The US fiscal future fortold by a California Democrat?

I keep saying it, as goes California…

h/t Levin

Strange things sometimes happen in California, that pretty much goes without saying. As someone currently residing in the state, I see my share, believe that.

One thing I’m not often treated to out here is a Democrat in state government actually telling the truth (without spin) about the fiscal swirl the state is currently taking around the toilet bowl.

An alert reader at the Sacramento Bee took a video clip of an otherwise boring informational hearing and thoughtfully slapped it up on YouTube which was shared with the SacBee.

HotAir got hold of it as did Joel Fox of Fox&Hounds Daily who said;

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer generated a storm last week with his testimony before the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on Improving State Government.

He warned that public pensions and health care costs could bankrupt the state, that taxes will not go up, and that the legislature should clean up its act by getting rid of “junk” bills. An edited clip of his testimony can be viewed here.

Some might argue this was Lockyer’s Nixon-to-China moment, telling his Democratic colleagues to deal forthrightly with the state’s fiscal realities. In FlashReport, Former Republican State Senator Ray Haynes that Lockyer as the state senate leader had a different view of pensions, but now welcomed him to the fight.

I heard Levin today amazed by what he heard Lockyer saying, as was I when he shared it with his audience. I combine Levin’s audio with the YouTube video below.

Levin goes on to say that you’ll never see a national Democrat figure with the guts to say these things, because he or she would be excoriated by their peers. Full audio here and clip begins at 55:30.

How long has the left been in charge in California? Even Democrats are throwing their hands up at the mess their own side has created. Look how much faster Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have been able to push the US economy toward where California is today?

California is the perfect example of how bad things will get nationally, and everybody needs to know that.

Before it’s too late.

Crossposted

Better than Drudge?

Last thing I thought I needed-more input

h/t Paula Gardner
I was asked to check this site out, and I did. It looked like a Drudge knockoff, and I was at first dismissive until I noticed you could find news and political info from all 50 states. Paula puts it;

Don’t be tempted to write it off as “just another Drudge knock off.” For starters, they recently unveiled a new look that’s modern, clean and easy to read. I especially like the nifty ticker at the top that scrolls through top headlines from each of the 50 states but what really sets NewsFifty apart from other news aggregation sites is the map on the upper left-hand side. Click any state to view all the top headlines, as well as listings of news links and blogs, specific to that state. If NewsFifty is a handy resource for bloggers, it’s invaluable for busy people who don’t live and breathe news yet want desperately to stay informed and don’t have time to sit down in the evening and spend an hour or two leafing through the local paper.

Just click on the state you want news from

I clicked on New York, looking for news about the NY-23 and was immediately confronted with Newt’s picture on one side of the page with the Yankees on the other; both equally depressing photos lately (okay I don’t hate the Yankees, just was hoping for an Angels…ugh, forget it).

At any rate, to the left was an expandable list of local NY news websites from the “ADIRONDACK EXPLORER” to “YE OLDE TRI-VALLEY TOWNSMAN” and all in between. Cool, cool.

In center is a similar expandable column with a blogroll from NY state area bloggers (I assume you can get yours added for your particular state clicking on the “Contact Us” link at bottom.

On the right (this is really cool, I think) is another expanding column titled “Helpful Sources” which lists various state government websites like DMV, courts, etc.

Yeah, there’s always Google, but give NewsFifty – National Headline News from all 50 States a spin.

I’d buy a used mobile home from this guy

And that ain’t no bull

h/t RedEye

Tell me this isn’t an honest salesman; Robert Lee of Cullman Liquidation Center made an honest commercial;

Yep! I’d buy one. Or not.

2010 and 2012 may mean nothing if this isn’t stopped now

At all costs
Every once in a while you hear something on the radio that absolutely slaps you in the face with an “Oh my God” moment.

For months we’ve been getting into what the leftists and statists have been trying to do to our country, and what will become of us as a nation if they succeed.

Listening to the F. Lee Levin show today he read something on air that blew me away with it’s simplicity in tying everything together, and it set my alarm bells ringing. Okay, I’ve been into this for months, but at a micro level; only seeing the task at hand; defeating this destructive agenda on a vote-by-vote basis. Making the phone calls (in my case, to Boxer and Feinstein, which are pretty much throwaway calls), sending faxes, emails, and helping others to organize.

In other words, deep into the weeds. Much like a logger who sees the next tree, and the next, and the next, I was missing the enormity of the forest. I knew the future would be bleak if this agenda passed, but I never allowed myself to imagine it because defeat was and remains unthinkable.

But, driving on my three weekend an month part-time job with the AM radio on, Levin began reading and I had to roll up the windows and lean in to catch it all;

In explanation for her “yes” vote on the Max Baucus created health care bill, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe said:

“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls.”

Senator Snowe is probably right. History is calling. What she has wrong is history’s message. History is calling with the warning that tyranny is at our doorstep.

The tyranny that threatens us is not the same brand as the violent police states of the 20th century. Tyranny in America will look more like the misguided utopianism that has taken England from being the greatest, freest nation on earth to the frail remains of a world power it is today.

History called on England in the aftermath of World War II. During the war, the Axis Powers threatened England’s very existence. In such dire circumstances it became necessary for the entire country to work under central direction to achieve its military objectives. However, after the Allied Forces retook Europe, England believed that wartime-style government planning should continue. The government proceeded to dismantle what, in many ways, was once the freest economy in world history.

Now, over 60 years later, we see the results. England — the leader of the industrial revolution, the empire over which the sun never set, the parent of so many of the great modern republics — has descended into doldrums of mediocrity.

There’s more that ties everything into the battle for health care reform in the United States, go here and check it out, then pass it on. It’s important, really.

Maybe I’m just alarmist and there’s some hidden court trick that will work with the Appeals Courts who are increasingly more and more leaning to the left. I somehow doubt that though.

Forget who may or may not run next year for now. Real leaders have their chance today to rise to the top and help get the brakes put on this leftist agenda, lets see them do it. The heroes of this year can claim the leadership mantle in 2010 and beyond. Too often a person will see the people moving in a certain direction and rush out in front pretending to have been there all along, and they’ll shout “Follow me!” We see who they are, they aren’t fooling anybody anymore.

This is for all the marbles, and 2010 or 2012 won’t mean a thing if this isn’t stopped right here.

Right now.

Crossposted

Obama’s Enemies List On the Senate Record

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) put on the Senate record what most of us already know; the White House is creating an “enemies list” to make anything Nixon ever did look like a list of your favorite baseball cards.
First some background via American Thinker;

Obama’s oratory of Hope and Change has proved to be nothing more than camouflage for a realpolitik of Fear and Loathing, his broad smile at the teleprompter just a distraction while Obama’s heavies deliver a kidney punch to perceived enemies. Welcome to politics — the Chicago way.

Rolling out their attack from a War Room that seemingly ignores the nation’s real enemies abroad and instead turns its guns inward to its own people, they take on Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and anyone else that uses the administration’s own words to paint the real picture of what’s going on in DC.

Obama’s attack on Limbaugh was conceived last spring. Politico reported then that a cabal of top Obama advisors initiated what Politico called ‘Operation Rushbo’ to “roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era.” With conspirators including consigliere David Axelrod, Obama’s press puppet Robert Gibbs, and Chief of Staff — and chief enforcer — Rahm Emanuel, there can be little doubt that Obama, himself, greenlighted the strategy.

But as we’ve seen lately, it isn’t limited to El Rushbo, Fox and talk radio;

Is Barbara Boxer Maladjusted, Antisocial, or just Darn mean?

We’ll call the affliction “MAD” for short

Okay, we got our jollies when the Nobel Prize Committee deigned to give this year’s Nobel Peace (Appease) Prize to “Hope and Change™”, because let’s face it, it was absurd.

Michael Steele, the RNC Chairman, put it this way;

“”The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights.”

Indeed, there were quite a few who more probably made actual sacrifices that could’ve gotten the award and were ignored; on this I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Steele.

Barbara Boxer, however, decided that to suggest anyone other than “The One” should receive recognition must be the Taliban personified in America;

A tune from the DNC songbook sung by the left’s nastiest senator, capped by a trill of irony when she wonders why people have to spoil the day by being mean. I’m reasonably sure that Steele’s knock on The One’s record wasn’t a veiled call for him to hand over Afghanistan and Israel to jihadist nutbags, so there’s a pretty sharp distinction with the Taliban and Hamas right there. But never mind that. Can we use this as a “teachable moment,” maybe, to settle two political matters that are hazy right now? One: Is the Taliban an enemy or not? Boxer seems to think yes, which is fine by me, but that’s very much not a melody from her party’s songbook. And two: Is it okay or isn’t it to compare the other party to terrorists? I’m fine with it — after hearing Olbermann liken the GOP to jihadis umpteen thousand times, it’s water off the back by now — but there are few things the left seems to enjoy than a good fake-outrage conniption whenever some Republican pol (or center-leftist!) breathes the words “Al Qaeda” and “Democrats” in the same sentence. Street fight, or being overcome by the vapors? Just pick one already.

Again, she who thinks the rhetoric in American politics is becoming “unnecessarily mean”, unless it’s a Democrat spewing the rhetoric blows the needle off the Irony Meter.

But Babs has a history, doesn’t she? She demands respect not earned in showing disrespect to a Brigadier General who has earned it.

Catching up with Klavan

This guy is awesome

I first saw Andrew Klavan of PJTV and Big Hollywood fame when he did a video entitled “Klavan On The Culture” but since has earned the title “The Shut Up Video“.
Two more I was pointed to recently by @gardeningsnail on Twitter are as instructive as the first.
One is titled Are You A Racist? A Frank Conversation, and the other ‘Is Barack Obama Jesus Christ?’, both of which I’ll embed below.

Games Leftists Play

Just a fun-loving bunch, aren’t they?

From a Gold Star mom;

It was a nasty evil thing to do back during the Vietnam war. People would call families claiming to be the military and tell their son had been killed and the family would later find it was a lie. Mental and emotional abuse and torture of the worse kind. Well what once was old is new again… but still just as evil and heartless. Only this time the media is being compliant.

Calls are being made to families and the words no family with a soldier wants to hear are uttered ” We regret to inform you”… Only to find out their soldier is alive and well. It’s done to break morale and inflict injury on the families. Not only that but on our troops also. Now instead of our soldiers being able to completely focus on their mission they have the burden of worrying about something like this happening to their loved ones who are suppose to be safe at home.

She’s referring to this story via CBS News. Notice the headline.

Military Wrongly Told Dad Soldier-Son Died
(AP)  Military officials say they’re investigating why an upstate New York man was told his son had been killed in Afghanistan when the soldier was alive and well.

Ray Jasper of Niagara Falls says he was camping Sunday when he received a call on his cell phone from a woman who said she was a military liaison. He says the woman told him his son, Staff Sgt. Jesse Jasper, was killed in action Saturday.

The father says he later called military officials to get details of his son’s death and was told that his son is alive. Ray Jasper says the officials couldn’t explain the earlier call.

The father says his son called from Afghanistan and said he would talk to his commanding officers about the call reporting his death.

First, as anybody with a Google search capability could tell you, the military does not notify next of kin by phone.

From the US Army’s own guide (my bolding);

b.  The Army’s policy is to make personal notification to the primary next of kin (PNOK) and secondary next of kin (SNOK) of the deceased soldier within 4 hours after notification of the death.  Notification should take place during the hours from 0600 to 2200 local time unless otherwise directed.  The time limits established for notification may have to be adjusted due to distances involved or other conditions, such as adverse weather.  All attempts will be made to notify the PNOK first, if your efforts to contact the PNOK are unsuccessful, then contact the Casualty Area Command (CAC), immediately for guidance.

It’s the one of the hardest jobs anyone in the military will be called upon to do. Various movie accounts show the telegram arriving from the War Department with “We regret to inform you…”, some even delivered by distraught cab drivers.

The cinematic scenes makes it all so much easier to believe that someone on base would simply pick up the phone, and call some soldier’s father to pass on the bad news, especially at CBS News. But they don’t exactly have the best history of checking facts, do they?

Mom goes on;

Another version of these calls is to tell you your loved was wounded.. usually these call request a verification of the soldier’s social security number and then the soldier’s identity is stolen. If these people are not oblivious to the family’s suffering they are just as evil.

These types of calls and attacks on the families of our troops are terrorism in themselves. I am getting very angry and sick of the abuse put up on our troops and their families…

Stranger than even the phone games they play, is one that I can’t even wrap my mind around from October 2008, Via Blackfive from Clarksville, Tennessee;

FORT CAMPBELL, KY–  On Thursday, October 30, a military family member reported two men pretending to be a casualty notification officer and chaplain visited her home and falsely notified her that her deployed Soldier had been killed.

The man impersonating the notification officer was wearing a Class A “dress green” uniform and the other was wearing civilian clergy attire.

This is the part I can’t conceive, it occurred on base;

There have been a few incidents of this nature in the past two months involving family members living off post, but Thursday’s incident occurred on post. The spouse did not allow the pair into her home and when they left contacted the Family Readiness Support Assistant and Rear Detachment Commander to confirm the information. The command let her know her spouse is still alive and worked to put him in contact with her as soon as possible. Military police were notified and a police report was taken at the scene.

Again, my bolding for emphasis; “…a few incidents of this nature…”? As in, this goes on all the time, but finally it made the news.

As War On Terror News suggests;

While these seem to be isolated incidents, many go unreported and there is a need for families to become proactive in combatting the grisly acts of the perpetuators.  Families should first *know* that the Military will never give this bad news over the telephone.  The Military will always report it in person.

If a family member receives such a phone call, one should immediately go into investigative mode.  Write down the number from Caller ID.   Ask for the name and number of the caller.  Keep the person on the line as long as possible.  Call your telephone provider and report the malicious call and ensure the phone company records the information from the caller for a police report, immediately after the call.  Record as much information as you can about the caller on paper or computer file (many phones have a text notes function) to include the voice patterns and any dialects of the voice you can identify.  Then call the police and military with the information you have.

If the caller has falsely identified themselves as a member of LE or the Military, there are additional charges that can be filed against them.  The bottom line is that the malicious call is itself a crime.

If it seems that this is a pet issue of mine, it is because I know of (and considered to be an isolated incident) a case where a teenage daughter in High School received a text message from an untraced number stating “Your dad is dead” one day before he was killed.  It wasn’t clairvoyance.  It wasn’t ESP.  It wasn’t a prophecy.  It was simple meanness that coincided with his sacrifice.

It went unreported.  Catch these people if they attempt to victimize you.

My suggestion to those merry pranksters on the left; as you sit at St. Arbucks sipping your lattes, scratching your too cool wannabe goatees, and pecking at your Mac Books to compose you Hate Bush thesis, cut down on the caffeine before some stupid idea like the above occurs to you and you end up the one who’s family gets a phone call…

…from the Coroner.

Crossposted

Legends of the Fall

I miss these old NFL films

I remember the old NFL films they’d play at halftime back in the 70s. Narrated by “The Voice of God”, John Facenda and with a soundtrack so good it even earned its own box set, there was nothing to get you juiced on Sunday morning than seeing one of these.
I think it was Super Bowl VII on January 14, 1973, I recorded the whole pregame show on a little cassette deck which did a recap of the previous 6 Super Bowl games, it’s a set I’d like to buy today if I could find it.
That booming voice, military-like music, and the slow motion pads crashing, mud flying, snow and rain falling; it was God’s own game back then. He controlled it all before domed stadiums and Astroturf (not the political kind) isolated players from the elements.

Play list here for  all three parts.

More Democrat Hypocrisy

Our cup runneth over

Via The Minority Report’s Steve Foley;

Center-right folks have known for years that the “do as we say not as we do” Democrat hypocrisy knows no bounds but this scene from a surprise visit to a gathering of Democrat leaders by Governor Schwarzenegger at the invitation at the invitation and request of former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D) while in the hotel for another event takes the cake.

Invited by Liberal icon Willie Brown. The leftists claim to be “proud to be Democrats” in the following video released by the CAGOP on their website. What a proud moment this must’ve been for Willie Brown! An invited guest is cussed at by the Democrat Party elite from San Fransisco.

And they said what Joe Wilson did was “bad”. How about a little media time on this?