The perfect for for that Sunday afternoon drive.
One horse power, no less.
“Horse.”
Image couretsy of http://picture-funny.blogspot.com/2007/01/horse.html.
Is there ever a responsibility to maintain truthfulness and transparency in government? Especially when that is the campaign mantra that appealed so much to galvanize the masses to catapult a virtual unknown into the American presidency? Not to mention the directive afterwards from the President who then professed, “I Won,” Barack Obama himself, via John Podesta, the co-chairman of the Obama-Biden Transition Team?
MEMORANDUM
From: John Podesta
To: All Obama Transition Project Staff
Date: December 5, 2008
Re: “Seat at the Table” Transparency Policy – EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELYOverview:
As an extension of the unprecedented ethics guidelines already in place for the Obama-Biden Transition Project, we take another significant step towards transparency of our efforts for the American people. Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both orally and in writing. We want to ensure that we give the American people a “seat at the table” and that we receive the benefit of their feedback.
Accordingly, any documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be posted on our website for people to review and comment on. In addition to presenting ideas as individuals at www.change.gov, the American people deserve a “seat at the table” as we receive input from organizations and make decisions. In the interest of protecting the personal privacy of individuals, this policy does not apply to personnel matters and hiring recommendations.
Read the rest of the memo here.
Small Group Now Leads Closed Negotiations on Health-Care Bill. WP. That was back in October 2009.
Three months before he was elected president, Barack Obama vowed not only to reform health care but also to pass the legislation in an unprecedented way.
“I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table,” he said at an appearance in Chester, Va., repeating an assertion he made many times. He said the discussions would be “televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”
So what happened when Brian Lamb from C-SPAN asks Dems to televise negotiations for health reform bill? His entire letter making the request was denied. Too much at stake after all. And SO shaky that even the most remote questioning could make the entire process crumble like walking on eggshells.
Never mind old adage, ”you are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.”
White House: We will NOT discuss broken C-Span promise. Beltway Confidential. The calculated perseveration by Robert Gibbs refusing to give a reason was ever so dizzying, even on the second day of questioning by the White House press corps. Bottom line.
If the public wants to know why President Obama didn’t keep his pledge to hold televised health-care negotiations, they’ll have to look for answers elsewhere. The White House isn’t talking.
Politifact. St. Petersburg Times.
We rate this Promise Broken.
As to be expected, many were saying to Let C-SPAN in – President should keep campaign promise, encourage televised health care proceedings. Houston Chronicle.
…it is the right thing to do.
In haste now to expedite passage of what 52 per cent of U.S. voters disapprove , as a special Senate election in Massachusetts looms in a few days, where the once favored Democrat, could lose to the upstart Republican thereby imperiling the Democrat’s current 60 vote support for health care reform, the talks remain behind closed doors with Democrats. Before there was the open hands off approach. Any repercussions belonged to those politicians maneuvering the legislation, flaws and all. No longer. In Health Talks, President Is Hands-Off No More. NYT. His indelible DNA will be attached to the debacle forevermore, serving as direct evidence of overt complicity. After it comes out from under the veil of secrecy that is, unlike what was promised so very long ago.
And intentions of ramming past any obstacle despite the pending public backlash is of no concern. Dems Weigh Other Options for Passing Health Care if GOP Wins Kennedy’s Seat. Fox. Reconciliation, whereby the Senate passes the bill by a simple 51 to 49 majority, will be used as a standby measure to thwart the will of the people.
“Behind surgical curtains. ‘Open and transparent government. Keep out! We won’t be needing this anymore. A brain.’”
Image courtesy of http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/LisaBenson/2010/01/5.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Attitude, Democrat, Government, Health, Hypocrisy, Lies, Politics, Responsibility
Be very careful who your friends are when you pass out drunk.
Chinese man gets remote control stuck in bottom after drunk prank. Mirror.co.uk.
“T.V. remote found in rectum on X-ray.”
Image courtesy of http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-world/2009/12/10/chinese-man-gets-remote-control-stuck-in-bottom-after-drunk-prank-115875-21886936/.
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Finally.
Obama Official Calls Fort Hood Massacre ‘Act of Terrorism’. Fox.
Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? And it only took THREE months!
The country did not jump to conclusions either. Rationale minds were just able to discern it for what it was without hesitancy or fear of political correctness, immediately after it happened, unlike the people in the White House and its circle of cabinet members and supporters.
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Happy Friday!
The following schedule is in effect.
“Office Timetable. 9:00 Starting time. 9:30 Arrive at work. 9:45 Coffee break. 11:00 Check e-mail. 11:15 Prepare lunch. 12:00 Lunch. 2:45 Browse the internet. 3:00 Tea break. 4:00 Prepare to go home. 4:30 go home. 5:00 Finish time.”
Image courtesy of http://www.pyzam.com/funnypictures/details/7746?cat=all&sort=popular.
In Reid’s Comments, Hints of Obama’s Own Words. NYT. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent people abuzz with his private comments that went public in a newly published book, “Game Change,” when he talked about the then up and coming Barack Obama as potential presidential material in 2008, with some quite notable terms.
“light-skinned black man with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”
As to be expected, Harry Reid apologizes for “light skinned” remark about Obama. WP. The man felt a need to apologize for his candid remarks in a hitherto private conversation.
An art practiced by politicians. The changing nature of an individual’s speech and words depending upon whom he or she is addressing.
A truthful way to connect with another? Or an attempt to feign kinship? Or just the plain old, deep down personal feelings and beliefs rising through to the surface to truly characterize the person?
So it was no surprise that Mr. Obama moved to quickly accept Mr. Reid’s apology, considering that health care legislation and the rest of the president’s initiatives are likely to rise or fall on the back of the majority leader.
But that’s not the only reason Mr. Obama may have been quick to say “the book is closed” on the remark from Mr. Reid, who referred to Mr. Obama as “light-skinned” and carrying the advantage of having “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
The comment – made to the authors of a new book on the presidential campaign – is not so different from remarks Mr. Obama has made himself while navigating the complicated intersection of race and politics in America during his rapid rise to the White House.
It was only two years ago, after all, that Mr. Obama was struggling to persuade some African-American voters that he was black enough. His electoral prospects did not rise among many Democrats in the South Carolina primary, where black voters are critical, until winning the Iowa caucuses, where the vast share of voters are white.
As Mr. Obama moved from state to state in the long Democratic primary fight, his policy proposals sounded mainly the same. But it was not unusual for his inflection and mannerisms to be a bit different.
When he spoke to some black audiences, Mr. Obama’s consonants tended to linger a bit. He would speak with a certain staccato and rhythm – particularly in churches – that he had not used when addressing white audiences in Iowa or New Hampshire.
This, of course, is hardly unique to Mr. Obama.
Other black politicians have followed a similar pattern. And the same is true for many white politicians – Bill and Hillary Clinton, for example – when a Southern accent suddenly is more pronounced during a campaign speech below the Mason-Dixon Line.
For Mr. Obama, the pattern began well before he started running for president. It was noticeable as he gave speeches across the country as a freshman senator. One day in 2005, after he delivered an address in Detroit at an anniversary celebration of the N.A.A.C.P., I asked Mr. Obama about the differences.
“I know if I’m in an all-black audience that there’s going to be a certain rhythm coming back at me from the audience. They’re not just going to be sitting there,” Mr. Obama told me. “That creates a different rhythm in your speaking.”
Accent. Rhythm. Staccato. Intonation. Inflection. Choice words. If genuine, then there is consistency. Long winded explanations and apologies are not necessary. Based on the above observations by even the liberal New York Times, it appears politicians choose their words per the situation and then practice the art of specific speech patterns tailored to another or even an audience, in order to solicit their interest, and even their vote and support.
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Email in circulation
Attention folks interested in opening up your home to a lad far from home. Adopt A Terrorist program may be the solution to that yearning desire to give unto others. And be given something in return. Canadian version found at The Politic. Also at Soda Head.
A lady wrote a lot of letters to the government, complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Afghanistan’s National Correctional System facilities.
She received back the following reply:
Dear Concerned Citizen,
Thank you for your recent letter expressing your profound concern of treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists captured by our forces who were subsequently transferred to the Afghanistan Government and are currently being held by Afghan officials in Afghanistan’s National Correctional System facilities.
Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here.
You will be pleased to learn, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself; we are creating a new department here at the Department of National Defense, to be called ‘Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers’ program, or L.A.R.K. for short.
In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to divert one terrorist and place him in your personal care.
Your personal detainee has been selected and is scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence next Monday.
Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint..
It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers.. We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommend in your letter.
Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his ‘attitudinal problem’ will help him overcome these character flaws.
Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences..
We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling.
Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers.
We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group.
He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.
Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters (except sexually) since he views females as a subhuman form of property.
This is a particularly sensitive subject for him and he has been known to show violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the new dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire.
I’m sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka over time. Just remember that it is all part of ‘respecting his culture and religious beliefs’ as described in your letter.
Thanks again for your concern. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellow man.
You take good care of Ahmed and remember we’ll be watching.
Good luck and God bless you.
-Department of National Defense
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Double Standard. It pays to be a union member. YOU pay more than them, if you are not, i.e., you will pay higher taxes on that fancy health care plan than they will since you are not a card carrying member.
Unions to be Exempted from Cadillac Tax? NRO.
Congress Daily is reporting that union lobbyists on Capitol Hill today scored a tentative deal that would exempt “collectively bargained healthcare plans” from the so-called Cadillac Tax on high-cost policies.
As The American Spectator’s Philip Klein notes, this means that two Americans receiving identical health-care benefits could be taxed differently if one happened to be a member of a union and the other not.
Report: Dems to Grant Special Exemption to Unions on “Cadillac Tax”. American Spectator.
In their latest effort to pass a health care bill by any means necessary, Democrats have struck a “tentative deal” with their big labor allies to exempt union benefits from a tax on high value health care plans, CongressDaily reports.
Unions Tentatively Strike A Deal Regarding Excise Tax. Congress Daily/National Journal.
Unions tentatively struck a deal Tuesday to exempt collectively bargained healthcare plans from a tax on high-cost plans expected to be used to help raise revenue for the healthcare overhaul.
What other sweetheart deals have the Democrats of late carved out for their supporters, that the rest of America will be paying?
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Fifteen states may sue over healthcare reform. Yahoo/Reuters.
More than a dozen U.S. state attorneys general visited Washington on Wednesday threatening to sue the U.S. government if the so-called “Cornhusker Kickback,” a special subsidy offered to Nebraska, is included in pending healthcare reform legislation.
The group includes two Democrats, one from Oklahoma and one from American Samoa.
Many states are outraged by the caveat, which would have the federal government cover increases in Nebraska’s obligations for Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor jointly funded by the 50 states and federal government.
Looks like some states are not so pleased about having to pay Nebraska’s Medicaid bill AND their own, because of the sweetheart deal Nebraska’s Senator Bill Nelson made to secure his critical 60th vote in the Senate bill version. At the expense of the rest of the states in the union. The judicial arm of the government may just see some action if the states hold true to their word.
“Nebraska, on a real pony. Ohio, ‘You didn’t say I could have a real pony.’ Harry Reid as Santa Claus with a Harry Christmas bag, and stockings Connecticut and Louisiana, ’You didn’t ask.’”
Image courtesy of http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/ChipBok/2009/12/2.
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Notional Security - The administration cares about political correctness more than national security. Thomas Sowell at NRO.
…we have become so obsessed with political correctness that both common sense and self-preservation have to take a back seat.
More.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Culture, Government, Judgment, Lifestyle, Politics, Responsibility
FUNNY QUOTES OF THE DAY This Day in History
Applause! Applause!
Tricorn hats are the rage
Click Horsey for William Tell Overture
Stress Reduction Kit. Bang Head Here.
