An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Morning Coffee (late) 12/01/08
Obama Unveils His National Security Team
“I am confident that this is the team that we need to make a new beginning for American national security,” Obama told reporters during a morning news conference in Chicago.
Obama’s team will advise him on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe. Obama takes office Jan. 20.
Obama said his team “must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy, our intelligence and law enforcement, our economy and the power of our moral example.
Nice words. But if he wants to express ‘our moral example’, he’s going to have to do a lot better than what we’ve seen from the left so far. Morals come from a much Higher Power than aging hippies. 
I’m perfectly willing to watch and wait, but I gotta tell ya, I’m questioning some of his choices.
Unpaid use taxes cost Tenn. millions
Tennessee revenue officials say residents who make purchases in other states rarely pay Tennessee’s use tax, which also applies to purchases of groceries.
Tennessee Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr said Tennessee has had the use tax on the books for a long time and it is largely ignored. He said the department’s focus is not on grocery purchases across state borders but the use tax is supposed to be paid on such transactions.
Now just why do these yahoos think people drive a few extra miles to buy groceries in AL, or MS, etc? Could it be….gasp….they have lower taxes of one of those necessities of life? Also known as…..FOOD! Lower the food tax, or get rid of it altogether, and there won’t be an issue, right? DUH! If an ol’ not all the bright broad like me can figure that out, why can’t they? And no, we don’t buy our groceries out of state. I’d need a pick ‘em up truck, to stock up, making it worth the extra gas expense.
Landowner unaware of cockfighting at raided property in Dallas’ Rylie area
Robert Womack said he had no idea that a cockfighting ring was operating on property he owns in the Rylie area of southeast Dallas.
But “I always thought they had something up their sleeve,” the northwest Dallas man said Sunday, referring to his tenant.
On Saturday night, police stormed his 130 acres of pasture and found a wild scene: dead roosters, a bloody pit, gambling books and syringes for injecting the birds with steroids.
You’l excuse me if I find this guy less that credible. Any kind of landlord….well, a DECENT landlord, would check on his property, do repairs, etc. If the guy ever bothered to go out there, I’m fairly sure the smell would have told him something was amiss.
Holtzberg Family, Victims’ Bodies En Route to Israel
Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg and his wife Yehudit boarded a plane on Monday together with their two-year-old grandson Moshe Tzvi and his Indian babysitter Sandra Samuel to return to Israel. Also aboard the flight were the bodies of the little boy’s parents, Rabbi Gavriel and Rebetzin Rikva Holtzberg and four other Jewish victims of the Mumbai massacre.
The young Holtzberg couple, and the four other Jews whose bodies accompanied the sad but living passengers on their flight home, were brutally murdered in a multi-site massacre by Islamist terrorists that began last Wednesday and continued in a bloody rampage through Saturday.
My most sincere prayers are with the family at this most difficult time. There will be justice….if not in this life…then, the next. The Judge of all of us will make sure of it!
Standing their ground: More citizens enforcing the law themselves
It turned out to be quite a coup for public safety: The youth, police allege, had terrorized city schools in a series of handgun incidents and had robbed another family in a home invasion.
At the same time, Morelli’s actions pose troubling questions about just how far citizens should go in protecting themselves from crime.
No question at all! You do what it takes! Contrary to what the anti-gun types believe, the police can’t be everywhere at once, and that’s what the thugs count on. That, and the idea that no one will ’snitch’. Well, it’s way past time to stop coddling these street trash, and put them where they belong…..either behind bars, or six feet under! I’d vote for the latter. Save a LOT of taxpayer money!
Newsom expounds on State of the City on YouTube
Forget the auditorium, the podium and the audience of supervisors, department heads, journalists and political gadflies. Forget the hourlong running time, too.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has been crafting his State of the City speech for months and will debut it today – all 7 1/2 hours of it – on his very own YouTube channel.
Is anyone going to spend seven and a half hours of their lives listening to this weasel?
India demands ’strong action’ from Pakistan
The United States called on Pakistan to fully cooperate with investigations into the attack, which has strained relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Soldiers removed the last victims’ bodies from the shattered Taj Mahal hotel Monday, searching each room in the labyrinthine building and defusing booby-traps and bombs left by the gunmen.
The sole known surviving attacker told police that his group trained for months in camps operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, learning close-combat techniques, hostage taking, handling of explosives, satellite navigation, and high seas survival skills.
Does anyone really think that Pakistan gives a happy crap? They’ve allowed the evil types to run rampant back and forth across their borders, what difference would a few more dead bodies of the innocent mean to them?
Pentagon to Beef Up Domestic Security
The Pentagon’s role in homeland security will be expanded with 20,000 uniformed troops expected inside the United States by 2011 to help state and local officials respond to a domestic catastrophe, FOX News has confirmed.
Under the phased plan, three rapid reaction forces will be ready for emergency response by September 2011. All the forces would be trained to respond to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive attack.
A spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command told FOX News that the first brigade under the phased plan will be made up of active duty soldiers; the next two will be comprised of a mix of soldiers from the National Guard and Reserves.
They want to put troops somewhere, they SERIOUSLY need to consider our borders. I honestly don’t believe anyone in D.C., or related, cares about national security! If they did, they would have stopped the influx of illegals crossing over….they ain’t all Hispanic y’know! If you were a bad guy, and wanted to get in, all you’d have to do is pay a few grand to a coyote, and voila! Full access! Get with the program here people!
S.S. D.D.
You have food tax? How dumb!
Yeah those coyotes make a good living. I know someone who came over THREE times at 5000 a pop. They kept getting caught. What a sucker! It would be very easy for al Qaeda to come over the Mexican or Canadian border. No problem. They’re probably here already….
@John & Perla:
Yup….food tax… I think it’s like 4.5% or some such thing. Everything else is 9. something or other. BUT we do have extremely low property taxes, so it all comes out in the wash I guess.
Oh, I’m fairly sure they are here. Just waiting and watching. There are also people who are changing things the lib way….whine and whine and stomp your feet, have tantrums, etc, until you get what you want. CAIR comes to mind.