Voters to Weigh In on Ballot Initiatives on Election Day

In my opinion, if the moral leadership at the top is as deformed and stunted as Obama's, the local issues may not matter that much, but we all have local issues--school bonds, rezoning, e-regs, gambling casinos, and the ones that aren't clear--like Ohio's payday lenders. Here's a item from my husband's AIA newsletter, The Angle. I think architects must be torn. On the one hand, they are small businesses, and salaries and commissions are low. Obama's new taxes will kill the little guy, opening up more opportunities for the mid-size and larger firms to move in for the kill. On the other hand, they can't make it without the government contracts, and they are salivating over the go-green hype.

"Next Tuesday’s election has voters buzzing about the presidential candidates and the many congressional, state, and local races. However, ballot initiatives, unless they are highly controversial, tend to fly under the radar and do not receive the necessary press coverage so voters can fully understand the issues.

In this election, there are 152 initiatives on ballots across the nation.“Ballot initiatives bypass legislatures and put lawmaking power directly in the hands of the people,” notes Billie Kaumaya, manager of AIA State Relations. “For this reason, it is very important for voters to research each issue and to make an informed decision.”With that in mind, the State Relations team has compiled a chart of just some of the initiatives on the ballot next week that may impact architects and encourages members to further investigate these initiatives:

Taxation Initiative Summary

Arizona Proposition 100: Prohibits state and local governments from establishing a new tax or fee on the sale, purchase, or transfer of real property.

LiabilityInitiative Summary

Arizona Ballot Number 201: Issues a Homeowners’ Bill of Rights.
Sustainability/Energy Efficiency Initiative Summary

California Proposition 7: Requires utilities to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy by 2010, 40% by 2020, and 50% by 2025.

California Proposition 10: Provides $1.25 billion for research, development, and production of renewable energy technology and offers incentives for purchasing solar and renewable energy technology.

Florida Ballot Number 3: Authorizes the government to prohibit consideration of the installation of renewable energy source devices as a factor in property assessments for tax purposes.

Missouri Proposition C: Requires investor-owned electric utilities to generate or purchase electricity from renewable energy sources. Requires 2% of the retail sales to be from renewable sources by 2011, 5% by 2014, 10% by 2018, and 15% by 2021.

Land Use Initiative Summary

Georgia Amendment 3: Authorizes the state legislature to provide for the creation and regulation of infrastructure development districts. Allows counties and municipalities affected by these districts to approve their creation.

Louisiana Amendment 6: Removes certain restrictions for the taking of blighted property when property is taken for the removal of a threat to public health or safety caused by the existing use or disuse of the property.

Nevada Question 2: Prohibits the government from occupying property taken in an eminent domain action until the government provides all property appraisals. Requires the government to prove that property taken in an eminent domain action be taken for “public use.” Provides that just compensation be at the highest assessed value. (Nevada law requires constitutional amendments to pass in 2 consecutive elections. This also passed in November 2006).

Rhode Island Question 2: Authorizes a $2.5 million bond to purchase or protect conservation easements and public recreation easements, greenways and other open space, recreation lands, agriculture lands, forested lands, and state parks.

Water Infrastructure Initiative Summary

Maine Question 3: Authorizes the state to issue a $3.4 million bond to raise funds for drinking water and wastewater programs, including the construction of such facilities.

Missouri Constitutional Amendment 4: Limits the availability of grants and loans to public water and sewer districts only. Removes the limits on the amount of funds available.

Ohio Issue 3 Protects: private-property rights for owners of land with underlying groundwater or non-navigable waters located on or flowing through the property.

Pennsylvania Bond Question: Authorizes the state to borrow $400 million for grants and loans for the acquisition, construction, improvement, expansion, extension, repair or rehabilitation of drinking water system, storm water and no-point source projects, nutrient credits, and wastewater treatment system projects.

Building Permits Initiative Summary

Oregon Measure 63: Exempts owners of residential or farm property from building, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical permits and inspections when making certain changes or those totaling less than $35,000 in one year.

To view all of the ballot initiatives in your state, please visit your state’s election page."

Sarah Palin will appear at Road to Victory Rallies in Canton, Marietta, Columbus and Owensville today!

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Canton, OH

McKinley Senior High School

Canton Memorial Fieldhouse

1735 Harrison AvenueCanton, OH 44708

Sunday, November 2ndDoors Open: 9am

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Marietta, OH

Marietta College Dyson Baudo Recreation Center

215 Fifth Street Marietta, OH 45750

Sunday, November 2nd Doors Open: 11:30am

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Columbus, OH

Lane Aviation - Rickenbacker International Airport

2295 John Circle DriveColumbus, OH 43217

November 2nd

Doors Open: 2pm

And November 3rd, tomorrow at

Road to Victory Rally with Sarah Palin-Lakewood, OH

Lakewood Park14532 Lake Avenue(at Belle Avenue)

Lakewood, Ohio 44107

Monday, November 3rd

Doors Open: 6:30am

It's your money

This is a composite of two ads that have come to the house--don't know if they are on TV because I don't watch it much. The guy in the middle is Tony Rezko, whom you may remember is under the bus with grandma, Rev. Wright, and Father Phleger until the pardon comes through. A dear Friend and Fundraiser. The one on the right looks a little like Bill Ayers, unrepentent terrorist, but is actually Allison Davis, who got a $20 million piece of pork. Davis and Rezko were partners, but the connection to Obama goes further back--Obama used to work for him (a lawyer). The Sun Times says Davis' father was the University of Chicago's first African-American professor, and maybe so, but in the photo he's lighter than I am. When I worked at OSU our minority recruiter told me you only needed to be 1/32 minority to qualify for a scholarship or aid, and I think Davis misses that by at least one generation.

The man on the left is Kenny Smith, a campaign volunteer, who got a $100,000 grant and is being investigated (as of 9/25/08). Now it's small potatoes compared to the credit card fraud to raise campaign money, and the Tony Rezko deal, but I think those of you from Illinois ought to peek under the kickback rug of his Illinois campaign to see what other pots are calling the kettle black.

A $100,000 state of Illinois grant for a botanic garden in Englewood was awarded by Obama in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer, Kenny Smith. It was never built, plus according to the Sun-Times, $65,000 of the grant money went to his wife. Kenny B. Smith, heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood. He was a volunteer in the Illinois congressional campaign. Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business. Well, what a surprise. Condensed a bit from the Sun Times story.

But the original plans for this Englewood garden goes further back and awarding state money, back to Obama's failed congressional race. Obama vowed to "work tirelessly" to raise $1.1 million to help Smith's organization turn the City of Chicago-owned lot into an oasis of trees and paths. But Obama lost that race, no more money was raised, and today the garden site is a mess of weeds, chunks of concrete and garbage. The only noticeable improvement is a gazebo. Try, try again. He still owed Kenny and Karen.

The AG of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, is a Democrat, and just like our Jennifer Brunner in Ohio she's really had a struggle figuring out if there's been any hanky panky. (It almost makes me wonder if women should have been given the vote--weren't they going to do things differently, dump the good-ol-boy stuff?) The article I found was over a month ago, and I don't recall any outrage about this like what exploded over Joe the Plumber's small tax lein in Ohio and giving his middle name. His story made international news overnight with the help of someone "plumbing" the computer records of the State of Ohio's computers. What is it with Illinois' AG--doesn't anyone know how to hack the records?

What's for dinner?

Lots of bloggers write about the facts of life things--menus, cleaning, health tips, auto-repair, etc. I need to once in awhile because of my unrelenting Obama-Bashing during the campaign. I mean you could go crazy looking at all the Obama lies and mess ups. Today after church in the narthex, a blog reader came up to me and said, "Norma, why don't you just say what you mean, speak your mind?" Being funny of course.

So for dinner today:

baked, wild caught salmon
baked red skin potatoes
tossed salad with cherry tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms and shredded carrots
sugar free banana chocolate pudding topped with fresh raspberries

Best campaign video I've seen

Also the best quality and the most informative. Great voice-over. Watch the whole thing. What I like is the theme, "words matter. I don't know who you are."

Who could support such a heinous crime?

Barack Obama does.

"This Act may be cited as the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003"

SEC. 2 FINDINGS

The Congress finds and declares the following:

(1) A moral, medical, and ethical consensus exists that the practice of performing a partial-birth abortion -- an abortion in which a physician delivers an unborn child's body until only the head remains inside the womb, punctures the back of the child's skull with a Sharp instrument, and sucks the child's brains out before completing deliveryof the dead infant -- is a gruesome and inhumane procedure that is never medically necessaryand should be prohibited.

(2) Rather than being an abortion procedurethat is embraced by the medical community, particularly among physicians who routinely perform other abortion procedures, partial-birth abortion remains a disfavored procedure that is not only unnecessary to preserve the health of the mother, but in fact poses serious risks to the long-term health of women and in some circumstances, their lives. As a result, at least 27 States banned the procedure as did the United States Congress which voted to ban the procedure during the 104th, 105th, and 106th Congresses." . . . "
(N) Implicitly approving such a brutal and inhumane procedure by choosing not to prohibit it will further coarsen society to the humanity of not only newborns, but all vulnerable and innocent human life, making it increasingly difficult to protect such life. Thus, Congress has a compelling interest in acting -- indeed it must act -- to prohibit this inhumane procedure."

Obama is the most radical proponent of abortion to have ever been elected to the U.S. Congress. As the Act states, his beliefs have further coarsened our society to all vulnerable and innocent human life, lives like Sarah Palin's child, who pro-abortion forces would have preferred to be killed because of an extra chromosome. Barack Obama gets a 100% rating from NARAL. Abortion is at genocide levels in the black community. This man has a lot of hate and fear--for his father's race. Look how he's treated his own family.

"Abortion is an evil the scope of which and depths of which very few people in our culture feel. The magnitude of it’s just horrific. . . 12 million black babies dead since 1973. I don’t think Barack Obama will touch that with a ten foot pole. And he should. . . He’s the most radical abortion proponent in the United States Congress, and that’s tragic.” John Piper, who has one of the best messages I've ever heard for panicked Christians on both sides on the sovereignty of God and what Christians are to be doing.

No one will investigate if he wins

Now we now how he was able to beat the Clinton machine, don't we? Look out Democrats. You're next.

"On the grubby little racket of his online credit card fraud, Senator Obama merely has to run out the clock now. If it's not exposed before Tuesday, no one is going to have any appetite for investigating it once he's won."

Worse than we thought. Well, it does make us look pretty silly for exporting democracy, doesn't it?

Two-thirds of the record-breaking haul Obama raised for the final stretch of the campaign comes from a racket set up to facilitate fake names, phony addresses and untraceable cards.

With Obama, the end justifies the means. It always does for marxists.

Watching the movie Face in the Crowd tonight. Very instructive.

. . .Lonesome Rhodes, small time hick crook, becomes the national TV spokesman for Vitajex, an innocuous dietary supplement. A frenetic montage of Rhodes's hyperbolic ads for Vitajex is one of the film's most memorable sequences, highlighting the presumed gullibility of the American public to a persuasive con-artist. In the tradition of classical tragedy, Rhodes is undone by his thirst for power and by Marcia Jeffries who, despite building his stardom, becomes so fed up that she allows him to expose his contempt for his fans on the air.

As a "Cracker Barrel" broadcast ends, Rhodes is shown, with sound off and an announcer doing a voiceover, smiling and waving to the camera as he speaks contemptuously of his audience. In the control room, Marcia and the technical staff hear him continue to mock his viewers as "idiots," "morons," "guinea pigs." Fed up with Rhodes's betrayal, aware she helped create the monster, Jeffries pushes slide switches that throw Rhodes's comments on the air. In minutes, furious, betrayed fans who heard the remarks are calling the network. In a symbolic moment, an unaware Rhodes's popularity is shown plummeting as he rides an elevator down following the show. The film ends with a meltdown. . . On the street, Marcia falters when she hears Lonesome screaming for her, but Mel bolsters her by stating that although they were all taken in by Lonesome's allure, their strength lies in the fact that they can now discern fantasy from reality.

Tax Attack

Someone show this to Senator Obama.



"Declaring that the "Corporate Tax Must Come Down," Andrew Patterson of Edmond, Oklahoma won the first prize of $5,000 in the Tax Foundation's CompeteUSA YouTube Contest with a video called "Tax Attack." The contest was part of the CompeteUSA campaign which aims at raising awareness of America's high business tax rates and how those taxes have an impact on our competitiveness, wages, and living standards.

In "Tax Attack," Patterson highlights that businesses make everyday decisions based on corporate tax systems and that our high business taxes are making American corporations look internationally for their offices, banking, labor and operations. Patterson, who lives in Edmond, Oklahoma, is a business owner himself, providing film and postproduction services to companies including retailers, business firms, nonprofit organizations and natural gas companies."

Seems we're already doing a lot of that wealth redistribution Mr. Obama likes so much, but how's he going to get American companies to come home? Force them so he can tax them more?

Cory the well driller

writes to Senator Obama. He's Joe the Plumber a few years later. Started with nothing, borrowed money, spent his own sweat, expanded, created jobs, provided a service, and became successful. I won't post the letter here, but I have gone to Cory's web site and he is exactly who he says he is. Cory Miller's letter to Senator Obama.It's quite long--go to the link and read the whole thing.

"You see, Mr. Obama, I’m the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I’m the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I’m the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn’t want to take a risk, and wouldn’t demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I’m the guy you characterize as “the Americans who can afford it the most” that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution “to spread the wealth” to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What’s worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land. . . Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country."

Today is All Saints Day

Tomorrow, All Saints Sunday, in church at the 8:15 service on Lytham Road (Upper Arlington Lutheran Church) the names of our loved ones in heaven will be read during the service.



Video of “For All the Saints” comes from a worship service at Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. One of my favorite hymns.

All Saints is Allhallows. So Halloween (which is not a Christian festival) is the Eve of Allhallows. The first general observance of All Saints' Day was ordered by Pope Gregory IV in 837.

Obama's marxism a bit dated

It's no wonder I recognized it from my college courses--he's apparently stuck back in the 1960s and 1970s with Bill Ayers and friends, while Europe and Asia struggle to release themselves from his type of chains. Here's a summary about marxism in Asia at the Irish Left Review.

From Marx to the Market
Not so long ago, there seemed to be a very different light shining from the East. It’s barely thirty years since the final defeat of the South Vietnamese regime set the seal on the most humiliating defeat the USA has suffered since appointing itself as the world’s policeman after 1945. The victory of the Vietnamese Communists was one by-product of a curious fact: the Communist International, founded by the Bolsheviks with the primary goal of spreading revolution in Western Europe, had its greatest impact in East Asia. Nobody would have found that more surprising than the Bolsheviks themselves.

Communist parties were able to take power under their own steam in China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The Korean Communists had the benefit of support from the Red Army but still had a strong domestic base when they took over the north of their country. There were also long-running Communist insurgencies in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, while Indonesia was once home to the largest non-ruling Communist party in the world.

A quick glance at the regional scene will tell you that the challenge once posed by Asian Communism to the capitalist order has been almost entirely eclipsed. The Indonesia CP was smashed by Suharto’s bloody coup in the 1960s, while the Communist guerrillas in Thailand and Malaysia have long since been defeated. The Filipino CPP/NPA survives, but is a much diminished force. The turnaround is most striking, though, in the states where Communist parties or their descendents are still in power.

China’s great leap forward has grounded itself on the embrace of private enterprise (although not, it should be said, the dogma of the Washington Consensus). . . and much more."

The author neglects to mention the millions of deaths of our South Vietnamese allies caused by the shameful exit of the U.S. at the end of the war; or the millions and millions of Chinese who met their early deaths on the road to restoring the economy of China before it scambled on their bodies to capitalism. Oh well.

Yes, Theresa, it is a single issue election

Character. The sum of those distinctive mental and moral qualities, and those traits instilled by nature, education religion and habit. Theresa Hogan has a long article on the Op-Ed page of the Dispatch today, claiming some Republicans are voting a single issue, ABORTION. Well, that would be enough for me, but the single issue for me is the man Barack Obama. I don't care if he is a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. He must be a man of character.

• His Supreme Court and lower court nominees.
  
• Who will be rubber stamped because he'll have a filibuster-proof Congress.
  
• Who will decide critical cases based on their personal feelings and beliefs rather than the Constitution.
  
• Which Obama sees as a mere list of negatives.
  
• His tax plan and rescinding the Bush tax cuts.
  
• Taxes imposed because of his idea of fairness, not need.
  
• Which will destroy our economy with the same heavy hand that FDR used in the 1930s to extend and expand the Great Depression another 10 years after he took office.
  
• His disregard for our security and the military.
  
• A flaw so large that even his enemies have sensed it sending warnings through Joe Biden.
  
• His willingness to run out on our allies, regardless of the circumstances that took us into the war, or what will get us out.
  
• His unwillingness to face the serious charge of being a socialist by joking about sharing in grade school but never answering the charge.
  
• His prancing around Europe like he was an elected leader, claiming to be a citizen of the world. Posing with symbols of fascism.
  
• His address to the nation (infomercial) before he has been elected.
  
• His choice of friends and associates, known terrorists, crooks and race baiters, while at the same time showing complete disregard for the living conditions and feelings of his blood relatives, white and black.
  
• His inability to identify with or respect rural and working people and their values.
  
• His lying about his position as "professor" when he was only a "lecturer," then using his attack troops in the press to go after Joe the Plumber because he hadn't passed his apprenticeship, and used his middle name (Obama doesn't like to use his).
  
• The same lackey press who have been unable to find a thing askew in Obama's college record, employment history, his friendships, or his family.
  
• His lack of experience--well, Theresa, dear heart, that's as wispy and dangerous as the web of the recluse spider (shy, lonely and sedentary, weaving its web in high and dark corners).
  

A serious typo

Can you spot it? I don't think this is the message this wealth building seminar ($97 to attend) wants to convey.


Do you think printer should give the customer a refund?

Fire the proofreader?

Hope no one notices that we don't own the IRS, it owns us?

Five myths about Obama's health care

Sally Pipes article in Forbes dated Nov. 1 is not an eye opener, if you’ve been paying attention. But she does use Obama’s own words and then debunks them. She is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and author of the newly released book Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide.

MYTH #1: "If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system."

A single-payer system is a great idea--until you get sick.

MYTH #2: "One of the issues we must face and can't ignore is the explosion of health care costs that is crushing families and businesses across our country."

. . . the longevity gains associated with medical innovation are currently worth $2.8 trillion annually. That's larger than the GDP of the U.K.

MYTH #3: "Under my plan, we'll make sure insurance companies cover evidence-based, preventive care services--weight loss programs, smoking-cessation programs and other efforts to help people avoid costly, debilitating health problems in the first place."

Contrary to popular belief, medical spending on the average smoker is $100,000 less than that on the nonsmoker. An ounce of prevention may help Americans live longer. But it certainly won't lead to reduced health care spending.

MYTH #4: "[John McCain] loves to talk about his tax credit. But what he doesn't tell you is that he taxes health care benefits for the first time in history. "

By combining a credit with the modified tax treatment of employer benefits, as the McCain plan does, families at all income levels would pay lower taxes on average. Obama can't say the same about his health plan.

MYTH #5: "I know the outrage we all feel about the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance."

Foolish as it may seem, a sizable number of financially comfortable individuals--particularly the young---opt against owning insurance. Another 12 million are eligible for government programs and haven’t signed up.

There’s much more detail in the article than what I’ve included.
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/10/31/obama-health-care-oped-cx_scp_1101pipes.html

Is Obama still smoking? Just asking. Maybe it's like the brother and auntie living in poverty. Do as I say, not as I do?

Entering the fall back season

This is the time of year I dread; "spring forward, fall back" when Americans all get an extra hour of sleep. Tonight we change our clocks. My super organized hubbie will have them all changed by 7 p.m. tonight. I already wake up about 4 a.m. which is why you see such early times on my blogs and e-mails. Why would I want to get up at 3 a.m.? It used to take me about a week or so to adjust, now I don't adjust. I'll just be waking up at 3, changing rooms, turning on pbs and getting disgusted with all the nonsense that we pay for from government grants to support leftist film/docu losers. (PBS is the only channel that works in the guest room.)

Then it's my squirrely eating--as cold weather comes on, I get hungrier. But because its cold, I walk outside less. I lost about 20-30 lbs in the summer of 1960, it was my freshman 10 which grew during my sophomore and junior years. Dimples appeared where I'd never seen them. At that time I had a bit of a sweet tooth. I completely gave up candy and sweets and really had no problem with that until recently (salty snacks became my choice) when I discovered how tasty canned frosting was, and how much was left over after making brownies or a cake. Now I don't even wait to bake something; I just open the can.

Also this is consumer season squared at our house. Consumption drives 72% of the American economy, and most retailers make it on the Christmas season, even if political correctness keeps the word out of the ads. The catalogs--Harry and David, L.L. Bean, Cheap Joe's, FLW Foundation, etc. have been coming through the mail slot for a month. But it's worse at our house--from late October through Christmas we have three birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each year we say it won't be like last year's, but there are the homemade cards (one of my husband's paintings usually, but those aren't cheap to produce), the special seasonal gift appeals--all for good causes--like food pantry, Lutheran Social Services and Samaritan's Purse, a little bit of entertaining, eating out more, perhaps a drive to Indianapolis to visit family, the donations to our kids' IRAs, the presents from the catalogs that my husband buys for his relatives without letting me know (he loves surprises, I don't), and all those last minute sales that beckon. Really cuts into the resolve.

So how do you handle the season?

The Mac is Back--0n the campaign trail with John McCain

A carload of us headed for the Nationwide Arena this afternoon to see John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Hank Williams, Jr., plus a number of local and Ohio politicians. It was great fun and great weather. We chatted with a lot of people in line, and then in the seating area. Joe the Plumber actually had his own line of people and seating area. There were cheerleaders, a choir from a local school, someone from the German government (we were admiring his clothes), and a stunning number of young people. At first we didn't think the crowd was very large--maybe 10,000, then by 5:30 when the work day ended, we saw a huge influx of people. The woman in front of me kept holding up her sing, "Homeschoolers for McCain" so I couldn't actually see John McCain when he was speaking, but that was the only negative.

The driver of the car was both a WWII and a Korean War veteran. Betcha there aren't many of those at an Obama gathering. When John McCain asked for a show of hands of veterans so he could thank them, I told Marv to raise both arms. He had enlisted while still in high school, and when the war was over, went back to school and worked nights. Then he was in college when he was called up as a reservist for Korea. I wonder if kids at Obama rallies can fathom that sort of responsible behavior since Obama believes in running out on your allies.

Arnold's best line was, "John McCain spent more time in a POW prison than Obama has spent in the Senate." Big cheers. It speaks to experience and to . . . experience.

While we were waiting in line to get into Nationwide, the man next to us wearing a "Veterans for McCain" button said he'd been in the Air Force from 1955 to 1985--30 years. I wonder how many Obama rallies had 30 year military veterans. People who know the cost of security and freedom.

Then there was some silly stuff too. I chatted a bit with the 3 women in front of me. One crossed the line and went over to hug a man in another line who looked a little startled. I jokingly said to the other two, "I hope she knows that guy." "No, she probably doesn't, said the one. "She does that all the time."

Update: One of the Ohio bloggers has put up a video. Here's the link. It's been a long campaign; many urgent issues were not addressed at all that are of major concern to conservatives. Only the back and forth ads. The economy crunch in September blew everything out of the water, and Democrats could have had that fixed by getting down to business 18 months ago. We all saw it coming (although O'Reilly says he didn't), but for some crazy reason (I guess because we retirees are so rich), Obama ran with the pointed finger, none of somehow aimed at his buddies. Go figure. The man is a political genius and a moral failure. Anyway, enjoy the video--it's well worth watching again--Arnold is much more specific than McCain, although for that Californian to talk down socialism--that's a little stretch!

Another Obama relative surfaces

Christians who think the government should be doing the Matthew 25 routine instead of the tithe and time, should note that the Bible also has a few things to say about taking care of ones family first.

The British newspaper The Times reported Wednesday that it had tracked down Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango. Although born in Kenya, Onyango now lives in the United States, in Boston. The report of The Times shows her living conditions are not exactly grand.

Zeituni Onyango is affectionally described by Obama in his book Dreams from My Father. Today, however, it seems that Obama and Onyango have little to no contact. The latter now ‘lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.’

Another relative of Obama, whom he also affectionally described in his best-selling autobiography, also lives in Boston, in even worse circumstances than Zeituni. Uncle Omar, as the uncle is called by Obama in his book, ‘was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.’

As The Times pointed out in its report, ‘the US press has repeatedly rehearsed Mr Obama’s extraordinary odyssey, but the other side of the family’s American experience has only been revealed in parts. Just across town from where Mr Obama made history as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, some of his closest blood relatives have confronted the harshness of immigrant life in America.’

Aunt Zeituni indicated that she was willing to talk about Barack, but only after the November 4 election. “I can’t talk about it, I just pray for him, that’s all,” she said, adding: “After the 4th, I can talk to anyone.” Times OnLine, because of course, U.S. papers can't talk either.

Poor Auntie Zeituni. Doesn't want to be plunged like Joe the Plumber! Wonder what the pay off is if she keeps quiet?

summary here

Friday Family Photo

This is a really terrible polaroid shot--wasn't even good when it was new. I think my father-in-law was just learning how to use it and didn't get the preservative fluid on it right--remember you had to smear it with something? This was taken at my in-laws' ranch style home on Mitchner on the east side of Indianapolis. They had moved there in 1957, and in order to finish at Arsenal Technical High School in the city, my husband listed his address as his aunt Bert's--the other half of the double they had lived in for about 15 years. And the furniture! I still remember the bright red couch with lime green accessories, step end tables and those funny lamps. One looks like a flying saucer about to land, the other like a strangled boa constrictor. That huge old TV with rabbit ears--wow! Did my parents even own one? Their decor was so much more modern than my own parents' style, that I'm sure I was impressed. My father-in-law worked for RCA and they had had a TV since the late 1940s. I wore that outfit, which was new then, for years--black and white wool tweed with black leather trim.

This photo is so tiny I had to see it on the computer screen before I realized that we still have the coffee grinder that's sitting on the end table. I knew it was from their home, but didn't know its age. Now I know it is at least 45 years old.

What you don't see here is our struggle to smile. Our only child had died about two months before, so this may have been one of our first ventures back into normalcy by attending a family function, perhaps Easter, but I noted only the year on the back of the photo.

Where Obama gets his TV ads

According to this writer,

from thin air

by deleting phrases from actual sentences

by forgetting the ellipsis and adding a period

by being deliberately dishonest.

Obama and Racism

There are so many political and moral reasons to fight Obama's fight to claim our White House, I'm always surprised (not really) when he and his supporters claim racism will be at the root if he fails. Indeed, it's the racism of the left that has pushed him this far. The leftist racism is essential to keep African Americans down so Obama has a podium on which to stand and preach to the rest of us.

• Racism that destroys the black family by pushing the father out of the home.
  
• Racism that destroys the drive and initiative that sustained African Americans during the darkest days of slavery and Jim Crow days with trillions in government handouts.
  
• Racism that strangles job growth and development with the new next best thing on their agenda, global warming (liberals have short attention spans).
  
• Racism that killed more black Africans by removing DDT from the international market in the 20th century than all the transatlantic slave trade with Arab Africans in the 17th and 18th centuries.
  
• Racism that puts government sponsored church "social justice" programing above Biblical righteousness and justice.
  
• Racism that shuts its eyes to the denigration of black women in hip hop and entertainment industries owned by white liberals.
  
• Racism inherent in the high abortion rate of black babies and the location of Planned Parenthood clinics near black neighborhoods.
  
• Racism that would keep black children from school choice while white liberals, civil rights leaders and our members of Congress send their little darlings to private schools.
  
• Racism that ignores the immigration of the African families who have come here for economic and religious freedom, more than ever came as slaves.
  
• Racism, if it exists in this campaign, is swamped by the sexism and ageism against Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and John McCain.

This morning on CBS I saw a Halloween costume look-alike contest of "Palins" with wigs and jackets and glasses. Some extremely unflattering, but getting great guffaws and cheers. Imagine someone doing an Obama look alike contest in black face for Halloween on a major network!

Digital Repositories

Digital Repositories or digital suppositories.
Is it just me and my need to rhyme?
To poke fun, or just poke all the time?
Or is it the experience I've had
with these library-wanna-be's bad
that just take a dump and have no class
order or sense up their ass pass
just all half-digested, and plain
with nary a librarian to ease the pain.

Digital Repositories--what is it? Your guess is as good as mine.

A librarian has taken offense at my language. That's a hoot (223:1 liberal to conservative). Probably has also objected to filters on the library's computers that protect children and has decided to be a hypocrite. Anyway, for that hypervigilant liberal, I've found a new word to rhyme with "class," that will convey the passage of undigested matter to the posterior opening of the alimentary canal.

Karyn Gillette, Jennifer Brunner, and ACORN

We were naive, I suppose, to hope our Democratic Secretary of State was a solo performer in this Ohio voter fraud. I was on one of her juries a few years back, and found her quite charming and knowledgeable, although I lost some faith in the jury of peers idea. Now it seems the noise is from a trio composed of her, ACORN, and her campaign consultant, Karyn Gillette. John Fund, writer for the Wall St. Journal, writes about this on October 30 link

"But Ms. Gillette certainly deserves more scrutiny. In 2006, she was a campaign consultant for Jennifer Brunner, the Acorn-backed Democratic candidate for Ohio secretary of state. Since her election, Ms. Brunner has outraged Republicans and left many objective observers puzzled by her judgment calls.

Some 660,000 new voter registrations have been filed in Ohio this year by groups including Acorn, and more than 200,000 failed a "match up" test in which voter information was compared with driver's license and Social Security databases. Despite these warning signs, Ms. Brunner refused to allow county officials access to information they needed to verify the newly registered voters. Many of the new registrants cast ballots earlier this month in Ohio's "Golden Week," a seven-day period when state residents can register and immediately cast an absentee ballot. At least half a dozen cases have been documented of people illegally registering and casting ballots during "Golden Week."

Republicans seeking to force Secretary Brunner to surrender the data have been stymied in court, but their hand may be strengthened by the latest revelation that Ms. Brunner's campaign consultant has close ties with Acorn's Project Vote and has been accused under oath of obtaining donor lists from the Obama campaign to drum up dollars for Acorn's voter registration effort -- including its large Ohio operation."

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal John Fund tracks Obama's ties (chains and bondage) to ACORN

The FBI is investigating its voter registration efforts in several states, amid allegations that almost a third of the 1.3 million cards it turned in are invalid. And yesterday, a former employee of Acorn testified in a Pennsylvania state court that the group's quality-control efforts were "minimal or nonexistent" and largely window dressing. Anita MonCrief also says that Acorn was given lists of potential donors by several Democratic presidential campaigns, including that of Barack Obama, to troll for contributions.

The Obama campaign denies it "has any ties" to Acorn, but Mr. Obama's ties are extensive. In 1992 he headed a registration effort for Project Vote, an Acorn partner at the time. He did so well that he was made a top trainer for Acorn's Chicago conferences. In 1995, he represented Acorn in a key case upholding the constitutionality of the new Motor Voter Act -- the first law passed by the Clinton administration -- which created the mandated, nationwide postcard voter registration system that Acorn workers are using to flood election offices with bogus registrations. Link

It's probably too late in the campaign to do much--God knows if Obama wins, all investigations of the illegal and immoral "community organizer" leftists will stop. ACORN created him; he won't toss them under the bus like Grandma.

HT Maggie Thurber

When Obama surges, the market falters

He didn't support the surge and victory in Iraq. Can you trust your 401-k to an Obama surge and victory?

"To state the obvious: The valuation of an individual stock reflects the collective expectation of investors about a company's future profits, dividends and appreciation, and the same is true of the market as a whole. These profits, in turn, are greatly influenced by government policy on taxes, spending, subsidies, environmental and other regulations, labor laws, and the corporate legal climate. Investors have heard enough from both candidates in the last month or two to conclude that prospects for a flourishing, competitive, growing and reasonably free economy in a McCain administration are bad, and in an Obama administration far worse. (In fact, the market's bearish behavior over the last couple of months pretty closely tracks Barack Obama's gains.)" George Newman

I've written about this too, but the Wall Street Journal has a larger readership than my blog.

Wal-Mart--will the left be happy now?

Wal-Mart will continue its international expansion. Yes, the world's largest retailer that revolutionized and streamlined the U.S. retail industry and brought about all the NIMBY activities will continue to grow. Just not here. In the U.S. Providing Americans with jobs. Especially all those industries from whom they purchased, all the private contractors from truck drivers to toy makers, to packagers. I'm assuming they'll continue to fuel China's economy; the goods will just be shipped to Brazil.

Spending on remodeling and adding new stores in the U.S. and Canada will rise only slightly to $4.8-$5.3 billion by Jan. 2010, from $4.5-$5.8. And to create this crunch in the economy, they didn't even have to wait for President Obama to take office for more environmental regulations, higher taxes on profits, more affirmative action hiring policies, more punitive health care demands, or the snooping into undocumented worker demands. They only needed to put a damp finger in the air to sense which way the wind is blowing.

Who is hurt the most? Low income and working class American families. They can't buy the low cost goods, can't get the jobs or contracts. NIMBYs used to hollar that a Wal-Mart hurt the neighborhood, but that isn't true, except in the same way hard surface roads hurt small towns as people drove 20-30 miles to the next city 70 years ago. And that happened in small towns years ago, long before shopping centers and discount houses.

Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of Wal-Mart expansion on retail employment at the county level. Using an instrumental variables approach to correct for both measurement error in entry dates and endogeneity of the timing of entry, I find that Wal-Mart entry increases retail employment by 100 jobs in the year of entry. Half of this gain disappears over the next five years as other retail establishments exit and contract, leaving a long-run statistically significant net gain of 50 jobs. Wholesale employment declines by approximately 20 jobs due to Wal-Mart's vertical integration. No spillover effect is detected in retail sectors in which Wal-Mart does not compete directly, suggesting Wal-Mart does not create agglomeration economies in retail trade at the county level. "Job Creation or Destruction? Labor Market Effects of Wal-Mart Expansion," Emek Basker, Review of Economics and Statistics, February 2005, Vol. 87, No. 1, 174-183

I noticed that Rebekah Gee, a physician and the Robert Wood Johnson Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and daughter of President Gee of OSU will discuss “Taking on Wal-Mart and Other Women’s Health Policy Initiatives" at OSU. She must be recovered from the terrible accident that took her husband's life and injured her this past summer. I'm of the view that if a retailer doesn't want to provide Plan B abortions, they shouldn't be required to. Gee and two other women staged a need at a Wal-Mart then brought a suit. Story here. So no woman's right was violated; no little life snuffed. At the time, Wal-Mart was required by law in Illinois to carry the abortifacient (morning after pill), but not other states. Hmm. Was Obama in the legislature when that one slipped through?

I wonder what women will do when there's no Wal-Mart to run to or it's closed? Just say No?

Wal-Mart no longer stocks my favorite face cream. Maybe I'll sue. I will have to get it mail-order otherwise. It should be my right.

Catholics end funding to ACORN over financial irregularities

Dennis Sadowski of Catholic News Service reports

"that The Catholic Campaign for Human Development suspended funding a nationwide community organizing group after it was disclosed June 2 that nearly $1 million had been embezzled.

Funding was suspended for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, popularly known as ACORN, because of the financial irregularities, said Ralph McCloud, executive director of CCHD, the U.S. bishops' domestic anti-poverty and social justice program."

That's nice, but they should have stopped it long ago because ACORN is dangerous, bad for the poor and bad for the country. Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Mennonites, et al need to start examining their heart for Jesus and stop taking government money to run government programs that cozy up to marxist organizations.

"McCloud released information showing that CCHD funded more than 320 ACORN projects with grants totaling more than $7.3 million during the last 10 years. He said the community organization also had received funds since early in CCHD's history.

CCHD's Web site reveals the campaign gave about $1.11 million to 40 ACORN affiliates in 2007 and $1.17 million to 45 affiliates in 2006.

Over the years, some of the funds undoubtedly were used for voter registration drives, McCloud said."

And why did it take from June to October to suspend the funding? I'd like to be a fly on the wall. . .

How much do you know about the economy?

Every morning at the coffee shop I chat with a number of different people--blue collar, management, writers, teachers, clerks and school children. Yesterday sitting with the two Columbus school teachers who usually join me around the fire with their newspapers, I said, "At the beginning of 2005, 1.8% of non-rental homes were empty and waiting to be sold. What do you suppose it was as of yesterday (Tuesday, Oct. 28). The wife guessed 10%, the husband 50%.

The answer is 2.8%. Both of these people are well educated, parents of college students, teachers, Christians and Republicans (actually, I only know they are voting for McCain, not their party). So how could they be so far off? The media's constant negative drum beat. And the unrelenting, dishonest, lying Obama ads. Even if you don't plan to vote for him, the constant downgrading of the economy and negative view of the American people as rich racists from Team Obama takes its toll. I even get them on my blog. [into the trash they go]

Most of these house vacancies waiting for sale are in eight states, and by far most are in California and Florida. I know a family who sold their Florida home this past summer. It had been on the market 5 years ago, but was taken off after several weeks because the owners just didn't want to be bothered with keeping it up for showing--it interferred with their home business. But in 2008, when it sold in a down market, they actually sold it for more than the sale price in 2003! House prices in California and Florida were already so inflated, that even in a down market, sellers are making out just fine. Many of the foreclosures are the result of people being allowed to buy who really couldn't afford it thinking prices would continue to rise and the could refinance when the balloon popped.

My son lives in a fairly new, but very modest neighborhood in a southeast suburb of Columbus. I asked him if there are many houses for sale in his neighborhood or foreclosure signs. No, nothing different, he said. Here in Upper Arlington I see quite a few business vacancy rental signs, but other than staying on the market longer, I don't see a housing problem. There's that new ugly high rise across from the parking lot of Kingsdale, but I think that's a problem of location. An inflated view of what your home is worth in any market, any city, any state is a problem. Remember, just a few years ago, people were flipping houses in a matter of months, and owners were taking bids for more than the asking price. If you sold in that market, you probably didn't call it unfair to buyers.

The number of homes sold in Ohio rose in September, the first increase in 20 reporting periods, the Ohio Association of Realtors said today.

Sales in September totaled 10,387, up 3.5 percent from 10,036 in September 2007. The average sale price, however, fell 6.3 percent to $134,135, the group said.

Activity during September picked up significantly in several markets, notably northeastern Ohio... Columbus Dispatch

Barack Obama campaigning in Kenya with his cousin, Odinga

How elections are worked out in Kenya

Kenya has an interesting history, and until recently was fairly stable for an African country. African countries have struggled with dictatorships, regardless of the form of government, poor infrastructures, ethnic violence, and weak economies built on handouts and guilt grants from their former colonial masters, now European liberals and socialists.

According to the CIA's World Fact Book, "Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991.

The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform. KIBAKI's NARC coalition splintered in 2005 over the constitutional review process. Government defectors joined with KANU to form a new opposition coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement, which defeated the government's draft constitution in a popular referendum in November 2005.

KIBAKI's reelection in December 2007 brought charges of vote rigging from ODM candidate Raila ODINGA and unleashed two months of violence in which as many as 1,500people died. UN-sponsored talks in late February produced a powersharing accord bringing ODINGA into the government in the restored position of prime minister."

Raila Odinga is Barack Obama's cousin (in our system it would be first cousins according to Odinga, but others say they are just members of the same Luo clan). Odinga is a Marxist and named his first child Fidel Castro.

Mr. Odinga told a stunned BBC Radio interviewer the reason why he and Mr. Obama were staying in near daily telephone contact was because they were cousins. In a Jan. 8, 2008, interview, Mr. Odinga said Mr. Obama had called him twice the day before while campaigning in the New Hampshire primary before adding, "Barack Obama's father is my maternal uncle." Obama’s Kenya Ghosts

Odinga ran on a platform of Change and was apparently a very sore loser (close race). That's not an unusual campaign slogan, but a U.S. Senator giving money to a foreigner, even his own cousin, to run a campaign is at best unwise, and at worst, illegal. Then that same Senator taking money from foreigners to supply his grandiose campaign, is not the lend lease or foreign aid plan we Americans are accustomed to.

Watch the second video; the first has been pulled, so I don't know how long the second will be up. Here's another one covering his trip to Kenya and his interference in their election.

Wardrobe expenses for Obama

How much for that empty suit?
Or that camouflaged uniform?
The emperor's new clothes?
The magic boots to be invincible?
The glass slipper that doesn't fit?
The flag pin.
Put away the calculator.
You can never count the costs.

Democrat from NY fired for her fraud problems in Ohio

According to the Times Herald Records, Amy Little was fired by Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains, NY) after he learned she is/was embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio. She was one of his long-time campaign advisers.

NEW PALTZ — Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains) fired one of his long-time campaign advisers Tuesday, after learning that she’s embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio.

Amy Little, 49, has been a registered Democrat in New York since 1991, and Ulster County election officials said she voted in the party primary here in February.

But in October, Little registered to vote in Ohio. On her registration paperwork, she indicated she moved from her home at 142 Guilford Schoolhouse Road in New Paltz to a place at 1979 N. 4th St. in Columbus, near Ohio State University.

That Ohio address also doubles as headquarters for a grassroots get-out-the-vote group called Vote Today Ohio. The organization’s pro-Obama Web site says it targets “young people from campus/urban centers” and drives them to early voting sights in Ohio. The group also offers housing to out-of-town members.

Franklin County Board of Elections officials said four people, including Little, registered from Vote Today Ohio’s address in October, just before the state’s deadline. Little requested an absentee ballot, which election officials said she has submitted.

According to Ohio election laws, voters must reside in the state at least 30 days prior to the election and must intend to stay there after November.

She claims she lives in Ohio now, a fact I think she should have told her NY boss, just in case he wanted to keep his money circulating among New York Democrats. I know a lot of Columbus people who keep summer homes elsewhere, but not too many people keep winter homes in Columbus and live in other states. With our weather, that would be crazy. I thought most of the people caught here were "kids" i.e. early 20s going to school in Europe as "scholars," but apparently they needed a housemother and Nanny Little fit the bill. If she's just a consultant she's probably not eligible for unemployment to be extended and extended--you know, that economy thing? Wonder what the Obama people in the ACORN front group were paying her? It's not cheap to maintain a second residence.

HT Maggie Thurber

Steel in his spine ad

Wow. Talk about taking a phrase out of context! The latest Obama ad trying to shave the rough edges of Biden's 2 speeches in which he warns the American people (via an Obama friendly audience) that there will be hell to pay if Obama is elected (I'm paraphrasing here, he actually said an international, generated crisis to test him) is a masterpiece of obfuscation, speechifying and scare tactics. He's obviously not talking about the Republicans creating a crisis--we can't even find McCain yard signs around here and we're supposed to be a critical state.

Let's see what others say about steel. Here's one I fell into today while researching "track two diplomacy."

“Afghanistan and the Afghan people are ready to assist the United State to stabilize Afghanistan and re-build it into a progressive state, only if the United States does not display weakening of resolve in this direction and stops exploring dangerous alternatives like exit strategies and dialogue with the much Afghan-hated Taliban. The Afghan people look to USA for steely resolve in eliminating the Taliban threat to Afghanistan.” Dr. Subhash Kapila

I don't know who Dr. Kapila is, or who he's speaking to, but Obama has no steely resolve or steel in his spine (unless it's a hanger for that empty suit) except to be our first marxist president and bring the USA to its knees. No Taliban need apply--he's got it covered. The steel is all in his supporters like Bill Ayers and George Soros. Steel like in the nails in home made bombs from the Weathermen.

Biden's threat was not a gaffe (a mistake made by a politician who accidentally tells the truth). He was dead serious. Let's review.

"We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember, I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said: Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Joe's known for gaffes, blurts and misremembering (like who was president in 1929, the closing of a diner in his home town, how many letters are in JOBS), but this was a prepared speech, so awful and terrifying, that after McCain brings it up in the campaign, Obamedia launches (somewhat late trying to figure out how to mop up after the spill), an ad, using only one tiny phrase of a frightening specter--a world in chaos due to the election of an untried, inexperienced, empty head in an empty suit with an empty heart, who's done nothing since getting to Washinton except run for President.

Americans, I have never been so alarmed, not by Joe Biden, but by our collective stupidity and willingness to fall down and play dead while this steam roller passes over us.

Maybe the economy is tanking in anticipation of Obama?

"The message blasted at us day after day by the Obama campaign and its public relations machine, otherwise known as mainstream media, is that we are in a recession, we have been for essentially the last eight years, and the US is unique in this because of the failed policies of George W. Bush.

We are not in recession. The economy of the last eight years has been fine. And we are doing better than our European know-it-alls who favor an Obama victory. At least that's what the most recent economic data show." Read the rest of the story, Exactly wrong again, especially the numbers.

The real story is exactly the opposite of that being told by the Obama campaign and mainstream media. The problem is lack of free markets.

• The federal register in 2004 held 78,851 pages of regulations, or the equivalent of 30 New Deals. The equivalent of almost two New Deals was added between 1999 and 2004.
  
• Sarbanes-Oxley, adding onerous new regulations on corporations designed to hopefully prevent future Enrons, was enacted in mid-2002. It didn't quite work with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or investment banks, did it?
  
• The first increase in the minimum wage in 10 years came in 2007; a second increase came in the summer of 2008. In May of 2007 (before the increase), the unemployment rate stood at 4.5%. The latest rate (after two minimum wage increases in two years) stands at 6.1%.
  
• The housing and financial crisis can be attributed directly to federal regulations and mismanagement at the Government Sponsored Entities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A mere citizen does not have legal standing to sue

U.S. Judge R. Barclay Surrick granted a motion by Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee to dismiss a challenge to Obama's constitutional qualifications to run for President on grounds that a mere citizen does not have legal standing to sue.

Philip Berg, a Democrat and former Assistant Attorney General for Pennsylvania, brought suit alleging that under the Natural Born Citizen Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Obama is ineligible to be President.

Judge Surrick states that citizens may not sue to enforce the Constitution without statutory authorization from Congress. One question is, was Barack Hussein Obama born in Kenya, then his birth registered by his mother, a resident of Hawaii, when she returned home with him? He would still be an American citizen if born of an American mother in Kenya, but he would be ineligible to be President because his father was not a citizen. Or, is he a natural born citizen if he was adopted by his Indonesian step-father? Or if he has dual citizenship, can he be President? John McCain was not born in the United States, but both of his parents were/are U.S. citizens. His right was questioned on this basis, also. His father was in the military. However, other questions are about Obama's mother's residency, and because Hawaii wasn't yet a state (Barry Goldwater's eligibility was also a question because Arizona wasn't a state when he was born there). See Snopes. Also a 2nd law suit.

Mark Fitzgibbons writes a legal critique of Judge Surrick's ruling at
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_enforces_the_constitutions.html

The enumerated powers of the respective branches of government are set forth in the first three articles of the Constitution. Article III states that the judicial power is vested in the courts, and "shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution . . ."

A case about whether a candidate is a natural born citizen seems quite clearly to arise under the Constitution, and thus within the exclusive domain of the courts. Under the language of the Constitution itself, there appears to be no need for Congress to pass a law authorizing individuals to file suit, or for courts to hear such challenges. In fact, there may be a separation of powers issue if Congress were to attempt to legislate broader or narrower access to the courts to hear constitutional challenges. That could infringe on the jurisdiction of the courts "to all Cases . . . arising under this Constitution."

Secondly, the enumerated powers of Congress under Article I do not extend to dictating who may have standing to sue under the Constitution. One may argue that Judge Surrick relied on what some believe to be the catch-all "Necessary and Proper Clause" in Article I, Section 8[18]. That authorizes Congress:

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Judge Surrick, however, never cites to that clause as his reason. Indeed, it would be inherently dangerous to our freedoms if Congress could dictate who can and cannot sue to enforce the Constitution.

I think the NYT questioned McCain's status as "natural born" which would certainly put all military, business and missionary children born abroad with a problem; I can't seem to find the Obama case or questions (there are several in his case) in NYT.

"A February NYT article raised the question as to whether McCain, who was born in 1936 on a U.S. military installation in the Panama Canal Zone, satisfied the constitutional prerequisites to become president. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution requires a president to be a “natural born Citizen.”

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively, told the NYT. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Maybe not. But it appears lawmakers are doing all they can to try to put the issue to rest. “It is silly for anyone to argue that Senator McCain is not eligible to become president,” said McCaskill in a written statement. “I would hope that this is something we can all agree on, for goodness sakes.”" WSJ Law Blog

Maybe the New York Times only questions the military's right to be natural born?

Via Conservative HQ

What makes Seniors tick?

That's what Harris Sherline wants to know. He has a list of questions for you at his site, The Wisdom of American's Elders, not a blog, but a website with information categories--pets, humor, challenges, etc. Stop over and take a look. He seems to be a conservative and tonight will be on a California radio show, "Is Obama ready to lead?" To listen on your computer, click this link to open a radio on your computer screen.

News you can use

Sick of talking politics at the dinner table? Tonight wow your family and/or spouse with this one:

Researchers at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and Columbia University have finally explained why ripened bananas glow blue under ultraviolet, black, light. Writing in Angewandte Chemie, Bernhard Kräutler and his colleagues report that blue hue is due to the breakdown of chlorophyll, which takes place during the ethylene-modulated ripening process of the curvy fruit. From the Alchemist Newsletter

My husband eats a banana every day. The doctor said on his last visit that he has the body of a 55 year old. Maybe you don't think that is desirable, but he is a 70 year old, born a premie, so tiny that when his head was in his mother's palm, his little toes barely reached to the crook of her elbow.

Hmm. I was over twice his weight when I was born.

The Night before the Elections

Humor, forwarded. E-mail. Author unknown. HT Maggie Thurber.

Twas the Night Before Elections
2008

'Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

Note from Norma: Amadinajad probably had too many syllables.

Obama and the Courts

All courts will of course swing to the left under an Obama presidency. He has made it very clear that when he vows to uphold the Constitution as President, he will be lying. He has been absolutely consistent from his dope smoking days to the smoking of Democrat dopes in the primaries to get their votes. He believes the U.S. Constitution is at fault for not providing a socialist, marxist template for social change, that the Founding Fathers were wrong in limiting the role of government in the lives of the citizens of the newly formed country, and that the country needs to be free from unfair competition (or any competition if you read between the lines).

The last time we had three branches of the federal government marching in lock step were the Johnson and Carter years. We got the War on Poverty and the Great Society with Johnson and stagflation with Carter (high inflation, high unemployment, stagnant growth). The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a spring board for blacks into the middle class. The War on Poverty which cost trillions, however, helped create an underclass of poverty and crime that is stubbornly resistant to change but which feeds every black candidate's election coffers. Yet the Democrats have never been happy, no matter how many trillions are spent, even when Republican presidents extend the programs so they can keep their cushy jobs.

Meanwhile, our liberal policies have killed millions of unborn American citizens. Our hysteria over the potential death of a bird caused premature withdrawal of DDT from the international market (after our own swamps were cleaned up) and more Africans have died as a result of a "liberal" environmentalist testifying before Congress than were killed by the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English during the transatlantic slave trade with the Arabs in Africa.

Under liberalism, several generations of young black men have grown up in prison because we stripped them of their manhood through government handouts to their mothers and girlfriends, never expecting them to get a job or get married and take care of business. Glorification of the gay lifestyle and focus on their civil rights rather then the disease eating up and spitting out their community have helped spread horrible diseases, destroying the lives and immunity of millions of gay men.

The chickens have really come home to roost on the liberals' 1970s feel good programs of finding the American dream for all Americans, regardless of their credit-worthiness or desire to live like white folks do. All the better to push them out of their neighborhoods into suburbia making the valuable central city land available for development by capitalists, who are never shy in finding opportunities the liberals create for them. The non-profit, ACORN clones gobbled up the grant money that each succeeding administration, regardless of party, pushed through Congress for approval. Even Bush waxed eloquent with words praising the growing housing bubble--and there was money pouring in from all over the world to buy these bundled, toxic funds.

Whether you call it the New Deal, the War on Poverty, The Second Bill of Rights or the Great Society, it's just one more toxic bundle of programs which will help destroy our liberty and economy.

My Dad was a smoker--from the archives

Oh, I remember that cough. We children had never known anything else but Dad's coughing. And the blue haze everywhere in the house if he was home. In those days, I didn't find the smell unpleasant like I do now. It was always a mix of after shave, hair cream, cigarettes and fuel oil. But what must my mother have thought? Neither of her parents smoked. Her mother was a health-nut--wouldn't even eat red meat, and she was always airing out the house.

Dad told me 40 years later [after he'd quit] that he wanted a cigarette for 20 years. When I was younger, I didn't think about that too much. But now I'm in awe of his focus, drive and determination. He was not always a pleasant person to be around when I was growing up. I wonder now if he just wanted a cigarette, if his head hurt, his eyes burned and his skin crawled for nicotine. My parents weren't social--Dad dealt with people all day, 12 hours a day and a houseful of noisy children at night. And all the while, craving a cigarette, knowing that would take the edge off.

European media are much worse than ours

I might go on and on about Katie, Charlie and Chris, but visits to Germany, Finland and Italy in the past three years actually made me feel a tingle (ala Chris Matthews) for our American Media. I think I wrote that while in Finland (where you can't even figure out the street names unless they are in Swedish) I got so desperate for something to read while drinking coffee, that I actually bought a Time Magazine, about half of which covered sports. It had probably been 40 years. Germany was hopeless, as was Italy. Even if you found an "international" edition, the Bush bashing was beyond anything we see or hear (unless you can tolerate the cat littering in the Kos Kids sandbox). There is a German blog written in English on the German media bias. Not too many years ago, about 20% of Americans had German ancestry, far more than English, although that is our language. In my family tree, my German ancestors used a form of German for about 100 years, before really getting the hang of English in the early 19th century. I think that has changed, reflecting our deplorable border protection, and the tinkering done during the Great Society with our ethnic quotas.Click to enlarge

A shrill yet influential segment of the German media has repeatedly sought to exploit and exacerbate transatlantic differences. This weblog is a watchdog site dedicated to the documentation of anti-Americanism in German media and the negative influence it has on Germans’ perceptions of the United States. German media coverage of the United States is frequently marked by one-sidedness, ideology, stereotypes, clichés and factual errors Davids Medienkritik is a collection of critical postings written by those who run this blog (David and Ray) on the German media. Occasionally we also publish political postings that have no connection to any particular media organization, particularly if the topic is current and plays an important role in public discussion.

American liberals, progressives and Democrats should stop running after the European popularity vote. They don't like us, and except for a few years in the 1940s, never did. We didn't really help all that much in WWI, jumping in at the last minutes. We're always dabbling, then running away like we did in Korea and Vietnam, and like the Obamanationals wanted us to do in the middle east. I think they know that.

We are them--we are the descendants of the people who were kicked out, run off, starved out, bombed out, or sent on prison ships who built a new society where people of hundreds of ethnic groups, religions and cultures did what Europe's little city states and kingdoms were never able to do until the Euro and the threat of Islam forced them in to it--we worked together and built a country. We hung it all on a Constitution and Bill of Rights that the candidate the Europeans admire so much disrespects as being a collection of negatives, and wants to edit. Gosh, no wonder they will bow to him for a few weeks or months. He's one of them.

Payday loans--Ohio votes

Here's what I said on this topic in January. It seems to be another feel good topic for liberals, believing they will help the poor more by pushing them into more government help and away from high interest loans. One more door shut on access and choice for the poor (and the wealthy trying to hide their assets).

Our polls are very, very crowded with early voting. 51% are Democrats, 4% are Republicans, and the rest state no party preference according to the Columbus Dispatch. The Obama people have been flawless (not fraudless) in their machinations. McCain-Palin, at least in Franklin County, is not well organized and ran out of yard signs and badges some time ago (probably picked up by Obama trojan horses). As of yesterday at Vets Memorial, I think they had more absentee voters than people eligible to vote in three of our northwest suburbs--Upper Arlington, Grandview and Marble Cliff.

American Daughter recommends

"Look to Germany for extreme media bias regarding the upcoming US presidential election. Two astute German/English bloggers at Davids Medienkritik keep a watch on the German media’s commentary on the American scene. They have just documented an astounding instance of negative bias."

HT American Daughter

Once on the bandwagon, the music is too loud

Herb Denenberg invites you to look at the empty suit that is Barack Obama in this opinion piece in the Philadelphia Bulletin about major newspapers endorsing Obama. He is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a Philadelphia journalist, consumer advocate and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences.

“The [Philadelphia] Inquirer criticizes Sen. John McCain for voting with President George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, but conveniently neglects to note Sen. Obama votes with his party 96 percent of the time. He is one of the most partisan and the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate. That is not the stuff of an escape from the "tar pit of partisan sniping." How can an extremist liberal, radical and party-liner bring both sides together?In fact, Sen. Obama not only lacks the ability to be bipartisan and to bring people together, but also lacks the willingness to even listen to the other side. He is not only highly partisan but seems to have a Storm Trooper mentality with a slight whiff of fascism.” . . .

“As Sen. Obama has a resume so thin and legislative achievements so non-existent, the Inquirer bases its endorsements on his positions. But even here, you see the pathetic nature of the Inquirer's efforts to fill this empty suit. . . For example, it praises Sen. McCain for his stand on public financing of elections. It omits this was central to Sen. Obama's claimed reform agenda. It omits Sen. Obama promised to take public financing. And it omits, despite his promise and pledge, as soon as it was politically expedient, Sen. Obama abandoned his pledge and promise. As usual, Sen. Obama's rhetoric is the opposite of his reality.

The Inquirer editorial also praises Sen. McCain for his stand on pork-barrel spending. . . In contrast, Sen. Obama was a leading pork-barrel spender, and even got an earmark for the medical center where his wife works. But such an outrageous conflict of interest never raised a slight stir from the mainstream media.”

[On the plus of a bi-racial president?] “. . . We don't have to tell the world that America, as a melting pot, is a reality. We are that melting pot, and we don't have to decide the election in Sen. Obama's favor to please the world or the U.N. People all over the world are fighting to get into America because they know it is the great melting pot and the golden city on the hill that is the land of opportunity and freedom. . . To put it bluntly, the Inquirer's endorsement has a definite tinge of racism, just as their favorite candidate does. In any event, the Inquirer's editorial board thinks we ought to apply affirmative action to presidential elections.”

All true, and more Mr. Denenberg, but the crowded masses are packed in the bandwagon so tightly and the music is so loud, the heart rates so high, with arms and hands raised and waving that I doubt they can hear you.

FDR's failures will be Obama's

During high school and college courses of American History that I took (I had enough for a minor in college), President Hoover was villified, Roosevelt diefied. Sort of like Bush-Obama. It's still that way in most sources. But no sensible person can look at 1932-1942 and not see that Roosevelt totally failed with his New Deal! He taxed everything that moved, particularly poor people who were taxed for the smallest pleasures like chewing gum and movie tickets. The rich did fine. Each time the stock market would start to recover or the unemployment rate would go down, he'd throw another chunk of the alphabet (AAA, NIRA, TVA, WPA, NRA) on the fire, and whoosh, he'd put out the flame of progress.

Hoover was only in office a few months when the stock market collapsed--he had no role in that at all. Unemployment was 4% in August 1929, and the crash was in October. (Somebody tell Joe Biden.) Hoover tried a little and he tried a lot. He tried free markets, tax cuts, and tax increases. He tried bailing out banks and insurance companies. Has a familiar ring?

Some of it looks just like entry level "New Deal" to me. So if it didn't work, let's try more, and that's what FDR did, and did, and did some more. We'll never know what might have happened if Hoover and Roosevelt had done nothing. Unemployment peaked in 1933, well after FDR's 100 days. Well, if you won't blame FDR for that, then don't blame Hoover for the crash. But it never got out of double digits the whole decade, and was back up around 20% in 1938. If we hadn't gone into WWII when all the men went off to war and unemployment dropped below 3% because no one was left in town but my grandfather and my great-grandfather to run things, we'd probably still be doing the New Deal. In many ways, we never quit. And each time we get a Democrat in office it's like the ghost of FDR and he tries it all over again, whether or not we have a recession or stagflation or a tech boom.

Don't trot out the WPA and wave that at me. My home town has a nice little WPA mural in the post office. We had a sweet little state park down the road where they planted trees. It's still used today--we have our class reunions there. Bright eyed, idealistic college kids can write papers about the WPA's contribution, but what the town really had were several small companies that employed people--a printing plant, a publishing company and a fulfillment agency. That's what fed people and built homes--not the government paying people an allowance to paint, write, sing, dance or build cabins in parks or roads. For the 3 million or so who were in WPA I'm sure it was a nice chance to get away from home and earn some self respect, but most people had jobs or were working the family farm, or taking in laundry or boarders, or selling garden produce.

FDR was a brilliant politician, but none of his programs turned the economy around in the Depression. It was stop-gap government sop and Obama will take us in the same direction. Thomas Sowell says

Barack Obama's "change" is a recycling of the kinds of policies and rhetoric of the New Deal that prolonged the Great Depression of the 1930s far beyond the duration of any depression before or since.

These are the same kinds of liberal policies that led to double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates and rising unemployment during the Carter administration. These are "back to the future" changes to economic disasters that need repeating.

Make no mistake, the political rhetoric of FDR was great. For those who admire political rhetoric, as so many of Barack Obama's supporters seem to, FDR was tops. For those who go by actual results, FDR's track record was abysmal.
Thomas Sowell

What not to put in a cover letter

is the topic of Poet with a Day Job post. Good stuff. Stop and read her poetry. The Wall St. Journal today had an advice column for retirees going back to work. I noticed this one: "Hide your resentment." How you feel about the economy and your financial situation. A positive attitude goes a long way in a job interview and some of the casual questions are there to draw out your personal characteristics (that's me commenting, not WSJ, because I was on a lot of search committees).

I know people my age "laid off" at 68 or 69 who are quite bitter. Now the Obama-Biden way would be to be patriotic and spread the wealth and opportunity to the younger, poorer, less experienced person looking for work. Right?

Whatever your reason--choice or cut back--don't sit around letting your unemployment checks become a habit. When I worked for JTPA in a jobs program we told people they needed to spend 8 hours a day looking for work, updating their skills (like learning to drive or read the bus route), mailing out resumes, and networking.

The government can't do everything--yet.

The story of Cowslip

They started with three young heifers. Then

Several years later Snowdrop suddenly died. Cowslip stood next to Snowdrop's dead body refusing to leave until Snowdrop was buried. It was after Snowdrop died that we realized there was something very wrong with Cowslip. Our neighbor took one look at her and said she was blind. Then it all made sense. Snowdrop had been her eyes and without her old friend she was lost and afraid of the other cows and new places. Judging by Cowslips pale brown eyes, I'd say she been born blind." Rest of the story here at My Mustangs.

McCain Paper Dolls

My celebrity paper dolls get a lot of hits. At Illinois Review I saw an item about McCain Paper Dolls.