I heard George Mitchell, a Democrat, speak today (yes on CSPAN) and I was really impressed with his insights on America's economic, political, and moral issues. He's more centrist than left, and when he talks he makes complete sense, answers questions thoroughly and thoughtfully, and is a very eloquent speaker. If Barack Obama had half the abilities of this man and not been so caught up in his own euphoria, I would have been more receptive to his message.
I picked up some stuff off wikipedia to post here about Mitchell:
In 1974 he won the Democratic nomination for governor of Maine, defeating Joseph Brennan. Mitchell lost in the general election to independent candidate James B. Longley, but was appointed United States Attorney for Maine by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Mitchell served in that capacity from 1977 to 1979 when he was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Maine. Mitchell served as a federal judge until he was appointed to the United States Senate in May 1980 by the governor of Maine, Joseph Brennan, when Edmund Muskie resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.
Since 1995, he has been active in the Northern Ireland peace process as U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. Mitchell first led a commission that established the principles on non-violence to which all parties in Northern Ireland had to adhere and subsequently chaired the all-party peace negotiations, which led to the Belfast Peace Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998 (known since as the Good Friday Agreement). Mitchell's personal intervention with the parties was crucial to the success of the talks. He was succeeded as special envoy by Richard Haass. For his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations, Mitchell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom[4] (on March 17, 1999) and the Liberty Medal (on July 4, 1998).
This is a man that should be in Obama's cabinet, but because he has prostate cancer might be the reason he wasn't offered a position.
On March 29, 2006, ESPN learned that Mitchell would head an investigation into past steroid use by Major League Baseball players. Mitchell was asked by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to investigate steroids charges, mainly against Barry Bonds, brought by recent revelations in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) trials of Victor Conte and Greg Anderson. Selig has said that revelations brought forth in the 2005 book "Game of Shadows" were, by way of calling attention to the issue, in part responsible for the league's decision to commission an independent investigation. To this day he is known to have held meetings with only two active players, Jason Giambi, who was ordered to meet Mitchell by Commissioner Selig in light of his public admissions on the issue, and one additional player whose name was initially not made public but was later revealed to be Frank Thomas. Mitchell did however hold extensive meetings with several known steroid dealers, club attendants, personal trainers, and others who had ties to all players named in the report. Even though the union that protects the players had pressured all but Giambi and Thomas into maintaining the culture of silence that had helped the drug problem remain a secret, there was plenty of other evidence aginst those named in his report.
Mitchell released a 409-page report of his findings on December 13, 2007. The report includes the names of 89 former and current players for whom it claims evidence of use of steroids or other prohibited substances exists. This list includes names of Most Valuable Players and All-Stars, such as Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada, Denny Neagle, Paul Lo Duca, David Justice, Barry Bonds, Eric Gagné, Todd Hundley, Randy Velarde, and Benito Santiago.
Mitchell has, in a way, taken on a role similar to that of John M. Dowd, who investigated Pete Rose's gambling in 1989.
Books
Great American Lighthouses (August 1989)
World on Fire: Saving an Endangered Earth (January 1991)
Not For America Alone: The Triumph of Democracy and The Fall of Communism (May 1997)
Making Peace (April 1999 — 1st Edition, July 2000 — Updated)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
"Good morning, Vietnam!"
I watched a show this morning on CSPAN about Adrian Cronauer, the famous DJ portrayed by Robin Williams in "Good morning, Vietnam."
He described his experience, which was very different than the Hollywood version. No surprise there.
While in Crete, he volunteered for Vietnam service just before the attacks on Saigon. Just before he was to leave the reports came in and there was nothing he could do at that point to avoid it.
He explained that there was no censorship regarding what music they could play, all that polka stuff was apparently made up. And they did post news and weather reports for the troops, but once the Vietcong caught onto when they were moving their locations due to rain, they had to stop.
In all the interviews he did out in the field, he said that he didn't encounter baby killers, rapists or any such thing as our media and the left would have us believe, just scared young men who'd been plucked from their homes and thrown into a jungle in a foreign country. They were dedicated to what they did.
He did say there was a restaurant that was bombed out on a boat, much like the "Jimmy Wong's" in the movie. And when he tried to report it they hadn't confirmed the casualty count so that's why he couldn't do it.
The "Gooooood morning, Vietnam!" was actually something he threw in as he was readying his tapes and material at the last minute before he started the show.
I remember at All Star band camp I helped out with in the 80's we rigged up a PA system in the dorms and blasted that down the hallways to get the kids out of bed at 5am.
Goooood times!
He described his experience, which was very different than the Hollywood version. No surprise there.
While in Crete, he volunteered for Vietnam service just before the attacks on Saigon. Just before he was to leave the reports came in and there was nothing he could do at that point to avoid it.
He explained that there was no censorship regarding what music they could play, all that polka stuff was apparently made up. And they did post news and weather reports for the troops, but once the Vietcong caught onto when they were moving their locations due to rain, they had to stop.
In all the interviews he did out in the field, he said that he didn't encounter baby killers, rapists or any such thing as our media and the left would have us believe, just scared young men who'd been plucked from their homes and thrown into a jungle in a foreign country. They were dedicated to what they did.
He did say there was a restaurant that was bombed out on a boat, much like the "Jimmy Wong's" in the movie. And when he tried to report it they hadn't confirmed the casualty count so that's why he couldn't do it.
The "Gooooood morning, Vietnam!" was actually something he threw in as he was readying his tapes and material at the last minute before he started the show.
I remember at All Star band camp I helped out with in the 80's we rigged up a PA system in the dorms and blasted that down the hallways to get the kids out of bed at 5am.
Goooood times!
Friday, November 21, 2008
The death of everything
I should play a dirge celebrating the dawn of a new era, of change and hope. I'm going to go down a bottle of champagne in the name of progress. I have so many reasons to do so!!!
1. Death of capitalism and the free market (Michael Moore's idiotic statement)
2. Death of IRA's and the profitable stock market
3. Death of health care as we know it (socialized medicine)
4. Death of decent public education
5. Death of Guantanamo Bay (We have to let those terrorists go because it's just too mean to keep them there. You think I'm against torture if it will save American lives?? HELL NO! Have we forgotten 9/11? Have we forgotten the beheading of our own citizens on TV??? Do we honestly think that Al-Qaeda is going to show Americans any mercy??? Should we keep Gitmo open? YES, WE CAN!!!)
6. Death of journalism (actually that died a long time ago so I'm a little late celebrating that one)
7. Death of American jobs
8. Death of Christianity as we know it in the United States of America
9. Death of our Constitution
10. Death of the U.S. dollar
I asked my husband if he wanted to host his team at our home for Christmas.
His reply:
"No, because we've laid off too many people. Nobody is in the mood to celebrate this year and it wouldn't be fair to ask them to come when they can't."
I can't WAIT for the change to come to this country!!!
1. Death of capitalism and the free market (Michael Moore's idiotic statement)
2. Death of IRA's and the profitable stock market
3. Death of health care as we know it (socialized medicine)
4. Death of decent public education
5. Death of Guantanamo Bay (We have to let those terrorists go because it's just too mean to keep them there. You think I'm against torture if it will save American lives?? HELL NO! Have we forgotten 9/11? Have we forgotten the beheading of our own citizens on TV??? Do we honestly think that Al-Qaeda is going to show Americans any mercy??? Should we keep Gitmo open? YES, WE CAN!!!)
6. Death of journalism (actually that died a long time ago so I'm a little late celebrating that one)
7. Death of American jobs
8. Death of Christianity as we know it in the United States of America
9. Death of our Constitution
10. Death of the U.S. dollar
I asked my husband if he wanted to host his team at our home for Christmas.
His reply:
"No, because we've laid off too many people. Nobody is in the mood to celebrate this year and it wouldn't be fair to ask them to come when they can't."
I can't WAIT for the change to come to this country!!!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Soviet regime returning to Eastern Europe
They say we are not headed toward another Cold War and that the KGB is dead. Think again.
September 18, 2008
By Geraldine Fagan
Forum 18 News Service (Excerpts)
Fr Ioann Grudnitsky – who has already been fined for conducting services without state registration – faced further intimidation when he conducted the funeral of a parishioner in the village of Ruzhany, he told Forum 18 News Service. Village Council leader Leonid Moskalevich showed him an order from the KGB secret police banning him from leading the funeral as his parish – he is under the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Provisional Supreme Church Authority – is not registered. However, he went ahead while Moskalevich and a police officer observed. "After working our whole lives in factories and on collective farms, sacrificing our health and receiving a tiny pension, we've reached a point where we have to ask permission from the local KGB secret police to organise a funeral!" the parishioners complained in an open letter to the President. "The local KGB has no right whatsoever to interfere in the life of the church." Moskalevich denied to Forum 18 that the document had come from the KGB or that it was a ban. Meanwhile, Grodno-based Baptist pastor Yuri Kravchuk is the latest pastor to be fined for leading unregistered worship.
The KGB secret police in Pruzhany District, close to the border with Poland, has tried to stop an Orthodox priest from leading a funeral in the local village of Ruzhany, the priest, Fr Ioann Grudnitsky, told Forum 18 News Service on 16 September. "They're starting to meddle in believers' affairs again." Yet Leonid Moskalevich, who heads Ruzhany Village Council (Brest Region), denied to Forum 18 that this was the case on 17 September: "It wasn't like that at all."
In Belarus, religious activity not sanctioned by the state is subject to prosecution under Soviet-era provisions of the Administrative Violations Code. Yuri Kravchuk, a Baptist pastor in the north-western regional centre of Grodno, is the latest to be fined.
After displaying a document from Pruzhany District KGB prohibiting Fr Ioann from conducting the funeral of Ruzhany parishioner Nina Levizarovich on 23 July, Moskalevich and a local police officer remained for the service's duration at the village cemetery, Fr Ioann told Forum 18. While the state representatives did not stop the funeral from going ahead, said the priest, they refused to give him a copy of the KGB instruction.
Ruzhany parishioners are "indignant" that Moskalevich, the village council chairman, threatened Fr Ioann with the KGB secret police instruction forbidding him to conduct the funeral. Before her death, Levizarovich had specifically requested that Fr Ioann lead her funeral, they point out in an open letter to President Aleksandr Lukashenko published on the Russian religious affairs website Portal-Credo on 10 September.
"After working our whole lives in factories and on collective farms, sacrificing our health and receiving a tiny pension, we've reached a point where we have to ask permission from the local KGB secret police to organise a funeral!" the parishioners exclaim in disbelief. "The local KGB has no right whatsoever to interfere in the life of the church – first and foremost they should shed tears of repentance on behalf of their Chekist predecessors who swam in human blood."
The Belarusian KGB – which has not changed its name since Soviet times - has made no attempt to distance itself from its Soviet past. It proudly traces its history back to the first Soviet secret police, the Cheka, which was founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky.
September 18, 2008
By Geraldine Fagan
Forum 18 News Service (Excerpts)
Fr Ioann Grudnitsky – who has already been fined for conducting services without state registration – faced further intimidation when he conducted the funeral of a parishioner in the village of Ruzhany, he told Forum 18 News Service. Village Council leader Leonid Moskalevich showed him an order from the KGB secret police banning him from leading the funeral as his parish – he is under the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Provisional Supreme Church Authority – is not registered. However, he went ahead while Moskalevich and a police officer observed. "After working our whole lives in factories and on collective farms, sacrificing our health and receiving a tiny pension, we've reached a point where we have to ask permission from the local KGB secret police to organise a funeral!" the parishioners complained in an open letter to the President. "The local KGB has no right whatsoever to interfere in the life of the church." Moskalevich denied to Forum 18 that the document had come from the KGB or that it was a ban. Meanwhile, Grodno-based Baptist pastor Yuri Kravchuk is the latest pastor to be fined for leading unregistered worship.
The KGB secret police in Pruzhany District, close to the border with Poland, has tried to stop an Orthodox priest from leading a funeral in the local village of Ruzhany, the priest, Fr Ioann Grudnitsky, told Forum 18 News Service on 16 September. "They're starting to meddle in believers' affairs again." Yet Leonid Moskalevich, who heads Ruzhany Village Council (Brest Region), denied to Forum 18 that this was the case on 17 September: "It wasn't like that at all."
In Belarus, religious activity not sanctioned by the state is subject to prosecution under Soviet-era provisions of the Administrative Violations Code. Yuri Kravchuk, a Baptist pastor in the north-western regional centre of Grodno, is the latest to be fined.
After displaying a document from Pruzhany District KGB prohibiting Fr Ioann from conducting the funeral of Ruzhany parishioner Nina Levizarovich on 23 July, Moskalevich and a local police officer remained for the service's duration at the village cemetery, Fr Ioann told Forum 18. While the state representatives did not stop the funeral from going ahead, said the priest, they refused to give him a copy of the KGB instruction.
Ruzhany parishioners are "indignant" that Moskalevich, the village council chairman, threatened Fr Ioann with the KGB secret police instruction forbidding him to conduct the funeral. Before her death, Levizarovich had specifically requested that Fr Ioann lead her funeral, they point out in an open letter to President Aleksandr Lukashenko published on the Russian religious affairs website Portal-Credo on 10 September.
"After working our whole lives in factories and on collective farms, sacrificing our health and receiving a tiny pension, we've reached a point where we have to ask permission from the local KGB secret police to organise a funeral!" the parishioners exclaim in disbelief. "The local KGB has no right whatsoever to interfere in the life of the church – first and foremost they should shed tears of repentance on behalf of their Chekist predecessors who swam in human blood."
The Belarusian KGB – which has not changed its name since Soviet times - has made no attempt to distance itself from its Soviet past. It proudly traces its history back to the first Soviet secret police, the Cheka, which was founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Thanks Ohio
Ohio is a blue state thanks to ACORN. Well, I can't personally prove that LOL. But I can say that I was hounded by their workers at a summer festival I attended in July. At least 3 different people from their organization approached me with forms to fill out wanting me to register and said it would be more convenient than voting on election day. All they needed was my signature and last four of my SSN.
When I told them no they repeatedly hounded me until I walked away. When I finally did register at the county election office, they didn't ask for my ID, didn't confirm my address with a utility bill, nothing. I suspect this happened all over the state. Apparently a park bench can be given as an address if a voter wants.
So that means if a person said "this bench is my house" or "that bench is my house" and he can go to any county election office and give his name, "address" and some 4 digits of an SSN, he could theoretically vote multiple times. Nobody checked my information when I went to register. All those people that filled out multiple forms with ACORN probably did get registered multiple times. So probably thanks to ACORN we bought Obama's election for him.
And it didn't just happen in Ohio. It happened in numerous states, so to compare this with the FL recount in 2000 aint gonna cut it as a legitimate argument. Dead people can be resurrected through this kind of vote. Illegal aliens can be allowed to vote...yet our military has to go through so much bs and red tape to vote.
I don't think the Obama supporters out there have really given this a lot of thought. They bought into the cult...I keep wondering if he asked people to jump off a cliff, would they?
And also, look for your electricity bills to skyrocket. If the coal industry gets bankrupted like he says he will do...don't come crying to us.
"Let me sort of describe my overall policy. What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.
I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."
Hmm sounds like the press was in the back mixing more koolaid when this story broke.
Sure sounds good doesn't it? Punish the evil coal industry. Just remember this when you get your bills. And when you need a can of soda pop, look for that to go up too. Soda plants emit CO2.
DON'T BLAME BUSH. ALL YOU WILL HAVE TO DO IS LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
When I told them no they repeatedly hounded me until I walked away. When I finally did register at the county election office, they didn't ask for my ID, didn't confirm my address with a utility bill, nothing. I suspect this happened all over the state. Apparently a park bench can be given as an address if a voter wants.
So that means if a person said "this bench is my house" or "that bench is my house" and he can go to any county election office and give his name, "address" and some 4 digits of an SSN, he could theoretically vote multiple times. Nobody checked my information when I went to register. All those people that filled out multiple forms with ACORN probably did get registered multiple times. So probably thanks to ACORN we bought Obama's election for him.
And it didn't just happen in Ohio. It happened in numerous states, so to compare this with the FL recount in 2000 aint gonna cut it as a legitimate argument. Dead people can be resurrected through this kind of vote. Illegal aliens can be allowed to vote...yet our military has to go through so much bs and red tape to vote.
I don't think the Obama supporters out there have really given this a lot of thought. They bought into the cult...I keep wondering if he asked people to jump off a cliff, would they?
And also, look for your electricity bills to skyrocket. If the coal industry gets bankrupted like he says he will do...don't come crying to us.
"Let me sort of describe my overall policy. What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.
I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."
Hmm sounds like the press was in the back mixing more koolaid when this story broke.
Sure sounds good doesn't it? Punish the evil coal industry. Just remember this when you get your bills. And when you need a can of soda pop, look for that to go up too. Soda plants emit CO2.
DON'T BLAME BUSH. ALL YOU WILL HAVE TO DO IS LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
What I've wanted to say all along
I think this bumper sticker expresses my feelings on the matter pretty well.
Today's news
Well, I'm not giving up my fight against the Marxist left. This is my blog and until my free speech rights are taken away, I'm going to fire away at Obama every chance I get. We had to endure all the Bush bashing for eight years. So now it's MY TIME!
So as often as I can, I will add snippets on here to illustrate just what we are in for.
A Romanian architect I met not long ago informed me that he and his family left his country and came to America because of Communism, and that if we don't pull our heads out of the sand, America is headed down that same path.
A Bulgarian woman in her late 80's came to America for the same reasons. She doesn't even want to hear the words "Barack Obama" muttered in her presence.
A Russian hairdresser I knew in Kansas City echoes those sentiments.
An Italian-Greek couple I know saw generations of their families come to America because of freedom. Now they are wondering where that freedom is.
"You have to pinch yourself - a Marxist radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshiped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it's considered impolite to say so."
- Melanie Philips, The Spectator ( UK ) 10/14/08
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Obituary London Times
It's a little long, but I think we should pay our respects....
An Obituary printed in the London Times........ Interesting and sadly,
rather true.
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
Has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was,
since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn't always fair;
and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend
more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children,
are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place.
Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing
a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after
lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only
worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly
children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
Consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could
not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an
abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses;
And criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in
her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust,
by his wife, Discretion
his daughter, Responsibility,
and his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights.
I Want It Now.
Someone Else Is To Blame.
I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If
You still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do
nothing.
An Obituary printed in the London Times........ Interesting and sadly,
rather true.
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
Has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was,
since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn't always fair;
and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend
more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children,
are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place.
Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing
a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after
lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only
worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly
children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
Consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could
not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an
abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses;
And criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in
her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents Truth and Trust,
by his wife, Discretion
his daughter, Responsibility,
and his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights.
I Want It Now.
Someone Else Is To Blame.
I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If
You still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do
nothing.
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