Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads. And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer. With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name! "Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!" As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack. His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly! He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself! A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk. And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose! He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Politically Incorrect Kwanzaa

You don’t like the current slate of holidays that we celebrate here in America? Then why not create one of your own? That's exactly what Ronald Everett did back in 1966. He named it "Kwanzaa."

Since then, many people have embraced this new holiday. Check out almost any appointment calendar and you'll find it duly noted on Dec. 26 that "Kwanzaa begins." Stroll through your local card and party store and you'll find Kwanzaa items.

You can even look it up in the World Book Encyclopedia, where you'll find a nifty little article that says Kwanzaa was created by "a black cultural leader." And those who celebrate it will often tell you that it's not just for African Americans.

They're not telling you the whole story; in fact, it's doubtful that they even know the origins of Kwanzaa. Few people do, because the voluminous amount of ink expended on Ronald McKinley Everett most often refers to him as Dr. Maulana Karenga and rarely examines his past.

A visit to the "Official Kwanzaa website" will provide you with the following biography of the founder of the Kwanzaa holiday.

Dr. Maulana Karenga is professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is also chair of the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Karenga holds two Ph.D.'s; his first in political science with focus on the theory and practice of nationalism (United States International University) and his second in social ethics with a focus on the classical African ethics of ancient Egypt (University of Southern California). He also holds an honorary doctorate of philosophy from the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa. Moreover, he is the director of the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies, Los Angeles, and national chairman of The Organization Us, a cultural and social change organization, so named to stress the communitarian focus of the organization. Dr. Karenga has had a profound and far-reaching effect on Black intellectual and political culture. Through his organization Us and his philosophy, Kawaida, he has played a vanguard role in shaping the Black Arts Movement, Black Studies, the Black Power Movement, Black Student Union Movement, Afrocentri­city, rites of passage programs, the study of ancient Egyptian culture as an essential part of Black Studies, the independent Black school movement, African life-cycle ceremonies, the Simba Wachanga youth movement, and Black theological and ethical discourse. Dr. Karenga is also widely known as the creator of Kwanzaa, an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated throughout the world African community on every continent in the world. He is the author of the authoritative book on the subject: Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and lectures regularly and extensively on the vision and values of Kwanzaa, especially the Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles), in various national and international venues.

Now, here is a portion of Dr. Karenga's past that you won't be hearing about in the mainstream media.

Forget the notion that Kwanzaa is a holiday for all people. Dr. Karenga states that he created it at the height of the black liberation movement in the 1960's as part of a "re-Africanization" process – "a going back to black."

Dr. Karenga, still just "Ron Everett" at the time, was heavily involved in the black power movement. He started an organization called US. The letters have nothing to do with "United States" but mean simply "US" (blacks), as opposed to "THEM" (whites).

He dropped the Everett name, adopted the Swahili one, which means "master teacher," shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing. US members, similarly attired, often clashed with other black militant groups such as the Black Panthers. The fighting was about which group would control the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA.

There were incidents involving beatings and shootings, including one in 1969 in which two US members shot and killed two Black Panthers. Dr. Karenga had other run-ins with the law, including charges that he abused women.

In 1971 (5 years after the creation of Kwanzaa) Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment for assaulting and torturing over a two day period two women from the US organization, Deborah Jones and Gail Davis. A May 14, 1971 article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women:

"Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Ms. Davis's mouth and placed against Ms. Davis's face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said."

Karenga was released from prison after serving about four years, in which time he adopted new views on the relevance of Marxism and reorganized his group US.

Dr. Karenga says that it was he and not the women who was actually the victim; he was quoted in the News: "All the negative charges are in fact disinformation and frame-ups by the FBI and local and national police."

The good Dr. Karenga knows a lot about being a victim, in a 1995 interview with Ethnic NewsWatch, Karenga matter-of-factly explained that the "forces" out to get O.J. Simpson for the "framed" murder of two whites included: "the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, Interpol, the Chicago Police Department.

One thing that's interesting to note about the inventor of Kwanzaa: Practically all of his crimes were committed against black people. And yet, today, he is simply known as an academic who created a holiday for cultural unity.

The militant past of the creator of Kwanzaa is now ignored in favor of the so-called seven principles of Nguza Saba – Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani.

Coincidentally, these seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1974, Patricia Hearst, kidnap victim-cum-SLA revolutionary, posed next to the banner of her alleged captors, a seven-headed cobra. Each snake head stood for one of the SLA's revolutionary principles: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba and Imani – the same seven "principles" of Kwanzaa.

Perhaps William Ayers can invent a similar "faux-holiday" ("The Weather Underground Festival?") for radical marxist white people.

[Note: Special thanks to Brian Sharkey for sending me down this particular road.]

The Smithsonian Honors a Racist

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery is currently exhibiting its “Women of Our Time: Twentieth Century Photographs” exhibit. The collection includes a broad range of ninety history-making women, including First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and runner Marion Jones. The exhibition runs until February 2009. One of the photographs included in the Smithsonian's exhibition is that of Margaret Sanger, the founder of “non-profit” abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Sanger is described on the virtual tour of the exhibit as a “reformer” who faced “stiff opposition” with the “courage of a wounded tiger.” Planned Parenthood's website also describes Ms. Sanger as a great American hero...

"Planned Parenthood is rooted in the courage and tenacity of American women and men willing to fight for women's health, rights, and equality. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is one of the movement's great heroes. Sanger's early efforts remain the hallmark of Planned Parenthood's mission: providing contraception and other health services to women and men funding research on birth control and educating specialists and the public about the results advancing access to family planning in the United States and around the world Women's progress in recent decades — in education, in the workplace, in political and economic power — can be directly linked to Sanger's crusade and women's ability to control their own fertility."

The liberal left in this country is, not surprisingly, enamored with Planned Parenthood and even President Elect Barack Obama is a staunch supporter of the organization. On July 17, 2007, Barack Obama said the following before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

"Thank You, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Thanks to all of you at Planned Parenthood for all the work that you are doing for women all across the country and for families all across the country-and for men who have enough sense to realize you are helping them, all across the country."

If you have read this far, you are now probably wondering where am I going with all of this. Well, here are a few things about Planned Parenthood's founder that you will not read about in the liberal mainstream media.

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."

Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race

That quote struck me as odd as Ms. Sanger was describing the murder of an infant as a mercy killing. After doing a little more research on the founder of Planned Parenthood I discovered that Ms. Sanger was not the "Saint" that everyone attempts to portray her as.

The National Leadership Network of Conservative African-Americans cites the following regarding Ms. Sanger.

"In the late 1930s, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, came up with the idea for the infamous "Negro Project." Sanger, despite the rosy and saint-like portrait the organization presents of her, was a frank racist. Judging by her public statements and private letters, the woman thought that blacks - southern blacks in particular - were simple, child-like brutes whose fertility needed managing the same way a farmer needs to tend to his breeding stock of sheep or cows.

Alarmed by the numbers of southern blacks who were migrating to northern cities, Sanger and her associates created the Negro Project. They believed that, by convincing black people to limit the size of their families, they would prevent the black population's numbers from overwhelming those of the white population. It was assumed that blacks - they especially worried about the men - would look suspiciously on any white effort to meddle with their fertility, so a clever fiction was created.

Black elites - doctors, educators and even ministers - were enlisted to preach contraception and, later, abortion. Black people were told that, if they just learned to limit the size of their families, whites would come to respect them for their self-control. One day, this fiction said, this respect would lead to greater civil rights for blacks. In other words, fewer black children would equal more freedom."

Ms. Sanger's own words and writings lend credence to the fact that her visionary policies for our nation were far from altruistic and, in fact, entered the realm of hateful bigotry and racism.

On blacks, immigrants and indigents:

"...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born." Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people.

On the purpose of birth control:

The purpose in promoting birth control was "to create a race of thoroughbreds," she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)

On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:

"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control." Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12

On the extermination of blacks:

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon

On respecting the rights of the mentally ill:

In her "Plan for Peace," Sanger outlined her strategy for eradication of those she deemed "feeble minded." Among the steps included in her evil scheme were immigration restrictions; compulsory sterilization; segregation to a lifetime of farm work; etc. Birth Control Review, April 1932, p. 107

I certainly do not intend to imply that Ms. Sanger's warped societal views and policies are embraced by the present day Planned Parenthood's organization but I certainly take exception to that organization's false depiction of its founder as an American hero!

Additionally, I have serious questions about the expenditure of taxpayer dollars to include Ms. Sanger in a Smithsonian Institute exhibition of extraordinary American Women of the Twentieth Century which describes her as a "reformer" with the "courage of a wounded tiger" and failing to provide due diligence about this woman's background.

Finally, until such time as Planned Parenthood actually acknowledges the truthful past of its own founder, I also have reservations about Senator Obama's acceptance of PAC funds from their organization and his vociferous support of Planned Parenthood.

Global Warming?

I came across the below article from The Business & Media Institute reporting how two meteorologists from, of all places, CNN, explicitly contradict the widely held liberal, almost manic, mantra that man is causing global warming.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers had never bought into the notion that man can alter the climate and the Vegas snowstorm didn’t impact his opinion. Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, explained on CNN’s Dec. 18 “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that the whole idea is arrogant and mankind was in danger of dying from other natural events more so than global warming. “You know, to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant,” Myers said. “Mother Nature is so big, the world is so big, the oceans are so big – I think we’re going to die from a lack of fresh water or we’re going to die from ocean acidification before we die from global warming, for sure.” Myers is the second CNN meteorologist to challenge the global warming conventions common in the media. He also said trying to determine patterns occurring in the climate would be difficult based on such a short span. “But this is like, you know you said – in your career – my career has been 22 years long,” Myers said. “That’s a good career in TV, but talking about climate – it’s like having a car for three days and saying, ‘This is a great car.’ Well, yeah – it was for three days, but maybe in days five, six and seven it won’t be so good. And that’s what we’re doing here.” “We have 100 years worth of data, not millions of years that the world’s been around,” Myers continued. Dr. Jay Lehr, an expert on environmental policy, told “Lou Dobbs Tonight” viewers you can detect subtle patterns over recorded history, but that dates back to the 13th Century. “If we go back really, in recorded human history, in the 13th Century, we were probably 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are now and it was a very prosperous time for mankind,” Lehr said. “If go back to the Revolutionary War 300 years ago, it was very, very cold. We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period and now we’re back into a cooling cycle.” Lehr suggested the earth is presently entering a cooling cycle – a result of nature, not man. “The last 10 years have been quite cool,” Lehr continued. “And right now, I think we’re going into cooling rather than warming and that should be a much greater concern for humankind. But, all we can do is adapt. It is the sun that does it, not man.” Lehr is a senior fellow and science director of The Heartland Institute, an organization that will be holding the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change in New York March 8-10. Another CNN meteorologist attacked the concept that man is somehow responsible for changes in climate last year. Rob Marciano charged Al Gore’s 2006 movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” had some inaccuracies. “There are definitely some inaccuracies,” Marciano said during the Oct. 4, 2007 broadcast of CNN’s “American Morning.” “The biggest thing I have a problem with is this implication that Katrina was caused by global warming.” Marciano also said that, “global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we’ve seen,” pointing out that “by the end of this century we might get about a 5 percent increase.” His comments drew a strong response and he recanted the next day saying “the globe is getting warmer and humans are the likely the main cause of it.”

I have a funny feeling that CNN will have two open positions for meteorologists in the near future if this article gets some real coverage by the mainstream media.

Fat chance!

Instead, sit back and enjoy the "12 Days of Global Warming" video posted above.

Malaysia Releases 911 Suspect

Kuala Lumpur, 10 Dec. (AKI) - The Malaysian government has released five terror suspects, including Yazid Sufaat, who was accused of aiding terrorists during the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. Interior Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Sufaat, allegedly linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, was released from the Kamunting detention centre in the northern Malaysian state of Perak. "He was considered a threat to public security in Malaysia because he was part of Jemaah Islamiyah, trying to establish an Islamic government within the region," said Albar. "Yazid Sufaat and four others were released on 4 December". However, Malaysian Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said Sufaat was released with another Malaysian on 24 November. "We released him as he had shown remorse and repentance after almost seven years of rehabilitation," said Hassan quoted by Malaysian English language daily The Star. "He was released on several conditions. He has to report to the police regularly and cannot leave Selangor without police permission. Our officers will also be monitoring him as well as several others who have been released over the past years to ensure they do not go back to their old ways,’’ he said....

It is reassuring to know that Mr. Suffat has Shown "remorse and repentance and seven years of rehabilitation" and that Malaysian officials will be monitoring him to ensure he does not go back to his "old ways." Nevertheless, it is disconcerting to know that the Malaysian Interior Minister and Police Inspector General cannot agree on the date he was released from custody.

By the way, did I mention that Mr. Sufaat's affiliation with Al Qaeda was that of a Weapons of Mass Destruction researcher?

"Dropping the D"

In my December 10, 2008 blog "Don't Fall in Love with Politicians..." regarding the scandal surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich I noted that "...it is interesting to note that on most of morning news shows (Today, GMA, etc.) the talking heads all neglect to mention the Governor's political party when discussing this story. I remember when Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska ran into his own ethics problems not long ago, they couldn't get the words Republican Senator out of their mouths fast enough!"

I mentioned this reticence on the part of the mainstream media to indicate the Governor's party affiliation only because the reporters failure to do so was so obvious to me. Then I came across this video of a conversation between Neil Cavuto (FNC) and Tim Graham, senior editor at Newsbusters, and discovered that there is actually a term to describe this proclivity of the liberal media's continual attempt to keep the "Democratic" label separate from the scandal. It's called "dropping the D"

"This is a pattern we've seen for many years, especially when it comes to scandal. We call it drop the (D). You see stories like this [Blagojevich]," all the time NewsBusters Senior Editor Tim Graham told FNC's Neil Cavuto. While some print outlets just bury the Democratic label deep within an article, "a lot of times on television we're not seeing that [the party label] at all. We've seen that in the Blagojevich coverage. You could have watched CBS today and not found a single mention," that the indicted Illinois Governor is a Democrat, Graham added.

Don't fall in love with politicians...

The Democratic Governor of Illinois, who you should be aware, was slated to be a Democratic candidate for the Presidency prior to the ascendancy of Senator Obama's political star and rumors of own misdeeds began circulating, has managed to make the Somali Pirates look like a bunch of amateur burglars with his "full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes" attempt to auction off the Illinois Senate seat left vacant by the President Elect to the highest bidder.

It appears that Governor Blagojevich or his staff did reach out to the Obama transition staff for a quid pro quo for an senate appointment to be given to Obama's friend and advisor Valerie Jarret. It also appears that the the Obama team offered only "appreciation" in exchange for the appointment, thus putting the kibosh on that particular scheme.

Almost immediately the question of "What did Obama know and when did he know it?" began to make the rounds of the blogosphere. The mainstream media and liberal pundits have been quick to say that there is no evidence implicating Obama in this breaking scandal citing the fact that his transition team did the right thing in not engaging the Illinois Governor in a quid pro quo for his Senate replacement. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that on most of morning news shows (Today, GMA, etc.) the talking heads all neglect to mention the Governor's political party when discussing this story. I remember when Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska ran into his own ethics problems not long ago, they couldn't get the words "Republican Senator" out of their mouths fast enough!

On the other hand, the conservative pundits have been quick to seize the involvement of Tony Rezco in this scandal as a means of resurrecting Senator Obama's relationship with the indicted Chicago political "fix it" man.

The curtain has only gone up on this scandal, one which could prove much deeper and wide ranging than anyone expects at this time. Personally, the question everyone should be asking at this time is, depending on the strength of the Government's case against Governor Blagojevich, how much will he willing to talk to save his own skin?

Blagojevich is a 51 year old politician, the titular head of Chicago politics, with a wife and a family who faces a tremendous amount of jail time if found guilty and he doesn't strike me as a "stand up guy" who will be willing to go silently into federal prison for the rest of his life. I am quite sure that there are players in this scandal, both below and above the Governor of Illinois, who are anxiously watching this story develop.

Peggy Noonan, columnist and former speech writer for Ronald Reagan, wrote: "Don't fall in love with politicians, they're all a disappointment. They can't help it, they just are."

Truer words were never written.

Representation without Taxation!

Apparently I wasn't the only one watching Tom Brokaw recommend to Senator Obama that we should raise gasoline taxes on Meet the Press this past weekend.

The Washington Post today thinks that, after the Labor Department's announcement this past Friday that the nation lost another 500,000 jobs, now is a good time to raise the federal tax on gasoline, now at 18.4 cents per gallon, to 65 cents per gallon.

Of course the Washington Post, just like its big brother, The New York Times, exists within its own liberal universe, oblivious to the reality that the majority of American citizens have to exist within. They claim that "a higher gas tax would buy valuable public goods: national security; a cleaner environment; and safer, less congested streets... " but fail to acknowledge the reality that more than half of federal gas tax revenues currently realized is used for political pork, not for the maintenance of the nation's roads, infrastructure or research into alternative energy.

Nevertheless, a liberal will always be hard pressed to pass up an opprotunity to try and suck more blood from the American taxpayer, even when that taxpayer is turning to stone.

I am beginning to believe that our forefathers made one mistake. What they should have fought for was representation without taxation.

Tom Brokaw - "Raise Gas Price to $4"

During an interview with Senator Obama on this weekend's Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw suggested to the President Elect that, in light of the recent and steep drop in gasoline prices, the government should use this time to place an additional tax on gasoline to keep it at $4 a gallon, a price, according to Brokaw, people "are willing to pay." Mr. Brokaw stated that the money realized from this new tax should be used for research in the area of alternative energy. Mr. Brokaw added that this tax would "send a signal that folks wouldn't be able to fill up their tanks for $20 anymore." Mr. Brokaw offered this proposal just two days after the Department of Labor had reported that the nation had lost over 500,000 jobs in November, which just goes to prove that a liberal' elite media's answer to all problems is to simply raise taxes! I also take exception to Mr. Brokaw's assertion that the American people are "willing" to pay $4 a gallon for gasoline. To claim that we are willing to pay that price connotes that we have a choice in the matter. With the exception of those few urban centers throughout the nation with a viable public transportation system, most Americans simply do not have a choice in the matter. Obviously Mr. Brokaw is on the same page as Senator Joe Biden who believes that it is our "patriotic duty" to pay more taxes in these troubling times! To Senator Obama's credit, he responded to Mr. Brokaw's suggestion by reminding him that with the large number of Americans currently out of work or in danger of losing their jobs, such a tax would be overly burdensome. I spoke with a friend who works 56 hours a week as a Security Guard at $9.50 an hour with no health plan or pension and asked what he thought of Mr. Brokaw's suggestion. His response was short and to the point - "Who the hell is Tom Brokaw and what planet does he live on?"

William Ayers & Big Brother's Memory Hole

Yesterday, the New York Times published an op-ed piece by unrepentant terrorist William Ayers wherein Mr. Ayers attempts to explain why he chose to remain silent about his relationship with Senator Barack Obama until after the election was over.

"I was cast in the unrepentant terrorist role; I felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the 'Two Minutes Hate' scene from George Orwell's '1984,' when the faithful gathered in a frenzy of fear and loathing. With the mainstream news media and the blogosphere caught in the pre-election excitement, I saw no viable path to a rational discussion. Rather than step clumsily into the sound-bite culture, I turned away whenever the microphones were thrust into my face. I sat it out."

Mr. Ayer's complaint that he was "cast" in the role of an "unrepentant terrorist" by the media and the conservative right during the election is a blatant distortion of the facts and a clear example of Mr. Ayer's propensity for revsionist history. In an interview with the New York Times, which was published (ironically) on September 11, 2001, Mr. Ayers stated...''I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough."

Prior to the election, Mr. Ayers, a widley published Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, encountered no dificulties in promoting his radical activist liberal agendas with the various mainstream media. It was only when the conservative right began questioning his relationship with Senator Obama that he decided to remain mute. The only Orwellian "frenzy of fear and loathing" was that of Mr. Ayers, his wife Bernadette Dohrn and other Weather Underground members when they began their terrorist acts of placing and detonating explsoive devices at various buildings across this country.

As Mr. Ayers is obviously a fan of George Orwell's "1984", you might say his self imposed silence during the election was an attempt to place his relationship with the Senator from Illinois and his past radical and terrorist activities with the Weather Underground down Big Brother's "memory hole!"

If we could not laugh, we would all go insane!

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather has joined the growing chorus of voices from the liberal left who are upset that the 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits them from removing President Bush from the Oval Office on the morning of November 5, 2008 to allow for the immediate coronation of the "Chosen One."

According to Mr. Rather, President Bush is not doing enough during this presidential lame duck period and would like to see the Presidential Inauguration moved up to December 1. Mr. Rather's comments were unclear as to exactly what President Bush is not doing enough of but he is very concerned because the nation is in the midst of some very dangerous times not unlike December 7, 1941 and the Civil War.

In fairness to Mr. Rather, I know he has been off his stride ever since he was shown the door by CBS for running that false Air National Guard story about George Bush back in 2004, but I would tend to think that that would leave him with a lot of time on his hands. Perhaps he should use that time to sit down and think about what he intends to say on the televised media.

I am somewhat confused about his equating the nation's current fiscal crisis to Pearl Harbor and the Civil War. I know the CEO's of the Big Three automakers recently flew their private jets to Washington D.C. to testify before the Congress but I do not believe they had any intention of bombing any of our Naval facilities on the east coast enroute. Nor do I believe that AIG, Fannie Mae (or Mac) have threatened to secede from the Union if their organizations do not receive sufficient federal aid to assist them in their individual plights.

Mr. Rather's consternation with our Constitution is also shared by Ms. Gwen Ifill from PBS. Remember her? She was the moderator for the last debate between Senators McCain and Obama who, as it turns out, also has a book about Barack Obama scheduled to be published this coming January. Ms. Ifill is concerned that President Elect Obama is unable to effectively take the lead in the issue of the of the Big Three automakers because President Bush is still in Office. Ms. Ifill stated in a recent interview with a New York Times reporter that she saw a poll where Obama's "approval rating was higher for his handling of the Mumbai attacks than President Bush's..."

The more I read of this post election liberal ranting the more I am reminded of the lyrics from Jimmy Buffet's Changes in Latitudes which state, "If we could not laugh we would all go insane."

Christmas and Politics

I was putting something together on the annual liberal/progressive "War on Christmas" which usually kicks into high gear right about now and I came across this holiday message from the Obama family which was televised in the early primary states back in 2007 and not (to the best of my knowledge) televised here in New York. I found the holiday ad to be pleasantly refreshing insofar as it contained no politics and no campaign rhetoric; just a simple message stated by the family's daughters - "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays." I have previously stated in my November 8, 2008 blog, "The President Elect", that Senator Obama had run a great campaign and this holiday message is just one example of what I was talking about. This particular type of ad is referred to as a "comfort" shot by media and p.r. staff and was, in this instance, exceptionally executed. Keep in mind that back in 2007 during the early primaries there was a lot of discussion about the possibility that Obama was a Muslim. Suddenly, there he is with his family in front of a fire place with a beautifully lit Christmas tree in the background, wishing all of us a "Merry Christmas." This 30 second spot was a jewel and and played very well out west in the early primaries and did much to counter the rumors surrounding the Senator's faith. I guess even Christmas can prove useful to a politician.

CNN on Obama..."a man they barely know."

I came across a commentary by CNN's Jonathan Mann entitled "Which hero do we want Obama to be?" Mr. Mann writes that "America loves its heroes and Barack Obama has already become one. In fact, he's become several."

Mr. Mann goes on to state that "The way some Americans talk, they are getting (several) presidents in one." He then states that the American people have begin to view Obama as similar to John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton.

My reaction to this was why shouldn't the American people hold this view of the Chosen One considering the mainstream media's love affair with the Senator from Illinois?

But then I was stopped in my tracks when the CNN commentator cautioned the American people to remember that Obama has yet to take office as the President and until January 20th, his status during any visit to the Oval Office will be that of a junior senator visiting the White House.

Mr. Mann closes his commentary by asking if Obama will be a great president or even a good one and then states that "The Americans who are comparing him to those remarkable predecessors are putting a lot of faith in a man they barely know."

My question to Mr. Mann and all his buddies at CNN is simple - Just why is it that we know so little about this man who was just elected to the presidency and why is CNN posing this cautionary advisory only now after the election is over?

Could it be that this revelation only struck them after they got out of bed with their candidate?

It's a little late for the mainstream media to start hedging their bets.

What Conflict of Interest?

For those of you who who may still be of the mind that our elected representatives are looking at the auto industry's plea for a finacial bailout with a view towards doing what is best for our nation, I would suggest you view the above video several times and then think again! Even though the auto giants are drowning in red ink, they still managed to donate fifty million dollars to politicians during the first nine months of this year and during that same period, others with close ties to the auto industry donated another fifteen million! Representative John Dingell from Michigan's 15th Congressional District, who has been a member of Congress for over 50 years, is swimming in auto industry money and stock. His wife was once a lobbyist for General Motors but she gave that up to become an executive at GM at an "undisclosed salary." To put it bluntly, if GM goes belly-up, so goes the Dingell's financial portfolio. This wouldn't bother me so much had he publicly announced his and his family's relationships with the auto industry and then recused himself from any vote on a bailout but he simply chose to champion the bailout of GM and the other auto makers after looking at the "big picture!" Of course, in this instance, the "big picture" does not extend much further than his own financial holdings. Unfortunately it appears that Mr. Dingell, after having spent more than 50 years as a politician, would not recognize a conflict of interest if it hit him on his head! If you happen to be watching CNN and come across Representative John Dingell from Michigan speaking at the bailout hearings just remember, he may have one hand on the microphone in front of him but his other hand is planted firmly on his own wallet!

Happy Thanksgiving...

The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to commemorate the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter. In that year Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. The colonists celebrated it as a traditional English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag Indians. Days of thanksgiving were celebrated throughout the colonies after fall harvests. All thirteen colonies did not, however, celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time until October 1777. George Washington was the first president to declare the holiday, in 1789. By the mid–1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, looking for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject with Hale. In 1863 he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving. In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains. Although President Roosevelt's actions in moving the holiday back one week for commercial reasons was undone by a joint resolution of Congress in 1941, it is still a good idea to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday which was best described by President Lincoln in his proclamation of 1863 which was written by the then Secretary of State, William Seward..

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

Many families will gather together this holiday at a grand meal and, more often than not, individual family members will speak about the Pilgrims and the Indians to their children and remark to the others as to what they are "thankful" for this holiday. President Lincoln's speech did the same as he enumerated the myriad of blessings that our country should be grateful for. But if you read his speech carefully, President Lincoln also specifically indicated who we should be thankful to - "to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. "

As for me, I am truly thankful that the politically correct progressive left has not yet attempted to secularize and otherwise usurp this grand national holiday as they have done with the celebration of Christmas!

My sincerest wishes to all of who who stumble across this blog for a truly happy Thanksgiving.

Media Bias?

"Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

As George Washington was leaving office, he specifically addressed the importance of an unbiased media as a means of providing a balance to the information provided the general public by its' government. I do not think that George could have envisioned our current national environment where this country's main stream media , or as George would have said, "Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge", blithely tossed away the objectivity of professional journalism and jumped into bed with that structure of government which gives force to public opinion.

The mainstream media's support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign was so biased that even major insiders are now admitting they were shocked by its depth and depravity. Of course, they waited until after the election to be "shocked!"

Last week, Time magazine's Mark Halperin called the media's performance during the campaign simply "disgusting." He added, "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."

According to the Web site Politico, Halperin, who edits Time's political site "The Page," zeroed in on two New York Times articles near the end of the campaign that profiled both Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama.

"The story about Cindy McCain was vicious," Halperin said. "It looked for every negative thing they could find about her and it cast her in an extraordinarily negative light. It didn't talk about her work, for instance, as a mother for her children, and they cherry-picked every negative thing that's ever been written about her." But the Times gave Michelle Obama red carpet treatment, "like a front-page endorsement of what a great person Michelle Obama is."

Halperin, a former ABC News political director, allowed that some of the press coverage simply reflected the extreme efficiency of Obama's presidential campaign. During the campaign, conservatives criticized the pro-Obama coverage, but it had little effect. columnist David Limbaugh noted: "Never has that been clearer than in the 2008 presidential election, during which they are covering up rather than covering Barack Obama's shady past and alliances, his knee-deep involvement in corrupt practices threatening the very core of our democratic system, and his many policy misrepresentations."

Limbaugh noted that the press went into a tizzy over Sarah Palin's wardrobe, but ignored extravagances like Obama's Greek million dollar coliseum mirage and his flip-flop on public financing of his campaign.

Now that the election is over, Halperin is not alone in admitting the bias. The Washington Post's ombudsman recently conceded that the paper’s coverage was skewed strongly in favor of Obama and against the McCain-Palin ticket.

These post-election epiphanies and subsequent admissions on the part of the mainstream media that they all but abandoned their journalistic principles during the recent presidential campaign will amount to nothing unless they heed the cautionary words of our first President and those abandoned principles are embraced once again.

William Ayers [3]

Undercover agent Larry Grathwohl, who had infiltrated and joined the Weather Underground, described their post-revolution governing plans for the United States in the 1982 documentary "No Place to Hide." The Weather Underground openly discussed exterminating 25 million Americans who refused to be "re-educated" into communism. Here's a transcript of his interview:

"I bought up the subject of what's going to happen after we take over the government. We, we become responsible, then, for administrating, you know, 250 million people. And there was no answers. No one had given any thought to economics; how are you going to clothe and feed these people. The only thing that I could get, was that they expected that the Cubans and the North Vietnamese and Chinese and the Russians would all want to occupy different portions of the United States. They also believed that their immediate responsibility would be to protect against what they called the counter-revolution. And they felt that this counter-revolution could best be guarded against by creating and establishing re-education centers in the southwest, where we would take all the people who needed to be re-educated into the new way of thinking and teach them... how things were going to be. I asked, well, what's going to happen to those people that we can't re-educate; that are die-hard capitalists. And the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated that they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these re-education centers. And when I say eliminate, I mean kill! Imagine yourself in a room with all these people who have graduate degrees from Columbia and other well known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people. And they were dead serious." -- Larry Grathwohl, former member of the Weather Underground

Now this is something we didn't read too much about in the main stream media during the recent Presidential campaign! Apparently Mr. Ayers and all his friends actually thought they could overthrow the United States government as a means of establishing a socialistic state with open invitations for the North Vietnamese, Russians and Cubans to come in and occupy different regions of the country. And of course there would "re-education" camps for those of whose who were deemed salvageable and for the 25 million of us die hard capitalists, they planned on killing us.

And sadly, today Mr. Ayers is a respected academic whose professorship allows him to shape the minds of young men and women who, had the Weather Underground Organization been successful in its' mission, might not have even been born had their parents been among those 25 million unredeemable capitalists who were slated for extermination!

Big Three Bailout - It's Not Our Money?

A Republican congressman seeking a $25 billion bailout of the troubled U.S. auto industry made a stunning statement about taxpayer funds to benefit Detroit, claiming, "It is not your money."

Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., made the remark during a discussion with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto this past Friday as the pair debated sending billions of federal dollars to prop up the Big Three car makers.

Anyone who is still scratching their heads wondering why the Republicans crashed and burned during this past election need look no further than the likes of Congressman Knollenberg. I am sure that he regretted making statement as soon as the words were out of his mouth but, nevertheless, his impromptu remark speaks volumes about the GOP's grossly excessive spending habits over the past eight years which has served to alienate that party's conservative base.

In some sense, Congressman Knollenberg is right...by the time the politicians are finished handing out billions of tax-payer dollars in an attempt to save failed businesses that should have otherwise filed for bankruptcy and reorganized or simply go out of business, it won't be our money! They will have thrown it away and the businesses will go belly-up anyway!

William Ayers [2]

Prior to getting into specifics about William Ayers, I have posted a short overview of his terrorist organization, the Weather Underground Organization (WUO), originally known as "Weatherman." Weatherman (known colloquially as The Weathermen) was a political faction elected in 1968 to lead the radical group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The organization took its name from a line in the Bob Dylan song Subterranean Homesick Blues ("You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"). Emerging in 1969 as the most militant wing of the SDS's Revolutionary Youth Movement, the fledgling Weatherman issued a "manifesto" eschewing nonviolence and calling instead for armed opposition to U.S. policies; advocating the overthrow of capitalism; exhorting white radicals to trigger a worldwide revolution by fighting in the streets of the "mother country"; and proclaiming that the time had come to launch a race war against the "white" United States on behalf of the non-white Third World. Grounded in identity politics, Weatherman ideology and rhetoric rebelled against what later came to be known as America's "white skin privilege." Weatherman opposed the strategy of a rival SDS faction, Progressive Labor, which rejected the sexual and drug excesses of the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s in favor of a purer, Marxist-Leninist popular front movement aimed at developing student-labor alliances. FBI files from 1976, recently made public under the Freedom of Information Act, confirm the connections between Weatherman, Havana, and Moscow. Weatherman leaders like Mark Rudd traveled illegally to Havana in 1968 to engage in terrorist training. There, camps set up by Soviet KGB Colonel Vadim Kotchergine were educating Westerners both in Marxist philosophy and urban warfare. At a 1969 "War Council" in Flint, Michigan, Weatherman leader Bernardine Dohrn (currently a law professor at Northwestern University and a Board member of the ACLU) praised the serial murderer Charles Manson and his accomplices: "Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach. Wild." She then proclaimed that the time had come to launch a war against "Amerikkka" (Weatherman always spelled "America" this way, to convey the group's belief that the nation was ineradicably racist to its core). Toward this end, Dohrn advocated the formation of an even more radical "Weather Underground" cult to carry out covert terrorist activities rather than public acts of protest. By early 1970, her wish would be realized. Weatherman's first public demonstration was its October 1969 "Days of Rage" protest in Chicago, timed to coincide with the trials of the Chicago Seven (a group of radical leftists led by Tom Hayden), who had fomented a riot at the Democratic Party nominating convention in that city the previous year. Advertised with the slogan "Bring the war home," "Days of Rage" sought to create enough chaos to shock the American public out of its alleged complacency vis a vis the Vietnam War. The opening "Days of Rage" salvo, designed to glorify the anarchist movement, was the October 8 demolition of a statue dedicated to the memory of eight policemen who had been killed in the Haymarket Labor Riot of 1886. Thereafter, some 300 people -- both members and supporters of the Weatherman agenda -- ravaged Chicago's business district, smashing windows and destroying automobiles. Six people were shot and seventy were arrested. The violence continued, though on a smaller scale, for each of the next two nights. As Sixties historian Todd Gitlin observed, however, no popular uprising was sparked by these events, much to the group's dismay. Notable "Days of Rage" leaders included Bill Ayers, now a Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, and Mark William Rudd, currently a mathematics professor at a New Mexico community college. Weatherman was further radicalized by the December 1969 shooting death of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton by Chicago police. Hampton was a street thug who, in his much-heralded "morning education" programs, taught black youths that violent opposition to the U.S. government was a worthy goal. He was quoted in a 1969 Chicago Sun-Times article as saying, "I am at war with the pigs," and forecasting an armed struggle between blacks and whites. He routinely carried weapons and instructed his subordinates to do the same. For Weatherman, Hampton's death provided one more excuse to pursue a revolutionary agenda. In March 1970 the organization issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, using for the first time its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO), adopting fake identities, and pledging to pursue covert activities only. Shortly after that Declaration, three members of the Weather Underground accidentally killed themselves in a Manhattan townhouse while attempting to build a powerful bomb they had intended to plant at a social dance in Fort Dix, New Jersey -- an event that was to be attended by U.S. Army soldiers. Hundreds of lives could have been lost had the plot been successfully executed.The Weather Underground went on to claim credit for some 25 bombings over the next several years, detonating explosives at the rebuilt Haymarket statue, a bathroom at the Pentagon, the Capitol barber shop, the New York City police headquarters, and a variety of other targets. The Weather Underground also (for a fee of $25,000) helped psychedelic drug guru Timothy Leary break out of a California prison and arranged for his transport to Algiers. When Leary was re-arrested in 1974, he cooperated in the FBI investigation of WUO in exchange for a lighter sentence.By the time the U.S. withdrew its military forces from Vietnam in 1975, the Weather Underground was clearly losing vitality as an organization, having failed to invigorate a new radical movement in the U.S. or to inspire an all-out war against the government. In the wake of President Jimmy Carter's amnesty for draft dodgers, members of the group began to emerge from hiding. Many were never prosecuted; others had their convictions overturned. Some, like Rudd, Dohrn, and Ayers, claimed places for themselves in academia, while others attempted to return to the mainstream. On October 20, 1981 -- long after the Weather Underground had ceased to exist -- former Underground member Kathy Boudin and her soon-to-be husband, David Gilbert, were accomplices in the robbery of a Brinks armored car in Nyack, New York. In the course of that heist, one Brinks guard and two Nyack police officers were murdered. Also involved in the robbery was Judith Clark, who had served a prison term for her participation in the "Days of Rage." Boudin hired attorney Leonard Weinglass, a law partner of her father, to defend her in the case. Weinglass arranged for a plea bargain whereby Boudin pled guilty to one count of felony murder and robbery, in exchange for a prison sentence of twenty years to life. She was paroled in 2003, however, over strong opposition from New York State police. Gilbert remains in New York's Attica State Prison, having refused to bargain.In 1985, former Weather Underground members Susan Rosenberg (who also was implicated in the Nyack robbery) and Linda Evans were apprehended while transporting 740 pounds of explosives which they both acknowledged were slated for use in additional bombings. Rosenberg was sentenced to 58 years in prison, Evans 40; President Bill Clinton pardoned both women in January 2001, along with several members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Terrorist organization, FALN.

William Ahers [1]

Now that the election is over, there is little attention being paid to William Ayers and his connection/relationship with Senator Barrack Obama. During the recent campaign, the main stream media (MSM) continually ignored Mr. Ayers' history as a member of the 1960's radical terrorist group, the Weathermen, and paid little credence to the questions that had arisen concerning the extent of his relationship with Senator Obama.

Although Mr. Ayers had assumed a decidedly low profile during the campaign when Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin began talking about his connections with Senator Obama, with the election over he is now, once again a very public figure.

In addition to his job as a Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, he is also very busy marketing a new edition of his book Fugitive Days and speaking out in his own defense in the pages of a democratic socialist newsweekly, In These Times. Recently, Mr. Ayers told a Manhattan panel discussion audience that he was tired of being used as cannon fodder in America's political wars.

By choosing this vehicle, Ayers is skillfully engaging in his own sanitized rewriting of history. His effort is to paint himself as just another honest dissenter, a man whose valiant socialist principles have caused the media to unfairly demonize him as a terrorist. All he did in his memoir, he writes, is to go back to those of “exhilarating and difficult years resistance against the American war in Vietnam".

In light of the above and as a means of countering Mr. Ayers attempt to whitewash his own misdeeds I intend to use my next several blogs to document a few things regarding Mr. Ayers and his friends that you would not otherwise hear about from the MSM.

Prior to starting this series of blogs, and as a matter of due diligence, I need to inform you that I do share a personal issue with Mr. Ayers. On June 9th, 1970, Mr. Ayers, as a leader of the "Weather Underground Group", participated in the bombing of the New York City Police Headquarters located at 240 Centre Street (between Centre and Grand Streets) in Manhattan's Little Italy neighborhood. At that time I was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps assigned to the Fleet Marine Force Pacific's 17th Counterintelligence Team, however, my Father, a New York City Police Officer, was assigned to the New York City Police Department's Communications Division at Police Headquarters. Fortunately, he was not on duty at the time of the explosion. When I recently heard Mr. Ayers describe his terrorist actions with the Weather Underground during this time as "exhilarating", I thought to myself, "this is still a dangerous individual" despite the facade of his self professed and twisted version of his history with this group. Mr. Ayers is also well respected by the academic liberal icons of Chicago society who state that his involvement in education and his professorship at the University of Illinois are evidence of his "rehabilitation." According to his friends, Mr. Ayers' past is simply a footnote of history and should not only be forgiven but also forgotten.

I have a specific disdain for Mr. Ayers for several reasons. Obviously, as far as I am concerned, he attempted to murder my father with his bombing of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, one of a myriad of terrorist acts for which Mr. Ayers was never brought to justice. The case against Mr. Ayers was mishandled by the FBI and thrown out. In later years Mr. Ayers remarked about this screwup on the part of the FBI - "Guilty as sin, free as a bird! What a great country!" , Mr. Ayers' subsequent metamorphosis into a liberal socialist with academic credentials and an avowed interest in the education of our nation's children also scares me. To think that this man could have the ear (either directly or indirectly) of a sitting President of the United States is something I find incomprehensible.

They Just Don't Get It!

The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.

The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough.

All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM’s $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.

We want to continue the vital role we’ve played for Americans for the past 100 years, but we can’t do it alone,” Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee.

While Wagoner testified, his G4 private jet was parked at Dulles airport. It is one of eight luxury jets in the GM fleet that continues to ferry executives around the world despite the company’s dire financial straits.

“This is a slap in the face of taxpayers,” said Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste. “To come to Washington on a corporate jet, and asking for a hand out is outrageous.”

Wagoner’s private jet trip to Washington cost his ailing company an estimated $20,000 roundtrip. In comparison, seats on Northwest Airlines flight 2364 from Detroit to Washington were going online for $288 coach and $837 first class. After the hearing, Wagoner declined to answer questions about his travel.

Ford CEO Mulally’s corporate jet is a perk included for both he and his wife as part of his employment contract along with a $28 million salary last year. Mulally actually lives in Seattle, not Detroit. The company jet takes him home and back on weekends. Mulally made his case Tuesday before the committee saying he’s cut expenses, laid-off workers and closed 17 plants. “We have also reduced our work force by 51,000 employees in the past three years,” Mulally said.

Yet Ford continues to operate a fleet of eight private jets for its executives. Just Tuesday, one jet was taking Ford brass to Los Angeles, another on a trip to Nebraska, and of course Mulally needed to fly to Washington to testify. He did not address questions following the hearing.

“Now’s not the time to do that sort of thing,” said John McElroy of the television program “Autoline Detroit.” “Now’s the time to be humble and show that you’re sharing equally in the sacrifice,” McElroy said.

GM and Ford say that it is a corporate decision to have their CEOs fly on private jets and that is non-negotiable, even as the companies say they are running out of cash. Private jet travel is perhaps the greatest perk of all for CEOs, who say it allows them to travel more efficiently and safely, even in a recession.

Adding insult to injury, AIG, despite their $150 billion bailout, still operates a fleet of corporate jets. The company says it has put two out of its seven jets up for sale and is reviewing the use of others. Though there are no such plans by GM or Ford.

And our elected representatives want to keep throwing our money at these guys?

NOTE: I received an email from my sister shortly after I posted the above blog which said...

"Did you listen to the head of Ford yesterday? When asked about his salary/bonus/etc…of $21 million….his answer was something like you have to reward people for doing work well done…the reporter should have shot back…Well then why, if the jobs are well done, are you asking for a bailout?"

Couldn't have said it better!

Politicians "Out-House" Award - Barney Frank

I am sure that by now we are all aware that Fannie Mae is the nation's largest underwriter of subprime home mortgages and has been the subject of what amounts to a takeover by the Federal government with a huge cash (read that as your tax dollars) infusion in the hopes of keeping Fannie Mae afloat. Basically, a subprime mortgage is a loan made to an individual who your neighborhood bookie would not do business with.

Over the recent past, damaging accounting scandals, questionable management, inadequate capital reserves and a crashing residential real estate market proved too much for Fannie Mae. During an election year, in which the housing market meltdown has become a central issue, the market lost confidence in the government-sponsored mortgage entities and their financing costs rose to unsustainable levels.

As soon as Fannie Mae went belly-up, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) immediately blamed the Republicans for the mortgage giant's failure. However, this is where things get interesting. Barney Frank sits on the House Banking Committee which has jurisdiction over Fannie Mae. Back in 1991 Barney Frank worked to loosen regulations for two and three family homes even though those mortgages were defaulting at twice and five times the rates of single homes respectively. At the same time, Mr. Herb Moses, a Fannie Mae executive was also championing the relaxation of these regulations.

In 1994, the Department of Housing and Urban Development recommended imposing tougher regulations on Fannie Mae to ensure that lender's liquidity but, once again, Fannie Mae (Herbert Moses) and Barney Frank made sure no such regulations were imposed.

Whoops, I almost forgot to mention that Barney Frank and Herbert Moses had been lovers since 1987. Can anyone say conflict of interest?

In 1999, Barney Frank's House Banking Committee allowed Fannie Mae to further reduce restrictions on loans in an effort to increase home ownership among minorities and low income customers. At that time even the New York Times reported that if Fannie Mae fails, "...the government will have to step up and bail them out..."

During a July 2008 interview, when the handwriting was on the wall, Barney Frank, as the head of the House Banking Committee, stated "I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under..." Unfortunately, not only for Barney but for the rest of us as well, less than two months later, Fannie Mae went belly-up!

So now, after years of providing essentially no governmental oversight for Fannie Mae while maintaining a long term relationship with an executive of that company and continually blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing stricter regulations on this mortgage giant, Congressman Barney Frank has the audacity to blame the mortgage giant's failure on the Republicans. The fact that this poor excuse of an elected representative of the American people does not have the backbone to admit any responsibility in this train wreck earns him the "Politicians Out-House Award" by this writer.

"Stop Thinking like an American..."

The anti-everything organization The World Can't Wait recently staged an anti-war protest in Berkeley, California and I came across this picture of a protestor attired in an orange jumpsuit ostensibly portraying a prisoner being held in Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. I was immediately struck by the the message taped to the back of the protestor's jumpsuit which read "Stop thinking like an American and start thinking like someone who cares for the whole planet!"

It has been my experience that when you run across the machinations and propaganda of far left organizations they are, for the most part, not prone to disavowing their country in order to push their agenda(s) on others but, in the case of The World Can't Wait, they come right out and say it -- "Stop thinking as an American...!"

The National Director of the World Can't Wait group, a Ms. Debra Sweet, not only wants President Bush indicted for war crimes, but she is also clearly not confident that the recent President-elect, Senator Barrack Obama, will be any better than Bush. Apparently she is worried about the "Chosen One" nuking Iran and trashing Afghanistan!

Recently, Code Pink activists ended their year long demonstrations at the the United States Marine Corps Recruiting station in Berkeley when it became obvious they could not find a legal remedy to have it removed from the community. That didn't bother World Can't Wait activists who moved right in and started their own demonstrations. According to the group's director, the recruiters "...have no right to be in our communities (or anywhere else) - since their right to recruit is in conflict with the right of the Iraqi peope to live, and to be free from unjust occupation. So we have to decide: Do we think American lives are worth more that Iraqi lives...Which right do we respect?"

In addition the above, the World Can't Wait organization responds to the question of "Regardless of how you feel about the war, don't you have to support our troops?" as follows...

"NO! The cliche 'support the troops' is nothing but war propaganda intended to paralyze people and prevent them from taking action to stop what the troops are actually doing. Yes, young people are lied to and manipulated into joining. Yes, veterans are treated poorly when they get back. But no, the troops are not doing anything honorable - they are part of a U.S. military machine that is committing war crimes - and they should not be supported. If you were living in Nazi Germany, would you have said 'support the troops' ."

For all their ant-war rhetoric, I could not find any article by the World Can't Wait organization or its Director, Ms. Debra Sweet, commenting on the issue of Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism. No statements about either of the two World Trade Center terrorist acts, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, the London subway bombings, the Madrid train bombings, the bombings in Beriut and Lebanon, etc. Sadly, in the "I'm so far left I am off the map" of both Ms. Sweet and her organization, the only fault to be found in the world today lies solely at the feet of the United States of America.

Change Has Come!

Obviously they couldn't wait for "change" so they took matters into their own hands.

A gaggle of leftist pranksters, allegedly including three NY Times staffers (unidentified), couldn't wait for the "Chosen One" to take office on January 20th next year so they published and distributed over a million copies of a faux "Special Edition of the New York Times" and distributed it for free yesterday on the streets of New York proclaiming to the world (or at least those in Manhattan who were able to get a copy) that change has already taken place! This very same group released the above video yesterday to document their journalistic endeavor.

Among the stories contained in this "special edition" of the NY Times were articles proclaiming the end of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the indictment of President Bush for treason, a pay-cap for CEO's, free college education at public universities, A U.N. sanctioned global weapons ban, the offer of church sanctuary for Iraqi refugees, etc., etc., etc. One article in particular cited "Iraqis around the World Celebrate U.S. Withdrawal and Rebuilding plan."

In the video, several readers were apparently unaware the the publication was bogus and one young gentleman remarked, "I knew change was coming to America I just didn't expect it would come this fast." One young woman opined while reading the paper, "This is a deep, positive, potential thing!" I am still trying to figure out what a "deep, positive, potential thing" is.

I have no idea what the cost of this prank was, but if they actually printed, bundled and distributed a million and a half copies of this paper, it had to have been considerable. I guess they were "spreading the wealth around!"

To the group's credit, at least they cited the New York Times as the newspaper in question so no harm is done. At this point in time, they are very few of us who beieve anything that is printed in that particular fairy tale!

More to the point, I believe that the concerted effort required to realize the publication and circulation of over a million copies of a "Special Edition of the New York Times", replete with fabricated stories taken directly from the left's "wish list" of agenda items they hope to realize under the newly elected "Chosen One", does not bode well for any hope that this new administration will make any attempt whatsoever to govern from the center.