The Walker Recall—Important or not?

Three lessons from the Wisconsin recall

“There are three important lessons from the Wisconsin collective bargaining battles over the past eighteen months:

1. The power of the government-sector unions and their impact on elections is greatly overestimated. With a victory for Gov. Walker, Wisconsin Government employee union will have suffered their fifth major defeat since March 2011.

2. When given a choice, government employees will quit their union in large numbers.

3. Government employees' salaries and benefits, particularly pensions, are financially unsustainable in most states and collective bargaining reform is needed.”

Read more: http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/why-government-employee-collective-bargaining-laws-must-be-reformed-now#ixzz1x9ezwKiI

Voter fraud hurts all of us

Whether it’s in Ohio, Wisconsin or Florida, fraud hurts us all because these people make it to Washington.

I wrote to the Governor of Florida

The state of Florida is under attack by the U.S. Department of Justice because it is trying to clean up the voter rolls and limit voting to citizens who are legal residents of Florida.  Oh. The. Horror!  It’s a Democrat’s nightmare, and our Attorney General Eric Holder is on top of it fast and furiously.  I just wrote a few encouraging sentences, because we’re fighting voter fraud here in Ohio, too, and I’ve signed on to help stop it.  Like Madison, Wisconsin, we have more people voting in some counties than there are adults. 

Here’s what I received from Chris Cate, Communications Director, Florida Department of State, which now that I have a paper/digital trail, the media can’t bamboozle me:

· A letter from Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner to the U.S. Department of Justice regarding Florida’s continuing commitment to protecting citizen’s voting rights.

· An excerpt from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publication documenting the legal basis for accessing the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. The document can be found online at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_pia_uscis_save.pdf

· An email chain, dating back to September 2011, between the Florida Department of State (DOS) and DHS regarding access DHS information on non-citizens.

· Frequently asked questions about Florida’s continuing commitment to protecting citizen’s voting rights.

· Secretary of State Ken Detzner’s letter sent on May 31, 2012, to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano regarding access to the citizenship information in DHS’s SAVE database.

· Florida Congressman Jeff Miller’s letter sent on May 9, 2012, to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano regarding access to the citizenship information in DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

· Florida Congressman Gus Bilirakis’ letter sent on June 5, 2012, to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas regarding access to the citizenship information in DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

· Florida Congressman Tom Rooney’s letter sent on June 6, 2012, to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Florida’s efforts to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.

Interesting marriages

I've been enjoying "Martin Luther had a wife," and "Harriet Beecher Stowe had a husband," a two in one special by William J. Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 1983 (Christian Herald Family Bookshelf edition). Petersen, former editor of Eternity Magazine, is an excellent writer, and each marriage is presented in an entertaining and interesting style. The fifth selection in the first book is about William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army.

Catherine Booth, who wrote many of her busy husband's sermons, was criticized by a male preacher for speaking from the pulpit. (1858) She responded with a 32 page rebuttal.

History of the Booths here.

I see from browsing Google that Petersen also wrote a 2-fer on C.S. Lewis and his wife and Catherine Marshall and her husband plus one on Johann Sebastian Bach and his wife, which includes John and Polly Newton, Johann Sebastian and Magdalena Bach, George and Mary Muller, Hannah Whitall and Robert Pearsall Smith, and Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Petersen's stories are a wonderful way to learn history and to build faith, because all these people had numerous challenges. Especially John Wesley who must have had the worst marriage on record. Checking the used book sites I see offers for these titles. Well worth the price, although mine came from the free box.

Obama and the “New Party” (aka Socialist)

While the Demedia focus on what Bain Capital did after Romney left, flitting right over the companies he helped succeed with venture capital, like Staples, it could have looked into Obama’s roots in the New Party, which he denied during the last campaign.  Through his parents, grandparents, mentors and associates, Obama is a trained and managed socialist/statist.

“On the evening of January 11, 1996, while Mitt Romney was in the final years of his run as the head of Bain Capital, Barack Obama formally joined the New Party, which was deeply hostile to the mainstream of the Democratic party and even to American capitalism. In 2008, candidate Obama deceived the American public about his potentially damaging tie to this third party. The issue remains as fresh as today’s headlines, as Romney argues that Obama is trying to move the United States toward European-style social democracy, which was precisely the New Party’s goal. . .

New Party co-founder and leader Joel Rogers told Smith, “We didn’t really have members.” But a line in the New Party’s official newsletter explicitly identified Obama as a party member. Rogers dismissed that as mere reference to “the fact that the party had endorsed him.” . . .

the meeting at which Obama joined the party opened with the announcement of a forthcoming event featuring the prominent socialist activist Frances Fox Piven [American Communist]. The Chicago New Party sponsored a luncheon with Michael Moore that same year. ”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/302031/obamas-third-party-history-stanley-kurtz

From the Jan. 11, 1996 minutes of ACORN

“Barack Obama, candidate for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District, gave a statement to the membership and answered questions. He signed the New Party  “Candidate Contract” and requested an endorsement from the New Party. He also joined the New Party.”

Calling all hip families and wanna-bees

J.C. Penneys is apparently featuring a 2 dad family in an ad for Father's Day.  This has given traditionalists a chance to be upset, and liberals a chance to puff up and point fingers at people who don't agree with them.  Given that gay men are only about 1.5% of the population,  most of whom are not in committed relationships with young children, and they are the wealthiest demographic who are not shopping at Penneys, let's look at Penneys' motivation.

They need a more "with it" image and want to appeal to the younger crowd.  So if the merchandise or traditional ad campaigns don't bring them in, how about offending the families who have been shopping there for years.  They are older and probably won't spend as much as the 20-something and teeny bopper demographic, so who cares about them? 

Millions of children have grown up with 2, 3, or more dads in our society, and it's called divorce and remarriage, or maybe just a baby-daddy who may or may not pay support and drop by occasionally. But that's probably a little more difficult to show in the Father's Day ad.

Eugenics of 1912 is Planned Parenthood and Friends of 2012

“Eugenics is the infamous idea that governments should decide which kinds of citizens ought to be considered desirable (the 1912 consensus was that these tended to be white, athletic, intelligent, and wealthy) and which kinds of citizens ought to be considered undesirable (these tended to be black, Jewish, disabled, or poor) and employ the power of the state to encourage increases of desirable citizens (positive eugenics) and encourage decreases of undesirable citizens (negative eugenics). The founder of eugenics, Sir Francis Galton, a half-cousin of Charles Darwin, formulated the idea that the protection afforded by civil society had prevented the kind of natural selection occurring in Darwin's Origin of Species from happening in humans, thus perpetuating the existence of weak and feeble-minded people who would have been unable to survive in the state of nature.”

And today we have a president endorsed by Planned Parenthood which condemns 40% of unborn minorities to death before birth. Now Bill and Melinda Gates are on board to help.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/melinda_gates_talks_eugenics.html#ixzz1x2GGPZJW

Barack Obama’s worst nightmare

I am a thinking, educated, intelligent, independent voter.

I am fanatical in my support for the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

I believe that there is only one phrase that might be slightly more important than "We the People of the United States ...". That phrase would be "In the Beginning the Lord said 'Let there be light'..."

But the most significant thing that makes Barack Obama view me as his worst nightmare is simply this: I tell the truth about him. I don't need to lie. I don't need to "create" a narrative. What he has done all by himself is so appalling that any need for embellishment is stillborn.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/06/i_am_barack_obamas_worst_nightmare.html#ixzz1x2IGEFoQ

About transformation—usually a positive term

Dismal May jobs report.  Market falls.  Anticipation of Walker win, Dow up.  Walker wins, Dow up even more looking ahead to an Obama loss.  When Obama won the nomination in 2008, the economy sunk 6 months before the election in anticipation of his "transformative" presidency.

In Europe they're talking about green energy suicide. In the USA, about murdering the coal industry. That's what you get with a "transformational" president. Extends the war, expands the deficit, and shrinks the jobs.  Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other coal states:  I hope your unions remember what he’s done to your jobs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203604577398541135969380.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Andrew Klavan poignantly notes: “consider…that we were born into the freest, strongest, and wealthiest nation that mankind has ever known – and elected as our president a man who promised to ‘fundamentally transform’ it.” City Journal

Why do so many Christians not vote?

The figures vary--I've heard 30%, I've seen 50%. In any case, many, many Christians are not registered to vote. Churches do not lose their 501c3 status by having a voter registration drive. Churches afraid to do this are probably more afraid of the collection plate than the government. Nothing prevents a pastor or church member from supporting a candidate or an issue (abortion, education, taxes) ...as long as they do it in their own name, and in some cases, the church can support or not, specific legislation. Eric Holder has met with black pastors about voting rights. Why not other pastors of other ethnicities or styles of worship or other issues?

 http://www.theblaze.com/stories/heart-broken-black-pastors-plea-for-obama-to-meet-with-them-change-his-mind-on-gay-marriage/

Not sure if you’re registered?  Wall Builders has a special site for you to check. http://www.wallbuilders.com/vote/

Don’t let your vote be stolen by a non-registered voter, or a “dead” voter, or someone from another state.  Check with True the Vote to see what you can do in your own state to stop fraud.  They will put you in touch with your state’s organization. http://truethevote.org/

The right not to join a union

Scott Walker's reforms in Wisconsin--limiting bargaining to cost-of-living salary increases; increasing workers’ contributions to their pension and health-care plans; eliminating unions’ ability to automatically collect dues from all members; and requiring unions to re-certify each year--have saved the state a ton of money.   People who contribute to Social Security are probably scratching their heads about what they are so unhappy about.  It’s still a better deal with a better pay out at retirement. Wisconsin now has a surplus instead of a debt. What about the RIGHT NOT TO JOIN a union? When given a choice, workers leave in droves, and this is why unions are shipping people in to vote in Wisconsin today. http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/breaking-union-thugs-allegedly-busing-in-voters-from-michigan-to-vote-in-wisconsin-recall/

http://quincyjournal.com/union-membership-dwindles-in-wisconsin,-u.s.1328195259.html

http://nation.foxnews.com/scott-walker/2012/06/04/scott-walker-reforms-create-budget-surplus

Robert Bellarmine in our Declaration of Independence

Last night I watched a half hour program called “Saints Alive” which featured the story of St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) and here’s a brief clip of his discussion of the influence (obviously an actor) of his writings on the Declaration of Independence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC55G37QzO4

I think this solidifies even more strongly the Christian origins of our basic documents and thought. In the story, (and on the web) it says that Thomas Jefferson actually had in his library an anti-Bellarmine book which explained his ideas, and that he made many notes in the margins, therefore was quite familiar with his work, which Bellarmine in turn built on Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). For additional information: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6607&CFID=140469406&CFTOKEN=74664362

“He who lives well will die well.”  Community audio of Bellarmine’s book, The Art of Dying Well.  (Takes about 5 hours, but reader’s voice is pleasant.) http://archive.org/details/ArtDyingBell

Obama’s AJ and DOJ out of control

The Department of Justice has ORDERED Florida NOT to remove non-citizens from the state's voter rolls. Yes, you read that right - and you can read more sordid details here and here.

First, Obama’s Department of Homeland Security stonewalled the state’s noncitizen voter hunt for almost nine months by refusing Florida access to an immigration database. Then, on Thursday, Obama’s Justice Department ordered the purge to halt, in part because time had run out.

Ironically, DOJ’s order cited the so-called “Motor Voter” law, which actually calls on states to purge ineligible voters. One former DOJ lawyer and critic, conservative J. Christian Adams, blogged that the former Obama appointee in charge of the voting section announced early on that it would ignore Motor Voter’s purge obligation.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/03/2830794/how-obama-aided-and-abetted-scotts.html#storylink=cpy

From the CBO Director’s Blog–Bad News

This morning [June 5, 2012] CBO released the latest in its series of reports on the long-term budget outlook. CBO also published an infographic that highlights the key points of the report. . . tomorrow key findings of the report before the House Budget Committee.

By the end of this year, CBO projects, federal debt will reach roughly 70 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the highest percentage since shortly after World War II. Whether that debt will continue to grow in coming decades will be affected not only by long-term demographic trends—particularly the aging of the population—and economic developments but also by policymakers’ decisions about taxes and spending. The aging of the baby-boom generation portends a significant and sustained increase in the share of the population receiving benefits from Social Security and Medicare, as well as long-term care services financed by Medicaid. Moreover, per capita spending for health care is likely to continue rising faster than spending per person on other goods and services for many years (although the magnitude of that gap is uncertain).

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43295  Director’s blog

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43288  The report

Obama is never investigated by the press no matter how juicy the story

“The allegation [that Obama’s friend Eric Whitaker tried to bribe Wright into silence]  is contained in The Amateur, a new book by conservative journalist Ed Klein. While Klein may or may not be reliable – some conservatives have distanced themselves from him – it appears Wright did make the allegation.

The only mainstream White House reporter to do some follow through on this, Jake Tapper of ABC, reported that he listened to one of Klein’s tapes of his conversations with Wright in which the reverend didn’t deny suggestions that it was Wright who bribed him.

Whitaker denies he did it which, guilty or innocent, is what you’d expect. Wright refuses to answer questions from Tapper, which is not quite what you’d expect.

And no one in the press is doing much investigating that we know of – which is exactly what we’d expect.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/06/04/investigation/

I be so cool, man

“The dispassionate man from Chicago is proving every day what rare stuff he's made of. The president sees how the Iranians mock him - and does nothing. He sees radical Islam approaching the nuclear brink - and does not budge. With amazing courage Barack Obama watches the tsunami rolling toward America's shores - and smiles. . . “

“President Obama is a thrifty president. America isn't what it used to be, but it still has vast strategic, economic and military resources. The United States can stop the Iranian nuclear program by using a small part of these resources.

But the extremely thrifty commander-in-chief is not prepared to pay any price for stopping the 8,000 Shi'ite centrifuges. That's why Obama didn't stand by the Iranian Spring of 2009 as he stood by the Arab Spring of 2011. That's why Obama didn't act firmly against the underground facility near Qom, which was discovered three years ago. That's why Obama has not touched, to this day, Iran's central bank, nor has he stopped the flow of oil distillates to the country's ports.

The cautious president sees not the catastrophic price the West will pay for Iran's nuclearization, but the political price he will pay if oil prices rise. Never in its history has the United States had such a thrifty leader as its 44th president.”

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/the-world-should-focus-on-obama-not-netanyahu.premium-1.432287?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.225%2C2.227%2C

How divorce affects the children

She’s an adult. Capable.  Stable. Talented artist and writer. A strong Christian. And her father has been unfaithful and left her mother.  The other woman has left her husband and children. The unfaithful couple flaunt their infidelity in front of family and friends.   Thirteen people in the immediate families including grandchildren mentally and emotionally destroyed by infidelity.  “Divorce is a death without a funeral,” she writes, where there are no calls, meals brought in, or offers to help.  And nearly 70 readers write back about their deepest hurts—some after 30 years, or even after never having known their parents as a “couple.”

 http://jeanneoliverdesigns.com/blog/2012/05/27/sometimes-in-the-pain-you-find-your-most-tender-heart/

A viral divorce agreement

DIVORCE AGREEMENT (political humor)

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:
--Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

--We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.
--You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
--We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.
--You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

--We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.
--You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.
--We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.
--We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

--You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.
--You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

--We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.
--You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

--We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find.
--You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.
--We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

--We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."
--I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World".

--We'll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

--Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin & Charlie Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & ( Hanoi ) Jane Fonda with you

Obama’s over his head; voters are over their depth

Another dismal job growth and unemployment report with the highest tax increase in history looming. Obama’s response? More of the same.  If Romney let’s this slip by him, maybe we’ve got what we deserve.

“On Friday, the same architects who designed this economy built to stall were calling for one more rescue by the Fed. And gold jumped more than $60 an ounce, suggesting that markets believe that Chairman Ben Bernanke will oblige with some version of QE III. But the lesson of the last four years is that easier money can provide at most a temporary reprieve from otherwise rotten policies. Markets rally for a time, but then they fade when the money-fix is withdrawn.

Far more constructive would be a bipartisan attempt to remove the tax cliff that the economy is rolling toward in January 2013. One of the biggest fears among investors and businesses is that tax rates on capital gains, dividends and personal income are all scheduled to go way up at the same time.

This is an entirely artificial crisis created by the mantra of "temporary, targeted" tax cuts, combined with Mr. Obama's campaign strategy to run against high-income earners with his Buffett rule and attacks on bankers and Bain Capital. If Mr. Obama wants a better chance at re-election, and especially with troubles in Europe and China, he'll call off the class war and call for no change in taxes for at least another two years until there is a larger tax reform. He'd find he'd get little resistance from Republicans.

As for Mitt Romney, the latest slowdown in jobs and growth gives him an enormous opening to offer the American people a better way. Criticizing the results of the last four years and saying that Mr. Obama is in over his head are not enough. “

An economy built to stall