental Protective Agency by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. As a result, we learn that there has been an ongoing, behind the scenes, campaign by the Obama Administration to stop construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. 

The emails seem to demonstrate that senior policy officials at the EPA are working closely with leftist environmental groups in an effort to implement a progressive agenda that does not benefit the American people.  

If we attempt to respond to the title of this post's question based solely upon what we know about these behind-the-scenes arrangements, then our answer is likely to be negative: our government is not trustworthy. It is a logical inference, but who knows if there is not far more to the story than simply a conspiracy to defeat the Keystone XL Pipeline. What we mean to say is that there is always the possibility that the Obama Administration (EPA) is merely seeking independent advice from the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Wildlife Fund.  Or, that pigs can fly.  

On the other hand, perhaps we should wonder why our federal government is behaving subjectively rather than objectively in the interest of all Americans and every group, whether left or right. It is enough to lead a reasonable citizen to conclude that our federal government is dishonest and corrupt.  It makes us wonder why we even have an EPA if we cannot trust its motives or have confidence in its objectivity. ( Link)  

Possibly, the basis of our concern should not be this singular question of Obama’s corruption, noting that we already offered alternative possibilities, but rather the weight or frequency of indices of corruption.  Not long ago, a former high-ranking official within the EPA told members of Congress that before he left the agency, he was working on a project examining ways to modify the DNA of our capitalist system.  (Link)

We wonder ... we really do.   And then there's THIS STORY, which also talks about environmental questions which we'd have thought deserved some conversation?   Z keeps saying "Why's the leftwing so censorial?" , and it continues on and on.

- Mustang and Z 

Planned Parenthood's Racism: Where's the logic?

In America, a woman has the right to choose what she will do with her own body. In America, a woman has the right to murder her unborn child.

Where is the logic in this?

“Eugenics is the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.” —Margaret Sanger

Most of the Planned Parenthood offices (78%) are located in predominantly black neighborhoods. Even though blacks make up only 12% of the US population, 35% of all abortions are performed on black women. This means that Sanger’s racism is alive and well in the progressive movement, which upon careful consideration, must be a misnomer.

Yet, the left accuses the tea party and the conservative right of racism.

OLIVET: you ROCK

Selfish Public "Servants"....

Our Selfish 'Public Servants'

From the White House to the schoolhouse to the George Washington Bridge.

By Peggy Noonan · Jan. 18, 2014

Sometimes the most obvious thing is the most unnoticed. I find myself thinking this week about the destructive force of selfishness in our political life. This common failing is the source of such woe! Politicians call themselves public servants, so they should be expected to be less selfish than the average Joe; their views and actions should be assumed to be more keenly directed toward the broad public good. But no one expects that of politicians anymore, and they know it and use the knowledge to justify being even worse than they'd normally be. “If I have the name, I might as well have the game.”

They are the locus of selfishness in the modern world.Chris Christie’s problem isn't that he's a bully, it's that he's selfish. Barack Obama isn't stupid and therefore the maker of mayhem, he's selfish.

There isn't a staffer on the Hill who won't tell you 90% of members are driven by their own needs, wants and interests, not America's. The former defense secretary, Bob Gates, has written a whole book about it, and the passages in which he speaks most plainly read like a cry from the heart. The chaplain of the Senate, Barry Black, made news a few months ago because he'd taken to praying that the character of our representatives be improved. “Save us from the madness,” he prayed one morning last October. “We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness.” The single most memorable thing I ever heard from a Wall Streeter was from one of its great men, who blandly explained to me one day why certain wealthy individuals were taking an action that was both greedy and personally inconvenient to them. “Everyone wants more,” he said, not in a castigating way but as one explains certain essentials to a child.

People in public life have become more grasping, and less embarrassed by it. But the odd thing, the destabilizing thing as you think about it, is that we're in a crisis. We've been in it since at least 2008 and the crash, and the wars. We are in unprecedented trouble. Citizens know this. It's why they buy guns. They see unfixable America around them, they think it's all going to fall apart. In Washington (and New York) they huff and puff their disapproval: Those Americans with their guns, they're causing a lot of trouble. But Americans think they're in trouble because their leaders are too selfish to face challenges that will do us in.

What's most striking is that in a crisis, you don't expect business as usual. You expect something better from leaders, you expect them to try to meet the moment.

Mr. Christie is a great talent, a political figure of real and natural gifts. What has jeopardized his position is not that he's gruff, in-your-face, insistent – a bully. It's that he's been selfish. In 2012 he was given a star role, keynote speaker at the GOP national convention. His speech was strong, funny and ran about 2,340 words. But it took around 2,000 of them before he got to a guy named Romney. Everything else was “The greatest lesson that mom ever taught me … When I came into office … I have an answer.” The GOP nominee needed a boost from blue-state man, but there wasn't much in it for blue-state man. He'd only get Republican cooties on him. So he played it like a vanity production and made a speech about himself.

That wasn't a major sin – it's only politics, not policy. But it fit in with his effusive embrace of Mr. Obama in the days before the 2012 election. Any governor would show strategic warmth for a president in charge of ladling out federal money after disaster. But Jersey was about to re-elect president Obama by nearly 18 points, and Mr. Christie wanted to win over Democrats when he ran the next year.

He was already going to win big. But he had to win bigger, had to have more.

Again, not much of a sin. But when Bridgegate came, it seemed to fit the pattern – he'll ding you when he doesn't have to, even if it makes local citizens cry, to gain an advantage, to get more. Whoever made the call, selfishness is at the heart of the scandal.

There's an increasing sense in our political life that in both parties politicians call themselves public servants but act like bosses who think the voters work for them. Physicians who routinely help the needy and the uninsured do not call themselves servants. They get to be called the 1%. Politicians who jerk around doctors, nurses and health systems call themselves servants, when of course they look more like little kings and queens instructing the grudging peasants in how to arrange their affairs.

Which gets us, inevitably, to the King of I, who unselfconsciously claims ownership of . . . everything. “My military,” “my White House,” “my cabinet,” “my secretary.” The president does first person singular more than Mr. Christie does. But his actions are so much more consequential, because they're national and because they play out in the area of policy.

The president's health-insurance reform had to be breathtaking, mind-bending, historic. It had to be a Democratic Party initiative only. It required a few major lies to gain passage, but what the heck.

It was political selfishness that blew up the American health-care system. And it's the public, in this and other messes, that's left holding the bag. But as government gets bigger the bag gets bigger, and people will get tired of carrying it. They're already tired.

I close with the selfishness story of the week, the stunning New York Post expose on Public School 106 in Far Rockaway, a neighborhood in the borough of Queens. The grade school is a poster child for the indifference of those who are supposed to be helping the country. There are no gym or art classes, the Post's Susan Edelman reported. The library is a junk room; the nurse's office lacks essentials; there are no math or reading books for the Common Core curriculum. Kids are left to watch movies. Kindergartners are shunted off to dilapidated trailers. The principal, Marcella Sills, often doesn't show up for work, or swans in near the end of the day. School staff were afraid to speak up because they feared retribution from Ms. Sills or the teachers union.

When the Post broke the story, the city's Department of Education sent an inspector. The principal actually showed up early that day. The school took delivery of some books. Everyone was in high spin mode.

The union will look to the union's interests, Ms. Sills will no doubt see to hers, the new city administration will try to limit embarrassment, handle the fallout and change the subject. But you couldn't read the stories without thinking: Who's looking out for the kids? And what's happening to us?

Someday history will write of our era, and to history the biggest scandal will be the thing we all accepted in our leaders, chronic and endemic selfishness. History will be hard on us for that.

*Z:  Can any of you disagree with this?   What are your thoughts?

z

Terrorism: Whom must we thank?

I asked Mustang if I could publish this article, which he'd written for his blog,  A Montpelier View, and he was kind enough to say yes.........it's important.

In a scenario that happens several thousand times in a single day, imagine that you are suddenly experiencing severe discomfort emanating from your chest. It is a scary feeling, so you take yourself immediately to a physician or emergency center, and you hear the in-take nurse at the trauma center tell someone, “Prep this one for immediate heart surgery.”

“Wait just one minute,” you say. ”Will there be any tests done to form a proper diagnosis? Could I at least speak to a real doctor, perhaps ask for a second opinion?”

“Believe you me,” she says, “we know what we are doing around here, and we never let the facts interfere with what we already think we know.”

Right about this time, you might be looking around for your street clothes.

Should anyone find this scenario spooky, particularly due to its implications to one’s personal health and mortality, should we apply a lesser standard to policies that have an impact upon your physical safety, or that of your family, and/or the security of your country? Should we free citizens allow our government to operate when it is so painfully apparent that it does not have the slightest idea what in the hell it is doing? It is taking our money, squandering it on a miserably failed foreign policy, and even worse, the policies we are paying for are killing off our children, or maiming them for life.

The fact remains that the present government has no clear direction in the so-called “war on terror.” The Obama administration does not even know the identity of our biggest threat. Take a moment and think about this: who is our enemy? Shall we label all Moslems as the enemy? Is it the Taliban that poses the greatest threat? Is it Al Qaeda? Is it Wahhabi Islam, or the Shi’ites, or your run-of-the-mill Sunni malcontent? Is it the Muslim Brotherhood?

How in the hell can we defeat an enemy if we do not know who that enemy is?

Cheryl D. Mills

Do not fret or hold yourself in contempt if you do not know the answer. Neither does the United States government. Nevertheless, who to best advise Barack Obama on such matters than a consortium of Mohammedans who are themselves part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Who better to advise Hillary Rodham Clinton at the State Department than Cheryl D. Mills [1], who helped murder four Americans at Benghazi. As an aside, I wonder if Barack Obama believes he is getting the best advice possible on matters relating to Islamic extremism. I wonder if he even cares.

However, do not let your heart be troubled because incompetent administration is the one consistent aspect of Mr. Obama’s tenure as President of the United States. If you go to the urban dictionary and look up the expression FUBAR, you will find a picture of Barack Hussein Obama. Every day, his incompetence is killing young Americans. I wonder if any Americans even care.

According to Middle East expert Dr. Barry Rubin, “Since 2009, if you wanted to build your career in government and win policy debates in the Obama White House, only Al Qaeda poses a problem for the United States of America. The Muslim Brotherhood was not a threat; after all, it did not participate in September 11.”

Dr. Rubin explains further by telling us that the situation in the Obama administration only got worse over time. Administration insiders began lying about what was really going on inside the Islamic world and the reason for this is simple: if a Mohammedan member of the Obama administration could obfuscate, the likelihood of mapping a proper course through this minefield would diminish exponentially. That is exactly what has happened. Here is an example: State Department officials adopted the official line that Al Qaeda had completely split away from the Mohammedan Brotherhood. One Foreign Service officer, himself a Mohammedan, recounted that he had never heard anything so preposterous in his entire life. It get’s worse: anyone in the Obama Administration who refused to accept the official line were terminated —whether senior military officer, or civil service employee.

If you were one of the morons who voted for Barack Obama, I hope you are proud of yourself —but the tale does not end here. What makes the Obama administration a criminal element is that by 2014, this same insanity has now made the transition to the question of Iran’s nuclear capability. Do you want to keep your job in the Obama administration today? If a lobbyist, would you like to win a lucrative contract to advise government departments and Democrats in Congress? If the answer to either question is affirmative, then what you must do is parrot the following: Iran does not pose an atomic threat to Israel or the United States of America, and the Mohammedan Brotherhood is the only voice of moderation in the Middle East today.

Meanwhile, the entire world has never been in greater danger than it is today and whom must we thank for this completely unsatisfactory and highly lethal state of affairs?

No, not Mr. Obama —he did not elect himself.

Notes:  [1] There is no better job to have in government than counselor, because then you are never held to any standard or to account for any advice, no matter how criminal or inane it may be. 

Thanks, Mustang;   Thoughts, readers?

z

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A complex man.   I think he was a brave man.  What do you remember best about Dr. King? 

BZ has an article from Bloomberg.com about Obama saying his ratings are low because people don't "like the idea of a black president."  Don't look now, but they liked the idea enough to elect him, didn't they. 

This makes me grieve for Dr King.  And I'm surprised Obama would go this far because people don't approve of him.  Just plain don't approve of HIM, not his color.


Z

Sunday Faith Post II....a story about Christmas and kindness

Please read the original Sunday Faith Blog post below and comment;  I just rec'd this email and thought it so nice I'd share it with you today;

By Reporter Joseph Curl:

Every year, in the week between Christmas and New Year‘s, I think about George W. Bush.

It was in that week each year for the eight that I covered him as a reporter that he gave me a spectacular gift — and he knew it.

I started covering the newly elected president in 2000, when I was in my late 30s. Back then, as a reporter for The Washington Times, we went everywhere the president went. If he went to Charlotte , N.C. , to give a 30-minute speech on an airport tarmac, we went. Up at 4 a.m., an hourlong commute to Andrews Air Force Base, in place on the ground hours before POTUS landed, and there for hours and hours after he left — sometimes right through the evening news so network reporters could file live from the site.

We also went with the president to Texas every summer — often for a month — and every winter, too, over the holidays.

But here’s the thing: In December, we never left Washington , D.C. , until the day after Christmas. Never. Mr. Bush and his wife Laura would always depart the White House a few days before the holiday and hunker down at the presidential retreat in Maryland , Camp David . After a few years, I asked a low-level White House staffer why.

I still remember what she said: “So all of us can be with our families on Christmas.”

Who was “us”? Hundreds and hundreds of people, that’s who. Sure, the reporters who covered the president, but also dozens and dozens on his staff, a hundred Secret Service agents, maybe more, and all of those cops required whenever the president’s on the move in D.C.

For me, that one-day delay was huge. My kids were 6 and 8 when Bush took office. When he went home to Prairie Chapel that last time in 2009, my girl was driving, the boy was 6 foot 1. But in the meantime, I was home for eight Christmas mornings, playing Santa, stoking the fire, mixing up hot chocolates.

That was President Bush. And every year for the last five, I’ve thought about what that meant to me. (By the way, some years, I got holiday duty, which meant I was off to Waco , Texas , the day after Christmas. But once again, the Bush White House had us covered: A press plane flew out with the president, and back then, reporters could pay $100 per family member for the plane ride. So sometimes, the family went along. For the kids, it was an adventure; for me, well, we were all together).

All that has changed with President Obama. No more press plane, for one. Reporters are on their own — so taking family is, say, $1,000 a pop. Not likely. And this president would never delay his trip to his island getaway. He’s off every year well before Christmas. Hundreds and hundreds head off with him, leaving family behind.

No Christmas at home. Instead, the Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. Nice, but not exactly home.

Anyway, that’s why I think of George W. Bush every year in the week between Christmas and New Year‘s. Probably will till I die. Thanks, GWB.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times and is now editor of the Drudge Report. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.