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AWOL from the Oval Office - Failed President Has Held More Fundraisers Than Previous Five Presidents Combined

As a HR professional, one of the metrics I would monitor at any workplace is Absenteeism.  You must monitor your absenteeism rate because time spent away from work means lost productivity and higher costs, which leads to poor work output.  This is well known and undisputed measure of how well an employee is doing the job which they have taken on.

So what does this article say about the time the President has spent away from doing the most important job possible and how lame it is that POTUS has basically been on a permanent campaign since he was elected??

It shows me that he isn't doing the job well and needs to be replaced.  If any other person was doing this at any other job, he would have been fired long ago.  We need adult leadership and Obama must go.

The Permanent Campaign: Failed President Has Held More Fundraisers Than Previous Five Presidents Combined -

http://www.jammiewf.com/2012/the-permanent-campaign-failed-president-has-held-more-fundraisers-than-previous-five-presidents-combined/

Posted by Jammie on Apr 29, 2012

Let’s look at the bright side. When he’s out there shaking down his fatcat supporters he’s not actually working, so there’s the chance he’s actually doing less damage. But I guess in keeping with his adoring media we can call this historic and unprecedented.


Barack Obama has already held more fundraising events to build cash for his re-election bid than all five Presidents since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book.


Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.


The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.


Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.


Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in 1980, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004.


Can’t wait to see how many golf outings he’s had in comparison with his predecessors. That’ll be another record-breaker, no doubt.

We need to elect an adult as President

The media is trying to tee up the 2012 Election as " The Popular Kids" ( Obama and his ilk) vs. "The Squares" ( Romney & the GOP)


REALLY ?  Although this is the CRAP you would expect from the media.  The same fools who provide us with updates on stupid reality shows as "news" and who push the dumbing down of America on our citizens while laughing behind their backs at us.


Obama is NOT the person who should be in the Oval Office as the election is NOT High School.  WE need the best person for the job, not the most popular.  We need someone who isn't about being popular but about being the best in creating jobs and fixing the economy.

The enclosed writer gets it....For far too long we have had a complete lack of adult leadership in government.  We need to stop the BS and get back to the nation being a place where jobs & a strong economy are the priorities, not the BS of those who are elected allowing the stupidity we have witnessed in the last 3 1/2 years.


The enclosed picture shows two members of Obama's staff - The man on the left is Obama's newly-designated chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau.  The picture speaks volumes about the type of people who are in charge of our government.


Here's the link to the LA Times story


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/12/obama-favreau.html



Wednesday April 18, 2012



Partying on the public dime is endless
Under Obama, some federal workers have no shame at all - Don Surber


The Obama administration sent 11 elite Secret Service agents to Cartagena, Colombia, ahead of a presidential visit for an international conference.


The agents stayed at the swank Hotel Caribe, where it is alleged they partied with hookers until the dawn's early light.


Once again, we have a Democratic president and once again the editorial pages are filled with sex talk.


These are not 11 bad apples. These are the best of the best in Washington.


The party-time attitude of the Secret Service reflects a president who blows millions on vacations to exotic locations hither and yon. He spent $250,000 of taxpayer money so he could fly to New York City to catch a Broadway show.


Even after the Secret Service party became an international scandal - an embarrassment that made the United States look like an imperial state slumming in Colombia - Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked up her heels and partied all night at a night club in Cartagena.


The disgust was felt worldwide.


"It is hard to imagine Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright or Henry Kissinger 'livin' la vida loca' on the world stage," wrote Nile Gardiner of the Telegraph in London.


"This was less an example of 'smart power' than a boozy nightclub audition for the sixth season of 'Jersey Shore.'


"Hillary Clinton's Colombian antics are an embarrassment for a high-level cabinet member on official duty, and have lowered the office of Secretary of State.


"Not exactly the sort of image the federal government should be projecting at a time of widespread public disillusionment with Washington excesses."


The conference was about illicit drugs, which are destroying democracies across the Western Hemisphere.


No accord was reached.


Actual agreement was the last thing the president wanted. He joked with Colombian officials that he was there to scout out his next vacation with Michelle.


Yuk, yuk, yuck.


The joke is on the taxpayer. This was not a real conference but another spring break for our immature president - another taxpayer-funded embarrassment.


This is just another scandal from an administration that gives billions in government money for crackpot "alternative energy" schemes run by billionaire donors to President Obama's political campaign.


President Obama famously warned CEOs that they could not go to Las Vegas on the public dime.Now we learn why he said that. Government officials want Las Vegas for themselves.


The General Services Administration blew more than $800,000 on a "conference" in Las Vegas.


There are no adults in the White House. None.


The partying will not end until voters elect an adult as president.


http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber.

News Item: Mad Cow Disease reported in California

Really...No kidding.  Many were already aware of this.....A "Mad Cow" has been there for far too long.

Having computers control your automobile is NOT a good idea...It's like having a HAL 9000 driving around with you

Read the enclosed article - This is why I am looking forward to a time in the future when the two vehicles I will be driving will be my 1963 Jeep and the 1966 VW Bug I am rebuilding in the barn out back..... I don't need or want a computer in control of my car.



It's a car - not a laptop....The new cars are great, but take a look at a 7 year old computer and how it performs...that is the issue you will be dealing with when your new car gets older....and the cost associated with having it debugged...The computer allows your every movement, your every action to be tracked and recorded.

My old Jeep and the VW will never have those issues.

'Your' Car Won't Be After 2015
By Eric Peters on 4.25.12
After a certain point, it's not paranoia.


The latest brick in the wall is the predictably named "Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century Act," also known as Senate Bill 1813. (See here for the full text of the bill itself; the relevant section is 31406.) This legislation -- already passed by the Senate and likely to be passed by the House -- will impose a legal requirement that all new cars made beginning with the 2015 models be fitted with so-called Event Data Recorders (EDRs). These are the "black boxes" you may have read about that store data about how you drive -- including whether you wear a seat belt and how fast you drive -- ostensibly for purposes of post-accident investigation.


These EDRs are not new. GM and other automakers have been installing them in new cars for years -- in GM's case, since the late 1990s. What's new is the proposed federal mandate, which would make it illegal to not have one -- or (in all likelihood) to remove or disable one in a car required to have the device.


The question arises: why?


Several possibilities come to mind:


First, the EDRs could be -- and almost certainly will be -- tied into your vehicle's GPS. (Most new and late model cars, conveniently, already have this, too.) Then data about your driving can be transmitted -- as well as recorded. To whom? Your insurance company, of course. Progressive Insurance already has such a system in place -- voluntary, for the moment.


When EDRs are mandated, you will no longer have a choice.


We'll be told it's all for the sake of (groan) "safety" -- just like the old 55 MPH highway speed limit and every radar trap in the country. Of course, it's really for the sake of revenue -- the government's and the insurance company's. Your rates will be "adjusted" in real time, for every incident of "speeding" or not buckling up. It'll be so much more efficient than using cops to issue tickets. After all, so many fishes escape! With an EDR in every car, no one will escape. Your "adjusted" premium will be waiting for you when you get home.


You've got mail!


And naturally, they -- the government, insurance companies -- will be able to track your every move, noting (and recording) where you've been and when. This will create a surveillance net beyond anything that ever existed previously. Some will not sweat this: After all, if you've got nothing to hide, why worry? Except for the fact that, courtesy of almost everything we do being either "illegal" or at least "suspicious," we all have a great deal to hide. The naivety of the Don't Worry, it's No Big Deal crowd is breathtaking.


But the last possibility is probably the creepiest: EDRs tied into your car's GPS will give them -- the government and/or corporations -- literal physical control over (hack) "your" vehicle. This is not conspiracy theorizing. It is technological fact. Current GM vehicles equipped with the same technology about to be mandated for every vehicle can be disabled remotely. Just turned off. All the OnStar operator has to do is send the appropriate command over the GPS to your car's computer, which controls the engine. It is one of the features touted by OnStar -- of course, as a "safety" feature.


In the future, it will be used to limit your driving -- for the sake of "energy conservation" or, perhaps, "the environment." It will be the perfect, er, vehicle, for implementing U.N. Agenda 21 -- the plan to herd all of us formerly free-range tax cattle into urban feedlots. So much easier to control us this way. No more bailing out to the country or living off the grid - unless you get there (and to your work) by walking.


The pieces are all coming together.


First, computer-controlled cars. Next, widespread adoption of GPS in cars. Then, EDRs tied into them.


Viola. "Your" car is suddenly under the control of others. Just as "your" other (cough, hack) property -- "your" home, for example -- is under the control of others. It does not matter that you paid for it. Or even that you have the legal fiction of ownership. You do not control "your" property -- hence it is really the property of others. You are merely allowed to use said property -- under certain conditions -- by the leave of the true owners.


And once SB 1813 is passed and signed into law, there will no longer be an opt-out. In fact, sure as the rooster crows in the morning, you can bet the next step will a law requiring older cars not originally fitted with the technology be fitted with it -- or else decommissioned. It is inconceivable that they -- the government and its insurance company cronies -- will allow anyone to drive a vehicle not subject to this monitoring and control. They will insist it's not "safe" -- and of course, "unfair" that owners of older cars not equipped with EDRs are able to "get away" with "speeding" and not wearing their seat belts.


Our cars were once a tangible expression of the freedom ideal. They are fast becoming mobile cages. And the really devilish thing is they're making us pay the costs of our own imprisonment, too.




About the Author
Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.

Spitfires found buried and in pristine condition after being lost for almost 70 years

Car enthusiasts are always on the hunt for the best " Barn Find" - a classic car that was put in an old barn somewhere and forgotten. Then found and restored to original condition.

This story tops any barn find as they are going to have up to 20 Supermarine Spitfires right out of the crates they were shipped in and likely in pristine condition as they were preserved in the grease that coated all the parts since they left the factory 70 years ago....unbelievable.



Buried treasure in Burma: Squadron of lost WWII Spitfires to be exhumed
Published April 19, 2012

FoxNews.com
It's buried PILOT treasure!

Like a treasure chest stuffed with priceless booty, as many as 20 World War II-era Spitfire planes are perfectly preserved, buried in crates beneath Burma -- and after 67 years underground, they're set to be uncovered.

The planes were shipped in standard fashion in 1945 from their manufacturer in England to the Far East country: waxed, wrapped in greased paper and tarred to protect against the elements. They were then buried in the crates they were shipped in, rather than let them fall into enemy hands, said David Cundall, an aviation enthusiast who has spent 15 years and about $200,000 in his efforts to reveal the lost planes.

The 62-year-old man -- a British farmer by trade -- realized the fate of the aircraft thanks to an offhand comment a group of American veterans made to a friend, he told the Sydney Morning Herald.


'We've done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.'
- David Cundall, aviation enthusiast


''They told Jim: 'We've done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.' And when Jim got back from the U.S., he told me,'" Cundall said.

The location of the planes, which remains a closely kept secret, was confirmed during a recent trip to the Far East country, he said.

''We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition," Cundall told the Herald.

The Spitfire Mark XIV planes are rare for more than one reason: They used Rolls Royce Griffon engines rather than the Merlins used in earlier models to achieve tremendous speeds. Griffon-powered planes could reach 440 mph thanks to the hefty, 2,050-horsepower engines.

When production of the planes ultimately ended in 1947, 20,334 Spitfires of all versions had been produced, but just 2,053 of them were Griffon-powered versions, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The planes were deemed surplus and were buried in Aug., 1945 -- potentially along with another eight later in the year. At that time, propeller planes were falling out of fashion in favor of newer jet-engine designs -- Cundall said Spitfires "were 10 a penny." British military officials decided burying them was cheaper and more practical than bringing them home.

International sanctions prevent military material from leaving the country, but a recent visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron may enable the safe exhumation and return of the planes to England.

Only about 35 Spitfires are currently flying.

The Boston Bruins will take Game 7 tonight...

The Boston Bruins will take the Capitals in Game 7 tonight - Go  BOSTON - On to Victory and sending the CAPS packing !!!

Beliefs

A while back, I posted some of what I listed as "beliefs".  I am reposting it as I am getting ready to take on a new task, and it is always good practice to reiterate what is important on a regular basis. Here's what I posted two years ago.

Beliefs –



I saw that there was a webpage posted by a highly regarded milblogger about what he stated were his beliefs…..this sounded like a healthy exercise in putting some thoughts on paper ….or electronic webpage as it were….Here’s my swipe at it…tried not to get too wordy (sorry) but needed to cover the subject well:


I believe in the US Constitution and have sworn to uphold it against all enemies foreign & domestic; including willingly giving my life to defend it…Retirement from the military has not altered this agreement nor will any condition alter it during my lifetime.


I believe in the USA….always have, always will. My country is a global force for good as we are and have been the last best hope for much of mankind. That said, I believe that the less intervention Government has in our lives, the better. Our Government is a model for others and in need of constant updates/revision as it is an ever changing entity and in need of constant improvement. Our Government is designed to serve the people, and not the other way around.


I believe in the inherent goodness of people and have an optimistic outlook on humanity as a whole, well grounded with a firm understanding of the demonstrated history of man’s inhumanity towards his fellow man and all other living creatures. Free will was given to us by our creator along with all the responsibility that comes with it.


I believe History is an important subject and one that too many ignore – we can learn more about ourselves through history than many other fields of study….History is a deep and fascinating subject as it is more compelling than any piece of fiction written.


I believe that my wife and I are truly meant for each other as God has a wry sense of humor…My Wife has been the best thing in my life and has made me a better person, as I hope I have done for her also. That said, I know that we are in love, a love that is our blessing in this life and that our love is sacred. She is the one I love and I have pledged my life to her, in all ways, in all manner as she has also done for me.


I believe that Family is one of the most important factors in life and one the shapes us all….Family can be good and families can also have issues….Parenting is the toughest task you will ever take on but one that returns the greatest rewards – I believe Children need parents who are their moral teachers and life-leaders – That they need love, affection and most of all to be taught a sense of responsibility. This job is a lifetime appointment.


I believe that we are not here by accident and that we all have a purpose in this life, ordained by a heavenly God. The idea that any one religious belief has moral or ideological superiority over others is somewhat amusing as I feel that those that preach that ideal will be in for a rude awakening when they do finally meet their maker. Like many things, religious beliefs can be misused and that is a travesty. I feel that the ideal of religious freedom is one that is sacrosanct, and included in the US Bill of Rights as it was one of the reasons our country was founded. Kinda important if you ask me….


I believe that we all will have an opportunity to obtain everlasting life through our belief in our God and I will look forward to meeting with Him to discuss this issue in approximately 50-60 years from now or longer.


I believe in the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics as they are the best representatives of our modern major league sporting teams. I also believe that most of the players are highly over-paid for playing games that are inherently designed for fun, not as money making enterprises. Nonetheless, I understand that people will pay the price to attend and watch the games, so more power to them.


I believe in not allowing the enemies of free men to go unchallenged and assisting all who seek to be free. This is accomplished through many means up to and including sending young men & women to defend liberty where it is in the most dire straits…This has been the course our country has chartered for the past 234 years or so….it is what separates us from the timid and less capable countries and those who will be conquered because they lack the understanding that Freedom is not free.


I believe in the United States Navy and all that she represents….Her history is one that has shaped the nation and the world….We (Navy & Marine Corps Veterans) are her legacy and we will always represent the ideals of Honor, Courage & Commitment. I also believe that the Navy will prevail at the ARMY-NAVY game in December….as it should be.


I believe in the friends I have cultivated through my life and that I owe them a great debt as they have been instrumental in assisting me along life’s path. The friends I have are like family and I treasure each and every one of them. They are the people who have made life’s journey enjoyable and well worth taking…I also believe a few of them are serious knuckleheads and would not want them to change one bit. I also believe in sharing a good cigar & beer with them is a great exercise in what friendship should be ….a lifelong relationship built on trust, admiration and learning from each other.


I believe in working on old cars is one of the pure joys in life as the automobile significantly shaped our American life…..The enjoyment imbued in the design, function and simplicity of all older vehicles (those built before 1975) is something that is sorely missing in the computerized and overcomplicated pieces of junk the automakers are producing these days. Regulations and a push to lighten autos has taken away some of the things that made the older cars superior. The older cars were built to LAST and made of steel….steel that would protect the occupants and give the car character…..chrome, tailfins, large steering wheels and large engines….all things related to internal combustion engines and automobiles are very cool….some cooler than others obviously.


I believe in the following companies as they have made awesome machines and products – Chevrolet, Pontiac, GM, Porsche, Volkswagen, Bugatti, All companies past & present that produced outstanding military vehicles such as North American, Vought, Curtis-Wright, Grumman, Northrop, Bell, etc. etc. – They have provided the things that have taken us to all four corners of our globe and back….I also deeply believe in Man’s exploration of Space and all that it represents as we travel beyond the shores of our small and beautiful globe.


I believe in our unbreakable bond with our K-9 companions – 15000 years ago or so we made an unwritten, unspoken pact with their ancestors…We would provide warmth, shelter and easy access to food…in return, they would protect us from the things that lurked in the darkness that wanted to harm us or have us for dinner….This pact has been unbroken since and likely is that longest unbroken agreement in the history of man.


I believe in the following words regarding our K-9 Companions: "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." – Author Unknown


I believe in the beauty of music, art, film & the written word…all these things have increased our understanding of the human condition and provided great insight into humanity as a whole…..Music is something I would find very difficult to live without...I also believe in Scientific research & knowledge as it will supply us with the answers to many things that have plagued mankind…..Science is a tool and like many tools, it can be used for ultimate good and ultimate evil if misused.


Lastly, I believe whole heartily in the concept of Honor, and that it is one area where all good men of conscience cannot compromise – I came across these words, spoken by US Senator John McCain when he was presented the Profiles in Courage award by the John F. Kennedy Museum in 1999 for his political courage, and I believe in these words with all my heart and my soul:


“ I wish I could pretend to you and to myself that my efforts were comparable to the courage with which I have seen many good men live and die, and whose inspiration has given me heart in difficult times. But I cannot. For my actions are less a profile in courage than a profile in shame.


When I was a young man, and all glory was self-glory, I responded aggressively and often irresponsibly to anyone who questioned my honor.…. But as I grew older, and the challenges to my self-respect became more varied and difficult, I was surprised to discover that while my sense of honor had matured, its defense mattered even more to me than it did when I believed that honor was such a frail thing that any empty challenge could threaten it.


The courage of the living and the dead taught me that. They taught me to dread dishonor above all other injuries.”


Remarks delivered by U.S. Senator John McCain, recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Ceremony, awarded on May 24, 1999 at the JFK Library in Boston, MA.

More to follow.....

The reason for why things are so bad - LEADERSHIP FAILURE from the Oval Office

Glenn Reynolds over at INSTAPUNDIT makes a very good observation: " Here’s a question everyone should be pondering: If the federal government can’t keep the President’s bodyguards from drinking and whoring on duty, how likely is it to be able to run anything competently?"

The answer to that is one I can provide as I am a SME (subject matter expert) on the key reason for this problem. The reason why we are watching the Secret Service act out and the GSA go hog wild on our dime is simple - A complete and utter LACK of LEADERSHIP from the OVAL OFFICE. In both cases, those who work for our government felt they were beyond the rules, that those in charge acted that way, so why can't I do so too?? In all organizations, the culture and how people act is based on what they see from the LEADERSHIP.

In the case of the US Government, they see an incompetent pol who blames everyone else for his failings, lectures all others while breaking the rules at will and allowing his own wants & needs to come before what is good for the country. Like publicly stating " You can't go to Vegas on the public's dime.." and then having the First Lady and his daughters do that very thing earlier this year.

The past three & one half years has been a textbook example of Leadership Failure 101 and it is glaringly apparent to anyone who understands what it takes to be in charge of an important undertaking like running the western world...Obama Must Go. He was the wrong person for the job and " President Trainwreck" needs to be back where he belongs, on permanent vacation.

Dog Tags at Old North Church in Boston

Located on the south side of the Old North Church, Boston, stands a small area set aside to commemorate the soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of dog tags representing the fallen hang closely together. When the wind blows one can hear the distinctive metal chimes as they clang together to make their eery music.

When I see this, I think that the original Patriots of the American Revolution who were from Boston, and though the loss of any Soldier/Sailor/Marine/Airman is difficult to bear, as Americans we have always been willing to provide whatever is needed to ensure our Liberty.

" Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

President John F. Kennedy

Climate Crackpots declare “democracy must be put on hold” to combat global warming & skeptics' homes should be burned down

REALLY ?  REALLY Mr. Save-The-Earth ?  We must surrender our democracy and allow others to control our lives because we don't believe your " The Sky is Falling " nonsense about our planet ??  Who the F*** put you in charge of anything ??

I took an oath to defend the US Constitution against all enemies " both foreign & domestic" and it seems crackpots like you fit the bill of someone who acts like a terrorist.  These idiots are eco-tryrants and they are the ones who need to be locked up.

These fools think that they can take over the world's economies because they have a theory....Take your theory and take a flying leap.

I'm sorry but when we start hearing proposals that we tear down our country and destroy others lives because a few wing-nuts are blowing a gasket, it's time to put the climate crackpots in the nut house where they belong.

Climate Alarmist Calls For Burning Down Skeptics’ Homes


“Let’s start keeping track of them…let’s make them pay”


Paul Joseph Watson


Infowars.com


Thursday, April 19, 2012


Writing for Forbes Magazine, climate change alarmist Steve Zwick calls for skeptics of man-made global warming to be tracked, hunted down and have their homes burned to the ground, yet another shocking illustration of how eco-fascism is rife within the environmentalist lobby.


Comparing climate change skeptics to residents in Tennessee who refused to pay a $75 fee, resulting in firemen sitting back and watching their houses burn down, Zwick rants that anyone who actively questions global warming propaganda should face the same treatment.


“We know who the active denialists are – not the people who buy the lies, mind you, but the people who create the lies. Let’s start keeping track of them now, and when the famines come, let’s make them pay. Let’s let their houses burn. Let’s swap their safe land for submerged islands. Let’s force them to bear the cost of rising food prices,” writes Zwick, adding, “They broke the climate. Why should the rest of us have to pay for it?”


As we have profusely documented, as polls show that fewer and fewer Americans are convinced by the pseudo-science behind man-made global warming, promulgated as it is by control freaks like Zwick who care more about money and power than they do the environment, AGW adherents are becoming increasingly authoritarian in their pronouncements.


Even as the science itself disproves their theories – Arctic ice is thickening, polar bears and penguins are thriving, Himalayan glaciers are growing – climate change alarmists are only becoming more aggressive in their attacks against anyone who dares question the global warming mantra.


Earlier month we highlighted Professor Kari Norgaard’s call for climate skeptics to be likened to racists and ‘treated’ for having a mental disorder. In a letter to Barack Obama, Norgaard also called on the President to ignore the will of the people and suspend democracy in order to enforce draconian ecological mandates.


But that’s by no means represents the extreme edge of eco-fascist sentiment that has been expressed in recent years.


In 2010, UK government-backed global warming alarmist group 10:10 produced an infomercial in which children who refused to lower their carbon emissions were slaughtered in an orgy of blood and guts. After a massive backlash, the organization was forced to remove the video from their website and issue an apology.


The same year, ‘Gaia hypothesis’ creator James Lovelock asserted that “democracy must be put on hold” to combat global warming and that “a few people with authority” should be allowed to run the planet because people were too stupid to be allowed to steer their own destinies.


In 2006, an environmental magazine to which Al Gore and Bill Moyers had both granted interviews advocated that climate skeptics who are part of the “denial industry” be arrested and made to face Nuremberg-style war crimes trials.


ClimateDepot.com’s Mark Morano is encouraging AGW skeptics to politely inform Steve Zwick ( info@ecosystemmarketplace.com) that calling for people who express a difference of opinion to be tracked and have their houses burned down is not a rational argument for the legitimacy of man-made global warming science.


Indeed, it’s the argument of a demented idiot who’s obviously in the throws of a childish tantrum over the fact that Americans are rejecting the global government/carbon tax agenda for which man-made global warming is a front in greater numbers than ever before.

Presidential Politics goes to the Dogs

I am a true fan of our 4 legged friends.

Dogs are Man's Best Friend and anyone mistreating ( or eating) one is on my shite-list. The issue of DOGGATE is less about what MITT did or what BHO ate, but a total lack of journalistic integrity.

The hypocrisy of those in the media is on full display and continues with DOGGATE.

John Hayward asks, “Why didn’t the media know Obama ate dogs?” They did a mad dash to scour through Sarah Palin’s e-mails — after the 2008 election — and found nothing. But going to any bookstore and picking up Obama’s first autobiography was too much work for them. Why bother? They might’ve found something that would embarrass him.

Jim Treacher says, " (The Media) bought his memoirs so they’d look good on the shelf, but nobody wanted to actually read them. Besides, they were too busy going through Sarah Palin’s middle-school yearbooks."

The Daily Caller chips in, " When Romney puts a dog on a car roof, it’s a job for Diane Sawyer. When Obama eats one*, it’s a (less important) story. And isn’t it interesting that an incident from 1983 couldn’t be more current, but quoting one of Obama’s books is “dredging” it up? Guess it all depends on which party is embarrassed about it."

All I know is we need the economy fixed as that is our key issue in this election and has caused thousands of Dogs to be abandoned by those who have lost jobs and homes. That occurred on President Obama's watch and that is reason enough to want a different person in the White House.
We need a new President and one that doesn't have the media as his personal "lap dog".

Michigan Teacher upset because she can't retire at 47 as she had hoped....

And people wonder why we are 25th in the world in education....

This "teacher" is responsible for educating children and shows her contempt not just for her position as an educator but her total contempt for all others in her state. She wants what she is "entitled" to and doesn't care how it effects anyone else.

She is the tip of the iceberg as we will see thousands more like her who will look for the majority to do without because they were promised lifetime everything on that taxpayers by other government idiots.

To believe that anyone could be this out of touch with reality is mindboggling...


Teacher Upset She Can't Retire at 47
MEA member says reform bill calling for teachers to contribute minimally to retirement is unfairBy Tom Gantert April 18, 2012
www.michigancapitolconfidential.com

Terri List says she would tell her students not to become a teacher in Michigan.

Why?

One of the reasons is because the Saginaw Township Community School District English teacher won’t be able to retire at age 47 as she has hoped.

List was highlighted by the Michigan Education Association as one of the critics of Senate Bill 1040, which would require public school employees to contribute at least 5 percent of their compensation to their retirement plan.

The MEA reported on its website: "Saginaw Township teacher Terry (sic) List had hoped to retire in the next three years when she was 47 years old. That wouldn’t be possible under SB 1040. List would have to work another 16 years to be eligible for health benefits."

“By the time I’m 60, I would have put in 43 years of service, earning a salary at the top of the pay scale. How does that save the district money? You could hire two people for the cost of one and encourage young people to join the profession. Right now, I would not recommend to my pupils to become a teacher in Michigan.”

List didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

According to the school’s most recent teacher’s contract, List earns between $70,000 and $80,000 a year depending upon her level of education. Factor in expected pay raises over the next 15 years and it’s likely List would make more than $90,000 by the time she retires, said Michael Van Beek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Van Beek estimated List’s pension would be $60,000 a year in retirement and it would increase 3 percent a year and she would get health benefits when she retired at age 60. Van Beek also said that it is likely that List bought “years of service” because she said she would have 43 years of service by age 60. Van Beek said that practice is basically extinct in the private sector.

Leon Drolet, chairman of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, called List’s comments “amazing.”

“Wow. They have reached the politicians’ level of entitlement,” Drolet said. “She thinks she is entitled to retire at 47? Holy smokes. I don’t know what more to say to that. A government employee thinking that 47 is a reasonable expectation to retire shows just how deep inside their own bubble they live, insulated from the real world.”

Charles Owens, president of the Michigan chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, said tongue-in-cheek that List was “spot on” in her complaint.

“If you want to retire if you are 47, apparently teaching is not the place to go,” Owens said. “The least Terri could do is provide a list of places other people could go so they can retire when they are 47.”

WTF ? The US Navy is looking for a replacement for the yet to be deployed Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

The US won our past conflicts because we were able to out innovate & out produce our foes. We were able to manufacture enough planes, ships, tanks, etc. that we were able to outgun and overwhelm our opponents.

The newer and whizzy-bangety jet planes we have now are awesome BUT if we ever get into a REAL fight against a country that will engage our fighters, we would be unable to get more of them up in the air to replace the lost planes quick enough to make a difference.

Case in point is the J-35 Strike Fighter which to date has more issues than Chevy's Vega and Ford's Pinto combined. Now, the Navy is already ginning up the idea of it's replacement when the multi-billion dollar plane has yet to even be used....Whiskey-Tango- Foxtrot ?? Are these idiots serious?

The J-35 is likely going to become operative and will be a white elephant well before it hits it's 2nd year of deployment. What we really need is "leaner-meaner-cheaper-better" as that will be what works.

The idea that we need or can afford this EDSEL of a Jet Fighter shows the Navy has serious problems that need a course correction, like yesterday. Really.


Navy Looks for New Jet, on Top of Its Trillion-Dollar Model
By Spencer Ackerman - Wired.com

On Friday, the Navy quietly released a “market survey” asking the big defense contractors for their “candidate[s]” for “strike fighter aircraft” in the decades to come. Which is a little weird, considering the Pentagon is currently spending a trillion dollars on just such an aircraft: the troubled Joint Strike Fighter.

The stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is supposed to one day make up 90 percent or more of America’s combat aviation power. But the program has been hit with all kinds of expensive technical glitches and delays. So the Navy has long hedged against the giant JSF bet by buying more of its beloved F/A-18 Super Hornet; that way, the Navy can keep flying modern fighters, even if the JSFs slip. With this “market survey,” the Navy appears to be making a second hedge: a Son of the Super Hornet — one that would come online after the F/A-18s are retired in the 2030s — just in case the JSF flames out entirely.

“That’s absolutely not the right interpretation,” says Capt. Frank Morley, the Navy’s program manager for the Super Hornet and its cousin, the EA-18 jamming Growler. But if the Son of the Super Hornet isn’t a hedge against the JSF becoming too expensive for the cash-strapped military, then the aircraft carrier decks of the future may be stocked with redundant planes.

After the Super Hornets retire, the Navy wants “a multi-role strike capability” that can fly from a carrier, according to the “market survey” that the Navy released Friday. Some of its primary missions: “air warfare (AW), strike warfare (STW), surface warfare (SUW), and close air support (CAS).”

And that sounds suspiciously like the role that the Navy’s version of the JSF is supposed to play. That plane, already the most expensive weapons program in the history of mankind, is in serious budget trouble. In addition to newly discovered design flaws, the Government Accountability Office last month found additional problems with its software and safety systems. The military wants the F-35 to ultimately replace nearly every tactical fixed-wing aircraft the Navy, Marines and Air Force fly, but the admiral in charge of the program has backed off the 2018 estimate for when the plane is expected to enter the air fleet.


So the Navy has bought more Super Hornets as delays plague the JSF. At the Navy’s annual Sea Air Space convention, Morley self-congratulated by noting that the Super Hornet is “on time, on cost, and on schedule.”

But the Son of the Super Hornet, the Navy’s survey swears, isn’t supposed to be a backup in case the JSF fails. Instead, it will be a “complementary … asset to the F-35C and an unmanned persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) vehicle with precision strike capability.” In other words, it’ll fly in a carrier air wing alongside the JSF and the Navy’s future carrier-based drone, currently known as the X-47B.

But if so, that raises a question of redundancy. Both the JSF and the post-Super Hornet plane would be performing very similar manned strike missions. (Although the survey doesn’t suggest the post-Super Hornet will need to be stealthy, a central asset of the JSF.)

Morley strongly denies that the Son of the Super Hornet poses a threat to the JSF or will replicate its missions. “We are an all-F-18 fleet today,” Morley tells Danger Room. “In that 2020-2030 time frame, those decades, we intend to be a Super Hornet-JSF fleet. And then those Super Hornets are going to be aging out, those earlier ones, and we need to be a JSF-and-something-else fleet.”

But then what will the something else be? What will keep the Son of Super Hornet from redundancy with the JSF?

“Don’t know,” Morley concedes. “That’s the point of the whole analysis. What do we need it to do? What will the threat be then? What will JSF be able to cover? What additional capabilities might we need? That’s all the stuff we’re starting to look at now.”

Other Navy officials are just as emphatic. “This is prudent planning on the Navy’s part,” argues Rob Koon, a spokesman for the Navy’s tactical aircraft program. “Every airframe needs to have a follow-on replacement.” His boss, Marcia Hart, adds, “There has to be something after the Super Hornet.”

There’s a sense in which that’s correct. The program for the Super Hornet replacement, officially called the FA-XX and announced last week in the Pentagon’s 30-year aviation plan, might not necessarily yield a new aircraft. It could. But as the program goes on, the brass might decide that the JSF in fact does what the Navy needs a post-Super Hornet plane to do. Or it might even decide that the post-X-47B is a better substitute.

Put another way, it might be best to think of the FA-XX as a placeholder constant, like in physics or math, necessary for making a formula operate, rather than a definite thing on its own.

But there’s also a chance that the post-Super Hornet will turn out to be exactly what it sounds like: another strike jet, designed for the seaborne attack missions that the Navy’s F-35 variant is supposed to perform. Even 20 years from now, Super Hornet’s son could be picking up the JSF’s slack.

US Senator Scott Brown calls for Government Employees to pony up $1 Billion dollars in overdue taxes

THIS is a good example of why we need Senator Scott Brown representing us in Massachusetts. He is not afraid to call out those who feel that the rules are for "the little people".

Awesome. VOTE Scott Brown for an other term as our US Senator in Massachusetts. We need him.


Sen. Brown: Bill targets tax scofflaws in Congress Friday, 13 Apr 2012, 8:41 PM EDT

BOSTON (AP) - U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is pushing a new bill that he said would make it easier to collect back taxes from federal workers and members of Congress.

The Massachusetts Republican said that a recent report by the Internal Revenue Service showed that in 2010, 98,000 federal employees owed a combined $1 billion in back taxes.

Brown said members and employees of the U.S. Senate alone owed over $2 million.

The bill would require members and employees of Congress and federal employees who file financial disclosures forms to report any delinquent tax liability to the appropriate ethics office and come up with a plan to pay off the taxes.

Those who fail to arrange a payment plan with the IRS within a year could have those back taxes taken directly out of their wages

Columbian sightseeing with the Secret Service

This kind of "behavior" goes on all the time and would have likely gone unnoticed if not for one of the agents refusing to pay the young lady for her services. Not that it makes what goes on "right"

Star Trek London 2012

Beam me to London Scotty....The UK plans a Star Trek convention of epic proportions. Make sure they have some serious quantities of Romulan Ale on hand....


Star Trek London event brings together five captains
All five Star Trek TV captains will appear on stage for the first time in event in London in October 2012.
UK Telegraph


Star Trek is beaming over to London in October and boldly going where no trekkie event has gone before by bringing together all five TV captains on stage for the first time.

Organisers for 'Destination Star Trek London' said today that their fan convention would be the first official 'Star Trek' live event in the UK for 10 years.

To mark the occasion, actors William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Avery Brooks (Commander Sisko), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) and Scott Bakula (Captain Archer), who have commanded operations in each of their respective series based on the iconic TV franchise that began in 1966, will appear on stage together.

"The 'Star Trek' fan base in the UK is one of the biggest in the world, and it has waited a long time for the convention to return, so we wanted to make sure we did it right," said Liz Kalodner, general manger of CBS Consumer Products, which owns the TV franchise.

Shatner, 81, the first captain of the starship Enterprise, has been a fan favorite at conventions, mostly in the United States, that attract thousands of trekkies.


Avery Brooks, who became the first black actor to take the lead role when he appeared in the 1993-99 series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", has also made appearances, along with Kate Mulgrew, who made a splash as female Captain Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager" for six years.

But all five actors have never appeared together at an official event for the cult series.

Organisers said they were expecting some 10,000-15,000 people from all over the world to attend the London convention at the Excel Exhibition Centre from Oct 19-21. Tickets go on sale starting April 30.

"It's not just the five captains. There will be a host of other guests from the series. The fans will be able to get up close," said Rob Nathan, marketing director for Media 10 which is organizing the events in collaboration with CBS.

Nathan said the London event would be bigger and better than many other "Star Trek" events.

"We are going to make this really interactive. There are going to be stunt displays, we are going to recreate some sets, and get some original sets. People will be able to sit on the starship bridge with members of the cast," he said.

Nathan said some 14,000 people had registered to sign up for information about the London event after an initial, cryptic Twitter message was posted at the beginning of March.

"It's going to be an absolute pilgrimage for 'Star Trek' fans," he said.

War and what it means

" War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. "

John Stuart Mill
English economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)

" And the band played Waltzing Matilda" sung by the late great Liam Clancy



Let us never forget and always remember those who sacrificed for our Freedom. We owe all of those who defend our freedom more than we can ever imagine.

President Trainwreck

Andrew Malcolm of Investors Business Daily nails it.

Mr. "Hopey- Changey" is really President Trainwreck. His administration is the proverbial "Three Stooges" of politics when you add in Geitner, Napolitano, Biden, etc.

Yeah, Romney is not the guy who thrills people but right now we need Competent & Steady Leadership, not this Chicago Village Idiot who has been in over his head for the entire time he has been in office. He was elected by those who had no clue as to what he would do and his term in office has been nothing but more misery for Americans.

" This 2012 Obama is strident and mean, even deceitful, divisive, telling half-truths after half-truths. He's using Air Force One as his personal Brinks truck with wings to collect cash all over the country, disguising the trips as official."

Yup. No doubt about it - Obama has got to go. November can't come soon enough.

Who is this guy pretending to be president?
By ANDREW MALCOLM - Investors Business Daily

Has anyone seen Barack Obama recently?

You know, the optimistic hopeful fellow with the charming smile who promised so many positive things four and five years ago, how he was going to change the harsh, partisan tone of our nation's capital and bring the country together as its first African American president.

Even allowing for political hyperbole, his empty resume and the invisible witnesses from the past, Obama was such a Real Good Talker that even some who didn't vote for him still had hope that he could change some things for the better in what seemed a sadly-splintered society.

WTH did that Obama go? Have you listened recently to this Chicago Doppelganger who's replaced him? This 2012 Obama is strident and mean, even deceitful, divisive, telling half-truths after half-truths. He's using Air Force One as his personal Brinks truck with wings to collect cash all over the country, disguising the trips as official.

He tries to intimidate the Supreme Court, an equal branch of government, when its thinking might stray from his. He distorts history, and if no one calls him, then it's true. If he's caught, this Obama says you obviously mis-heard. Because, as everyone knows, he could never mis-speak.

The economy, like everything else adverse, is someone else's fault. But if only we borrowed and spent a trillion dollars, unemployment would stay beneath 8%, Obama promised. It soared far above. It's still above. No apology. No acknowledgment. Now, he hails any dip as proof of progress when, in fact, it comes because so many just give up seeking work.

He chastises House Republicans for their draconian budget when his Senate Democrats haven't written a single one in three years; so, the fiscal drift abides. And wait till he exaggerates the frightening things the GOP wants to do, instead of presenting his own ideas.

Obama claims credit for the bottom half of a pipeline he had nothing to do with, when he killed the top half. He brags that domestic oil drilling is up when the part he's responsible for is down.

He says no one should ever go to Las Vegas on the taxpayer's dime. Then his wife, daughters and entourage do just that.

This year's Obama talks of the importance of windmills, algae and green energy, but he takes a 17-SUV motorcade to a photo op with an electric car. He lambasts oil companies for getting the same legal tax incentives (he calls them "subsidies") that other companies receive, hoping to aim anger at them so voters won't notice that gas prices have doubled since his inauguration.

Take this Tuesday. The 2012 Obama flew to Florida for an official presidential speech on the economy, then three fundraisers. That way his campaign only pays a fraction of Air Force One's $182,000 per flight hour cost. All presidents do that, though none have done near as many.

But read the four speeches. You can't tell which is official and which is political. They're all political. He can't be a real president for one lousy speech? Why the phony presidential fig leaf? To chintz the United States of America out of a few thousand bucks when he plans to raise a billion?

The Buffet Rule? Americans have always admired the successful. The only thing wrong with rich people is we're not one of them -- yet. But now he's pitting most of us against rich folks, which is him, come to think of it. The only way he's bringing us together now is to resent their paying a smaller legal rate because theirs is a different kind of income.

And speaking of taxes, whch are due Monday, how can the president of the United States allow 36 of his own White House aides to fall $833,000 behind in their tax payments?

How is that what the first Obama offered, making him an example of American success? (Hint: His GOP opponent is far richer than Obama and earned it the old-fashioned way through work, not fronting books.)

OK, Obama wants political skirmishes all over on any petty thing so people won't notice the absence of any conceivably positive record to run on. Risky when Americans start paying attention. But if that's his only card. It's all the Republicans' fault, of course. That's the candidate in him, the one that prefers performing for adoring crowds instead of performing Oval Office duties.

But whatever happened to the president part? The leader. The principled man who through his personal story, skills and charm was going to inspire, convince, cajole Americans as diverse as himself to work together for a common national success? That official part has merged with the political, like the four Florida speeches. Now, he's just trying to fool everybody about everything.

In a way, this could be good news for Republicans. The duplicate Ernst Blofeld makes Mitt Romney look like Mr. Rogers.

But without real presidential leadership, Obama's hand-picked harpie atop the Democratic National Committee feels empowered to assign a hired gun to dismiss his opponent's wife, the cancer-surviving mother of five sons, as someone who's never worked a day in her life. Are they that scared already?

Seriously? We're going to pit now one kind of working woman against another? The guy who talks about having so many women in his life isn't going to fire the women responsible for that? He thinks American women will buy this stuff?

OK, Obama was raised by grandparents because he didn't always have a stay-at-home mom or dad. But this is a nation, not a dysfunctional family or a windy city party where factions are left to their own wards and Solyndras.

Obama is the guy who said his own wife was off limits politically, the guy whose mother-in-law has resided since Day One in the White House at taxpayer expense as a live-in nanny so the first lady can campaign for money and healthy foods? But a woman who stays at home with her kids at no public expense can be trashed because of her party?

The Truth Is Out There - A MONOLITH on the surface of MARS

This is one of those " Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot" moments when even the most skeptical of people will look at the picture from the surface of Mars and stare in disbelief...

I've seen the Pyramids of Mars pics and agree there is a lot we won't know about what is what on the surface until we can REALLY explore there but this one tops all others...2001 ? HAL ? It seems that SCI-FI is really SCI-NOW....Damn.

I like the "explainations" but you know that back in the lab, the NASA guys and others are saying, " Crap, we can't cover this one up..."



'Monolith' Object on Mars? You Could Call It That
By Natalie Wolchover
LiveScience.com

Amateur stargazers have discovered an intriguing object jutting out from the surface of Mars. The seemingly perfectly rectangular, upright structure, found in NASA images of the Red Planet, bears a striking resemblance to the monoliths planted on Earth and the moon by aliens in the classic sci-fi film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

The object in question was first spotted several years ago after being photographed by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA space probe; every so often, it garners renewed interest on the Internet. But is it unnatural — a beacon erected by aliens for mysterious reasons, and even more mysteriously paralleled in the imaginations of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, creators of "2001"? Or is this rock the work of nature? [Photo ]

According to Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, who processes many of the images taken during NASA's Mars missions, the object in question is no more than a roughly rectangular boulder.

The HiRISE camera that photographed it has a resolution of approximately 1 foot (30 centimeters) per pixel — impressive considering the 180-mile (300-kilometer) altitude from which it photographs the Martian surface, but not quite sharp enough to capture the cragginess of a mid-size boulder. "When your resolution is too low to fully resolve an object, it tends to look rectangular because the pixels in the image are squares. Any curve will look like a series of straight lines if you reduce your resolution enough," Hill told Life's Little Mysteries.

The location of the boulder at the bottom of a cliff near many other boulders suggests it broke off the cliff and tumbled to its current spot sometime in the distant past, Hill said. Such a perilous location is itself an argument against deliberate placement by aliens: "If I was going to build a monolith somewhere, that's the last place I would put it!" he said. "The debris falling from the cliff would cover it up pretty quickly, on geologic timescales."

[Hill added that the height of the boulder is being exaggerated in the photo by a low sun angle. Photographed when the sun was near the horizon, the boulder casts an especially long shadow.

The ufologists aren't necessarily wrong in calling it a monolith — the word simply translates from Latin as "one stone." But this monolith isn't the masonry of Martians.

Lifeguards

I feel that Mr. Romney's approach is more in line with what is best for the United States - Let Obama go work to assist Europeafter he gets thrown out of office as he seems to prefer their economic model....We have seen how well that worked out for them...The Euro is a joke. It was doomed from the beginning and now holds the European Union countries helpless to help themselves.

50 Years ago today - JFK demonstrates Presidential Leadership unlike our present day President who hasn't got a clue

Presidential Leadership - Then & Now

50 years ago today we had a real leader in the White House. The American public were getting whacked by steel executives driving the price for steel up and it effected all Americans.

Today, Oil goes up due to speculation and greed, and all we get from the President is " Not my job.." and excuses.

News yesterday - "The Energy Information Administration says gasoline will cost an average of $3.95 per gallon from April through September, an increase of 6.3 percent from the same period last year. The peak monthly average should be $4.01 in May.

The government says there's a small chance the price for a gallon could climb as high as $4.50 in June."


Take a listen to how a REAL leader dealt with the issues that hurt Americans economically 50 years ago today. THIS is the type of leader we need here & now but is no where in sight for our country.

And that is a crisis. ( Play the audio, really - you will enjoy listening to what REAL LEADERSHIP sounds like - Trust me.)




Statement of the President of the United States
John F. Kennedy
The Steel Crisis
April 11, 1962


" Simultaneous and identical actions of United States Steel and other leading steal corporations increasing steel prices by some $6 a ton constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest. In this serious hour in our Nation's history when we are confronted with grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and stability, when we are asking reservists to leave their homes and their families for months on end and servicemen to risk their lives--and four were killed in the last two days in Viet Nam and asking union members to hold down their wage requests at a time when restraint and sacrifice are being asked of every citizen, the American people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans.

If this rise in the cost of steel is imitated by the rest of the industry, instead of rescinded, it would increase the cost of homes, autos, appliances, and most other items for every American family. It would increase the cost of machinery and tools to every American businessman and farmer. It would seriously handicap our efforts to prevent an inflationary spiral from eating up the pensions of our older citizens, and our new gains in purchasing power.

It would add, Secretary McNamara informed me this morning, an estimated $1 billion to the cost of our defences, at a time when every dollar is needed for national security and other purposes. It would make it more difficult for American goods to compete in foreign markets, more difficult to withstand competition from foreign imports, and thus more difficult to improve our balance of payments position, and stem the flow of gold. And it is necessary to stem it for our national security, if we're going to pay for our security committments abroad. And it would surely handicap our efforts to induce other industries and unions to adopt reasonable price and wage policies.

The facts of the matter are that there is no justification for an increase in steel prices. The recent settlement between the industry and the union, which doesn not even take place until July 1st, was widely acknowledged to be noninflationary, and the whole purpose and effect of this Administration's role, which both parties understood, was to achieve an agreement which would make unnecessary any increase in prices. Steel output per man is rising so fast that labor costs per ton of steel can actually be expected to decline in the next 12 months. And in fact, the acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics informed me this morning that, and I quote, "employment costs per unit of steel output in 1961 were essentially the same as they were in 1958."

The cost of the major raw materials, steel scrap and coal, has also been declining, and for an industry which has generally been operating at less than two-thirds of capacity, its profit rate has been normal and can be expected to rise sharply this year in view of the reduction in idle capacity. Their lot has been easier than that of one hundred thousand steel workers thrown out of work in the last 3 years. The industry's cash dividends have exceeded $600 million in each of the last 5 years, and earnings in the first quarter of this year were estimated in the February 28th Wall Street Journal to be among the highest in history.

In short, at a time when they could be exploring how more efficiency and better prices could be obtained, reducing prices in this industry in recognition of lower costs, their unusually good labor contract, their foreign competition and their increase in production and profits which are coming this year, a few gigantic corporations have decided to increase prices in ruthless disregard of their public responsibilities.

The Steelworkers Union can be proud that it abided by its responsibilities in this agreement, and this Government also has responsibilities which we intend to meet. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are examining the significance of this action in a free, competetive economy. The Department of Defence and other agencies are reviewing its impact on their policies of procurement. And I am informed that steps are under way by those members of the Congress who plan appropriate inquiries into how these price decisions are so quickly made and reached and what legislative safeguards may be needed to protect the public interest.

Price and wage decisions in this country, except for a very limited restriction in the case of monopolies and national emergency strikes, are and ought to be freely and privately made. But the American people have a right to expect, in return for that freedom, a higher sense of business responsibility for the welfare of their country than has been shown in the last 2 days.

Some time ago I asked each American to consider what he would do for his country and I asked the steel companies. In the last 24 hours we had their answer. "