Blackburn: Net neutrality is 'Fairness Doctrine for the Internet'

From the Hill: Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) spoke against net neutrality regulations today (Jan. 18) at an event put on by the Safe Internet Alliance. Representing the songwriters, singers, actors, producers and other entertainers in Memphis and Nashville, she said the creative community does not want the federal government to interfere with how they are able to get content to consumers via the Internet.

"Net neutrality, as I see it, is the fairness doctrine for the Internet," she said. The creators "fully understand what the Fairness Doctrine would be when it applies to TV or radio. What they do not want is the federal government policing how they deploy their content over the Internet and they want the ISPs to manage their networks and deploy the content however they have agreed on with ISP. They do not want a czar of the Internet to determine when they can deploy their creativity over the Internet. "They do not want a czar to determine what speeds will be available....We are watching the FCC very closely as it relates to that issue."

Blackburn: Net neutrality is 'Fairness Doctrine for the Internet' - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

And not surprisingly, Susan Crawford, a former special assistant to President Obama for technology policy, and favors strong regulations on tech issues. She wrote an op-ed for the NYT favoring regulation and needs to be watched closely.

One hundred per cent fatality, but other than that . . . it's a success

According to Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, abortions performed in the first trimester pose virtually no long-term risk of such problems as infertility, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or birth defect, and little or no risk of preterm or low-birth-weight deliveries. For the tiny life in the womb, however, there is a 100% fatality rate (1,210,000 deaths by abortion in 2008, 88% in the first trimester).

Guttmacher supplies many, many statistics, mostly in percentages, not numbers. Federal-state Medicaid spent $1.3 billion for family planning services in FY 2006 for 9 million women, of which the federal government pays 90% of the cost, and the states pay 10%. Most of this is for contraception. 54% of the women having abortions report using contraceptives and 46% hadn't. So something isn't working--maybe all that money is going for office space, staffing,bureaucrats and grants to Guttmacher and Planned Parenthood (which gets the biggest piece of the pie)?

Alan E. Guttmacher, nephew to Alan F. Guttmacher, a former vice president of the American Eugenics Society for whom the above is named, assumed the duties of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) first as acting director, then director on August 1, 2010. President Barack Obama's position on abortion is the most anti-life of any member of Congress or President of the United States in the history of this country. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) gives Obama a 100% score on his pro-choice voting record in the Senate for 2005, 2006, and 2007.

The herd of sacred cows will continue to graze if. . .

This herd of sacred cows has doubled in size in two years, from Bush cows to Obama cows.
Alan Simpson said that on Fox News last night. He's one of Obama's chairs of the Deficit Commission. It's short enough that one could actually read it, unlike the massive health care bill of over 2,000 pages. However, it's not terribly believable. If both parties have contibuted to the deficit, having a bipartisan (both parties) commission look at spending makes little sense. I think the American people should look at the spending so they aren't just moving money from the wallet to the pocket and calling it "savings," like shifting inefficient federal health costs to even worse state health costs.

I've only been a Republican for a decade, but since they seem to be the same party I registered with in the 1960s I see some problems. Republicans talk small government and fiscal responsibility, but once inside the beltway they become first RINOs, then progressives, then socialists, feeding at the public trough, schmoozing with the lobbiests, and playing games. Huey Long in the 1930s, an opponent of Roosevelt, wrote a pamphlet called Share Our Wealth, and his stealth theft of wealth is indistinguishable from today's government, regardless of which party is in power.

So I challenge you, liberal or conservative to find an agency, commission, program, department, task force, Congressional office, government GSE or think tank, and find a section of its budget and take it apart, piece by piece. Find the pork or the graft if it's coming to your city or state and you don't want it to die permanently, or decide why the entire thing is a scam if you can handle a really sharp knife. Or, you could do it by topic--like poverty, education, housing, health, or job training and dig out the waste as it resides in multiple departments like Education, Energy, Health.

Or, you could do it by non-profit status or by religion. How much are Lutherans or Methodists or Catholics or fair-housing groups and trade associations getting from government grants instead of their members, and are they then able to meet their original mission statement or do they have to be gradually silenced? Has Jesus' command in Matthew changed from "Therefore go, . . . because I said so" to "Therefore NO, . . . because the government says so."

Does the government need to still be offering zero percent down home mortgages? You can get one through the USDA. Did we learn nothing from the last three years? The USDA is right up there with HHS as the biggest spender of pork in government--it's in everything from day care to home mortgages. So citizens, let's call this pulled pork and see what we find, then pass it along to your Congressional representative.
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Update: Here's one from the Department of Energy someone could look at. The DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) was created in 1976 to assist low-income families who lacked resources to invest in energy efficiency. You would think that after 35 years, most low income homes would be insulated or have window replacements, but apparently not because $5 billion of ARRA money was dumped in their lap after an annual allocation of around $225 million. Imagine the frantic hiring and and equipment buying and ordering supplies hastily that must have put in motion! Although I didn’t find the cost, one of the grants was for a webinar for a nonprofit (NASCSP) to teach its members how to use social media and blogging to sign people up to use this money. And to think I started 12 blogs with no government or any start up costs.

Update 2: Rusty suggests: Well, that'll be easy as the Dept of Energy was the first I was going to eliminate all together. It has done nothing over the last 30? years. Next I would eliminate all agricultural subsidies. How much sense does it make to pay for a farmer NOT to plant something. Or pay them to plant corn for ethanol. Without a subsidy, fuel WITH ethanol would cost more than gas without. Then federal lands, that are leased to cattle operations in the West, need to be rented at rates that reflect prices for comparable non-federal lands. And after that, the Department of Education.

Update 3: Bill says: In the UK they froze senior benefits and the military budget and then went to the other government organizations with a % they must cut. The per cents are not small, like 20 and 25%. If the department head balks or says it can't be done, the department head gets eliminated. Then Carol adds, she thinks Social Security and the military are untouchables.

Update 4:Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe: "Other 10-year Cato spending cut estimates: Scrapping the departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development saves $550 billion; ending farm subsidies would produce nearly $290 billion. Cutting NASA spending by 50% would save $90 billion. Repealing Davis-Bacon labor rules produces $60 billion. Ending urban mass transit grants would save $52 billion. Privatizing air traffic control, as other nations have done, saves $38 billion. Privatize Amtrak and end rail subsidies and save $31 billion. Reform federal worker retirement, $18 billion. Retire Americorps, $10 billion. Shutter the Small Business Administration, $14 billion."Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe: What Congress Should Cut - WSJ.com

Linking unemployment to Why Tucson massacre will happen again

This may be next to Sheriff Dupnik's theories in cluelessness--Brett Arends at Market Watch links unemployment of young men to gun violence and predicts Tucson type murders will happen again. He strings unrelated statistics like he was decorating a Christmas tree. I was about to look up the comment requirements, but when I looked at them, someone said exactly what I was thinking? Who in the world would have employed Loughner with his problems? He hardly fits the profile of the unemployed.

"Loughner didn't kill Rep. Giffords because he was unemployed, but because he is crazy. He would be unemployed in any event because most employers are not going to hire someone who exhibits anti-social behavior to the extent that Loughner does."

Why Tucson massacre will happen again Brett Arends' ROI - MarketWatch

Arizona shooting victim arrested after threatening Tea Party member of panel

Do you suppose that ABC and Christiane Amanpour used poor judgement in bringing an understandably stressed out shooting victim on to a panel when the media clearly have been part of the run up to blame the wrong people for the tragedy? James Fuller probably believed their lies. He threatened the Tea Party representative, Trent Humphries, on the panel and was arrested. He will have a mental health evaluation, something which Loughner apparently either didn't have, or was allowed to ignore the results. Shame on ABC for not 1) vetting their panelists, and 2) not protecting their panelists. I watched the tape; Humphries hadn't said anything inflamatory--he was asking for calm and a period of respectful mourning. Fuller appears to have come prepared to challenge him.

Arizona shooting victim arrested after threat - Yahoo! News

Moonbattery: "Congratulations to ABC. People are finally going to watch the floundering Amanpour's This Week program. But good luck getting anyone to swallow the preposterous "mainstream" media narrative that this horrible story is about Sarah Palin and the Tea Party encouraging violence. Even ABC's own affiliates are starting to choke on the irony."

Former Black Panther Bobby Rush on gun violence

A reminder not to be silent on gun violence (Rep. Bobby Rush) - The Hill's Congress Blog

Rush asks: "Why is it that those extremist voices, who so passionately wail about states’ rights superseding federal rights, literally jumped for joy when, in June 2010, a narrowly divided U. S. Supreme Court overturned a Chicago law that local public officials put in place as a meaningful step to help stem the wave of gun violence?"

Note: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Chicago's ban on private ownership of handguns, saying the Second Amendment applies to states and municipalities as well as the federal government.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/06/28/US-Supreme-Court-Chicagos-gun-ban-struck-down/UPI-18071277761369/#ixzz1BKiiMsl5

Maybe they lived in Chicago where gun violence went up when that "meaningful step" didn't save any lives of honest citizens?

Don't think this will happen, but it might calm down Chris Matthews

As seen on Newsmax:

"Chris Matthews said during a discussion with two liberal radio hosts: “What’s been the role of talk radio in fueling the heated language? I’ll mention a couple of names. People like Mark Levin, Michael Savage, for example, who every time you listen to them, they are furious. Furious at the left. With anger that just builds and builds in their voice and by the time they go to commercial they are just in some rage every night with ugly talk. Ugly sounding talk, and it never changes, it never modulates.”

Levin, a former Justice Department official, said: “I believe in the law. I believe in free speech. I believe in responsible speech. Now, you want people to tone it down? OK, good. Anybody who accuses me of inciting mass murder in Tucson, Arizona, is going to be sued. Period.”

The American Spectator observed on Thursday: “Levin’s challenge to Matthews and other left-wing media types comes on the heels of increasingly desperate attempts by the left-wing media to pin the Tucson violence by the mentally disturbed Jared Loughner on conservative talk radio stars."

Mark Levin Threatens to Sue Chris Matthews

At American Spectator: "I challenge Chris Matthews, I'll put $100,000 on the table, to find any example where Sarah Palin has promoted the murder of anybody," said Levin -- specifically excluding terrorists and the Taliban.

Levin went on: "A hundred thousand on the table if Chris Matthews can find anywhere Mark Levin has urged the murder of people who have different political viewpoints. That's the murder of politicians . . . where I said go out there and kill X,Y,Z. . . go out there and kill A, B, C. I challenge him right now. Sarah Palin. Me. Go ahead."

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Mark Levin's $100,000 Challenge to Chris Matthews

Looking over the possibilities for 2012

Bachmann
Bolton
Ryan and Cain

Perry
Pawlenty
Thune and Paul

God bless them all.

Wide-Open GOP Presidential Field Spurs Dark Horses - WSJ.com

The Desperate and Hateful Left

The upside down world of the media and leftist celebrities and talkers. They are clueless about real terrorists and murderers, but scramble to find dots to connect from Loughner's mind to any political philosophy, except their own, of course.

". . . while little useful can be said about the [Tucson] murders themselves, the rush to narrative of our dishonest and increasingly desperate leftist media does have to be addressed. The Left—which has been unable to discover any common feature uniting acts of Islamist violence worldwide—nonetheless instantly noticed a bridge between the Tucson shooting and its own political opponents. The Chicago Sun-Times ran a slavering editorial blaming “the right.” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson suggested that the killings were inspired by right-wing rhetoric. Politico’s Roger Simon did the same. . . Paul Krugman—who once encouraged readers to hang pro-war Democratic senator Joseph Lieberman in effigy—chimed in on his blog, deploring right-wing political rhetoric and linking a Sarah Palin–backed political ad to the murders. . . Film director Rob Reiner compared the Tea Party to the Nazis on Bill Maher’s HBO show last October. And in May, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg infamously blamed an Islamist attempt to bomb Times Square on “someone who didn’t like health care or something.”"

The Hateful Left by Andrew Klavan - City Journal

Here's what they really hate--she let little Trig live instead of aborting him. Photo from a Tea Party in Arizona by Yahoo.

Jump in gun sales since January 8

"Bloomberg cites Federal Bureau of Investigation data showing that in Arizona, one-day gun sales were 60 percent higher on Monday [Jan. 10] than on the Monday before the incident. Several other states showed a significant sales bump. And national sales increased about 5 percent." Slate

I wonder who they are arming themselves against? Rush Limbaugh, the fuzz ball talker who challenges people to think for themselves? Glenn Beck, who digs up historical facts about progressivism that have been edited out of school books and quotes Martin Luther King and Ghandi? Or, maybe they are afraid of mad men who shoot into crowds killing innocent by-standers and they're thinking if only one person in the crowd to see Giffords had been carrying a gun . . . Ya think?

Rhetoric at the OneNation Rally in October

Who in the main stream media asked these folks to temper their rhetoric? Who called for reduction of the vitriol? Who suggested this could have influenced an unstable college student in Arizona? Or even cleaning up the mess they made on the mall? There's a long list of sponsors, including the Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America, United Methodist Church, International Socialist Organization, Obama for America (Organizing for America), and 350.org. All this hate was ginned up in response to Glenn Beck's very peaceful rally of 8/28 which was hymn singing and sermons on peace. What hypocrisy. These photos tell the story.

15 Photos From the #OneNation Rally You'll Never See In Legacy Media | Before It's News

Moral hectoring from the left

Someone commented at Ann Althouse's blog on Mrs. Obama's assessment of the Tucson tragedy: "Anyone else growing weary of moral hectoring from the Party That Frowns On Moral Hectoring?"

Mrs. Obama: "We can teach them [our children] the value of tolerance – the practice of assuming the best, rather than the worst, about those around us. We can teach them to give others the benefit of the doubt, particularly those with whom they disagree."

An Open Letter to Parents Following the Tragedy in Tucson | The White House

I have trouble forgetting how she dissed us--all Americans--during the campaign and election period. Where was her tolerance for differences then?

There's not a shred of evidence and no dots to connect, but the party of misinformation just keeps rolling on. This seems to be the only transparent thing about the Obama administration.

The Tucson Witch Hunt - NYTimes.com

A great talent destroyed by a family disease--alcoholism

Gerry Rafferty (1943-2011) The Ark



"Gerry Rafferty, the Scottish singer-songwriter best known for the hits 'Baker Street' and 'Stuck in the Middle With You,' died Tuesday [Jan. 4], the Guardian reports. The 63-year-old was hospitalized in November 2010 with liver failure and had been ill ever since.

Born in Paisley in 1947, Rafferty was the third child of a hard-drinking Irish miner who frequently abused his family. After his father died when he was 16, Rafferty left school to work and play music. . ."

I can't begin to tell how sick I am

of seeing Bonobos butts on every website I look at. They are everywhere. The pants are always tight and when it's not a rear view, it's the crotch. Reminds me of the cattle magazines we used to get in the Veterinary Medicine Library showing the business end of the bulls.

Tacky t-s “Together We Thrive” from Obama's campaign Organization

Besides being unbelievably tacky, the blue t-shirts given to "mourners" who were clapping and cheering in Wellstone 2.0, were from Obama's Organizing for America campaign to get him re-elected. It's a slogan from his 2008 campaign.

"In the controversy of the pep rally/rock concert style Memorial for those who lost their lives in Saturday’s Arizona tragedy, the mainstream media reported that the “Together We Thrive: Tucson & America” T-shirt given to mourners as they entered McKate Center was the idea of University of Arizona brass, not the Obama administration.

Yet the “Together We Thrive” slogan dates back to a post to Obama’s own Organizing for America in a Feb. 11, 2008 post by self-described “globalist” John Berry IV."

Theme of “Together We Thrive” T-shirt came from Obama’s Organizing for America

Organizing for America

Wobbly Earth Means Your Horoscope Is Wrong | Zodiac & Astrological Signs | Skywatching | LiveScience

It's all bunk, but I'm still a Virgo. Astrology is silly, but there are people who believe it. Better check--things are a changing. Must be that hopey changey thingy.

Wobbly Earth Means Your Horoscope Is Wrong | Zodiac & Astrological Signs | Skywatching | LiveScience

Loughner and How the Mental-Health System Doesn’t Work

I knew that once the media had exhausted the meme of "angry political right wing talkers and Fox" inflaming a disturbed man who turned out to be a threat to society who was known to police, and also a-political, they'd start in on the mental health system. Probably to try to boost Obamacare. But unfortunately for Newsweek, NYT and WaPo plus their wannabees like HuffPo, Loughner's family could afford care. Nothing was stopping care, except the concern for the civil rights and freedoms of the mentally ill of the last three decades. He is legally an adult; his problems were known to his family, his friends, his college teachers and to Sheriff Dupnik who attempted to shift the blame where there was nothing. Nothing mentioned in this article about inaccessibility or lack of services remotely applies to Loughner. Pima County has a mobile psychiatric unit that anyone—patient, family, acquaintance—can call on a 24-hour hotline and that will send a professional to evaluate or provide counseling to someone who seems troubled. But Loughner is an adult; he can refuse services, and the law protects that right. So they are wrong again--about his case. There well may be a shortage of beds, and state budgets may be strained, but none of that applies in this case and the media is still looking for someone or something to blame.

Loughner and How the Mental-Health System Doesn’t Work - Newsweek

Beautiful Letters: Keith Olbermann and Sheriff Dupnik Delcare Palin Guilty of Arizona Shooting

Caution!! THIS IS A PARODY! Because it is so close to how these two people think and act, you might think it really happened, but it didn't. Stay alert. Life is is stranger than parody.

Beautiful Letters: Keith Olbermann and Sheriff Dupnik Delcare Palin Guilty of Arizona Shooting

Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act

Let's return to a representative form of government and make the Congress accountable.

"One of the most important political stories of 2011 will be regulation, as the backwash of the outgoing Congress hits the federal agencies and the White House drives its agenda via rule-making rather than democratic consent." Review and Outlook, WSJ, Jan 14, 2011

"the Constitution vested Congress with the duty to make laws, not to make vague suggestions about what it might be good for the law to be. And now there is a growing movement to force Members to take responsibility for the laws they pass, and to force Administrations to be accountable for the laws they create through regulation."

Review & Outlook: The Congressional Accountability Act - WSJ.com

How the health care public option works

A doctor blogs about how Medicaid works in her state:

Today my office received the provider's newsletter from one of the Medicaid providers in Missouri. You know, the PUBLIC OPTION. The one you and I pay for with our tax dollars. In the newsletter, the provider boasted about the new programs for subscribers. Here are your tax dollars at work in Missouri:

1.Patients will get a $30 gift card for every 5 OB prenatal visits that they attend.

2.If you need a ride to get to your doctor's office, they will provide transportation.

3.This PUBLIC OPTION provider will pay for memberships for children to join a local 4-H club, Boys or Girls Club, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, Girls Inc., Discovering Options or Select Caring Community Out-of-School Time Programs.

4.Oh, and the doctor will be paid $25 for a postpartum visit, WOW!!!

Ladies and gentlemen....THIS IS THE PUBLIC OPTION AT WORK. Providers get a pittance for seeing patients, BUT patients are paid to go to the doctor, rides are provided and their children's membership dues are paid to join after school clubs and activities.....all from taxpayer dollars that are ostensibly for health care."

Can we afford the public option? Is it any wonder the system is broke? Repeal Obamacare!