Like Listening to a Ten Year Old Child

Listening to #Obama @ his live press conference is like listening to a 10 yr old tell you that " The dog ate my homework" / More #Lies & #BS

— Middleboro Jones (@Leadership_One) March 1, 2013

CNO Memo on Sequestration

This is not good.

The fools in Washington starting from the one at the White House to many others in Congress have spent us into a $16 TRILLION dollar hole.  This hole is so deep, it will put our nation in a serious "hurt locker".

But we still have millions to send to Pakistan, Jet Fighters to Egypt and wasted millions for the political crap that the politicians value more than our national security.

How bad are things??  Read the enclosed memo from the CNO.

This is about as bad as it gets.

Pretty Much Sums it up......

WILEY nails it again.....

Today's NON SEQUITUR Comic strip

Congress on Vacation

And the difference between them being on the job and on vacation would be ????

The people's representatives in Congress are the epitome of government workers - overpaid, unqualified and lackadaisical - everything we have come to expect from government.....

FDR requests a Declaration of War against Japan - 12/08/41

FDR was notified of the attack on Pearl Harbor approximately 15 minutes after it began. The problem was that he had to deal with fragmented reports and the issue that there was no direct communication lines between Hawaii and the White House. It wasn't until late on 12/07/41 that he got a full report that detailed the true scope of the losses we had suffered.

He dictated the text of the speech he gave on Dec 8th to his secretary as his speech writers were not in Washington DC that weekend. It is one of the most powerful speeches given by a President and rallied the nation as he requests a declaration of war against Japan, 70 years ago today.

Declaration of War against Japan - 12/08/41

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And, while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt - December 8, 1941

House reaffirms 'In God We Trust' as US motto

Congress may not do too much correctly but they got this one right. The House reaffirmed the nation's motto is " In God we trust ". The resolution was needed because President Obama had once called "E pluribus unum" the national motto, and the Latin phrase meaning "from many one" was engraved in the new Capitol Visitors Center until Congress ordered that it be corrected.

The key to this is " God " is not listed as any one religion or Deity, rather a belief that we are all can hold belief in a high power than ourselves. The Atheists have protested this but as with any one group, they can hold their belief without it having to effect everyone else. There is no way to satisfy all but in this case, we have reaffirmed the belief of the majority.

I am glad to see this resolution as it is needed in times like this - too many have lost faith and it is what keep us going. Faith in ourselves, our country and our God.


House reaffirms 'In God We Trust' as US motto
11/02/11
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday passed a non-binding resolution reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the national motto.

The measure sponsored by Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., supports and encourages the motto's display in all public schools and government buildings. It was approved 396-9, with 2 abstentions.

Forbes said the resolution was needed because President Obama had once called "E pluribus unum" the national motto, and the Latin phrase meaning "from many one" was engraved in the new Capitol Visitors Center until Congress ordered that it be corrected.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called the resolution a meaningless distraction from the nation's real problems. "Nobody is threatening the national motto," he said.

"In God We Trust" first appeared on U.S. coins during the Civil War in 1864. It officially became the national motto in 1956 and began appearing on paper currency the following year.

Senator Scott Brown has the support of Massachusetts Voters - Elizabeth Warren (and her pal Nancy Pelosi), not so much...

Massachusetts Senator Scott brown has been taking heat from the DEMS due to something that started on the Democratic Primary Debate. I don't feel it is worth rehashing here as it amounted to two off hand remarks, one made by Warren, and a response Brown made to a radio station DJ's inquiry. The media blew it up and if you weighed the importance of this pair of remarks to the real issues ( jobs, economy, etc.), this issue is laughable.

Well Rep. Nancy Pelosi decided to weigh in.

As a Massachusetts voter, I can say without a doubt that Nancy Pelosi can stick to her own business before she tries to say anything about anyone else. Her credibility is a shallow as water on a flat rock. Americans gave her a clear message on what they thought about her "whacky" ideas of what is needed in America.

Senator Scott Brown was elected because even the citizen of Massachusetts are sick of the LIBS version of America and all it represents. While Elizabeth Warren has supporters, she'll find that Senator Brown has more here because he represents the real needs of the citizens of Massachusetts. Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard elitist and has no idea what the average family in Massachusetts is facing these days.

Senator Brown is a decorated Veteran and has served his nation. That alone makes him highly suited for the position of US Senator as we need more Veterans in Congress.

Senator Scott Brown, you have our support & votes. Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi and the other LIBS, you can't leave the stage quick enough as you don't have a clue.


Pelosi says senator's comment 'disrespectful to women'
CNN Political Unit
(CNN) -– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that comments made by Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown about a Democratic rival showed a “disrespect for women.”

Brown made the remarks Thursday, when asked about candidate Elizabeth Warren’s statement that she had “kept her clothes on” while paying for college. Warren was making reference to a nearly nude 1982 Cosmopolitan magazine photo shoot that Brown did to earn money at age 22.

When asked about the comment during a radio interview with WZLX in Boston, Brown said only, "Thank God.”

Pelosi said Sunday on the ABC program “This Week” that the comment was disrespectful.

“The response you just gave, 'Thank God,' really, I thought spoke volumes about how clueless Senator Brown is,” Pelosi said. “It really spoke volumes about, really, disrespect for women that he may not even realize. I bet you he'd like to take that comment back.”

Pelosi acknowledged that the comment was likely meant to be a joke, but maintained that it was still revealing of Brown’s character.

“I hope it's joke-y. And if it is, then hopefully he will take that comment back. But women know. They hear a comment like that, it tells you a lot about somebody,” Pelosi said

All in how you define the "problem"

Not like I have a lot of faith in Congress either as they were one of the "prime enablers" in letting the President spend us into a $14 Trillion Dollar hole....We need to take the keys away from the idjit-in-charge and elect someone who understands that you CAN'T spend what you don't HAVE !!

WISDOM

Right about now, I trust the WISDOM of the K-9 Sgt. pictured here than most of Congress...

The Unemployment Numbers are an " Unmitigated Disaster" - the real numbers are much, much worse....bleak times for US Workforce

Here are some of the remarks made by economists based on the updated Unemployment Rate released on Friday:

" Unmitigated Disaster ", " It will be many years before the nation eliminates the current shortfall in jobs ", "We can see no silver lining in this employment report, which is weak, weak, weak."

You get the picture. Too bad the empty suit in the White House doesn't get it as he is trying to say he deserves another 4-year term to keep driving the American Economy into the ground. If your job performance at work was a poor as his, you would have been fired about a year into the job. Too Bad we can't do that with Obama.

The DEMS in Congress are Obama's cheerleaders and equally culpable. The GOP will only help if it suits their political gains and ultimately, the US Taxpayers are the ones getting screwed.

Well, let's interject some sobering reality into the situation - If you look at and include those who have fallen off the numbers who are counted, the unemployment issue is much, much worse than the present resident of the White House would like to admit...any wonder why some would seek work outside the US (or in Afghanistan) if this is the situation back home ?


Without Dropouts, Jobless Rate Would Be Over 11%
Wall Street Journal - July 8, 2011

The unemployment rate increased to 9.2% in June, the Labor Department reported, but if the recession hadn’t pushed so many people out of the labor market it would have been much worse.

The duration of unemployment continues to increase and sat at an average of 39.9 weeks in June. More than four million people who want jobs, or nearly a third of the unemployed, have been out of work for more than a year. Those are the people are hanging in and looking for work, but a large number have given up altogether.

The share of the population in the jobs market, called the labor-force participation rate, fell to 64.1% last month — the lowest level since 1984 when women were still just beginning to enter in full force. The participation rate peaked in 2000 and has been steadily declining since as the effect of women taking full-time jobs plateaued and Baby Boomers began to retire, but the decline accelerated sharply during the recession. The participation rate was 66% at the start of the recession and 65.7% when the recovery started in June 2009. If the participation rate were still at that level, the unemployment rate would be more than 11% right now.

With nearly a third of the unemployed out of work for over a year, it makes their reintegration back into the labor market more and more difficult. People out of a job that long tend to lose skills and experience long-term effects on their lifetime earning power. It’s even harder to reintegrate workers who have dropped out altogether.

There’s also a problem of underemployment. A comprehensive gauge of labor underutilization, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find full-time jobs. That number shot up in June to 16.2% from 15.8% a month earlier.

The U-6 figure includes everyone in the official rate plus “marginally attached workers” — those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic reasons, meaning they want full-time work but took a part-time schedule instead because that’s all they could find. People who drop out of the labor force completely aren’t included in this tally.

Sometimes the jobless rate can rise because people re-enter the work force. That can be a positive sign for the economy, indicating a strengthening labor market and improved confidence. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in June. The number of people in the labor force dropped last month, while the number of people employed tumbled and the number of unemployed increased.

Objection noted.....

Objection noted and we heartily agree with this Sailor's Point-of-view.....

Cooperation... to work or act together to achieve a common goal

Righhht.......That'll be the day.....

Is the country headed in the right direction?.

Pretty much tells it like it is - IF you like what you went through for the last two years - vote for the office holder - IF NOT, put the new guy in.....how much simpler can it be???


When Party Is All That Matters
There's only one question for voters in the midterm congressional elections: Is the country headed in the right direction?.

By PAUL H. RUBIN
As the midterm approaches, I am amazed at the number of totally irrelevant arguments in the debates and in the media. This year there is only one issue at play in the Senate and House elections: Is the country headed in the right direction?

Does a candidate have strange views about social issues? How did he or she earn a living? These things don't matter much.

Many Democrats claim they differ from President Obama on this or that. That does not matter either. What matters is which party controls the House and the Senate. If the Democrats have the majority in the Senate, then things will continue pretty much as they are. There will be no new major legislation (a Republican House will stop that), but efforts to roll back what has already passed will not go far. If the Republicans control the Senate, then some rollback might occur and the country might be ready for more change in 2012.

Personality matters in elections for governors because governors have executive authority. This year, governors' party affiliations matter more than normal because this is the year when redistricting will occur, and that will influence the composition of the U.S. House of Representatives until the next census, set for 2020. But this is a secondary issue, and a rational voter might vote for a Democrat for governor because the voter thinks that the Democrat would do a better job of governing.

But members of Congress do not govern. They vote on national issues. If you like the direction of the country in the last two years, then vote Democratic. If you do not, vote Republican.

Mr. Rubin is professor of economics at Emory University

Stimulus Spending Wasteful...no kidding.

And the " Captain Obvious" award goes to the media for reporting on something the average taxpayer had figured out long ago.... Sen. McCain has been valiantly trying to rein in the Pork Barrel spending for the past 20 years.....

Anyone could have told you that the Stimulus Plan was a huge waste of tax dollars that we will be paying for for the rest of our lives....Too bad the Congress and POTUS don't have a clue.

Stimulus Slammed: Republican Senators Release Report Alleging Waste
Sens. Coburn, McCain Rip Stimulus Spending 'Waste'
By JONATHAN KARL, MATTHEW JAFFE and GREGORY SIMMONS
Aug. 3, 2010

The Obama administration has credited its $862 billion stimulus program with pulling the economy out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. But a new report by two Republican senators argues the stimulus is riddled with wasteful projects that do not create jobs.

The report, released by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John McCain, R-Ariz., highlights 100 stimulus projects that they say have "questionable goals," are "being mismanaged or were poorly planned" and are even "costing jobs and hurting small businesses."

The Coburn-McCain report takes issue with stimulus spending on projects like one that entailed research on how cocaine affects monkeys. The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center was awarded $71,623 to study what the report calls, "Monkeys Getting High for Science."

Bonnie Davis, a spokeswoman for The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said the "small grant has helped protect very important research that will have significant impact on public health in regards to cocaine addiction and the issue of relapse."

Go a little further down the list and you'll find even bigger spending. The California Academy of Sciences is receiving nearly $1 million in stimulus funds to send researchers to the Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and East Africa to capture, photograph and analyze thousands of exotic ants.

There's also funding for yoga and hot flashes. Researchers at Wake Forest University have received nearly $300,000 to study whether integral yoga "can be an effective method to reduce the frequency and/or severity of hot flashes" in breast cancer survivors.

"I think all of them are waste," McCain told ABC News. "I think none of them really have any meaningful impact on creating jobs. And, of course, some are more egregious than others but all of them are terrible."

In perhaps the most eye-popping instance, the report says oil giant BP, the company behind the worst oil spill in the nation's history, is benefiting from $308 million given to Hydrogen Energy California -- a company it owns -- to build a California power plant that won't even break ground for another two years.

The funds were given to BP by the Department of Energy. While the natural gas electricity plant in Kern County would generate enough low-carbon electricity for 150,000 family homes, according to the company, construction will not start for another two years and the plant is not set to become operational until the end of 2014.

"It's nice to have BP investing in environmentally friendly anything, much less a power plant," McCain quipped.

The White House Recovery Office maintains Recovery Act funding for the project was offered in June 2009 and officially awarded in September 2009, long before the Gulf spill, and that the award went to a joint venture that is a 50/50 cost-share between Rio Tinto and BP -- so BP is not the primary awardee.

In addition, it turns out the $308 million awarded is only made up of $175 million in stimulus funds, with the remaining portion coming from other sources. In fact, the private sector has given the project seven times as much funding as the government has.

"The project directly and indirectly employs more than 150 people to date and $14 million stimulus funds received to date has created or preserved 47 of these jobs, as reported on recovery.gov," Jordan Feilders of Hydrogen Energy California told ABC News.

The project is projected eventually to create more than 1,500 jobs.

According to Feilders, however, construction is not slated to begin until 2012, a year later than the Coburn-McCain report indicated.


Another eyebrow-raising endeavor involves the U.S. Forest Service in Washington state, which is spending more than half a million dollars to replace the windows on a visitor center at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument that today sits closed with no set re-open date.

The U.S. Forest Service frames the window replacement as a necessary investment.

"The Forest Service is actually in the process of repurposing the visitors' center and plans to reuse the empty space," a U.S. Forest official told ABC News. "This window replacement is necessary to maintain the facility so they are in a position to do so. It's a critical step to protect the original investment and ensure continued good use of taxpayer dollars."

The list goes on, although some of the administrators and recipients of stimulus funds say the report doesn't get all the facts straight.

In Newark, Ohio, Pastor Greg Sheets already has lost his front yard and could lose his entire home as a $1.8 million road project comes right up to his doorstep. Sheets is only one of 25 homeowners whose houses are threatened by the project.

However, the Ohio Department of Transportation told ABC News that plans for the project began in 2005, well before the stimulus bill was even conceived of. The ODT also maintains the acquisition of the property is being handled by the City of Newark's city attorney, who has followed all state and federal procedures for purchasing the property.

Meanwhile, the town of Boynton, Okla., is spending nearly $90,000 to replace a quarter-mile stretch of sidewalk that's only five years old.

However, officials in the Oklahoma Department of Transportation say the $90,000 was a part of a $16 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was focused on sidewalks for a reason: Sidewalks have to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act as a mandatory precursor to receiving any funding from the Federal Highway Administration. This particular sidewalk in Boyton was too narrow and too sloped to accommodate individuals in wheelchairs.

"It's a major help because now small communities, like Boynton, can receive federal funding for their roads," Casey Shell of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation told ABC News.

However, to Sens. McCain and Coburn's point, Shell admitted he could not point to any jobs created by the project.

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