GOVERNMENT AID RECIPIENTS RECEIVE PREFERENCE IN HIRING

I received an e-mail today from someone I know that asked an interesting question:

"An acquaintance at work told me a story today. Her husband is laid off and has applied on line to some of the retail outlets. One set of questions asks if the applicant has received any public assistance for education, unemployment, tarp type money. She found out that the companies get tax credits for hiring people that have received these benefits. So, if this is a question on the applications that is answered “yes,” they can filter by that and hire only applicants that will give them tax credits. Should this be accurate, if you get laid off, don’t take the govt assistance and do whatever you have to in order to make your own way, you are discriminated against."

I did a little searching and the answer to the question is yes, people that accept government aid are given preferential treatment by some employers. The reason for this can be found at the IRS website. From the website dated March 18, 2010:

"Two new tax benefits are now available to employers hiring workers who were previously unemployed or only working part time. These provisions are part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act enacted into law today.

Employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011) may qualify for a 6.2-percent payroll tax incentive, in effect exempting them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. This reduced tax withholding will have no effect on the employee’s future Social Security benefits, and employers would still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2-percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. The employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes would also still apply to these wages.

In addition, for each worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per worker, when they file their 2011 income tax returns.

“These tax breaks offer a much-needed boost to employers willing to expand their payrolls, and businesses and nonprofits should keep these benefits in mind as they plan for the year ahead,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

The two tax benefits are especially helpful to employers who are adding positions to their payrolls. New hires filling existing positions also qualify but only if the workers they are replacing left voluntarily or for cause. Family members and other relatives do not qualify.

In addition, the new law requires that the employer get a statement from each eligible new hire certifying that he or she was unemployed during the 60 days before beginning work or, alternatively, worked no more than 40 hours for anyone during the 60-day period. The IRS is currently developing a form employees can use to make the required statement.

Businesses, agricultural employers, tax-exempt organizations and public colleges and universities all qualify to claim the payroll tax benefit for eligible newly-hired employees. Household employers cannot claim this new tax benefit.

Employers claim the payroll tax benefit on the federal employment tax return they file, usually quarterly, with the IRS. Eligible employers will be able to claim the new tax incentive on their revised employment tax form for the second quarter of 2010. Revised forms and further details on these two new tax provisions will be posted on IRS.gov during the next few weeks."

So here's the deal. Businesses can make out on their taxes if they hire unemployed workers but they have to be able to prove that the worker was unemployed. The simplest way to do this is to hire someone that has been receiving government unemployment benefits of some sort.

In other words, if you are resourceful and have managed to avoid going on the dole after losing your job, YOU'LL BE PENALIZED!!! WTF? What in the hell is the matter with this country? Every single thing that the government does creates more and more dependence on it.

Is there some sort of evil pattern in place here? Do you kinda' sometimes feel like there's a plan, a design to destroy our independence and freedom?

Are you sick of it yet - sick enough to get informed, speak out and JUST SAY NO??!!!

BANKERS, MORTGAGES, LIES AND COLLAPSE

You need to read the latest article at The Market Ticker today. He reports that he received a bulletin from Old Republic Title that states:

"The Company will not insure title to any property which has been foreclosed by Ally Financial, Ally Bank or GMAC until further notice."

Why is this important? Because it marks the beginning of the end for the banking system in the United States. Most mortgages in this country have been sold into Mortgage Backed Securities by the banks and in the process have had the paper trail needed to establish clear title destroyed. And that's why the title companies will not insure the titles on homes that are being foreclosed. The banks doing the foreclosures have no legal right to do so.

If, as Market Ticker suggests, the only way out of this mess is to return the funds to all parties involved until ownership reverts to the last party with clear title, the banks that issued the loans originally will be on the hook for the value of the loan. They can't absorb this and will be forced to shut down.

This will leave the owners of the MBS paper with investments of no value because investments supposedly backed by real estate will have become, for all intents and purposes, signature loans. To recover their investments they will have to sue the individual homeowners for the value of the investment which of course will cause filings of bankruptcy making the loans really difficult to collect. And all this times millions and millions of mortgages.

And who owns all these potentially worthless MBS's? You, your parents, the guy next door and millions of other Americans that have bought into mutual funds that include them in their portfolios. So you can kiss that retirement goodbye.

The banking industry has committed fraud on an unprecedented scale in the slicing, dicing and sale of loans that should have never qualified to begin with and the game is starting to unravel. If it is allowed to take its natural and necessary course this is going to result in the collapse of the banking system and along with it the entire U.S. economy. This needs to happen to clear the debt from the system and to return it to stability. We can let the rule of law stand and let the chips fall where they may or, and this is what I'm afraid is going to happen, we can destroy the rule of law in an effort to prop up the banks and protect the bankers from prosecution.

Either way the system collapses. The difference is that with the first way we suffer through hardship and turmoil and come out the other end stronger and healthier. The second way we struggle through hardship and turmoil and come out the other end as something transformed into a system we won't recognize, with our freedom gone and our system of laws destroyed and the people that defrauded us in the seats of power.

If we have to suffer regardless I say make the suffering useful and let the system collapse under the law and reset itself. I've got a feeling that won't happen.

ST. MICHAEL PRAYER

Today is the feast day of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, archangels all. The prayer below was composed by Pope Leo XIII.

"One day, after celebrating Mass, the aged Pope Leo XIII was in conference with the Cardinals when suddenly he sank to the floor in a deep swoon. Physicians who hastened to his side could find no trace of his pulse and feared that he had expired. However, after a short interval the Holy Father regained consciousness and exclaimed with great emotion: "Oh, what a horrible picture I have been permitted to see!"

He had been shown a vision of evil spirits who had been released from Hell and their efforts to destroy the Church. But in the midst of the horror the archangel St. Michael appeared and cast Satan and his legions into the abyss of hell."
Tradition in Action

Try to remember to say this prayer everyday for protection from evil. I don't know about you but I need all the help I can get!

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

41 MILES TO THE GALLON - THE 401 KEG PLAN

My wife sent me this today so I can't vouch for the accuracy (boy, that didn't sound right and I'm going to be in trouble) but what the heck, it makes for a good read.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you proud to be an American!!

HYPERINFLATION, FOOD AND COLLAPSE

So what's the point of the stories below? We've backed ourselves into a corner, not just in America but in the world. The only way out is to let the economy collapse in an ordered fashion. Of course this won't happen because it will collapse the banks and cause a whole bunch of pain and suffering. Of course, all that is going to happen anyway. The politicians just don't have the courage to tell the people and to try and crash the economy in a relatively gentle manner, a wheels up belly landing in a field, if you will, with their names attached to the process. They'd rather we go nose first into the ground with complete destruction as long as they can say that they didn't have anything to do with it.

Currencies are being debased worldwide in an attempt to support the dollar and to keep countries competitive. This is having the affect of causing investors to flee to commodities, in this case food and energy. Remember the last time they did this a couple years back and fuel went to $147.00 a barrel? The same thing is going to happen this time around but not just with energy - food is already beginning to hyperinflate and it's going to get worse.

But it's worse than that. Read the first article, Food Crisis For Dummies, and see how the reporting in the food markets was manipulated to bolster the economic numbers that are so important to the government. This is having the effect of causing a distortion in the food markets and causing farmers and politicians to miscalculate the food needs of the world.

Bottom line: we are entering a period of hyperinfaltion in commodities with food being the most effected. The value of currency is going down and will probably collapse at some point. The values of your assets are falling, too. Your houses, cars, stocks and savings are all less worth today than they were three years ago and that trend will continue. The United States has boxed itself in with debt to the point that any increase in the cost of money will collapse the economy. This means that the traditional method of reducing debt, inflating our way out, isn't an option this time. And most other developed countries are in the same shape.

Collapse is inevitable and it's right around the corner. Prepare yourselves. Buy food that will last while it's still affordable. Get seeds and plan a garden for next year. Buy meat and put it in the freezer or get out and hunt. The costs of higher fuel will cascade through the meat producing industry but it will take 6 months or so to really become apparent. Figure out how to stay warm in the winter when you can't afford energy to heat your house.

As people begin to go hungry they will trade anything to feed their families, including their houses, cars and everything else they own. This is what always happens. Look at Chile and Wiemar Germany for proof. Supply and demand will be the law of the new jungle. This means that it is entirely possible that the price of a loaf of bread and the value of your house may reach parity. Just think about that for a moment.

When all else fails, three needs remain constant; water, shelter and food, in that order. You have to figure out a way to meet those needs in the coming tribulations and the best way is to plan ahead. Try to avoid the traps that are being set. And believe me, all this isn't happening by coincidence. The end game of all this suffering will be an attempt to create a world government and a new world order.

And pray. Get right with the only power that can really save you because at some point, that's all any of us will have left to lean on. Preparation is good and essential but it isn't sufficient. We are fighting the powers and principalities of this world and we don't have the power to defeat them by ourselves. Only God can do that.

If you don't believe any of this that's fine with me. We all have to chart our own course. Do me a favor though and do some research before you dismiss this out of hand. In my mind the evidence is overwhelming that we are about to undergo something with no parallel in human history and I'm trying my best to prepare. But I could be wrong, too and wasting a whole bunch of effort.

Time will tell.

2010 Food Crisis For Dummies

Banksters Inflate Speculative Food Bubble, U.N. Offers Global Governance Solution

Is The Federal Reserve Out Of Control?

Heh Look The Market Is Up 0.2% And You Are Starving

Meat Tainted With Deadly Bacteria Is Being Sold To Consumers

World gripped by 'international currency war'

Central Banks No Longer Selling Gold

Gonzalo Lira: What Hyperinflation Will Look Like In America

The World Wakes Up to Threat of Currency Wars

Avoidance Will Not Work

THE END OF AN AGE - THE REIGN OF PEACE

"WE are approaching, not the end of the world, but the end of this age. How, then, will this present era end?

Many of the popes have written in prayerful anticipation of a coming age when the Church will establish her spiritual reign to the ends of the earth. But it is clear from Scripture, the early Church Fathers, and the revelations given to St. Faustina and other holy mystics, that the world must first be purified of all wickedness, beginning with Satan himself."

To read more go to Mark Mallett's blog.

We all sense that something is about to happen, some great change. Many believe that we are at the end of the world. I don't. I do believe that we are at the end of the age and that we are passing through a time of purification that will lead to an era of peace.

Mark Mallett does a great job of explaining Catholic teaching on this issue and he's well worth reading. Will things go exactly as he relates? I doubt it because who can know the mind of God? But, I don't think he's that far off.

CHRIS CHRISTIE GOES AFTER THE TEACHERS UNION

You just gotta love this guy, unless of course you represent the NEA.

COURAGE, LIBERTY, GUNS AND WEED

Just say no...to the federal government. That's what the Ninth and Tenth Amendment are all about.

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

What power does the Constitution give to the federal government when it comes to firearms? None. In fact, it prohibits it from making any laws infringing on our natural law rights to access, use and carry them.

And what powers regarding drugs, of any kind, does the Constitution give the federal government? None.

All powers of Congress authorized by the Constitution can be found in Article 1 Section 8:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

That's it. No more, no less. Now I realize that the Congress has overstepped its authority, almost from the beginning of the Republic. I know that the Commerce Clause and General Welfare Clause have been used and misused, over an over, ad nauseum, to justify nearly anything the fed wants to shove down our throats. But it's not right.

All powers not specified as being given to the Congress by the people in Article 1, Section 8 belong to the states or the people. That's why the powers were enumerated and why the Tenth Amendment is in the Bill of Rights, to assure the people and the states that the federal government would be kept in check.

Go over to the Tenth Amendment Center, the site the video came from and do some reading. Think about how much better off we'd all be if the Constitution was followed and the federal government limited by it. I'd much rather fight with my state than with Washington when it comes to the laws that govern my life and I think most others would, too.

MORE MARXISM IN OUR CHURCHES

I was reading an article this morning on The Blaze about whether or not the United Methodist Church has endorsed the One Nation Working Together march on October 2 in Washington D.C. The story mentioned that a Roman Catholic organization, Pax Christi, was a sponsor of the event. Because One Nation is a Progressive organization linked to just about every leftist group one can think of I was curious who is running Pax Christi and how far removed they are from the USCCB. It turns out that they are not far removed at all.

The Most Rev. Bishop Gabino Zavala, President of Pax Christ is also auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and Chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Communications Committee (USCCB). Surprise, surprise, surprise. While I didn't believe the leadership at the USCCB would be foolish enough to publicly support the intrinsic evils promoted by One Nation I had a feeling that they would be connected to it.

So what principles does One Nation hold? Here is a short list taken from their website:

Extend the federal unemployment program, COBRA, mortgage assistance, and other targeted initiatives helping those who are currently without a job

Provide aid to states and cities—including direct job creation at local levels—especially in education, health care, social services and first responder workforces

Pay all workers a living family wage

Increase and index the minimum wage

Protect, honor, fully apply, and expand equal opportunity and diverse business inclusion practices

Provide paid sick days and paid family leave for all workers

Enact policies that expand access to the polls for everyone, including former felons

Avoid or end ineffective, costly, and dangerous proposals or provisions that seek to round up, detain, and deport 12 million unauthorized workers, split families, encourage racial profiling, and divert scarce resources away from crime fighting.

Complete the promise of accessible and affordable health care for all people, including the public option and other effective means to provide coverage for all; and implementation of anti-discrimination provisions

Ensure that all people have equal access to affordable, adequately resourced, high quality public education throughout their lives, from preschool through college

Can't you just feel the power of government growing with each passing word? Taking the property of those that have "too much" through taxation and redistributing it to the chosen ones as the bureaucrats see fit? Is it surprising that the USCCB would be represented at this event, even though they're sneaking in through the back door? This sounds like the wish list that the Progressives in the Council want to see passed into law here in America.

It's not just the Catholic Church playing these games, either. Read the Blaze article and you'll see the Methodists aren't any better. Oh sure, they've got plausible deniability because of the way the church is structured. They have this great system where leaders can make pronouncements about church policy but then if it turns out that the statement is controversial the leaders can deny that the other leaders have any authority to make statements for the whole church.

Whatever.

Our churches are distorting the Gospel to further the goals of Satan through Socialist redstributive programs. The idea of collective salvation that comes from liberation theology is at its core a Marxist distortion of Catholic teaching that started in South America and has spread around the world.

It's past the time to speak up. We need to shout from the rooftops. Don't just go along to get along in your church. If you hear or read something that you know isn't right talk to your pastor. If he doesn't do anything, talk to your fellow church members. Be a pain in the ass! Whatever you do, make noise!

Our time is short and the truth is being destroyed. Pray for protection.

RUSS CARNAHAN IS FOR IT AND AGAINST IT

These two appearances occurred two days apart and yet he couldn't remember where he stands. It's time for the Carnahan dynasty to disappear in Missouri. Vote against Russ and Robin and send them both back home, for good.

BECKHAM RAGES?

Right up front I'll admit that I don't know anything about David Beckham or the problems in his life. And, I don't care. That's not the point.

The thing that strikes me about this video is that he is described in various commentaries as raging, explosive and furious. Really? In our overly litigious society where people believe they can shoot off their mouths about anything without physical repercussion, most have probably never seen someone pissed off and ready to go. Most sit at their computers or talk on their phones never seeing the others face. They say what they want, spending their time gossiping about others with no fear of any sort of blowback.

This guy Beckham isn't filled with rage or out of control. He's doing the thing that should be done, calmly and coolly calling this punk out, telling him to put up or shut up. That's all. He's doing exactly what men through time immemorial have done when their honor is called into question. And his manliness shines in comparison to the girlishness of his accuser.

It's easy to make a threat or an accusation; it takes balls to act like a man and back up your words. I'm tired of people that talk and talk but refuse to answer for the things they say. Yeah, I know I'm sitting here writing this on a computer in relative anonymity but I promise you there is nothing that I write on this blog that I haven't or won't say in public, no matter how pissed some people get. If I believe that it's true then I'm bound to say it when asked. It's that simple. Let the chips fall where they may.

I've worked in construction all my life and no matter what it's faults, one thing that is true about my business is that there is always immediate reaction to things said from those around me. Whether as a worker or a boss I've always known that lying about someone, or at least if someone thinks I have, or saying something offensive to someone will end up with them in my face. I've seen pissed off and I've been there myself. If guys on the job have a problem we address it immediately, face to face and man to man. Put up or shut up. That's how it should be.

Guys like the punk in the video and the reporters that write these stories have probably never been exposed to real men and the way they handle problems. That's why Beckham's response is seen as rage and explosive when in reality he was calm and deliberate in his response. Without lifting a hand he showed his accuser for what he is, a panty waisted gossip.

So here's the lesson. Boys, in case your Daddy never told you this, speak the truth and be prepared to defend it. If you aren't ready to stand up for what you say then don't open your mouth. If you lie there will be someone there to point it out to you, maybe not now but eventually. There is honor in being beaten for the truth. There is nothing but hollow shame and humility when you have to back down from a lie.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

CCHD AND ALINSKY

This is an oldie (in internet terms anyway) but a goodie. I'm posting this because I suspect that a whole bunch of people have never seen it and Real Catholic TV does a fantastic job of exposing the links between the USCCB and the Progressive movement in America.



This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

CURRENCY WARS - THE POINT OF NO RETURN

From The National Inflation Association:

OUR HYPER INFLATIONARY FUTURE

Business insider has a fantastic article which you can read here explaining the effects of hyperinflation in the United States, the problems it presents as well as the opportunities. I heard about this on Glenn Beck's show today when he mentioned that a link to this story was posted on The Blaze.com.

Look, I'm just a carpenter, not a finance guy. That being said, I've read a whole lot of history and there is so much today that is reminiscent of the run up to other financial disasters that I think it bears watching. I've been watching over the last 6 months or so as the prices of commodities such as groceries and building materials keep rising all while unemployment climbs and the dollar weakens. Hell, just go to a restaurant and look at the prices on the menu!

At the same time that basic commodities have increased in cost the value of our assets have declined. Look at house prices or the price of used cars and trucks. All have slowly dropped in value and continue on that same trajectory with no end in sight. The number of miles driven in America has tumbled yet the cost of oil remains abnormally high. The connection between supply and demand seems to have been destroyed.

The only thing standing between us and hyperinflation are U.S. Treasury Bonds. When, not if, they lose their value the run to gold will be on. And not just gold but any other non-perishable commodity will explode in value. And the cost of the necessities like food, fuel and water will go through the roof.

When you can't afford a loaf of bread to feed your kids and someone offers to trade you his bread for your house, will you do it to keep your kids alive? And at that point isn't the house you paid $400,000 for today worth exactly the same as a loaf of bread today, about $2.00?

So what's the lesson here? Become as self sufficient as possible and plan to find away to produce the basic essentials of life on your own. Few will have enough money to buy the essentials so you either grow it yourself, sell everything you have to try and get by just one more day or die. Society will devolve but probably not collapse. Try to stay out of the way. Develop networks in your community now that can work together to get through what's coming. You'll need each other to split the work and defend what you have. Think in terms not just of subsistence but also in terms of excess. Food and other commodities will replace the dollar as the means of exchange, at least for a while.

But enough of my rambling. like I say, I'm just a carpenter. Read the article at Business Insider and think critically about how to plan for the world the author describes. I think that with a little forethought hyperinflation is completely survivable. Without planning though your chances will narrow considerably.

CHRIS CHRISTIE FOR PRESIDENT

Man, is it ever nice to see a guy with some balls in political office. We need this guy in the Oval office when the face off with Iran comes. A little Jersey logic would go a long way in dealing with the thugs in the Middle East.



H/T Sharp Elbows

WANKERS AND WITCHES AND PALIN...OH MY!

If you're know by the enemies you make and the friends you keep then Christine O'Donnell's looking better all the time.

So let's see - who would I rather be associated with? A former governor, a mother, a wife and proven political power or some pathetic guy reading porno and seeing if he can score with himself? Or perhaps someone so misguided that they worship creation instead of the creator?

And what the hell is the "pagan vote"?

Then there's the angry masturbators, stumbling around blindly, shaking their hairy fists in rage. Not a pretty picture.

“A couple of my local politician friends say she’s losing the Wiccan vote,” said Dominguez. “Well, I said she never had the pagan vote for the most part to begin with.”
The Daily Beast

"Galvanized by Republican senatorial nominee Christine O'Donnell's anti-masturbation stance, masturbators from across the state converged on Wilmington today in what some are calling the largest pro-wanking protest in American history.

Carrying signs reading, "O'Donnell: Hands Off Our Masturbation," the angry masturbators clogged downtown Wilmington, stopping traffic for blocks."
Huffington post

"Please support Christine O'Donnell in Delaware," Palin wrote to her supporters on Facebook. "She will support efforts for America's energy security, patient-centered health care reform, cutting government waste and letting the private sector thrive and prosper!"
Washington Post

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!

"The “Great Recession” has ended, officially."
MSNBC

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels
Nazi Propaganda Minister

"U.S. house prices fell 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis
from June to July, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House
Price Index. The previously reported 0.3 percent decline in June was revised to a 1.2
percent decline. The unusually large revision mainly reflects the addition of new data from
late June that show considerably weaker prices than earlier in the month. For the 12
months ending in July, U.S. prices fell 3.3 percent. The U.S. index is 13.8 percent below
its April 2007 peak."
Federal Housing Finance Agency

"The number of people who filed new claims for unemployment benefits jumped 12,000 to 465,000 in the latest week, the Labor Department reported Thursday."
Market Watch

REPUBLICAN PLEDGE TO AMERICA

"...it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Macbeth Quote (Act V, Scene V).

"...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Declaration of Independence

"Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course."
GOP Pledge to America

Is it just me, or does one of these sound like it was written by revolutionaries determined to change the course of history and the other was written by politicians determined to regain the power they lost?

We need to repair and strengthen our foundation, not patch a hole in the roof. The Republican Party, unless it is drastically altered by the infusion of new blood, will change nothing. The career politicians that wrote this compromised declaration of ideals will fold as soon as the winds turn against them. If you don't believe me, go back to the "Contract with America". How well did that work out?

I hope I'm wrong but I doubt I am. These guys are trying to capitalize on the TEA Party movement by saying what they think we want to hear. Until I see something concrete, some actual and meaningful reduction in the size and power of government, until I see the Republican Party make the hard decisions and stick by them, I won't believe a word they say.

Talk is cheap. I'm from Missouri boys; SHOW ME!!!

GOP Pledge to America

H/T IOTW

THE RELIGION OF PEACE ON PARADE

These guys mustn't have got the memo about being peaceful. They probably just don't understand Islam, that's all.



H/T Gateway Pundit

ARABS RAPING PEACE ACTIVISTS IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA

Obviously these guys missed the sermon at the mosque about being a religion of peace.

"Two activists have exposed a disturbing phenomenon that they say is an open secret within the “peace camp”: female “peace” activists are routinely harassed and raped by the Arabs of Judea and Samaria with whom they have come to identify. They say the phenomenon has gotten worse lately and that many foreign women end up as wives of local Arabs against their will, but cannot escape their new homes.

Roni Aloni Sedovnik, a feminist activist, penned an article in News1 – an independent website run by respected investigative reporter Yoav Yitzchak – under the heading “The Left's Betrayal of Female Peace Activists Who were Sexually Assaulted.”

“A nauseous atrocity has been going on for a long time behind the scenes at the leftists' demonstration at Bil'in, Naalin and Sheikh Jarrah [Shimon HaTzaddik],” she writes. “A dark secret that threatens to smash the basic ideological values upon which the demand to end the occupation of the Territories rests.”

It turns out, she explains, that when female peace activists from Israel and abroad come out to Judea and Samaria and demonstrate against the Israeli “occupation,” they are assaulted sexually by the Arab men whom they have come to help. These are not isolated incidents, Aloni-Sedovnik stresses. Rather, this is an “ongoing and widespread” phenomenon that includes verbal and physical abuse. She accuses the 'peace' camp of purposely covering up the trend so as not to offend “the Palestinians and their heritage, which sees women as sexual objects.”
Israel Jewish News

THE POPES AND THE END OF THIS AGE

Mark Mallett has a really good and important article this week discussing the popes and Catholic eschatological teachings. Many of us understand that we are at a crossroads, that everything is about to change. Many, following the teachings of Evangelical Protestantism believe that the end is upon us, that Jesus and all the angels are about to descend from heaven. They believe that a rapture of the elect and the destruction of the earth is about to fall on us.

Some of us, mostly Catholics, see something different. We don't believe we are at the end of time, though that is always a possibility. We believe that we are at the end of an era. Christendom is collapsing. All of the underlying beliefs and supports that have allowed for an era of growth in understanding and technology heretofore unheard of in the history of mankind are about to fall into a new dark age, a time of oppression and violence against everything that God desires.

The time of Anti-Christ.

The Church, through Her popes, has been shouting this from the hills of Rome for the last century, but no one listens. Most are caught up in the flashy end times myths of the "Left Behind" series or the apocalyptic preachings of Jack Van Impe. These stories are flashy, exciting and sexy, but they're not the truth.

What's coming isn't going to happen with a bang. It's going on right now, in the banking and political centers. Power and control are being consolidated among the few and the freedoms given us by God are being taken from us, bit by bit, piece by piece, so slowly and quietly that most don't see it happening. One day though, we'll wake up and realize that we are no longer free, that we are owned by a government that spans the world. We will bow to it our die.

That day is growing closer with each passing moment.

The popes see it and have been warning us but few listen. We'd rather be entertained with our technology and wealth and the ones who sense the coming storm gravitate towards the false teachings of rapture and fantasy.

"False messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect" (Matt 24:24).

If you have time read Mr. Mallett's words and reflect upon the things the popes have said. And prepare for what's coming...and pray, pray, pray.

"I receive letters from time to time asking, "If we are possibly living in the "end times," then why wouldn’t the popes be shouting this from the rooftops?" My response is: "If they are, is anyone listening?"

The fact is, this entire blog, my book, my webcast—which are intended to prepare the reader and viewer for the times which are here and coming—are based on what the Holy Fathers have been preaching for over a century. And they have been consistently warning, with greater and greater frequency, that the path of mankind is leading to "destruction" unless we embrace once again the Good News and the One who is Good: Jesus Christ.

It is not I, but Paul VI who said:"

To read more go to Mark Mallett's blog here.

LIVABLE COMMUNITIES ACT - THE END OF PROPERTY RIGHTS AND OUR REPUBLIC

Call your Senators, again.

I don't know what chance of passage this has or exactly how much focus will be on it what with elections coming up and Congress thinking about getting out of Dodge early so they can go home and lie and beg for their jobs. The thing is, this is just one more piece of a plan to completely overwhelm the system with Marxist Utopianism. If they keep putting enough of this stuff forward eventually something that destroys our rights in a serious and final manner will pass.

As much as I dislike the Republican party we can't get these Progressive Democrats out of office quickly enough. The real trick will be somehow not replacing them with Progressive Republicans. They'll keep heading in the same direction, just at a slower pace.

I'm hoping that enough TEA Party candidates get elected that it'll throw a wrench in the works. Just pray that they aren't co-opted by the powers that be in the GOP and corrupted by all the money and power that'll surround them and be thrown their way. It'll take a saint to withstand the temptation.

Senator Christopher Dodd has introduced a bill to enforce UN Agenda 21 policy on your community. It’s called the “Livable Communities Act” (S.1619). It will destroy your community. Here’s why:

S. 1619 “Livable Communities” act is on a fast track to passage!

S.1619 is a blueprint for the transformation of our society into total federal control.

S.1619 will enforce federal Sustainable Development zoning and control of local communities.

S.1619 will create a massive new “development” bureaucracy –
(development Czar?)

S.1619 will drive up the cost of energy to heat and cool your home.

S.1619 will drive up the cost of gasoline as a way to get you out of your car.

S.1619 will force you to spend thousands on your home in order to comply.

S.1619 is NOT Voluntary – it will set up $4 billion in grants (TAX MONEY WE DON’T HAVE) that will force your community to comply.

American Policy Center

THE RECESSION IS OVER?

"This just in: The recession ended more than a year ago — in June 2009.

That may seem perplexing, given the sour state of the economy, but the panel of experts designating when serious economic downturns begin and end typically take a year or so to make the calls.

Even so, minutes after the experts announced Monday that the worst recession in more than half a century had officially ended 15 months ago, its members felt the sting of indignant reaction from a public for whom economic pain continues to be an everyday reality."
L.A. Times

I guess the party can begin now that the recession is over. Of course, it's been replaced by a DEPRESSION!

SHARIA: THE THREAT TO AMERICA

I haven't read the whole thing yet but I would suggest you follow the link below and read the paper that I excerpted below in its entirety. It is vital that Americans are educated about the nature of the threat we face with Sharia in particular and Islam in general.

We are at war against an ideology of conquest, not just a simple religion. Islam is a system of totalitarian belief that is completely abhorrent to the Western form of government and life. If we submit to it we will become slaves.

From The Center for Security Policy:

"...This brief examination of American principles establishes that American principles are principles of liberty are rooted in mutual toleration. It follows that, in the United States, liberty was never intended to tolerate the intolerant and its citizens were never intended to tolerate totalitarian doctrines. Put differently, intolerant, totalitarian doctrines are in direct conflict with the stated purpose of American government “to secure these rights [endowed by their Creator].”

Even a fairly superficial reading of the Quran and other primary source documents of shariah reveals that it is a political-military-legal doctrine, rather than a religion as defined by the American standards mentioned above. The prominent Islamic scholar Abdul Mawdudi concurs with this assessment, saying: “But the truth is that Islam is not the name of a ‘Religion,’ nor is ‘Muslim’ the title of a ‘Nation.’ In reality, Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals.”

Shariah is, moreover, a doctrine that mandates the rule of Allah over all aspects of society. Specifically, in contrast – and fundamentally at odds – with the Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty, shariah holds that God did not create the mind free, but in subservience to the will of Allah (as detailed in shariah). The condition of human beings is submission to Allah, not freedom."

H/T The Market Ticker

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL IS A WITCH? DOES SHE FLOAT?

From The Blaze:



Once again, I have to say I'm liking Ms. O'Donnell more and more.

We've all done stupid things in our past. The question is whether we are still involved in them or not. If someone can come up with evidence that O'Donnell is involved in witchcraft today, well then we'd have a story. But to try and paint past behavior which she has admitted was wrong and has removed herself from as something indicative of her current belief system is dishonest.

It's important to look at a candidates past to understand how they got to where they are. Our current President is a case in point. His past is one of Marxist political thought and associations. Had he repudiated those beliefs and condemned them as Ms. O'Donnell has witchcraft then I would consider them youthful indiscretions. However, because he has continued in these same beliefs and associations I have to consider them to be foundational and reflective of his true political biases.

The press will consistently disregard the past of Mr. Obama while digging up every bit of dirt it can find from twenty tears ago on any candidate that can upset the Progressive agenda.

I sure hope my guys are made of an iron core surrounded by extremely thick skin. The more that's thrown at them, if they handle the pressure with grace and good humor, the better they'll look to the people. Americans aren't stupid and we know that nobody's perfect. This mudslinging could very well blow up in the face of those doing the throwing.

Luckily, if any confusion remains regarding Ms. O'Donnell's proclivity towards witchcraft, we can always have her tested:

ISLAM AND OUR KID'S TOYS

You can't drop your guard for a second with these guys. I sure miss Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets.


H/T Conservative Examiner

THE BEARS ARE COMING

SECRET SOCIETIES AND THE COLLAPSE OF CHRISTENDOM

Episode 15: We Were Warned from Mark Mallett on Vimeo.

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL ON MASTURBATION

Bet I get a bunch of hits from that title!

I've been following Ms. O'Donnell in her run for the Senate seat from Delaware and so far I've liked what I've seen. I keep hearing allusions to some sort of crazy things she has said in her past and this seems to be the one that most of the media is focusing on.

Christine O'Donnell believes masturbation is a sin. SAY IT'S NOT SO!! Apparently, this bit of heterodoxy is so offensive to the purveyors of our secular modern belief system that they were forced to put down their newest issue of Hustler, towel off and mount a holy war against this blasphemous and dangerous idea.

In reality masturbation has always been considered a sin, for exactly the reasons Ms. O'Donnell cites. Further, it offends the natural law by distorting the true purpose of sex. She is right and the perverse proselytizers of pornified personal pleasure are wrong.

I'm liking Ms. O'Donnell more every day.

GUN SALES RISE - VIOLENT CRIME DROPS

Who woulda' thought it?

"Violent crime continued to fall in 2009, even as gun sales reached an all-time high, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This is “proof positive that gun prohibitionists have been consistently and undeniably wrong,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said in a statement.

Released Tuesday, the violent crime statistics are part of the FBI’s yearly Uniform Crime Report, which collects crime statistics from localities all across the country and is the most comprehensive report on crime in America."
CNS News

THE REASON WE CARRY GUNS

One more reason to always have a weapon with you. Not just for your own protection but for the protection of others.


H/T SHTF

MORE LOVE FROM THE RELIGION OF PEACE

I guess we'll see protests break out all across the Muslim world against this violence impugning their peaceful belief system by what must be impostors posing as Muslims to denigrate the faith.

Just think how mad they get when you burn a few books!

"Indonesia's president ordered police to hunt down and arrest assailants who stabbed a Christian worshipper in the stomach and beat a minister in the head with a wooden plank as they headed to prayers.

Neither of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

No one claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks. But suspicion immediately fell on Islamic hard-liners who have repeatedly warned members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church against worshipping on a field housing their now-shuttered church.

In recent months, they have thrown shoes and water bottles at the church members, interrupted sermons with chants of "Infidels!" and "Leave Now!" and dumped piles of feces on the land.

Local police Chief Imam Sugianto said Asia Sihombing, a worshipper, was on his way to the field when assailants jumped off a motorcycle and stabbed him in the stomach.

The Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak was smashed in the head as she tried to come to his aid."
Fox News

LIES AND CONFUSION SOWN BY SACRAMENTO CATHOLIC CHURCH

"As 18 doves flew into the skies over the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament Saturday night, more than 100 diverse Sacramentans blessed copies of the Quran with roses of love.

Again and again they uttered the refrain, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" at the entrance to the downtown church framed by white statues of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. A musician with a white guitar accompanied them.

Representatives of Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, B'hai, Mormon, Sikh, Vedic Druid and Muslim beliefs read scriptures from the great religious texts - including six verses from the Quran calling for all faiths to live in harmony.

Irfan Haq, speaking on behalf of Sacramento's Muslims, told the rose bearing crowd outside the cathedral, "On this day September 11 - this day of infamy and darkness - what we are witnessing is a new beginning for Sacramento, for America - this is the America the world needs to see."
Sacramento Bee

I don't suppose we'll be seeing any Bibles blessed in Mosques in the Sacramento area, will we?

Whoever, whether it be priest or bishop, allowed this blasphemy to occur in a Catholic Church should be publicly and loudly removed from their position by Rome. But I guess that would be too much to ask what with Pope John Paul II having kissed a Koran during his pontificate.

It would be one thing to have an interfaith event in a secular setting to show support for freedom of religious belief. It's quite another to allow the blessing of a book that denies the divinity of Jesus Christ in a Catholic Church, much less a Cathedral!

It's not a wonder that so many have left the faith of the Apostles. What good is a church that purports to be Christian...no, not just Christian but the very church founded by Christ himself, when it openly elevates a religion that denies the very things it teaches as truth, all in the name of ecumenism.

Whether by design or incompetence, confusion is running wild among the faithful and abominations like Koran blessing only further this muddling of the truth. Islam and its Satanic belief system has now been elevated to a place of honor by the Catholic Church in Sacramento. If the Church in Rome fails to forcefully rebuke the leaders of this Church then the faithful there and elsewhere will be left with the impression that Islam and Catholicism are compatible, that truth can indeed contradict truth, a distortion of reality that so evil that it defies rationality.

The smoke of Satan has truly entered the Church and the days of darkness are upon us.

ALAN KEYES AGAINST THE FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL

This article comes from a blog titled "Error Theory". By posting this I am participating in a blog burst to spread a message of warning to America about the Islamic bastardization of the 9/11 sites. We are submitting to Islam in allowing these designs and the building of the mosque. Sharia law will be next. This submission must be stopped!

I know this is a free country and I understand that Muslims may be offended and I really don't care. The plain and simple fact is that the attacks of 9/11 grew out of Islam. Maybe it was a misreading of that particular faith that drove the attackers. I don't know, but I kinda' doubt it. There has been no repudiation by any major Islamic leaders and in fact Muslims around the world applauded the death of so many innocent Americans.

If it walks like a duck...

Conservative hero Alan Keyes is asking whether there is a pattern of submission surrounding the nation's 9/11 sites. Apparently he has seen our video expose of Islamic and terrorist memorializing features in the crescent memorial to Flight 93 (now called a broken circle). Like any straight-thinker, he doesn't like what he sees. The Flight 93 crash site is no place for a giant Islamic-shaped crescent, no matter what it is called.

On this point, Keyes cites Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo's 2005 objection to the newly unveiled Crescent of Embrace design:

Back in 2005, then-Rep. Tom Tancredo was reported to have sent a letter to the National Park Service "asking the Interior Department to reconsider the crescent-shaped design of the memorial to those aboard a plane hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, because some may think it honors the terrorists." Tancredo quite sensibly argues that "regardless of whether 'the invocation of a Muslim Symbol' was intentional, 'it seems that such a symbol is unsuitable for paying appropriate tribute to the heroes of Flight 93 or the ensuing American struggle against radical Islam.'"

Keyes notes our claim that the design is still replete with terrorist memorializing features and he seems to find it credible. Why shouldn't he? The damning features are all right there in architect Paul Murdoch's design drawings. Thank you Doctor Keyes!


"It’s not just embarrassing. It is a dangerous willful blindness, spurning the woken vigilance of Flight 93."

That's the last line of the full-page advertisement that Tom Burnett Senior and Alec Rawls will be running in the Somerset Daily American this Friday and Saturday (when the two first ladies will be in town for the 9/11 anniversary):


Click for legible image. Full ad-copy PDF here (large file warning).

We are hoping that visitors will hold onto our ad, maybe even tape it to their car windows, and most especially, show it to any press people they come across. Hey, if the Park Service can use 9/11 to plant the world's largest mosque on the Flight 93 crash site, we can use 9/11 to object.


To join our blogburst against the crescent mosque, just send your blog's url.

THE GOVERNMENT GIVETH - AND IT TAKETH AWAY

Never, ever trust the government. These people bought houses because the government decided to take from future generations to paper over the poor state of the economy. Now, because the incompetent bureaucrats in Washington can't figure out their own underhanded schemes tens of thousands of people will have to come up with thousands and thousands of dollars that they probably don't have. And let me just make a guess here. If they can't find the money the I.R.S. will come calling with the full power of the government, threatening to sieze bank accounts, assets and paychecks to satisfy the debt.

Don Corleone would be so proud.

"Nearly half of all Americans who claimed the first-time homebuyer tax credit on their 2009 tax returns will have to repay the government.

According to a report from the Inspector General for Tax Administration, released to the public Thursday, about 950,000 of the nearly 1.8 million Americans who claimed the tax credit on their 2009 tax returns will have to return the money."
CNN

INCREDIBLE

"In the first 19 months of the Obama administration, the federal debt held by the public increased by $2.5260 trillion, which is more than the cumulative total of the national debt held by the public that was amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan."
CNS News

JUST SAY NO - AGAIN

Do we have any expectation of privacy left in this country? Or can the government, any part of it, local, state or federal demand that we comply with any request it makes? When will we say, "NO!"

"Sheriffs in North Carolina want access to state computer records identifying anyone with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances.

The state sheriff's association pushed the idea Tuesday, saying the move would help them make drug arrests and curb a growing problem of prescription drug abuse. But patient advocates say opening up people's medicine cabinets to law enforcement would deal a devastating blow to privacy rights."
News Observer

AN OIL GLUT? SO MUCH FOR OUR "BOOMING" ECONOMY

But how can this be? With our economy on the upswing, at least if one chooses to believe our always honest leaders, the demand for energy should climb. Is somebody fibbin' to us?

I wonder when the prices will go down?

CAUSE AND EFFECT?

Can we believe anything the government tells us anymore?

"Another improvement in the jobs number. 451,000 for the week is better than the 475,000 that analysts were expecting.

Stocks are rallying, with the S&P 500 up about 0.8%."

Business Insider

The initial jobless claims data was strong(er than expected), but there's a lot of chatter this morning about a note form Bloomberg:

For the latest reporting week, nine states didn’t file claims data to the Labor Department in Washington because of the federal holiday earlier this week, a Labor Department official told reporters. As a result, California and Virginia estimated their figures and the U.S. government estimated the other seven, the official said.

Business Insider

SCREW 'EM!!!

"An Afghan cleric threatened Thursday that U.S. troops in the country's north would face large protests if a small American church burns copies of the Muslim holy book as planned on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Religious and political leaders across the Muslim world, as well as several U.S. officials, have called on the church to call off the plan, warning it would lead to violence against Americans. The Rev. Terry Jones, of the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has vowed to go ahead with the bonfire on Saturday, even though he has been denied the required permit.

Abdul Hadi Rostaqi, a member of the cleric council in Afghanistan's largely peaceful Balkh province, said Thursday that, if the burning goes ahead, "a big protest will be held" in the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif next Monday. NATO-led troops stationed in the city — one of the country's main centers of the Islamic teaching — would be the primary target.

Meanwhile, about 200 people marched and burned a U.S. flag in the central Pakistani city of Multan."
Yahoo

So, if the crazy preacher burns the Koran the Afghani Muslims will target American troops because of the offense. All this is being said as Pakistanis burn an American flag.

Let's get out of that part of the world. Let's just go ahead and give up the oil and let those people wallow in the 6th century. That's what they want so give it to them. Let Russia have the place if they want it. Pakistan can blow them up if they want. Or Iran can blow everybody else up. I don't care. Europe can deal with its own defenses and the Saudi sheiks can use some of their trillions to defend their own country.

Bring the troops home. We'll have a really tough time as our economy and way of life transforms to accommodate the absence of oil but it's going to happen eventually anyway. Why sacrifice even one more life overseas. Ring our shores with missiles and the military, devote our scant oil resources to supporting our defense and tell the rest of the world to kiss off! Tell the Islamic world to get out of our affairs or we'll flatten Mecca with missiles and reduce Tehran to glass.

Things will be hard here at home but if we do it to ourselves we can reduce voluntarily and with at least some sense of order. There is nothing to gain by engaging the Muslim world, at least for the American people. Nothing we do, short of conversion to Islam, will satisfy them. So screw 'em. The big banks and the Boeing's of the world won't like it but screw them, too. The politicians and all the rest that line their pockets with blood money from perpetual war won't like it, either. Screw 'em.

SCREW 'EM!!! Every last one of these evil bastards that are so willing to sacrifice the young lives of our military so that power and wealth can accrue at their feet. SCREW 'EM!!! America isn't supposed to be about empire and conquest. The founders warned against it.

Get all our people back home, pull up the drawbridge, close the gates, man the towers and inform the world that if they stay out of our affairs we'll stay out of theirs. Make sure that they understand that we want peace, that we want and expect to be left alone. And make sure they understand they if we aren't we will unleash hell on them, destroy them and return to our shores, once again in peace.

Then we can concentrate on changing our lives here at home. We need better sources of power, such as nuclear. If we divert all the resources we squander overseas to developing new energy here at home I would imagine that we'd have our power problems solved in short order which would have the happy effect of even further removing us from the Middle East. Let's rebuild our industries and make the stuff we need here at home. We've got just about everything we need to do it. And no one can beat the American worker at productivity.

If we are to have trade with the rest of the world keep the politics out of it. Make sure that competition is fair and honest. If our trading partners tax goods from America to make their own products more attractive in their countries, we do the same to them. If slave labor is used to make products oversea, we refuse them. We do this right or we don't do it at all. Make sure American companies produce their goods in America. If they want to do it overseas than let them move there. They shouldn't get the benefits of America if they won't work to support her.

Workers in America, especially my blue collar brothers and sisters, need to loose the union mentality, the collectivist, one size fits all, over paid socialist, worker versus employer mindset. And the white collars need to realize that there is value in working with your hands. We're all in this together and if the company profits the workers profit. Everyone get on the same page and work for the good of the business that employs them and then share in the profits. Quit fighting like spoiled children. We'll all float or sink together.

It's time to turn the page. America needs to return to what it was meant to be. We were never intended to be the worlds policemen. Let the world take care of itself. They know that freedom works because we've proven it. Let them either join us or perish.

They aren't our problem any more.

JUST SAY NO!

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment

Welcome to our brave new world. Doesn't it seem, more and more everyday, that we have crossed some invisible line, that we've crossed over into the intrusive world that is so often pictured in science fiction? How did this happen? When did we forget how to say no?

Is there any action by the government we'll stand up to? Can the threat of terrorism and the protection of the nanny state be used to justify anything?

Does the Constitution have any meaning at all anymore?

"Commuters who ride PATCO trains between southern New Jersey and Philadelphia should expect random searches of their clothing, pockets, bags and vehicles on their morning trip to work.

Twelve Transportation Security Administration screeners, armed with an explosive-sniffing K-9, checked 663 commuter bags randomly selected from the morning rush at the Lindenwold station Tuesday."
NBC Philadelphia

"Holli Powell, a Phoenix medical- software consultant who flies every week, says she avoids getting into airport security lines that end at what she calls a humiliating full-body scanner.

“Those scanners, I feel, are above and beyond,” Powell, 35, said in an interview. They generate “nearly naked images.”

The concerns of travelers such as Powell, which led privacy advocates to sue the government, may soon be eased. L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. and OSI Systems Inc.’s Rapiscan, makers of the scanners for U.S. airports, are delivering software upgrades that show a generic figure rather than an actual image of a passenger’s body parts. The new display would mark sections of a person’s body that need to be checked."
Bloomberg

"From the KCMO police: The Kansas City Police Department will conduct a sobriety checkpoint on this weekend at a location in Kansas City that is known for occurrence of DUI related crashes or DUI arrests.

During this operation there will be signs placed in advance of the checkpoint site and officers will be on the street directing traffic. Motorists will be directed to a location where an officer can conduct a brief check to determine if the motorist should be delayed longer. If not, the motorist will be delayed only a very brief period of time."
Crime Scene KC

"The result [of the Patriot Act} is unchecked government power to rifle through individuals' financial records, medical histories, Internet usage, bookstore purchases, library usage, travel patterns, or any other activity that leaves a record. Making matters worse:

The government no longer has to show evidence that the subjects of search orders are an "agent of a foreign power," a requirement that previously protected Americans against abuse of this authority.

The FBI does not even have to show a reasonable suspicion that the records are related to criminal activity, much less the requirement for "probable cause" that is listed in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. All the government needs to do is make the broad assertion that the request is related to an ongoing terrorism or foreign intelligence investigation.

Judicial oversight of these new powers is essentially non-existent. The government must only certify to a judge - with no need for evidence or proof - that such a search meets the statute's broad criteria, and the judge does not even have the authority to reject the application.

Surveillance orders can be based in part on a person's First Amendment activities, such as the books they read, the Web sites they visit, or a letter to the editor they have written.

A person or organization forced to turn over records is prohibited from disclosing the search to anyone. As a result of this gag order, the subjects of surveillance never even find out that their personal records have been examined by the government. That undercuts an important check and balance on this power: the ability of individuals to challenge illegitimate searches."
ACLU

"Despite complaints by privacy advocates, the number of surveillance cameras is growing and proving increasingly valuable to police for catching criminals as well as protecting against terrorists."
USA Today

"The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that federal law does not require prosecutors to show probable cause when they seek tracking data collected by cell phone providers. But the court said that judges can ask for it nonetheless.

...The records requested, which track the towers and site locations used by the phone subscriber, can track where a person was in the past when making and receiving calls. In urban areas, a person's whereabouts can be tracked to within 200 feet of the exact location."
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

"The FBI and other police agencies don't need a search warrant to track the locations of Americans' cell phones, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday in a precedent-setting decision.

In the first decision of its kind, a Philadelphia appeals court agreed with the Obama administration that no search warrant--signed by a judge based on a belief that there was probable cause to suspect criminal activity--was necessary for police to obtain logs showing where a cell phone user had traveled."
CNET

IN NEW YORK - DEFEND YOUR FAMILY - GO TO JAIL

This guy should be getting a good citizen award.

"He was arrested for protecting his property and family.

But it’s how the Long Island man did it that police say crossed the line.

He got an AK-47 assault rifle, pulled the trigger and he ended up in jail, reports CBS 2’s Pablo Guzman.

George Grier said he had to use his rifle on Sunday night to stop what he thought was going to be an invasion of his Uniondale home by a gang he thought might have been the vicious “MS-13.” He said the whole deal happened as he was about to drive his cousin home.

“I went around and went into the house, ran upstairs and told my wife to call the police. I get the gun and I go outside and I come into the doorway and now, by this time, they are in the driveway, back here near the house. I tell them, you know, ‘Can you please leave?’ Grier said.

Grier said the five men dared him to use the gun; and that their shouts brought another larger group of gang members in front of his house.

“He starts threatening my family, my life. ‘Oh you’re dead. I’m gonna kill your family and your babies. You’re dead.’ So when he says that, 20 others guys come rushing around the corner. And so I fired four warning shots into the grass,” Grier said."
New York CBS

Let's review. A man and his family are threatened on their property. He gets his gun, a dreaded "assault weapon", which is a force multiplier and exactly what the situation demands, and asks those that are threatening his family to leave HIS PROPERTY. When they refuse to do so and in fact more threats arrive and the promises of violence from the threats increase the man fires the only tool at his disposal into the ground as a warning.

The property owner could have shot one of his antagonists or he could have fired into the air and endangered an innocent citizen, but he did neither. He safely and competently, without harming anyone, removed the threat to his family and himself from the area. He also knew that the shot would alert police and bring them to his door.

This guy did the right thing and now he'll be forced to pay massive legal bills just to defend his heroic actions. Should he have waited for the police to arrive? After all, his wife was supposed to call them. Should he have cowered in front of these cowards that were threatening his family and begged for mercy? HELL NO!!!

A husband's primary responsibility is to defend his family and that is just what Mr. Grier did. The police may or may not have shown up on time but the threat was right there in front of him. He had no other reasonable course of action.

My guess is that the cops didn't want to arrest this guy but they're just doing their job. Most of the police I've talked to advise arming yourself for protection because they won't be there when things go wrong to do it for you.

When faced with the number of threats that Mr. Grier faced, especially if they are members of a group known for violence, what would you do? Personally, I may have retreated inside my house because that could have narrowed the areas of attack. I know, because I've thought it through, where the bottlenecks are in my home that will reduce the number of targets to the absolute minimum if I have to defend my family. I want the threats coming through a funnel so I can focus my fire most effectively. A wood frame house with vinyl siding may not be good cover but it will provide concealment.


In Missouri we have the right to defend our homes and property, with deadly force if necessary. It's called Castle Doctrine. In other words, if you enter onto my property, not just into my house, and threaten me then I can use a weapon and defend myself, even if I kill you. If the facts of the case show that I was within the framework for defense allowed in the law I cannot be sued or prosecuted for using deadly force. Castle Doctrine removes the "duty to retreat" laws found in many states and replaces it with "stand your ground", effectively placing the burden of proof on the state to show that the shooter acted improperly in defending his property. In other words, if I shoot someone on my property the law will give me, as the property owner, the benefit of the doubt. If the law in New York was the same my guess is that Mr. Grier would not have been arrested.

When did we became a nation of wussies? When did it become even kind of illegal to defend a mans hearth and home? Why does Mr. Grier's whole life have to be turned upside down just because he did his duty?

What in the hell is the matter with us?