from eddobloggo.com      
I was out shoveling snow for a couple of hours this morning.  Our driveway is two cars wide, 100 feet long and there was about eight inches of overnight accumulation.  When I began shoveling and cleaning off the cars the temperature was seven degrees but it felt like minus ten as a result of a stiff wind.  

It had also snowed overnight on this date 25 years ago.  Unfortunately, I was unable to go out and shovel on that particular morning because a couple of nurses were in the process of attaching me to a monitoring device in the ICU.  They were pretty sure that I had suffered a heart attack at home the previous evening -- a fact that I had denied, attributing my sickness, instead, to a 24-hour bug and over-exerted chest muscles.

I would have stayed at work that day and perhaps gotten sicker or died had a business associate not convinced me to call my doctor an hour or so before being placed in the ICU.

"Don't get depressed or stressed-out over this heart attack that you've survived," my cardiologist told me as I lay in yet another hospital bed post-cardiac catheterization two weeks after my week's stay at the first hospital.  "You've got one-and-a-half artery disease -- pretty common," he continued.

I looked puzzled and was rolling my eyes in disgust so Dr. Edwards kept right on talking.

"That means one completely blocked artery -- with damage, of course, to the surrounding muscle tissue -- and another one that's about 50% blocked.  Fortunately for you the main heart artery still looks pretty good, so I won't recommend bypass surgery at this time.  But it's always an option if things get worse."

"Wow, lucky me," I answered sarcastically.

"Hey Ed,  if you can hold out for couple of years -- quit smoking, lose weight, lower your cholesterol, start an exercise program, avoid losing your temper -- they'll have balloon surgery perfected by then."

"Balloon surgery?" I asked.  "What the heck is that?"

"They've been experimenting with catheters like the one we just used to inject the contrast material for the x-ray movies we made of your heart damage," Doctor Edwards replied.  "But instead of a dye injector at the end of the catheter it will carry a tiny balloon that can be inflated to expand a severely blocked artery."

Fast forward 25 years.  I never had surgery of any kind -- not even one of those balloon procedures that became so commonplace right on my doctor's predicted schedule.  Most probably, this was the result of doing nearly everything the doctors had suggested in 1985.

I lost 55 pounds in the first year after the heart attack and have managed to keep it off by changing the content of my diet (I still have a very large appetite and consume quite a bit of food) and adding more exercise to the mix.  I quit smoking.  I even went vegetarian a year later in an effort to lower my cholesterol after the recommended lean meats, poultry and fish failed to do the trick. 

As you may have noticed, my fight-or-flight reflex is still a bit of a problem.  I am the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, however, compared to the way I was before the heart attack.  Actually, the instinct to fight rather than flee may have enhanced my disease-fighting ability.  Depression and non-activism are not at all helpful to heart disease.

In any case, God answered my prayers and has given me the power to live with, if not overcome, heart disease.  I sincerely hope that my writing today will give others the encouragement they need to overcome or try to prevent their own health problems. 

If you're wondering how even a compliant, health-conscious "heart patient" can shovel snow (chest pain and symptom free) in the coldest weather, there is a real explanation.  It's called collateral circulation which, in short, is the body's ability to create alternate routes for the flow of blood through the heart to compensate for blocked vessels.  CC is a natural form of bypass surgery that is thought to be the result, in large part, of aerobic exercise that both strengthens heart muscle and requires it to find ways to deal with the exercise-increased blood flow.

My own collateral circulation was confirmed a few years ago when I was brought in for a 20-years-later cardiac catheterization.  My current cardiologist was unhappy with the results of a thallium stress test he had ordered around the time that he took me on as a new patient.  We now know that the test result appeared abnormal because of the large number of alternate routes my blood now takes to nourish and oxygenate the healthy parts of my heart.

A day at the Cath Lab confirmed that 20+ years of "clean living" can, in fact, reverse some of the more serious effects and symptoms of heart disease.  While the cardio-surgeon was fully prepared to insert expandable stents into any number of blocked arteries, he was gleeful in his report that he had never seen "a road map of collateral circulation" quite like the one he had documented during my procedure. 

Of course, most of his subjects are much older than 35 when they have their heart attacks.  Even compliant heart patients rarely get a follow-up cardiac catheterization 20 years or more years after cleaning up their acts.  Sadly, the majority of heart disease patients are less than compliant.

from eddobloggo.com We may have to wait awhile for the end of the poorly prioritized Obama administration, but it is certainly possible to put political pressure on the president to replace the Homeland Security Department secretary with someone far more qualified -- perhaps someone a bit more militant about protecting his/her fellow Americans -- at the earliest possible moment.   Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said it best in making the case to get the current homeland security chief "out of the picture"...

What's wrong with this picture?  Just a couple of things.

Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker’s concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son’s jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers.

While Napolitano's you can't be serious! initial remark about the jockbomber incident was inappropriate and scary, at least her demeanor reflected a modicum of professionalism as compared with her Dear Leader's initial remarks about the Fort Hood Massacre.

“Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the the Interior Staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. Uh, I want to thank my cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. Uh, I hear that Dr. Joe “Medicine” Crow was around. So I want to give a shout out.  My understanding is, is that you uh had an extremely productive conference...”

After a full two minutes of this kind of surreal un-promptered joviality, the president finally got to the heartbreaking point: “We don’t yet know all the details at this moment. We will share them as we get them…We will make sure we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident…I hope all of you recognize the scope of this tragedy.”

Duh.  Who do you think was having trouble recognizing the "scope" of a jihadist's murderous attack at a military installation right in the heart of our homeland?

Meanwhile, Democrats have the audacity to accuse Republicans of going too far in their criticism of the Obama administration's handling of the attempted Christmas Day terror attack, the Fort Hood aftermath, and other recent threats and near-misses.  They contend that the GOP is blatantly exploiting the growing number of homeland security-related incidents to gain the upper hand in the 2010 midterm elections. 

Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra referred to the failed airline bombing incident in a fundraising pitch for his gubernatorial campaign. Other GOP lawmakers have taken to radio and TV to criticize the administration's response to the incident and the failure to identify the suspect as a terror suspect in advance. Former Vice President Cheney accused Obama of pretending the United States is not at war. Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana has called for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to resign. 

These additional recent events -- and others -- help support non-Democrats' claims that this administration has reverted to a pre-9/11 mentality...

• Contacts between the cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi, and the plane suspect are growing more apparent as investigators continue their probe. A US intelligence official said Thursday that "there was probably a face-to-face encounter" between Aulaqi and the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, during a stay in Yemen before the Nigerian man flew to Amsterdam and boarded Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253. 

• There is a likely connection between the aforementioned Yemeni cleric (and/or others) and the Fort Hood shooter.

• Inter-agency intelligence sharing failures.

• The bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and had not been searched, two former U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.

• Attorney General Holder's "unilateral" decision to try 9/11 plotters as American citizens in New York City.

• The closure of Gitmo and the return of some of its prisoners to Yemen and other jihadist hotbeds plus the re-incarceration of others at a shovel-ready federal prison near pork-laden Chicago.

Obama's failure to ramp-up homeland security, accept Janet Napolitano's resignation and modify his Gitmo and KSM trial plans trumps the public's mixed feelings about the rest of his free-spending socialistic agenda.  A single airline tragedy on the ground or in the sky insures significant non-Democrat success in the 2010 elections.

Getting the homeland security picture back in focus, therefore, should be a top priority, especially for Democrats.  The president should read, from his teleprompter, one of his most oft-made statements (usually spoken in regard to far less important "priorities") just once more before retiring it:  "This is an emergency that will become a catastrophe if we fail to act immediately."

But don't hold your breath. Democrats will be too busy pointing fingers at the rest of us to recognize the scope of this tragedy."

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As reported by the AP, former president Jimmy Carter has formally apologized for any words or deeds that may  ever have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve his often-tense relationship with Jews.  He said he was offering a special prayer that is customarily recited in synagogues on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, to signify a plea for forgiveness.

 

Whether Barack Obama will continue to blame his predecessors for unforeseeable future ills or whether, like Carter, he someday takes responsibility for some of his own mistakes, rest assured that there will never be an end to his pleas for forgiveness, particularly from the non-Judeo-Christian world.

 

An empty cardigan sweater worn to create a folksy TV image during another time of crisis is an apt symbol of Jimmy  Carter's failed presidency.

"We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel," Jimmy Carter wrote to JTA, a wire service for Jewish newspapers.  "As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so." So why didn't Carter apologize and pray for forgiveness during the Jewish High Holy Days three months ago or, for that matter, during any one of the 29 Yom Kippurs since his single term as president ended in 1981?  AP's Greg Bluestein offers this explanation: "The letter comes weeks after his grandson, Jason Carter, said

he would run for a Georgia state Senate seat being vacated by Obama's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Singapore. If David Adelman is confirmed as ambassador in January, Jason Carter will be a candidate in a March special election in the northeast Atlanta district."  As you might suspect, that district has a significant, vocal Jewish population.

 

Thus far, all of Obama's apologies have been made on behalf of Americans who, for the most part, believe that our fair-weather friends abroad (especially in Europe where the current generation has difficulty remembering history prior to the Bush administration) still owe the US quite a few more apologies than Obama could ever serve up to the secular and non-Judeo-Christian world. 

 

However, as illustrated by Jimmy Carter's pre-election apologetics, you can expect to hear many more apologies to people of any number of dissed ethnicities and demographic population segments as Obama returns to full campaign mode in his efforts for re-election. 

 

At the rate that the president has been upsetting such subsets as peaceniks, same-sex marriage advocates, socialized medicine proponents, environmentalists and disproportionately unemployed African-Americans, expect their Dear Leader to embark on a domestic apology tour in the coming year in an effort both to retain his own base and to mitigate Congressional Democrat losses in 2010.   

 

Taking Carter's lead, Obama will say something along the lines of: "I could have offered an Al Het months ago but, as illustrated by the overwhelming public support that led to the passage of high-priority health care reform, it is appropriate for me to apologize for the delay of (insert your group's agenda here) now or at any point in time going forward.  So rest assured (insert your groups' name here) that your needs will be attended to very soon."

 

Of course, Obama will read his self-serving statement over and over again off his teleprompter whereas the less dynamic-speaking aged former president felt that his apology could best be made in syndicated writing.  In either case, the empty sweater and the empty suit are indeed a very sorry pair.

 

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In case you missed what Hugo Chavez said about Barack Obama at the UN's Copenhagen climate change conference this past week:"It still smells like sulfur in the world.  The Nobel Prize of War just finished saying here that he is here to act. Well, show it sir. Don't leave by the back door."  This was just part of Chavez' personal call-out of your Dear Leader that included at least one of the epithets that he would have hurled at Obama's non-Nobel Lauriat predecessor had George W. Bush been amongst them.

Incidentally, Chavez received a standing ovation for his anti-capitalism rant from virtually all of the international delegates who (take your pick) either love both Chavez and Obama for their Marxism or will continue to hate the USA regardless of whether its president is a wealth-redistributing socialist or not.

9/25/09 - Obama smells mmm mmm good

The last time they turned the mic over to Hugo Chavez at the UN he opened with a slapstick routine about the room smelling of sulfur. George W. Bush had addressed the General Assembly earlier from the same podium, so Chavez' shtick drew big laughs from fellow America haters by his equating of the President of the United States with el diablo.

Three years later: "It doesn't smell of sulfur here anymore.  It smells of something else. It smells of hope," the Venezuelan dictator told the UN on Wednesday.  Earlier, Libya's strongman Muammar Qaddafi had declared to the same gathering that "We'd be content and happy if Obama can stay president forever."

Speaking of staying as president forever, Qaddafi has held his position since 1969 while the relative novice, Chavez, has been Venezuela's top dog since 1998.  If Obama wants "re-election" advice, these guys and the similarly supportive Castro brothers, with 50 years of Marxist/socialist dictatorship under their belts, are just the crowd to be hanging with.

Of course, the American left is ecstatic over these dictators' acknowledgments of the hope and change they have found in their president.  On the same day as Obama's UN teleprompter drone-athon (perhaps daily professorial philosophical lectures are still a bit of a novelty to foreigners whose press coverage is, shall we say, a bit more limited than our own) a video of happy American school children singing the Dear Leader's praises hit YouTube. 

The dictators' love raises the question: Had Qaddafi, Chavez and the Castros pronounced Obama so sweet-smelling a year ago in the final days of the campaign, would their glowing propaganda endorsements have helped or hurt the president on Election Day? If not, we're in far bigger trouble than anyone could ever imagine.

In any case, our nation's case of buyer's remorse is revealed in Obama's continuing decline in the polls and in the growing coalesced protest movement that has created more true neo-cons than the smug left ever imagined possible -- especially after such a resounding Conservative defeat not quite a year ago.

But it's not just right-wingers who see through the Obama hypocrisy.  The ultra-left is pretty upset about his limited prosecution of their anti-war, socialized medicine, gay rights and environmental agendas. 

We're even hearing from the Gitmo prisoners that he pledged to support with American citizens' rights and the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.  Ahmed al-Darbi, a 34-year old Saudi who is charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, told the court in December that he hoped Obama would "earn back the legitimacy the United States has lost in the eyes of the world,"

In a note passed to his lawyer, al-Darbi now says that he is disappointed the Guantanamo prison remains open and the military court still holds hearings.  "I say to him now that he has gone astray," al-Darbi lamented.

So what does "hope" smell like?  No one really knows.  But oddly the stench of sulfur emanating from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was never reported by any of the aforementioned. 

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, was overcome by the Holocaust denier's disgusting smell and he plainly said so. To their credit, dozens of delegates from most of the European nations, Canada, Australia and the United States got up and left during Ahmadinejad's speech, but the diplomats who remained applauded as the Iranian political leader continued his address.

Despite surprisingly strong subsequent statements by European leaders regarding Ahmadinejad's ramped-up nuclear development program, our own president apparently wants to stay sweet-smelling to those who matter least by remaining idealistically and unrealistically professorial, speaking about "the goal of a world without nuclear weapons" and of the legalistic breaking of rules and sanctions.

The next time they visit the UN, Qaddafi and Chavez could sing a little duet with some second-graders from New Jersey as their backup...

Barack Hussein Obama

He is so very clever

We would be content and happy if he were president forever

mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He does it all so well

The UN has been cleared of Bush's sulfur smell

mmm, mmm, mm!

Then again, our enemies' song will probably be very different by then.

4/19/09 - Propaganda...By the Book

Forget about their in-common authorship of best-selling books that are required reading for sycophants.  Don't make too much of that shared penchant for frequent oratory or the common belief in the redistribution of wealth and other socialistic programs. 

The single tie that binds the Venezuelan strongman and our own softer-spoken less macho would-be dictator is none other than George Bush.  If not for old Dubbleyah, Chavez would be just another two-bit Third Worlder with oil in his backyard and nobody to pal around with but Fidel Castro.

But having had the golden opportunity to diss President Bush at the UN in front of the entire International Order of Ingrates, Hugo's country was instantly promoted into the Axis of Evil and Chavez was installed as the UN's Grand Dragon for the next year.

For those of you who refused to pay attention to hard news and weren't being fed daily State of the Union Addresses during previous administrations, there were repeated references by Chavez to POTUS #43 as "el diablo" that day at the UN in 2005.  Hugo's rant came on the heels of a similar but slightly more diplomatic tirade by Mahmoud Ahmedenajad and, later, Bush's own address to the General Assembly. 

What you won't see reported while the Obama World Tour continues as if Air Force One were a Prius with nitrogen-filled tires is that both aforementioned oppressors have, in their respective languages, referred to your beloved chief executive as "un ignorante".  Imagine what they say about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

Back on point, if it were not for the same George W. Bush that Hugo Chavez used as his stepping stone, Barack H. Obama would have been an historical asterisk by now with Hillary R. Clinton laughing her way around the globe on his big plane with the low number. 

While the First Lady of Pants Suits did her level best to criticize the previous administration and to promote her own job readiness (she did have a slightly fuller resume than that of her opponent and it looked, for a while, like the 3AM phone call deal would be a winner) Hillary was, nonetheless, unable to co-opt the message of "Bush Change" because of her proximity to yet another heavily criticized two-term president.

It was repeated a thousand times during the campaign: "Obama is not running against McCain...he is running against Bush."  That's why everything, even to this day, is more about putting the blame on Bush than about the specifics of any other promised change.

Of course, demonizing Bush echoes what Hugo Chavez said before Obama's ascendancy and it is why, for the moment, the Venezuelan dictator deems it acceptable to be smiling, shaking hands and exchanging books with Obama as if he were a long-lost cousin.

But make no mistake -- everything that Barack and Hugo appear to have in common is trumped by the fact that this is a contest between an experienced bully and a novice wimp.  While Obama bows, scrapes and apologizes to First World leaders he will ultimately be perceived as "un ignorante" by friends and foes alike when he is forced to stand up to the bullies or give them our lunch money.

Meanwhile, Chavez, loses absolutely nothing by being friendly and keeping his mouth shut.  In fact, power, prestige and credibility are being gained by Chavez merely for being seen in the same photos as the media world's most popular personality.

You could argue that Obama was tight-lipped and exchanged nothing but friendly handshakes and small talk with Chavez.  But it is also true that Obama did all of his talking during the campaign when he repeatedly, emphatically stated that he was ready to sit down and talk with America haters -- specifically Chavez and Ahmedenajad -- anytime. 

"Sitting down" was one of the main themes Obama employed to stress how different he would be from the man who refused to dignify anti-American dictators with touchy-feely rhetoric.

Chavez does, in fact, see Obama as the Anti-Bush.  That is, a US president who would lend credibility to his ilk with no strings attached even if he is seen as "un ignorante" merely for saying that he is prepared do so. 

What Hugo Chavez sees in Obama is a way to get back into the limelight, to be better liked in his homeland and to be re-elected Grand Dragon by his fellow America haters.  His propaganda strategy is working. 

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from eddobloggo.com

The following incident was witnessed, Sunday, by a House Republican aide seated nearby.

"This is the Captain, folks.  We appreciate you flying with Continental Airlines today.  We're cleared for take-off so please turn off your cell phones and other electronic devices now.  Thank you."

"Yeah Harry.  We're on the shuttle heading back to DC.  Be careful what you say about the bill...we wouldn't want someone on or near the plane to intercept your message and spill the beans to the press or to one of those GOP stooges on this flight.  Besides, you know that all eyes and ears are on me wherever I go."

"Excuse me, Sir.  I must ask you and the woman in the next seat to comply immediately with the Captain's request to turn off your cell phones.  The entire plane is waiting for you two to shut down your phones and you will be in violation of FAA regulations and could be removed from the plane by marshals if you continue talking."

"You obviously know who I am.  Is that why you're harassing me?  Can't I finish this important government-business phone call?"

"I don't know who you think you are, sir, but no one is exempt from this regulation and, as I've already said, you are holding up this flight."

"OK it's off! But you know you are wrong, miss, I am entitled to keep this phone on until the cabin door is closed." 

"No sir, you are obliged to turn it off whenever a flight attendant asks.  I don't make the rules, I just follow them and urge everyone to do likewise."

(Turns to Sen Gillibrand) "As if New York's senior senator has to take orders from a flight attendant.  She's a b****, Kirsten.  (Phone rings) Hello, Chuck Schumer speaking...Oh hi, Harry.  Where were we when we were so rudely interrupted?"

"Sir, this is getting ridiculous.  Please hang up again and turn that phone off this instant!"

(Aloud for all to hear) "It’s Harry Reid calling.  I guess health care will have to wait until we land.”

"And we'll never land if we don't take off first, so please end the call now!"

Later, through her office, Sen. Gillibrand said that Sen. Schumer was “polite” with the flight attendant and that he “turned off his phone when asked to.”

Nonetheless, Schumer has since apologized to the flight attendant for being overheard calling her "a b****".  Other flight attendants who have worked on some of the senator's Continental flights have been quoted as saying: “He’s not nice.”

Chuck Schumer's legendary self-centeredness aside, can you imagine the repercussions if he ever calls his wife b****? For that matter, do you think Kirsten Gillibrand would say "My husband was polite" if he ever called her a b****?

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Giving thanks for their own protection from the scorching Scandinavian winter inside soundproofed limousines and hotel suites, it was impossible for the media to hear the emissaries' wailing and plaintive prayers for the climactically-challenged masses on the ground in flyover states of the un-emerging world. 

As forced students of Obamaspeak (formerly known as hot air) for nearly as long as most of us studied a foreign language in high school, we understand that when Our Dear Leader blames international coalitions for anything, he is actually blaming un-progressive Americans for that particular dastardly deed.

The previous administration, Republican politicians and especially Conservative-Libertarian Tea Party activists and the growing number of like-minded Americans are constantly being held responsible.  We are demonized for promoting yet another despicable movement designed to discredit, if not derail, the latest gigantic spending endeavor that was so carefully crafted by the know-it-all majority to avert "an emergency that will ultimately become a catastrophe."

This 2004 statement -- the left might wish to attribute it to George W. Bush -- is a perfect example of what Obama calls "bad habits and phony arguments"... 

"The Kyoto Protocol is a death pact, however strange it may sound, because its main aim is to strangle economic growth and economic activity in countries that accept the protocol's requirements."

Actually, this was a pronouncement by Andrei Illarionov, Russia's economic minister under neo-communist Vladimir Putin. Illarionov went on to call the Kyoto Protocol an "economic Auschwitz".

It is highly unlikely that China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and other emerging nations, with growing carbon footprints will risk their economic growth by signing onto any UN resolutions that may be created in Copenhagen. Just the same, the "phony arguments" of those of us living in the snowy American flyover states will ultimately be blamed when the next iceberg cracks off a glacier. 

After the president's weekly speech I switched the radio dial to New York City's WABC-Radio.  Investigative journalist John Stossel was in the process of explaining to Mark Simone's listeners that "if all of the nations of the world had signed Kyoto and then obeyed their pledge to the letter, the global temperature change would be virtually immeasurable."

"Meanwhile," Stossel continued, "millions are dying of malnutrition, malaria and so many other things that are really at a crisis level."  Mr. Stossel would, no doubt, be quite surprised if any of the wealth derived from the greenies' "phony arguments" is ever re-distributed to those around the world who are starving, dying of preventable diseases and living in darkness. 

Al Gore, UN emissaries and the president himself will continue to get carbon credit (formerly known as a free pass) and Nobel Prizes for their good environmental works but they will never be criticized for their hypocritical "bad habits" (including excessive private flight and oversized homes and lifestyles) that are excessively energy-consumptive even when compared with anyone driving a pick-up truck on an American freeway.

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from eddobloggo.com 
Or you might have your own favorite question or two among those that have replaced the famous anti-Bush Where are the WMD? mantra.

Where is the global warming? is a good one that was being asked often in our neck of the New York woods this morning.

Where is the transparency? has been one of my personal favorites since it was demanded of Congress that they pass the 1100-page stimulus bill unread. This particular question has been asked with even greater frequency since Czar Number 17 and his subsequent Marx Brothers and Sisters have been appointed.

Where is the "hope" that we were promised along with the "change"? is one you don't hear as often as some of the others but is is, nonetheless, at the crux of Obama criticism, particularly as it relates to jobs and the economy.

In his oft-repeated campaign pledge the president made the hollow promise: "We will be using cutting-edge technologies to create a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens."

If you actually voted for Obama, you may have other questions to ask about his foot-dragging and broken foreign and domestic policy promises in such areas as:

• single-payer health care

• Iraq and Afghanistan

• same-sex marriage

• redistributing wealth to corporate entities

• energy

• Gitmo closure

• the Patriot Act

• First Amendment issues

• Bush administration trials

• government Internet control

• women's rights

Meanwhile, the administration continues to tout its concocted Created/Saved Jobs stats while anywhere from 11,000 to half a million or more jobs have gone missing during each and every month of the Dear Leader's presidency.

This has all occurred coincidental to the vice-president's ongoing commentary, "I guarantee that the stimulus is working" in his roll as spokesman for the $787 billion Stimu-later.  Joe says that it will not only achieve its stated purposes but that all is well in the meantime.

You can certainly put your trust in Biden's predictions.  One of his earlier guarantees was "If Barack Obama is elected president, there will be an international crisis within six months."  As international crises go, Nukes in Iran ranks right up there with the Cuban Missile Crisis that was faced by newbie John F. Kennedy.

JFK, in a moment of courageous brinksmanship, called Khruschev's bluff.  Most of us, however, have come to realize BHO is so full of himself that he believes he can ultimately grab the bullhorn away from the SWAT team and talk the hostage-taker out of the bank before the bomb goes off.

If you don't think the Dear Leader has a God Complex, explain why two of his most oft-used words are Create and Save and why he constantly warns us that "there will be a catastrophe..." if we don't put every penny of our money into the collection plate immediately.

Amazingly, the otherwise faithless still have all the faith in the world in the person who has promised the most and delivered the least.

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If they had Leatherman Tools when Baby Boomers like me were in elementary school, we  would have begged our dads to let us borrow them so we could bring them to class for show-and-tell.  With no more than a warning to "be careful with the sharp attachments" our teachers would have passed the Swiss Army Knife-on-steroids around the room, allowing each student to get some hands-on time with the marvel of the day. 

Back then, those who brought their fathers' potential weapons to school for education purposes would have received attaboys from their teachers along with, perhaps, the awarding of a few class participation brownie points, as well.

Today, if a student is suspected of possessing a Leatherman on campus, his school will be locked-down and a SWAT team will roll up to sort things out.  Under PC's Zero Tolerance Rules, possession of a Leatherman could be punishable by expulsion -- even for a first offense by an otherwise exemplary kid.

Then: 

"Hello, Mrs. Donath this is the school nurse.  Edward is complaining of a headache (nurse turns away and whispers: "He probably just wants to get out of taking his math quiz...) but he has no fever and I'm going to send him back to class.  Just the same, do I have your permission to give him a children's aspirin?" 

Now: 

It's OK to send your kid to school doped-up on Ritalin but if you pack a Tylenol into Junior's lunchbox, for any reason, the PC Police will deal with him as though he is in possession of heroine or a deadly weapon like a Leatherman Tool.  In order for PC to work its egalitarian magic it must resort to an antithetical methodology known as Zero Tolerance.

Boomer kids felt free to ask their teachers a lot of tough questions...

"Mrs. Shapiro, if you can smoke cigarettes in the teachers' lounge why can't you smoke in our classroom?  Mrs. Shapiro, what does retarded mean?  Mrs. Shapiro, how come it says 'In God We Trust' on money?  Mrs. Shapiro, how come some kids get left back for getting low grades?  Mrs. Shapiro, should we hate Russia for making us go down to the boiler room for air raid drills?  Mrs. Shapiro, why do we memorize the Pledge of Allegiance? 

Sadly, our children and grandchildren ask very few questions today. Why?  Because their biggest in-school fear is of being ostracized for offending someone that may not even be present in the classroom.

Even at the height of Viet Nam war protest, when young adults were calling for their peers to distrust politicians and anyone over 30, the protestors never demanded the decimation of traditional, Constitutional America (with the notable exception of a mere handful of radicals like the terrorists who hosted Barack Obama's political coming out party in Chicago).  

Then:

PC was synonymous with civil rights -- tolerance. 

Now:

In order to enforce PC, its antithesis -- zero tolerance -- is the order of the day. 

The current administration is advancing an agenda that will ultimately abridge rights by redistributing wealth, socializing the private sector, manipulating the system of checks and balances and re-interpreting the Constitution while spinning the media and taking the propaganda pains to make it all look so civil.  The words "civil" and "rights" are present in that mix but the actual practice of being politically correct has become a gross distortion of what was originally intended by post-WWII Europeans.

Is it any wonder that 40-and-unders are so prepared to let a typical PC professor dictate what they should believe about the responsibilities of the United States government?  Why would that be surprising in light of the cramming down their throats, from their first day in elementary school, of liberal ideology that has always sounded pretty much the same as what they are being told now by the highest office holder in the land?

During all the years that students have been hammered by PC dogma and its resultant revisionism, truthful talk in academia about such things as Cold War bomb shelters, Viet Nam, the Holocaust, communist tyranny in Europe, assassinated politicians and the actual politics of genuine Civil Rights leaders has been avoided for fear of offending someone's ethnicly sensitive ears.

As a result of the ironically iron-handed rule of political correctness, today's elementary school teacher is hardly ever asked a tough question.  What would a teacher say on one of those rare occasions when some un-indoctrinated kid might ask:  "My grandpa says we have an air raid shelter in the cellar of the school building.  Would I get expelled if I brought a Leatherman Tool and bottle of Tylenol into it in during a survival emergency?"

The kid would be better off asking a simple question like "Mrs. Shapiro, what is the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx?"

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from eddobloggo.com 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday at a joint press conference with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil that the threat of a US or Israeli military strike against Iran was no longer an issue because "they don't have the courage" to attack Iran. "The age of military attacks is over, now we've reached the time for dialogue and understanding. Weapons and threats are a thing of the past," he added. 

The outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Vienna Thursday that his probe of Iran's nuclear program is at "a dead end" and that trust in Tehran's credibility is shrinking after its belated revelation that it was secretly building a nuclear facility. 

ElBaradei has, hither-to-fore, approached the Iran nukes issue the liberal progressive way apparently in order to keep his cushy job.  But his blunt criticism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, just four days prior to leaving his office, suddenly validates what the Bush administration had always said -- that the IAEA was soft on Iran.

The interesting part of the story as it relates to Barack Hussein Obama -- aside from ElBaradei being a fellow Nobel Peace Prize recipient -- is that he has actually

"[sat] down with dictators with no pre-conditions", not merely as a representative of the world's official diplomatic organization but as a citizen of Egypt, a major Islamic nation. Do you think that Egyptians want a nuclear attack on their nearby neighbor Israel any more than Israelis do?  

Back to Vienna. 

Subsequent to ElBaradei's "dead end" statement the IAEA has actually censured Iran with 25 nations backing a resolution that demands Tehran immediately freeze construction of its newly revealed nuclear facility and heed Security Council resolutions calling on it to stop uranium enrichment. The USA, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany have all signed onto the censure, reflecting a rare unity in the UN's Iran nukes stance.

Apparently, world powers -- even the softies at the IAEI -- have been forced to adopt the realistic way of taking Ahmadinejad's threats.  However, our own representative's statement does not give us confidence that the president will feel empowered by the resolution to continue handling this situation in anything but a liberal progressive manner.

"The United States remains firmly committed to a peaceful resolution to international concerns over Iran's nuclear program," said chief US IAEA delegate, Glyn Davis.  "We also remain willing to engage Iran to work toward a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dilemma it has created itself, if Iran would only choose such a course."

It may take the Chinese, the Russians and ultimately the Israelis to punch the world out of the dead end in Iran.  Regardless of their diverse political philosophies, not one of those nations can be accused of being anything but realistic about world affairs. 

In that respect, Ahmadinejad is only half-right in his recent assessment of US and Israeli military courage. Only the US is trapped in the dead end of liberal progressive-ism.

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from eddobloggo.com                                                                  
 
The Not Ready for Prime Time Senators (that includes every single Democrat, since the majority of their constituents in the majority of the  states are unsupportive of health care overhaul) were doing their best imitations of dedicated public servants by working a little propagandistic OT for a change.

"We're only voting tonight on whether to continue discussing, debating and perfecting the language of this simple, no-nonsense, once-and-for-all deal that it takes just 2100 pages to explain," might have been a line from the satirical skit dialogue.  It is doubtful, however, that Democrat senators had asked former Saturday Night comedy writer, Al Franken, to write any part of their predictable script.

Of course, the DNC talking points argue that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to slow down urgently needed reforms by leading every single Republican to put a Nay on the board.  But with the Dear Leader's tanking polling numbers and American voters' health care reform approval ratings well below 50%, it is becoming increasingly difficult for lefties to paint Conservatives as suicidal now that Obamacare is a step closer to being crammed down our collective throat.

The most comprehensive "speech" of the night was made in absentia by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) who chose to spend his 30th wedding anniversary evening at a gathering back home with his beloved wife, friends and family.

Despite strong ongoing opposition to Obamacare, Voinovich realized that his Nay would not have made a bit of difference last night.  Nonetheless, Democrats are already assailing the senator's decision to skip the phony formalities, despite the senator's long record of public service. 

Sen. Voinovich's statement: 

"Americans watching the health care debate in Washington should know that the actions of Congress will have far-reaching consequences on their lives and our entire economy.

The two-thousand page, two-trillion dollar bill proposed by Sen. Reid cuts Medicare, raises taxes, increases premiums, hurts states and threatens the health choices that millions currently enjoy. This is not reform, and it is not what the American people are asking for. That is why I cannot support Sen. Reid's health care bill and will not support the vote on the motion to proceed to the bill.

At a time when Ohio's unemployment rate is at 10.5 percent, new health care legislation should first do no harm to the economy. Sen. Reid's bill is full of budget gimmicks and will cost Americans $2.5 trillion over the next decade, ignoring the fact that we cannot even take care of our current obligations. The bill will also raise taxes on Americans by half a trillion dollars while cutting Medicare by nearly the same amount -- hurting our nation's seniors. And, CBO says this bill will increase federal health costs, not lower them like health care reform was supposed to achieve.

Just this week, our national debt surpassed the $12 trillion mark. My colleagues know we face a fiscal train wreck, but are refusing to look at the health care debate from a financial viewpoint. As a nation, we already spend $2.2 trillion annually on health care. We must ask ourselves, 'What is sustainable?'

Paying for health care reform by placing additional financial burdens on American families and small businesses will only further impede our ability to compete in the global marketplace and, ultimately, our economic recovery.

Additionally, I cannot support Sen. Reid's proposal because I believe any health reform bill must protect all human life from conception to natural death and am adamantly against allowing federal funding for abortions."

“Americans know that a vote to proceed on this bill is a vote for higher premiums, higher taxes, and massive cuts to Medicare," Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky added to the Ohio senator's remarks. "That’s a pretty hard thing to justify supporting.”

Senators Voinovich and McConnell made no apology for keeping their statements serious.  By the same token, Senator Reid made no apology for one of the sickest jokes ever perpetrated on a Saturday night.

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from eddobloggo.com
My better half would probably throw me under the bus and tell you that I lost my bout with awake-ness by a  knockout during Sean Hannity's hour-long interview of Sarah Palin Wednesday evening.  I'm sticking with "Tough day. Just resting my eyes, sweetheart."

Regardless, I'll be candid and admit that after seeing this interview I had about as much of a craving to buy Palin's memoirs as I've ever had to read Barack Obama's account of what he did during his formative years in the Soviet Union.

Actually, it would never even have occurred to me to write about Sarah Palin at this point in time.  She's not  officially running for anything and, other than her book promotion tour and a controversial Newsweek cover designed to stimulate that magazine's own sagging sales, nothing she has done lately is newsworthy. 

Nonetheless, the left is still deathly afraid of her.  They will go to any length, including their nearly unilateral preservation of her 15 minutes, by continuing a perpetual "discussion" of this hated subject.  They do so, apparently, merely to enable themselves to get in a nasty jab at her as often as possible. 

It appears to anyone paying honest attention that the left talks and writes far more about Gov. Palin than does the right.  Case in point: David Letterman, who does over-the-top Palin insult shtick whenever his writers run out of new ideas -- which is obviously pretty often.

My own impetus for joining the lefties with today's Palin piece is the story about the Associated Press putting a team of 11 crack investigative reporters on her case.  AP claims Palin misstated her record as governor of Alaska with regard to travel expenses and taxpayer-funded bailouts.  They also speculate that Palin's book, Going Rogue: An American Life, "...has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto."

According to Newsmax, "the AP, an organization with over 4,000 employees and 49 Pulitzer Prizes earned for asking the hard questions, would not comment on their own reporting for this story."

"Imagine that," reads Sarah Palin's Facebook come-back. "Eleven AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to 'fact check' what's going on with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing."

Of course I agree with Gov. Palin's perspective and believe that her ability to both defend herself from her attackers and to throw their hypocrisy right back at them is in large part responsible for the lefties' fear and hate of this unflappable woman. 

They would have you believe that she is incapable of original thought, let alone solid executive performance.  Remember that they said essentially the same things about George W. Bush which helped get him elected twice in spite of the know-it-all belief that their vitriol would ring true.

Harry S. Truman was fond of saying: "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."  I agree wholeheartedly with Truman's logic and would apply it to anyone who writes an autobiography; anyone with or without a political ulterior motive for doing so.  But while I trust that Sarah Palin is very much like President Truman in both her forthrightness and plain-talking style, Mrs. Bloggo will attest that I'm not losing any sleep over any of it.

The ultimate irony, however, is that we will know more about Sarah Palin's background as a result of the AP and the liberal media's old-fashioned vetting years before the next presidential campaign than we knew about our current president before his election. 

In all likelihood we will know more about Sarah Palin, whether or not she ever runs for office (and whether or not we ever care) than we will ever know about the background of Barack Hussein Obama -- which is the cause for many Americans' sleepless nights.

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from eddobloggo.com
Attorney General Eric Holder is about two years my junior.  It is likely, therefore, that he was in the seventh grade at one of those New York City public schools for intellectually-gifted students that he attended from age ten through high school on the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Holder's junior high, like my own New York school, would have been closed indefinitely with the announcement of JFK's death.  He and the rest of America would spend the next several days riveted to their televisions watching the incredible post-assassination saga unfold before our eyes. 

Two days after being sent home from school, Holder would have witnessed, as did the rest of us, the breech of security that allowed Jack Ruby to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's presumed assassin, at point blank range inside the Dallas police facility where Oswald was being detained.

You may wonder now, as the USAG prepares to re-create the potential for a latter day vigilante episode of similar magnitude, if the deprivation of justice perpetrated by Jack Ruby in Dallas 46 years ago was an impetus for young Eric Holder to devote his gifted young intellect to the study and application of American law?

It would do no good to argue legalities with Eric Holder.  Given the administration's collective mind being made up to mock Americans' Constitutional rights by allowing the admitted 9/11 plot mastermind to be tried -- just like a US citizen -- in our criminal court system. 

Additionally, we need to keep in mind that as Bill Clinton's Deputy Attorney General, Holder was responsible for:

• Reducing the criminal sentences of 16 members of the Boricua Popular Army, which had been categorized by the FBI as a terrorist organization.

• The pardon of eight incarcerated members of the FALN, one of the most prolific terrorist organizations ever to wage war against the American people, who proudly claimed responsibility for over 130 bombings and incendiary attacks in the U.S. and Puerto Rico that had killed six and wounded scores.

• The pardon of Marc Rich, on the last day of Clinton's presidency, who was indicted in the United States on federal charges of illegally making oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis as well as for income tax evasion.

Even if you are inclined to agree with the administration's points of disagreement with the previous administration's methodologies for keeping New York City and the rest of America safe from terrorist attack...

Even if you are as unconcerned about the potential for pro-terror and anti-US propaganda as Holder and his cronies are...

Even if you see no problem with the exposure-by-trial of CIA and other intelligence-gathering organizations' information and strategies to the enemies of America...

Even if you are unconcerned about the security and privacy issues inherent in keeping a civilian jury occupied for such an extended period of time...

Even if you are eager for the US to prove, by giving a fair trial to even an admitted arch-enemy, its claim of being the fairest and most democratic nation on earth...

Even if you are willing to see that fair trial turn into a show trial...

What scintilla of logic has the Obama administration presented that convinces you there is no better, more secure venue than lower Manhattan (let alone in a courthouse that was once in the shadow of the World Trade Center Towers) for Federal Court trials of foreign nationals who had plotted and were ultimately captured abroad?

Please don't accuse me of supporting any other trial than one conducted by a military tribunal, but the cost of constructing or renovating a more secure trial venue for KSM and the rest would not exceed the cost to taxpayers of providing security for a years-long New York City trial.  In the process, it might at least create some needed jobs. 

Too bad that our gifted Attorney General gave most of his gifts away to enemies of America during the Clinton administration.  But leave it to Barack Obama to recycle this anti-American's best friend and to allow him to finish the job.

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Now apply the same information that has, thus far, been gathered about the Fort Hood shooter and combine it with what corporate security and the FBI may have known about the hypothetical employee prior to his commission of these murders.

Keep in mind that there was not a single person in the room at the time of the shooting that had ever been in direct conflict with the subject.  Remember that the psychos who "go postal" at schools and workplaces are usually eager to justify their behavior with a litany of perceived personal offenses committed by peers and/or superiors written into their suicide notes or related in post-capture statements.  There is no such evidence in this case.

Based on the available evidence, including the shooter's cry of "Allahu akbar" during the massacre, would it not be logical to assume that our hypothetical perp has committed an act of jihadist terrorism?

In eulogizing the fallen at Fort Hood the president blamed "twisted logic" for the killing of 13 men and women. Despite reading from his teleprompter that "there is no faith that justifies [this] murderous and craven [act]" and that the shooter will ultimately "meet justice in this world and the next," Obama refuses to "jump to the conclusion" that the shooter's motive is tantamount to radical Islamist jihadism, implying that it may merely be the result of anti-Muslim hate speech and/or a paranoiac mental illness.

Of course, progressives have a socialistic need to preserve multi-culturalism and the multi-victimism it has spawned.  When everyone is a victim the government can grow to be everyone's comforter.  This is accomplished, in large part, through the use of a powerful hallucinogen with the street name PC.

Political Correctness will always play a major roll in the left's denial of terrorism, even when its manifestation is black-and-white obvious to the un-drugged. Nonetheless, in addition to its ongoing leftist PC stance, this administration actually has a rational, pragmatic reason for its denial of the extremely clear logic behind the Fort Hood shooter's actions.

Calling the Fort Hood Massacre anything but an incident born of some twisted logic would validate the previous administration's claim that the events of September 11, 2001 thrust our nation into a war with jihadists a/k/a Islamo-fascist terrorists. Further, it would serve to prove that this war must be fought just as fiercely here in the homeland as it should be fought abroad.

It would also prove that, as a result of a PC overdose and the failure to properly use the intelligence-gathering methodologies created to help provide post-9/11 homeland security, we have become as insecure in our homes, workplaces and public buildings as are the citizens of Spain, India, the UK, Pakistan and Iraq, to name a few recently terrorized nations.

It would indicate, if not prove, that in the last year we have become even more vulnerable than we were on September 10, 2001, when an act of Islamist  terrorism committed by a member of the US Army on a domestic US Army base would have been just as unthinkable as the possibility of mass murder by high-jacked aircraft.

If there is twisted logic in play as a result of the Fort Hood Massacre it is made abundantly clear by the thought process which concludes that endlessly apologizing for past political incorrectness, protecting multi-culturalism ahead of homeland security and refusing to call a terrorist a terrorist has made -- or could ever make -- a positive change in America.
 

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