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.