J's Cafe Nette

Archive for February, 2008

Glenn Reynolds uses one word to describe the implications of this article.

I agree.

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At least the press will have something to talk about the next few days:

Pelosi wants U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor to work “with appropriate dispatch” to put the case before a grand jury. She said the misdemeanor contempt charges against Miers would be for refusing to testify to Congress about the 2006 firings of federal prosecutors and against Bolten for failing to turn over White House documents related to the purge.

Pelosi’s demands were spelled out in letters sent Thursday to Taylor and Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Taylor’s office would decide whether to select a grand jury, but to move forward, he must first consult with the attorney general.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Mukasey is taking a look at the referral, but the Justice Department traditionally does not make those types of referrals.

“As we have said previously, last July the Justice Department informed the House leadership that longstanding department precedent, dating back through several administrations of both parties, did not allow a United States attorney to refer a congressional contempt citation to a grand jury or otherwise to prosecute an Executive Branch official who carried out a presidential instruction to invoke the president’s claim of executive privilege before a committee of Congress,” Roehrkasse said.

[Emphasis, mine]

If this whole fiasco had not been a contrived political ploy from its inception (any President (R) or (D), has the right to fire US Attorneys at will) then I might understand the need for it to be pursued.

In any administration even those who serve honorably do so at the pleasure of the President, and that is an understood fact when appointments are offered or awarded.

It is most certain that decent men and women lost their positions when the US Attorney firings occurred, and, like anyone who is relieved of their employment it was no doubt difficult for both them and their families.

But the basic fact remains, there was no there, there, just another opportunity for Congress to rile the public without presenting the complete truth.

You better think twice before sending that dinner back to the kitchen the next time you dine out:

WEST BEND, Wis. (AP) – A restaurant cook is out of a job and facing a felony charge after being accused of hiding hairs in a ribeye because a customer complained the first steak served to him was overcooked.

Just the publicity every restaurant needs.

If you have not already seen this slip of the tongue on the part of Senator McCain while on the campaign trail yesterday, do yourself a favor and watch this quick clip.

Blackfive has a great way to support troops stationed in Afghanistan which won’t cost you any more than a few minutes of your time.

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That’s not my question in the header of this post, but it seems to be on the minds of others.

First from Maureen Dowd:

After saying she found her “voice” in New Hampshire, she has turned into Sybil. We’ve had Experienced Hillary, Soft Hillary, Hard Hillary, Misty Hillary, Sarcastic Hillary, Joined-at-the-Hip-to-Bill Hillary, Her-Own-Person-Who-Just-Happens-to-Be-Married-to-a-Former-President Hillary, It’s-My-Turn Hillary, Cuddly Hillary, Let’s-Get-Down-in-the-Dirt-and-Fight-Like-Dogs Hillary.

Just as in the White House, when her cascading images and hairstyles became dizzying and unsettling, suggesting that the first lady woke up every day struggling to create a persona, now she seems to think there is a political solution to her problem. If she can only change this or that about her persona, or tear down this or that about Obama’s. But the whirlwind of changes and charges gets wearing.

Then this from Eyeblast:

And more unwelcome news I am certain for the Clinton campaign:

Civil rights leader John Lewis dropped his support for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama.
Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Atlanta, is the most prominent black leader to defect from Clinton’s campaign in the face of near- unanimous black support for Obama in recent voting. He also is a superdelegate who gets a vote at this summer’s national convention in Denver.

In a written statement, Lewis said Obama’s campaign “represents the beginning of a new movement in American political history” and that he wants “to be on the side of the people.”

“After taking some time for serious reflection on this issue, I have decided that when I cast my vote as a superdelegate at the Democratic convention, it is my duty … to express the will of the people,” the statement said.

Lewis’ endorsement had been a coveted prize among the Democratic candidates thanks to his standing as one of the most prominent civil rights leaders of the 1960s.

All politicians (especially those running for President) make promises which as thinking Americans we understand will and are most times difficult to keep. It’s one thing to recite flowery phrases on the campaign stump quite another to work with Congress to push initiatives through.

But, (and I never thought I’d hear myself say this) I must agree with Maureen Dowd when she writes:

Voters gravitate toward the presidential candidates who seem more comfortable in their skin. J.F.K. and Reagan seemed exceptionally comfortable.

I don’t know if we are seeing the real Barack Obama. Heck, I am taking little comfort in what I know to be the real John McCain but in the case of Senator Clinton I have yet to figure out who she really is.

It seems at this point in time many voters are having the same problem.

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Here’s a bit of what went on during this amazing concert.

Can you imaging our National Anthem being played in Pyong Yang and the North Koreans standing in respect?

This is the New York Philharmonic playing Arirang, a Korean traditional folk song, in Pyong Yang, North Korea.

I have seen reported that some of the musicians were moved to tears by the reaction of the audience at the end of the program, when audience members waved and some of the musicians waved back.

Music is the universal language.

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I received this unsolicited letter in my email yesterday. In order to understand it you have to read the bottom email first to see what the attorney is talking about at the top of the email:

JEAN –
I’m Joe Sandler, General Counsel for the DNC. Yesterday we filed a complaint with the FEC after John McCain decided to break the law by ignoring the rules laid out as part of the federal matching funds program.
I don’t know if you saw the news, but the press covered the complaint all day. John McCain himself directly responded to Governor Dean at a press conference, saying “We’re doing exactly what Howard Dean did in a previous election and what the FEC ruled in the case of Congressman Gephardt.”
But that’s a lie — John McCain isn’t doing what Governor Dean and Congressman Gephardt did at all.
Governor Dean and Congressman Gephardt followed the law and were granted written permission by the FEC to withdraw from the federal matching funds program.
To prove it, we have a copy of the letter Governor Dean received from the FEC in 2003 granting him permission to drop out. If McCain is doing “exactly what Howard Dean did,” he’ll have no trouble producing a letter of his own.
But you and I know McCain’s lying — he doesn’t have a letter like that from the FEC. Not only has he refused to get permission, he’s been warned by FEC Chairman David Mason that he can’t unilaterally drop out of the program. That’s why we filed the complaint in the first place, and it’s why tens of thousands of Americans like you signed your support.
Read Governor Dean’s letter from the FEC, and sign your support for our complaint right here:

http://www.democrats.org/McCainBusted

John McCain abused the system to keep his campaign afloat until he could raise more money from special interests and lobbyists. Taxpayers don’t want their money to be used by Washington politicians to help raise more money from lobbyists — is this McCain’s idea of ethics and reform?
Thanks to you, this “maverick reformer” is feeling the pressure of his own hypocrisy. From staffing his campaign with a team of lobbyists to breaking campaign finance laws, his total lack of integrity has never been more clear.
Keep it up,
Joe Sandler
General Counsel
Democratic National Committee

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: John McCain is breaking the law
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:50:11 PM
From: Howard Dean
To: Joe Sandler

Dear Joe,
There was a lot of talk last week about John McCain’s blatant hypocrisy on ethics and integrity in Washington.
Here we go again.
McCain is now breaking the law by ignoring the campaign spending restrictions for the Republican primary that came when he asked for federal matching funds — funds he used as collateral on a loan that helped keep his campaign going.
But now that the lobbyist and special interest money has started pouring into his campaign, he’s trying to back out of the promise he made just a few months ago. They’re feeding so much cash into his bank account, this “reformer” wants nothing to do with federal campaign finance laws anymore.
That’s why today, we’re filing a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission demanding that John McCain be held to the campaign finance laws. Trying to back out shows a total lack of integrity and honesty — he made a deal with the American people to to abide by the law, and in return, he was guaranteed taxpayer money that he used to back a loan.
Joe, I’d like you to add your name in support of our complaint, and ask as many people as you can to sign on. American taxpayers made a deal with John McCain — now that he’s flush with lobbyist cash, he wants to pretend that it never happened.
Sign on right now:

http://www.democrats.org/McCainBusted

Here’s the background on the situation.
A few months ago, John McCain applied for and was approved to receive federal matching funds. Because he couldn’t find enough people to fund his campaign, he was also forced to apply for a $4 million line of credit, which he secured by using the federal matching funds as collateral.
By taking the federal funding, he agreed to spend no more than $57 million until the Republican convention. But so far, his campaign has spent at least $49 million — leaving him with less than $10 million to campaign with through September.
Now that he’s won the nomination and has the support of the Republican lobbyist and special interest machine, he’s trying to ignore that the whole thing ever happened. He recently wrote a letter to the FEC telling them that he was backing out, even though the FEC is very clear that any request to withdraw from the agreement must be approved; you can’t just change your mind and take it back — legally, you have to be given permission.
McCain isn’t asking because he knows he’ll never be granted permission, and he doesn’t want to have to accept the funding restrictions he agreed to when he used the money as collateral for a loan. He’s ripping a page right from George Bush’s playbook: ignoring the laws when they aren’t convenient and hoping no one will notice.
Stand up and show him that hundreds of thousands of people have noticed — he can’t change the rules in the middle of the game because he doesn’t like how things are going for him:

http://www.democrats.org/McCainBusted

Using government programs when it’s politically convenient and breaking the rules when it’s not … remind you of anyone?
Just like George Bush, John McCain thinks he’s above the law. McCain poses as a reformer, but seems to think reforms apply to everyone but him.
Time to send him a message.
Howard Dean

Here is my response that was a reply to all on her mailing list for this email and there were a lot:

They can’t get a quorum on the FEC because DEMOCRAT MESSIAH Barack Obama put a hold on one of the other four nominees. They must vote for at least 2 at a time consisting of one Republican and one Democrat. They don’t like one Republican that has been nominated, and Harry Reid has a buddy nominated as his partner. He doesn’t know what to do. The one they are blocking believes voters should have IDs when voting. It helps keep down on the dead and illegal voting. This is the only reason the Messiah is blocking him. Since then 3 more senators have joined in the block.

If he’s paying back the campaign loan why is it any skin off the DNC’s nose?

Jeanette

PS I learned all this by myself without going to the RNC site to see what, if anything, they are saying about it. It was in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend and again in the newspaper on Monday.

Now the email I sent to the lawyer for the DNC:

Joe,

How can McCain have a ruling on this from the FEC since four seats on the committee are vacant? The quorum is four people and there are only two on the committee now. That’s why he won’t have your magic letter you speak of.

As you know, the Senate votes on these candidates two at a time with one Republican and one Democrat to either be elected or defeated. Someone wants to vote on all four of them and Dingy Harry wants to vote separately, but can’t figure out a way around the rules.

Obama put a hold on the one partnered up with Harry Reid’s friend, so they won’t vote on those two. Now, they could vote on the other two so ask Dingy Harry why he doesn’t. It’s because he wants his friend to be on there now too.

The reason Obama is holding the one nominee is when he worked in the Justice Dept. he advocated having voter ID before voting.

Why are the Democrats so opposed to voter ID? Is it because you can’t have double votes, dead people voting and illegal immigrants voting to support you all?

I was born at night but it wasn’t last night. This might work on others but plenty of us know the real story.

Search the Wall Street Journal commentary page for the past weekend and you will read about the hold. Then you can tell all the story.

Jeanette

So, this woman sent a letter to the DNC after getting a donation letter, and she had in the header “John McCain is Breaking the Law”.

If this is an example of how gullible and uninformed people can be then maybe a simple test would also be in order in order to vote.

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It’s fun, entertaining and adds a bit of history all at once.

Check out, “We Didn’t’ Start The Fire.”

HT:Lucianne

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Thomas Sowell offers his take on the media (more specifically the NYT):

The front page of the New York Times has increasingly become the home of editorials disguised as “news” stories. Too often it has become the home of hoaxes.

Going back some years, it was the Tawana Brawley hoax that she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men. Just a couple of years ago, it was the Duke University “rape” hoax that they fell for.

In between there were the various hoaxes of New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, who was kept on and promoted until too many people found out what he had been doing and the paper had to let him go.

Interesting. “Doves of Mosul” from Michael Yon:

On 23 February at FOB Marez in Mosul, I saw a dove on the ground. The bird was still alive but obviously sick. It looked up at me blinking, yet made no move to escape. The feathers were not groomed and it appeared to have a small growth near or at the leading edge of its right wing.

Standing your ground as it applies to politics is one thing, this is absurd:

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is investigating a politically motivated stabbing that left one in-law hospitalized and another in prison.

Authorities said brother-in-laws Jose Ortiz and Sean Shurelds were involved in a verbal altercation over Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton when the argument escalated into a stabbing inside their family home on Honeylocust Court in Collegeville.

Authorities said Ortiz, a registered Republican and Clinton supporter, allegedly stabbed Shurelds, an Obama supporter, in the stomach. Ortiz told police Shurelds began to choke him, so he grabbed a knife and stabbed him.

James Lileks remembers the first attack on the World Trade Center:

It’s the fifteenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The first one, I mean. I was in DC working in a syndicate bureau at the time, and we learned the news the old-fashioned way: an ALERT on the wires.

Time marches by quickly doesn’t it?

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Via Brietbart:

Listen carefully and then you decide.
Hint..who’s the actual candidate in the presidential race?

(I have removed the video as it has an autoplay feature which unless manually shut down will allow it to continuously play.)

Don’t miss it though..just too funny.

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Greyhawk has listened to the pleadings of his wife and those in their comment section at Mudville Gazette and completed a version of “The Free and the Brave” in which the audio is much clearer than his initial attempt. (For those who still have a bit of difficulty with the lyrics, they are posted below the video at the site.)

This is a video which I hope receives some attention (and while we are small, every little bit helps), as not only does Greyhawk perform the song, he is also the composer.

A very rough cut of a song I wrote during my second tour of duty in Iraq, as part of the “surge” operation in the summer of 2007. I had no guitar or recording equipment on hand over there and this had to remain “in my head” for months until I returned home. I believe I’ve managed to transfer that music of the mind into digital reality without losing any of the original…

A salute to you sir, for your service to this country and for sharing with us personal feelings which I am certain would be echoed by many not only active duty or retired military, but those of us in civilian life who understand your sacrifice leads to our freedom.

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Over the years I have seen many beautiful sand sculptures, but the team of international artists who labored over the work in this video did the medium proud.

What a beautiful way to enjoy “Animals of the World.”

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The DNC wants the FEC to investigate a loan John McCain took out from a bank because they say it violates money in politics laws.

Here’s part of the deal. The FEC is supposed to have six commissioners, with four being a quorum. One of the commissioners was recessed appointed and his appointment expired in January.

The panel is set up to have one Republican and one Democrat rotate off and on at the same time.

Now here’s the kicker: I read earlier in the Wall Street Journal that none other than Senator Barack Obama put a hold on the nomination of said candidate and therefore Harry Reid’s man can’t go on the committee, leaving it without a quorum.

Barack Obama is promising to end partisanship in Washington, and here’s a place to start: He could stop playing politics with the Federal Election Commission in a way that could hamper John McCain’s campaign against, well, Mr. Obama.

The Illinois Senator is blocking confirmation of one of President Bush’s appointees to the FEC, which administers election laws. This has left the agency two commissioners short of the quorum it needs to make decisions — with the potential for direct harm to Mr. McCain’s campaign. As we’ve been writing, the Arizona Senator took out a controversial $1 million loan that FEC Chairman David Mason has said might lock him into the public finance system for the primary season. Mr. McCain doesn’t want to do that because he’d have to abide by spending limits that would reduce his campaigning this spring and summer. Mr. Mason says the FEC needs to rule on the matter, but without a quorum Mr. McCain is left hanging.

The FEC must also vote to certify that Mr. McCain can receive an estimated $85 million in public funds for the November election. The Republican has already pledged to accept those funds, and the spending limits that go with them, and he is counting on the money to make him competitive against a Democratic nominee. However, no FEC quorum, no public McCain funds in the fall — and a potentially big advantage for Mr. Obama, who is raising far more in private donations.

The FEC dispute centers on Hans von Spakovsky, a Bush appointee whose two-year recess term ended in December and who has been renominated. Before coming to the FEC, Mr. von Spakovsky was a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, where he supported voter-ID laws that Democrats claim will harm black voters but have been vindicated in court. Mr. von Spakovsky’s nomination was approved by the Rules Committee in September, but then Mr. Obama intervened with a “hold.” Other Democrats have since joined him.

Mr. von Spakovsky was supposed to be voted on in a package of four FEC nominees. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid instead demanded that all four get individual votes, hoping to tank only Mr. von Spakovsky. The six FEC commissioners have staggered terms, and one Republican and one Democrat are supposed to end their terms simultaneously so there is no partisan advantage. Mr. von Spakovsky is paired with Steven Walther, a Nevada lawyer with close ties to Mr. Reid. The Majority Leader can hardly expect to get his hand-picked choice, while throwing Mr. Bush’s overboard.

Just what is it the Democrats have against voter ID laws? How hard is it to get a government ID? If one is too poor then the law should provide they get it free.

But then they couldn’t count the votes of the dead and the illegals, could they?

Hypocritical? Nah!

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My original blog was Oh, How I Love Jesus and I had one other writer with me for the first part.

Then people began to visit the site and we started discussing politics as well as faith issues. I invited two of them to blog with me.

After awhile, it became apparent we were discussing politics more than faith and I suggested to the two newest members that maybe we should start a political blog. I was willing to foot the bill if they would be a part of that blog.

At first they declined, but after speaking to their husbands about it they decided it was a good idea afterall and the dominant one said she would pay for the domain registration and design of the blog.

The one who wanted to be friends with everyone said she insisted on paying for half the cost of designing the blog. They said I had already paid for one blog and could share in the cost the next year.

I had three other themes made up for the elections and to show the White House for this cycle and Congress for the off-year elections, so I contributed as much as they did.

We started in May 2006 and had 200 hits the very first day. I contacted people I knew in the blog world to tell them about our new blog and soon we were getting comments that we were the first stop in the morning.

By March of 2007 it had become apparent that the dominant partner and I were not as compatible as we should have been, with her sending emails to me telling me how awful it was that I wrote about such and such and I should do it this way.

On March 8, 2007, after my dear neighbor had died four days before and my best friend’s father died that day I received an email from the peacemaker telling me that she and the dominant one had discussed it and decided they didn’t want me to be a partner in the blog. Instead of having administrative privileges I would be just an editor, which meant there were a lot of things I could see and do as administrator that would be blocked from me now.

I declined their offer and left that day after removing every post I had ever put up and the one announcing our first blogiversary.

That made them mad and when I questioned the dominant one in the comments section she went off on a rant. The next day someone posted something about Fred Thompson and I agreed I thought he’d be a good candidate. My comment was blacklisted, as was this blog.

I cannot comment there nor can I give them any credit for using some of their material in our posts.

This is a long story to get you to this point. In June 2007 the peacemaker made a decision to have me do a trackback to their blog if I would write something about the soldiers in Iraq needing air conditioners. I would have done it without the trackback, but since that’s good blogiquette I did the trackback.

About 2 hours later the trackback was gone, and so was the peacemaker.

Now the dominant one had the place all to herself and began to get some other bloggers besides the ones the other two of us had suggested. We had a great blog up until all this happened.

Now if I go to that blog I find everyone caterwauling that we didn’t nominate someone who is conservative and therefore we should vote for him anyway. The next day the story is we didn’t nominate someone who is conservative so we should not vote for him but vote for the down-ballot candidates.

And every day the dominant one shows her ignorance by telling us how smart she is. She hasn’t quit whining since it became clear McCain would win the nomination.

Before, she would never vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon and her sister converted to Mormonism and she knows all about them. By the last month or so she was Mitt Romney’s biggest supporter.

She’s not going to vote, nor are her two daughters and husband. At least that’s what she says now.

This is a perfect example of fair weather Republicans and the reason we lost the Congress two years ago. We’d rather cut off our noses to spite our faces than go with the one who is more like you and whose ideas for governing are more like yours.

All I can say is although I was deeply hurt when I was kicked off the blog the Lord knew what He was doing. I would have gone insane trying to play both ends against the middle and He knew it.

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I don’t normally post commercials but I’ve seen this one and another of a teen-age boy in a cafeteria showing all the prescription drugs he got from home, neighbors or online prescriptions houses.

Please watch this short commercial and pay attention to it:

A post-it note on the side of the commercial says “If they’re taking any pills they won’t be leaving any notes.

Stop teen prescription drug abuse.”

Go to The Anti-Drug website to learn what you can do. The life you save may be your own child. Watch Ad 2 while you’re there also.

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What kind of technical difficulties, you ask? We have no way to post comments if you are using Internet Explorer.

Don’t worry though; we have our crack technological team working on it right now.

Update:Our Crack Technological Team (CTT) has given us an update:

The Crack Technological Team has been pulling its hair out ~X( trying to resolve the issue of the Submit comment button not showing up in IE, although it was showing up in Firefox.

A new threaded comment system didn’t seem to want to play nice with the theme and with IE and the Crack Technological Team is working on resolving that issue, but at least one can post a comment now.

The CTT

I have all the confidence in the world that the CTT will manage to figure this out. It may take some time as the leader of the team is busy with family this week-end, but I can assure you it will be fixed. One way or the other.

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Video HT: johnny dollar’s place

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Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids helps needy disabled children of Iraq by providing high quality pediatric wheelchairs, each sponsored by individual and corporate donors. Sponsors receive a picture of the disabled children as they are placed in their wheelchair for the first time! This is a unique opportunity, as families around the world have the opportunity to directly impact the life of an Iraqi family with a very real need in a big way.

Here’s Michael Yon’s post on the above topic, complete with photos.

While visiting Mr. Yon’s site you might want to also take a look at his most recent post.

Many Iraqis seem eager to reconcile. Iraqis, to my knowledge, do not talk of partitioning Iraq, as many folks thousands of miles away used to think was inevitable. The negotiations in Baghdad are grinding and frustrating, but progress is occurring, although it never will occur quickly enough for either Iraqis or for us.

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We should have had all our 1099R forms sent to us by January 31. Instead, our brokerage company decided since so many mutual funds have to be changed and corrected income taxes filed, they would send them out on February 15.

In the past we have lived off cash we have saved, but this year we have finally had to start dipping into our securities for a monthly amount.

Our financial manager sold a certain mutual fund we have held for quite some time.

The problem is the brokerage house that keeps these records showed it as us not paying anything for the stock and making all profit. Now we have to wait to get the problem corrected.

We know the original tax basis, but the stock paid dividends that were re-invested and we can’t figure out the basis for that stock.

So here we sit with Turbo Tax ready to go and we still don’t have all the information we need.

The secretary to our financial adviser will see if she can get the brokerage house to fix it on Friday so we can have it Saturday (more like Monday), and she is doing all she can do to help us

All we want are the cost bases for the different times this stock was purchased. Is this asking too much?

Oh, and about that rebate? Well, here’s the story from an aide in my congressman’s office. You get the full $600 per adult and $300 per child regardless of how many children you have, as long as your adjusted gross income is about $57,000 for a married couple and half that for a single person.

After that it gradually decreases and again is based on your adjusted gross income and not your gross income.

If your only income is Social Security and you are not required to pay taxes you must file a tax return to get your share of the rebate, which is $300.

Is there a chart somewhere? Sue keeps up with these things better than I do so maybe she can point it out to us if there is one.

But don’t count on $600 per adult.

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I am familiar with a situation where a pre-teen child has to take free lunches at school because her immigrant parents recently divorced.

While they were together they got on fine financially, but now she is reduced to taking free lunches.

She won’t take them. Her excuse is she doesn’t like the menu, but the menu is varied. Instead she was taking parts of her friends’ lunches.

The family of one of the friends found out she wouldn’t take free lunches and decided to make her lunch for her on a daily basis.

She likes just chicken and turkey lunchmeat and P, B and J sandwiches. Since it’s Lent and she’s Catholic she eats the P, B and J sandwiches on Friday.

Included with her lunch is a fruit juice drink and a fruit cup or pudding, along with a plastic spoon to eat it.

The cost of her meals is just $5 a week plus the cost of the juices.

I don’t understand why schools don’t make it impossible for students to get a free lunch without having to say the word, “free” when they get to the check-out, thereby inviting ridicule on themselves.

Everyone should have a tag the same color and have to have it scanned and then no one but the cashier knows how much the child is paying. But, then that’s too simple and the government wouldn’t get credit.

I also know of families of working mothers who are homeless. Several churches in our area make space in their church building for them to sleep there for one week and then they have to move on.

The hope is that they will be able to find affordable housing.

How can I rest knowing these stories and knowing they are multiplied all over our country?

We give to missions when a lot of the giving needs to be given to missions right here in the United States.

I don’t know if we can designate our money for missions go to help the working poor in our own city and country or not, but I’m going to ask today.

If I had a second home or a home big enough to take in such a family I would do it in a heartbeat and they could stay until the mother finds affordable housing.

Please pray with me for these people. It’s so hard when you see it in such a small town as ours. Perhaps people in large cities are used to such things, but I’m not used to it and it breaks my heart.

Prayer does a lot and while you’re at it see if God will touch your heart to help such people in need.

Jesus told us that in as much as we helped these people we are helping Him.

Thank you.

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Back in 2000 in the SC primary some dirty tricks were played on John McCain, saying his adopted daughter was his illigetimate child. He vowed never to let anyone get away with something like this without fighting it again.

This Politico story shows what McCain is doing to fight back and fight back hard on the accusations in NY Times hit piece.

Quoting Politico:

The New York Times posted its long-awaited story tonight on John McCain’s alleged relationship with a telecom lobbyist. Both McCain and the woman in question denied having a romantic relationship….

…In the piece, McCain is quoted as telling Times editor Bill Keller that he never did anything unethical. Top McCain advisers, including his former Senate chief of staff Mark Salter also say on the record that there was nothing inappropriate done legislatively.

McCain’s campaign tonight issued a tough statement blasting the Times for their decision to publish the piece, using similar language from a preemptive strike they released after word first leaked on Drudge.

“It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign,” said communications director Jill Hazelbaker, in a prepared statement sent about an hour after the Times posted their story online. “John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

“Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.”…

…The four Times reporters primarily involved with the McCain story, along with top editors, were in lock-down Wednesday night..

Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet, when contacted by Politico, wrote in an e-mail: “I am going to pass for now. The story speaks for itself.”

Reporter David Kirkpatrick echoed a similar line when reached by phone: “I think the story speaks for itself. This one I can’t help you with.”

Executive editor Bill Keller and political editor Dick Stevenson did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

Reporters Jim Rutenberg, Stephen Labaton, and Marilyn Thompson – who’s leaving the paper – also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

We remember so many NY Times reporters making up stories from whole cloth, being believed, and then being fired after other people did the investigative work the Times should have done.

McCain has hired Washington lawyer Bob Bennett, a Democrat, to fight these sorts of accusations aggressively.

Let’s hear what he has to say:

Hat tip to Mac of Macsmind for the video.

I chose to update and bump ~J’s~ original post rather than beginning one anew as those who have not had the opportunity to follow this story from its inception should have the opportunity to do so. Sue

*UPDATE 1:John McCain speaks on the issue of Ms. Iseman:

Lots more information available at the home page of the link above including a question about Mike Huckabee’s knowledge (or not) that this story was being floated for publication.

*UPDATE 2: If this from Byron York was any or all of the basis for assuming an affair on the part of Senator McCain and Ms. Iseman then the NYT should be considered no more than a gossip rag.

I just got off the phone with John Weaver, the former top McCain campaign official who is now an informal adviser to the campaign. I asked him about his 1999 meeting on the campaign’s behalf with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. He said he “had no reason to think” that McCain might have been having an affair with Iseman, but he was concerned about word he had heard suggesting that Iseman was telling associates she had connections with McCain. “This was a woman who was saying that she had special influence with John’s committee staff and with him,” Weaver told me. “I didn’t believe that was the case.”

“When you hear back from several people that this person is saying they can get anything done, then that is alarming,” Weaver continued. So Weaver met with Iseman, at a Union Station restaurant, and told her to back off. He told me he didn’t exactly say, “Get lost,” but that that was the gist of it. “The discussion lasted all of five or six minutes in which I told her to cut that stuff out,” Weaver told me. “I said, ‘You need to stop this.’” Iseman’s response, according to Weaver: “She was not happy.”

Read the balance, it is most illuminating on the tactics at the NYT.

And this from the good Captain:

Let’s talk about the other supposed intervention — the one claimed by the two staffers who won’t go on the record. John Weaver and Mark Salter have been McCain’s two top men for ages, and were during this period of time. The Times needs to explain how two lower-level staffers could have gotten access to John McCain during a presidential primary race to stage an intervention over his personal life and his ethics without either Weaver or Salter of them being involved — and both of them categorically deny it ever happened. Wouldn’t it have been Weaver and/or Salter that would have had the access to do that kind of intervention, and not two mid- or low-level staffers?

The Times either needs to produce the staffers or retract the story. It’s appalling.

How could one disagree? If there is truth to this story then let the accusers come out of the shadows. Patrick Hynes offered one of the reporters with whom he has had past dealings an opportunity to clarify the story on his radio show:

At 6:51 AM this morning, I e-mailed Jim Rutenberg– whom I know and have interacted with in the past–to invite him onto my radio program “Meet the New Press” on Saturday morning to discuss the sourcing of his New York Times hit piece on my client John McCain.

At 7:24 AM Rutenberg declined my invitation in an e-mail and indicated—without my even asking—that no one else at the Times was likely to come on, either.

It seems very odd to me that after having “broken” (broken, indeed) a big story about a major national figure, a story that is capable of impacting the 2008 presidential election, no one at the Times has any interest in discussing the story any further, especially considering so many have expressed such deep skepticism about its sourcing and the value of its content.

What a disgrace.

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Almost like dead air.

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WASHINGTON (AP) – A missile launched from a Navy ship successfully struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, a defense official said. Full details were not immediately available.
It happened just after 10:30 p.m. EST.

Two officials said the missile was launched successfully. One official, who is close to the process, said it hit the target. He said details on the results were not immediately known.

Details here.

* UPDATE*: Follow up to the above post and very good news indeed if it holds true.

A defense official says an initial view of missile strike on spy satellite indicated it probably hit the spacecraft’s fuel tank,……

Video Update: HT: Macsmind

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The purpose of this survey is to examine how people think and feel about the political issues, parties, and candidates in the upcoming election. In the survey, you will be asked a series of questions about two political candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. We are very interested in how individuals that find information on the web think about politics, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

Click here to take the survey:http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/stu/crweber/TAKESURVEY/election_2008.htm

Please feel free to contact Chris Weber (crweber@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) at Stony Brook University with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help!

At Chris’ request, comments for this post are closed.

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It seems Hillary Clinton is getting desperate to get a win someplace and soon. Now she plans to mount a Commander in Chief Offensive, claiming she is better than Obama or McCain in leading our armed forces.

While Obama is an empty suit with a golden tongue, he has no experience other than the time he spent in the Illinois legislature and the time he’s spent in the US Senate, minus the time he’s been absent due to campaigning for the presidency.

Putting him in as president would be like putting my husband in as president. At least he’s older and hopefully wiser.

Oh, and I’ve been proud of my country my entire life and not just now.

Would you be comfortable with either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton being our Commander in Chief? It’s beginning to look as though it won’t be Hillary, so do you think Barack has what it takes to run a country? Chew on that for awhile and see how it tastes.

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Life (in any form) never ceases to amaze.

“Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters — we have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates.”

Via:Breitbart

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As I was saying my prayers before going to bed last night I asked God why He was always so kind to me? A child who wasn’t special, a teen and young adult who was ordinary, a wife, mother, career woman and now grandmother who was nothing. But I always had Jesus.

I hope you always have Jesus in your life too. He carries us over some bumpy roads, but we always get there none the worse for wear.

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Very interesting information pertaining to the malfunctioning spy satellite which the US will attempt to destroy before it reaches earth:

Giant golf ball deployed. CNN says that “a floating X-band radar has to be modified to track the satellite’s trajectory.” That would be the massive — and massively controversial — Sea-Based X-Band Radar. The $815 million, 28-story, orb-like contraption has the ability, in theory, to tell which way a baseball is spinning — from 3,000 miles away. But it’s also proven to susceptible to the elements and high seas. The thing has been in and out of the repair shop for years.

Update: CNN is reporting that an attempt may be made on Thursday to destroy the satellite.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Navy will likely attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite Thursday, the day after the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land, two officials told CNN Monday.

Michael Barone takes a look at the democratic race and breaks down those tricky delegate counts. When it comes to elections he is one of the few who can catch and keep my attention when it comes to number crunching:

With the help of thegreenpapers.com the invaluable Green Papers, I made some calculations in a best-case scenario for Hillary Clinton in the Wisconsin, Ohio, and Texas primaries. I assumed that Clinton won statewide in each case, and that Obama carried only congressional districts (or in Texas, state Senate districts) dominated by upscale white voters and/or black voters. This is an especially optimistic assumption in Wisconsin, where Clinton currently trails Obama by 4 or 5 percent in public polls. The results are as follows: a 44-30 delegate edge in Wisconsin, an 83-58 delegate edge in Ohio, and an 82-41 delegate edge in Texas. Overall this is an 80-delegate advantage, based (again I emphasize) on optimistic assumptions.

This would be enough to erase the current 58-delegate edge Obama has in total delegates according to Real Clear Politics. But not enough to overcome the 137-delegate edge he has among “pledged delegates,” that is, those chosen in caucuses and primaries. And it doesn’t account for the fact that Texas on March 4 will also have caucuses to select another 67 delegates. The Obama campaign has swamped the Clinton campaign in almost all the caucuses and probably has far more in the way of organization in Texas’s 254 counties than the Clinton campaign does.

Much more at the link.

Clever number quiz you can take on line. I tried it twice and both times the answer was correct. A bit of fun for Tuesday.

This evening Frontline will tackle the complex situation which occurred in Haditha.

The upcoming Frontline broadcast of “Rules of Engagement: What Really Happened in Haditha” is a major event. A co-production with Yellow River Productions, it will air February 19th at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. For the first time, television viewers will hear the facts about the incident in Haditha.

Arun Rath is the documentary’s producer, writer, and director. He took some time from a hectic postproduction schedule to talk with Defend Our Marines.

Not Murtha’s version of Haditha

“I am a journalist and tend to follow world news fairly closely, but before starting work on this project all I knew about the Haditha incident was basically the headlines,” Rath told me.

“When I first heard about it I thought it was interesting and counterintuitive. I knew that Marines had more intense training than our other forces, so the idea that so many would suddenly snap under pressure seemed a little strange. But I also knew that horrible things happen in wars, and figured something bad must have happened.

“Once we started to look into the story more deeply, we realized how far off the popular notion of what happened in Haditha was. For instance, the idea that there were no firefights when we know that November 19, 2005 was a day of very intense attacks across the town. We spend some time in our film spelling this out, using an interview with Major (then Captain) Jeffrey Dinsmore, the battalion’s intelligence officer, to help bring that day to life. We were also able to obtain the ScanEagle video from that day. That will be eye-opening for much of our audience.”

If interested, please check your local PBS station for availability.

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