I didn't catch the first part of the segment, but he is having to think about joining the military medical corps because he had just opened his practice when the recession hit and can't pay his loans, and there aren't any openings in other practices around here now.
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Please try to De-program
Please try to change your mind set from the negative programming of the campaign. The whole world is able to celebrate that America has chosen a man of integrity and intelligence to be our leader. Believe me things are going to be so much better now that we have at the helm a thinking person who has the people's interest as his guiding principle. Just as he surrounded himself with the best and brightest to organize and run an honorable and successful campaign, he will use those same resources to bring our nation to honor and success...President-elect Obama's success is all of our success
SCHIP program
First, let's get the story straight. Republicans are not voting against Childrens Health Care. The SCHIP program has been in effect for several years, and Republicans DID vote to start the program. And like most government-run programs it is wasteful and was not administered properly. Millions of illegals' children are enrolled in the program, taking funds that should go to American children. That is one of the things Republicans want watched before expanding the program. Expansion might not be necessary to the tune of 6 billion if the illegals got taken off. All the Republicans asked was that the Democrats extend the program for another 6 months as it stands now (they NEVER voted to stop it completely) and work on a solution to remove illegals and make sure no more illegals get on, etc. This has never been about voting against health care for children. They are not voting to stop SCHIP, just tighten it up. Of course, because of the liberal bias of media, all you see are headlines saying BUSH TO VETO CHILDRENS HEALTH CARE PLAN and REPUBLICANS WANT TO STOP CHILDRENS HEALTH CARE PLAN. Both of these are lies. The 'socialized medicine' comment, I believe, was directed toward the Democrat plan to stop all private health care and make the whole thing government run. And when they do that, the quality of health care will tank and the ability to get superior medical care for catastrophic incidents, high-risk surgery, etc., will drop dramatically. Ask Canada. Ask why Canadians come to the US for that kind of care? Because they don't want to be on government waiting lists for months/years. Do some research. It HAPPENS. Socialized medicine hurts the middle class and poor, because richer folks can still pay cash and get the higher standard of care. Believe me, folks, we don't need socialized medicine in this country.
As I have stated in other posts, tighten up the SCHIP program to exclude illegals and monitor the program properly so that it does what it is designed to do...provide health care for American children whose parents cannot afford to buy it. Look at all social programs here (fraught with waste), tighten them up, and prioritize. Put Childrens Health care at the top of the pile. Use common sense, like American families have to do inidividually. We know we can't provide everything for our families we would like to, so we have to prioritize, to make sure the most important things are taken care of first. Government should run the same way. If government is going to provide health care for kids (and I believe if we are going to have social programs that one should be FIRST), then do so, and make that the FIRST priority of social spending. If that cuts into lesser needed programs, so be it. First things first. If we do not start being fiscally responsible with spending, we are going to dig ourselves into a hole. The more people who get on assistance and do not pay into the tax system, the bigger the burden is on the rest of us who do have to work and pay taxes. Personally I think 35-40% off the top of my wages is enough. I think the government just has to prioritize and be more careful about the way they spend it.
Making Home Affordable will offer assistance to as many as 7 to 9 million homeowners, making their mortgages more affordable and helping to prevent the destructive impact of foreclosures on families, communities and the national economy.
The Home Affordable Refinance program will be available to 4 to 5 million homeowners who have a solid payment history on an existing mortgage owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Normally, these borrowers would be unable to refinance because their homes have lost value, pushing their current loan-to-value ratios above 80%. Under the Home Affordable Refinance program, many of them will now be eligible to refinance their loan to take advantage of today’s lower mortgage rates or to refinance an adjustable-rate mortgage into a more stable mortgage, such as a 30-year fixed rate loan.
GSE lenders and servicers already have much of the borrower’s information on file, so documentation requirements are not likely to be burdensome. In addition, in some cases an appraisal will not be necessary. This flexibility will make the refinance quicker and less costly for both borrowers and lenders. The Home Affordable Refinance program ends in June 2010.
The Home Affordable Modification program will help up to 3 to 4 million at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing monthly mortgage payments. Working with the banking and credit union regulators, the FHA, the VA, the USDA and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Treasury Department today announced program guidelines that are expected to become standard industry practice in pursuing affordable and sustainable mortgage modifications. This program will work in tandem with an expanded and improved Hope for Homeowners program.
With the information now available, servicers can begin immediately to modify eligible mortgages under the Modification program so that at-risk borrowers can better afford their payments. The detailed guidelines (separate document) provide information on the following:
Eligibility and Verification
Loans originated on or before January 1, 2009.
First-lien loans on owner-occupied properties with unpaid principal balance up to $729,750. Higher limits allowed for owner-occupied properties with 2-4 units.
All borrowers must fully document income, including signed IRS 4506-T, two most recent pay stubs, and most recent tax return, and must sign an affidavit of financial hardship.
Property owner occupancy status will be verified through borrower credit report and other documentation; no investor-owned, vacant, or condemned properties.
Incentives to lenders and servicers to modify at risk borrowers who have not yet missed payments when the servicer determines that the borrower is at imminent risk of default.
Modifications can start from now until December 31, 2012; loans can be modified only once under the program.
Loan Modification Terms and Procedures
Participating servicers are required to service all eligible loans under the rules of the program unless explicitly prohibited by contract; servicers are required to use reasonable efforts to obtain waivers of limits on participation.
Participating loan servicers will be required to use a net present value (NPV) test on each loan that is at risk of imminent default or at least 60 days delinquent. The NPV test will compare the net present value of cash flows with modification and without modification. If the test is positive – meaning that the net present value of expected cash flow is greater in the modification scenario – the servicer must modify absent fraud or a contract prohibition.
Parameters of the NPV test are spelled out in the guidelines, including acceptable discount rates, property valuation methodologies, home price appreciation assumptions, foreclosure costs and timelines, and borrower cure and redefault rate assumptions.
Servicers will follow a specified sequence of steps in order to reduce the monthly payment to no more than 31% of gross monthly income (DTI).
The modification sequence requires first reducing the interest rate (subject to a rate floor of 2%), then if necessary extending the term or amortization of the loan up to a maximum of 40 years, and then if necessary forbearing principal. Principal forgiveness or a Hope for Homeowners refinancing are acceptable alternatives.
The monthly payment includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance, flood insurance, homeowner’s association and/or condominium fees. Monthly income includes wages, salary, overtime, fees, commissions, tips, social security, pensions, and all other income.
Servicers must enter into the program agreements with Treasury’s financial agent on or before December 31, 2009.
Payments to Servicers, Lenders, and Responsible Borrowers
The program will share with the lender/investor the cost of reductions in monthly payments from 38% DTI to 31% DTI.
Servicers that modify loans according to the guidelines will receive an up-front fee of $1,000 for each modification, plus “pay for success” fees on still-performing loans of $1,000 per year.
Homeowners who make their payments on time are eligible for up to $1,000 of principal reduction payments each year for up to five years.
The program will provide one-time bonus incentive payments of $1,500 to lender/investors and $500 to servicers for modifications made while a borrower is still current on mortgage payments.
The program will include incentives for extinguishing second liens on loans modified under this program.
No payments will be made under the program to the lender/investor, servicer, or borrower unless and until the servicer has first entered into the program agreements with Treasury’s financial agent.
Similar incentives will be paid for Hope for Homeowner refinances.
Transparency and Accountability
Measures to prevent and detect fraud, such as documentation and audit requirements, will be central to the program.
Servicers will be required to collect, maintain and transmit records for verification and compliance review, including borrower eligibility, underwriting, incentive payments, property verification, and other documentation.
Sorry, I'm still venting from the SCHIP garbage that was on today. They absolutely want to pass this immediately without looking at amendments, etc. They want an additional 11 million children covered ( nothing wrong with that) EXCEPT they want to put it on the smokers to pay for it. Now, with the way they are trying to get smokers to quit, I would think that's a stupid and absolutely wrong idea.
Like James Webb (NC) stated, "Do we really want an unhealthy habit to pay for a healthy habit?"What happens when the smokers quit because of all the taxes they have to pay to keep these programs going? Who is going to pay for it if every smoker quits? You have nothing to back it up. There would be a black hole and eventually, every citizen would have to pay for it.
I agree totally with his statements. Why is it they expect an unhealthy habit to cover healthy habits? It makes no sense. At least this rep has his head together, yet the others don't think about the future costs.
When are the American citizens going to wake up and start thinking for themselves? Why, oh why, do we keep voting in people who don't even think for themselves, just vote by party affiliation?
Glenn Beck stated we have to keep the phone lines to Washington and keep calling in to our reps to stop the nonsense (sp). I agree.
I watched the jerk put in the Senate by fellow voters from my state today and I had to turn him off (I didn't vote for him-he knows nothing). I am going to write to the newspapers in that area and ask them WHY did they vote for him? Betcha my answer will be "He gave us so much money to get our projects done." "He's the son of our late governor." "He's from our area." That's no reason to vote for somebody. If it is, then I must be totally wrong for voting the way I do. I vote who I think will do the best job, not if he's from our area. That's part of the problem with politics today.
I'll get off my now. Thanks for reading. I promise no more venting today.
The Other Big Brother The Pentagon has its own domestic spying program. Even its leaders say the outfit may have gone too far.
By Michael Isikoff Newsweek
Jan. 30, 2006 issue - The demonstration seemed harmless enough. Late on a June afternoon in 2004, a motley group of about 10 peace activists showed up outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton, the giant military contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. They were there to protest the corporation's supposed war profiteering. The demonstrators wore papier-mache masks and handed out free peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to Halliburton employees as they left work. The idea, according to organizer Scott Parkin, was to call attention to allegations that the company was overcharging on a food contract for troops in Iraq. It was tongue-in-street political theater, Parkin says.
But that's not how the Pentagon saw it. To U.S. Army analysts at the top-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the peanut-butter protest was regarded as a potential threat to national security. Created three years ago by the Defense Department, CIFA's role is force protection—tracking threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States. In May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy Defense secretary, authorized a fact-gathering operation code-named TALON—short for Threat and Local Observation Notice—that would collect raw information about suspicious incidents. The data would be fed to CIFA to help the Pentagon's terrorism threat warning process, according to an internal Pentagon memo.
A Defense document shows that Army analysts wrote a report on the Halliburton protest and stored it in CIFA's database. It's not clear why the Pentagon considered the protest worthy of attention—although organizer Parkin had previously been arrested while demonstrating at ExxonMobil headquarters (the charges were dropped). But there are now questions about whether CIFA exceeded its authority and conducted unauthorized spying on innocent people and organizations. A Pentagon memo obtained by NEWSWEEK shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained. The number of reports with names of U.S. persons could be in the thousands, says a senior Pentagon official who asked not be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.
CIFA's activities are the latest in a series of disclosures about secret government programs that spy on Americans in the name of national security. In December, the ACLU obtained documents showing the FBI had investigated several activist groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Greenpeace, supposedly in an effort to discover possible ecoterror connections. At the same time, the White House has spent weeks in damage-control mode, defending the controversial program that allowed the National Security Agency to monitor the telephone conversations of U.S. persons suspected of terror links, without obtaining warrants.
Last Thursday, Cheney called the program vital to the country's defense against Al Qaeda. Either we are serious about fighting this war on terror or not, he said in a speech to the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. But as the new information about CIFA shows, the scope of the U.S. government's spying on Americans may be far more extensive than the public realizes.
It isn't clear how many groups and individuals were snagged by CIFA's dragnet. Details about the program, including its size and budget, are classified. In December, NBC News obtained a 400-page compilation of reports that detailed a portion of TALON's surveillance efforts. It showed the unit had collected information on nearly four dozen antiwar meetings or protests, including one at a Quaker meetinghouse in Lake Worth, Fla., and a Students Against War demonstration at a military recruiting fair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A Pentagon spokesman declined to say why a private company like Halliburton would be deserving of CIFA's protection. But in the past, Defense Department officials have said that the force protection mission includes military contractors since soldiers and Defense employees work closely with them and therefore could be in danger.
CIFA researchers apparently cast a wide net and had a number of surveillance methods—both secretive and mundane—at their disposal. An internal CIFA PowerPoint slide presentation recently obtained by William Arkin, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who writes widely about military affairs, gives some idea how the group operated. The presentation, which Arkin provided to NEWSWEEK, shows that CIFA analysts had access to law-enforcement reports and sensitive military and U.S. intelligence documents. (The group's motto appears at the bottom of each PowerPoint slide: Counterintelligence 'to the Edge'.) But the organization also gleaned data from open source Internet monitoring. In other words, they surfed the Web.
That may have been how the Pentagon came to be so interested in a small gathering outside Halliburton. On June 23, 2004, a few days before the Halliburton protest, an ad for the event appeared on houston.indymedia.org, a Web site for lefty Texas activists. Stop the war profiteers, read the posting. Bring out the kids, relatives, Dick Cheney, and your favorite corporate pigs at the trough as we will provide food for free.
Four months later, on Oct. 25, the TALON team reported another possible threat to national security. The source: a Miami antiwar Web page. Website advertises protest planned at local military recruitment facility, the internal report warns. The database entry refers to plans by a south Florida group called the Broward Anti-War Coalition to protest outside a strip-mall recruiting office in Lauderhill, Fla. The TALON entry lists the upcoming protest as a credible threat. As it turned out, the entire event consisted of 15 to 20 activists waving a giant bush lied sign. No one was arrested. It's very interesting that the U.S. military sees a domestic peace group as a threat, says Paul Lefrak, a librarian who organized the protest.
Arkin says a close reading of internal CIFA documents suggests the agency may be expanding its Internet monitoring, and wants to be as surreptitious as possible. CIFA has contracted to buy identity masking software that would allow the agency to create phony Web identities and let them appear to be located in foreign countries, according to a copy of the contract with Computer Sciences Corp. (The firm declined to comment.)
Pentagon officials have broadly defended CIFA as a legitimate response to the domestic terror threat. But at the same time, they acknowledge that an internal Pentagon review has found that CIFA's database contained some information that may have violated regulations. The department is not allowed to retain information about U.S. citizens for more than 90 days—unless they are reasonably believed to have some link to terrorism, criminal wrongdoing or foreign intelligence. There was information that was improperly stored, says a Pentagon spokesman who was authorized to talk about the program (but not to give his name). It was an oversight. In a memo last week, obtained by NEWSWEEK, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England ordered CIFA to purge such information from its files—and directed that all Defense Department intelligence personnel receive refresher training on department policies.
That's not likely to stop the questions. Last week Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee pushed for an inquiry into CIFA's activities and who it's watching. This is a significant Pandora's box [Pentagon officials] don't want opened, says Arkin. What we're looking at is hints of what they're doing. As far as the Pentagon is concerned, that means we've already seen too much.
Fox New Program on Obama - Sunday night 10/12
HELLO EVERYONE: IMPORTANT INFORMATION!! > > SEAN HANNITY, OF HANNITY & COLMES ~ FOX NEWS, IS GOING TO AIR A VERY > IMPORTANT DOCUMENTARY ABOUT BARACK OBAMA, SUNDAY NIGHT AT 9:00 PM. HE > STATED ON THE AIR THIS EVENING THAT NO ONE IN THE NEWS MEDIA WAS WILLING > TO DO THIS. HANNITY IS GOING BACK TO OBAMA'S EARLIER DAYS, SHOWING EVEN > THEN HIS TIES TO RADICAL PROFESSORS, FRIENDS, SPIRITUAL ADVISERS, Etc., > HE STATED THIS EVENING THAT HE WILL SHOW IN DETAIL HIS TIES TO REV. > WRIGHT FOR 20+ YRS (which we all > know) HOW HE WAS PARTICIPATING WITH THIS MAN, AND NOT FOR THE REASONS HE > STATES! HE HAS UNCOVERED MORE OF OBAMA'S RADICAL LEADERS AND WE WILL SEE > THINGS THAT NO ONE IN THE MEDIA IS WILLING TO PUT OUT THERE.&nb sp; THIS > WILL BE A NIGHT THAT YOU WILL KNOW MORE ABOUT OBAMA THAN EVER BEFORE. > HANNITY IS VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS PROGRAM AND ASKED THAT EVERYONE > PLEASE, PLEASE WATCH~~ SUNDAY NIGHT, 9 PM. > > HANNITY IS DETERMINED THIS INFORMATION BE PUT OUT THERE BECAUSE AS > AMERICAN'S, WE STILL DO NOT KNOW ABOUT OBAMA!! WAKE UP AMERICA !! THIS > IS SERIOUS,EVERYONE. I KNOW MOST OF YOU WATCH FOX NEWS, AND YOU KNOW WHO > YOU ARE VOTING FOR, BUT IF YOU CAN, PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU > KNOW. THIS IS CRITICAL FOR OUR COUNTRY. MY PRAYER IS
THAT WE, ALONG WITH > SEAN HANNITY, WILL REACH SOMEONE/ANYONE BEFORE NOV. 4th. WE MUST NOT > GIVE UP!!! the only thing I can find is a scholarship program
for students with good grade, which I am in no way opposed to. This is different than guaranteeing a free ride to anyone.
On 2/16 on history channel a program about Lincoln
Think its called Stealing Lincolns body. Looks interesting.
I'll be sure to watch this one tonight. I saw it advertised the other night when I was watching Sense and Sensibility.
WC is not a government program - it is insurance that the company's pay
nm
local supermarket
In a local supermarket, they have set up a recruiting station. Well, when shopping and I noticed this, my outrage grew (smile). I walked over to the place, stood in front. They were washing the windows and I stated, **be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box**. The girl washing the windows young, so maybe she knew nothing about the FISH song or Vietnam..She said..what did you say?? I repeated the lyric from the FISH song (which you can listen to on the Woodstock album). A guy came out the door, I showed him my middle finger (sorry, it was in the heat of the moment..I dont like death, I dont like lies)..and I walked away..
it is either state and local's
responsibility and he should stay away until things calm down OR he blew it last time and he doesn't that memory to to influence the election. You can't have it both ways.
Well, now. I just read in our local
paper that our wonderful governor (who has almost bankrupted our state) thinks he may be chosen for the Secretary of Transportation or Energy. But have no fear....he promises us he will remain our governor until 2011.
Please, beg the O not to offer the job to him or he will do the same thing to the country as he did to our state. Our state is in worse shape than before he took over. He has not kept 1 promise to us except that he would get casinos in here to help with property taxes and yet, we have yet to see our taxes lowered.
As part of the stimulus package, President Obama rescued our recent police academy graduating class.The City had run out of bucks and Mayor Michael (Don’t Question My Manhood*) Coleman threatening to lay these 25 recruits off – one week short of graduation.The stimulus package provided the money to let them graduate and to let them enter their probationary period on the street.
The president even spoke at the graduation ceremony 03/06/2009 and said in part:
So for those who still doubt the wisdom of our recovery plan, I ask them to talk to the teachers who are still able to teach our children because we passed this plan. I ask them to talk to the nurses who are still able to care for our sick, and the firefighters and first responders who will still be able to keep our communities safe. I ask them to come to Ohio and meet the 25 men and women who will soon be protecting the streets of Columbus because we passed this plan. (Applause.) I look at these young men and women, I look into their eyes and I see their badges today and I know we did the right thing.
These jobs and the jobs of so many other police officers and teachers and firefighters all across Ohio will now be saved because of this recovery plan -- a plan that will also create jobs in every corner of this state. Last week, we announced that Ohio would receive $128 million that will put people to work renovating and rebuilding affordable housing. (Applause.) On Tuesday -- on Tuesday I announced that we'd be sending another $935 million to Ohio that will create jobs rebuilding our roads, our bridges, and our highways. (Applause.) And yesterday, Vice President Biden announced $180 million for this state that will go towards expanding mass transit and buying fuel-efficient buses -- money that will be putting people to work, getting people to work. (Applause.)
There was much more self-congratulatory oratory, the link is: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/obamas_remarks_at_columbus_pol.html
What’s wrong with this picture?Well, the City is still broke.A 25% income tax ballot proposal was defeated in the May primary. Mayor Coleman now says that unless it is passed when it is put back on the ballot in August, 250 public safety jobs (police and fire) will be eliminated.So much for saving the recruit class of2009!
Why is it that the first thing a politician (and I include Republicans along with Democrats - Coleman just happens to be a Dem) does when he wants money is threaten vital services?Coleman insists that this is not a power play.But, of course, whenever a politician says he is not lying I have only to watch his lips.If they are moving, I know he is full of it.We all can think of dozens of less-crucial departments or programs that could more easily be cut, but that would not have the emotional appeal that jeopardizing citizens’ lives by cutting police and fire services.
Another issue on the ballot was for the parks system, a bond issue to operate existing parks as well as acquire lands and build several new ones.The issue passed, but should we really be spending money on new parks when THE CITY IS OUT OF MONEY??No accident that both expenditures were on the same ballot issue.Had we been given the choice of voting on the operating and construction funding separately, the outcome may have been different.Had the issue been defeated, the City could have threatened to close existing parks and put the issue back on the August ballot.
*Don’t Question My Manhood/ great moments in radio
In spring 2005 Columbus made national news (difficult as that is to imagine) over the story of a mentally-challenged girl who was sexually molested by several boys in a public school.What made this a scandal, is that the school and school system, rather than report this to the police, covered it up.When the story broke, Glenn Beck gave it lots of air time, asking why Michael Coleman, as mayor of Columbus, had done nothing about it.Coleman (foolishly) agreed to go on the air to discuss it. (Operating strictly by memory here, I am not sure if a transcript of the full interview can be obtained anywhere, but it really was a side-splitter.) As I recall, Coleman said running the school board was not in his job description....
Beck, 41, said he wanted to talk to Coleman because he assumed the mayor would be as ''outraged as I am.'' Instead, he said, when Coleman got on the air, ''all I heard was blah, blah, blah. He was being a politician. . . . I wanted to talk to him as a dad, not as a politician.''
In the interview, Coleman and Beck continually talked over and past each other. The result was verbal chaos.
As Beck began one question by saying, ''I’m asking you as a man and a father...'' Coleman cut him off and said, ''Don’t question my manhood. Don’t you ever question my manhood.'' Coleman later said he misheard the question.
U.S. program unveils man behind Iraq weapons story
Thu Nov 1, 7:12 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Iraqi defector made up his claim that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons, a threat cited by the Bush administration as a key reason for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. news program "60 Minutes" said on Thursday.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan, codenamed "Curve Ball" in intelligence circles, claimed to be a chemical engineering expert but was instead an accused thief and a mediocre student, the program said. He arrived at a German refugee center in 1999.
"To bolster his asylum case and increase his importance, he told officials he was a star chemical engineer who had been in charge of a facility at Djerf AL Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons," "60 Minutes" said in a statement.
President George W. Bush and senior U.S. officials argued that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction that threatened the security of the United States.
But no such weapons have been found and what was supposed to have been a short U.S. engagement in Iraq is now in its fifth year, with more than 3,800 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands Iraqis killed.
"60 Minutes" said it found an arrest warrant for Alwan in relation to a theft from the Babel television production company in Baghdad where he once worked. It said he studied chemical engineering at university but got low marks.
The report, a culmination of a two-year investigation by journalist Bob Simon, is due to be broadcast on the CBS network on Sunday.
"The (then) CIA director George Tenet gave Alwan's information to Secretary of State Colin Powell to use at the U.N. in his speech justifying military action against Iraq," "60 Minutes" said.
That was, the program said, despite a letter from German intelligence officials saying that although Alwan appeared to be believable, there was not evidence to verify his story.
"Through a spokesman, Tenet denies ever seeing the letter," "60 Minutes" said.
"Alwan was caught when CIA interrogators were finally allowed to question him and confronted him with evidence that his story could not be as he described it," the program said.
"Weapons inspectors had examined the plant at Djerf al Nadaf before the fall of Baghdad and found no evidence of biological agents."
US is deploying anti-missle weapons to Hawaii in case N.Korea aims their newest long range missle towards Hawaii on July 4. Hopefully, Alaska is armed to the hilt.
That maniac needs to go.
As a mom of 3 young men, I remember
vividly the day my oldest left for the Air Force. He was 19. There was no war. Then son #2 left in the National Guard in 1991 during Desert Storm.
I have a real difficult time knowing who to believe. Bush has paid the media to present his point of view. This tactic used to be called propaganda when it referred to Communists. Communists were supposed to be the ones who wanted to take over the entire world and force their form of government on everyone.
Today it's America doing the very same thing.
It's not difficult to find an ever growing list of Bush lies.
If you can provide me with a similar list of lies told by Ahmadinejad, I'd love to read it.
The issue here is credibility and who has the biggest history of lying. Unfortunately, a pack of lies is what got us where we are in Iraq today. To me, it looks like Bush is trying the very same tactics to get us into a war with Iran.
Although Ahmadinejad is a terrible, psychotic, murderous, dangerous individual, Bush is the person who has the five-year history of lying to the American people and to the world.
Quite frankly, if I were the president of Iran and saw my neighbor, Iraq, invaded based on a pack of lies, I believe I'd want to flex my muscles and try to scare the USA into backing off and not attacking my citizens as they did in Iraq.
Israel has nuclear weapons (that I believe WE paid for). The USA has nuclear weapons. Why is that okay?
The real threat is Korea, but Bush is too much of a coward and doesn't have the courage to address that threat.
The propaganda machine of George W. Bush has cast Syria in a very negative light, yet Syria was responsible for saving American lives the other day by thwarting a terror attempt.
That, in and of itself, in addition to Bush's refusal to get the Taliban that were in plain view the other day, has me questioning every single word that comes out of this lying president's mouth.
Yes, I'll say it again. He is a liar. A LIAR! Maybe in your neck of the woods, lying is an accepted form of communication. Where I come from, it does nothing but destroy credibility and create distrust in the person who is doing the lying. You can respond with all the snappy **you hate bush** and **you're on the side of the terrorists** comebacks you want (seems to be the usual conservative talking point response), but the bottom line is he is a chronic liar. I don't hate Bush, but I sure as heck don't like (or trust) liars.
The state and local levels are the criminals here
I'm sick and tired of Bush getting all the blame. The local and state governments diverted pre-Katrina funds to shore up levees and to solidify effective hurricane evacuation to their pet projects. Ray Nagin let thousands of school buses sit in the New Orleans public school bus yard because he could not authorize their use. How, many phone calls would it have taken for him to get to the right person who could authorize it??? Probably less than two. He's one of the most inept and corrupt people in N.O. and yet the lemmings of N.O. voted him back in, because he could whine about the Fed. He didn't give a rip until his city was dessiminated then he did the usual nanny state liberal thing and that was to blame someone else. Don't even get me started on Ms. Air-head governor. She is a complete joke.
Reptile breeders should feel pride in the progress they’ve helped achieve over the past several decades.We’ve unraveled many of the mysteries of inducing our animals to reproduce in captivity, and have made ‘Captive-Bred’ ( = 'CB' ) a common adjective in the hobby and industry.CB applied to herps is now understood to reflect ‘quality’ and ‘hardiness’ as pets.The percentage of CB herps available today dwarfs what we had just ten years ago, and is already making up a significant proportion of herps sold in pet shops.
Just as it seems obvious to us close to the herp industry that this natural evolution is proceeding well, new threats to our freedom to keep herps looms in the form of three ‘new’ enemies – the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), The Fund For Animals, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The PETA are presently under scrutiny by the F.B.I. as a terrorism network because of their admission of funding extremists who have destroyed several facilities by fire. These closely-aligned organizations have remained largely hidden from our notice until recently. They have now set their sights on the reptile hobby and trade, their ultimate goals being to stop it completely.
The HSUS is a familiar group to most people.Its name seems to imply it all – humane treatment for animals.In the past, the group took in abandoned cats and dogs, prosecuted farms that allowed livestock to starve, and went after people who mistreated animals in some way.It created animal shelters, promoted spay-neuter programs, and developed modern euthanasia protocols.We all applauded the old HSUS efforts and supported it with our donations.We believed in what it stood for and helped make it a huge and powerful organization.
The HSUS was wildly successful in its efforts.The public was educated and abuse cases dwindled.Nowadays, it’s headline news when a rare case of neglect or other atrocity against animals is uncovered and prosecuted.Anyone who may have allowed care of an animal in their custody to become substandard is now frightfully aware of the consequences of such unacceptable behavior.
Why is this seemingly worthy organization a problem now?
Since 1954, the HSUS has grown into a huge bureaucratic organization with 200+ employees and well over $200,000,000 (by 2005) in their bank accounts.The money is stock-piled, and not one dollar of it is used to help the many ‘Humane Society’ shelters in cities across America.The HSUS long ago separated itself from all the smaller regional societies around the country, sharing no funding at all with them now.You are doing nothing to help your local community animal shelter by donating money to the Humane Society of the United States!
The HSUS got fat and prosperous capitalizing on our concern for the plight of homeless animals by bombarding us with tear-jerking fundraising campaigns.Its assets naturally attracted humaniac extremist groups like PETA that wished to tap into the war chest of funds.Radical animal rights proponents thoroughly infiltrated the HSUS and instilled their idealistic views as representing the whole organization’s doctrine.Then a subtle ‘coup’ occurred in 1973, warranted by the changing leadership because“the costs of running a local animal control operation [was] drawing off funds needed elsewhere”.(< That quote is from the HSUS’ own website!) They literally declared that supporting the small Humane Society shelters across the U.S. was 'stealing' the money needed to pursue their own new humaniac agendas.
The HSUS split away completely, dropping financial support of all the smaller state ‘Humane Society’ groups.But they did it quietly to leave everyone with the logical impression they were now just the national headquarters coordinating all ‘their local chapters’.They have purposely done nothing to erase that illusion of ‘umbrella organization’ to insure receiving all the same donation monies you thought were still supporting your home town animal shelters.The HSUS’s coffers swelled because they didn’t have to share the wealth anymore.It was a pretty sneaky and wildly successful move on their part!
The HSUS grew into a rich monster that basked in the glory of its past accomplishments of conquering cruelty to animals.But with that war largely won, the ‘new’ HSUS had a different agenda to set its sights on.Most importantly, it had to continue evoking sympathy donations from the public to keep the money flowing in.Creating a new, visible enemy became a necessity.They chose to refocus on non-traditional pets largely because the ranks of people in the bird, reptile and fish hobbies / industries were less unified, easier targets.This is why reptile-keeping has come under attack.We’re the new excuse – the new bad guys – to keep their paychecks coming in steadily.
In its distorted view (and the published rhetoric it distributes to back it), reptiles are totally unsuitable as pets.The HSUS preaches that nearly all reptiles suffer shortened life spans when kept in cages.It goes so far as to include all captive-bred herps in that appraisal, but not through sheer ignorance.
The HSUS’s clever strategy is to focus the public’s attention on isolated problems it can capture in pictures or on video to invoke sympathy, then imply that those disturbing images represent the norm in the entire industry.Recognizing the huge progress in herpetoculture over the past couple decades would not strengthen the gloomy ecological scenario it wants people to remember when filling out those donation checks.The HSUS purposely ignores captive breeding success and how it is rapidly replacing the need for some wild-caught herps. It's crucial the public stay duped into believing that stopping reptile-keeping is the only way to protect animals in nature. The HSUS needs this manufactured image to focus public condemnation and thus assure continued funding of their efforts.
Another HSUS approach is to scare us into believing that reptile-related Salmonellahas reached plague proportions.Its well-paid advertising staff uses the craftiest psychology to twist facts and statistics and to publicize the ‘huge’ health threat herps pose.It knows such tactics weigh heavily on parents’ minds, hoping those frightened parents will prohibit their children from having herps at all.
Just how big a problem is Salmonellaanyway?Bill and I do not know, or even know of,anyone who has ever contracted Salmonella from reptiles in their entire lives.We don’t even personally know of any Salmonella cases, period, and we know and meet lots of herp keepers!We don't doubt that it happens occasionally, but the HSUS is blowing public health fears all out of proportion to achieve their animal rights goals.
Unlike the old HSUS, the new PETAphile leaders have declared total war on all pet keepers, intending to end the practice of owning pets completely.They’ve stated that goal repeatedly, though they try to subtly disguise the true, hidden agenda so not to scare away contributions from cat and dog owners.On their website’s home page (http://www.hsus.org), they state “Promoting the protection of all animals”.What they mean is to protect ALL animals from any use by humans - as pets, as food, as leather, for medical research --- EVERYthing!Don’t let them fool you --- HSUS and PETA are essentially synonymous today.
The HSUS is presently trying to make virtually every act of pet keeping an offense by emphasizing every imperfection in our ability to draft new species into captivity / domestication. They subtly bombard schools with free 'animal information' that carries their propaganda, preaching their private agenda to children so their 'conservation message' is taken to heart early. When indoctrinated while young and impressionable, they hope those children will support the HSUS as future voters / donators. The HSUS is no longer composed of soldiers for a noble cause.They’re more like mercenaries who must create an enemy to assure their continued employment.The modern HSUS is an animal rights organization masquerading as an animal welfare organization.Supporting them is like supplying terrorists with money to hurt us.
The HSUS published this book {>>>} in 2001 - a persuasive political ploy disguised as a 'scientific report'. It was freely distributed to all U.S. governmental regulatory bodies to sway them to help their cause. This is how donation money sent to the HSUS is put to 'good' use. The last paragraph of the entire 'study' sums up their position:
"Finally, we recommend that [government] regulatory bodies put an end to the reptile trade: State and local authorities are encouraged to ban the commercial collection of reptiles to protect wild populations of reptiles and ban the sale of reptiles as pets to the general public in order to protect human health..."
IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t abandon the local Humane Society animal shelters in your own community – they’re still doing their commendable work as always.
We have not suddenly become political activists. This exposé is just an honest response to the attack the HSUS initiated upon all herp keepers. We hope it may convince you to spread the word to friends and family. Avoid doing anything that benefits the Humane Society of the United States, the reptile hobby and industry's new sworn enemy.
who waited outside for 5-6 hours in freezing temps just to save maybe $50. Lord have mercy. I guess I'm thankful I don't need or want anything enough to do that!!
You're right about the me-me-me and it makes me sick. People will kill each other for a dollar!!
You confuse federal and local govt
Each state is supposed to govern themselves, not the federal government. Actually, it is unconstitutional for the federal government to even dictate laws to any state, which is why many states have now declared sovereignty from the federal government; they see the writing on the wall.
Taxes taken in by the states are supposed to be decided upon by the state how to use that money, including schools, law enforcement, etc..... NOT the federal government.
And yes, you would be able to defend yourself from foreign invaders because that is ALL the federal government is supposed to oversee in the first place, a strong military to defend our country against foreign invasion, which is a joke, considering they can't even defend our Mexico/US border!!!
You don't seem to understand that your government was NEVER to dictate to states what they do with their money, even if given money by the federal government; states are supposed to decide themselves how to best use the money..... federal government only says we'll give you the money but YOU have to do with it what we tell you to.
That is BIG brother mentality and it was never to be.......unfortunately, it is now worse than ever!!!
I type for a local mental hospital
and I go in and get the tapes and bring them home. They don't use a big company for their transcription. I do this as a side job actually. The pay is much better than a big MT company as well. I enjoy typing those type of reports as well.
What?! She was reporting a local news story from
nm
Wow, newbie Jackie is with the PROGRAM!!! Alright! Already calling people liars. sm
What a gooooooooood little liberal you are! HIGH FIVE!
They not only *prey* on young people
but they are so desperate to find kids to die in Iraq that they even take kids on drugs and teach these kids how to pass a drug test so they can get in the military.
I think you underestimate the young minds...sm
Thought I'll agree the walkout probably was not for political reasons so much so as for what they believe is right. Do you think they probably have a lot of respect for this teacher? Maybe. It is possible to be passionate about something other than cutting class as a teenager. I know I was, and so is my daughter who just turned 13.
I also have to give you the point that the teacher should have stayed on the subject matter of the class. If you're hired to teach geography then teach geograpy BUT we don't have the privlege of seeing the course outlines, book, etc. It may not be so cut and dry as capitols, states, and what have you. So before you call for his head on a plank you should at least know that much. Whose to say that this course was not comingled with history and this teacher was within his right to bring up subjects to provoke thought. I don't see the problem with that.
Listening to the message in a whole, I don't see a problem in what the teacher said excpt that he may have deviated from the subject matter. And the fact still remains that we don't know the totality of the course description.
Young soldiers I know personally and on TV. Many
many of them felt very differently when they first went to war. After coming back they seem to come back with a very different view. Most of the soldiers I know think the war needs to end. I don't think most Americans think we should stop funding the war until the soldiers come home, and that's just it, many of us want them to come home! I watched a documentary on Showtime called Semper Fi, and it was a really moving account of a proud Marine's time in Iraq. I would definitely recommend watching it if you want to hear a first-hand account of how one patriotic soldier was disillusioned by the war and how he was given false information over and over again by his higher-ups. I don't claim to know the solution, and I know none of the candidates on either side have the perfect solution either, but I just feel that we are not making the progress we should be making, kids' mothers and fathers are dying every day in Iraq, and it makes me incredibly sad. Simple as that. I don't think we have any right to be there. I do believe we had a right to go to Afganistan, but not Iraq. That's just my feeling, and I really don't feel like getting into a huge debate about the war. I just want it to end.
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Sorry, I'm still venting from the SCHIP garbage that was on today. They absolutely want to pass this immediately without looking at amendments, etc. They want an additional 11 million children covered ( nothing wrong with that) EXCEPT they want to put it on the smokers to pay for it. Now, with the way they are trying to get smokers to quit, I would think that's a stupid and absolutely wrong idea. 
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