J's Cafe Nette

Excerpts of Tony Blair’s new book are being published in the British newspaper The Guardian, and in it this is part of what Mr. Blair has to say about former President George W. Bush:

“One of the most ludicrous caricatures of George is that he was a dumb idiot who stumbled into the presidency,” writes Blair. “No one stumbles into that job, and the history of American presidential campaigns is littered with the corpses of those who were supposed to be brilliant but who nonetheless failed because brilliance is not enough.”

He continues: “To succeed in U.S. politics, or that of the U.K., you have to be more than clever. You have to be able to connect and you have to be able to articulate that connection in plain language. The plainness of the language then leads people to look past the brainpower involved. Reagan was clever. Thatcher was clever. And sometimes the very plainness touches something else: a simplicity that is the product of a decisive nature.”

Let’s see, he defeated Al Gore (yes, by any count imaginable by officials and news organizations he won Florida outright) and he defeated John Kerry. (See previous post on Ohio’s preferences on president today) Think of who he defeated and read again the last paragraph quoted above. Tony Blair has it right, and so did President Bush and those of us who did not desert him when the chips were down.

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In a state that went to Obama by several thousand votes in the 2008 election, a poll taken in Ohio by Public Policy Polling has shown the people of Ohio prefer Bush 43 to Obama 50% to 42%. Take a look at the commentary here.

I guess those “Miss Me Yet?” billboards, signs and T shirts were for real after all.

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Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, appointed to the Senate in 2000 by her father when he became governor of the state, has conceded defeat in the Alaska Republican Senate primary to newcomer Joe Miller, an Ivy League lawyer and decorated Iraq veteran.

Murkowski ran for election on her own for a full term six years ago and eked out a small 3 point victory.

The democratic candidate for Senate is Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams, who is as of now grossly underfunded. Perhaps the DSCC will cough up some money for his campaign if they feel he has a chance in the heavily Republican state. The last polls showed him 8 points down, but I don’t know to which candidate.

Miller is a Tea Party favorite who wants Alaska to be able to control its own land instead of the federal government having a say in state land issues.

Here is part of Murkowski’s concession speech. By the way, this will be the first time in 30 years that a Murkowski, either Frank or Lisa, has not been in the Senate.

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With the timing of a professional comedian, this diminutive “little old lady” shines a very funny light on the foibles of aging, to the delight of an audience filled with senior-care experts.

A friend of the couple who founded Home Instead Senior Care, Mary Maxwell was asked to give the invocation at the company’s 2009 Convention. Initially it seemed like a normal prayer, but it soon took a very funny turn. Her deadpan delivery and lines like …This is the first time I’ve ever been old… and it just sort of crept up on me … had everyone rolling in the aisles.

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I’m not referring to the US constitution.

As we try to bring a correction to what has been done to the US constitution with a glorious march in Washington yesterday, I’m stymied by the Kazakhstan holiday of its Constitution Day.

First the march on Washington yesterday.  If it had not been for the adoption events, and then a wedding came up for yesterday evening as well, I had intended to go and be there.  Back in the spring my friend Joe and I had both said we would be there for the event when we had learned of it.  I was impressed with what I saw on TV, and damn it I’m going to go to the next one.  This country has fallen apart and we need to take it back by returning to the principles that made us great in the first place.  This administration and this congress has been a disaster, and while we can’t change the administration come this November, you better believe we are going to throw congress out on its tuckus. 

As to the Kazakhstan constitution, well, I’m happy tomorrow is their fifteen year anniversary and it stemmed out of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a good and happy event I might add.  And an event I had longed hope for as an anti-communist.  But did they have to celebrate it on August 30^th?  Gosh darn it, couldn’t it be another day?

Those following my adoption may remember we needed to get a visa to enter the Kazakhstan, and they had a requirement that all passports needed to be within six months from expiration.  As it turned out my wife’s was expiring in December, and so she made an incredible (and costly) effort to get a new passport within 36 hours.  And then Thursday morning she went to the Kazakhstan consulate (lucky we live in New York where all these governments have offices) and applied for the visa.  She hoped it would be ready by Monday morning, and then we could get on a plane Monday night.  All so we could get to Matthew by Wednesday, his first birthday.  That was a good plan, and it would have worked except for one thing, Kazakhstan’s Constitution Day, August 30^th.  All Kazakhstan offices are closed on Monday, and as luck would have it the Kazakhstan consulate called our home at 5:30 PM on Friday, saying the visas were approved and that if we could come within a half hour we could pick them up.  Now unless you live right in Manhattan, there is no way you can get anywhere in New York within a half hour.  So we have to wait until Tuesday morning.  We have booked flights now for Tuesday night and we will get to Matthew on Thursday, sadly missing his first birthday.  I have to say I was really disappointed. 

But such is life.  We’ll celebrate it on the second.  Certainly there are worse things that could have gone wrong. 

This is the last blog from States side.  I decided I am not going to take my laptop.  It’s not worth the effort of lugging it or paying for an internet hookup in the apartment, and plus I want more free room in my luggage for souvenirs.  So unless I can find an internet café, you won’t hear from me.  We’ll be back in less than two weeks, so this is a much shorter trip, God willing. 

I’ll leave you with some more photos of my little Matthew.

Here reaching up for mom:

And here with a serious look.

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As Manny and his wife prepare to leave for Kazakhstan to pick up their son, who will turn one year old the day they arrive, I dedicate this post to them.

The little girl is Rhema Marvanne. Here is what the email I received this from has to say about little Rhema:

You’ve got to hear this little girl sing!!!
Rhema Marvanne was born 9/15/02, lost her mother, Wendi Marvanne Voraritskul, to ovarian cancer on November 8, 2008. Rhema lives in Carrollton, TX and attends The Branch Church (Vista Ridge Campus)

This video was done in Texas around McKinney & Dallas where she lives.
Her mother had died just a few months before she got to put this together.

Now, just enjoy the music, and don’t let the old Southern way of singing from the oldsters in the beginning stop you from watching this.

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This should be shouted from the rooftops, but there is nary a whisper:

In Washington, politicians always like to release bad news on a Friday, as fewer people notice. Today, the Pentagon announced that it had granted the waiver requests of five states seeking to escape requirements to protect military voters.

I have written previously here at PJM that all waiver requests should be denied. Unfortunately, if you are an overseas service member from Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, or Washington, the protections in the MOVE Act aren’t going to apply to you this year. And if you are from one of the states who still aren’t in compliance with MOVE — like Colorado, Wisconsin, or Alaska — don’t be surprised if you get scant help from Attorney General Eric Holder.

Waivers can be granted from MOVE only if states find a way to make sure the votes of service members are still counted.

Washington, despite having plenty of time after an August 17 primary to get the job done, received a waiver today. Washington was unwilling to change their schedule of ballot preparation to allow for 45 days mailing time. Though modern printing technology makes the Washington waiver unnecessary, it was granted.

Delaware election director Elaine Manlove says the state can get ballots out in time — but applied for a waiver “just in case.” Delaware’s waiver was motivated by caution, but caution isn’t a basis for the granting of a waiver. The law says “undue hardship.” However, waiver granted.

Rhode Island shared Delaware’s risk aversion: Spokesman Chris Barnett says they asked for a waiver in case they had a recount in the primary. A hypothetical “undue hardship.” Waiver granted.

Since MOVE passed last October, Massachusetts did nothing to adjust their late September 14 primary to comply. (This was the same state that introduced and passed legislation in mere days so that Senator Paul Kirk could be sworn in to vote for ObamaCare. The legislature previously stripped Republican Mitt Romney of the power to appoint replacements and required a special election.) It’s a shame soldiers aren’t as important as Senator Kirk’s vote was. Waiver granted.

New York sought a waiver. No surprise there: seven years after the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, New York still wasn’t in compliance. Waiver granted.

Hmmm…lot’s of talk of incumbents losing their seats this November. Do you suppose that some of those races could be decided by military votes?

The article points out that states must still count all military votes, well, we all know how that works out when outdated absentee ballots are challenged in court, don’t we?

What an absolute disgrace. This is just one more reason why faith is diminishing in our electoral system.

*Details of MOVE Act signed into law in 2009, here.

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After handily winning his primary race in Florida (District 24) Tuesday, LTC (Ret) Allen West released the following campaign ad.

In this age of inundation with news of star studded parties and lavish vacations and fashion shows, there is something refreshing in hearing the Pledge of Allegiance and seeing the American Flag and Constitution. Just saying……

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A friend of mine sent this video in an email.

You may have already received it too, but just in case you have not, I wanted to pass it along.

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How not to take a breathalyzer test. Just watch and laugh.

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Of all the candidates I’m pulling for, I think I have a special hope for Marco Rubio.  I really hope he wins.  He can go far, real far.  Just look at him, at his life story, his presence.  He projects leadership.  And he’s a staunch conservative. 

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This is Dan’s son who is running for Congress in Arizona.  He won his primary last night.  Check out one of his commercials.  It’ll knock your socks off.

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I watch absolutely no network television, so I haven’t watched Leno or Letterman since Leno got the “Tonight Show” right after Johnny Carson retired. But it seems to me that Letterman can’t seem to let it go. And did he really have hair replacement treatments? Here he is making NBC News host Brian Williams very uncomfortable.

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Don’t get complacent, but this is shocking considering the source.

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Code Pink is at it again, only this time the despicable comments uttered to a Gold Star Mom by one of their members goes well beyond the pale:

In 2008 they barricaded the recruiting office in Berkeley with the blessing of the Berkeley City Council. We at Move America Forward had all we could stomach when we heard them tell the Marines they were unwelcome, unwanted intruders, not in Iraq or Afghanistan but on American soil in Berkeley, California. Americans from across the nation joined us in Berkeley to counter-protest these anti-war hippies. Numerous times they told me they support the troops but not the war, yet over and over when I asked if they had sent care packages, phone cards, written letters, or helped the families left behind in anyway, they conveniently couldn’t remember anything they had done. Yet they had a successful fundraiser to send $600,000.00 to our enemies in Iraq? Yet Jodie Evans and her Code Pink degenerates taunted me and made light of my son’s sacrifice telling me, “Your son deserved to die in Iraq if he was stupid enough to go over there.” It took every ounce of reserve in my body to not level these idiots to the ground. These same people who call terrorists “freedom fighters” says that my son, who gave up his life for their freedoms, deserved death.

emphasis-admin

In this forum, expressing the deep contempt I feel for Ms. Foster would not be acceptable, nor would it make one iota’s worth of difference to her or her ilk. Protesting war is a right protected by those they malign, and while entitled to their publicity grabbing moment in the sun, it does not give them the right to personally attack the families of those who have lost loved ones in war or otherwise.

Thank you Ms. Lee for your countless efforts on behalf of our military, and for your son, who like countless others, was willing to sacrifice his life in defense of America. Marc will be remembered in thoughts and prayers long after the likes of Code Pink is but a fading memory.

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Golfing over the Labor Day weekend?

Former President, George W. Bush, is asking for your help in support of our troops and their families:

Former president George W. Bush is making a rare video appearance, urging the nation’s golfers to help raise scholarship money for the children of wounded warriors.

Patriot Golf Day will be held over the Labor Day weekend, and is sponsored by the Folds of Honor Foundation.

“I am pleased to be associated with the Folds of Honor Foundation, and I encourage all golfers to get out and support this worthy cause,” Bush said in a statement.

*While on the topic of the former President, don’t miss this excellent post by The Anchoress.*

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Country music night.  Possibly my favorite country music star.  Merle Haggard.  Enjoy.

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We got word today.  We can pick up Matthew on the 30th!!!  Hooray, it’s finally here.  We will be flying out on the 28th.  Hopefully.  I say hopefully because my wife just laid one on me.  She just found out she cannot get a visa for Kazakhstan without a passport that expires within six months, and hers expires in December.  Yes, I know she’s had all this time to get one and now she finds out.  Hmm.  It may cost us a couple of days which means we miss Matthew’s first birthday.  She will go the rush passport place and hopefully get one in 24 hours.  Oh the problems of adoption.  Anyway, I’ll post another picture of Matthew.  Here we are trading raspberries.

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John Hinderaker at Power Line is right on point with his question in the title of this post.

My answer..darned if I know.

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How many tax paying Americans does it take to fund one fund raising whirlwind trip?

When there is no money in the budget, the answer should be none, instead, it’s far too many:

President Obama’s fundraising spree across the country to help his party retain power isn’t just reaping millions of dollars for Democratic candidates — it’s also said to be costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

And it’s leaving a massive carbon footprint, too.

One analyst estimated Obama’s five-state, three-day tour cost taxpayers about $2 million.

On top of that, the carbon footprint, or pollution generated by the travel, probably matched “something of a size-32 shoe,” said Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union, a group that promotes smaller government and fewer taxes.

Is it any wonder he needs a vacation? Spending all that time aboard Air Force One and campaigning on friendly turf must be exhausting work.

What part of we don’t have the money do these politicians not understand?

Perhaps we should elect our unemployed citizens to public office. If nothing else, they understand what it is like to live on a strict budget, give up whatever luxuries they have come to enjoy, and appreciate the kindness of others. That’s more than we see out of Washington these days.

*Yes, I know other Presidents have done the same, but I remember few who have constantly flaunted their extravagant behaviors in our faces the way this administration has.*

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While Obama and family are taking at least his sixth vacation this year at Mahtha’s Vineyad it seems the residents are not too excited to see him.

In fact, take a look at this quote:

“It’s just a laid-back feeling now,’’ Sharp said. “It’s like ‘Wow, he’s coming — again.’ ’’

One barometer of the plunge in excitement has been the sale of Obama-themed T-shirts, which designers had been banking on after the craze of last year. Clothing labeled with the president’s name sold by the thousands, helping to salvage a tough economic year for the island.

But this year’s T-shirt sales are much less brisk, merchants say.

“Last year, Obama gave you goose bumps, but I don’t think you’re going to see that this year,’’ said Alex McCluskey, co-owner of the Locker Room, who sold more than 4,000 “I vacationed with Obama’’ T-shirts last year. But so far this year, he said, his hot item is T-shirts of former President Bush asking, “Miss me yet?’’

[Emphasis mine. Admin]

When the shirts first came out Sue and I each got one in different colors. We’ve both had conversations with people about our shirts. Mine have all been positive and I think most of Sue’s have been, but she lives in a liberal area of PA and some people may have questioned her sense at the time.

Well, Kennedy won’t die this year to interrupt his buying his kids ice cream and candy. I thought Michelle wanted kids to eat healthy food? Oh, that’s just our kids.

I know when a president travels he takes the job with him, but I’m getting tired of paying the airfare and security accommodations for him. He lives in a very historic house he craved so much he campaigned for two years for it and now you can’t keep him or his family in there.

The finest chefs in the world can prepare the greatest food and I’m sure they have ice cream there, perhaps even homemade.
They have some of the most beautiful dining rooms in the world and I’m sure the residence is well-appointed. Does he think he has to travel while the rest of us try to figure out how to make ends meet and that’s fine by him? He is so out of touch with regular Americans of every ethnicity, religion and political persuasion it’s impossible to believe he doesn’t get it.

In addition to the aircraft and limousines, Secret Service agents (taken from their own families again) we have to pay the tab for his and Michelle’s personal staffs.

Obama, listen to Americans crying out for help. Take some of what must be the millions of dollars you have spent having a good time and leave it in the treasury to help the needy. The only vacations they get are being on unemployment and that doesn’t pay the bills.

What gall this man has. America voted for an empty suit and filled it in with their own fantasies. Every day we are seeing those people’s dreams and hopes crushed while the rest of us are even surprised at his royal ways.

May he be booted out in a landslide in 2012, the Republicans at least take over the House this year and possibly the Senate, but if not the Senate this year certainly in 2012, and may the Republicans act smart this time around.

May we get back to a president like George W. Bush, who despite his faults, always had the best interests of this country on his mind and in his actions.

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A couple and their thirteen month old baby girl were on a flight from Dallas to Albuquerque the other day when the mother slapped the baby in the face with her open hand.

Oh, yeah, and the baby already had a black eye the couple claimed was caused by a dog bite. Supposedly she got a face slap with an open hand for kicking her mother. Mother in name only. It takes more than bearing a child to be a parent.

The Southwest Airlines flight attendant did the right thing and took the baby from the mother after seeing the incident and other passengers complained.

This was the right thing to do, but the officials on the ground let them continue their trip with the baby in tow.

My son was scratched across the head and eye area when he was about 18 months old, and I can assure you we were grilled over and over again by the military officials at the military hospital to make sure we didn’t do anything to harm him. He didn’t get just a black eye but had serious eye damage to his tear ducts that required many surgeries to clear up.

I had a dog bite on my foot a little over a year ago, and though it bruised it also had torn flesh, some looking like puncture wounds.

Yet this couple was let go to do as they please with their daughter. God help this little girl. She is probably the victim of child abuse on a regular basis.

Children are the most innocent of all of us and don’t deserve this kind of treatment. Everyone should protect them. The more appropriate thing to do would have been to distract the child with a toy or spank her on the bottom, which is protected by a thick diaper. YOU DON’T SLAP ANYONE WITH AN OPEN HAND ON THE FACE—PARTICULARLY CHILDREN!

I am so furious about this. We have people like Manny and his wife dying to get their baby and the people who can have their natural children abuse them. Unreal and unacceptable.

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I don’t read the New York Times very much, but in scouring headlines this evening I came across a great op-ed from yesterday’s edition.  The writer reminisces about the end of communism in Prague and the moment he and his countrymen finally came to realize that freedom was real. 

IN a stadium in Prague, 20 years ago today, a hundred thousand people, including my father and me, saw something we were not supposed to see. For decades it had been forbidden. The music, we were told, would poison our minds with filthy images. We would be infected by the West’s capitalist propaganda.

It was a cool August night in 1990; the Communist regime had officially collapsed eight months earlier, when Vaclav Havel, the longtime dissident, was elected president. And now the Rolling Stones had come to Prague.

The communist had banned all western rock music, and so the author and his father only had smuggled pieces of music from western bands, and knew of the Rolling Stones by a few songs. 

Soviet soldiers had been stationed in Czechoslovakia since 1968, when their tanks brutally crushed the so-called Prague Spring. My father was 21 at that time, dreaming of freedom and listening to bootlegged copies of “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” But it would be more than two decades before he would get to see the band live. During those years, you had to tune into foreign stations to hear the Stones. Communists called the band members “rotten junkies,” and said no decent socialist citizen would listen to them.

Maybe they were and still are “rotten junkies” but damn can they play rock ’n’ roll.  The thing that captivates me about the Stones is that they really do bring out the inner rebel we all have.  And I guess to someone having lived under communist oppression, it must have felt so much more poignant.

That night in August, waiting for the Rolling Stones to come on stage, we felt like rebels. The concert was held in the same stadium where the Communist government used to hold rallies and organize parades. My classmates and I had spent endless hours in that stadium, marching in formations that, seen from the stands above, were supposed to symbolize health, joy and the discipline of the masses.

There are those who claim that freedom is an illusion.  Oh contraire. 

Suddenly the lights dimmed. Drums started to pound, and the screens turned on as if by magic. “Oh my God, it is really happening,” whispered a woman standing close to me. She was expressing something more than just the thrill of a concert. She was saying that the Communists were truly gone. That we were finally free to do as we pleased.

Goodness gracious, that brings tears to my eyes.  I’ve taken many positions on issues in my life.  The one I’m most proud, and probably shaped my adult being more than any other, was my stance against communism before the Berlin Wall fell.  My contributions may have been infinitesimal, but  I was a passionate cold warrior.

Two and a half hours later, when the concert was over, people were crying and hugging one another. My father cried and hugged me. From that point on, no one would tell him how he should think, how he should feel. He had seen the Rolling Stones with his own eyes. And it felt so good.

If you don’t believe freedom means anything, ask those who were denied it.

This is not that concert.  But enjoy it.  It’s freedom, baby.

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With 75 days to go before the mid-term elections we are seeing some funny ads popping up. Here’s one of the latest from the GOP, and as with all satire, there is a lot of truth to the cartoonish ad.

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Now Pelosi wants to have an investigation of the WTC Mosque opponents!

“There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City.”

Yeah, you Dumb Bunny, we’re objecting to it on political grounds and not on the grounds that it is the wrong place to build a new mosque for the religion of the people who killed so many whose remains still lie at that site.

Talk about anything but how incompetent you, the House and Senate and Obama are so we focus on something else. But your problem, Madame Dumb Ass, is you open your mouth and stupidity drops out. You need a brain transplant.

Hear her comments here.

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Remember he’s in a zoo situation and is used to people. Don’t try this with wild koalas.

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Wow, it’s not very often I find a contemporary author who shares my perspective on politics.  I had never known this about Ray Bradbury.  Actually I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read Ray Bradbury, but now I will have to for sure.  I know nothing about him, except his name and the titles of a few of his works.  I’m not really into science fiction.  As an engineer science reality trumps science fiction.  I found this in the LA Times.

Ray Bradbury is mad at President Obama, but it’s not about the economy, the war or the plan to a construct a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.

“He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon,” says the iconic author, whose 90th birthday on Aug. 22 will be marked in Los Angeles with more than week’s worth of Bradbury film and TV screenings, tributes and other events.  “We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever.”

The man who wrote “Fahrenheit 451,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “Dandelion Wine”and “The Illustrated Man” has been called one of America’s great dreamers, but his imagination takes him to some dark places when it comes to contemporary politics. “I think our country is in need of a revolution.”

“There is too much government today. We’ve  got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.”

Of course we’re all mad at President Obama.  He’s absolutely right.  (Of course you have the liberal media comment in there about his politics taking him to a dark place.  Pfft.  Talk about media bias.)  For every dollar the government takes from you, you get less than a dollar’s value in return, and you are limited in choices.  The more the government takes, the less freedom you have.  He’s right.  We are in need of a revolution and it will be in November and it will be a land slide.

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What does the year 1987 have in common with Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, KD Lang, Bonnie Rait, and various other “friends”?

This:

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Actually 43 men have held the office since Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms.

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Barack Obama did a photo op with his younger daughter Sasha, swimming off the coast of Panama City, Florida.

I have family in that part of Florida and my step-mother told me last week there hadn’t been one drop of oil on that beach ever since this oil spill began.

He spent his long 26 hour vacation in Panama City instead of taking his photo op with his daughter in, oh, I don’t know, say Mississippi or Louisiana.

Here’s the photo, and yes, the water is clean. Try that in Mississippi or Louisiana, Barack.

Photo Op

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