A Blog Smith is analogous to Hephaestus (as a blacksmith) in that they create from writing by "forging" the basic materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: ideas, IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Administration launches "World of Washington" role playing game
When the government starts to pick winners and losers, as Ayn Rand wrote, people quickly learn that the currency of the land is relationships with those in power. Not content to do this only in real life, the administration is bringing this new play mechanic to the world's largest online role playing game, World of Warcraft. Here's a preview of the new "World of Washington" upgrade.
At http://youtube.com/bulletpeople join us Thursday, July 14th at 8 p.m. for our Mock the Spending 24 hour marathon: 100 videos in 24 hours.
Our two goals:
#1: Make 100 videos in 24 hours that mock the things in Washington that require mocking.
#2: Submit it to the PowerLine Prize contest.
Got an idea for a video? Go to http://PowerLinePrize.com to try to win the prize yourself. Or if you don't want to make a video, but have an idea worth mocking, send it us and we'll do the work (And we will add it to our submission.)
Politicians and journalists who fixate on consumer spending are putting the cart before the horse. Consumer spending generally is a consequence of growth, not the cause of growth. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video helps explain how to achieve more prosperity by looking at the differences between gross domestic product and gross domestic income. www.freedomandprosperity.org
Jason Chaffetz (Utah)
Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.)
Tom Graves (Ga.)
Tim Huelskamp (Kans.)
Steve King (Iowa)
Tim Johnson (Ill.)
Tom McClintock (Calif.)
Mick Mulvaney (S.C.)
Ron Paul (Texas)
Connie Mack (Fla.)
Jim Jordan (Ohio)
Tim Scott (S.C.)
Paul Broun (Ga.)
Tom Latham (Iowa)
Jeff Duncan (S.C.)
Trey Gowdy (S.C.)
Steve Southerland (Fla.)
Joe Walsh (Ill.)
Joe Wilson (S.C.)
CORRECTED: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) voted YES on the Boehner bill. That was incorrect in the initial list. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has been added to the list.
The retired agency heads — John Deutch, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, James R. Schlesinger, George Tenet, William Webster and R. James Woolsey — also warned the investigation could hamper the government's intelligence-gathering abilities and deter other nations from working with the United States. The retired agency heads date back to the Carter administration, it is a bi-partisan effort, including both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Obama, quit lying. You know darn well that if August 2nd comes and goes there is plenty of money to pay off our debt and cover all social security obligations.
Tea Party Patriots: Primary Challengers in 2012 Will Be More Frequent -- and More Successful
Speaker of the House John Boehner needs “to go” and be replaced by a “Tea Party Speaker of the House,” Tea Party Nation head Judson Phillips said in a blog post Wednesday.
Criticizing Boehner’s new debt plan that the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday came up short in spending cuts, Phillips said Boehner (R-Ohio) “has no real interest in solving the problems this country faces. … He worships at the altar of massive spending.”
Facing an Aug. 2 deadline of a possible default unless a deal can be reached, he added: “John Boehner simply wishes to be the manager in chief of the welfare state. His vision of the GOP and the Speakership involves golfing, drinking and not rocking the boat.”
“We need a Tea Party Speaker of the House. We need a Speaker with a vision for the future,” Phillips said, urging members to call the representatives and get Boehner out.
Also on Wednesday, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin cited a new internal poll of their members that found more than 80 percent were not satisfied with Boehner and the rest of the House Republican leadership, and nearly three-quarters would like a new Speaker of the House.
According to the Hill, Martin said, “Maybe we should see about getting a different Speaker right away.”
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Martin’s co-founder Mark Meckler called Boehner’s plan “an embarrassment” and gave his performance so far as Speaker a “D.”
“He proposes $1.4 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. Legally, no Congress can bind a future Congress. Anything he promises about what future Congresses will do, they simply can’t make that promise. In the real world, we call that a lie.”
Meckler said lawmakers, including Boehner, should steel themselves for another Tea Party uprising at the polls based on what happens this week:
I can tell you that there are certainly a lot of thoughts out in the Tea Party network across the country about primary-ing people, including freshmen who seem to be going off the rails so early. This week in Ohio, 51 local Tea Party groups wrote a letter to Boehner telling him not to cave on the debt limit. In his own state, he faces significant opposition from a vast majority of the Tea Partiers who are against what he is doing in regard to the debt limit.
“If you want to raise the debt ceiling, prove to us you can make some cuts,” Meckler said to U.S. News and World Report. “Get real. They need to act like adults.”
Press Secretary Jay Carney entered into a testy exchange with new Fox White House reporter Ed Henry on Tuesday afternoon, after Henry pressed Carney on why the president hasn’t submitted his own debt plan, and why he went on primetime TV on Monday to blast some of the proposals out there without submitting one of his own.
Carney clearly wasn’t happy with being challenged, accusing Henry of spewing Republican talking points (a serious charge from a sitting press secretary to a journalist of a major network). But Henry wouldn’t back down, and when he didn’t, Carney got personal, accusing several journalists in the room of skipping out “early” on Friday, and blaming them not being informed.
As soon as the words darted out of Carney’s mouth, a loud chorus of “OOOOOOs” and “OHHHHHs” could be heard throughout the briefing room, and Henry can be seen cracking a smile. But even after that, the back-and-forth continued.
http://www.washingtontimes.com Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) discusses Attorney General Eric Holder's claim that he had no prior knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, part of an anti-gun initiative known as "Project Gunrunner." The initiative allowed thousands of weapons to be purchased by "straw buyers" in Arizona and Texas and later "walked" unchecked to drug smugglers in Mexico. At least three of those weapons, including two AK-47 assault rifles, later were found at the site of separate shootings that claimed the lives of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, who was killed by Rejon Aguilar's Zetas, and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry.
With the August 2 deadline just days away from the U.S. running out of money, some wonder if Obama will try to use the 14th Amendment to get the debt ceiling raised without congressional approval.
The 14th Amendment states that "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law...shall not be questioned."
Can a president undertake borrowings to undertake expenditures not approved by the Congress? That would, in principle, involve a significant constitutional crisis.
I'd say call his bluff and if he does it, impeach him.
The context of the 14th Amendment is the Civil War and its subsequent debts. The American tradition has never been to have such reckless and self-serving politicians in office. However, this is what we are stuck with, two parties advancing their own political agenda without regard for the Constitution or the American people, much less our posterity. Washington would like to twist the plain and simple meanings of the Constitutional words for their own ends. Its despicable.
Government-workers unions have been political juggernauts in the U.S. since the collective bargaining rights revolution of the 1960s and 70s. In this video, Daniel DiSalvo exposes how these unions have created cartels with their political allies, mostly in the Democratic Party, to the detriment of the taxpaying public.
24 July 2011, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson
South Central L.A. Tea Party Protests The NAACP ( Illegal Immigration/Aliens)
The Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson led his South Central Los Angeles Tea Party in a protest/demonstration, in L.A. in front of the site of the NAACP's national convention.
"We appeal to jihadists not to claim the Norway attacks so as not to tighten the noose for comrades who are in that country or other countries," said the site Shumukh al-Islam (the Grandeur of Islam).
The website has in the past carried claims of responsibility from Al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups for attacks in the West, Afghanistan and Somalia.
In “A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother,” author Janny Scott quotes from correspondence from the president’s mother to assert that the 1995 dispute concerned a Cigna disability insurance policy and that her actual health insurer had apparently reimbursed most of her medical expenses without argument.
Why did a jihad group take credit for the atrocities, and then retract? And who altered the murderer's Facebook page? Yesterday, at the time that his name was released, his Facebook page looked like this:
But shortly thereafter, this screenshot started circulating, of an altered Facebook page on which Breivik identified himself as a Christian and a conservative.
Although the lamestream rarely reports these things, Islamists have long been active in the country.
Muslims and Leftists Rioting in Oslo, Norway - Welcome to Eurabia
Jan 08, 2009 17:08 EST
OSLO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Oslo police detained at least 27 people on Thursday after pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed in one of the worst such outbursts in the Norwegian capital since the 1980s.
Shop windows in the city centre were shattered and police repeatedly used teargas to break up groups of activists demonstrating over Israel's crackdown in the Gaza Strip.
The violence started when about 1,000 pro-Palestinian supporters showed up at a rally sponsored by Norway's largest opposition party in support of Israel. Television pictures showed they burned Israeli flags and threw projectiles at police clad in body armour who separated the two groups.
"This has nothing to do with the situation in Gaza," Johan Fredriksen, chief of staff of the Oslo police, told the website of the daily Aftenposten.
"These people came to the protest with knives, bats and Molotov cocktails," he said, speaking about the pro-Palestinian side.
"You have to go back to the early 1980s to find a similar situation in Norway," Fredriksen said, adding that police were still concerned about security across the city.
Clashes also took place near the Israeli embassy.
Tabloid VG on its website said that Oslo was the site of a "street fight" with groups of men throwing rocks and bottles at police. One police car was trashed and one officer injured.
Before the flare up, some 15,000 people walked through the city centre for a peaceful, torch-lit protest, police said.
A Muslim demonstrator in Oslo talks about the violence
Oslo Muslim Pro-Hamas Riots:Anti-Israel Brutality
100 Gaza protesters arrested in Oslo in front of the Israeli embassy.
100 arrested after protest march in front of the israeli embassy in Norway.
A peace demonstration gone wrong ended up with protesters using fireworks and rocks against the embassy at the end of a peaceful demonstration in Oslo, 10. january 2009.
Police retaliate with teargas and pinned down the most violent protesters in a corner, leading to the arrest of 100 people.
Some as young as 13 years old.
The rest of the protesters spread out in the capital and thrashed 4 Mcdonald stores, set fire to Christiania cafe and made alot of damage around the city saturday night.
Raw footage follows.
Please credit any use of this video and contact the owner if you intend to use this material.
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is also scheduled to be shown on August 11th at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy as part of SyFy’s Movies With A View. We say scheduled to be shown because an online petition is calling for the screening to be cancelled due to a character played by Mickey Rooney that Asian American groups find offensive. Rooney was hired to play an over-the-top Asian man and he did.
Watch this commercial for Jello from the 1960s:
Is that offensive and racist?
Or, how about this scene from an episode of “The Flinstones?”
The debate over “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” or any work made in a time when racism or stereotyping was acceptable entertainment is an interesting one. Earlier this year, scholars went back and forth over the newest editions of Mark Twain’s 1884 “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” removing the “N” word and “Injun.”
New York Post writer Lou Lumenick offered some clarity on the topic:
I personally think the screening should go forward, but the film’s outdated racial attitudes need to be acknowledged and discussed in an introduction.
Lumenick’s idea is one that works to preserve the historical integrity of the film, while recognizing the offensive stereotyping.
Let's all take a deep breath and sing along with the Broadway show “Avenue Q” song “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist.”
July 13, 2011 - Congressman Ron Paul questions Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a U.S. House Financial Services Committee Meeting shortly after reports surfaced that the Federal Reserve was preparing for a third round of quantitative easing.
Just a day after U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., called for Attorney General Eric Holder's removal, alleging a White House connection to the "Project Gunrunner" that allowed weapons to be delivered to Mexican drug lords, confirmation has come that the program originated at the highest levels of the Obama administration.
The link is the $10 million in taxpayer dollars designated to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for Project Gunrunner in Obama's 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, otherwise known as the Stimulus Bill.
Section 5, Division A, Title II, under the heading of "Office of Justice Programs," says the money is set aside for border regions.
For an additional amount for 'State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance,' $40,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2014, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to 'Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses' for the ATF Project Gunrunner.
Rep. Paul Ryan on why Medicare reforms that bring choice and competition to seniors would lower costs better than IPAB - a board of 15 unelected people with the power to deny seniors care. "What our concern is, is if we invest all of the power and the funding decisions with a board of 15 people - who's decisions go into law and don't even go through Congress - is that the best way to save this entitlement and restrain spending? We believe there's a better way."
Arrest Jennifer Jade Jones June 28 Quartzsite Arizona Council Meeting
Jennifer "Jade" Jones -- had her elbow injured and was hospitalized during her arrest for disorderly conduct during peaceful statements at a public podium during a town council meeting. Jones had the floor. Police chief Jeff Gilbert (positioned at wall) was directly involved. Many in Quartzsite do not understand why this police chief is not under suspension because Arizona State Dept of Public Safety is already investigating him for criminal accusations by officers in his department. Presiding officer of the meeting (Mayor) could not dissuade police from their mission. Many suspect conspiracy between police chief and council members, other than the mayor.
Jones, who claims she's been previously harassed by police, says recently some officers – including Chief Jeff Gilbert – have been acting more erratically and dangerously, and says he even gave a speech comparing outspoken citizens like herself to Jared Loughner, the gunman who shot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson on Jan. 8.
Quartzsite Chief Jeff Gilbert's Warning to Town Council 01-11-2011
Quartzsite Chief Jeff Gilbert's Warning to Town Council on the signs that preceded the AZ shooting. At the 6:45 mark Gilbert gets really scary; he compares the arrested free speech advocate as violent and like a convicted Arizona shooter.
More than 3,300 wells have been drilled across Pennsylvania in just the last few years. The boom has raised concerns about the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which injects chemical-laced water to break up the shale and allow natural gas to escape into the shale to push out the minerals. Environmental groups and the Environmental Protection Agency have expressed concerns about how the process impacts water, soil and air quality. But the industry insists it is safe.
An article titled “The Morality of Fracking” appeared in The National Catholic Reporter last month, and the Reform Jewish Voice of New York State endorsed the drilling moratorium there.
Norman Wirzba, a professor of Theology, Ecology, and Rural Life at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina, said he thinks it’s noteworthy that Bickerton, the leader of a large congregation, is speaking out.
The National Religious Partnership for the Environment includes perspectives from Evangelical, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Interfaith groups.
n some cases, religious groups see gas drilling as a way to support charitable work.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a drilling industry group, said she was surprised last year to find that dozens of religious groups had entered into gas drilling leases.
Some religious groups think another way to address the fracking issue is to start at the top, by engaging and pressuring large corporations.
Sister Nora Nash is director of the corporate social responsibility program at the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, which was founded more than 150 years ago.
The North Carolina Council of Churches is working on a statement, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow of Philadelphia’s Shalom Center has written articles critical of fracking.
Sybil Sanchez, director of the New York-based Coalition on Environment and Jewish Life, said her group supports increasing energy independence in ways that also protect the environment, which they see as God’s Creation.
The video was filmed during a Feb. 19, 2009, PTO presentation at Sand Hill – Venable Elementary School in Asheville, N.C. The third-graders chanted:
The 44th president of the United States of America.
Change has come. Change has come.
Hope.
Uniting blacks and whites.
Hope.
Being both, Obama cannot take sides.
Hope.
Don't worry, said hope. I will be your bridge.
In time, hope will be the bridge for all of us.
Hope will last enough for you to make a difference.
Change has come. Change has come.
Go now, fly free.
Study, watch, learn, keep your eyes open.
Education is the key. Education is the secret.
Education is the way. Education is the path.
Can I make America better?
Can I make America better?
Can we make America better?
Yes! Yes we can!
Yes! Yes we can!
Messages left with Sand Hill – Venable Elementary School Principal Diane McEntire and PTO co-Presidents Senna Dill and Melanie Hudson were not returned.
A Top of the Pops episode wiped by the BBC, but existing in audio !!! This episode is presented by Noel Edmonds !!! The first two songs are missing: Fox - Imagine Me Imagine You and The Wombles - Wombling White Tie and Tails !!!
The music on Part 1 consists of:
SUSAN CADOGAN -- Hurt So Good
WINDSOR DAVIES & DON ESTELLE -- Whispering Grass
TAMMY JONES -- Let Me Try Again
IAN HUNTER -- Once Bitten Twice Shy
July 3 - A group of protesters hold a demonstration in Hanoi, Vietnam, against what they call China's "provocations" in the ongoing dispute of the South China Sea territories. Simon Hanna reports
A debunking of the left's global warming agenda, from Roy W. Spencer, former NASA climatologist and climate expert. For more on this topic, purchase his new Broadside, "The Bad Science and Bad Policy of Obama's Global Warming Agenda" by clicking here: http://amzn.to/jYWzEH.
The Democrat party has always been the party of racism, so why do black people vote for Democrats? Today, Andrew Klavan has the terrifying answer.
And for more information about the racist past of the Democrat Party, check out Ann Coulter's newest bestseller, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America - http://amzn.to/lxcQiT
Author of 'Presidential War Powers', Louis Fisher, discusses the impact of President Obama's actions in Libya.
Louis Fisher, a scholar in residence at the Constitution Project who served for 40 years as a constitutional law expert at the Library of Congress, says Americans and members of Congress should understand that President Barack Obama committed a “very grave offense” against the Constitution in taking military action in Libya without congressional authorization.
“I am not going to recommend that the House Judiciary Committee hold impeachment hearings, but I would like members of Congress and the public to say that nothing would be more impeachable than a President who takes the country to war without coming to Congress, who does it unilaterally,” Fisher told CNSNews.com’s Online With Terry Jeffrey.
June 11, 2003, Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., brought HJR 59. It was intended to "permit persons who are not natural born citizens of the United States, but who have been citizens of the United States for at least 35 years, to be eligible to hold the offices of president and vice president."
Sept. 3, 2003, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., brought HJR67, which would have done the same as Snyder's, only the requirement to be a citizen was lowered to 20 years.
Feb. 25, 2004, Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., brought S.B. 2128 to "try to counter the growing Democrat onslaught aimed at removing the natural born citizen requirement." But it defined NBC as someone who was born in and is subject to the United States," which was not the understanding of the framers of the Constitution.
Sept. 15, 2004, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., brought HJR 104, "to make eligible for the office of president a person who is not a natural born citizen of the United States but has been a United States citizen for at least 20 years."
Jan. 4, 2005, Conyers, D-Mich., HJR2, the same as Rohrabacher's.
Feb. 1, 2005, HJR15, Rohrabacher, to require only 20 years citizenship to be eligible for the office of president.
April 14, 2005, Snyder, HJR42, requiring 35 years' citizenship.
Feb. 28, 2008, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., tried to attach to SB 2678, Children of Military Families Natural Born Citizen Act, an amendment clarifying what "natural-born citizen" includes. Obama and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., were sponsors.
