13 February 2009

Phoenix - Kidnapping Capital of the U.S.A.

When you think of kidnappings, generally you think of areas like Colombia, Brazil, Somalia or Iraq & Afghanistan. It surprised me to learn that Mexico City is the Kidnapping Capital of the world, with Phoenix Arizona a close second, making it the Kidnapping Capital of the U.S.A. What's even more troubling, is the fact that this has been going on for quite some time with practically zero major coverage from main stream news stations. What are their priorities?
What bothers me the most about this is the fact that Obama has picked Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as the new head of Homeland Security? Was it her Stellar Record? What's more is that Napolitano didn't even complete her own state security plan. As the Tucson Citizen pointed out,
"(Gov. Janet Napolitano) blames budget problems and the difficulty coordinating agencies in Arizona, where she has been governor, for failing to complete key provisions of a detailed security plan for her own state."
Apparently Yet Again, Politics trumps anything else in Washington, and the post was given as political payback, instead of given to the right person for the right job. The following story can be found on ABC's website, but why isn't this the leading story on their newscasts? I suppose whoever is winning the Grammy's is a bigger story.

Washington Too Concerned With al Qaeda Terrorists to Care, Officials Say

In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone. But local authorities say Washington, DC is too obsessed with al Qaeda terrorists to care about what is happening in their own backyard right now.

Wave of abductions hit Phoenix. Is Washington paying enough attention?

"We're in the eye of the storm," Phoenix Police Chief Andy Anderson told ABC News of the violent crimes and ruthless tactics spurred by Mexico's drug cartels that have expanded business across the border. "If it doesn't stop here, if we're not able to fix it here and get it turned around, it will go across the nation," he said.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown warned that as the U.S. government focuses so intently on Islamic extremist groups, other types of terrorists – those involved with the same kidnappings, extortion and drug cartels that are sweeping Phoenix – are overlooked.

To try and combat the crime wave, the Phoenix police have created a special unit to handle the kidnappings called the Home Invasion Task Force, which has pulled more than a dozen officers off other assignments. The crimes are occurring across the valley and in all types of neighborhoods, authorities warn.

10 February 2009

48 Liberal Lies About American History

Larry Schweikart wrote a fantastic book called "48 Liberal Lies About American History". Some of the things that he goes over is:
  1. 3rd most common image in the top 20 American History Books of the 20th Century sections is of the Klu Klux Klan - As if America is STILL a Racist country.
  2. Virtually all the Text Books identify Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy's Assassin) as a Deranged Marine, when in fact he should be portrayed as a Communist - As one of the top 20 does.
  3. Most of the most commonly used books have 1/3 to 1/2 the 48 Liberal Lies, as if their Agenda is to portray the U.S. as some Evil, Oppressive and Racist country.
  4. Lie #19, The Rosenbergs were not Spies and were Wrongfully executed - One of the books even says that they were not major spies, even though they sold Nuclear Bomb Schematics and Diagrams to the Soviets. Nikita Kruschev himself said the Rosenburgs were instrumental in advancing their nuclear bomb program.
  5. Lie #41, The Trans Continental Railroads required Government Subsidies to survive. Even though the ONLY profitable Trans Contintental Rail Road (the Great Northern Railroad) was a completely private railroad, built entireley with private funds by Canadian James J. Hill. It was also the only railroad that survived the crash of 1873.
  6. Lie #45, LBJ's Great Society had a great impact on the poor. By the 1990's when the impact of these programs was actually observed, it intoduced 2 generations of drastic levels of family breakups and illigitamacy. Most gains started with John F. Kennedy's Tax cuts and stopped with LBJ's "War on Poverty" and Government spending.
  7. Lie #9, McKail Gorbachev's Reform policies led to the Collapse of the Soviet Empire and the end of the Cold War. It was Reagan's military buildup and pressure that caused the Soviet's Collapse.
The book looks to be a very interesting read, and provides a great insight as to why most Americans, especially the "Better Educated" Americans think the way they do about our country.

The Following video gives a bit longish 45 Min. Interview with the Author, but I find it very interesting. Being a history buff, I guess I'm a bit biased, but hopefully you'll like it as much as I did.

Those Who Don't Learn From History .... Oh Boy ...


The New Deal
Obama keeps talking about the New Deal as if it was such a great period of prosperity, but the truth is, all that government spending back in the 30's just led to a lot of instability in the financial markets. Instability led to higher interest rates, which then led to the suffocating of the private sector.
Andrew Wilson wrote in the Wall Street Journal,
" the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations -- in disregarding market signals at every turn -- were jointly responsible for turning a (short term) panic into the worst depression of modern times. As late as 1938, after almost a decade of governmental "pump priming," almost one out of five workers remained unemployed. What the government gave with one hand, through increased spending, it took away with the other, through increased taxation. But that was not an even trade-off. As the root cause of a great deal of mismanagement and inefficiency, government was responsible for a lost decade of economic growth"
That doesn't sound to me like the fantas
tic Economic Boom I learned about in my history class? They made it sound like it was all bubble gum and lollipops.
Think about this for a moment. When was the last time you went to get a Driver's license office or to the Court house, the Social Security Administration or ANY government run facility and thought to yourself, "Wow, this is a really efficient operation. Everything makes so much sense!" All of us know, instinctively that Government is inefficient and does things in irrational and crazy ways, but now we're going to hand them Trillions of OUR dollars to spend w
hen historically, we know that this has never, ever worked? It's because of this that I support the "Personal Responsibility Act of No Socialism" Our solution to the financial crisis. Call me a dreamer, but who knows. It could happen!
Of course, there's a lot of nay sayers out there that say that us on the "Right Wing" are revisionist trying to re-write history. That we somehow want to besmirch the gains made by the New Deal, however, the government's own statistics, you can find the series in Historical Statistics of the United States here (big PDF) . This isn't "made up stuff, this is government statistics. Historical FACT.
Truth is the "New Deal" didn't pull this country out of the Depression, World War II Did. At the time the war had broken out, we still had fantastic levels of unemployment in this country, so why on earth would we NOT learn from our history and repeat the same exact mistakes of the past?


Japan's Lost Decade
The President spoke last night in his speech about Japan and the "Lost Decade" where he believes the Government didn't act, and that's why they ended up in the situation that they are still in to this day. Let's take a trip down memory lane, so we can see the differences between what the U.S. did during the last financial crisis, and what Japan did that led to their "Lost Decade".
For those of you you may remember, we had a massive stock market crash in 1987, that was very similar to what happened in 2008. Back then, the DOW plunged by 22.6% in a SINGLE Day! Keep in mind that the "Biggest one day point loss ever" of 778 Points on Sept. 29th 2008 AND the "Second Biggest one day point loss ever" of 733 points on Oct. 15th COMBINED was LESS than 20%!
With this in mind, back then most world economists said that we would end up in the next 5 years with a period similar to the Great Depression. Luckily for us, Reagan didn't listen to all this fear mongering and kept a steady hand, did nothing but lower interest rates to maintain liquidity and tighten some regulations on banks. Unsound companies were allowed to fail because stinking rotting corpses of companies that can't survive were NOT propped up. Within a year, the economy was back on track and growing again.
Japan, instead chose a different path. A path that included nearly nationalizing banks. A path that included the Government pumping Trillions of Yen into the Markets. A path that included "Propping up" Dead companies that only prolonged the pain. Here's a great article (reprinted from the WSJ) that highlights 6 lessons that we learned from Japan's "Lost Decade" and unfortunately, it looks like we're set to repeat those same mistakes with this bill. Especially of Interest is Lesson's 4 & 5.


  • Lesson Four: Fiscal policy isn't effective: Japanese government repeated trying to rescue the economy by "emergency fiscal stimulus", which resulted only as the vast amount of government deficit, 180% of GDP. As many banks and companies were insolvent, the money supplied by the government was used to make up zombie banks and companies who looked alive but in fact dead.

  • Lesson Five: Until the focus of disease is removed by surgery, no macroeconomic medicine will be effective. In 2002, an economist Heizo Takenaka became the Minister in charge of Economy and Finance. He changed the "soft landing policy" of predecessors and said "I don't think there are too big banks to fail" in an interview with Newsweek. It aroused a panic among bankers, so they stopped postponing the disposal of bad loans.

Yet Lesson 4, is EXACTLY what this stimulus bill is all about, and Lesson 5, well that's the good ol' TARP program right? Some banks are just "Too Big to Fail".

There is a reason that after FDR died, the constitution was amended to not allow anyone to perpetually run for the office of the presidency. Congress knew that FDR was a disaster, but nostalgia from the "War Days" didn't allow a really fair look at his entire administration. Circumstances from that era prevented any kind of opposition, it almost looked un-American to oppose FDR. The insiders knew though, and that is why they passed that law so something like this would never happen again.

It's time to Act. Do your part to stop this MASSIVE Pork bill from happening. It's not too late!

Do Your Part to Stop this MASSIVE Pork Bill

I saw this over at NoStimulus.com and thought it would be worthwhile to share it with my readers. Please make sure you click to sign the petition!!!

Fight Special Interests that Want to Take Your Money

FOX
News coverage of the first 69,000 of your petitions being delivered to the
United States Senate this past Friday [Left]. Senators Jim DeMint (SC), Jim
Inhofe (OK), Jeff Sessions (AL), Michael Enzi (WY) and David Vitter (LA)
receive the petitions on the steps of the Senate [Right]. We will be
delivering all the new petitions this week!


This Fight Is Not Over


We still have two chances to win in the House or Senate!


The Senate mustered 61 votes to squeak through the Collins/Nelson
amendment, better known as the “compromise” stimulus plan.


If you listen to the mainstream media, this means the fight is over, Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama win, and it’s time to move on. Not so
fast!


The bill will go to a conference committee to work out differences between
the House and Senate versions. The conference committee will be a brand-new
feeding frenzy of wasteful pork projects.


Whatever comes out of conference committee will be another very tough vote
in both the House and Senate.


If we keep the pressure on, we can win!


What Does the So-Called “Stimulus Package” Mean For You?


It means you pay.


You pay for more bailouts, more giveaways, more wasteful spending...and
your children and grandchildren pay for trillions of dollars of debt.


But you can fight back right now. By signing the
petition, you can join
the thousands of Americans who are saying NO!


NO to more taxpayer-funded bailouts and
giveaways to special interests!


NO to using economic hardship as an
excuse for Big Government power grabs!


NO to heaving trillions of dollars in
new debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren!


NO to this no-stimulus scam!


Follow the links on the right to contact your elected officials, learn how
you can tell your friends and family why this new scheme will hurt taxpayers,
and invest in the movement that is fighting back!




FOX
News coverage of the first 69,000 of your petitions being delivered to the
United States Senate this past Friday [Left]. Senators Jim DeMint (SC), Jim
Inhofe (OK), Jeff Sessions (AL), Michael Enzi (WY) and David Vitter (LA)
receive the petitions on the steps of the Senate [Right]. We will be
delivering all the new petitions this week!


This Fight Is Not Over


We still have two chances to win in the House or Senate!


The Senate mustered 61 votes to squeak through the Collins/Nelson
amendment, better known as the compromise stimulus plan.


If you listen to the mainstream media, this means the fight is over, Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama win, and its time to move on. Not so
fast!


The bill will go to a conference committee to work out differences between
the House and Senate versions. The conference committee will be a brand-new
feeding frenzy of wasteful pork projects.


Whatever comes out of conference committee will be another very tough vote
in both the House and Senate.


If we keep the pressure on, we can win!


What Does the So-Called Stimulus Package Mean For You?


It means you pay.


You pay for more bailouts, more giveaways, more wasteful spending...and
your children and grandchildren pay for trillions of dollars of debt.


But you can fight back right now. By signing the
petition, you can join
the thousands of Americans who are saying NO!


NO to more taxpayer-funded bailouts and
giveaways to special interests!


NO to using economic hardship as an
excuse for Big Government power grabs!


NO to heaving trillions of dollars in
new debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren!


NO to this no-stimulus scam!


Follow the links to contact your elected officials, learn how
you can tell your friends and family why this new scheme will hurt taxpayers,
and invest in the movement that is fighting back!

08 February 2009

Obama Fails the 'Katrina' Test

If you remember the criticisms of the Federal response to Katrina, one of the biggest things was the claims that the Federal Government (President Bush) was "Slow" to respond to the disaster, as thousands of people were living without power and proper living conditions. It seems that there must be a double standard in the main stream media when it comes to the coverage of this kind of news. When it's poor blacks who are the victims, it's national headlines. When it's just plain old regular white Americans, well I guess no one cares. President Bush signed a $10.5 billion relief package within four days of the hurricane. Within 1-2 days of the hurricane, National Guard Troops arrived with relief of food, water, and medicine, and participated in security and rescue operations.
Let's see now that Obama is in charge? A week (Feb 2nd) after the Ice Storm hit the Midwest, particularly Kentucky, is barely getting any federal help. 55 people dead, where was the federal response? As of Friday (Feb. 6th), FEMA says that they are "Coordinating efforts".
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really critisizing Obama, I am however, critisizing the mainstream Media. It seems that when the subject is something that they want to make a big deal of, like the Nations Poor, they will find a way to do it and in a way "generate" their own story. I remember down here in Florida, when Hurricane Andrew hit, it was 5 days before we saw the National Guard, vs in Luisianna it was only 3 days. Weeks had passed before the feds came in with any real help, whereas in Luisiana Bush signed a bill within just 4 days. Jack Kelly wrote a great article about the Federal response to Katrina, where he highlights:

... "The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world histor." ....

He goes on to point out:

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?

Truth is, the local mostly Democrat government was much more to blame than Bush was, yet this was never really pointed out by the Agenda driven media.

If Obama had been measured by the same yardstick used to measure Bush, he would have definitely have failed the "Katrina Test".

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