An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for October 2011
“It’s Not My Fault!”
Still Jobless After All These Years
The Foundry
Yesterday at the White House, President Barack Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act–his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes on America’s job creators. And this morning, not a day later, America received a reminder of why a continuation of the President’s tried-and-failed policies is not a prescription for success: In September, the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at a dismal 9.1 percent with 14 million Americans still out of work. About 103,000 jobs were added, but 45,000 of those were simply Verizon strikers returning to work, and the number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) increased by 208,000.
For those keeping score, the unemployment rate has hovered around 9 percent for all of 2011, was over 9 percent for all of 2010 and most of 2009, and will remain above 8 percent until 2014 according to the Congressional Budget Office (and that’s a generous estimate that didn’t account for the most recent economic slowdown). If you demand more and want to see full employment in America (about 5 percent unemployment), you’ll have to wait until 2018, and that will happen only if employers regain their confidence and begin hiring at 176,000 jobs per month–much higher than the rate seen in September and, for that matter, all year.
America’s Guilt
Watch this video! If you do nothing else today…..WATCH IT! And share it with as many people as you can!
This isn’t a right or left issue. It’s a right and wrong issue!
We ARE An Exceptional Nation!
Unfortunately, we have too many deadbeats with their hand out, instead of digging into themselves to find their own exceptionalism.
Steve Jobs and American Exceptionalism
The Foundry
Steve Jobs, who died yesterday at the too-young age of 56, was a living refutation of all that liberals constantly tell us about our country — that we’re falling behind others and live now in a “post-American world,” as one of Barack Obama’s favorite books puts it in its title.
As anyone who’s ever handled an Apple product or had his life improved by the technological innovations our system has produced in just a decade (that means all of us) will tell you, Jobs and innovators like him epitomize that immeasurable quality the left somehow finds most abject — American exceptionalism.
The meme of the left is that drudgery and mediocrity is not just our future but probably also our just deserts–for being too imperialistic, consumerist, wasteful, patriarchal, or what have you. (For an inexhaustible list of all our ills and sins, please check with the mob gathered at the “Occupy Wall Street” protest.) One should compare this deadened vision with the wonders Jobs wrought.
Andrew Klavan’s Very Serious Commentary
Ann on The HUGE Difference
This Is What a Mob Looks Like
by Ann Coulter
I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point.
No one knows what the Wall Street protesters want — as is typical of mobs. They say they want Obama re-elected, but claim to hate “Wall Street.” You know, the same Wall Street that gave its largest campaign donation in history to Obama, who, in turn, bailed out the banks and made Goldman Sachs the fourth branch of government.
This would be like opposing fattening, processed foods, but cheering Michael Moore — which the protesters also did this week.
But to me, the most striking difference between the tea partiers and the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd — besides the smell of patchouli — is how liberal protesters must claim their every gathering is historic and heroic.
No!
ACLU Intrusion….Again
ACLU involved with East TN students’ fight to start gay-straight alliance
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is officially involved with some East Tennessee teenagers who want to start a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). The ACLU sent a letter to Monroe County Schools on Tuesday demanding that they let students wear clothing in “peaceful demonstration” for the GSA by October 11, 2011.
“If we don’t get a satisfactory response from the school district by Tuesday, October 11th, we fully anticipate reviewing all of our legal options, including filing for a temporary restraining order in Federal court,” explained Legal Representative for the ACLU in Tennessee, Tricia Hertzfeld.
Ya know, I’m really getting tired of this commie bunch butting their nose into every little thing that is none of their business to begin with! Who are these weasels to ‘demand’ anything of anyone?
The precursor to the ACLU began with the anti-militarism movement during World War I.
(…)
Many of those in the anti-war movement were Marxists, anarchists and immigrants, which didn’t help the cause. (source)
Yup….started by a bunch of commies. Granted, they have done a few positives things in their long history, but we mostly hear about their interference in schools, and the religious communities, not to mention aiding and abetting perverts!
One positive case, which I’m quite sure the current crop of white Democrats would prefer black Americans, who have been brain washed to vote Dem, would rather not know:
In the 1944 case of Smith v. Allwright, the ACLU argued that a Democratic Party’s “white primary” was illegal because it denied blacks a chance to participate in the democratic process. Previously, courts had declared political parties to be private organizations that were not subject to anti-discrimination laws. However, the Supreme Court declared that participation in a political primary was too crucial to the running of a democracy and the civic participation of citizens to allow certain classes to be excluded [ref]. This ruling also strengthened the federal government’s power over state governments.
However positive some of their cases have been, there are as many, if not more, that undermine parents, schools, and churches. We should be able to decide what goes on in our local government run public schools. After all, we ARE the ones who are paying for them, not this organization that can be considered a communist group.
Put This Way…Yep, America IS “Soft”
I can add nothing to this column by Dr. Michael Youssef, except I was born in Dallas, Texas, not Africa.
When Americans elect a president without doing the hard work of examining his background, beliefs, or ideologies:
America is soft
When Americans elect someone who has no respect for human life and who considers the issue of abortion “above [his] pay grade”:
America is soft
When Americans elect a president who tells them in black and white that he will radically transform America, but they never ask what direction the transformation will take:
America is soft
When Americans elect a president who for 20 years sat under the preaching of an anti-American pastor and thinks that none of that will rub off on him:
America is soft
When Americans vote for a president who, when he held elected office, voted “present” time and time again, determining not to take a stand on so many issues lest he offend one of the special interest groups:
America is soft
When Americans elect a president who has friends with checkered histories, to say the least:
America is soft
When Americans elect a president whose wife, the recipient of so many of America’s blessings, declared that she was ashamed of America:
America is soft
As an American who was born in Africa, I am deeply grateful to be in America. I thank God continuously for allowing me to be in this great and blessed land. This is a land and a republic for which many faithful men and women have bled and died to secure the liberty and blessing that I now enjoy.
Far from being soft, I paid for my own education, and I paid for my children’s educations. I taught them to love and respect the Founding Fathers and the founding principles of this great nation.
Far from being soft, I respect the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the biblical foundation on which this country was built.
Hard work, personal responsibility, love for God, not envying those who are more blessed than I am – these are the strong building blocks of America’s foundation.
Maybe Obama’s “America is soft” comment will wake Americans up to their sterling heritage and solid foundation so that next time around they will elect government officials and leaders who share their respect for that blessed heritage.
Ol’ Broad & Dr Dimples
Welp, I went to see the doc this morning. I actually got some answers. Whoo hoo! I’m not crazy about the answers, now at least now I know.
Evidently, through the many years that my knee was deteriorating, my bones and muscles were totally out of alignment. Now that I have this new fangled gadget stuck between the leg and thigh bones, my muscles and the bone are trying to realign to where they are suppose to be. Hence…. the excruciating pain! Oh yay me! sigh….
He did reassure me that over time, the pain WILL decrease, but probably not until after winter. *shakes head* Not only am I getting old, I’m falling apart, and turning into a bloomin’ barometer. Who’s bright idea was that? Pfft!
Oh, not to worry, I’ll figure it all out eventually. I just hope I don’t lose a lot ROM in the meantime. And ya know, the way he made it sound, I might have to get the Mr to start digging that hole now! UGH! At least he did give some muscle relaxers for that particular ailment. They BETTER work!
Oh yeah…. one piece of good news! I had a whole 2 minutes morning, totally pain free! First time in, like, forever! It’s a start. 
O/T: I noticed when driving over to Selmer that the cotton was all sprouted, white bolls all over the place. That Gershwin song, Summertime, popped into my head. I got to thinkin’. Cotton doesn’t get high during the summer. It’s not ready for picking until the fall, so how come the song says that? Totally irrelevant. Just wondering. 
The Fighting Candidate
Government (Union) Run = Failure
Is the Postal Service Doomed?
The Foundry
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat is supposed to stop the United States Postal Service (USPS) from delivering mail, but can it be saved from mounting debt, plummeting volume, and the not-so-slow-motion postal train wreck coming quickly down the road?
Last week, the USPS barely avoided default when Congress extended the due date for a $5.5 billion payment due to the U.S. Treasury for retiree health benefits. It lost $8.5 billion last year, and it expects to lose nearly $10 billion more in 2011. From 2006 to 2010, overall USPS mail volume dropped by 20 percent, from 213 billion pieces of mail to 170 billion, all while incurring $20 billion in losses.
Don’t Be A Victim
Tennessee gun crime rate is among highest
The high rate is difficult to explain. Officials at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation declined to comment, saying they didn’t collect that data and couldn’t comment on analysis the agency hadn’t performed.
Academia doesn’t offer much help, either.
“You would almost have to go in and look at every individual crime report across the nation,” said Don Green, executive director of the University of Tennessee’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center.
But Green offered three possibilities for the high rate: better police reporting, a large number of gang and drug-related crimes, or perhaps Tennessee’s high rate of gun ownership.
I’ve no doubt I’ll be accused of being racist.
I don’t know how much goes on Nashville, but we get the news out a Memphis, and I can tell you, 9 out of 10 shootings they show on the news, the accused is rarely white. And there is at least one shooting on the news nightly. Memphis is a totally Democrat run city. From little I know, it seems that Nashville is pretty much run by the Dems as well. Just sayin’.
The majority of legal gun owners are extremely responsible. We are less likely to attempt robberies, or assault strangers on the street for wearing the wrong color shirt. Anyone who tries to relate gun violence with legal gun owners are looking in the wrong direction. Gangs have become a major problem in the larger cities in our state. Drugs as well, especially meth, are a state wide problem. Combine gangs, drugs, and guns, you are going to find a serious upswing in violence. The statistics don’t seem to include how many of those involved in gun violence are legally qualified to buy and carry a gun.
Perhaps if our courts would use the death penalty more often, criminals would think twice about committing crime. Many times we hear about juveniles being used to do the dirty work because juveniles will get sentences a few years, and then they’re out. If a kid murders another human being, they should be sentenced the same as an adult.
Too many citizens have decided to be victims. It’s a conscious choice. Perhaps more legal, law abiding citizens should make the choice to NOT be a victim. If folks in certain high crime neighborhoods would join together, they could make the streets safer for their children. Instead, many have been so cowed by the gangs, they’re afraid to stand up. We should all remember, there are more of us than there are of them. Together we could make a big difference, and watch the crime stats decrease.
Update From Marsha
Friends,
As you know, I have always been a staunch advocate for implementing fiscally responsible policies that will bring some sanity back to Washington and rein in the wasteful spending. Since coming to Congress, I have championed efforts such as my legislation to cut spending across-the-board by 1, 2, and 5 percent.
Just over a week ago, I introduced H.R. 3043, a bill to freeze spending for two years, for an additional savings of $27 billion. My bill simply caps spending for Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014 at the same spending cap level for Fiscal Year 2012 under the Budget Control Act. We estimate that this would save $4 billion in Fiscal Year 2013 and $23 billion in Fiscal Year 2014.
House Republicans have taken significant steps this year to put in place caps on Washington’s spending binge. My bill builds on the progress we have made this year, puts more controls on spending, and would help alleviate the debt burden currently weighing down our economy.
Working class families around the country are continuing to tighten their belts, and they expect Washington to do the same. The spending caps that we have put in place are a great starting point, but more must be done to regain the trust of the American people.
My freeze bill will hold Washington bureaucrats more accountable for the decisions they make with the taxpayers’ hard earned money. It is a common sense proposal that will allow us to cap and cut future spending, and take away the President’s blank check.
So far the freeze bill has 13 original co-sponsors, including Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price, and former Chairman of the Republican Conference, Mike Pence.
My legislation has also received support from groups like Citizens Against Government Waste, who delivered a letter to members of Congress on Monday, as well as Citizens United President David Bossie who penned this op-ed: A Commonsense Plan in a World Gone Soft
My Best,
Marsha
10 Things You Need To Know About Islamic Shariah
1) Jihad is defined in shariah as “warfare to establish the religion [Islam]” and is an bligation for all Muslims for all time until the entire world is subjugated to Islamic law [‘Umdat al-Salik, Section o9.0, pg. 599].
2) All Muslims have a religious duty to strive toward instituting worldwide Shariah law.
3) “Creeping Shariah” is the term used for the slow, methodical, deliberate advance of Islamic law in non-Muslim countries.
4) Official Shariah courts already operate in the UK, handling cases dealing with divorce, domestic violence, and financial disputes. Attempts to introduce Shariah in courts throughout Europe are ongoing. Studies show that Shariah has also been applied or formally recognized in a number of U.S. state court decisions.
5) Shariah commands that drinkers and gamblers be whipped.
6) Shariah commands husbands to beat their wives [Q 4:34].
7) Shariah literally allows for “an eye for an eye,” and commands that a thief must have his hand cut off.
8 ) Any criticism by both Muslims and non-Muslims of Islam, the Qur’an, shariah, Allah, or Muhammad is deemed to be “slander” under Islamic law and can be punishable by death. This is one major reason why “moderate Muslims” do not speak out about Radical Islam.
9) Islamic law prescribes the death penalty for any Muslim who leaves Islam (i.e., the ‘crime’ of apostasy).
10) According to Islamic law, Muslims can deceive non-Muslims if it benefits Islam. The Quran instructs Muslims to lie to non-Muslims about their beliefs and political goals in order to protect and spread Islam. (There are many examples of today’s Islamic leaders saying one thing to Western media and saying another to their own followers.)
“You LIE!”
Come Clean and Cut Funding
The Foundry
What did the President know and when did he know it, goes the old Washington adage. Thus did the American people learn yesterday in separate but equally startling revelations that the Obama Administration knew more about two scandals than it has been revealing. The first is regarding the Operation Fast and Furious gun running disaster and the second is the now-bankrupt, Obama-backed Solyndra solar power company. Both instances provoke serious questions for the White House and demand long-overdue action.
In the case of the Solyndra scandal, it is clear that Congress must shut off funding for the President’s green energy programs. Not only is President Obama unapologetic about the wasted funds, but his Energy Department seems intent on doubling down with other solar bets–and with the American people’s money.
In the case of Fast and Furious, Department of Justice (DOJ) memos obtained by CBS News show that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of a controversial cross-border law enforcement operation in July 2010 — nearly a year earlier than he had previously acknowledged under oath in testimony to Congress. The program, which was overseen by the DOJ, launched an effort to sell weapons to small-time gun buyers in the hopes of tracing them to major weapons traffickers along the southwestern border and into Mexico. Of the 2,000 weapons sold, roughly 1,500 remain unaccounted for, and the weapons have been connected to at least 11 violent crimes in the United States, including the killing of a border patrol agent.
