Oh my goodness....

Words escape me. I just don't know what to say. Go here for the article.

The dilemma

Don't forget the new blog here http://loveandalittlecraziness.blogspot.com.

Since I was going to make this more of my political venting blog now, I have a dilemma. I just got a message from Brandon's school. They aren't showing the great ones talk on Tuesday because of lunch conflicts, they are showing it on Wednesday. I'm kind of leaning towards letting him stay home that day. What do you think?

People wonder why there is racism in America

Rangel also likened the fight to provide health care for the uninsured to the fight for civil rights.

"Why do black people have to bargain for what is theirs? Why do we have to wait for the right to vote? Why can't we get what God has given us? And that is the right to live as human beings and not negotiate with white southerners and not court the votes. Just do the right thing," Rangel said.

Maybe Rangel should quit worrying about the race card and worry about his ethics investigation.

New blog and such

I will have a new blog up and running here pretty soon. I'm running out of photo storage and this blog seems to have taken on a more political turn. I do think that politics are very important to talk about now. I used to not think so, but I have 3 kids who depend on the decisions that are being made right now. Things have to change and I hope they can. 2010 is going to be an important year for our country.

It's Sophie's birthday today and Beverly's birthday and my mom-in-law's b-day today. I have a whole bunch more to say and will do it tonight.

Dude!

Okay what's wrong with this picture. This man has a high paying (okay I'm assuming it's a high paying job since we don't really know anything about his position) in the White House. This man is an advisor to the President of the United States. Where is the outrage in this? Come on Republicans it's time to take a stand. Let's take our government back. Let's get rid of these "Czar's" and all this other crap we do not need or want.

He speaks

Glad my girls are going to private school and don't have to hear this. Glad their not showing it to high schoolers. I already have problems with teachers shoving their viewpoints down his throat.

Description

President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009
PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students Across America
Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education
September 8, 2009

Before the Speech:
• Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama and motivate students by asking the following questions:
Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be President?
To whom do you think the President is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?
• Teachers can ask students to imagine being the President delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States. What would you tell students? What can students do to help in our schools? Teachers can chart ideas about what they would say.
• Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?
During the Speech:
• As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following:
What is the President trying to tell me?
What is the President asking me to do?
What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?
• Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

Another idiot

1st she can't even say Rush's name correctly. 2nd she talks like people can't think for themselves. I listen to Rush and Glenn because I like to hear what they have to say, but I can form my own opinion. I don't need them to do that for me. Oh and come on, Castro???? He's such a great leader that his country doesn't even have enough toilet paper.... good gravy.

Great article

Obama Snares Palin, Media in Wide Blame-Game Net: Caroline Baum

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Commentary by Caroline Baum

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- When the political winds shift -- when a party is voted out of power or a policy is panned by the public -- Washington turns to its favorite pastime: the blame game.

And so it is with President Barack Obama, who tripped on his sprint to the health-care-reform finish line. Voters, it seems, want to understand a little more about what ObamaCare will mean for them, what it will do to the doctor-patient relationship, and what it will cost future generations in higher taxes and, yes, rationed supply.

Rather than examine the public’s concerns, the plans’ inconsistencies or the sheer irresponsibility of trying to ram something this big and complicated through Congress without a small-scale trial, the Obama administration is pointing fingers. Lots of them. Most of the targets are just plain silly.

1. Conservative groups

When liberal activists, including trade unions, Acorn and MoveOn.org, protested against anything and everything President George W. Bush said or did, it was called grassroots democracy.

When conservative groups encourage supporters to attend town hall meetings and make their sentiments known to their congressmen, it’s un-American, disruptive and the work of right- wing extremists.

Madame Hypocrite

Where was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, when President George W. Bush was being compared to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? She was a “fan of disrupters” in those days, as she told anti-war protesters at a January 2006 town hall meeting in San Francisco. Pelosi only developed a thin skin (too much plastic surgery?) when the Democrats took control of the executive and legislative branches of government.

The effort to blame right-wing groups is transparent. If my feedback on a recent column is indicative of the political persuasion and demographic distribution of the protesters, these are ordinary Americans energized by the debate, frustrated at not having a voice and motivated to exercise their right of free speech. Attempts to smear opponents and shut down debate are, well, un-American.

2. Insurance Companies

Garnering support for health-insurance reform by demonizing insurance companies is a cheap shot, albeit one that resonates with the public. After all, these are the faceless bureaucrats who deny or pay claims in a seemingly arbitrary manner and refuse or cancel coverage if you cost them too much money.

Stubborn Facts

Facts are stubborn things, this White House is quick to remind us. And in this case, the facts don’t support the vilification.

If insurance companies were gouging the public, the evidence would show up in one of two places, according to Graef Crystal, a compensation expert in Santa Rosa, California, and occasional Bloomberg News columnist: excessive executive pay or excessive returns to shareholders.

His analysis of five major health insurers shows just the opposite: below-market pay and below-market shareholder returns.

“There’s no case here for undue enrichment of shareholders” or over-compensating CEOs, Crystal finds.

Health care needs a major overhaul, but that’s no reason to make scapegoats out of insurance companies.

3. The Media

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Obama point the finger at the media at his town hall meeting last week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Fishing Expedition

The president, defending the White House’s fishing expedition for “fishy” e-mails on health-insurance reform (suspended this week by popular demand), blamed the media for “distorting what’s taken place.”

Is this the same media that was in the pocket for candidate Obama and waltzed us through the honeymoon? If Bush had been as reliant on his teleprompter as Obama, or said “Cinco de Cuatro” when he meant “Cuatro de Mayo,” the press would have been all over him for being inept.

Sorry, Mr. President, you have no idea what it means for the media to distort what’s taken place. The long-gone Bush administration is getting more negative press than you are.

4. Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, the recently retired governor of Alaska, 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and Democrat’s favorite whipping boy (or girl), created a stir with a reference to death panels on Facebook. Palin said she didn’t want her parents or Down-Syndrome baby to “have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide” what kind of medical care should be allocated to these less productive members of society.

Blame the Democrats

This is the same Sarah Palin whose foreign policy experience was summed up during the campaign by her ability “to see Russia from land here in Alaska.” This is the same Sarah Palin credited with changing the terms of the debate? C’mon. That’s too laughable to address.

Besides, there’s a kernel of truth in what she said. Like all goods and services, medical care is a scarce resource that must be rationed. The only question is how: by the market (price) or by government mandate.

If government is doing the rationing, what exactly will bureaucrats use to determine who gets what care and who doesn’t?

Opposition to fast-track health-insurance reform is coming from Obama’s own party. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and one of six Finance Committee members involved in bipartisan negotiations, said on Fox News Sunday that the goal is to “get this right,” not meet some “specific timetable.”

He said the Senate lacks enough votes to pass a bill with a public option. “To continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort.”

There’s always room for one more -- the Democrats -- on Obama’s blame-game list.

(Caroline Baum, author of “Just What I Said,” is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Caroline Baum in New York at cabaum@bloomberg.net.

Glenn Beck

I love Glenn Beck (if you couldn't tell). He tells it like it is. I totally agree with this opinion piece that was on aol today. Where was the boycott against Olberman? I know I don't watch a show or movie with Janeane Garafalo in it (but really it's because she stinks as an actress). How can you call what Beck said hate speech and not what Garafalo called hate speech? I guess calling people a punch of tea bagging rednecks is okay in the mind of a liberal......

So, the number of corporate sponsors that have pulled their advertising dollars from The Glenn Beck Program grew to 20 on Tuesday. Walmart, Best Buy and Travelocity joined the list of companies that, depending on your point of view, should be classified as either responsible corporate citizens or easily bullied cowards.

The statements of the corporations themselves tend to confirm the second option. But first the background:

Glenn Beck is a conservative commentator whose television show airs at 5 p.m. daily Eastern Time on the Fox News Channel, where it attracts an enormous (for cable, at that hour) audience of some 2.3 million souls. His audience has exploded this year, apparently riding a tide of conservative resentment over the poor economy, the supposedly liberal media, and Democratic Party control in Washington.

"You are not alone," Beck tells his viewers. Millions of people like to hear such assurances, even when coming from a polished performer whose histrionics are obvious. Beck doesn't mind crying on the air. His soliloquies range in tone from rants to raves, often spiced with a dash of paranoia. Recent Beck-isms include a claim that the U.S. Mercury dime has a secret fascist symbol on it, that FEMA was secretly setting up concentration camps ( Beck actually went out of his way to disprove this rumor. Thanks to Bob, Carol, Virginia and many others for pointing this out), that global warming is fiction, and that a single-payer health care system is the first step to a society being forced to "goose-step."

Earlier this year, Beck compared himself in an interview with The New York Times to Howard Beale, the unglued anchorman in the 1976 classic movie, "Network." Beale was famous for saying that he was "mad as hell" and wasn't going to take it anymore. But Beck's persona has a quite un-mad aspect to it. As it happens, driving progressive Democrats cuckoo is quite profitable – and fairly easy to do these days. In that same interview with The Times, Beck volunteered that he is like a "rodeo clown," dancing in front of the (liberal) bulls and broncos for the audience's entertainment.

His Web site advertises Beck as The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment. Human Lightning Rod is more like it. But all of his past comments put together do not equal the furor Beck ignited on July 28, when he accused President Obama of being "a racist." Here is how it went down: Beck and his guest panelists were discussing the controversial arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. – and Obama's ill-fated comments regarding said arrest. That's when Beck began channeling his inner rodeo clown.

Beck: "This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture, I don't know what it is . . ."

At that point, Fox News's Brian Kilmeade interjects, pointing out that many of Obama's closest White House advisers are white (he doesn't mention Obama's own mother). "You can't say he doesn't like white people . . ."

Unfazed, Beck replies: "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist."

To a group called ColorofChange.org, this wasn't entertainment, it was hate speech. ColorofChange.org is an online membership organization that exists, according to its mission statement, "to strengthen Black America's political voice."

The group was founded by Van Jones, who left in 2007 for another activist organization, Green for All, and who now works in the Obama administration as a top adviser on "green" jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Jones' replacement at ColorofChange.org is James Rucker, and he quickly concluded after the Obama-is-a-racist comment that Glenn Beck is an impediment to his organization's objectives and should be removed from the airwaves. His weapon of choice: An e-mail campaign by ColorofChange.org members to advertising agencies and corporate sponsors that advertise on Fox News during the daily Beck hour.

Beck's commentary, Rucker declared, was "repulsive, divisive, and shouldn't be on the air." His effort has met with surprising success. The list of companies that agreed includes Geico, CVS, Men's Wearhouse, Radio Shack, Procter & Gamble, and State Farm Insurance. This is a little strange, even granting Rucker's description of Beck's language being "repulsive" and "divisive." Heck, let's add "witless" and "obviously inaccurate" to the litany. But the phrase "shouldn't be on the air," well now, that is really raising the stakes to the point that we are playing a different kind of game here. So let's also call this burgeoning secondary boycott for what it is: attempted censorship.

"We are heartened to see so many corporate citizens step up in support of our campaign against Glenn Beck," said Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. "Their action sends a clear a message to Glenn Beck: Broadcasters shouldn't abuse the privilege they enjoy by spewing dangerous and racially charged hate language over the air. No matter their political affiliation, hate language doesn't belong in our national dialogue."

Leaving aside the dated notion that free expression over the airwaves is a "privilege," the problem here is that the outrage against playing the race card in politics is selective. Is it not also repulsive and divisive when Keith Olbermann invites an angry actress named Janeane Garafalo on his show to dismiss conservative protestors as "a bunch of racists?" As Olbermann mumbles audible sounds of encouragement, Garafalo adds: "Let's be very honest about what this is about . . .This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. This is nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks."

If you don't remember ColorofChange.org's boycott against Olbermann and NBC, that's because it never happened. Good thing, too, because you can bet some of these cringing companies would have been susceptible to that as well.

"We have instructed our advertising agency to inform Fox to ensure Glenn Beck's program is not part of our advertising plan," Carolyn Castel, a vice president for corporate communications at CVS, one of the 20 Beck boycotters, said in an e-mail to ColorofChange.org. "Our position is simple. We support vigorous debate, especially around policy issues that affect millions of Americans, but we expect it to be informed, inclusive and respectful, in keeping with our company's core values and commitment to diversity."

Really? By that logic, CVS wouldn't be able to advertise on most of the shows on cable television. (Rite Aid, I sense an opening!) But seriously, since when did it become some corporate suit's prerogative to make sure that political discourse on talk shows is politically correct? Are we heading into an era of "red" corporations and "blue" corporations? Travelocity for Democrats and Orbitz for Republicans? (Would James Carville and Mary Matalin even end up on the same flights?)

Many moons ago, I covered a Senate race in which a black North Carolina Democrat named Harvey Gantt tried to unseat Jesse Helms, a white Republican with a deeply conservative record – and one not terribly enlightened on race. Some of the state's Democrats privately urged home state basketball star Michael Jordan to endorse Gantt and maybe even make a television spot. The great symbol of Nike shoes declined, and in doing so, sent word to the Gantt emissaries to the effect that "Republicans buy shoes, too."

At the time, I found Jordan's self-imposed neutrality to be crass. I may have misjudged the man. In his view that corporate profits and politics don't mix, Jordan seems to have been was ahead of his time. Finally, let's contemplate for a moment the likely effects of this Glenn Beck boycott:

(1) More attention, and thus, possibly more viewers for Glenn Beck.

(2) A sympathy backlash (like this column) from people who normally wouldn't dream of defending Glenn Beck, but who will almost always defend free speech.

(3) A backlash boycott against Olbermann, or whomever, on the part of angered conservatives.

(4) The spreading perception that some liberals are often willing to employ tactics that are quite illiberal when it comes to those with whom they disagree.

(5) More opportunity on Beck's show for him to spew goofy opinions, precisely because the advertisers have fled, leaving him with more time to fill.

Why are there so many idiots in Congress?

Here is the 2009 hurricane season predication as of 8/6/09. I think Stabenow might want to check her facts and quit relying on hysteria to pass bills or to make bills look good. Oh and also included is a tornado chart for the past several years. I'm not really seeing the increase in tornado's for this year and yes I can see they don't have May, June and July. April looked like the busiest month so far this year and that's because April showers bring May flowers :). I guess she has a magical Congressional chart.

2009 Updated Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook: Summary

NOAA’s updated 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook indicates a 90% chance of a near-normal or below normal hurricane season. These seasons are classified using the ACE index, which accounts for the combined intensity and duration of the total named storms and hurricanes, and NOT by the numbers of named storms and hurricanes. The Atlantic hurricane region includes the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.

TORNADO TOTALS AND RELATED DEATHS...THROUGH WED AUG 05 2009
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0415 AM CDT THU AUG 06 2009


     ...NUMBER OF TORNADOES...    NUMBER OF       KILLER
                                  TORNADO DEATHS  TORNADOES
    ..2009.. 2008 2007 2006  3YR             3YR             3YR
   PREL  ACT  ACT  ACT  ACT   AV  09 08 07 06 AV  09 08 07 06 AV
JAN   10   6    84   21   47   51   0  7  2  1  3   0  4  1  1  2
FEB   44  36   147   52   12   70   9 59 22  0 27   2 12  3  0  5
MAR  123 115   129  170  147  149   0  4 27 11 14   0  3 10  7  7
APR  270 226   189  167  244  200   6  0  9 38 16   3  0  3  9  4
MAY  227   -   461  252  139  284   6 44 14  3 20   4 10  4  1  5
JUN  294   -   294  128  120  181   0  7  0  0  2   0  4  0  0  1
JUL  126   -    93   69   70   77   0  1  0  0  0   0  1  0  0  0
AUG    8   -   101   75   80   85   0  0  1  1  1   0  0  1  1  1
SEP    -   -   111   52   84   82   -  2  0  1  1   -  1  0  1  1
OCT    -   -    21   86   76   61   -  0  5  0  2   -  0  3  0  1
NOV    -   -    15    7   42   21   -  2  0 10  4   -  2  0  3  2
DEC    -   -    46   19   42   36   -  0  1  2  1   -  0  1  2  1
   ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----  --  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
SUM 1102 383  1691 1098 1103 1297  21 126 81 67 91  9 37 26 25 29

Posted by Henry Payne (The Detroit News) on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:17 AM

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Energy Leader (National Review, 08.10.09)

Detroit, Mich. - Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record; global temperatures haven't risen in more than a decade; Great Lakes water levels have resumed their 30-year cyclical rise (contrary to a decade of media scare stories that they were drying up due to global warming), and polls show that climate change doesn't even make a list of Michigan voters' top-ten concerns.

Yet in an interview with the Detroit News Monday, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) - recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee - made clear that fighting the climate crisis is her top priority.

"Climate change is very real," she confessed as she embraced cap and trade's massive tax increase on Michigan industry - at the same time claiming, against all the evidence, that it would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs or energy prices. "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes."

And there are sea monsters in Lake Michigan. I can feel them when I'm boating.

Crazy!

I know this is driving my mother crazy, but this healthcare bill is scary. The DNC calling people protesting this bill "right-wing extremist" is just wrong. It amazes me how it's okay for the left to protest anything and everything, but conservatives do it and all heck breaks lose. Keep on fighting you crazy right wing extremist you....

Why??

So why does one cause an uproar and the other barely a trickle when it was published? Oh that's right one is a "messiah" and the other was the president.

Change Blindness

Idiot - that's all I can say

“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” Rep. John Conyers

?????

Since when did he get his medical degree. After several years of antibiotics and testing and so forth with Maddie I was glad when a doctor finally suggested taking her tonsils out. I suppose her doctor just used her fee sheet and decided that those would be the most expensive things to try first. What amazes me is all the other doctors didn't see how much money they could have made by simply taking the child's tonsils out.

Click here for a link to the video.

AP: In trying to rally support for health care overhaul, Obama described a patient who sees a physician for a sore throat, or a parent who brings in a child with a sore throat. "Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that's out there. ... The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, 'You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out,'" Obama told a prime-time news conference. The president added: "Now, that may be the right thing to do, but I'd rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid's tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies. Maybe they have something else that would make a difference."

Crazy

Remember next November we can get rid of a bunch of these bozo's in Congress... that is of course if we have any money to drive our cars to the polls, if we have any cars.

Drill Here, Drill Now!

The last paragraph is one of the most important paragraph's of this whole article. It is important that we drill here, drill now. No more dependence on foreign oil. Also since gas prices are going up, who do Obama supporters blame now? There is no more Bush to drive up prices for his so called rich oil friends.......

Offshore Oil Suffers From Obama Restrictions on New Drilling

Friday , May 22, 2009

By William La Jeunesse

ABOARD THE NOBLE PAUL ROMANO —

Almost 140 miles off the Louisiana coast, aboard the drill ship Noble Paul Romano, workers punch an 8-inch steel pipe four miles under the ocean in search of America's next barrel of oil.

"If we don't increase our own oil production in the U.S., our dependence on foreign oil won't go down," said Marathon Oil executive Woody Pace.

The drill ship is the size of a football field. Twelve anchors the size of an average living room hold the rig in place while a synthetic-diamond cutting blade bores deep into sand and rock.

Like other oil explorers, Marathon is being forced farther and farther out into the Gulf to find oil. Deeper water means more expensive oil.

"We may spend anywhere from $100 to $200 million just to find out if we have commercial hydrocarbons," Marathon Vice President Annell Bay told FOX News.

• Click here for photos.

Marathon is a Houston-based oil company than not only explores for oil and natural gas, but refines oil as well.

Marathon dumped $230 million into developing the Droshky oil field, which it acquired in 2007, but expects to spend more than $1.3 billion when it begins pumping next year, about the time the economy is expected to recover.

And while every drop counts, many fear it won't be enough.

"We all have hope for green energy, but it is going to take time — and in the meantime, oil and natural gas will have to be the bridge to the energy future," says Cathy Landry, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute.

Congress lifted its 27-year moratorium on drilling off Florida and the East and West Coast last year, but billions of barrels of that oil remains untouched and off-limits because the Obama administration has postponed development there.

The Obama administration favors green energy and provides generous tax subsidies to wind and solar. By contrast, this week the oil industry complained that Obama proposed hiking their taxes by $70 billion over 5 years, including a $122 million on leases the administration considers non-producing.

"If you penalize oil and gas, and add taxes, it is going to make it much more difficult and more expensive. That means U.S. jobs are exported and we won't get the revenues from royalties," said Landry.

Oil executives fear the lesson of $5-a-gallon gasoline is lost, and that American consumers will pay the price, vulnerable to shortages in the short term and a continued dependence on foreign oil for decades to come.

Soda tax

Now they want to dictate what we can drink! Socialism at it's best.

Soft drink industry hopes tax idea loses its fizz

By BOB KEEFE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Washington — One idea to help pay for health care reform may be hard to swallow for Coke drinkers and the soft drink industry.

Congress plans to discuss a tax on sweetened soft drinks that are often blamed for helping cause health problems like obesity and tooth decay in the first place.

Not surprisingly, companies like Atlanta-headquartered Coca-Cola Inc. are sour on a so-called “sin” tax on their products.

“It’s an over-reach when government uses the tax code to tell (people) what to eat and drink,” said Kevin Keane, senior vice president of the American Beverage Association. Officials from Coca-Cola declined to comment, instead referring questions to Keane’s group.

A soda tax is one of many ideas a Senate committee plans to discuss in a closed-door meeting Wednesday as it begins considering how to pay for President Barack Obama’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Nutrition groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, are pushing the idea.

Passing such a tax won’t be easy, however. Previous attempts by states to tax soft drinks have come up flat.

The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, deemed a soda tax a non-starter before it even bubbles up for discussion.

“I think, quite frankly, the only reason it’s being brought up is to get shot down early so it doesn’t become part of the debate,” Grassley told reporters.”I don’t think it’s going to have any legs at all.”

Other more viable options before Congress include limiting or eliminating tax-free flexible spending and health savings accounts; reducing tax breaks for some employers and major insurers; and extending Medicare payroll taxes to state and local government employees who are currently exempt. A tax increase on alcoholic beverages is also on the table.

Though the soda tax idea didn’t come from the White House, U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican, didn’t hesitate to pour blame on the Obama Administration.

“If you came up with a list of the top 200 things in this nation that could be taxed, this administration wouldn’t miss any of them,” Price said.

Double Standard

It's sad the double standards that go on in the media.

Comedian Wanda Sykes pulled no punches as she skewered conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh at the White House Correspondents' Dinner -- but her morbid cracks set some guests' cringe-meters off the charts.

Sykes accused Limbaugh of treason, compared him to Usama bin Laden and wished for his physical collapse as she roasted the favorite target of liberals Saturday night at the Washington Hilton.

"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails,' you're like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason," Sykes said.

"He's not saying anything differently than what Usama bin Laden is saying," she continued, before addressing the guest of honor, President Obama. "You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."

The crowd groaned, Obama smiled and Sykes may have noticed a little discomfort in the room.

"Too much?" she asked.

But then she piled it on:

"Rush Limbaugh, 'I hope the country fails' -- I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? ... He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs."

Obama joined the crowd in laughing at the crack about Limbaugh's "kidneys."

But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Monday that Sykes' bit was considered in poor taste.

"I don't know how guests get booked," Gibbs told reporters. "I haven't talked to the president (about it), but my guess is there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection, rather than comedy -- no doubt 9/11 is part of that."

After the appearance, conservatives bellowed that Sykes was way over the line. "Mean-spirited," "hateful" and "disgusting" were just a few of the words used by conservative bloggers and commentators to describe the performance.

"This woman comes up and says, 'I hope Rush Limbaugh dies,' and everybody giggles," said Tim Graham, director of media analysis with the Media Research Center.

National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg called it "particularly awful."

Sykes' publicist was not immediately available for comment.

Some critics said there was a double standard employed for conservative and liberal jokesters, pointing out that golf announcer David Feherty apologized over the weekend for his column in which he joked about U.S. troops wanting to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Feherty's line drew heavy attention from the liberal group Media Matters and earned him a "worst person in the world" dubbing by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Graham said the relatively low-key coverage of Sykes' joke in mainstream media underscores the "slanted take on what's hateful and what's not."

"When a conservative says it, it's an utter outrage. And when a liberal says it, it's a knee-slapper," he said.

An editor with Britain's Daily Telegraph who was at the dinner wrote that liberals will give Sykes a pass, since her target was a right-wing talk show host. And he marveled at Obama's response.

"That's way, way beyond reasoned debate or comedy and Obama's reaction to it was astonishing," wrote Toby Harnden. "Imagine if a comedian 'joked' that Obama was a terrorist who was guilty of treason and should be tortured and allowed to die. There would justifiably be an outcry."

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- CBS Sports golf analyst David Feherty apologized Sunday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a morbid joke that went bad in a Dallas magazine.

Feherty, one of the most popular golf analysts for his sharp wit and self-deprecating humor, was among five Dallas residents who wrote for "D Magazine" on former President George W. Bush moving to Dallas.

"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this though," Feherty wrote toward the end of his column.

"Despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

Feherty, a former Ryder Cup player who grew up in Northern Ireland, has gone to Iraq over Thanksgiving the past two years to visit with U.S. troops, and he created a foundation to help wounded soldiers.

"This passage was a metaphor meant to describe how American troops felt about our 43rd president," Feherty said in a statement. "In retrospect, it was inappropriate and unacceptable, and has clearly insulted Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, and for that, I apologize. As for our troops, they know I will continue to do as much as I can for them both at home and abroad."

Feherty has lived in Dallas the past dozen years. Along with working for CBS Sports, he writes a monthly column for Golf magazine and has written four books, the last one titled, "An Idiot for All Season."

CBS Sports distanced itself from Feherty's writing, saying it was "an unacceptable attempt at humor and is not in any way condoned, endorsed or approved" by the network. The PGA Tour also criticized him for an attempt at humor that "went over the line."

CBS is not broadcasting The Players Championship this week. The network resumes its PGA Tour coverage next week in San Antonio with the Valero Texas Open.

I don't think so

I personally don't know any American who wants more government in their lives, do you? I pay more than my fair share of taxes and don't want to pay anymore. If American's want to pay taxes so badly let's make sure that everyone is paying their fair share, rich or poor, legal or illegal. I think Powell needs to climb back under a rock and just go away.

Powell Says Shrinking GOP Should Return To The Center

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
by Chris Strohm

The Republican Party is in big trouble and needs to find a way to move back to the middle of the country, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday.

Powell said the GOP is "getting smaller and smaller" and "that's not good for the nation." He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right.

"The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has changed, he said. "Americans do want to pay taxes for services," he said. "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

Powell, secretary of State during the first term of former President George W. Bush, made waves last year when he came out for the Democratic presidential candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Powell described the 2008 GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, as "a beloved friend" but said he told him last summer that the party had developed a reputation for being mean-spirited and driven more by social conservatism than the economic problems that Americans faced.

Powell also criticized other GOP leaders, for bowing too much to the right.

He blasted radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, saying he does not believe that Limbaugh or conservative icon Ann Coulter serve the party well. He said the party lacks a "positive" spokesperson. "I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without," Powell said.

He also said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate last year, is "a very accomplished person" but became "a very polarizing figure." He said the polarization was created by Palin's advisers.

Powell said he does not want Republicans to turn into Democrats but rather to build a vibrant party.

On other fronts, Powell said he was concerned that the Pentagon is reportedly going to create a new command to manage military cybersecurity affairs. "I smell a bureaucratic fight taking place inside the administration," he said. "I'm always nervous when people want to create new commands because new commands create new stovepipes."

According to Obama administration officials and media reports, U.S. government information networks are being attacked by criminals and attackers working for foreign governments, namely China and Russia. Powell said creating a command might be the correct solution, but he added: "My own view is take it slow, make sure you get it right."