Tea Party USA: TODAY'S THE DAY

Michelle Malkin has tons of ongoing coverage including PHOTOS of the dozens of Tea Party Protests across our great country.



To those of you who went out there to participate, thank you for speaking for those of us who could not be there. And another special thanks to CNBC's Rick Santelli, our real-life Howard Beale who inspired action against the financial shenanigans and wasteful spending being forced upon responsible taxpayers by this "representative" government.

Is Senator Specter implying healthcare for our elderly is costly & selfish?

This is my United States Senator. Speaking on the senate floor 4 days ago:



How old are YOU, Senator? Maybe you should think about that before you next visit your doctor.

H/T: NakedEmperorNews.

Fast, into the wilderness

Photo credit: apol3

Is it impolite to wonder...?

... will any of you Catholics and Christians out there be observing Lent this year?

And what will your sacrifice be? What are you giving up for the 40 days between now and Easter Sunday?

Will you fast in a traditional manner? Or only a partial fast?

Chocolate? Red meat? Coffee? All sweets?

Blogging? Facebook?

I found Pope Benedict XVI's message for this Lent rather moving and wanted to share it in its entirety.

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride” (Paschal Præconium). For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.

We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that “fasting was ordained in Paradise,” and “the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam.” He thus concludes: “ ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence” (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land, calls upon the assembled people to fast so that “we might humble ourselves before our God” (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah’s call to repentance, proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: “Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared them.

In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who “sees in secret, and will reward you” (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus directed to eating the “true food,” which is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,” the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.

The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the “old Adam,” and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself” (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a “therapy” to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to “no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him … he will also have to live for his brethren“ (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as “twisted and tangled knottiness” (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: “I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness” (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.

At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: “If anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him – how does the love of God abide in him?” (3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V, 20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.

From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: “Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia – Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses.”

Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 11 December 2008.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

God Bless you all.

0bama's plan to end Welfare Reform: 10 years in the making

...While visions of Benjamins danced in their heads...

Apparently 0bama's had his eye on ending the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996... better known as 1996 Welfare Reform Act for over a decade. Even though the plan, an integral part of Speaker Gingrich's and the Republican Revolution's "Contract with America", was considered an immense success for our country and a credit to President Bill Clinton's legacy, the then-State Senator viewed it as racist and discriminatory:



From the recently-signed Porkulus comes the reform of the reform:

Before the 1996 welfare reform law, Washington doled out more money every time a new family was added to the welfare rolls. If caseloads fell, states got less money. The system created a strong incentive to boost caseloads.

Reform ended the open-ended welfare “entitlement” and replaced it with a program called Temporary Aid to Needy Families. Instead of linking funding to caseloads, the law replaced that money with block grants and gave states the policy goal of reducing the rolls.

The measure generated tremendous controversy, but it was effective. Caseloads declined by two-thirds. Millions of recipients formerly dependent on government made the transition from welfare to work.

Now we learn that the stimulus bill, signed Tuesday by President Obama, will unravel much of the ’96 legislation.

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation — who helped write the ’96 law — says the stimulus measure would effectively give states bonuses for boosting caseloads. The new system, he says, is actually worse, because the payoff for increasing caseloads will be much higher than under the old program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

In a paper written with Katherine Bradley, Rector said that under the stimulus measure, “the federal government will pay 80 percent of cost for each new family that a state enrolls in welfare.”

The policy goal of moving families to self-sufficiency has been largely replaced by a system that rewards states for increasing dependency.

Certainly, in a sour economy more funding is required for those in need, and the ’96 law allowed for such a circumstance. It created a contingency fund to allocate more money to states during economic downturns.

The extra amounts, however, were linked to unemployment, not to welfare caseloads.

“We anticipated this problem in writing the law in ’96,” Rector said in a telephone interview. “Those funds can be released whenever state unemployment levels go over a certain amount. If the Democrats wanted to put more money in that, I wouldn’t make any objection.… What they did was wipe that out and replace it with this new fund that specifically rewards states for increasing caseloads.”

The 80 percent reimbursement rate will change the terms of the welfare debate to something resembling the Medicaid debate.
Frequently, Medicaid advocates argue that any attempt to reduce caseloads amounts to “turning down federal money,” since Medicaid — which has come close to bankrupting many states — reimburses states at levels up to 3 to 1. The program has a built-in incentive for expansion.

The ratio for welfare under the stimulus bill will be even higher: 4 to 1.

The result of rolling back the reforms? Spend-o-rama!

Porkulus II coming down the pipe...

Porkulus, stimulus, spending bill, steaming pile of... Even though the full details of that 1000 page boondoggle haven't been seen yet, lawmakers are hard at work clearing their years' long wishlists now that the treasury printing presses have been turned up to overdrive.

Waiting in the queue? Yet another billion-dollar 'spending bill'... not to be confused with the I may be a busdriver who bought an $800,000 home but where's my mortgage bailout bill?:

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. embargo on Cuba would be loosened, regulatory agencies would get budget increases and lawmakers would secure money for thousands of pet projects known as earmarks under a proposed $410 billion spending bill.

The “omnibus” spending package unveiled today by House Democrats would combine nine annual appropriations bills left over from last year that are needed to fund programs such as NASA and the national parks through September, the end of the fiscal year. Total spending on the programs would grow by $32 billion, or about 8.5 percent, from last year.

The House plans to vote on the measure later this week, and the Senate will consider it later.

Democrats postponed work on the appropriations bills last year after they were unable to reach an agreement with former President George W. Bush on how much to spend on domestic programs. Bush had demanded lawmakers freeze most domestic spending. Most federal agencies, except those related to defense, have been funded by a stopgap measure that expires March 6.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called the new bill “the unfinished business of last year when the president refused to address the priorities and the needs of the American people.”

The measure was released as President Barack Obama pledged at a budget summit to cut the government’s yearly budget deficit in half in four years. The White House and Congressional Budget Office forecast the deficit for this fiscal year will be at least $1.3 trillion.

Wait'll you see what's coming... or what Speaker Pelosi considers the 'priorities and needs of the American people'. From Michelle Malkin:

Hill staffer Tom Jones is going through the omnibus spending bill with a fine-tooth comb, and Twittering his earmark findings, including:

* $200,000 for “Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program,” pg. 283;

*Maine lobster earmark in the omnibus, pg. 173;

*$5.8 million earmark for the “Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate…for the planning and design of a building & an endowment,” pg. 232;

*and National Council of La Raza, $473,000 earmark from Sens. Bingaman and Menendez, pg. 212.

Follow the money.

Behar v Coulter: Can you feel the love?

All in all it looked like they were both enjoying themselves.

ACORN: They're Baaaaaaaaaailllllled ouuuuttttt! ... and stimulating squatters

A billion here, a billion there... former community-organizer and ACORN lawyer President 0bama and the Congressional left have certainly been looking out for their friends in ACORN.

Not only were there attempts to have ACORN receive loads of taxpayer TARP dollars even while they were being investigated, indicted and yes CONVICTED in multiple states for election & voter fraud, their name was included in last week's largely-unread-but-signed $800 billion "stimulus" package:

With a new president ensconced in the White House, it's time to roll out the goodies for loyal supporters in left-of-center political advocacy groups such as ACORN.

The latest economic stimulus bill promises to do just that by providing a huge bailout --up to $5.2 billion in taxpayer funds -- for some of the same liberal groups that helped get Barack Obama elected.

The three relevant fiscal provisions are buried deep in the $825 billion monstrosity known as the proposed "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."...

the biggest chunk of the $5.2 billion comes in the form of $4.19 billion for foreclosure relief through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Although ACORN operatives usually get their hands on such funds only after they have first passed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or state and local governments, the new spending bill largely eliminates these dawdling middle men, making it easier to get Uncle Sam's largess directly into the hands of the same people who run ACORN's various vote fraud and extortion rackets. And the legislative package provides these funds without the usual prohibition on using government money for lobbying or political activities.

The current version of the stimulus package would allow nonprofit groups to compete with states and localities for $3.44 billion from the $4.19 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program allocation. The remaining $750 million from the program plus the $10 million in SHOP funds would be set aside exclusively for nonprofit groups.

Probably chief among the groups to benefit from stimulus spending will be ACORN, the infamous network of 100-plus left-wing activist groups.

As everyone who hasn't been in a coma for the last year knows, ACORN and President Obama go way back.

Just for kicks: an encore of wptg's "The Lowdown on ACORN", one of the top viral videos of Election 2008 and as-seen-on Mark Levin's website:



And now, more news from the ACORN/0bama fraud front:

How stimulus plan creates nation of squatters: Obama gives force of law to ACORN tactics:

Soon after signing a $787 billion economic "stimulus" bill that has little actual stimulus in it, President Barack Obama announced a $75 billion plan the chief aim of which apparently is to turn millions of homeowners into squatters.

Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan follows the urgings of some of his most ardent supporters. The squatter movement is being led by the president's old friends at ACORN, the national organization best known for its massive voter registration fraud schemes and as the place where Obama once toiled as a lawyer and "community organizer."

"On Feb. 19, ACORN members will launch a new tactic in fighting foreclosures: civil disobedience," the organization has announced in a press statement. "Participants in the ACORN Home Savers campaign nationwide will simply refuse to move out of foreclosed homes, or in some cases, will move back in. ACORN homesteaders intend to squat in their homes until a comprehensive, federal solution for people facing foreclosure is put in place."

Less than three weeks earlier this movement received encouragement from Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), who said during a House floor debate, "Stay in your homes. If the American people, anybody out there is being foreclosed, don't leave. ..."

ACORN and Kaptur are turning civil disobedience on its head. Civil disobedience is defiance of immoral or unjust laws, impositions by government. Contracts, by contrast, are entered into willingly, and the moral obligation of someone who signs one is to fulfill its terms. ACORN and Kaptur are openly calling for a particularly destructive form of personal irresponsibility.

The president's plan, unfortunately, does the same, but through force of law. Obama would permit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to modify mortgages for homeowners who owe between 80 and 105 percent of the market value of their houses. Obama also wants to force lenders to lower home mortgage interest rates to something in the neighborhood of 4 percent.

As carrots, his plan would allow lenders to receive subsidies for cutting monthly mortgage payments to 31 percent of a borrower's income and would offer up to $5,000 to borrowers who stay current on their reworked mortgages for five years.

Thus tens of billions of dollars would flow from homeowners who have been making their payments regardless of personal sacrifices involved, to the relative few who cannot or will not make their payments.

ACORN: Coming soon to a foreclosed home near you.

---

UPDATE:

Fox Business host Stuart Varney takes on ACORN spokeswoman who encourages squatting:



How's that plan working?

Arrest Made in Home Foreclosure Civil Disobedience Program

Police in Baltimore today made what is believed to be the first arrest in a civil disobedience program aimed at supporting homeowners who refuse to vacate their foreclosed homes.

An activist with ACORN — the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now — faces criminal charges after breaking into a home in southeast Baltimore on Thursday to protest the foreclosure crisis sweeping the country.

"This is our house now," ACORN member Louis Beverly reportedly said after cutting a lock with bolt cutters at the home.

Beverly will be charged with fourth-degree burglary, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police. Attempts to reach his attorney, Justin Brown, were not immediately successful.

Donna Hanks, who owned the home since 2001, lost it in September when she couldn't make her $1,995 mortgage payments. It was not immediately clear whether Hanks re-entered her home last week, but she was not expected to be arrested, Guglielmi said.

Other police departments contacted by FOXNews.com said arrests would be made if an individual is determined to be residing at a foreclosed home illegally.

"If they're trespassing and it's not their property, absolutely, there'd by an arrest," a police source in Boston said. "If they were told to leave the property and they didn't, they'd be charged with disorderly conduct."

Pittsburgh Police Spokeswoman Diane Richard said charges would be filed against any individual found living in a foreclosed home, whether that individual had previously lived at the residence or not.

"If someone is court-ordered to vacate and they do not, it would be trespassing at that point," Richard said. "What exactly would be charged depends on the intensity of the violation. It could go all the way up to burglary, which is a felony."

So yes... the non-profit ACORN is encouraging Americans commit felonies in the name of "civil disobedience."

Road Tripe

Photo courtesy of samuelsidler.

From Newsday today via Drudge Report:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn — an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.

Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled," the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said.

Most transportation experts see a vehicle miles traveled tax as a long-term solution, but Congress is being urged to move in that direction now by funding pilot projects.

The idea also is gaining ground in several states. Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island are talking about such programs, and a North Carolina panel suggested in December the state start charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.

A tentative plan in Massachusetts to use GPS chips in vehicles to charge motorists by the mile has drawn complaints from drivers who say it's an Orwellian intrusion by government into the lives of citizens. Other motorists say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers.

I tend to read between the lines whenever a politician speaks, especially when they represent the socialist ideals of this current administration. Phrases like "substitute for the gas tax" are an absolute joke. When was the last time a Democrat met a tax they didn't like... that they "substituted" with a different tax? Let alone a socialist Democrat. Let's just use the word "supplement" in lieu of "substitute" and you get the idea of where this is headed.

Road trips, family vacations, cross-country excursions and endless horizons with a sky-full of sunset filling your rearview mirror will soon become a thing of the past and out of reach financially for most Americans if the President's newest proposal becomes a reality. Not only that but many of the wealthy who don't bat an eye at most new taxes aren't presdisposed to driving the roads of this beautiful country when they can fly.

More details on the proposed plan:

"One of the things I think everyone agrees with around reauthorization of the highway bill is that the highway trust fund is an antiquated system for funding our highways," LaHood said. "It did work to build the interstate system and it was very effective, there's no question about that. But the big question now is, We're into the 21st century and how are we going to take care of our infrastructure needs ... with a highway trust fund that had to be plused up by $8 billion by Congress last year?"

A blue-ribbon national transportation commission is expected to release a report next week recommending a VMT.

The system would require all cars and trucks be equipped with global satellite positioning technology, a transponder, a clock and other equipment to record how many miles a vehicle was driven, whether it was driven on highways or secondary roads, and even whether it was driven during peak traffic periods or off-peak hours.

The device would tally how much tax motorists owed depending upon their road use. Motorists would pay the amount owed when it was downloaded, probably at gas stations at first, but an alternative eventually would be needed.

Rob Atkinson, president of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, the agency that is developing future transportation funding options, said moving to a national VMT would take about a decade.

Privacy concerns are based more on perception than any actual risk, Atkinson said. The satellite information would be beamed one way to the car and driving information would be contained within the device on the car, with the amount of the tax due the only information that's downloaded, he said.

The devices also could be programmed to charge higher rates to vehicles that are heavier, like trucks that put more stress on roadways, Atkinson said.

Terrifying and infuriating. There are those of who consider the road itself a part of the destination and if this new mileage tax is levied against us, the simple and enjoyable thrill of "taking a drive" will become another budgeted item that many families will simply do without. And it is certainly not the government's business on whether we drive on a highway or secondary road, what time of day we drive, or how far we drive.

Emperor Obama's New Clothes

Is this what it's become barely 30 days out from election day? People are starting to see it all more clearly now: All this rhetoric is just a bunch of imaginary threads invented by someone who never knew how to create the first stitch in the fabric that would hold it altogether. The community organizer is being called out and not by right-wing nuts.

From CNBC as seen on the Drudge Report comes this fascinating video gives us a glimpse of what some of those plummeting market numbers mean:

Santelli's Chicago Tea Party
CNBC's Rick Santelli and the traders on the floor of the CBOE express outrage over the notion they may have to pay their neighbor's mortgage, particularly if they bought far more house than they could actually afford, with Jason Roney, Sharmac Capital.

My husband and I have had the same reaction to much of the proposals coming out of this new administration. We've been discussing this ever since the TARP fund was named and trotted out as the band-aid for the economy, and with one $800 billion socialist spending package signed and now new "bailouts" and "stimulus" plans being discussed at a townhall forum with the president near you, we're starting to feel like the last American chumps.

We pay our bills and live within our means... and we DIDN'T take on a mortgage we had no business taking on for a house we do want and could use with our still-growing family. But in the end our taxes are going to pay for a mortgage anyway. Many mortgages actually.

Someone with a $15-per-hour job has no business living in a $400-500,000 home. Where is the common sense here? Papers were signed, the fine print wasn't read, and noone cared. A bunch of overblown mortgages that were given to people who had no business having them in the first place; given to minimum wage and entry level people who now insist they have the "right" to own a house. After all, the president himself is saying the exact same thing: it's a right and it's all of our responsibility to help them keep living in these homes they cannot afford.

So these deadbeats (yes that is what they are) heard "bailout for homeowners" and translated that into "free housing". They then stopped paying the mortgages they couldn't swing anyway and sat back waiting for their emperor to save the day and pay the way. That they can't now and will never be able to afford that home they're squatting in is of no consequence. Owning it is their right and all of us who are going to pay for it with nothing to show for it be damned.

Of interest is the current poll on CNBC:

CNBC Poll: Tell Us What You Think

	Would you want to join Rick Santelli's "Chicago Tea Party?"   * 78259 responses
	Yes 91%
	No 6.9%
	Not Sure 1.7%
Not a Scientific Survey. Results may not total 100% due to rounding.

Fascinating results. I suppose it remains to be seen if this kind of public backlash will have any effect on the homeowner bailout plan that's being shopped around. Unfortunately, I doubt it.

11th hour... abuse of power

I'm still trying to figure out why there was such a frenzied mad rush to get this massive pork-laden spending bill signed last week all under the threat of catastrophic consequence, when the President was going to take the weekend off and not get back to business until Tuesday, tomorrow.

Every member of Congress who voted on this 1000+ page bill did so without reading it! This they have admitted to and acknowledged on several media outlets. That members of Congress, our representatives, would blindly vote to spend nearly a trillion dollars of OUR money only months after they already voted to spend billions on multiple bailouts without reading the bill in its entirety is beyond irresponsible. It's reprehensible. What they have done here makes a mockery of our government, of the legistlative process and is not only deceptive, it's a blatant abuse of power.

Sen. McConnell on the Senate floor on Friday was as disgusted as many of us are by this, and put the indecipherable sum of "almost a trillion" into terms that may be more comprehensible:

This is one of the most expensive pieces of legislation Congress has ever approved. Including interest, as I’ve said, it’s expected to cost $1.1 trillion. To put that figure in perspective, consider this: if you spent $1 million a day, every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have spent $1 trillion.

Tidbits of information are leaking out about What's In the Bill, and it isn't pretty. It shouldn't be to any thinking American. According to an op-ed from the San Diego Union Tribune today:

But the problems with the 1,000-plus-page bill are legion. The most basic flaw is that many of its projects costing tens of billions of dollars cannot be started for several years, meaning they will yield no short-term stimulus. It is outrageous to pass the tab for these projects on to our children and grandchildren.

Another unforgivable flaw is how the bill makes huge changes on major national policies without any significant debate. One provision guts the 1996 welfare reform law, which reduced caseloads by 70 percent. Instead, individuals will again be entitled to unlimited lifetime benefits without work requirements and, amazingly, states will have financial incentives to increase caseloads.

Other provisions appear to sharply increase the federal government's role in health care by establishing a national database of Americans' medical records and by monitoring every hospital's treatment standards on cost-containment grounds.

Welfare for a life of sloth and your personal & private medical records in the government's supercomputer.

If only Sen. Coburn's fellow senators were listening to when he addressed them on this bill:

Part 1:


Part 2:


From the phenomenal amount of pork projects/earmarks that Sen. Coburn outlined in his statements against this beast, it has become quite clear what this Congress and president are doing.

"The conclusion then, is, that neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:457, Papers 15:398n

Explaining this financial burden to our children and grandchildren will be a burden in itself when they see the legacy we're leaving behind.

Everything's Amazing. Nobody's Happy.

H/T (Usually Barefoot) Meg:

And the walls came down...

From Glenn Beck:



I am absolutely dumbfounded by this fact. And to think not long ago that the city's suburbs were a consideration for a westward move for our family.

Thinking across the faces of my 3 girls, and the 4th baby girl due to arrive in a couple weeks, it's pretty unlikely I will be moving any of them there.

What a sad state of affairs we have wrought with our hand-wringing over border legislation.

Red-Hot Valentine Delights

Photo by: jamieanne

For all of your Valentines big & small, what better way to show them you love them then to bake a batch of red velvet cupcakes? When everyone gets their own yummy little cupcake of their very own it makes them feel that much more special than a slice from a big cake.

For your sweetie - it's like a little bite of Heaven on Earth. And for the kids - mini cakes of their very own: no sharing needed!

And the best part, it's a chocolate cake for those of you who like the traditonal Valentine sweets.

Paula Deen's recipe is a fantastic, time-tested one and very easy to follow for beginning bakers, too.

I love to make them even more special and top them off with either Red Hot candies or Sweetheart conversation candies to tie in Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
20 min

Level:
Easy

Serves:
24 frosted cupcakes

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
* 2 large eggs, room temperature
* 2 tablespoons red food coloring
* 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

* 1 pound cream cheese, softened
* 2 sticks butter, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
* Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

Cook's Note: Frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or pipe it on with a big star tip.

Prayers for our Friends and Allies in Australia

How to help victims of the Victorian bushfires:

Red Cross Call 1800 811 700 or go to redcross.org.au

Australia local:

Salvation Army Call 137 258 or go to salvos.org.au

NAB relief fund call 136 622

Full Coverage in Photos

and out of the devastation, something to warm the heart:

Porkulus not yet signed: Kill the beast! / Save Us! Feed Us! Employ Us! Shelter Us!

The 'stimulus' bill, appropriately dubbed Porkulus by El Rushbo, has become everything to everyone. It seems that woman who said she voted for Zero isn't the only one who thinks he is the savior who will buy her gas and pay her mortgage.



From better times (and better actors) than today:



Senator Schumer made the "Americans don't care" statement because in Schumer's America the people who continue to blindly vote for him & his ilk, really don't care what's in the bill. Just give them free stuff, or kind of sort of allude to the possibility of free stuff in some vague future time, and their vote is yours.

Perils before Swine

That's YOUR money they're falling all over themselves to take from you.



As a member of the chattering class (do I get a new card to go along with my membership card in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?) that has been faxing, emailing and phoning the bacon brothers up in Congress I wonder if anyone else is as put off by the smarmy tone in this as I was. Is this not a representative government?

Read What's In The Bill and then decide if Chuck is right, and you just don't care.

"A Time for Choosing": Remembering President Reagan on his birthday

What do you choose?

H/T a very special friend and Right Wing News:

As our country seems to be not crawling but running away from the ideals that did found it and we're watching our representative government work to enslave us to socialism and communism, I wholeheartedly agree that this video is a must-view today.

From the 1964 Republican Convention, "A Time for Choosing":



If you can't view the video, the full text of this remarkable speech can be found here:
"A Time for Choosing".

In honor of the man who brought so many of us to conservatism by truly defining and upholding the principles of Freedom.

Happy Birthday Mr. President. We sure miss you 'round these parts.

Coming to an Al Qaeda video near you...

Charges dropped vs. suspect in 2000 USS Cole blast

Is this more Hope and Change?

Coming on the heels of the other related story about Al-Nashiri Gitmo Judge Refuses to Heed Obama Request for Delay in Terrorism Trials, this is all very unsettling:

On Thursday Army Col. James L. Pohl, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court, said he would not heed President Obama's request for a 120-day continuance, or delay, in prosecutions of terrorism suspects.

Supervising the trial of detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein Mohammed Abdu Al-Nashiri, Pohl called the President's motion unreasonable and unjust.

NEVER FORGET.

Pray for the families of the 17 fallen sailors.

All Aboard the Socialism Express

Some of us think the goal of this administration is to completely bankrupt this economy and therefore destroy this country. The Democrat/Socialist POTUS administration today scrapped Utah drilling-lease sales and also just scrapped plans to auction off parcels of land in neighboring Wyoming that were set to be auctioned for oil exploration.

Drill Here. Drill Now.

That was the message from the people to their representative government. They don't appear to remember.

Flashback:



Maxine Waters, the next Miss Cleo?

Fuzzy math makes a comeback...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) clues us all in on how bad it really is out there:



Don't worry about the U.S. Population Clock the Census Bureau keeps. It's obviously defective.

WPtG: Greatest Hits - The Viral Videos of Election 2008

As recommended by Jack Cashill, Mark Levin, Free Republic, Tammy Bruce, National Review's the Corner and an army of conservative bloggers...

For everyone who missed WPtG's jaw-dropping videos for the 2008 election before YouTube pulled them all in the name of Zero, they're back and considerately put together by WPtG in one large chronological playlist:

Table of Contents:

I. Who Wrote "Dreams from My Father"? (teaser)
II. Saddam, Osama & the War on America
III. Barack Obama & Dr Khalid Al-Mansour (The Men Behind the Man, part I)
IV. Barack Obama & Raila Odinga (The Men Behind the man, part II)
V. Barack Obama & Raila Odinga Redux
VI. The Lowdown on ACORN
VII. William Ayers & the Weatherman Underground (aka: The Lowdown on Weatherman Underground - William Ayers/Bernardine Dohrn)
VIII. Barack Obama, William Ayers & ACORN
IX. Weathermen Plotted Re-Education Camps, Genocide (clip from video courtesy of Seahorse1776)

Just click fast-fwd in the player to click from one video to the next.

Mmm Cupcakes! Classic cuisine for kids and.. couture??

From the UK's TimesOnline comes a story that might cause a few hunger pangs to rise up within you:
Cupcakes have gone cool: Succumb to the sickly charms of a cupcake, the most fashionable treat of our times

“A cupcake is an affordable treat that you don’t have to share,” says Martha Swift, of London’s smartest cupcake emporium, Primrose Bakery (favoured by Moss, David Tennant and David Walliams). “Cupcakes are irresistible to all ages,” agrees the Michelin-starred chef (and fan) Tom Aikens. “Kids love them because they are bite-sized, and adults love them for the nostalgia fix of childhood. They are a nice way of having something naughty and sugary — comforting, in fact — and because they are small, you don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying them.”

And in these scary economic times, who can blame us for wanting to indulge in a candy-coloured treat? “Even in a credit crisis, people still have birthdays and weddings,” Swift says.

If you blinked...

... you might have missed any news coverage of this one.

"Thine Eyes":