Thank You
3 years ago
Rants and raving influenced by the darkside.
This "socialism-lite," however, is as specious as is classic socialism. And its insidious nature makes it even more dangerous. Across Europe, this "mild" form of socialism acts as a parasitic ideology that has slowly drained entrepreneurial energy – and freedoms – from its free-market host.
Could it happen in America? Consider the words of longtime Socialist Party of America presidential candidate Norman Thomas: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." In addition to Medicare, Social Security, and other entitlement programs, the gathering political momentum toward single-payer healthcare – which Obama has proclaimed is his ultimate goal – shows the prescience of Thomas's words.
Raise the Minimum Wage to $9.50 an Hour by 2011: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that people who work full time should not live in poverty. Even though the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour by 2009, the minimum wage's real purchasing power will still be below what it was in 1968. As president, Obama will further raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing - things so many people take for granted.
Milton Friedman, 1976 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, called the minimum wage one of the most "anti-negro laws" for what he saw as its adverse effect on black employment.
When nearly 12,000 acres of Western Kentucky farm and woodland goes on the auction block Nov. 8, a partnership of state and other public agencies is expected to be among the bidders.
Their goal is to keep the land — assembled by Alcoa in the 1950s and owned by Kimball International since 1998 — in one tract and to make it available for public recreation.
With four miles of Ohio River frontage, the land straddles the Tradewater River with 7,270 acres in Crittenden County and 4,489 in Union County.
"We're looking at every way possible we may acquire that," said Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo. "I'm very confident we're going to have our partnership together before (Nov. 8) and be there with the ability to purchase this land.
"We've been working hard, and we're hopeful."
Mongiardo said a partnership of state and national conservation organizations and fish and wildlife agencies that would use no state general fund money was being knit together to provide the $25 million or so likely needed to secure the land.
According to census data on Reitwiesner's Web site, Obama's great-great-great-great grandfather, George Washington Overall, and his great-great-great-great great grandmother, Mary Duvall, both owned slaves in Nelson County about 1850.
"It is amazing when you think about it," Lewis said. "Here you have a black man running for president and he is not descended from American slaves, he is descended from American slave owners. When you look into genealogy, you never know what you will find."
IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll: Day Fifteen
Posted: Monday, October 27, 2008
After seesawing between 3.2 and 3.9 points over the weekend, Obama's lead slipped to 2.8 Monday. Battleground also has Obama up 3, and other polls have tightened, including Rasmussen, Zogby and Gallup to 5. Some polls show swings in independents, but IBD/TIPP has them in a stable, 5-point range.
WASHINGTON --
Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.
Cowart and Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.
Stevens, 84, was convicted of all seven charges he faced of lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor. Jurors began deliberating Wednesday at noon.
Despite being a convicted felon, he is not required to drop out of the race or resign from the Senate. If he wins re-election, he can continue to hold his seat because there is no rule barring felons from serving in Congress. The Senate could vote to expel Stevens on a two-thirds vote.
"Put this down: That will never happen — ever, OK?" Stevens said in the weeks leading up to his trial. "I am not stepping down. I'm going to run through and I'm going to win this election.
IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll: Day Eleven
Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2008
McCain has cut into Obama's lead for a second day and is now just 1.1 points behind. The spread was 3.7 Wednesday and 6.0 Tuesday. The Republican is making headway with middle- and working- class voters, and has surged 10 points in two days among those earning between $30,000 and $75,000. He has also gone from an 11-point deļ¬cit to a 9-point lead among Catholics.
VIRGINIA BEACH - A pet snake may have strangled its owner to death in Virginia Beach earlier this week, police say.
Amanda Ruth Black, 25, was found dead in her home on Maracas Arch around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Her husband called police and said he found her lying in front of the pet snake's large cage, which was empty.
Police spokesman Adam Bernstein said the medical examiner's preliminary report found that the woman died from "asphyxiation caused by neck compression." Investigators are still awaiting the final results of the autopsy.
Animal control officers reported to the house and found the snake in the same room as Black's body. Bernstein said the snake was "extremely agitated" and required two officers to control it. The snake is currently being kept at the Bureau of Animal Control.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republican leader John Boehner on Wednesday urged President Bush to block all federal funds to a grass-roots community group that has been accused of voter registration fraud in several states, including Boehner's home state of Ohio.
"It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law," Boehner, a Republican, wrote Bush, saying that funds should be blocked until all federal investigations into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are completed.
Retired Col. Robert B. Nett, the last of five Medal of Honor recipients who resided in Columbus, died Sunday. He was 86.
Nett enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard in 1940 and graduated from Officer Candidate School in 1942. His distinguished career included service in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.
"He was the greatest patriot that ever lived in Columbus, Ga.," said Nett's long-time friend Jim Rhodes.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Ralph Puckett, considered one of the founders of the modern Rangers, said the inclusion of Nett's name on the Ranger Memorial located near Infantry Hall at Fort Benning and his membership in the Army Ranger Hall of Fame elevated the prestige of the battalion.
"We've lost a real American hero," he said.
NETT, ROBERT B.
Rank and organization: Captain (then Lieutenant), U.S. Army, Company E, 305th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Cognon, Leyte, Philippine Islands, 14 December 1944. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Birth: New Haven, Conn. G.O. No.: 16, 8 February 1946. Citation: He commanded Company E in an attack against a reinforced enemy battalion which had held up the American advance for 2 days from its entrenched positions around a 3-story concrete building. With another infantry company and armored vehicles, Company E advanced against heavy machinegun and other automatic weapons fire with Lt. Nett spearheading the assault against the strongpoint. During the fierce hand-to-hand encounter which ensued, he killed 7 deeply entrenched Japanese with his rifle and bayonet and, although seriously wounded, gallantly continued to lead his men forward, refusing to relinquish his command. Again he was severely wounded, but, still unwilling to retire, pressed ahead with his troops to assure the capture of the objective. Wounded once more in the final assault, he calmly made all arrangements for the resumption of the advance, turned over his command to another officer, and then walked unaided to the rear for medical treatment. By his remarkable courage in continuing forward through sheer determination despite successive wounds, Lt. Nett provided an inspiring example for his men and was instrumental in the capture of a vital strongpoint.
McCain recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Biden said over the weekend tested a new President John F. Kennedy and was the template for the kind of "generated crisis" the 47-year-old Obama would face within six months of taking office.
"I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg. "I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war."
As the crowd of several thousand began to swell with cheers and applause, he added with dramatic effect: "America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I've been tested, my friends."
It would’ve been a normal, everyday political press conference on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse on Monday, Oct. 20.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Gov. Ted Strickland and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman — all Democrats — stood shoulder to shoulder in dark business suits in front of a battery of news cameras.
But then a guy dressed in a giant orange squirrel costume showed up, waving a poster that said “Don’t Let Obama + Acorn Steal Ohio.”
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden provided McCain an opening on a different issue — readiness to be president — when he told supporters at a weekend fundraiser: "Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
Obama gained a forceful rebuttal to those concerns over the weekend, when former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed Obama and attested to his readiness to be president.
Powell also criticized McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, saying she failed to meet the primary qualification for a vice president: the ability to assume the presidency at any time.
The 17-term Democratic congressman tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site that, as he put it: "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area."
"This whole area, years ago, was really redneck," Murtha told Channel 4 Action News.
Murtha believes there is one segment of the population which is holding on to its racist beliefs and he said it's difficult for them to change. Murtha said it may be even more difficult for them to vote for Barack Obama.
"Particularly older people. They want change but they don't want to see things go too far," Murtha said.
BLACKWATER Worldwide — the US private military contractor embroiled in controversy over its actions in Iraq — has sent a private sector warship equipped with helicopters to the Gulf of Aden, and is offering its services to shipowners concerned with Somali piracy.
The vessel, McArthur, is described as a multipurpose unit designed to support military and law-enforcement training, peace-keeping and stability operations.
The ship and its helicopters have the ability to patrol a commercial vessel’s route, thereby avoiding the need to hire security contractors to ride on board.
Obama leads McCain by 48 to 45 percent among likely U.S. voters, down 1 percentage point from Saturday. The four-day tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first commercial wireless call. It happened Oct. 13, 1983, at Soldier Field, where Ameritech Mobile, now part of Verizon Wireless, made the call from a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X known as the "brick" phone. The phone cost $3,995, was 13 inches long, and weighed 1.75 pounds.
Lt. Burke Jensen was called five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait. Now he is being told to get an irrigation system and landscaping on his property as soon as possible or face legal action from the Oak Hill Country Estates Homeowners' Association.
"I really don't give a [expletive] where he is or what his problem is," said Chick Edwards, owner and developer of the 47-lot subdivision at the south end of Oak Street in Kennewick.
"This is a contract. I don't like the way his property looks. This clown gets to do what he wants, and I'm as mad as hell," he said.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a southeast Portland yard.
Kentucky authorities have said Creek confessed to the killing in an e-mail Monday that was sent to the Bowling Green Daily News, Kentucky State Police and about 30 other recipients.
Secretary of State Ross Miller said the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team.
More recently, 27,000 registrations handled by the group from January to July 2008 "went into limbo because they were incomplete, inaccurate, or fraudulent," said James Terry, chief public advocate at the Consumers Rights League.
What military aircraft are you? EA-6B Prowler You are an EA-6B. You are sinister, preferring not to get into confrontations, but extract revenge through mind games and technological interference. You also love to make noise and couldn't care less about pollution. |
Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests. |
Major General John K. Singlaub is inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame for demonstrating extraordinary valor and unparalleled leadership during his 35-year Army career that included three wars. In one of the most daring missions of World War II, Lieutenant Singlaub nearly made Sua Sponte his personal motto by parachuting into Nazi occupied France to train, organize, and lead elements of the French resistance. Among only a handful of men to fight in both the European and Pacific Theaters of Operation, he then led Chinese guerrillas in penetration raids against Japanese Forces. Near war’s end, he led a rescue mission that parachuted into a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Hainan Island, off the coast of China, liberating over 400 Allied Prisoners of War. During the Korean War, he was chosen as the central figure in developing the Ranger Training Command at Fort Benning, GA, followed by combat tours in Korea as Deputy Chief of the CIA mission and a Battalion Commander in the 3rd Infantry Division. During the Vietnam War, he commanded the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force (MACSOG), one of the most storied units of that war, for over two years. During his long and distinguished career, Ranger Singlaub was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with OLC, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with 2 OLC, the Purple Heart with OLC, and several additional U.S. and foreign decorations. General Singlaub’s unyielding dedication, courage, and keen sense of mission accomplishment embody all that is embraced by the Ranger Creed.
A one-time police officer in western Kentucky has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for stealing guns from the evidence locker and selling them to local dealers.
Brian McKinney, 37, of Farmington, N.M., was also sentenced Friday to three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley Jr. in Owensboro.
McKinney worked as the evidence custodian for the Madisonville Police Department between May 1, 2005 and Jan. 18, 2007 and admitted to taking and selling 85 guns from the evidence locker during that time.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Todd Holder said a murder warrant has been issued for 41-year-old Deputy Randall Creek of Bowling Green. His ex-girlfriend, Debbie R. Rediess, 46, was shot to death outside her home Sunday morning in Smiths Grove, Holder said. The couple had dated for five years.
Hours before Rediess was shot, Creek sent an e-mail to The Daily News in Bowling Green describing his feelings for her. The paper reported that it was one of several letters Creek had written to the paper in recent years. In the letter, Creek said Rediess ended their relationship because he wouldn’t set a wedding date.
Creek was seen leaving in a 1997 gray Ford Ranger with a military Kentucky tag: KY 13650. Creek has black hair and brown eyes, he's about 6'2" and weighs around 220-pounds.
Should you have contact with Randall Creek, police advise not to attempt to approach or apprehend him. Creek is believed to have in his possession at least one handgun and one shotgun.
If you have any information concerning this case or to the whereabouts of Randall A. Creek, please contact the Kentucky State Police Post in Bowling Green at (270) 782-2010 or 1-800-222-5555.