House Democrats Introduce A Bill To Help “99ers” - Atlantic City Liberal | Examiner.com: "The '99ers' are people who have exhausted the full 99 weeks of unemployment benefits without being able to find work. These are hard-working Americans who had jobs prior to the financial meltdown caused by the rapacious greed of the wealthiest and most powerful in the country. Right now there are roughly five unemployed workers for every available job. That means that for 80% of the unemployed there simply are no jobs available no matter how hard they try.
In the Atlantic City-Hammonton metropolitcan area the '99er' problem is even worse. The unemployment rate in Atlantic City is 11.5%, nearly 2 full points higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.8% The Obama-McConnell tax cut raw deal does nothing for 99ers who have lost their last lifeline, through no fault of their own.
To remedy this unacceptable situation, House Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee (pictured) (Calif.) and Bobby Scott (Va.) introduced legislation Friday that would provide additional assistance to “99ers”, to which I say, about damn time. The legislation would add 14 weeks of benefits to the first “tier” of Emergency Unemployment Compensation, one of two programs that together give the unemployed up to 73 weeks of federally-funded benefits for workers who exhaust 26 weeks of state benefits. The full 73 weeks are available in states with unemployment above 8.5 percent.
With the Republicans about to take over the House in January, the expectation among the political punditry is that this bill will stall indefinitely. The excuse that Republicans give in opposition to helping the 99ers is that they are against more deficit spending, which is really just their excuse to be cold and heartless. Their desire for fiscal restraint certainly did not stop them from joining hands with President Obama to add hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy to the deficit. But on this issue I think the Republicans are playing with fire and will break eventually.
According to Republican Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke, it will take 4-5 years for the country to reach a normal level of unemployment again, without factoring the possibility of a double-dip. That is a long time to leave millions of suffering voters high and dry. Republicans may not have compassion, but they do have a strong sense of self-preservation. At some point voter anger will reach a tipping point where the Republicans will have to buckle. But maybe I am just being hopeful?
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Monday, December 20, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Rant - Democrats Cave In: No Tier 5 for Unemployment Extension 2010
Rant - Democrats Cave In: No Tier 5 for Unemployment Extension 2010
As they say, a week is a long time in politics and no more so then in the current lame duck session. Less then a week ago, the Democrats in the House of Representatives were in rebellion over the deal made between President Obama and the Republicans.
The most contentious issues of the agreement between the President and the GOP were the extensions of all the Bush era tax cuts for a further 2 years, but only a further 13 months extension for federal emergency unemployment insurance tiers 1 - 4. And a glaring omission was that the subject of a Tier 5 for the long-term unemployed – the 99ers, was not even discussed by those brokering the agreement.
On Wednesday, one of the most vocal Democrats in opposition to the bill, Peter Welch [D,VT], appeared to sum up the Democrats current position on the bill, with him being resigned to the fact that the bill would be passed by the House without any "significant" modification, saying "The die is now cast," and that "any further discussion of changes to the bill are now academic."
So it appears now that the Democrats have rolled over and caved in to the Republicans threats to block any amendments to the bill. By folding so easily, the Democrats have abandoned several million people to fend for themselves, leaving them without any form of assistance or income to tide them over until the nations depressed job market improves. To say that these people feel betrayed and abandoned by the Government is an understatement.
Readers have expressed their dismay, with Martin writing "I can't believe that this country of ours runs to help other countries in need, but is unwilling to help its fellow Americans. These Republicans are fighting because they want tax breaks for the wealthy and super wealthy, who in turn are sending all their jobs and business overseas. This has to be a literal crime against all Americans. I really don't understand why no one is voicing this in the media."
Another reader writes "It is said that the American voter has a short memory, but without relief for millions of 99ers in this package, this nightmare is just beginning. How many will it take before Congress wakes up to the untold suffering that is life without any unemployment benefits and abject poverty? When will the numbers get big enough that even the Republicans can not ignore them? Can they ever get big enough to make a difference?
The feelings of many were summed up by this comment: "There was never a Country as free as the United States of America. When it came into being, no such country had ever existed. People fought for their lives to keep such a freedom alive…Now once again more than ever here we stand again, watching our freedoms begin to disappear one by one. The Rich are becoming richer and more powerful as the Middle Class Begins to disappear and the poor just become poorer. How long will we stand and watch before we take action again, to save our freedoms here in the United States of America!"
As they say, a week is a long time in politics and no more so then in the current lame duck session. Less then a week ago, the Democrats in the House of Representatives were in rebellion over the deal made between President Obama and the Republicans.
The most contentious issues of the agreement between the President and the GOP were the extensions of all the Bush era tax cuts for a further 2 years, but only a further 13 months extension for federal emergency unemployment insurance tiers 1 - 4. And a glaring omission was that the subject of a Tier 5 for the long-term unemployed – the 99ers, was not even discussed by those brokering the agreement.
On Wednesday, one of the most vocal Democrats in opposition to the bill, Peter Welch [D,VT], appeared to sum up the Democrats current position on the bill, with him being resigned to the fact that the bill would be passed by the House without any "significant" modification, saying "The die is now cast," and that "any further discussion of changes to the bill are now academic."
So it appears now that the Democrats have rolled over and caved in to the Republicans threats to block any amendments to the bill. By folding so easily, the Democrats have abandoned several million people to fend for themselves, leaving them without any form of assistance or income to tide them over until the nations depressed job market improves. To say that these people feel betrayed and abandoned by the Government is an understatement.
Readers have expressed their dismay, with Martin writing "I can't believe that this country of ours runs to help other countries in need, but is unwilling to help its fellow Americans. These Republicans are fighting because they want tax breaks for the wealthy and super wealthy, who in turn are sending all their jobs and business overseas. This has to be a literal crime against all Americans. I really don't understand why no one is voicing this in the media."
Another reader writes "It is said that the American voter has a short memory, but without relief for millions of 99ers in this package, this nightmare is just beginning. How many will it take before Congress wakes up to the untold suffering that is life without any unemployment benefits and abject poverty? When will the numbers get big enough that even the Republicans can not ignore them? Can they ever get big enough to make a difference?
The feelings of many were summed up by this comment: "There was never a Country as free as the United States of America. When it came into being, no such country had ever existed. People fought for their lives to keep such a freedom alive…Now once again more than ever here we stand again, watching our freedoms begin to disappear one by one. The Rich are becoming richer and more powerful as the Middle Class Begins to disappear and the poor just become poorer. How long will we stand and watch before we take action again, to save our freedoms here in the United States of America!"
Monday, December 13, 2010
Long-term unemployment is worrying - Dec. 13, 2010
Long-term unemployment is worrying - Dec. 13, 2010: "FORTUNE -- What happens to a nation's collective psyche when millions of once-productive people remain out of work for months or even years? What happens when unemployed husbands resign themselves to relying on a wife's income, when unemployed wives feel trapped at home, when twenty- and thirtysomethings calculate that they'd rather live off their parents than face a cut-throat job market, when middle-aged men and women stop searching for jobs after realizing they're hopelessly lost in a haze of rapid-fire technological change?
The pre-holiday bickering over tax cuts and extending unemployment benefits is drowning out a December government number so frightening it should concentrate the minds of every posturing political leader in Washington: 9.8% unemployment. That is staggering, up from when the recession ended 18 months ago, and comes despite signs of recovery in retail, real estate, and corporate profits.
Especially troubling is that long-term unemployment continues to mount. 'It is unprecedented in post--World War II U.S. history to have 3% of the labor force unemployed for over a year,' Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said in a recent speech. 'If history is any guide, this year-plus unemployment rate will only revert to pre-recession levels after several years.'
Add to that mix this perplexing fact: While there aren't nearly enough jobs, there are more of them -- a lot more. Since the month after the recession ended, the number of available jobs has surged 44%, according to the Labor Department. Job vacancies are nowhere near pre-recession levels (according to the Conference Board, there are still 10.4 million more unemployed workers than advertised vacancies). Still, there are as many as three million jobs going unfilled.
Various economists have posited various reasons for this mismatch:
* Employers, still reeling from all the downsizing they've had to do, are pickier about whom they hire and slower to close the deal.
* Jobless workers, especially those out of work for months and years, don't have the skills to multitask in a fast-paced economy where medical workers need to know electronic record-keeping, machinists need computer skills, and marketing managers can no longer delegate software duties.
* Workers, some of whom feel cushioned by unemployment benefits, are too picky to take lower-paying or less prestigious jobs.
* There is a geographic divide between where the jobless are -- states like Florida, Nevada, and Michigan -- and where the jobs are -- states like Maryland, South Dakota, and Iowa. Relocation is especially hard if your mortgage is under water.
The cost of not working
Whatever the right mix of reasons, the fallout is crippling. Economically, long-term joblessness means fewer dollars for consumption. For deficit control, it means fewer taxpayers contributing to government revenues and tens of billions more spent on unemployment insurance. Then there is the psychological toll on individuals and families -- and on the nation.
Early on in the recession, popular culture seized on the romantic notion of tightening our belts and looking inward to frills-free fun with our friends and families, after a decade of borrowed hyperconsumption. Now we need to ask a less romantic question: What happens when millions of Americans lose the habit of work, a habit that lends balance, structure, dignity -- and, of course, economic support -- to lives?
The longer people are unemployed the less employable they become. Skills become rusty; managers look more suspiciously at someone who has been out of work for years than a candidate already employed. I remember an old conservative saying: Graduate from high school; get a job -- any job; get married -- stay married; and (statistically speaking) your chances of landing in poverty are practically nil.
Even if that was once true, that calculation has lost some relevancy in this far more complex economy. But the concept of getting people back on the ladder, even if it's on a lower rung, is a worthy one.
Hopefully, Congress will pass a tax bill that gives business enough certainty and financial incentive to create more jobs. Hopefully, economic growth will begin to put a dent in that loss of 8 million jobs since the recession hit.
But an even knottier problem facing the nation's political leadership, from the President on down, is how to get the long-term unemployed into jobs as they become available. To avoid becoming chronically unemployed, people need more than platitudes offering sympathy. Career reinvention requires encouragement and guidance. Business leaders have specifics to offer on what jobs will be coming down the pike in expanding sectors like health care, and what skills are needed. They should to be brought into the political dialogue.
President Obama opened the conversation this fall with an industry-led initiative to better match community college graduates with skilled jobs. He followed with a Dec. 6 speech calling for a 'Sputnik moment' to restart American innovation to create jobs and compete in the world.
But as he assembles a largely new economic team, the President face a more immediate challenge: the need for a 'Manhattan Project' to get the long-term jobless back to work, something that would boost the psyche of both the unemployed and the nation
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The pre-holiday bickering over tax cuts and extending unemployment benefits is drowning out a December government number so frightening it should concentrate the minds of every posturing political leader in Washington: 9.8% unemployment. That is staggering, up from when the recession ended 18 months ago, and comes despite signs of recovery in retail, real estate, and corporate profits.
Especially troubling is that long-term unemployment continues to mount. 'It is unprecedented in post--World War II U.S. history to have 3% of the labor force unemployed for over a year,' Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said in a recent speech. 'If history is any guide, this year-plus unemployment rate will only revert to pre-recession levels after several years.'
Add to that mix this perplexing fact: While there aren't nearly enough jobs, there are more of them -- a lot more. Since the month after the recession ended, the number of available jobs has surged 44%, according to the Labor Department. Job vacancies are nowhere near pre-recession levels (according to the Conference Board, there are still 10.4 million more unemployed workers than advertised vacancies). Still, there are as many as three million jobs going unfilled.
Various economists have posited various reasons for this mismatch:
* Employers, still reeling from all the downsizing they've had to do, are pickier about whom they hire and slower to close the deal.
* Jobless workers, especially those out of work for months and years, don't have the skills to multitask in a fast-paced economy where medical workers need to know electronic record-keeping, machinists need computer skills, and marketing managers can no longer delegate software duties.
* Workers, some of whom feel cushioned by unemployment benefits, are too picky to take lower-paying or less prestigious jobs.
* There is a geographic divide between where the jobless are -- states like Florida, Nevada, and Michigan -- and where the jobs are -- states like Maryland, South Dakota, and Iowa. Relocation is especially hard if your mortgage is under water.
The cost of not working
Whatever the right mix of reasons, the fallout is crippling. Economically, long-term joblessness means fewer dollars for consumption. For deficit control, it means fewer taxpayers contributing to government revenues and tens of billions more spent on unemployment insurance. Then there is the psychological toll on individuals and families -- and on the nation.
Early on in the recession, popular culture seized on the romantic notion of tightening our belts and looking inward to frills-free fun with our friends and families, after a decade of borrowed hyperconsumption. Now we need to ask a less romantic question: What happens when millions of Americans lose the habit of work, a habit that lends balance, structure, dignity -- and, of course, economic support -- to lives?
The longer people are unemployed the less employable they become. Skills become rusty; managers look more suspiciously at someone who has been out of work for years than a candidate already employed. I remember an old conservative saying: Graduate from high school; get a job -- any job; get married -- stay married; and (statistically speaking) your chances of landing in poverty are practically nil.
Even if that was once true, that calculation has lost some relevancy in this far more complex economy. But the concept of getting people back on the ladder, even if it's on a lower rung, is a worthy one.
Hopefully, Congress will pass a tax bill that gives business enough certainty and financial incentive to create more jobs. Hopefully, economic growth will begin to put a dent in that loss of 8 million jobs since the recession hit.
But an even knottier problem facing the nation's political leadership, from the President on down, is how to get the long-term unemployed into jobs as they become available. To avoid becoming chronically unemployed, people need more than platitudes offering sympathy. Career reinvention requires encouragement and guidance. Business leaders have specifics to offer on what jobs will be coming down the pike in expanding sectors like health care, and what skills are needed. They should to be brought into the political dialogue.
President Obama opened the conversation this fall with an industry-led initiative to better match community college graduates with skilled jobs. He followed with a Dec. 6 speech calling for a 'Sputnik moment' to restart American innovation to create jobs and compete in the world.
But as he assembles a largely new economic team, the President face a more immediate challenge: the need for a 'Manhattan Project' to get the long-term jobless back to work, something that would boost the psyche of both the unemployed and the nation
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Thursday, December 2, 2010
Abby Ale to be made in Chico
Reporting from Vina, Calif. — For the Trappist monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, life follows a pattern centuries old.
They spend their days in the field and their nights in silence. They gather in prayer seven times daily, starting at 3:30 a.m. In many of their affairs, they are still guided by the 6th century Rule of St. Benedict — but not one of its 73 chapters deals with their current travails.
Benedict offers no words of wisdom on how the monks might find the funds to complete their most passionate pursuit: the resurrection of a medieval monastery from a jumble of stones William Randolph Hearst shipped over from Spain.
He is silent, too, on negotiating deals with a major brewery.
The 23 monks at the rustic abbey north of Chico are seasoned winemakers — their Poor Souls Petite Syrah is a prizewinner — but, until a recent agreement with Sierra Nevada, all they knew of beer was how, on occasion, to drink it.
They are learning.
In partnership with the monks, Sierra Nevada next year will release an ale that pays tribute to the renowned Trappist beers of Europe. The brew also will be a boost to New Clairvaux, with the company pouring some of the venture's profits into the monastery reconstruction project. Sierra Nevada will train Father Thomas X. Davis, New Clairvaux's 77-year-old abbot emeritus, as a "sensory professional" — a beer taster who knows his phenols from his esters.
The alliance was forged only in the last year when the monks contacted the brewery, one of Chico's biggest businesses.
"We approached them for a fundraiser," said Davis, a trim, wry man who also serves as the abbey's forklift operator. "I felt so outlandish."
But what's one outlandish moment in a saga spanning more than 800 years?
****
In 1190, monks started building the Santa Maria de Ovila monastery about 90 miles northeast of Madrid. For centuries the complex thrived, but by 1835 it was left to decay. Farm animals wandered through the chapel. The chapter house — a community hall so named for the chapters from the Rule of Benedict that were read daily — became a manure pit.
Nearly a century later, an art dealer working for Hearst, a voracious collector, stumbled across the ruins and purchased them for $85,000. Never one to think small, the legendary newspaper publisher planned to use Ovila's limestone blocks in a grand redesign of Wyntoon, his family retreat at the base of Mt. Shasta.
In 1931, more than 100 workers dismantled the monastery and 11 freighters hauled the stones — 2,200 tons in all — to San Francisco. Under Hearst's plan, they were to be used for a palace that would outshine San Simeon. Ovila's 1,800-square-foot chapter house was to be reconstructed as a reception hall for an eight-story castle. Its chapel was to be transformed into a swimming pool 150 feet long.
The Depression scuttled Hearst's vision. Ultimately, he gave the stones — some weighing as much as half a ton — to San Francisco for construction of a medieval museum. But for decades they sat in Golden Gate Park, where they were scorched by fires and smashed by vandals. Some were used for a retaining wall at the Japanese Garden and others in projects throughoutthe park.
In 1955, Father Davis was passing through San Francisco when a friend pointed out crates of stones piled in a eucalyptus grove behind the de Young Museum. The friend told him they were the remnants of a Cistercian monastery.
"It was like being caught up in a dream," Davis recalled. The neglected remains were those of an all-but-forgotten sacred place founded by members of his own order — now known as Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or Trappists.
"Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing," he thought, "to get them for the abbey?"
****
When Davis took over as abbot 15 years later, he hadn't forgotten the stones. From time to time, he read stories in the San Francisco papers either about new plans to use them or anger at their continued neglect. He never quit thinking that somehow they could be put to good use on the abbey's 590 acres of vines and prune trees, part of a huge spread once owned by California railroad tycoon and politician Leland Stanford.
Sometime in the 1980s, a group of New Clairvaux monks drove to San Francisco and, with permission from parks officials, loaded a pickup with about 20 stones. "I thought we'd use them artistically around the abbey somewhere," Davis said.
But nobody told Margaret Burke, an architectural historian who had a grant to study the prospect of the monastery's reconstruction. When she learned that some of the stones were at New Clairvaux, she showed up to retrieve them.
"She was expecting I would give her a hard time," said Davis, "but I'm not that kind of person."
Burke left with the stones — and with the impression that if Ovila didn't rise in Golden Gate Park, it just might have a good home at New Clairvaux
In 1994, museum officials gave the monks the go-ahead to take the lot. The only requirement was that they start work within 10 years on a project that would be open to the public.
The next year, the last of 19 truckloads left San Francisco for Vina. It was a poignant moment, ceremonially marked by a handful of modern-day Druids who had long used the stones in worship. Davis left some behind for them.
When the dust cleared, the abbey had about 1,300 stones — a fraction of Hearst's shipment from Spain. That would be enough, Burke had concluded, to restore the chapter house.
****
Davis became the plan's overseer, champion, fundraiser and publicist. As word spread, foundations and individuals gave money. Some people made bequests. So far, about $6 million has come in, with an additional $1 million needed to complete the chapter house by 2012.
It's exacting work, made even more complex by the need for a concrete superstructure to brace the medieval building against earthquakes. Craftsmen familiar with dramatically vaulted Gothic ceilings are rare in the farm country around Vina.
For six years, the job has been supervised by Frank Helmholz, a German master mason who splits his time between the abbey and a restoration project at Egypt's Temple of Luxor. Clambering up a ladder in the chapter house, he confesses to a daily dose of awe, pointing out the signatures inscribed by long-ago Spanish carvers: cross-hatched lines, a backward N, even a Star of David. Others are still heaped shoulder-high in the vast brick barn built to store Stanford's brandy at what was once the world's largest winery.
"I feel a connection to the old stonemasons," Helmholz said as he helped workers hoist a stone with a pulley and chain. "For me, it's a labor from on high."
The building is about three-quarters done. It's as spare as Shaker furniture, reflecting the Trappists' unadorned faith.
"The simplicity, the depth, the light: It's a nice image of God," Davis said.
With its columns and arched entryways, it is intended to look much as it did when Spanish monks assembled it in the centuries before Columbus set sail.
Exactly how it looked back then is a matter of scholarly speculation. Builders working on the New Clairvaux project were guided by photographs and drawings made as the original chapter house was pried apart in 1931 — when it was a dilapidated shell. Only about 60% of the original stones survived the centuries in Spain and their exile in San Francisco; the rest were carved out of a limestone quarry in Texas, the closest place builders could find stones that matched the ones in Spain.
****
At Sierra Nevada's headquarters in Chico, 20 miles south of the abbey, executives have been keeping an eye on the chapter house's progress.
Seven Trappist monasteries in Belgium and Holland own the trademark "Trappist beer" and zealously guard its use. Sierra Nevada's "abbey ale" will be released in three varieties next winter, summer and fall. All will be called Ovila, in a nod to the project at New Clairvaux.
Though Ovila will not be labeled a Trappist beer, the brewery is taking the Trappist tradition seriously.
"Everybody in the brewing business knows about the legacy of Trappist beers," said Sierra Nevada spokesman Bill Manley. "It's monumental."
Manley, Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman and other executives recently visited Trappist monasteries that brew beer in Belgium, with Davis as their guide.
"I know some of the monks over there," he said. "And, as it happened, I had nothing else to do."
Neither the abbey nor the brewery is disclosing how much money the ale will generate.
At about $10 per champagne-style bottle, that's up to high-end consumers who have a taste for Belgium or a soft spot for medieval monastic history.
"Who knows?" Davis said with a smile. "It depends how much they drink."
steve.chawkins@latimes.com
They spend their days in the field and their nights in silence. They gather in prayer seven times daily, starting at 3:30 a.m. In many of their affairs, they are still guided by the 6th century Rule of St. Benedict — but not one of its 73 chapters deals with their current travails.
Benedict offers no words of wisdom on how the monks might find the funds to complete their most passionate pursuit: the resurrection of a medieval monastery from a jumble of stones William Randolph Hearst shipped over from Spain.
He is silent, too, on negotiating deals with a major brewery.
The 23 monks at the rustic abbey north of Chico are seasoned winemakers — their Poor Souls Petite Syrah is a prizewinner — but, until a recent agreement with Sierra Nevada, all they knew of beer was how, on occasion, to drink it.
They are learning.
In partnership with the monks, Sierra Nevada next year will release an ale that pays tribute to the renowned Trappist beers of Europe. The brew also will be a boost to New Clairvaux, with the company pouring some of the venture's profits into the monastery reconstruction project. Sierra Nevada will train Father Thomas X. Davis, New Clairvaux's 77-year-old abbot emeritus, as a "sensory professional" — a beer taster who knows his phenols from his esters.
The alliance was forged only in the last year when the monks contacted the brewery, one of Chico's biggest businesses.
"We approached them for a fundraiser," said Davis, a trim, wry man who also serves as the abbey's forklift operator. "I felt so outlandish."
But what's one outlandish moment in a saga spanning more than 800 years?
****
In 1190, monks started building the Santa Maria de Ovila monastery about 90 miles northeast of Madrid. For centuries the complex thrived, but by 1835 it was left to decay. Farm animals wandered through the chapel. The chapter house — a community hall so named for the chapters from the Rule of Benedict that were read daily — became a manure pit.
Nearly a century later, an art dealer working for Hearst, a voracious collector, stumbled across the ruins and purchased them for $85,000. Never one to think small, the legendary newspaper publisher planned to use Ovila's limestone blocks in a grand redesign of Wyntoon, his family retreat at the base of Mt. Shasta.
In 1931, more than 100 workers dismantled the monastery and 11 freighters hauled the stones — 2,200 tons in all — to San Francisco. Under Hearst's plan, they were to be used for a palace that would outshine San Simeon. Ovila's 1,800-square-foot chapter house was to be reconstructed as a reception hall for an eight-story castle. Its chapel was to be transformed into a swimming pool 150 feet long.
The Depression scuttled Hearst's vision. Ultimately, he gave the stones — some weighing as much as half a ton — to San Francisco for construction of a medieval museum. But for decades they sat in Golden Gate Park, where they were scorched by fires and smashed by vandals. Some were used for a retaining wall at the Japanese Garden and others in projects throughoutthe park.
In 1955, Father Davis was passing through San Francisco when a friend pointed out crates of stones piled in a eucalyptus grove behind the de Young Museum. The friend told him they were the remnants of a Cistercian monastery.
"It was like being caught up in a dream," Davis recalled. The neglected remains were those of an all-but-forgotten sacred place founded by members of his own order — now known as Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or Trappists.
"Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing," he thought, "to get them for the abbey?"
****
When Davis took over as abbot 15 years later, he hadn't forgotten the stones. From time to time, he read stories in the San Francisco papers either about new plans to use them or anger at their continued neglect. He never quit thinking that somehow they could be put to good use on the abbey's 590 acres of vines and prune trees, part of a huge spread once owned by California railroad tycoon and politician Leland Stanford.
Sometime in the 1980s, a group of New Clairvaux monks drove to San Francisco and, with permission from parks officials, loaded a pickup with about 20 stones. "I thought we'd use them artistically around the abbey somewhere," Davis said.
But nobody told Margaret Burke, an architectural historian who had a grant to study the prospect of the monastery's reconstruction. When she learned that some of the stones were at New Clairvaux, she showed up to retrieve them.
"She was expecting I would give her a hard time," said Davis, "but I'm not that kind of person."
Burke left with the stones — and with the impression that if Ovila didn't rise in Golden Gate Park, it just might have a good home at New Clairvaux
In 1994, museum officials gave the monks the go-ahead to take the lot. The only requirement was that they start work within 10 years on a project that would be open to the public.
The next year, the last of 19 truckloads left San Francisco for Vina. It was a poignant moment, ceremonially marked by a handful of modern-day Druids who had long used the stones in worship. Davis left some behind for them.
When the dust cleared, the abbey had about 1,300 stones — a fraction of Hearst's shipment from Spain. That would be enough, Burke had concluded, to restore the chapter house.
****
Davis became the plan's overseer, champion, fundraiser and publicist. As word spread, foundations and individuals gave money. Some people made bequests. So far, about $6 million has come in, with an additional $1 million needed to complete the chapter house by 2012.
It's exacting work, made even more complex by the need for a concrete superstructure to brace the medieval building against earthquakes. Craftsmen familiar with dramatically vaulted Gothic ceilings are rare in the farm country around Vina.
For six years, the job has been supervised by Frank Helmholz, a German master mason who splits his time between the abbey and a restoration project at Egypt's Temple of Luxor. Clambering up a ladder in the chapter house, he confesses to a daily dose of awe, pointing out the signatures inscribed by long-ago Spanish carvers: cross-hatched lines, a backward N, even a Star of David. Others are still heaped shoulder-high in the vast brick barn built to store Stanford's brandy at what was once the world's largest winery.
"I feel a connection to the old stonemasons," Helmholz said as he helped workers hoist a stone with a pulley and chain. "For me, it's a labor from on high."
The building is about three-quarters done. It's as spare as Shaker furniture, reflecting the Trappists' unadorned faith.
"The simplicity, the depth, the light: It's a nice image of God," Davis said.
With its columns and arched entryways, it is intended to look much as it did when Spanish monks assembled it in the centuries before Columbus set sail.
Exactly how it looked back then is a matter of scholarly speculation. Builders working on the New Clairvaux project were guided by photographs and drawings made as the original chapter house was pried apart in 1931 — when it was a dilapidated shell. Only about 60% of the original stones survived the centuries in Spain and their exile in San Francisco; the rest were carved out of a limestone quarry in Texas, the closest place builders could find stones that matched the ones in Spain.
****
At Sierra Nevada's headquarters in Chico, 20 miles south of the abbey, executives have been keeping an eye on the chapter house's progress.
Seven Trappist monasteries in Belgium and Holland own the trademark "Trappist beer" and zealously guard its use. Sierra Nevada's "abbey ale" will be released in three varieties next winter, summer and fall. All will be called Ovila, in a nod to the project at New Clairvaux.
Though Ovila will not be labeled a Trappist beer, the brewery is taking the Trappist tradition seriously.
"Everybody in the brewing business knows about the legacy of Trappist beers," said Sierra Nevada spokesman Bill Manley. "It's monumental."
Manley, Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman and other executives recently visited Trappist monasteries that brew beer in Belgium, with Davis as their guide.
"I know some of the monks over there," he said. "And, as it happened, I had nothing else to do."
Neither the abbey nor the brewery is disclosing how much money the ale will generate.
At about $10 per champagne-style bottle, that's up to high-end consumers who have a taste for Belgium or a soft spot for medieval monastic history.
"Who knows?" Davis said with a smile. "It depends how much they drink."
steve.chawkins@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
Monday, November 22, 2010
Repeal health care? Give up your own first!
Repeal health care? Give up your own first!: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
For 2 years, GOP leaders in Congress fought tooth and nail to oppose health care reform. They did their best to keep tens of millions without coverage, decrying any effort to help citizens as "socialist," "fascist" or some other equally baffling "ist." And incredibly, they are now talking about repealing it.
For 2 years, GOP leaders in Congress fought tooth and nail to oppose health care reform. They did their best to keep tens of millions without coverage, decrying any effort to help citizens as "socialist," "fascist" or some other equally baffling "ist." And incredibly, they are now talking about repealing it. And yet, when it comes to their own coverage, Republicans in Congress are not only using government-sponsored health care, they are whining about having to wait for it.
Well, four brave members of Congress are calling GOP leaders on their hypocrisy, demanding they practice what they preach, and calling on them to give up their government-sponsored health care:
Four members -- Joe Crowley (NY), Linda Sanchez (CA), Donna Edwards (MD), and Tim Ryan (OH) -- are rounding up signatures for a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Speaker-to-be John Boehner, encouraging them to press their members to refuse their federal health benefits based on the same principles underlying their opposition to health care reform.
"It is amazing that your members would complain about not having health care coverage for a few weeks, even after campaigning to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which will help provide coverage to millions of Americans who find themselves without health insurance for months or even years," the letter reads. "It begs the question: how many members of the Republican conference will be forgoing the employer-subsidized FEHBP coverage and experiencing what so many Americans find themselves forced to face? If your conference wants to deny millions of Americans affordable health care, your members should walk that walk."
We couldn't agree more. Write McConnell and Boehner today, and ask them if they will practice what they preach - and ask other GOP members to do the same.
Friday, November 5, 2010
OBAMA'S COLLEGE CLASSMATE SPEAKS OUT
OBAMA'S COLLEGE CLASSMATE SPEAKS OUT
By Wayne Allyn Root, June 6th, 2010
Barack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.
Barack Obama is my college classmate ( Columbia University , class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University . They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands.
Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival .. and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."
-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.
True per snopes!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/overwhelm.asp
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Joe Biden tells Democrat base ’stop whining’ about Barack Obama » Right Pundits
Joe Biden tells Democrat base ’stop whining’ about Barack Obama » Right Pundits
You just have to hand it to the Democrats, nobody can insult people more than they. If remarks from Senator John Kerry (D-MA) about American voters being ignorant were not bad enough, Vice President Joe Biden added to the folly yesterday. Appearing at a fundraiser for Paul Hodes, who is running for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, Joe Biden told the Democrat base to ’stop whining’ about Barack Obama. Various factions within the Democrats all have a beef about Obama, ranging from anti-war groups mad about our continued involvement overseas to Socialists who think Obama is not going far or fast enough with transforming America.
Both Biden and Obama are cautioning their political base about the lack of enthusiasm for the fall mid-term elections in November. President Obama recorded a ‘robo-call’ message along this line, encouraging people to get active. He tells Democrats that you cannot get excited and vote once every ten years. In New Hampshire, Biden assured ‘the base’ that Obama has done ‘an incredible job’ and that ‘He’s kept his promises.’
Today, both Obama and Biden head ‘back to school’. President Obama will appear at the University of Wisconsin and VP Biden will be at Pennsylvania State University. Every single poll shows the Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives. Some 54 seats appear to be in the bag for GOP victories. Polling data shows perhaps another 20 or so in doubt. What’s more, in over 100 districts nationwide, there is practically no polling data at all. With the current mood of anti-incumbency and a wholesale rejection of Obama’s economic agenda and health care reform, November could be a very bad for Democrats.
Both Biden and Obama now admit that if the November election winds up being a referendum on the economy, Democrats will lose. Both are urging their base to consider what may happen if the GOP wins control of the House, and even the Senate. Former White House ‘green jobs czar’, Van Jones is also out stumping for the Democrat base to get in gear. He recently spoke in California warning “If you think things are bad now, what will happen when the people are screaming and yelling at these Tea Party events are actually in charge of your government, and in charge of your life and in charge of your kids’ future?”
Jones forgets to point out that if the Tea Party has it’s way, government won’t be ‘in charge of your life’. The whole idea the Tea Party advocates is for a smaller, less intrusive government. But, that is beyond the comprehension of people like Van Jones, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. They see government as needing to be as large and as intrusive as possible, since, as John Kerry points out, Americans are too ignorant to be in charge of their own lives. For Obama and like-minded Progressives, government must have power over all of us.
With just five weeks to go before the November mid-term elections, it may be too late for Joe Biden and Barack Obama to get the Democrat base to ’stop whining’ and energize them. I have heard the recording Obama made for the ‘robo-call’ message and it is BORING! He should of asked his pal and former spiritual minister, Jeremiah Wright to make it. At least Wright has a pulse and can show some emotion. Unlike stiffs like Joe Biden, Barack Obama and John Kerry.
Related Articles:
Oh my: Biden tells liberal base to ’stop whining’
Obama, Biden head back to school to reach young voters
Van Jones Slams Controversial California Ballot Proposition
More Political News:
Friday, September 17, 2010
Random Observations
Some good funny questions and observations and I'm pretty sure the women will agree with # 24.
1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on step #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions usually form the basis for some pretty good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray DVD's? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Road Hogs" routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever. (bath towels may get wet but they also never get dirty as you are clean as you step out of the shower).
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
24. The first testicular guard, the "cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important!
1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on step #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions usually form the basis for some pretty good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray DVD's? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Road Hogs" routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever. (bath towels may get wet but they also never get dirty as you are clean as you step out of the shower).
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
24. The first testicular guard, the "cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Robot Bartender!!
Guy goes into a bar, there's a robot bartender.
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini."
The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "168."
The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.
The guy leaves, but he is curious...So he goes back into the bar.
The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini."
Again, the robot makes a great martini gives it to the man and says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "100."
The robot then starts to talk about NASCAR, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.
The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time.
He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini," and the robot brings him another great martini.
The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "Uh, about 50."
The robot leans in real close and says,
"So, you people still happy you voted for Obama?"
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini."
The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "168."
The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.
The guy leaves, but he is curious...So he goes back into the bar.
The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini."
Again, the robot makes a great martini gives it to the man and says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "100."
The robot then starts to talk about NASCAR, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.
The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time.
He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini," and the robot brings him another great martini.
The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "Uh, about 50."
The robot leans in real close and says,
"So, you people still happy you voted for Obama?"
Monday, July 26, 2010
Buchannan to Obama
BUCHANAN TO OBAMA
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks.. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids...? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
This needs to be passed around because, this is a message everyone needs to hear!!!
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks.. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids...? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
This needs to be passed around because, this is a message everyone needs to hear!!!
Buchannan to Obama
BUCHANAN TO OBAMA
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks.. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids...? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks.. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids...? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
This needs to be passed around because, this is a message everyone needs to hear!!!
Friday, July 23, 2010
What has America Become?
July 19, 2010
The following document was printed in a newspaper. I believe it comes from a city in Michigan but I cannot authenticate the source. No matter the source, the content is worthy of being posted here to stimulate discourse.
Gary Harper
Orrville
What has America become?
"Editor,
Has American become the land of the double standard?
Lets see: if we lie to the Congress, it's a felony and if the Congress lies to us its just politics; if we dislike a black person, we're racist and if a black person dislikes whites, its their 1st Amendment right; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; in public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child, but it is wrong to execute a mass murderer; we don't burn books in America, we now rewrite them; we got rid of communist and socialist threats by renaming them progressive; we are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama's policies you're a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your 1st Amendment right.
You can have pornography on TV or the internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research, but it is wrong to use an animal.
We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don't want to work; we all support eh Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology; we still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct; parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games; the land of opportunity is now the land of hand outs; the similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.
And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who's at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.
What has happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?
-Ken Huber
Tawas City"
The following document was printed in a newspaper. I believe it comes from a city in Michigan but I cannot authenticate the source. No matter the source, the content is worthy of being posted here to stimulate discourse.
Gary Harper
Orrville
What has America become?
"Editor,
Has American become the land of the double standard?
Lets see: if we lie to the Congress, it's a felony and if the Congress lies to us its just politics; if we dislike a black person, we're racist and if a black person dislikes whites, its their 1st Amendment right; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; in public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child, but it is wrong to execute a mass murderer; we don't burn books in America, we now rewrite them; we got rid of communist and socialist threats by renaming them progressive; we are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama's policies you're a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your 1st Amendment right.
You can have pornography on TV or the internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research, but it is wrong to use an animal.
We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don't want to work; we all support eh Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology; we still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct; parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games; the land of opportunity is now the land of hand outs; the similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.
And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who's at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.
What has happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?
-Ken Huber
Tawas City"
Thursday, July 22, 2010
G.M. Buys a Subprime Lender for $3.5 Billion
Where did they get this money?????
DETROIT — General Motors said Thursday that it had agreed to buy a financing company, AmeriCredit, for $3.5 billion so it can lease more vehicles and increase sales to consumers with lower credit ratings.
The transaction, expected to close in the fourth quarter, gives G.M. a captive financing arm for the first time since 2006, when it sold control of GMAC Financial Services. G.M. recently considered starting a new financing arm or reacquiring GMAC, now known as Ally Financial, to strengthen its lending capabilities and to raise the carmaker’s value ahead of a public stock offering.
“Our dealers have been telling us that not having an in-house finance arm hurt our ability to finance certain loans and leases,” Edward E. Whitacre Jr., G.M.’s chief executive, said in a conference call. “It hurt our ability to meet rising customer demand for G.M. cars and trucks. Now we’re going to fix that.”
Shareholders of AmeriCredit, which is based in Fort Worth and has 3,000 employees, would receive $24.50 a share, a 24 percent premium over Wednesday’s closing price of $19.70. AmeriCredit was founded in 1992 and has assets of about $10 billion.
G.M. will use money from its cash reserves, which stand at more than $30 billion as a result of the aid it received from the federal government before and during last year’s bankruptcy.
“We’re in the fortunate position that we have a very strong balance sheet,” G.M.’s chief financial officer, Christopher P. Liddell, said. “That gives us the flexibility to do acquisitions like this.”
G.M. said its ownership of the company would have minimal impact on its balance sheet and would not detract from its goal of regaining a strong investment-grade credit rating. AmeriCredit will maintain direct access to the capital markets for financing requirements, G.M. said.
G.M. executives have been seeking ways to improve sales in North America, where its earnings have greatly improved, but market share in the United States remains below year-ago levels. Owning AmeriCredit would let the company offer more leases and approve customers that Ally or other banks might have rejected.
G.M. said its sales to customers with subprime credit ratings have increased “significantly” since beginning a program with AmeriCredit aimed at writing loans for shoppers in that category last September. Ownership of AmeriCredit, which already has a relationship with about 4,000 G.M. dealerships, “will allow us to provide a full range of financing alternatives for all customers throughout all economic cycles,” Mr. Liddell said.
General Motors said it would continue to use Ally Financial and other banks to procure financing for prime customers. The company still owns 9.9 percent of Ally; it was required under federal law to sell the rest of its stake so that Ally could convert itself into a bank. Ally also provides financing to customers of Chrysler dealerships.
Currently, subprime customers account for 4 percent of G.M. sales, in line with the industry average, but about 40 percent of the population has a subprime rating, Mr. Liddell said.
“At the margin those are very good sales,” he said. “An extra percent here and an extra percent there will make a big difference from a sales point of view.”
Only 7 percent of the G.M.’s vehicles are leased, compared with an average of 21 percent for the industry. G.M. and other automakers sharply cut back on leasing, which is more popular for upscale vehicles, when the credit markets tightened in 2008.
AmeriCredit’s chief executive, Daniel E. Berce, said the company did not plan to stop financing customers of G.M.’s competitors. G.M. currently accounts for 15 percent of AmeriCredit’s business.
Mr. Berce said most of AmeriCredit’s 800,000 customers had credit ratings of 500 to 650. A rating below 640, on a scale that ranges from 300 to 850, is generally considered subprime.
DETROIT — General Motors said Thursday that it had agreed to buy a financing company, AmeriCredit, for $3.5 billion so it can lease more vehicles and increase sales to consumers with lower credit ratings.
The transaction, expected to close in the fourth quarter, gives G.M. a captive financing arm for the first time since 2006, when it sold control of GMAC Financial Services. G.M. recently considered starting a new financing arm or reacquiring GMAC, now known as Ally Financial, to strengthen its lending capabilities and to raise the carmaker’s value ahead of a public stock offering.
“Our dealers have been telling us that not having an in-house finance arm hurt our ability to finance certain loans and leases,” Edward E. Whitacre Jr., G.M.’s chief executive, said in a conference call. “It hurt our ability to meet rising customer demand for G.M. cars and trucks. Now we’re going to fix that.”
Shareholders of AmeriCredit, which is based in Fort Worth and has 3,000 employees, would receive $24.50 a share, a 24 percent premium over Wednesday’s closing price of $19.70. AmeriCredit was founded in 1992 and has assets of about $10 billion.
G.M. will use money from its cash reserves, which stand at more than $30 billion as a result of the aid it received from the federal government before and during last year’s bankruptcy.
“We’re in the fortunate position that we have a very strong balance sheet,” G.M.’s chief financial officer, Christopher P. Liddell, said. “That gives us the flexibility to do acquisitions like this.”
G.M. said its ownership of the company would have minimal impact on its balance sheet and would not detract from its goal of regaining a strong investment-grade credit rating. AmeriCredit will maintain direct access to the capital markets for financing requirements, G.M. said.
G.M. executives have been seeking ways to improve sales in North America, where its earnings have greatly improved, but market share in the United States remains below year-ago levels. Owning AmeriCredit would let the company offer more leases and approve customers that Ally or other banks might have rejected.
G.M. said its sales to customers with subprime credit ratings have increased “significantly” since beginning a program with AmeriCredit aimed at writing loans for shoppers in that category last September. Ownership of AmeriCredit, which already has a relationship with about 4,000 G.M. dealerships, “will allow us to provide a full range of financing alternatives for all customers throughout all economic cycles,” Mr. Liddell said.
General Motors said it would continue to use Ally Financial and other banks to procure financing for prime customers. The company still owns 9.9 percent of Ally; it was required under federal law to sell the rest of its stake so that Ally could convert itself into a bank. Ally also provides financing to customers of Chrysler dealerships.
Currently, subprime customers account for 4 percent of G.M. sales, in line with the industry average, but about 40 percent of the population has a subprime rating, Mr. Liddell said.
“At the margin those are very good sales,” he said. “An extra percent here and an extra percent there will make a big difference from a sales point of view.”
Only 7 percent of the G.M.’s vehicles are leased, compared with an average of 21 percent for the industry. G.M. and other automakers sharply cut back on leasing, which is more popular for upscale vehicles, when the credit markets tightened in 2008.
AmeriCredit’s chief executive, Daniel E. Berce, said the company did not plan to stop financing customers of G.M.’s competitors. G.M. currently accounts for 15 percent of AmeriCredit’s business.
Mr. Berce said most of AmeriCredit’s 800,000 customers had credit ratings of 500 to 650. A rating below 640, on a scale that ranges from 300 to 850, is generally considered subprime.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
What if 20 million illegal aliens left the United States Today???
Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News wrote a column titled, "Mexican visitor's lament" --
She interviewed Mexican journalist Evangelina Hernandez while visiting Denver last week. Hernandez said,
"They (illegal aliens) pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes...what happens to your country's economy if 20 million people go away?"
That's a good question - it deserves an answer. Over 80 percent of Americans demand secured borders and illegal migration stopped. But what would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America? The answers may surprise you!
In California , if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico , it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupted hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominate language again.
In Colorado, 500,000 illegal migrants, plus their 300,000 kids and grand-kids - would move back "home," mostly to Mexico . That would save Coloradans an estimated $2 billion (other experts say $7 BIL) annually in taxes that pay for schooling, medical, social-services and incarceration costs. It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone.
Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs, and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegals.
Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67 percent drop out/flunk out rate via thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41 different languages. At least 200,000 vehicles would vanish from our gridlocked cities in Colorado .
Denver 's four percent unemployment rate would vanish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.
In Florida , 1.5 million illegals would return the Sunshine State back to America , the rule of law and English.
In Chicago , Illinois , 2.1 million illegals would free up hospitals, schools, prisons and highways for a safer, cleaner and more crime-free experience.
If 20 million illegal aliens returned "home," the U.S. economy would return to the rule of law. Employers would hire legal American citizens at a living wage. Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local state and city coffers.
No more push '1' for Spanish or '2' for English. No more confusion in American schools that now must contend with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids. Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.
We would lose 500,000 illegal criminal alien inmates at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. That includes 15,000 MS-13 gang members who distribute $130 billion in drugs annually would vacate our country. In cities like L.A, 20,000 members of the "18th Street Gang" would vanish from our nation. No more Mexican forgery gangs for ID theft from Americans! No more foreign rapists and child molesters!
Losing more than 20 million people would clear up our crowded highways and grid lock. Cleaner air and less drinking and driving American deaths by illegal aliens!
Drain on America 's economy; taxpayers harmed, employers get rich: Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to their home countries by cash transfers. Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America 's economy - which currently suffers an $8.7 trillion debt.
At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California , Georgia and Florida would still be operating instead of being bankrupted out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act. Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country-brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders.
Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and grid locking our cities. It would also put the "progressives" on the horns of a dilemma; illegal aliens and their families cause 11 percent of our greenhouse gases.
Over one million of Mexico's poorest citizens now live inside and along our border from Brownsville , Texas to San Diego , California in what the New York Times called, "colonias" or new neighborhoods. Trouble is, those living areas resemble Bombay and Calcutta where grinding poverty, filth, diseases, drugs, crimes, no sanitation and worse. They live without sewage, clean water, streets, electricity, roads or any kind of sanitation. The New York Times reported them to be America 's new " Third World " inside our own country. Within 20 years, at their current growth rate, they expect 20 million residents of those colonias. (I've seen them personally in Texas and Arizona ; it's sickening beyond anything you can imagine.) By enforcing our laws, we could repatriate them back to Mexico .
High integrity, ethical invitation:
We invite 20 million aliens to go home, fix their own countries and/or make a better life in Mexico . We invite a million people into our country legally more than all other countries combined annually. We cannot and must not allow anarchy at our borders, more anarchy within our borders and growing lawlessness at every level in our nation.
It's time to stand up for our country, our culture, our civilization and our way of life.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Obama is a victim of Bush's failed promises
Aurora Sentinel Archives Opinion Columnists Green: Obama is a victim of Bush's failed promises
Barack Obama is setting a record-setting number of records during his first year in office.
Largest budget ever. Largest deficit ever. Largest number of broken promises ever. Most self-serving speeches ever. Largest number of agenda-setting failures ever. Fastest dive in popularity ever.
Wow. Talk about change.
Just one year ago, fresh from his inauguration celebrations, President Obama was flying high. After one of the nation’s most inspiring political campaigns, the election of America’s first black president had captured the hopes and dreams of millions. To his devout followers, it was inconceivable that a year later his administration would be gripped in self-imposed crisis.
Of course, they don’t see it as self imposed. It’s all George Bush’s fault.
George Bush, who doesn’t have a vote in Congress and who no longer occupies the White House, is to blame for it all.
He broke Obama’s promise to put all bills on the White House web site for five days before signing them.
He broke Obama’s promise to have the congressional health care negotiations broadcast live on C-SPAN.
He broke Obama’s promise to end earmarks.
He broke Obama’s promise to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent.
He broke Obama’s promise to close the detention center at Guantanamo in the first year.
He broke Obama’s promise to make peace with direct, no pre-condition talks with America’s most hate-filled enemies during his first year in office, ushering in a new era of global cooperation.
He broke Obama’s promise to end the hiring of former lobbyists into high White House jobs.
He broke Obama’s promise to end no-compete contracts with the government.
He broke Obama’s promise to disclose the names of all attendees at closed White House meetings.
He broke Obama’s promise for a new era of bipartisan cooperation in all matters.
He broke Obama’s promise to have chosen a home church to attend Sunday services with his family by Easter of last year.
Yes, it’s all George Bush’s fault. President Obama is nothing more than a puppet in the never-ending, failed Bush administration.
If only George Bush wasn’t still in charge, all of President Obama’s problems would be solved. His promises would have been kept, the economy would be back on track, Iran would have stopped its work on developing a nuclear bomb and would be negotiating a peace treaty with Israel, North Korea would have ended its tyrannical regime, and integrity would have been restored to the federal government.
Oh, and did I mention what it would be like if the Democrats, under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, didn’t have the heavy yoke of George Bush around their necks. There would be no earmarks, no closed-door drafting of bills, no increase in deficit spending, no special-interest influence (unions), no vote buying (Nebraska, Louisiana).
If only George Bush wasn’t still in charge, we’d have real change by now.
All the broken promises, all the failed legislation and delay (health care reform, immigration reform) is not President Obama’s fault or the fault of the Democrat-controlled Congress. It’s all George Bush’s fault.
Take for example the decision of Eric Holder, the president’s attorney general, to hold terrorists’ trials in New York City. Or his decision to try the Christmas Day underpants bomber as a civilian.
Two disastrous decisions.
Certainly those were bad judgments based on poor advice from George Bush.
Need more proof?
You might recall that when Scott Brown won last month’s election to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, capturing “the Ted Kennedy seat,” President Obama said that Brown’s victory was the result of the same voter anger that propelled Obama into office in 2008. People were still angry about George Bush and the policies of the past 10 years, and they wanted change.
Yes, according to the president, the voter rebellion in Massachusetts last month was George Bush’s fault.
Therefore, in retaliation, they elected a Republican to the Ted Kennedy seat, ending a half-century of domination by Democrats.
It is all George Bush’s fault.
Will the failed administration of George Bush ever end, and the time for hope and change ever arrive?
Will President Obama ever accept responsibility for something — anything?
Chuck Green, veteran Colorado journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Denver Post, syndicates a statewide column and is at chuckgreencolo@msn.com
Barack Obama is setting a record-setting number of records during his first year in office.
Largest budget ever. Largest deficit ever. Largest number of broken promises ever. Most self-serving speeches ever. Largest number of agenda-setting failures ever. Fastest dive in popularity ever.
Wow. Talk about change.
Just one year ago, fresh from his inauguration celebrations, President Obama was flying high. After one of the nation’s most inspiring political campaigns, the election of America’s first black president had captured the hopes and dreams of millions. To his devout followers, it was inconceivable that a year later his administration would be gripped in self-imposed crisis.
Of course, they don’t see it as self imposed. It’s all George Bush’s fault.
George Bush, who doesn’t have a vote in Congress and who no longer occupies the White House, is to blame for it all.
He broke Obama’s promise to put all bills on the White House web site for five days before signing them.
He broke Obama’s promise to have the congressional health care negotiations broadcast live on C-SPAN.
He broke Obama’s promise to end earmarks.
He broke Obama’s promise to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent.
He broke Obama’s promise to close the detention center at Guantanamo in the first year.
He broke Obama’s promise to make peace with direct, no pre-condition talks with America’s most hate-filled enemies during his first year in office, ushering in a new era of global cooperation.
He broke Obama’s promise to end the hiring of former lobbyists into high White House jobs.
He broke Obama’s promise to end no-compete contracts with the government.
He broke Obama’s promise to disclose the names of all attendees at closed White House meetings.
He broke Obama’s promise for a new era of bipartisan cooperation in all matters.
He broke Obama’s promise to have chosen a home church to attend Sunday services with his family by Easter of last year.
Yes, it’s all George Bush’s fault. President Obama is nothing more than a puppet in the never-ending, failed Bush administration.
If only George Bush wasn’t still in charge, all of President Obama’s problems would be solved. His promises would have been kept, the economy would be back on track, Iran would have stopped its work on developing a nuclear bomb and would be negotiating a peace treaty with Israel, North Korea would have ended its tyrannical regime, and integrity would have been restored to the federal government.
Oh, and did I mention what it would be like if the Democrats, under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, didn’t have the heavy yoke of George Bush around their necks. There would be no earmarks, no closed-door drafting of bills, no increase in deficit spending, no special-interest influence (unions), no vote buying (Nebraska, Louisiana).
If only George Bush wasn’t still in charge, we’d have real change by now.
All the broken promises, all the failed legislation and delay (health care reform, immigration reform) is not President Obama’s fault or the fault of the Democrat-controlled Congress. It’s all George Bush’s fault.
Take for example the decision of Eric Holder, the president’s attorney general, to hold terrorists’ trials in New York City. Or his decision to try the Christmas Day underpants bomber as a civilian.
Two disastrous decisions.
Certainly those were bad judgments based on poor advice from George Bush.
Need more proof?
You might recall that when Scott Brown won last month’s election to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, capturing “the Ted Kennedy seat,” President Obama said that Brown’s victory was the result of the same voter anger that propelled Obama into office in 2008. People were still angry about George Bush and the policies of the past 10 years, and they wanted change.
Yes, according to the president, the voter rebellion in Massachusetts last month was George Bush’s fault.
Therefore, in retaliation, they elected a Republican to the Ted Kennedy seat, ending a half-century of domination by Democrats.
It is all George Bush’s fault.
Will the failed administration of George Bush ever end, and the time for hope and change ever arrive?
Will President Obama ever accept responsibility for something — anything?
Chuck Green, veteran Colorado journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Denver Post, syndicates a statewide column and is at chuckgreencolo@msn.com
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
4 hurt in street-racing crash | Local News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California
4 hurt in street-racing crash Local News PE.com Southern California News News for Inland Southern California
4 hurt in street-racing crash
10:44 PM PDT on Friday, April 23, 2010
The P{ress-Enterprise
Four people suffered moderate injuries Friday in a collision that police believe was the result of an illegal street race downtown.
A silver Saturn sedan, with four Redlands High School students inside, was racing a white Mercedes Benz sometime before 2:30 p.m. near Redlands Boulevard and State Street, police said in a news release.
The Saturn struck a red sport utility vehicle, police said. The collision totaled both cars, and a fire crew had to cut the roof off the SUV to free the driver.
All occupants of both cars were taken to a hospital.
A silver Saturn sedan sits at the Redlands Boulevard and State Street in Redlands after colliding with the red sport utility vehicle lying on its side in the background.
The Mercedes, carrying two Redlands High students, avoided the collision and fled, police said. Investigators later arrested the driver at his home on suspicion of felony hit-and-run. He was released to his parents.
Most of the race was caught by downtown surveillance cameras, police said.
It was the second street-racing crash involving Redlands high school students this month. A bicyclist was struck and killed April 8 on Greenspot Road by an out-of-control car traveling about 70 mph, police said.
Anyone with more information on Friday’s crash is asked to call Officer Josh Atwell at 909-798-7681.
—Steven Barrie
sbarrie@PE.com
4 hurt in street-racing crash
10:44 PM PDT on Friday, April 23, 2010
The P{ress-Enterprise
Four people suffered moderate injuries Friday in a collision that police believe was the result of an illegal street race downtown.
A silver Saturn sedan, with four Redlands High School students inside, was racing a white Mercedes Benz sometime before 2:30 p.m. near Redlands Boulevard and State Street, police said in a news release.
The Saturn struck a red sport utility vehicle, police said. The collision totaled both cars, and a fire crew had to cut the roof off the SUV to free the driver.
All occupants of both cars were taken to a hospital.
A silver Saturn sedan sits at the Redlands Boulevard and State Street in Redlands after colliding with the red sport utility vehicle lying on its side in the background.
The Mercedes, carrying two Redlands High students, avoided the collision and fled, police said. Investigators later arrested the driver at his home on suspicion of felony hit-and-run. He was released to his parents.
Most of the race was caught by downtown surveillance cameras, police said.
It was the second street-racing crash involving Redlands high school students this month. A bicyclist was struck and killed April 8 on Greenspot Road by an out-of-control car traveling about 70 mph, police said.
Anyone with more information on Friday’s crash is asked to call Officer Josh Atwell at 909-798-7681.
—Steven Barrie
sbarrie@PE.com
Monday, March 1, 2010
Recognizing and Minimizing Tort and Regulatory Risk
It is extremely important to identify and manage possible tort liabilities for a company. There are ways to manage risks effectively but there must be proactive methods taken by the company. Common torts that were covered in our collaboration that could have been prevented or minimized will be addressed below.
The textbook describes a company that disposed of radioactive waste (radium) that was left over from its manufacturing process in an urban area (Jennings, 2006, p. 458). Knowing that radium was a potentially dangerous product, the company continued to dispose of it in an urban area. The company was negligent in the handling of the product. They knew that the product was dangerous. One scientist went so far as to cut off the end of a finger when a piece was lodged in his finger because of the possible contamination. Research should have been performed to see about a more responsible method of discarding the hazardous materials.
Direct causation in the simulation is due to the fact that the company had contaminated the waters of the lake. The contamination caused contaminates to infiltrate the local water supply and a 10 year old girl contracted leukemia. The company knew it was using toxic chemicals and the leak of materials should have been discovered before it had the opportunity to enter the water supply. The company did what it could once the leak was discovered, but there should have been more preventative measures in place. Inspections of the water lines and the plumbing and holding tanks should be performed more often to catch possible leaks.
Violation of environmental regulation due to the water contamination found during a routine EPA inspection. The company was well aware of the prescribed limits of PAH that can be discharged into the environment. The company was not making inspections and self testing itself often enough to ensure that their output was within regulatory limits. While to company complied promptly and cleaned up their discharge. The next inspection showed that the company was in compliance. Regular and frequent tests need to be made of all discharges coming out of the plant. All testing must be documented to prove the company being proactive.
Approaching Kelly Bates to test her resolve would be characterized as an intentional infliction of emotional distress. The company knows that her daughter has leukemia. Approaching Kelly Bates regarding these issues personally would not be in the company's best interest. The emotional stress inflicted on her would cause the courts to be sympathetic to Kelly Bates and could be devastating to the company. It is very important for the company to not stir up animosity for itself by antagonizing the plaintiff. Use lawyers to approach the plaintiff through her lawyers for any information you need regarding Kelly Bates.
Running a private investigation of Kelly Bates would be a violation of her privacy as well as a violation of her constitutional rights. This action would also cause a jury to be sympathetic to Kelly Bates. Having a big company coming at her personally would look like she was being attacked for trying to protect her daughter. The company needs to tread lightly. Stick with the facts of the case. No investigations into backgrounds of the plaintiff could come to any good and would be a public relations nightmare for the company.
The local newspaper printed allegations that the company was being defensive and must be hiding something. This is a tort of defamation. The newspaper reported on something blatantly not true to bring public confidence of the company in question. The defamation would have serious consequences on the business being able to continue its business practices in the future. Releasing information that is being requested is what is needed to give the public confidence that the company is being upfront and honest with any investigation. The company needs to be proactive and work with the public and avenues of information dispersion like the newspaper, radio, and television. Do not give the impression that pertinent information is being withheld or covered up.
Proximate causation is another tort that has been brought to bear in the simulation. Injury was caused due to the company allowing contaminates into the water supply and Kelly Bates' daughter ingesting the water. This is the proximate cause of the injury. There may be a "substantial factor" to see if the injury was directly caused by the contaminated water supply. If it is determined that the leukemia was substantially caused by the water supply being contaminated, then the company can be held liable for the damages (“Proximate cause“, 2010).
The company needs to prevent future litigations by ensuring that inspections of equipment and plumbing be conducted on a regular and frequent basis. Being proactive in keeping future violations from occurring will help to keep the company from being litigated on in the future. The company should be as upfront in handling upcoming litigations needs to work with the surrounding community. Be prepared to open their inspection reports to public scrutiny. Allow copies of inspections to be public for the community to see how efforts to be compliant are being made. The company needs to show the community that it is working with them and the environment that they share. Hiding information or making it difficult to obtain information regarding business practices could cause the community to lose confidence in the company and want to know what is being hidden or omitted from public scrutiny.
References
Jennings, M. M. (2006). Business: Its legal, ethical, and global environment (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Thompson.
Proximate cause. (2010). Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/proximate+cause
The textbook describes a company that disposed of radioactive waste (radium) that was left over from its manufacturing process in an urban area (Jennings, 2006, p. 458). Knowing that radium was a potentially dangerous product, the company continued to dispose of it in an urban area. The company was negligent in the handling of the product. They knew that the product was dangerous. One scientist went so far as to cut off the end of a finger when a piece was lodged in his finger because of the possible contamination. Research should have been performed to see about a more responsible method of discarding the hazardous materials.
Direct causation in the simulation is due to the fact that the company had contaminated the waters of the lake. The contamination caused contaminates to infiltrate the local water supply and a 10 year old girl contracted leukemia. The company knew it was using toxic chemicals and the leak of materials should have been discovered before it had the opportunity to enter the water supply. The company did what it could once the leak was discovered, but there should have been more preventative measures in place. Inspections of the water lines and the plumbing and holding tanks should be performed more often to catch possible leaks.
Violation of environmental regulation due to the water contamination found during a routine EPA inspection. The company was well aware of the prescribed limits of PAH that can be discharged into the environment. The company was not making inspections and self testing itself often enough to ensure that their output was within regulatory limits. While to company complied promptly and cleaned up their discharge. The next inspection showed that the company was in compliance. Regular and frequent tests need to be made of all discharges coming out of the plant. All testing must be documented to prove the company being proactive.
Approaching Kelly Bates to test her resolve would be characterized as an intentional infliction of emotional distress. The company knows that her daughter has leukemia. Approaching Kelly Bates regarding these issues personally would not be in the company's best interest. The emotional stress inflicted on her would cause the courts to be sympathetic to Kelly Bates and could be devastating to the company. It is very important for the company to not stir up animosity for itself by antagonizing the plaintiff. Use lawyers to approach the plaintiff through her lawyers for any information you need regarding Kelly Bates.
Running a private investigation of Kelly Bates would be a violation of her privacy as well as a violation of her constitutional rights. This action would also cause a jury to be sympathetic to Kelly Bates. Having a big company coming at her personally would look like she was being attacked for trying to protect her daughter. The company needs to tread lightly. Stick with the facts of the case. No investigations into backgrounds of the plaintiff could come to any good and would be a public relations nightmare for the company.
The local newspaper printed allegations that the company was being defensive and must be hiding something. This is a tort of defamation. The newspaper reported on something blatantly not true to bring public confidence of the company in question. The defamation would have serious consequences on the business being able to continue its business practices in the future. Releasing information that is being requested is what is needed to give the public confidence that the company is being upfront and honest with any investigation. The company needs to be proactive and work with the public and avenues of information dispersion like the newspaper, radio, and television. Do not give the impression that pertinent information is being withheld or covered up.
Proximate causation is another tort that has been brought to bear in the simulation. Injury was caused due to the company allowing contaminates into the water supply and Kelly Bates' daughter ingesting the water. This is the proximate cause of the injury. There may be a "substantial factor" to see if the injury was directly caused by the contaminated water supply. If it is determined that the leukemia was substantially caused by the water supply being contaminated, then the company can be held liable for the damages (“Proximate cause“, 2010).
The company needs to prevent future litigations by ensuring that inspections of equipment and plumbing be conducted on a regular and frequent basis. Being proactive in keeping future violations from occurring will help to keep the company from being litigated on in the future. The company should be as upfront in handling upcoming litigations needs to work with the surrounding community. Be prepared to open their inspection reports to public scrutiny. Allow copies of inspections to be public for the community to see how efforts to be compliant are being made. The company needs to show the community that it is working with them and the environment that they share. Hiding information or making it difficult to obtain information regarding business practices could cause the community to lose confidence in the company and want to know what is being hidden or omitted from public scrutiny.
References
Jennings, M. M. (2006). Business: Its legal, ethical, and global environment (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Thompson.
Proximate cause. (2010). Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/proximate+cause
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Exciting money-making opportunity!!!!!
Dear Potential Business Owner:
If you are like me, I've searched the Internet over and wasted lots of time and money with "get rich quick" businesses that turned out to be schemes. I've always wanted to start my own business that was LEGITIMATE and HONEST (and not a "pie in the sky" fairy tale). Well, I did it! I've officially started my own home business as an affiliate with SFI (Strong Future International). Here are some of the reasons why I decided to go with SFI:
* Their parent company has been around since 1985.
* It's free to get started.
* They're in over 190 countries worldwide.
* You can do everything from home on your computer.
* 24-hour support.
* Free training and free Website.
* They're growing rapidly and there's lots of money to be made.
There's nothing to lose and everything to gain here, including more time with your family and more money in your wallet. It's well worth looking at SFI and investing in your future with us.
For more information, see http://www.sfi4.com/10983645/FREE
If you are like me, I've searched the Internet over and wasted lots of time and money with "get rich quick" businesses that turned out to be schemes. I've always wanted to start my own business that was LEGITIMATE and HONEST (and not a "pie in the sky" fairy tale). Well, I did it! I've officially started my own home business as an affiliate with SFI (Strong Future International). Here are some of the reasons why I decided to go with SFI:
* Their parent company has been around since 1985.
* It's free to get started.
* They're in over 190 countries worldwide.
* You can do everything from home on your computer.
* 24-hour support.
* Free training and free Website.
* They're growing rapidly and there's lots of money to be made.
There's nothing to lose and everything to gain here, including more time with your family and more money in your wallet. It's well worth looking at SFI and investing in your future with us.
For more information, see http://www.sfi4.com/10983645/FREE
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