Off To The Races

Subtitle: Eating Dust

On Sunday I joined my friend Ray Bowman at Anderson Dry Lake in the Johnson Valley OHV area for a cross country motocycle race. You can click on the title above for some information on Johnson Valley OHV. This OHV area is about 100 miles as the crow flies northeast of Orange County.
Ray had not participated in such a race for twenty years. He once came in first in the Barstow to Vegas race in his novice class. The Barstow to Vegas race is not run anymore due to fear of hurting desert turtles.
I have been out the the desert and rode motorbikes and quads into the hills but I had never seen a sanctioned race. The loop was 42 miles. Spectators only get to see the start and finish. The more expericence riders do two loops (84 miles) with a pit stop back at the starting point. Ray only did one loop. The start is arranged in "lines" based on experience level (expert, intermediate, novice, beginner), age range, and motorbike displacement.
Here are some pictures from the event:

Ray at the starting line

Pit area Ray at finish line

Here is some videos of the event. My camera was set to low resolution so the videos are not very big or clear. Sorry about that:

Ray Bowman at the start

47 Milliion Without Health Insurance

Sounds dramatic doesn't it? Well, first of all it is only 17% of the population. Is it worth ruining the future of the country for solving a problem for 17% of the people when there are far greater problems?
So, here is the real breakdown:
20 million are above average income and choose not to buy insurance.
14 million are poor and eligible for Medicaid
8 million are illegal aliens
That leaves 5 million that are truly without health insurance. That is only 1.8% of the population.

Butch the Rooster

John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets" and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells. The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, and a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. But to Farmer John's amazement, Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. John was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the Boone County Fair and Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result... The judges not only awarded Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well. Clearly Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?

I.O.U.S.A. America on the Brink of Financial Crisis

I saw David Walker, one of the authors of the movie IOUSA, speak at the Financial Planning Association's annual conference in Anaheim last Sunday. You need to pay attention to this man and wake up to the impending financial doom coming your way. The politicians you elected last November don't get it. They are taking this country down the tubes to further their ideological agenda. Rent the move and watch it. Then give it to a friend or enemy.

David Walker - 60 Minutes report

asHLey MySpace Video

The Goal in Afganistan

Yesterday the Obama administration in the persons of Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates stated that the goal in Afganistan is to disrupt al Qaeda. You might ask why Obama is not interested in defeating al Qaeda. Usually in war the parties are looking towards defeating the opposing side. Certainly, al Qaeda is looking to defeat and bring about the destruction of the west and in particular the United States.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the true color of liberals. They don't want to hurt our enemies. They want to make nice to enemies. They think that they can negotiate with tryants and have us all just get along. This enemy will kill you just because you are American. If you happen to be Jewish-American they will cut your head off. Christian-Americans just get shot in the head. You don't have to be a combatant, journalists and ordinary citizens are targets for these tryants. But, your president just wants to make nice to them and hope that they will all of a sudden be nice to us after thousands of years of holding a grudge.

Will you speak out for the safety and security of your fellow Americans? Even the liberals that don't have a clue?

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.' Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.'
Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it and the ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY. Be careful how you vote in 2010.

The Bacus Health Care Plan

Like it or not, this is what you may get if you don't speak up:

Like other versions of ObamaCare, the Baucus Plan proposes to:

• Impose an Individual Mandate. All Americans will be required to purchase health insurance designed by special interests, lobbyists and Congress. Americans who elect not to fall in line will face a penalty of up to $3,800.
• Impose a De Facto Employer Mandate. Although not described as an employer mandate in the legislation, the Baucus Plan will require employers with more than 50 employees to pay a $400 tax for each full-time uninsured employee.
• Mandate a 'Healthy' Lifestyle. The Baucus plan will provide Medicaid and Medicare patients with incentives for healthy living, as defined by the federal government. Of course, this means that the federal government would directly encourage and discourage American lifestyle choices.
• Instruct Doctors on Best Practices. Under the guise of encouraging cost savings, the Baucus Plan proposes to create an "Innovation Center" which will instruct doctors as to how they should work together in the treatment of their patients.
• Punish Hospitals for Readmitted Patients. In an effort to control cost and ensure quality, the Baucus Plan proposes to pay hospitals 20% less if a patient is readmitted to the hospital. Of course, this proposal will instead encourage hospitals to keep patients longer and discourage patients from returning for care after they are released.
• Tax Expensive Plans. The Baucus Plan will impose a 35% excise tax on insurance which exceeds $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 for families.
• Ignore Tort Reform. Despite the widespread belief among the American public and the medical community that tort reform would save billions of dollars and reduce the practice of defensive medicine, the Baucus Plan addresses the subject of tort reform only long enough to meekly express concern through a "Sense of the Senate" resolution.
• Undermine Health Savings Accounts (HSA). The Baucus Plan would limit the amount that employers and employees can contribute to HSAs. Moreover, the Plan would double the tax penalty on individuals who withdraw HSA funds for non-medical expenses.
• Deplete Medicare. Millions of America's senior citizens will see a significant reduction in the quality of their health care coverage. Roughly $500 billion in Medicare will be transferred to younger Americans and Medicare Advantage will be destroyed completely.
• Push Americans to Public Insurance. The Baucus Plan will cause millions of families to move from private coverage - where they currently enjoy broad access - to Medicaid and S-CHIP - where they will enjoy limited access. Moreover, millions more will lose their employment-based private coverage and instead obtain insurance in an artificial market (an "Exchange") in which insurers have perverse incentives to underprovide to the sickest patients.

Click on title about to see what you can do about it.

HAPA Concert at the Great Park

Superb Hawaiian music, hula dancing and guitar playing last night. These YouTube videos do not do it justice. It was the largest crowd ever for the free Saturday night concerts - 4,000 in attendance.

Double Header Concerts

There's nothing like two free concerts on a Saturday evening. First Debi and I attended the last of the summer concerts on the lake in Woodbridge Village. It was The Rat Pack tribute group featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. We packed wine and a lite dinner for the event.



Then it was off to the Great Park for Niyaz, a taste of Persian music. There was standing room only as Irvine has a large Iranian population.

17 Hippies Concert

The newly evolving Orange County Great Park puts on these free concerts in August and September. The OC Great Park is on the site of the old MCAS El Toro. (Marine Corps Air Station) There are also free tethered baloon rides.



The 17 Hippies is a group from Berlin. They play a selection of French tunes, English ballads and other internation songs in a genre tah I characterize as a mix of hillbilly and gypsie.

Foreign Health Care Experiments

Dr. Anne Doig, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said her country’s health care system is “sick” and “imploding,” the Canadian Press reported. Ouellet (current President of the CMA) has said that “competition should be welcomed, not feared,” meaning private health insurance should have a role in the public health system. "(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now — if it keeps on going without change — is not sustainable,"

So, the single payer Canadian system is failing. Mr. Obama said in 2003 that he favored a single payer system. Recently he said that he never said he wanted a single payer system. This is a continuation of the lies that are coming from Washington in spite of Mr. Obama's campaign pledge to change the way things work in Washington.

The highly touted French system - which resulted in the death of Princess Diana - is running a 50 billion deficit which is not sustainable.

This is where were are headed folks, if we allow the liberals and socialists to create a government run health care system. Speak up now to your Senators and Congresspersons or shut up and take it in the wallet and your physical well-being.

The Health Care Debate

The battle against the socialist health care bill is heating up. Today the topic was the rumor that the bill contained a provision that elderly people would be forced to have a discussion with their doctor about their plans for end of life care, leading some to believe that the bill was authorizing euthanasia. The liberal counter attack corrected the rumor that the provision only provided that doctors would be reimbursed for having an optional discussion about end of life care. So now all was alright with the bill and its benign provision.

Or was it? Think about it. This is exactly the tenant of the liberal big government agenda - control over your life. Can you imagine the government delineating all of the things that a doctor is allowed (paid for) to talk to you about. What about all of the things not mentioned in the bill? Since the doctors will not be paid for them, you will not get that advice. Shouldn't doctors be able to make their own decisions about discussion with patients?

Email you legislators and tell them you don't want government control of health care.

Thoughts on Health Care

Most of you don't know that only 17% of people in America don't have health insurance. Why don't you know this? Because your government and the liberal media doesn't want you to know it. When they say that 47 million are without health insurance it sounds like a big problem. Is a problem that affects 17% of the population a big enough problem to spend more that 1 trillion dollars and turn over your health care decisions to the federal government - to risk the financial security of future generations?

Next - what we are all calling health insurance is not insurance at all. Ask Andy, he will confirm this. Insurance is to spread the risk of catastrophic risk. When you buy auto insurance you don’t expect it to pay for oil changes do you? When you buy home insurance you don’t expect it to pay for the annual cleaning of your furnace do you? The fact is that you hope you never have to collect on your auto or home insurance because that would mean you have experienced a catastrophic loss. What everyone calls health insurance is just prepaid medical care plus an insurance component for the catastrophic risk. Why is everybody entitled to prepaid medical care? Only in a socialist state would this be a tenant of the government supported programs.

So, what is the answer to medical care in this country? Firstly, the federal government has no business being in the health care business or even health care regulation. There is nothing in the Constitution that allows or permits this kind of intrusion into your life. Any such regulation is the exclusive purview of the states - unless, of course, the country wants to prosecute a Constitutional amendment. Second, a mandatory insurance plan like Massachusetts has and similar to what most states have for auto insurance might be a better solution if one is needed at all. But, this should only be for catastrophic medical risk, not prepaid medical care.

Please write to your Senators and Congresspersons and tell them to stop this insanity.

Debi Doing Dancing Queen

Debi Performing "Man! I Feel Like a Woman"

Debi performing "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" at the Echo Entertainment "Songs of Your Life" show at the Crystal Cathedral last Saturday evening. I missed the first 20 seconds while fumbling with my zoom. The quality is a result of my Sony Cybeshot camera. High quality DVD will be available later. Echo Entertainment is a non-profit organization that raises money to support military veterans. This is the third show that Debi has performed in.
There is a secret about this performance. See if you can quess.

A Reckless Congress

Click on the blog title above to see how the Wall Street Journal is weighing in on the Obama socialist health care plan.

Hummingbird Home

While trimming back the bougainvillea bushes I found this small nest. It had been protected by lots of branches above it that I had removed. It doesn't appear to be occupied. It is very soft like cotton. I believe it is a hummingbird nest.

Did You Know?

That the Obama health plan legislation will exempt Congressional members and Federal employees? Seems to me what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
That Congressional democrats are pushing for quick adoption for the legislation? So that you and others will not have time to understand the complexities of it before it is enacted?
It is reported that last night Mr. Obama said that he will allow you to keep your doctor. Who the hell does he think he is? The Constitution does not give the executive branch the power to limit my choices of personal service providers and then the right to grant exceptions. Will he also grant me the right to choose my baker and candlestick maker? The Constitution is not a living document except to the extent of amendments passed by Congress and the states. It cannot be amended by executive branch decrees, by court decisions or by Congress (without the approval of the states).
Stand up for your rights people. This president and congress are taking them away one by one.

Stimulus Impact on Jobs

Click on the title above to find out how many jobs the stimulus program has saved.

Let's look at the Great Depression which is being compared to this recession. President Roosevelt and Congress enacted a massive spending program for public works projects in 1932. By 1940 the unemployment rate was 15%, down from 22% in late 1934 but still higher than the 13% it was in 1932. The mass media wants you to believe that the New Deal got us out of the depression. It is a myth. It is also not entirely true that World War II got us out of the depression. Sure, unemployment dropped well below 5% during the war but a great part of that drop was the removal of hundreds of thousands from the employment rolls - they joined the military. It is a complex issue but most economists understand that the Great Depression was ended by the economic boom that occurred after the war. The recession we are in today is better compared to the one we suffered in the 1970's.

Ask yourself why your government is spending your grandchildren's future. The only answer I can come up with is to promote some great socialist manifesto that history has shown doesn't work. And, why is your government trying to convince you that health care (actually, lack of health insurance) is the next biggest problem that the country faces? Another socialist manifesto. Where is your government when it comes to Social Security? Nowhere to be seen.

From Rush Limbaugh

What do God and Obama have in common?
Neither has a birth certificate.

How do God and Obama differ?
God doesn't think he is Obama.
Liberals love Obama.
Obama gets better press.

This is the Vice President You Wanted

For those of you who voted for the Obama/Biden ticket and spent the campaign dishing Palin, are you now sure that the VP you elected is the right person to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency?

Earlier this week Mr. Biden commented that the new tunnel linking New Jersey with Manhattan would be a benefit for automobile traffic. Only problem is that the tunnel is only for trains. Gosh, I knew that and I am sure I don't read as many newspapers as Biden. And, why would a Democrat be happy about bringing more automobiles into New York City? One would think that liberals would favor mass transit. Perhaps he doesn't understand his political philosophy.

Also earlier this week Mr. Biden told a group of law enforcement officials that the Supreme Court nominee "has your back." Does he really believe that Sotomayor will care less about civil liberties and do whatever law enforcement wants? This is another major departure from his political philosophy. By the way, this comment was not reported in the mainstream media.

When you vote for charisma over competency, you may get unintended consequences.

Supreme Court Candidate a Member of La Raza

Click on the title above for the full story.
It is not surprising that a president who brings admitted tax cheats into his cabinet would nominate a racist and activist judge to the Supreme Court. Amazing, isn't it?

When is Racism Not Racism?

When it's affirmative action.
If a person nominated for an important judgeship were to utter; "I would hope that a wise white man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a hispanic woman who hasn't lived that life," the nomination would be over and the candidate would slip into oblivion. However, the woman nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court actually did utter; "Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Is this the kind of impartiality we want in our courts?

The fact that she will get a "by" on this is another pure example of affirmative action and the harm that it can do to our Union. As for me, I have had enough of this affirmative action crap.

In Memory of John Ford

John Ford was the "F" in FDR Lawn Mowning, a small business that he, my brother George and Bruce Dapkins ran in their teenage years. John passed away suddenly on May 19 at his Maine summer home and today is his funeral service in Bethany, Connecticut.
Some pictures from the old days. Click to enlarge.

John & Janice's wedding. L-R rear: Bruce Dapkins, Dick Strong, George Rumbold, Joe Gordon, George Lemont.

Janice & John in the living room at Elmcroft

The gang during Christmas at Elmcroft

Bruce's Tempest with Janice & John in the back seat. George Lemont, George Rumbold and Bruce in the front. The FDR Pickup truck in the rear.

Our Founding Fathers Would Cringe

The appointment to the Supreme Court is on the record stating that the "Court of Appeals is where policy is made." She then caught herself, realizing that what she said was on tape and trying in a vane attempt to distance herself from the comment. She then goes on the say how a judge must think about a decsion and the ramificatioins it has on other matters. This is blatant activism in the judiciary. Welcome to the further errosion of your rights and our Federal system of government.



And get this, according to Judge Sotomayor, if your state or city bans all guns the way Washington, D.C. did, that’s okay under the Constitution.

Memorial Celebration at Crystal Cathedral

It was a NASCAR Memorial Day Sunday celebration at Crystal Cathedral on the 24th. The morning service was replete with the local VFW post posting the colors, patriotic songs, and the unfurling of a huge American flag about 50 by 100 feet up to the heights of the cathedral. After the service we were treated to a display of NASCA driver Blake Koch’s #21 and burgers by In-N-Out.

Car #21 is sponsored by http://www.godspeaks.com/
Andy will be pleased to know that it is also sponsored by: www.baybiodiesel.com


Debi posing with Blake Koch


We return for the evening serivce and I got this picture of the flag from the outside through the glass walls of the cathedral.

Bougainvillea in Bloom

The bougainvillea is in full bloom now. You may be surprised to learn that the red color is not a flower or bloom. The red is the leaf of the plant. The flower is the little white things that can be seen in the second picture closeup. Soon I will be trimming it back quite a bit because it grows like a weed and it has very sharp barbs on it. The hummingbirds have been busy in the patio also.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

The Socialist are Taking Over - from the RNC

The Obama Democrats and their leftist allies at ACORN, the “Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now,” are doing all they can to cement left-wing rule in Washington for good. Over $50 million in federal funding money has found its way into the hands of ACORN’s leftist activists over the last several years, but now the Democrats are about to make $8.5 billion more in tax-payer funds available to this radical group. All of this for an organization indicted just last week in Nevada, and charged with similar allegations in Pennsylvania, for paying money for fraudulent voter registrations in last November’s election. Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s amendment to block indicted organizations from collecting more public funding passed unanimously through the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. But now Committee Chairman Barney Frank, far-left Democrat from Massachusetts, has decided he made a mistake by supporting the amendment, and will now offer his own amendment to restore ACORN’s opportunity of receiving billions of taxpayer dollars. “I did not read it carefully, and it was in the last minute that the amendment was accepted,” said Frank. “It is a deeply flawed amendment and I am opposed to it…” Didn’t read it carefully -- or just now realized what it meant for his pals at ACORN? Since ACORN’s efforts are all about electing leftist Democrats like himself, why would Frank want them to go unrewarded? It’s time we told Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama that we won’t tolerate using our tax dollars to pay off their electoral support machine.

Illegal Immigration Is Not A Crime - Huh?

Click on the link in the title above for another great example of how your Federal government is ignoring the laws of the United States. For the actual law that makes immigration into the United States without a visa a crime, see USC Title 8 1325

Protesting Higher Taxes Is "Unhealthy?"

Senior White house advisor David Axelrod said on Sunday that the TEA Party events, which were organized by the conservative group FreedomWorks, comes from a dissatisfaction with the economy that "can mutate into something that's unhealthy."
Of course, only a liberal socialist would think that exercising your constitutional rights could become unhealthly. After all, these people have been violating the constitution for decades.
Axelrod also seemed to be upset at the tax protests against the Obama administration on the grounds that Obama had "cut taxes for 95% of the American people." In the same interview he defended allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire and he tried to make the argument that this was not going to be a tax increase. So, Obama and the Congress give workers $15 more in every paycheck and then let all the tax cuts of the past eight years expire. The biggest of these is the lowered tax rates on capital gains, now set at 15% and due to reset to 20% next year. Next the liberals will argue that 95% of the American people do not pay capital gains taxes. This is simply not true because the capital gains rate applies to qualified dividends and capital gains distributions from mutual funds. Way more that 5% of Americans own stocks and mutual funds.
The fact of the matter is that given the outrageous spending proposed by the Obama administration, taxes will have to increase to pay for the excesses.

They're Coming to Get You Soon

Click to enlarge

Hillary - Lies and Damn Lies

On her recent trip to Mexico, SOS Hillary Clinton said in her customary liberal elitist speak, that the US was to blame for a lot of the drug war violence in Mexico and across the boarder. This is blaming the victim for the crime, a favored tactic of liberals. Then she went on to say; "And since we know that the vast majority, 90% of that [weaponry] comes from our country, we're going to try to stop it from getting there in the first place."
CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to the 90% figure while interviewing President Obama.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States."
William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that "there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States."
The problem with this 90% statistic is that it is simply not true. The real number is more like 17% according to statistics from the ATF when analyzed by someone without a political agenda. The difference comes from the number of guns traced to the U.S. Guns seized in Mexico that can be traced to the US are indeed found to have 90% origin in the the US. What you weren't told is that thousands of other guns seized in Mexico from drug gangs did not have a US origin and came from places like Russia, China, Guatemala, South America and - yes, get ready for this - the Mexican army.
Are you ready to take back control of your government from these nut cases?

The Face of Socialism

Click to enlarge

What we Learned in the Press Conference Last Night

Click on the title link above for a perspective on the goings on in Washington.

Speaker rants against immigration laws

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, is "un-American."
Yes, this is the person on the right in the picture below.
She said to a group of illegal imimigrants: "You are special people. You're here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country's future. That makes you very, very patriotic."
I for one don't want illegal immigrants taking responsibility for my country after seeing what a fine job they are doing for their country of citizenship.
So, silly me for thinking that a congresswoman and the Speaker of the House should uphold her oath to protect the Constitution and laws of this country. I guess that principle just doesn't work in a socialist world now does it?
This woman should be impeached.

'Nuf Said

I told you so

Read the link in the title above. It says it all.
The executive branch is stuffed with ex-Clinton cronies and the democratic house is going to make you pay for pork projects with your future earnings.
I don't quite see the change here that the new President was supposed to bring. It is Washington politics as usual and the taxpayers get screwed as usual.
This is what you get for voting for a socialist that doesn't have any government or political experience.

Another Tax Cheat in the Administration

President Barack Obama picked former Senator Tom Daschle to lead his health reform efforts. How interesting that just before the announcement Mr. Daschle filed amended tax returns for 2005, 2006, and 2007 and paid $140,167 in additional taxes and interest. This resulted from unreported consulting income of $88,333, overstated charitable contributions of $15,000 and unreported income from the use of a car service in the amount of $250,000 from a close friend and business associate.
Way to pack the administration with thieves, Mr. President.

Politics As Usual

President Barack Obama issued new rules on January 22, 2009 which forbid a lobbyist who joins his administration from working on issues they were previously involved with.
The next day he appointed William Lynn, a 55-year-old senior vice president and lobbyist of the fourth largest US defense contractor, Raytheon, to be a Deputy Secretary of Defense. Mr. Lynn will be very familiar with the halls of the Pentagon where he will switch from being an influence peddler to a peddled official.
Way to go with the hypocrisy, Mr. President.

It's time to pray for global warming

At December's U.N. Global Warming conference in Poznan, Poland, 650 of the world's top climatologists stood up and said man-made global warming is a media generated myth without basis. Said climatologist Dr. David Gee, Chairman of the International Geological Congress, "For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming?"
To read the entire story, go here:
http://blog.mlive.com/flintopinion_impact/2009/01/its_time_to_pray_for_global_wa/print.html

Geithner Nomination Moves Out of Committee for Full Senate Vote

Your US Senate is about to confirm Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary. The Treasury secretary is the IRS Commissioner's boss. Mr. Geithner has apologized to the Senate finance committee for his failure to pay self employment tax for calendar years 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. If you read the Senate finance committee's report (first 4 pages) and you are a tax professional like me, you cannot but draw the conclusion that Mr. Geithner knew about his obligation to pay self employment taxes. Here is the document:
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb011309d.pdf
What is self employment tax? It is both halves of the Social Security and Medicare payroll tax that employees pay. If you are self employed, you get to pay the employee half and the employer half for a total of 15.2% of net self employment earnings.
Do you really want the cabinet level post that heads up the IRS to be a tax cheat? Should a person with his professional stature really be doing his own taxes? I think that this shows an irresponsible character flaw. If you believe as I do, write to your Senators and ask them to vote against his confirmation.
http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

More on Executive Orders

You might have already seen or heard the news conference that the President held for the signing of the executive orders. If not, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGEyODB3tks
In the video you can see the President hemming and hawing and actually asking a White house consul questions on how things are going to be implemented. At one point, if you listen carefully, you can hear the President repeating the words verbatim from this White House lawyer. This clearly shows the President's lack of experience. If President Bush had been repeating the words of some advisor in a news conference, the main stream media would have been all over it. Does this President get a by because his is black, a liberal, or inexperienced? You choose.
Now, it is one thing to make fun of a politician for his lack of preparation and eloquence, but image what this image looks like in the international arena. This is very embarrassing at the least to the world image of the United States.

It Begins

The liberalization of the United States has begun as promised by Mr. Obama.
In a sweeping move, your new President has signed an executive order requiring the CIA to adopt and use the Army Field Manual on Interrogation for all terrorists interrogations anywhere in the world. Those familiar with the AFMI claim that under this executive order your local police can use more severe interrogation techniques on you than the CIA can use on terrorists in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the AFMI is a public domain document that is freely available to the terrorists so that they can train themselves in counter-interrogation techniques.
Here is the AFMI: http://www.army.mil/institution/armypublicaffairs/pdf/fm2-22-3.pdf
Playing nice to bad people and rouge states is a hallmark of liberals. They think that negotiating with terrorist, dictators and perpetrators of genocide will bring peace and tranquility to the world. For the classic example of this, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time
It is my opinion that you should all start to practice prudence in public places, including air travel. I believe that our safety will soon begin to be compromised by the liberal agenda. Did you know that about 60 detainees released from Gitmo have returned to terrorists activities? The head of al-Qaida in Yemen is a former Gitmo detainee. Under your new President it is likely that many of the remaining detainees will be placed into prisons in the United States - prisons where their colleagues living freely among you (because our boarders are not secure) will be able to take hostages in exchange for release of the detainees or drive fuel laden trucks into the gates of such prisons. Oh, and these enemy combatants (prisoners of war) will be given the benefit of civil and criminal justice rather than military justice.
Is this what you intended when you voted for Obama?