Welcome To America

via Ann Althouse

Stahl: You went from mopping this floor to Speaker of the House.

Boehner: Welcome to America.

John Boehner speaks often of the American Dream and about his family and other families that have striven for it. His detractors laugh at his emotion about the subject and scoff at an "american dream" that only comes off the backs of others. They haven't lived it.

Another family lived the American Dream when a boy who would only grow to five foot tall, grew up in a fatherless home which was a cold water flat with a privy out back for all the residents and be the first in his family to finish high school. He went on to work his way through college and medical school and become a very successful doctor. Along the way he won the heart of a very smart and beautiful young lady who came from an old and good family. They had 6 children. Each child had to work starting at 14 and just like their parents each child had to give to the church and others in need. They understood the American Dream.

They would understand John Boehner.

The Symbolic Act Of Destroying Symbols Is A Childish Act By Childish Minds

Directed at Christians or society?

'Vandals have hacked at the heart of Christianity': 2,000-year-old Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury is cut down

I feel sad for those that are profoundly affected by this. People such as me.

I feel more sad for the empty person or people that did this.

BROUGHT TO LIFE BY JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, CHOPPED DOWN BY CROMWELL'S ROUNDHEADS, REBORN THANKS TO LOCALS

Christian legend dictates that Jesus's great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, came to Britain after the crucifixion 2,000 years ago bearing the Holy Grail - the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper.

He visited Glastonbury and thrust his staff into Wearyall Hill, just below the Tor, planting a seed for the original thorn tree.

Roundheads felled the tree during the English Civil War, when forces led by Oliver Cromwell (pictured) waged a vicious battle against the Crown.

However, locals salvaged the roots of the original tree, hiding it in secret locations around Glastonbury.

It was then replanted on the hill in 1951. Other cuttings were also grown and placed around the town - including its famous Glastonbury Abbey.

Experts had verified that the tree - known as the Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora - originated from the Middle East.

A sprig of holy thorns was taken from the Thorn tree by Glastonbury's St Johns Church on Wednesday and sent to the Queen.

The 100-year-old tradition will see the thorns sit on Her Majesty's dinner table on Christmas Day

I find it ironic that modern day vandals think they might justify an act such as this. An older vandal, Oliver Cromwell, believed he had reason too. I have a reason to find this interesting on many levels.

Many of my ancestors were thrown from England, exiled, by Cromwell and his Roundheads. Many lost all they owned and were sent to Barbados. From there they came to the colonies and family remaining in England that owned large parts of the Virginia Company fought a losing battle against Cromwell and other companies and lost their charter and much of their fortune.

They had the last laugh though as they prospered both financially and as individuals here in America. Cromwell's life became a caricature as he wore purple robes with ermine linings emulating those he had fought, killed and executed. After death things got worse for Ollie.

There has long been a family story about an ancestor who traveled to England in January of 1661 for business and witnessed Cromwell's body disinterred and symbolically executed. Many, including me, have a birthday of January 30 which is the anniversary of his symbolic execution.

I pray the tree is born anew.

House Passes Dream Act Debacle By 18 Votes, 8 Repubs Yes, 11 Repubs Didn't Bother To Vote

The 216-198 roll call Wednesday by which the House passed the so-called Dream Act to give hundreds of thousands of foreign-born youngsters brought to the U.S. illegally a shot at legal status.

A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill.
Voting yes were 208 Democrats and 8 Republicans.
Voting no were 38 Democrats and 160 Republicans.
X denotes those not voting.
There is 1 vacancy in the 435-member House.

8 'Republicans' voted to make illegal legal.
Ehlers MI (retiring)
Cao LA (defeated - Gen)
Djou HI 9defeated - Gen)
Diaz-Balart, L FL (retiring)
Diaz-Balart, M FL
Ros Lehtinen FL
Castle DE (defeated - Prim)
Inglis SC (defeated - Prim)

11 Republicans did NOT vote
Griffith AL (defeated - Sen Prim)
Bilbray CA
Radanovich CA (retiring)
Gingrey GA
Buyer IN (retiring)
Stutzman IN
Blunt MO (elected to Sen)
Fallin OK (elected Gov)
Granger TX
Marchant TX
McMorris Rodgers WA

That is 19 Republicans. The Dream Act passed by 18 votes.

Berkeley Still Keepin' Nukes Out And Traitor Spies In.

Bob's button & baubles

Bob Meola. Bob's quite a guy. He thinks Bradley Manning is a hero and should get a medal. Bob's been pitching crap since the 60s. Bob has been at the forefront to ban Marine recruitment in Berkeley because he doesn't like Marines, he thinks that they kill too much. Bob was at the forefront wanting to investigate and sideline John Yoo for war crimes (Yoo worked in the Bush Administration Department of Justice which offered the wrong type of justice to people such as Meola) who was teaching at Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley.

Berkeley may pass resolution honoring Army private who gave classified docs to Wikileaks

Bob, who like to wear a lot of peace symbols and buttons, now want to honor Bradley Manning who has stated he leaked secret documents to WeakiLeaks. That Bob, what a worn out boring old hippie guy.

Bob Meola is Chairperson of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission and a registered Green. He is also a member of the Courage to Resist Organizing Collective, a member of the War Resisters League National Committee, and the Movement for a Democratic Society Organizing Committee.


With responsibilities ranging from recommending City positions on global justice issues to reviewing proposed Sister City relationships to helping enforce the city’s Nuclear Free Berkeley Act, the Commission helps Berkeley stand as a model of thinking Green globally and acting Green locally.”


The Commission’s main function has been to advise the Berkeley City Council and the Berkeley Unified School District on matters of Peace and Justice. The enabling ordinance states that, “‘peace and social justice’ shall refer to the goal of creating a world community in which the relations between people are based on equality, respect for human rights, and the abhorrence of exploitation and all forms of oppression.”

The legislation recognizes that “Individual citizens, unless organized, are virtually powerless in confronting and influencing larger government bodies” and “It is the responsibility of one and all to labor hard for peace and justice within forums of appropriate scale.”

Somewhere in N Korea a frustrated general is once again rerouting nuclear missiles because Bob and friends made Berkeley a nuclear free zone. But Berkeley will have another hero in Bradley Manning who because he had a snit with his boyfriend leaked documents that will hurt the military. That makes Bob very happy.

See Bob run. See Bob play. See Bob helping peaceful Bradley get 1,000s killed in the name of brotherhood!

Dream Act A Legal Way To Corrupt Politics With Illegals

Democrats and their bought and paid for subsidiary, the Latino bloc, love the Dream Act. For them, what's not to love? Both get what they want, more legal illegal votes for one and legality not deserved for the other.

The Dems must have bullied, bought and threatened enough to put it up for a vote. I think voters had an opinion about these types of multi-layered corrupt activities last November 2. Maybe the Dems missed that.

Nah, they have a long history of vote buying. It's a party Tammany Hall thing.

Dems Kill Gitmo

Congress deals death blow to Guantanamo closure
Obama was overheard to plaintively inquire, "Et tu Brutii?"

Harrah Reid Tries To Slip Poker In Back Door

Harry Reid tries to add online poker to tax bill

Already, the online poker proposal has exposed the Nevada Democrat to charges of flip-flopping on a controversial issue, as well as using his Senate leadership position to repay big casino interests that helped him win reelection in a hard-fought campaign against Republican Sharron Angle last month.

Reid, who has previously opposed online gambling, declined to comment Monday through a spokesman.

PAYOLA!

Why Can't We Get Rid Of Fed Depts Like The FCC & The DOE

Now the FCC wants to do for the Internet what the DOE has done for education. A dumber, slower, more expensive, govt controlled Internet is not the answer to our problems, but a more nimble electorate might help some of our problems by eliminating both the FCC and the DOE. Actually, both DOE.

To NYT Charles Blow, Who Cares If You Won't Mention Sarah Palin?

She Who Must Not Be Named
By CHARLES M. BLOW

When will you, Mr Blow, write something readable?

Tea Party Nation: Saul Anuzis For RNC Chair

Good call.

Rebuffed by Sarah Palin, tea party group picks Saul Anuzis

Technology, smarts, focus and he is neither part of the 'club' nor a press hog. Anuzis should be supported by all real conservatives.

Besides Bill Gates, Who Isn't Down & Out In Obama's Economy?

I once had my son do what he thought a simple (and stupid) project. One evening I gave him a new notebook of paper and some pencils. I explained that the next morning I would awaken him and he was to start filling the pages with things that he saw that were taxed.

Down and Out on $250,000 a Year

The next morning, as promised, I woke him up, but I brought him some juice and cereal. I told him to enjoy his breakfast before he started logging in taxed objects.
 
As I left for work he had filled out two pages. By the end of the day he was tired, cranky and had a look that said, "Don't say I told you so." He had run out of pages, but he looked at me and said, "I know of something not taxed!
 
"The AIR!"
 
I handed him a copy of the EPA's rules, regulations and cost to the taxpayer and went and made a strong drink.
 
I didn't know if I had created a thoughtful conservative or a child hellbent on a life of crime. He's not in jail. Yet.

The Weight Of Water And Murder On Smuttynose Island

The Hontvet House on Smuttynose Island

The "murder" house on Smuttynose Island is long gone, ravaged by 19th century souvenir hunters who literally carried away blood spattered bits of wall and floorboard. Today the bodies of Anethe Christensen and Karen Christensen lie in a quiet Portsmouth, NH cemetery, ten miles in from their island home. A few streets away in a glass case an ax with a broken handle, the one most experts agree Louis Wagner used to carve the life from the two Norwegian immigrants, lies on mute display.


I used to go to Monhegan Island as much as I could. Smuttynose is right next to it, but I only went there a few times. Like so many islands along the Maine coast Monhegan and Smuttynose not only have a long and interesting history, they are also beautiful. And rugged.

Murder, Mayhem & Bad Sex. WikiLeaks Leaky Love

Honeytrap? Boy already guilty of murder gets caught for rape bad sex.

The Wikileaks sex files: How two one-night stands sparked a worldwide hunt for Julian Assange

The Stockholm police want to question him regarding the possible rape of a woman and separate allegations from another Swedish admirer, with whom he was having a concurrent fling. But there remains a huge question mark over the evidence. Many people believe that the 39-year-old ­Australian-born whistleblower is the victim of a U.S. government dirty tricks campaign.
 They argue that the whole squalid affair is a sexfalla, which translates loosely from the Swedish as a ‘honeytrap’.
 One thing is clear, though: Sweden’s complex rape laws are central to the story.

This boy's life is sad on so many levels. The Left's take on life is also sad and it is also ironic as they pounce on each other in a fight to be more politically correct without appearing to be so.

Sarah, a  ‘campus sexual equity officer’ had sex with Julian and then when she found he had had sex with another she flew into action using her previously posted program of revenge:

Entitled ‘7 Steps to Legal Revenge’, it explains how women can use courts to get their own back on unfaithful lovers.

Step 7 says: ‘Go to it and keep your goal in sight. Make sure your victim suffers just as you did.’

Both girls are furious at being hurt, Julian is mad about being outed and hurt, but none of the 3 are ashamed at the hurt and murder they have caused.

Now may we call this the case of the Leaky Leaker Weepy Over Leaky Lipped Lovers Not Murder & Mayhem?

Deceit And Destruction At Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941

USA : 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.
USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.

TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.

Battleships
USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss when she capsized and sunk in the harbor.
USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
USS Maryland (BB-46) - Light damage.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.

Cruisers
USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage.
USS San Francisco (CA-38) - Light Damage.
USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage..

Destroyers
USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Cassin - (DD-372) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage.

Minelayer
USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

Seaplane Tender
USS Curtiss (AV-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

Repair Ship
USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.

Harbor Tug
USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.

Aircraft
188 Aircraft destroyed (92 USN and 92 U.S Army Air Corps.)

Voinovich Proves His Career Is A Lie & Sides With Obama To Raise Taxes

What will Crying George Voinovich's legacy? A back-stabbing traitor might sum it up.

Retiring Sen. George Voinovich to oppose any extension of Bush-era tax cuts

Voinovich has bucked his party on the tax-cut issue before. He was the only Republican senator to oppose the cuts when they were first proposed in 2000. Three years later, he joined with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) in opposing President George W. Bush's proposed $700-billion tax-cut package, eventually succeeding in bringing the price tag down to $350 billion.

Voinovich went on to say that he is doing so because there is no linkage to tax reform. His idea of tax reform would make Milton Friedman cry. We should tell Voinovich that if he wants linkage maybe he should scream from the Capitol Dome that there has to be similar cuts in spending to pay for letting tax payers keep more of their money.

Nah, we don't want to make him cry again.

Apropos: Geithner As Rube Goldberg

Brand new high tech $100 US bills. They are useless because of the over complex production process which results in flaws, ie, the process renders the result useless. To complete the fun these new worthless bills are the first to have Geithner's signature on them.

The Fed Has a $110 Billion Problem with New Benjamins

The redesigned bills are the first $100 bills to feature Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s signature. But to stave off a cash crunch as existing $100 bills deteriorate and can’t be replaced, the Federal Reserve has ordered renewed production of the current-design $100 bills, which feature Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's signature and do not have the new security features.
 
Rube Goldberg is somewhere smiling. An actual printer and founding father of our nation, Benjamin Franklin, is not.

Obama's Dept of Kafka Orders No WikiLeak Reading By Workers

Government Workers Ordered Not to Read Wikileaks Cables

I have it on good word that the Obama Administration will next order that government workers will not be allowed to read Walt Whitman. After all officiousness is a problem when mentioned. To liberals.
 
Of course, it is convenient for the administration that so few people read main stream media so they won't have to have roving bands of enforcers enforcing ridiculously stupid laws against those without the required security clearance or authorization who are reading newspaper publications of classified material on their Metro ride to work.
 
Who hired the morons at the Office of Management and Budget who ordered such a stupid and illegal order.
 
The demons who tormented Franz Kafka are now the bureaucrats who issue such orders in this our nation. This is now our trial.

The Salacious Madam X By John Singer Sargent

One of my favorite paintings (I have many) is Madam X. I knew of the scandal which swept Parisian society over the painting, but was not aware of the back ground.

JSS Gallery has a very well written piece about the background and history of the painting.

As seen today

As photographed in the Salon 1884

Sargent was a master painter. You will find more of his work HERE.

Sissy Boy Julian Assange Blackmails US Over His Illegally Obtained Leaks

Julian Assange, a boy to look up to, is blackmailing the United States and the governments of other nations. The main stream media, desperate for any readership, is whining freedom of speech and renaming Assange's crime as "insurance."

WikiLeaks Ready to Release Giant 'Insurance' File if Shut Down

Is this two-bit punk for real? My 4' 11" grandmother knew how to handle punks too big for their britches whether they were 6' 2" or a little sex offender like sissy boy Assange. She slapped them down.

Obviously the mental giants of the Obama Administration need my grandmother. Of course a person with a moral compass and some spine scares them which is why they feel more of a camaraderie with the likes of a creep like Julian Assange. More likely, Obama and peers are scared of him which is even scarier.

The Deep Moral & Political Corruption And Hypocrisy Of Harry Reid

Latter-day Saints reject all forms of gambling as a pernicious evil to society.

Reid pushes bill to allow for online gambling

Reid's office would not answer questions about the legislation.
...
Casino companies were among Reid's biggest campaign donors in the last election. MGM Resorts International, through its employees and political action committee, donated $192,000 to his campaign, the most of any single company, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Meanwhile, employees and the PAC at Harrah's Entertainment chipped in an additional $83,100. Harrah's recently changed its name to Caesars Entertainment Corp.

And

According to a February 9, 2006, Associated Press story by John Solomon, Reid wrote letters and had "routine contacts" with lobbying partners and clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. [17] Reid's actions aided the interests of Abramoff's Native American clients. Reid has acknowledged receiving $61,000 from clients or collegues of Abramoff, much of which was given to Reid by indian tribes after Abramoff was hired. [18] Reid collected donations around the time of each action he took to help Abromoff's clients. Ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in legislative matters regarding campaign donors. While some politicans have returned contributions they received from Abramoff or his clients, Harry Reid has steadfastly refused claiming the Abramoff matter "is a Republican scandal."

Mormon elders and Bishops own casinos and maybe they believe that since they are not gambling (being a casino is no gamble) they are not sinning and they are just making money. It appears that Harry Reid is making money in the same way except he is bypassing the gambler and getting money straight from the casinos. In return he gets legislation for them introduced. That is pure corruption.
 
Harry Reid's moral and political corruption is now complete. His lack of shame is the shame of Nevada and the nation.