Month: February 2013

In Memory: Darlene and Vernon Rhoton

I wanted to take a step back from politics for a second and give you all some bad news. For the last few weeks, we have had some tragic events happen around this household.

My Father’s youngest Sister and her husband of many, many years, have both passed away, within 12 days of one another. Both from cancer.

DarleneandVernon
Darlene and Vernon Rhoton – May they rest in peace. 🙁

Vernon’s Funeral was just a few days ago and now it’s Darlene’s turn. I will be going to her viewing today, later this afternoon. The next few days around here is going to be tough. Pray for my Father, his family, and especially me. I got little or not sleep last night. So, I am going to feeling rough a little later.

But, this is not about me at all. Is about my family. Pray for peace, pray for unity — above all — just pray.

I will be gone for the rest of the afternoon, comments will go on moderate till I return.

 

On The Oscars, Michelle Obama and Blog Comments

As you all know, I was unimpressed with Michelle Obama’s little hoochie dancing routine on that late night TV show. I was equally unimpressed with her video appearance on The Oscars two nights ago. For the record: I did not watch the show, I find such things incredibly boring.

However, one thing did catch my eye last night, and I feel the need to speak out about it. I am referring to a comment left over at HotAir.com, on their posting about Michelle’s appearance on the Oscars. The comment was as follows, and this, of course, comes via Charles “Ponytail Boy” Johnson of Little Green Screwballs, of whom I have no use for really; but I felt this was legit:

As happy as seeing Barak Obama murdered would make me, I think Id be happier if someone put a bullet in that fat pig of a wife.

Okay, this right here, is what I call very much over the line. I mean, it is one thing to talk smack about other bloggers; but the First Lady is over the top. If AllahPundit had any sort of respect for the office of the President of the United States and the First Lady, he would have not only erased the comment, but, he would have added the person’s IP address in the posting and forwarded the information over to the FBI. One of the rules on this blog is the following which comes from my Comment Policy page:

Don’t threaten the President either, or I will report you to the FBI.

What you just read above, which was quoted from the posting at Little Green Footballs and was originally posted at HotAir.com, was, in fact, a direct threat to the life of the First Lady of the United States.

Now folks, I am far from being a perfect person, I have done things in this little blogging career that I do truly regret; especially when I was still rooting for the Democrat Party and when I started out as a “left of center” blogger. But there was one thing that I never did; and when I saw others doing it, I called them out on it — and that is threaten the life of the President of the United States of America. My friends, that is not only legally wrong, that is just plain morally wrong as well. I dare say, that those who do such things, caught or not; are simply anti-American.

At the risk of being called a concern troll, I will simply say this: Putting all partisanship aside; The President of the United States, his wife and children are human beings. Human beings that have loving families. They are human beings that gave up a normal life of privacy, just so they could serve their Country. I would hate to believe that someone out who is that damned cynical that they would actually want to, or at least threaten to murder the First Lady of the United States. My question to you is this: Has American’s moral status become that rotten, that people would do such a horrible thing here on the internet? I find that quite troubling.

Remember folks: We are the United States of America. We settle our political differences at the ballot box. Calls for violence are usually brought by the political extremists. We are not a Nation of extremists, but of clear-headed mind. Let us not get caught up in the euphoria of foolishness, because quite frankly, it is a losing bet — something that Randy Weaver, David Koresh, and more recently Christopher Dorner found out.

 

I have to agree with this on Syria

I hate to say it, but Daniel Larison is right on the money here. We should keep our noses out of that conflict:

Less credible still is the idea that America somehow “owns” the conflict in Syria. That’s not true, and the U.S. shouldn’t be dragged deeper into it because someone claims that it is. If the government begins directly backing armed factions in Syria’s conflict, then Washington will own their actions and be responsible for them. What begins as arms supplies and support will eventually grow into a larger commitment, because by itself supplying weapons likely won’t be enough to achieve anything except more Syrian deaths and a reduced chance of negotiating an end to the fighting. The U.S. already has more than enough commitments overseas, and the last thing it needs now is to be adding a new, difficult, long-term one in Syria.

via America Doesn’t Own the Conflict in Syria | The American Conservative.

Before anyone gives me any grief about it. I know what I have said about The American Conservative in the past. Mainly, it is because of the one of the original owners of the Magazine, and his attitude towards Jews. I mean, it is one thing to dislike the influence of the Jewish right and have a problem with Wilsonian foreign policy. But it is another entirely to say that Israel does not have a right to exist and to accuse Israel of some of the most ridiculous things, most of which comes from propaganda straight out of Palestine. Not only that, but if you side with the people, whose religion says that we got what we deserved on 9/11, then you’re just an asshole in my book. I hate to put it like that, but it is the truth.

The Price of Fascism

Please note: When I write this here, I am not doing it to bad mouth anyone at all. Least of all the UAW or the General Motors or Chrysler workers. It simply is not their fault that the companies that they work for were horribly mismanaged for many years and are now not doing so hot.

As much as I like the fact that my Father did not lose his retirement from General Motors and gets his medical benefits via the UAW’s program that they set up for him. I must acknowledge the truth and the truth is that General Motors and Chrysler were bailed out by the United States Government. One of the tenets of fascism is, in fact, the mingling of private industry and Government.

When the mingling of private industry and Government take place a price is paid. First of all, a company loses its freedom to conduct business as it sees fit. Second of all, the people of said Country usually pay a price in their wallets. Such as the case with General Motors, which happens to be because General Motors was and still is a poorly managed company.

The story via The Detroit News, which is a Conservative/Libertarian slanted newspaper:

Washington — The U.S. Treasury has begun selling the remainder of its 19 percent stake in General Motors Co.

On Jan. 18, the Treasury filed a written trading plan to sell its remaining 300 million shares of stock in the Detroit automaker. It plans to exit completely by March 2014 and said it could immediately begin selling small numbers of shares on the open market.

In a report to Congress, the Treasury said it had net proceeds of $156.4 million in January for the sale of GM stock during eight full trading days.

GM’s stock price ranged between $27.61 and $29.16 during the period, meaning Treasury sold at least 5.4 million shares, depending on the prices it received.

On a quarterly basis, the Treasury plans to disclose how many share of GM stock it has sold and will report monthly its proceeds from the sale.

In December, the Treasury sold 200 million shares of its GM stock to the Detroit automaker for $5.5 billion, or $27.50 a share.

But, of course, there is a cost:

The government needs to get $72 per share for its remaining shares to break even on its $49.5 billion GM bailout. It initially held a 61 percent stake before selling about half of its shares in GM’s November 2010 IPO at $33 a share.

At current prices, the Treasury would lose more than $12 billion on its GM bailout.

Last week, the Treasury Department said its estimate of losses on the $85 billion auto bailout fell by 16 percent, or $4 billion, in large part because of a rebound in General Motors Co.’s stock price.

The Obama administration said in a report to Congress that its projected auto losses fell to $20.3 billion, from its prior quarterly estimate of $24.3 billion.

The Treasury in 2009 initially forecast it would lose $44 billion on its bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and their finance arms. That forecast fell to $30 billion by the end of 2009 and fell as low as $14.3 billion in 2011.

The Treasury still holds a 74 percent stake in Ally Financial, the Detroit-based auto finance firm, as part of a $17.2 billion bailout, but hopes to eventually break even. Ally is shedding its foreign operations as part of its efforts to repay taxpayers.

I bolded some parts of the quoted text above to give you idea of what I am talking about. Up there where it says, “The Treasury”, that means really “The American Taxpayer.” Anytime the United States Treasury is involved in any sort of bailout of private industry, your tax dollars are being used to bail out said company. That is not hatred of President Obama or the Democrats, that is the honest reality of the situation.

Again, this has not about having an axe to grind with the UAW, GM or Chrysler. This is simply a explanation of what happens when Government gets involved with the rescue of two auto companies that were in fact, headed for bankruptcy. The truth is that the American people lost on this deal and lost bad. As much as I respect the history of the UAW and of General Motors, in regards to my family — I must write the truth and this my friends, is the ugly truth.

Video: Juan Williams knows the truth about the leftist media

…and by the way: Everything he is saying is absolutely true. The leftist media and people are tolerate, as long as you agree with their worldview. If you do not, you are silenced. Just try submitting a conservative peace at Reddit and see how it gets voted. Then, try submitting a liberal piece there. Watch the difference. I have done it and I have watched one voted down and the other voted up. Reddit is supposed to be non-partisan, it is not.

Also too: For the record, Conservatives do it too. Just recently, I lost my posting privileges over at FreeRepublic.com. I can think of only one reason. I was not Conservative enough for them.

The point is that this sort of intolerance is wrong, for both the left and the right. The Republicans and Conservatives did it at Fox News during the Bush era, with the cutting off mics and now the Leftist media is doing it. It is still wrong.

Via Daily Caller

Chicago is failing, Blame the Republicans!

Man, when CNN stops buying your talking points, you know you have a problem!

The Story via The Washington Times:

Chicago hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1927, but Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman made the argument Friday that the GOP in Washington is to blame for the city’s gang and gun violence.

Mr. Zimmerman appeared on “CNN Newsroom” with Politics 365 contributor Jason Johnson and CNN contributor Ana Navarro, when he made the suggestion that congressional Republicans are undermining the troubled city with budget cuts.

“[L]et’s be very clear about what’s happening in Washington today, and why it’s undermining the city of Chicago — because there’s a mindset now in our government, in Washington, from the Republican members of Congress, that sequestration is an acceptable way of doing business, that we can in fact engage in these massive irresponsible cuts that no one thinks is a logical approach to budgeting,” Mr. Zimmerman said. “And that undermines law enforcement in our cities; it undermines so many education opportunities for our younger people, and it does in fact create an impoverished class of our society that leads to abuse, leads to violence and leads to more Chicagos.”

Fortunately, there are some people over at CNN that have something in the space between their ears and they just were not buying that silly little talking point and idiotic argument:

But Ms. Navarro didn’t buy the argument.

“Yes, I’m going to try not to roll my eyes at your suggestion that Republicans are the ones responsible for Rahm Emanuel’s city, for Barack Obama’s — President Obama’s state, for a state that’s mostly Democrat,” Ms. Navarro said. “Look, you all got to take responsibility, and you are laying the blame on Republicans and making this a partisan issue.”

Indeed they are. The Democrats will stop at nothing to blame everyone, but themselves for the failures of Chicago, Detroit and California. They will try and pin it on the Republicans. As for the sequester, that was Obama’s idea, not the Republicans idea and now that it is going into place, Obama is blaming the other side for the actual thing that he put into place. Nice try, but Americans, like me, are just much smarter than that.  

However let me say this: This is nothing new at all. Republicans and Democrats have been blaming each other for their failures for a very long time. It is the classic political trick, pass a law, hoping it will help and when it fails; blame the other side. Been happening for years. Most of the time, the sheep of the world — the ones who do not pay attention and accept what his spoon fed to them on the TV, they do not know any better and they just assume that the Democrats are telling the truth. Which in most cases, as with the Republicans —- they are not.

Just the same, I find it very humorous that even CNN is not buying the talking points of the left any longer. Hee hee

Could you imagine a Republican First Lady doing this?

Now could you really imagine a Republican First Lady doing something as silly as this? No. I could not either and I happen to believe that it is a crying shame that the Office of the First Lady is being brought down to such a cheap level as this right here.

Whatever happened to class, whatever happened to the First Lady’s respectability? Whatever happened to our elected leaders and their wives being a cut above the rest of the Country and actually acting like it?

It is no damned wonder the rest of the World looks at America and think we are nothing more than a ill-timed joke anymore. Also too, this is not about race at all; this is about what our Country looks like to the rest of the World.

I might not have agreed with President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, but at least I did not have to worry about the First Lady being reduced to the level of a night club dancer. 🙄

Via Is Michelle Obama a Better Dancer Than Your Mom? — Daily Intelligencer.

Related: Associated Press: Michelle Obama jokes with Jimmy Fallon about a future as host of Jay Leno’s ‘Tonight Show’

Videos: Nascar Dayton wreck

I don’t know if you have heard. But there was a massive wreck at the Daytona Nascar race.

But, I have videos. I am following the situation on twitter.

Here’s the wreck video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkcdcbyoDFw

Here is a fan video:

Video is back:

Update: Photo from Fan John Haywood. who tweets:

 

Another tweet with pictures:

The photo:

Consider this a live blog, I will be monitoring twitter and posting what I can find.

Standby for updates