POST SCRIPTS

$3 Billion Investment - Flushed

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:07:27 -0800

Posted by Tina

The demise of touch-screen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and vulnerability to hackers. What to do with this high-tech junkyard is a multimillion-dollar question. One manufacturer offered $1 a piece to take back its ATM-like machines. Some states are offering the devices for sale on eBay... *** It wasn't supposed to be this way. After the disputed 2000 presidential recount, Congress provided more than $3 billion to replace punch card and lever-operated machines. State officials across the country said the new systems would eliminate human error and political tampering. *** Beginning last year, states including California, Ohio and Florida abruptly ordered election officials to mothball their electronic machines.

A very costly "fini" to the hanging chad drama.

Thought for the day

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:06:19 -0800

Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented immigrant' Is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist'

Obama's Tax Plan Made Simple

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:34:37 -0800

Sen. Obama unveiled his latest tax restructuring plan to save our poor and create more middle class by knocking off some of the rich. In this chart you must first find your rich person's annual income and then depending on what category you are in you multiply 3.645678 times the national budget, minus $50 per child credit divided by the number of solar eclipses found in the last century, plus or minus $100 depending on your marital status as of the begining of the new moon cycle in Sept. of 08 then find your subtrahend of the dividend of the paraclipse and divide by .08543276 less all deductions and enter this on line 4 of the new 1040EZ and you are done, unless you were pregnant in which case you must follow the yellow line for your specific tax bracket or the green line if you adopt. But, don't forget to take a $300 deduction for each abortion during the calendar year up to a maximum of 7 per family, but not if you are Jewish, Mormon, Catholic or a gun owner, then you must follow the pink line and divide your birthday into .... CONT

Obama's Tax Plan is Really Welfare

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:06:25 -0800

By PETER FERRARA, August 19, 2008; WSJ

Barack Obama's tax plan is the opposite of supply-side economics. He proposes to raise marginal rates for just about every federal tax. He also proposes a raft of tax credits that taxpayers can receive if they engage in various government-specified activities. Read more....

STRAW POLL RESULTS

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:48:30 -0800

Poted by Jack

Wally Herger faired much better than Nancy Pelosi, but both polls reflected decisivley negative feelings for the lawmakers. Wally's performance was viewed as below par.... Pelosi's was poor overall.

18 YEAR OLD DRINKING LIMIT IN CALIF.

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:22:27 -0800

by Jack Lee

"RALEIGH, North Carolina - College presidents from about 100 of the best-known U.S. universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the U.S. drinking age, which is among the highest in the world.'

This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."

What the academics have not acknowledged is this will likely move alcohol abuse down to the next tier, making it easily available in the high schools where many seniors will be of legal drinking age. The average human doesn't fully develop mental reasoning ability (maturity) until around age 25, and we want to encourage drinking in high schools? That ought to work out real well.

We're moving in the wrong direction and instead of lowering the drinking age we should be raising the bar...pun intended. We should raise the age to conform to what we as a society considers an adult in looks, actions and supported by psychological studies. Our laws should be consistently linked to what we expect from certain age groups.
If that means raising the vote from 18 to 21, so be it. Same for the draft, that should be 21 too. People seem to be growing up slower these days and living longer, so it's only logical we extend the age of being a non-adult to reflect society’s demands on our children who are rarely ready to assume adult responsibilities by age 18.

Why should we reward abuse of freedom by giving them more?

What these college professors are saying is too many kids are drinking in college and that drinking is almost out of control. It's too much for them to manage...and they make my case about juvenile behavior. I challenge their thinking, I really don't believe that underage drinking is too much too manage in the college invironment. Expulsion is a great tool to limiting undesirable behavior in college. The very real threat of being kicked out of college along with serious criminal penalties is all we need. Hey, who's running these institutions anyway, the adults of the students? Why should we have to acquiesce because childish students misbehave in large numbers, are we that spineless?

Being permissive has never been an encouragement for acceptable behavior, or have we already forgot the lessons of the drug dazed 60's?

27 YR RECORD! Wholesale Prices Soar

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:39:57 -0800

Posted by Jack

WASHINGTON -- U.S. producer prices unexpectedly soared at their highest annual rate in 27 years last month as rising wholesale prices for energy spread to a variety of products including automobiles, prescription drugs and capital equipment.

How To Save The Government $5 Million

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:23:07 -0800

A president's pension currently is $191,300 per year.

Assuming the next president lives to age 80. Sen. McCain would receive ZERO pension as he would reach 80 at the end of two terms as president. Sen. Obama would be retired for 26 years after two terms and would receive $4,973,800 in pension. Therefore it would certainly make economic sense to elect McCain in November.

How's that for non-partisan thinking???

Offer We Can’t Refuse

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:36:20 -0800

Posted by Tina

Another former province of the evil empire wants to participate in U.S. missile defense plans. It's an offer we can't refuse. As NATO meets in emergency session, it should welcome two new members. NATO leaders from 26 member countries are scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider possible responses to the Russian invasion of Georgia. A move we would recommend is approve the membership of two former Soviet satellites — Georgia and Ukraine. - IBD Editorial

Again I say...here, here!

Missing Records

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:32:25 -0800

Posted by Tina

Just to review, the public cannot get access to paperwork related grants distributed by then-state-legislator Obama (records from 1997 to 2000 aren't available); his state legislative office records (which he says may have been thrown out); he refuses to release a specific list of law clients, instead giving a list of all of his firm's clients, numbering several hundred each year; he won't release his application to the state bar .... - Jim Geraghty, NRO

Hmmm…has anyone tried looking in the map room at the White House?

Understatment, It’s Very British You Know

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:42:37 -0800

Posted by Tina

“The Georgian crisis is about more than vital issues of humanitarian need and rule of law over rule of force. It raises a fundamental issue of whether, and if so how, Russia can play a full and legitimate part in a rules-based international political system, exercising its rights but respecting those of others.” The Times [UK], by David Miliband

They are also masters of the satirical:

Pity I was away last week. I must have missed the march through London against the Russian invasion of Georgia. What a magnificent sight it must have been - half a million protesters standing firm against tyranny and supporting freedom and democracy. I'd have loved to have heard Red Ken denouncing the bloodthirsty gangster regime in Moscow, George Galloway comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler and Tony Benn declaring it was all about oil. - by Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail [London, UK]

Here , here!

Sitting Down

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:18:19 -0800

Market Update - Dow Down 184 at Midday

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:53:32 -0800

(This story might be more meaningful if you read Bank of America vs the Economy show below. My article looks almost prophetic given this latest Wall Street report)

Financial woes return... Stock declines accelerated in midday trade, as the financial sector deepened its slide amid reports of more losses at Lehman Brothers and of a bail-out for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

History Bites Back

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:37:16 -0800

By Dan H.B.

A courageous but sometimes reviled President saw the Muslim cutthroats for what they were: evil murderers inspired by their particular interpretations of ambiguous passages in the Koran, which they believed instructed them to dominate all infidels and either convert them or kill them. If some of the Islamic extremists were killed in the process, that was okay, because Paradise awaited those who died in holy battle. The President was tolerant of all religions, but he recognized that this group was different and posed a lethal threat to the United States. He was unlike his predecessors, who had followed a policy of appeasement for fear of enraging the enemy and thereby making them stronger. Despite extreme criticism from Congress and even from the beloved former President, this President ordered the US Marine Corps to defend America in battle overseas. The President was confident that he was morally right, and he hoped that history would judge him correctly.

The marines went into battle on the Islamic terrorists' home grounds in the Middle East and fought many bloody battles in Tripoli, Morocco, and Algiers. That is why the Marine Corps hymn refers to the "shores of Tipoli." It is also how they became known as Leathernecks, because they wore leather collars in an attempt to thwart the beheading by scimitars that often awated them.

History Bytes

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:33:40 -0800

When George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in the electoral college in 2000, after having lost the popular tally to the Democrat by 500,000 votes, it was only the fourth time such an outcome has happened in American history.

The others were John Quincy Adams’ defeat of Andrew Jackson in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes’ triumph over Samuel Tilden in 1876, and Benjamin Harrison’s victory against incumbent president Grover Cleveland in 1888).