Mr. Netanyahu, tear down those settlements !
Random Thots may owe Barack Obama an apology, and maybe not. It is possible he has a habit of putting his feet on our desk when talking to foreign heads of state. Or maybe his father was just not into teaching him manners.
If we need to apologize, so does Haaretz. It’s a good photo. All it lacks is a cigar.
Bob B
A cadre of Black Congressmen walks through a gathering of mostly white folks milling about in peaceful protest. The crowd is orderly and of its’ own accord, clears a broad path for the advancing men. But one overzealous individual in the crowd is given to shouting with hands cupped to send his angry message directly at the politicians passing by. He is ignored by them, as they climb the steps they keep a discreet distance from the shouting protester, except for one, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D) MO.
Cleaver stops, steps close to the shouter and confronts him face to face. Now I must say, if a Congressman is stupid enough to go out of his way to put his face in front of an angry man screaming his lungs out at him, he has no business complaining about the natural result. He may have stepped in front of a shower but he was not spat upon. A tourist, looking somewhat lost, was heard to say – “A mad protester and a stupid politician. This must be Washington.”
Cleaver then follows the others, who never broke stride. A single member of the Capital police force, a young woman, trails casually along at the rear.
You have no doubt seen the reports – Tea Bagger spits on civil rights hero John Lewis. Protesters scream ‘nigger’ and ‘faggot’. Police escort Congressmen safely into building. Spitter arrested by Capital Police. Now you have seen the video. Continue reading
For facts and graphs that will blow you away (the HuffPo will probably charge me with inciting violence with that cliché) you have to go to A Goy and His Blog. Here is but a sample of his work. This Goy has done a great service. Paul Ryan move over, here comes the Goy.
I apologize for the size, but you can click it to enlarge. My webmaster is a lazy cat named Loosey and, like the government , is no help at all.
There is much more on this blog site. Do not fail to take a look.
Bob B
More Socialism – Obama administration announces it will require lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments.
Fidel Castro praises Obama for following in his footsteps.
More spending – Obama’s 2011 budget will raise the accumulated national debt to 90% of GDP in 10 years.
More insults – Obama snubs Israeli Prime Minister by refusing to eat with him. I know that is a crass way of expressing it but it is appropriate to the occasion. Obama walked away from the Prime Minister to have dinner alone.
More insolvency – The Pansy scheme on which Social Security operates had been forecast to remain with a positive cash flow in the year 2016. Today it was reported cash flow will turn negative this year.
The demand for US Treasury bonds on yesterday’s auction was weak. Concern about our looming debt is making our bonds harder to sell without offering higher rates in compensation for declining quality.
Bob B
It is the biggest event in Russia. It’s the annual Victory Day celebration. You have seen the films of the once glorious USSR holding high its fist of defiance against the free world in a parade of its military might through Moscow’s Red Square. It is the annual display of missiles, men and machines, a menacing show of force intimidating to all who might stand in the way of the “evil empire”. For this year’s parade newly painted posters of Stalin are planned to be included, in honor of this leader who called for the murder of more of his own countrymen in peacetime than were killed in wartime battle.
If you were President of the United States would you send a contingent of American soldiers to march in Red Square under the banner of Stalin? Obama, as Commander in Chief is ordering American soldiers to do just that. Britain, to their shame, is doing the same. The British press, to their credit is reporting it. I have seen nothing about it in the American general media.
Bob B
Is Pay-to-Play coming to a state near you?
Albany Democrats want to charge $50,000 for access to State Representatives. If I lived in New York and wanted to see my representative my question would be: Will I need to pay $50,000 one time or every year?
I wondered why the Republicans don’t charge. Then I realized they have no power in New York. Perhaps that is why there are fewer Republicans in New York. There is no money in it.
This is not a joke, Here is the link to the story. It was not very many years ago the MSM claimed neutrality. No more. It was not many years ago, perhaps 1 1/2 that politicians claimed to be corruption free. No more. From Louisiana to Albany it is now an open practice.
The Real Grass Roots
What could be more – of the people, by the people, from the people and to the people – than the blogosphere?
Truth has always been elusive and so it remains, but less so. In the blogosphere many tales are told from all sides of every story. There is Google, Snopes and more to verify or discredit the tales. It was access to verifiable truth than brought down Dan Rather.
Brazen Pay-to-play in Albany should be national news. Now it is.
Bob B
The crescendo of Black Sunday is still ringing in our ears as we return to the routine of an outrage a day from Obama and his minions. Today we have a bonus, two outrages. It is only 6AM so there may be more. (No, I am not wearing pajamas.)
First, pay czar Ken Feinberg, the one who cut pay by 50% for executives at 7 companies last year, has announced he is now going to look at 419 corporations to see if any of their executives are being paid more than he thinks they should be paid. That is the kind of thing czars do.
I didn’t know we bailed out that many companies, or is it we no longer need an excuse to control private industry? Feingold does not have the power of law behind him, yet. But czars are enforcers of rule by fiat, laws are not required. Feingold has four means at his disposal, coercion, corruption, intimidation and polite requests. He may not use all four.
The second outrage is from Chris Dodd who is employing a scorched earth policy of burn what is still standing as you retreat. By now we all know that a sub-prime mortgage is a loan to someone with less than prime (euphemism for “bad”) credit. We also know tragedy struck when this house of cards fell, as one day it had to do. Who built this house of cards? The foundation was a bipartisan effort called the Community Revitalization Act. When it got out of hand Republicans blew a warning whistle but Democrats yelled, Higher! Higher!
The charge for more and more sub-primes was led by Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Andrew Cuomo, facilitated by Fannie and Freddie with ACORN, Franklin Raines and Maxine Waters cheering it all on. That is until Raines was indicted and found guilty of fraud. To prevent this from happening again Dodd wants to re-structure the private sector. If that works I suggest we regulate the police department to stop criminals from repeating their crimes.
Bob B
As you view the short video below I ask you to keep two things in mind. First, the America that Obama promised to change is the America Ronald Reagan describes so well. The second is Reagan’s assignment of responsibility to all of us, “We hold the power and bear the responsibility to nobly secure or meanly lose the last best hope of man on earth.” That was a call to vote. Let none of us fail to honor it.
Posted in Audio/Visual, Political polemics
As I write, the house has passed the health care bill but it has not yet been presented to Obama for signature. Subject to changes in Senate Reconciliation this is what we face.
If you wish to remain self insured, as many youth do, you will pay a $750 annual fine to the government.
You may be a young, healthy, drug free non smoker but will still be charged a rate that enables the program to pay for services for obese drug addicts who smoke two packs a day because it will be unlawful for insurance companies or Medicare to differentiate.
You will no longer be able to choose less expensive policies with higher deductibles because they will be outlawed.
If you are a small business owner your cost to provide insurance to employees will increase. You will need to provide insurance that covers employees children up to age 26.
Everyone will have to buy insurance that covers maternity, newborn care and pediatric services. How this got by the gay lobby I do not know.
Everyone, including drug free alcohol abstainers will be required to buy insurance that covers substance abuse, mental health, chronic disease management, oral and eye care.
Insurance companies will be in competition with the government insurance program but insurance companies will not be allowed to adjust their premiums to compete without permission of the government.
If you are a physician with an equity interest in a hospital the hospital is not allowed to expand unless the county in which it is located has experienced a population expansion exceeding 150% in the last 5 years. So if your hospital provides superior performance Obamacare limits your ability to expand to meet the increased demand.
If you are a physician in private practice the government will begin to monitor your claims, not just for fraud, but to compare how you have used your resources in comparison to your peers. If you have performed more of a certain service than your peers, the government will be armed with the data to restrict those services they deem to be excessive.
Financial penalties are extracted from pharmaceutical companies that develop new medicines and sell them as branded drugs. The greater your success the greater the penalty under a formula that compares your sales to overall sales. The expected total penalty is forecast to be $2.3 billion annually.
Medical device makers face a similar schedule of penalties, called fees, forecast to total $2 billion annually.
The deferred compensation of insurance company executives is capped at 500,000. Compensation for executives in the entertainment industry remain unlimited for the time being.
The extraction from the insurance industry is forecast to be $6.7 billion annually. The formula is complex but it is based on a ratio of premium income to administrative costs. The higher the ratio the higher the penalty. It is a penalty for efficiency.
If you have investment income or income from trusts or estates it will be subject to a new 3.8% tax. The same will apply to earnings over 200,000 or 250,000 if you file jointly.
You may ask why insurance and pharmaceutical stocks continue to do well. The answer has two parts, first there will be more volume, second the penalties will be passed on to the consumer. To paraphrase Reagan, corporations do not pay fees to the government, they just collect them from the consumer and pass them on to the government.
Bob B
A plea
Random Thots is but a small voice. Others speak the same message, broader, louder and with greater eloquence. You know who the good ones are. The Quick Links sidebar is a good start. Point your fellow Americans to these grass roots sources of truth not obtainable from other sources. If you also see fit to include this little blogger I will be gratified.
With a sad face, Charles Krauthammer declared, “we are witnessing an historic moment” with the passage of this health care bill which “will not be repealed.” Charles realizes, as did many among the thousands that rallied in Washington, that this is less about health care than it is about power over the people through expansion of government.
If indeed this is the tipping point it appears to be, the change will be felt around the world. For if America becomes socialist brethren with Russia who will be the umbrella for the smaller nations of Eastern Europe? If America’s leaders are kindred in fiscal philosophy with the leaders of other Socialist nations what happens to the prosperity that supports our international generosity?
We have taken the first step on the left path at the fork in the road. As has been said, Democracies demise is knocking on the door when 51% of voters realize they can vote largess for themselves. We are there.
Abraham Lincoln closed his Gettysburg Address with a dedication to the hope “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Well, Abe, you got 146 years and 4 months. Never in the history of this great nation has one party worked so hard, so deviously, and so corruptly to enact legislation counter to the will of the governed as the Democratic party has done with the passage of the Obama/Pelosi health care bill.
Bob B
RANDOM THOTS 