To Hell With the Democrats

Stumbled upon this, from a liberal, Hillary lovin' site called, aptly, Hillbuzz.org.  The editor in chief, Kevin DuJan, sent a letter to Rush Limbaugh, who proudly has proclaimed it on his site... and reading it, its fascinating.

I just finished a book called "Gamechange", which is the behind-the-scenes story of the 2008 presidential election, and over half of the book is spent on the relationship, and lack thereof, of He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected and She Who Thought She Should Have Been Elected.  She was the heir apparent and deserved her shot--Bob Dole in 1996 comes to mind, though nobody had a shot against Slick Willie back then, so Dole was put up just as a "here's your chance, you earned it, enjoy your failure".  Hillary, however, thought... no, knew she had a show, so much so that she already had her transition team in place BEFORE the primaries started.  Thats "transition" as in, transition to the White House.

Well, I'll get to that book later, I've been meaning to review it for a few days now because its the best book I've read all year, but in reading this article, it confirmed a few things that I had learned in the book.  Not only was Hillary blindsided by the media attention that was given to Obama (media love that was formerly for her and her alone), she was shellshocked that that same media would overlook anything and everything when it came to He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected, but then would turn around and pick up the tiniest little detail on the Clintons and broadcast it via negative ads and stories... she learned what Republicans deal with all the freakin' time. 

Understand I have no love for Hillary, and thought she'd be a terrible president too--Hillarycare was also in the works, resurrected from the early 90s when it bombed, so Obama isn't alone in his tomfoolery, but I would have taken her over what we have any day. 

I also recognize this is an opinion piece, an open letter to Rush and his listeners, but its fascinating nonetheless. 

By the way, when I read "To Hell with the Democrats", I immediately thought of Stryper in tight, yellow and black striped pants yelling "To Hell with the Devil!!", though in some cases, I don't know that the two are much different.  Anyway, Kevin DuJan writes:

Dear Rush,


It’s my great hope that some of your listeners find a way to get this letter to you, or that it makes it to “Snerdley” and finds its way into your hands. I don’t think even you understand just how much damage Obama has done to the Democrat Party — to the point where formerly lifelong Democrats like myself, and everyone here at HillBuzz.org, are actively working to expose the party and literally burn it to the ground for the good of the country.

Sez the Author (pictured): When Obama and the DNC
.attacked Hillary and her supporters, they permanently
alienated tens of millions of us from the party.
I know for a fact I am not the only guy with a picture
like this on his wall who is working every day to
bring down the Obama White House and Democrat Party.
Not for Hillary, though I love the woman, but for
America... because I love this country even more.

None of this is being reported in the media, but a Civil War in the Democrat ranks has been raging since May 31st, 2008…a date every Hillary Clinton supporter knows well, because that was the date of the Democrat Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting where Howard Dean (then-DNC Chair), Donna Brazile, and scores of other Kool-Aid slurping Obama flunkies took off their masks and revealed the full extent of the Leftist coup that had taken over the party. This was the day when the DNC took delegates Hillary Clinton won in Michigan away from her and handed them to Obama (despite the fact he wasn’t even on the primary ballot in that state, because he removed his name when his campaign realized he’d come in third in that race).

May 31st, 2008 was a day when Hillary “babes” (as you call us sometimes) like us flew to Washington in large numbers to stand outside the Marriott near the National Zoo, where this Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting was held, to shout for the DNC to count all the votes and operate the nominating process fairly — but they refused. The anger over that day has never abated. In fact, it’s grown considerably since then.

This was the determining factor in millions of us leaving the Democrat Party for good. This was the day when the P.U.M.A. movement began — in response to Donna Brazile’s calls for “party unity” following the Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting, we “Hillary babes” said “Party Unity My A$$” (or People United Means Action, depending on how you want to phrase it). Exit polls showed 8 million PUMA voted Republican for the first time in our lives in the fall of 2008…casting ballots for McCain/Palin (and in truth, mainly for Palin, whom we support, and not to a small degree because she receives many of the same attacks lobbed at Hillary Clinton all these years).

You seem to know most of all this, so I’ll end the history lesson by noting the people alienated by the Democrat Party during the primaries in 2008 — where it was clear the party and the media colluded at great lengths to push Obama while hammering Hillary Clinton into the ground — never came back to the Democrat Party.

This is also when most of us stopped using the term “Democratic Party”, since there’s nothing “democratic” about these people. They are the “Democrat Party”, and even that is hard to acknowledge because they really and truly have proved themselves to be enemies of real democracy.

I’m still registered as a Democrat here in Chicago (because the Cocktail Party GOP establishment so disgusts me I can’t will myself to party-ID Republican, and there’s no Independent option here in Illinois) but I can’t imagine ever voting for another Democrat again, as long as I live. To Hell with Democrats. This was solidified for me on Christmas Eve of last year, when Democrats rushed Obamacare through the Senate in the dead of night, through various secret channels, and every single Democrat voted for its passage (even supposed moderates like Evan Bayh in Indiana, who quickly realized his vote would cost him re-election…so the coward retired rather then face angry voters over what he did). I just don’t believe Democrats should be given elected office by voters because they cannot be trusted to even read bills before they vote on them, not even when said bills seek to permanently alter the entire American economy. This is reckless and reprehensible to the point of treason.

I was a Democrat for 32 years before the heavy-handed push for Obama alienated me from the party…and I borrow what Hillary Clinton said about Republicans once, back when she was a Goldwater Girl, and will paraphrase by saying that I didn’t leave the Democrat Party, the Democrat Party left me.

After it beat me to a pulp, called me a racist, berated and insulted me, and used Alinsky Rules to hit me with everything it had. Not just me, but all Hillary supporters.

This is the part I don’t think you understand because I don’t know if you and your listeners paid much attention to what the Obama campaign and DNC did to malign and assault Hillary Clinton’s supporters during the 2008 campaign. None of this has been forgotten by any of us.

If you have not seen it already, Rush, you need to watch Gigi Gaston’s documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced 2008″. I’m featured in a segment on the voter fraud that was committed in the Iowa Caucus back in January of 2008. While I was always aware Democrats use unions and other means to cheat in elections, I never knew the Democrat Party was capable of the large-scale, aggressive, unapologetic fraud it committed on Obama’s behalf all through 2008. In Iowa, I watched Obama’s ACORN and SEIU goons push and shove old people, bully them, and intimidate them when they wanted to vote for Hillary Clinton. I saw scores of Illinois license plates fill the parking lots outside caucus locations, with Chicagoland Obama supporters illegally entering the Caucus sites to vote for Obama and game Iowa for him. Having planned ahead, Obama supporters actually RAN those caucus sites, and held the doors open for all these fraudulent voters to walk right in, without being asked for IDs, where they then took control of the caucuses and bullied the Iowa residents into supporting Obama — lest they be called RAAACISTS! out in the open in front of their friends and neighbors in those open-air caucuses.

The media has never talked about this. I don’t remember ever hearing you talk about it. But one of the biggest reasons the Democrats are in the trouble they’re in right now is because of how frequently the Left and the media (one and the same, really) called anyone who opposed Obama a RAAACIST. If you supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries instead of Obama, you were called a RAAACIST. If you were someone like me who fundraised for Hillary, who hosted events for her, who put yourself out there and wrote columns advocating her or did media spots talking up her candidacy, you were aggressively targeted by the Obama campaign and his supporters…relentlessly attacked as a RAAACIST! and assaulted with the Alinksy Rules for Radicals in hopes of breaking your spirit, terrorizing you, and making you abandon Clinton for fear of having these people destroy your life, ruin your business, and make you an absolute pariah in your community.

This is what the Obama campaign, the media, and the DNC did to DEMOCRATS.

For almost a year, the Obama zealots and the Left waged all-out-war not just on Hillary Clinton, but on lifelong, loyal, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat voters like me. This came straight from the top, from Obama himself. Both he and his wife Michelle called the Clintons racists. Obama’s surrogates like James Clyburne, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and others called Geraldine Ferraro, Madeline Albright, and others racists. The Obamas toxified the South Carolina primary, in particular, with foul race-baiting and turned North Carolina and Indiana into racial powder kegs by ramping up accusations that anyone not supporting Obama was a vile racist that needed to be pounded into the ground.

Stephanie Tubb Jones

Stephanie Tubbs Jones, my former Congresswoman back home in Cleveland, was a black Hillary Clinton supporter to the very end — and she was called a “race-traitor”, an “Aunt Jane”, and all manner of worse names as she was bullied, berated, and verbally assaulted by the Obama team…because she was black and dared to stand with her friend Hillary Clinton, the person Tubbs Jones knew would make a better president than “The One”. To her dying day in August of 2008, Tubbs Jones was threatened by the Obama campaign and told she’d be primaried in 2010 and kicked to the curb for being a “race-traitor”. She died of a brain aneurysm while driving her car, and Obama supporters filled Daily Kos, DemocratUnderground, and other George Soros-supported sites with lies about her drunk driving, doing drugs, and other slurs because even after she died these people wouldn’t stop hating her for daring to be an outspoken black woman who would never abandon Hillary for Obama.

This is similar to the grief that I’ve received here in Chicago for being a gay Hillary former Democrat in Boystown who never drank any Kool-Aid, never stopped speaking out against Obama, and who recently fully came out as a conservative — in the face of the same kind of Alinsky-grade, identity-based, “traitor” hectoring that Tubbs Jones got for being a black woman who didn’t kneel before the Obama altar.

Well, Rush, let me just tell you, from personal experience, that the tens of millions of people relentlessly abused and hounded by Obama supporters (remember that back in 2008 he urged his followers to “get in their faces” and “confront their neighbors” if they weren’t drinking his unicorn-pumped sparkly Kool-Aid ) will NEVER EVER FORGET what the Obama campaign directed at them, in terms of all this Alinsky bullying.

To quote Jeremiah Wright, the man Obama spent twenty years eagerly listening to at Trinity United Church of Christ: somebody’s chickens have now come back to roost.


In this video of America's Pastor, here's the context of "America's chickens have come home to roost"... apparently, he was using a quote from Malcolm X, but whether he added to it or quoted directly, there's little doubt as to his agreement with the sentiment.  Also, he quotes former US Ambassador Edward Peck, but Peck said later he was taken out of context. 

During the campaign, Donna Brazile famously said that the Democrat Party no longer needed the people Obama once described as “bitter, religion-and-guns-clinging, Midwesterners”. Brazile took this further and said, outright, that the Democrat party did not need blue-collar white voters, the Jacksonian voters, the Hillary voters, because the party was “Obamafied” and would win elections for generations with the Obama coalition of blacks, Leftist elites, Hispanics, low information gay voters, and self-hating Jews.

This is all the Democrats have left, Rush.

Speaking from personal experience, as someone who has worked in fundraising for over 10 years and who has been a part of every presidential campaign since 1992, the Democrats have permanently alienated tens of millions of people who normally turned out reliably every year not just to vote Democrat, but also to write checks and otherwise participate in campaigns.

No more. Never again.

Here in Chicago, just about everyone who was part of Team Hillary efforts with me on the ground has completely divorced themselves from the Democrat Party. Being called a racist repeatedly and hearing from Donna Brazile that we are not needed will do that to a person.

But in a bigger sense, Democrats, by being so shameless and aggressive with the voter fraud in 2008 have opened too many eyes for us to ever go back to pretending that fraud and corrupt practices aren’t the hallmark of the Democrat Party.

There was a show on ABC a few years ago called Alias starring Jennifer Garner in which she played a woman working for a company called Credit Dauphine…which she was told was a front for a CIA organization called SD6. Garner’s character, Sidney Bristow, carried out her missions for SD6, overlooking different things the organization did that she might not have liked, because she thought she was doing what was best for the country. And then, one day, Sidney learned SD6 was actually an enemy of America…that it’s real mission was to destroy the country…that everything Sidney was told about SD6 was a lie. The mask came off SD6, and Sidney Bristow realized she had to work aggressively to take the whole enterprise down.

Rush (and his listeners), please hear me on this because you will not read this in the media — but just about every one of us from the Hillary 2008 campaign is a Sidney Bristow today.

Those of us who worked Democrat campaigns in the past put up with union associations and the other unsavory aspects of being a Democrat because we were told this was the only way Democrats could win…with union muscle. But, in 2008 the Democrats revealed themselves to be an SD6 conglomeration of every force in this country that wants to bring America down, tank our economy, usurp our Constitution, and lay waste to the American way of life.

Democrats took off the mask. The DNC reveled in being fully Leftist-controlled. Crazy people unapologetic in their Communist admiration took over positions of great influence not just in the DNC, but in our state and federal governments as well.

I’m horrified by that.

Hillary supporters are horrified by that.

And we have not sat back quietly to allow this to happen without a fight.

I know for a fact that people I worked with on the Hillary 2008 campaign have been actively working against every single Democrat who supported Obama’s nomination. Everyone who backstabbed Hillary Clinton is being undermined and sabotaged by people who might still be registered as Democrats but have no more loyalty to the party. Sometimes, conservative sites try to make this into a “sour grapes” sort of “Hillary’s revenge” meme — and there might be a taste of this in what’s going on — but the real driving force is that we former Democrats saw just how insane these people really are and we are now doing everything we can, behind the scenes, to use everything we know about the Democrat Party to collapse it from within.

If you think about it logically, there is not enough energy to sustain a years-long drive to remove Obama supporters from office just because people are still upset Hillary Clinton was not the 2008 nominee and is not president today. Sometimes, I think even you believe this is what this is all about. Your “Reverse Operation Chaos” initiative seems predicated on this, but that belief is apocryphal in that it misses a few big marks.

This is and it isn’t about Hillary.

What it’s really about is what the Democrat Party did to Hillary that alienated tens of millions of Jacksonian/Clintonian/middleclass Americans from the party permanently — and this includes what the party and Obama campaign did to Hillary’s supporters themselves (ie, calling them racists, telling them they weren’t wanted, calling them bitter clingers, etc.).

For the first time in our lives, so many of us former Democrats were given an Alinsky taste of what the Democrat Party really stand for…what it really believes…and how it really feels about America, our Constitution, our economy, and our way of life.

Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Obama took the mask off the Democrat Party…and the Leftist gorgon that lurked beneath is something America-loving, middleclass, Jacksonian/Clintonian Democrats want nothing to do with.

As part of your “Reverse Operation Chaos”, you really need to emphasize something the media just won’t talk about — and that’s the simple fact that even if you called yourself a Democrat for 32 years, the way I did, because everyone you grew up with and everyone in your family was a Democrat, that in 2010 it’s time to ask yourselves what that really means.

Do you want to be in a party that calls people racists for stepping out of line and voicing opposition to the socialist lurch of the current administration?

Do you condone voter fraud and the shameless, undemocratic tactics employed by Democrats?

Do you wish to associate with the likes of ACORN, the SEIU, the Black Panthers, and all the other thugs, goons, and degenerates the Obama campaign and White House employ as the DNC’s muscle on the ground?

It is crystal clear that being a patriotic American who loves this country is intellectually incompatible with being a Democrat. If you love America and want it to prosper, the Democrat Party is at absolute odds with everything we need for a thriving, successful economy.

Hillary supporters realize this.

We received a heaping helping of Alinsky assaults to wake us up to this reality.

The reason so many of us support Governor Palin is not just because we see the same Alinksy assaults being waged upon her…but the woman is pitch-perfect in outlining exactly why Obama and the Left are wrong, and why Democrats under Obama are dangerous to have in elected office.

I know you talk about a “Hillary 2012″ but Rush, as much as I love Hillary Clinton, and as much as I worked my heart out for her in 2008, there’s no way that even she can repair the damage Obama has done to the party. Certainly not by 2012. MAYBE the Clintons and their supporters can purge the Obama lunatics from the party by 2016…but I doubt even that will happen. Just like with the Leftists Carter infected the Democrat Party with, Obama legacy hires will be in the DNC for a generation to come…and it might not be until the 2030s before the Democrats can remove the taint Obama and his Leftist agenda have put on the party.

Democrats have made themselves synonymous with anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-democracy. Obama and his acolytes decidedly upped the ante when it came to their aggressive push towards socialism…and this Center-Right nation is resisting it in what I am certain will be an epic refudiation (to borrow the Governor’s term) next week.

Claire McCaskill, D-MO, looking at He Who Must No
Be Re-Elected with the love that much of the country
looked at him in 2008... but not so much now.

On November 3rd, no one I know will be resting on any laurels. November 3rd starts the 2012 campaign…and not just the presidential race (where we’ll back Governor Palin) but the drive to knock people like Claire McCaskill out of office, continuing our work to take down every last one of the Obama supporters who backstabbed Hillary Clinton and helped install this socialist into the White House back in 2008. When you hear talk of a Hillary “enemies’ list”, or just “The List” as we call it in HRC supporter circles, this is very much real…and we are truly committed to making sure the Claire McCaskills out there get everything that is coming to them for all their service to Obama and his agenda.

Hear that, Ben Nelson…voters will be coming for you.

You and everyone like you.

Every last one of you.

If you voted for Obamacare, you are politically dead but may not know it…and it is your own fault. Being intensely stupid is no defense. If you were a YES vote on anything related to Obamacare you are going to be defeated…if not in 2010, then in the primaries in 2012. If you survive those, you will be taken down in the 2012 general election. Your political career is over…dummy.
Hope your time on the Obama Kool-Aid bandwagon was worth ruining your life over.

We will not forget those Obamacare votes. We will not forgive being called a racist because we don’t support this terrible man and his awful agenda. We will not be silenced.

We will not give up.

It’s going to be years, if ever, before the lamestream media ever catches up to any of this, and realizes that a large swath of people who used to be Democrat loyalists are now doing everything they can to destroy the party. Some of them are out and open, like me and my friends here at HillBuzz, but many are doing their part quietly. They just stop writing checks. Or maybe now they write checks to Democrat opponents. They might continue to attend events and fundraisers, but now they call up Republican sites and give them all the dirt on what they heard in those meetings. The Democrat Party alienated so many people who are now working to bring it down that I could go on for pages and pages more on this topic.

It’s very Sidney Bristow, Rush. And if you watched that show Alias, you’d know she not only won in the end, but looked damn good kicking ass while doing it.

THAT, El Rushbo, is what your “Hillary babes” are up to.

Here in Boystown, and in every town, because the Civil War Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Obama started on May 31st, 2008 is raging without end until the Democrat Party is no more.

Tell your listeners to count on that.

Kevin DuJan
Editor-in-Chief, HillBuzz.org
Hillary “Babe” in Buzzquarters, Boystown
 
The original article is found here.  Keep in mind that I copied and pasted the article exactly, but ALL italics for emphasis, links and video were added by me... in addtion, the first picture of the article, with DuJan and Hillary, and the text of the caption were the authors, all other photos and captions added by me.  Thanks...
 
...oh, and why not just give you the link and let you see it for yourself?  Cause I want you to spend time on my site, not somewhere else.  Duh.

Taxing Times for All

It's Clouds in My Coffee's Fifth Birthday!  Join/like on Facebook (search "clouds in my coffee") or become a fan on the right... and let me know if you like the new design!

For this, our nation's celebrated birthday, thought I'd bring in a great reality for us...


"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." - He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected, September 12th, 2008.

"Taxes will only be raised on people making $250K a year, and I'm guessing you and The Lovely Steph Leann don't make that." -- Friend of mine who argued against my unwillingness to "wait and see" what Obama will do, and my dislike of Obamacare

From The Americans for Tax Reform:

In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief (for a list of expiring tax provisions, click here)

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.  (I read this to The Lovely Steph Leann and she stared at me blankly, then said, "They are going to tax you... when you are dead?" to which I replied, "Oh no, they aren't taxing you, cause you are dead.  They are taxing what you leave behind, even though you've already paid taxes on it, for your loved ones to deal with.")

Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave: Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The “Special Needs Kids Tax” This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

(Sidebar... here's an article from the AP about Obamacare possibly leading to longer ER waits and overcrowding, and here's one from The Hill discussing the possibility that yes, Obamacare can turn away high risk, sick people... you know, those who cannot get insurance and are counting on Obamacare to save 'em)

Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.

Original article found at American Tax Reform here.

This is where I step back in...

For those who feel that, darn it, people who are rich should just be taxed more, 'cause its their job to pay more, don't forget the cigerette tax that "Obama, who stopped smoking but has admitted he slips now and then, signed a law raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes, to $1.01. Other tobacco products saw similarly steep increases."  This would be my guess for a "tax on the poor"... I know many people who make over a million dollars, very few of them smoke.  I know a lot of people who don't make jack back in Samson, Alabama, and many of them--including my own dear Mama Dollar, do smoke. 

As someone who doesn't use a tanning bed, but has a friend who owns one, here's a great one for ya... a tanning tax?  Seriously? 

Oh, and one more thing... for those who fight for our country and lose limbs in the process, 54 Democrats decided to vote against a measure that would have exempted the military from a medical device tax, which taxes medical devices like prostetic limbs. 

For the record, I'm not absolving Dubya from anything... his administration, especially in the terrible second term, spent way overbudget, and didn't give He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected much to work with.  There, I admitted it.  But you know what?  I'd take his "tax cuts for the rich", which were actually tax cuts for everyone, the rich just saved more because they were taxed more, any day of the week over what we've got now.



So, how's that hopey changey thing working out for ya?

Idol 2010 Begins!

They all start somewhere.  You started here... well, you started somewhere, and ended up here.  Or, you stopped by here on your way to somewhere else... either way, here you are. 

Paula the Blitherer is gone.  Simon the Crank is leaving after this year.  New judge, America's Favorite Lesbian Ellen DeGeneres, starts in a few weeks.  And, here's the beginning of yet another four dozen posts, descriptions, awesome singing, Kara the Hotness, Randy the Dawg, the infamous blanket that The Lovely Steph Leann pulls over her face... are you ready?  I said... arrrreeee yooooouuuu rrreeeeaaaddddyyy!??!!?!?!?!

THIS IS AMERICAN IDOL!!!!

Here we are in Boston, MA, with the familiar music playing, the montage of former winners that now include The Lovely Steph Leann's Next American Idol Kris Allen.  Its a rainy day with the crowd of 9,000, and they are all screaming and yelling on cue, with Augustina's "Boston" playing in the background. 

Kara the Hotness, Simon the Crank and Randy the Dawg appear, and our first guest judge, Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice.  That would be Posh Spice of the Spice Girls.  Has any other group ever done so much with so little?  They had... well, I can name three songs, "Wannabe", "2 Become 1" and my favorite of the three, "Say You'll Be There".  But think about it... Posh, Baby, Scary, Sporty and Ginger Spice made a movie, a clothing line, countless bajillions of dollars on tour, possibly singing just those three songs... has anyone else made such a bigger splash with so little substance?  (anyone who said Obama gets a cookie.  Oh!)  And you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a "family friendly" pic of Posh that didn't show off her... well, her God given form. 

Here comes someone who thinks she can sing because she has excelled at the Wii version of American Idol.  And sometimes girls--guys too, but its worse when girls do it--wear their jeans a little too tight, then their shirts that come up a little farther then they should... giving us... a muffin top.  Eww.

Janet McNamera busts out some "Pocket Full of Sunshine", which with those jeans doesn't look like she should be putting anything in those pockets.  That was absolutely terrible.  According to Janet, the Wii game loves her.  Then Janet points to Kara the Hotness and says, "Paula always loved me!".  Posh says, "Absolutely not."  Go Posh, no apologies!   Janet leaves, swears, swears some more, bounces over the top of her jeans and swears again.

10am in Massachusetts, the storm clouds have passed, and 16 year old Maddy, 9th of 12 kids (!), is featured in a little segment highlighting her brother with Downs.   Then the family adopts another child with Downs.  And another.  And another.  This is one of those, "I hope this kid makes it through because I will feel really bad if she doesn't make it!"  She attempts "Hallelujah".  And she's getting it done.  Randy the Dawg liked it, Kara the Hotness liked it, Posh the Spice liked it, Simon the Cowell liked it.  Looks like we got a Hollywooder!  Yay!  I liked her!   Simon says, "Amazing, you are 16 but not annoying..."  Right now, Cindy Jo, fresh off the Kris Allen/The Widower Danny Gokey Bandwagon, is crying. 

Posh Spice looks like she needs to eat a couple of sandwiches.

They do a scan of the Holding Room, where everyone sits to get in, and let's meet Pat Ford, this annoying kid who likes saying "Holla!" over and over.  He busts out some... broadway?  He's dancing like he's got "Squirrels In My Pants", and sounds like a complete idiot.  Of course, he thinks he did awesome, of course he's been singing and dancing his whole life and of course, he calls out Simon.  Randy the Dawg says, "Stop singing forever."  I second that emotion.

We see a montage of those who made it through, including Claire singing some Mr. Big, Jennifer singing some Wicked and Jess singing "A train is coming..."  ANYONE who sings Mr. Big is great in my book.  "I'm the one who wants to be with you... deep inside I hope you feel it too..."  Come on, sing it with me!

A segment on an Italian guy who's name I didn't catch... something DiRocco?  They play the Italian dance music, show lots of pasta and lots of Italian people around the table.  Amadeo DiRicco.  He's taking on Muddy Water's "Hoochie Coochie Man", which is a lot of yelling and such.  It was pretty intense, and truthfully, if he makes it Hollywood and tries out some Owl City, he's going to fail miserably.  Simon calls it his favorite audition of the day.  So, he makes it.  As he runs out, Seacrest is engulfed in the mob (pun totally intended) of New England Italianos. 

I love the fact they just started "Return to Innocense" by Enigma to show this next guy, who has obviously never met a ProActive tube of cream.  He says he's an earthly, spiritual person, and they show him sniffing flowers and blowing petals.  "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Words", by Derek Hilton.  Somewhere, Elton John just smacked his boyfriend across the face in anger.  I wish The Lovely Steph Leann were here, she would have that blanket over her face and it would be precious.  I declare this the first Blanket Over Face of the new Idol season!

And the montage of those who failed.  Lots of tears, lots of pain, lots of disappointment, while the real "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Words" plays in the background. 

Actually, describing this chick seems to be the hardest words.  Some chick who does anime, likes designing kimonos, does some sort of chi kickboxing (chiboxing?) and looks like a total flake.  Mere Doyle starts screaming, "Piece of My Heart", while Simon and Randy cringe, and Kara and Posh stare at each other.   Then she busts out the standard, "My voice coaches all tell me I'm great, singing is my life and its who I am!"  We get tears... and how she's spent 14 years training for this. 

Ah, Luke Sheffer and Benjamin Bright doing it old school... smooth voices, a little snap here and there... good stuff. 

Its almost the end of day one, and we get local musician Andrew Fenlon, who is complaining about how long he's had to wait, and how much he's been interviewed (not saying they did this, but if I'm the Idol producers, I'm making this kid wait as long as possible?  Why?  Good, good tv.  This guy is an idiot.)

Andrew Fenlon, smarts off to Simon (bad move), smarts off again to Simon (bad move again), then says he's going to sing "House of the Rising Sun", then asks Simon, "Do you know that song?"  And if he's a local musician in Boston, I'm going to remember to skip his show.  Randy sips on his Coke glass, with a grimace.  Kara asks him if he's angry, and he says he's just tired of waiting.   Kara the Hotness goes off on Andrew, who gets all defensive, rude and sulky.  "You've got bad energy," Simon says, and he says, "Aw man."  Then Posh says, "You don't have the goods to back it up."  I like her... she ain't playing.

Needless to say, he didn't make it.  "Simon and Randy liked me, but the girls got mad.  I don't know what I did."

Holy crud... its almost 1am!  I have to be at Starbucks at 5:30, so I'll be back in a few hours...

...okay, just got home.  8am, I'm sleepy, but let's finish some Idol before taking our nap!  (setting up, getting DVR ready, watching a "coming up" teaser about a guy with cancer and a dead grandmother...)

Just saw an ad for "The Lovely Bones" movie adaptation.  I'm in the middle of the book, or audiobook anyway, and I'm diggin' it, but haven't had time to finish it... same goes for the two other books I'm trying to finish... one I'm less than 120 pages from finishing, and the other I'm a good 300 pages from finishing.  I'll get there, I guess.  Perhaps with The Happiest Place in the Mall becoming The Emptiest Place in the Mall, I'll have more time. 

Back to Idol.

We see a quick shot of several prospects, discussing their training and their experience... including one guy who just stuck a knife in Seal's "Kiss From a Rose", and another guy who is wailing something that is indecipherable.  But, here comes Ashley Rodriguez. 

Ashley really wants this.  This is her dream, since she was little.  "Since I Ain't Got You" is her song, and though she's not just slaying it, she's doing it quite nicely.  She does look good, and I like her.  Simon says, "You may have It".  That's pretty good.

Tyler Grady pops up, with shattered wrists because he fell out of a tree.  He's also a drummer, though that might be on hold when your arms don't work so well.  He's got this bushy afro thing going on, and it looks like he is wearing bell bottoms.  He's singing "Let's Get It On".  See, this is where I miss Paula, because she would be saying everything she could to say "Come to my room" without actually saying "Come to my room."   I miss the bubbles and fluffy and clouds and flowers.  Anyway, Kara the Hotness and Posh the Spice love it, and Randy the Dawg and Simon the Cowell agree.  He's off to Hollywood.

17 make it the first day, let's move on to Day 2.  Randy and Simon arrive, as do Kara and Victoria Beckham, aka, Posh Spice, aka, Eat a Chocolate Bar.  I swear I've had servings of pretzels bigger than her.  Its just not attractive. 

Lisa Olivero is 24, she's a waitress and she wants to be a singer.  She's got a heavy accent, and she says she likes to sing Mariah Carey and Christina Aguliera.  She's got confidence, because she's singing "Vision of Love"... which, of course, is pre-skank Mariah.  Don't get me started on that...

Anyway, watching Posh's face while Lisa belts these notes out... let's just say this.  Anytime they spotlight someone who goes on and on about wanting to be a singer, THEN talks about how people tell her that she sounds like Mariah and X-Tina, and she believes it... you know this is going to be bad.  And it was absolutely awful. 

And there's more... here's a montage of failed attempts.  And ridiculous outfits.  And terrible conversations.  And crazy accents. 

Here comes Mike Davis, who drives a big touring speedboat named "Codzilla".  This guy should annoy the crap out of me... but I kinda like him.  "Yesterday" is his song of choice... while he's not great, he's really not bad.  Actually, he's pretty good.  Simon says yes... but Randy says no?  Kara the Hotness loves him, and I'm guessing Posh the Spice will do the same... and she does. 

Katie Stevens, 16, hails from Middlebury, Connecticut, who has a very old, very slow grandmother who only can speak Portuguese.  She's nailing "At Last" by Etta James... and I think I've found a real candidate for My Next American Idol.  Yes, its early, but its not too early to pay attention.  She was awesome.   She gets through.

Oh no... Joshua Blaylock is up.  He's 28, this is his last shot, and he's doing a decent job on "Bless the Broken Road"... but in the previews, this is the guy who tells Simon to "Shut Up".  Now we find out its staged... they told him to be more assertive, and Randy says, "Tell Simon to shut up!" which he does.  Oh, that Fox.  Teasing us so with the conflicting verbage.  And the tease us again with the cancer story and a New York girl who, "Wants this so badly, this is my dream!"

And a montage of poor people who freeze up and forget their words, and those who you wish had frozen up and forgotten their words.  There's an Asian kid trying to sing "All By Myself" that, were The Lovely Steph Leann here, she might pass out from laughing.  Maybe even throw the blanket.  The Asian kid had to have subtitles when he talked to Ryan the Seacrest.

Justin Williams was doing missions in Spain 7 years ago, and found out he had cancer.  Once again, Cindy Jo is weeping openly.  "Feelin' Good" is how he's singing.  I happen to love the original by Nina Simone, who doesn't get nearly the love that Billie Holliday and some of the classics do.  Nina rocks.

And so does Justin.  Paula would be laid face first right now at his feet... its possible that The Lovely Steph Leann would too if she were there.  Posh likes him, Kara likes him, Randy and Simon likes him.  Its like the second coming of Ace Young without the Ace Young hair.

Holy crap.  This guy.  Reminds me of Whatshername Odermayer from last year... two years ago?  Simba, remember?  Except Whatshername Odermayer with a gotee and better/worse hair.  And unfortunately, I was so caught up by this dude's appearance that I missed his name altogether, which means I had to rewind the DVR to catch his name... Norberto Guerrero.  Fitting. 

And what's great is when he screws up the song, he hops around, then tells them he's nervous and says, "Can I start over?" and Simon says, "uh... sure."  Norberto didn't make it.

Bosa Mora, a black dude with Nigerian parents is singing... George Strait.  I'm not kidding.  "You Looks So Good In Love" is classic Strait... and dude!  He's pulling it off!  I think George would be happy with it.  Simon finds him very boring, while Posh says, "I didn't find him boring a'tall".  Kara, Posh and Randy send Bosa through with a 3-1 margin.

And the end of Boston's auditions is near.  Touching stories, amazing talent, bad auditions, terrible costumes.. just like your typical Idol show. 

Leah Laurenti is the final contestant of the Boston audition.  She wants it so bad, she doesn't want to settle.  Her goal is to be a singer.  She's been singing her whole life.  Its very important to her.  She's original, I tell ya that.

Now, she's singing "Blue Skies", and I think this is one of those that The Lovely Steph Leann would gush about, saying how hard those runs are, and how her voice control is unbelievable... and I would respond, "Yeah, she's okay."  Maybe its the song, but she's just... well, she's just pretty good.  Randy loved it.  Kara loved it.  Posh Spice loved it.  Simon gives it a fourth yes-vote, and "Boston" by Augustena plays once more. 

A total of 31 make it to Hollywood... and here are the ones I liked... Katie Stevens, That 16 Year Old Maddy chick, Ashley Rodriguez and Luke Sheffer.

The 100 Coolest Things of 2009... 90 to 81

There are several videos on this post--if you reading this in Facebook, then click over to Clouds in My Coffee, so you can see everything properly. Then come back to Facebook, search Clouds in My Coffee and become a fan! We're 111 strong! Let's be 115! Yeah!

90... Dairy Queen Real Deals
Imagine my surprise when I walked into a Dairy Queen and saw a big square on the menu.  Three cubes on top, three on bottom, one on each side, and in the middle, the words, "2 for $3 or 3 for $4 or 4 for $5!".  So, for $5.40 (after tax), I can get a hot dog, a cheeseburger, a medium drink and a small sundae with anything from caramel to butterscotch (have to ask for that one) on it.  The marshmallow sundae is much better than it sounds, by the way.  I've eaten at DQ more in the last six months that I think I have in my whole life, including the year or so I worked there in 1995 at Troy's DQ. 

89... Stuff You Missed In History Class
I dig on podcasts and audiobooks.  I like listening to comedy, fiction, sports, nonfiction and... history.  There's this great little podcast from the website "How Stuff Works", which itself is a fascination podcast.  Well, "Stuff You Missed in History Class" has two hosts who essentially discuss... well, history.  In a fun way.  Usually its about stuff you dont know much about, or topics you've heard of, but don't know the whole story... some I've listened to recently include, "Why was Davy Crockett king of the wild frontier?" and "How the Berlin Wall worked" and "How the Emancipation Proclamation Worked"... now, don't ask me to remember any this stuff--I have the absorbing power of a concrete block (unless its about useless information, like what actually happened with the Montreal Screwjob), but nonetheless, its quite entertaining.

88... "Toy Story in 3-D" Double Feature
I'd been hearing about this for a long time, and thought The Lovely Steph Leann and I own both Toy Story movies, there is just something about seeing a movie on the big screen, especially a great film like both of these are. 



As far as the 3-D goes, ya know... it doesn't impress me as much.  I mean, it was good, but not unbelievable.  I sort of think that if you don't really notice the 3-D, then it might not be worth it (hence my review on "Avatar").  We saw it with family, which was fun, and its was just such a good time.  The problem came in, though, when The Lovely Steph Leann wanted popcorn and candy for the second film.  No biggie, right?  Go during the intermission... only, during the intermission, they decided they would show trivia, outtakes and other fun stuff.  So I missed a bunch of it. 

And Toy Story 3?  I'm excited.

87... Alissa & Joey's Wedding

I've known Alissa Kelly, the younger of two daughters of Pastor Calvin (Valleydale Church, an sbc fellowship), for at least 10 years, maybe more.  And I knew her before she was dating Joey, and then met Joey when they finally got together.  And then watched as they got engaged, and finally as they got married.  Perhaps I've not been really tight with either for years and years, but I felt like I've watched them both, especially Alissa, for a long time.  So, naturally, it was great watching their wedding, and it was great at their reception.  Beautiful bride, great groom, hilarious minister (Andy Murry, student pastor at Valleydale Church, an sbc fellowship) who said "Awesome" about fifty four times during the ceremony.  Congrats...

86... "The Smiley Face Commercial"
This ad just started coming on television not too long ago, and it hooked me immediately.  Its clever, its inventive, and it makes me think of driving... there is a semi-circle crack in the windshield of Toni Rocki Honda, just below my direct sight line of my driver's seat.  When I pull up behind someone, if I close one eye and cock my head just so, it makes a mouth to the brake light eyes, and it makes me happy.  Its the little things, really.



And I love the music.  Too bad its a great commercial concept for a credit card.  That's sort of like... well, I'll save the He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected potshot for later... Speaking of...

85... Joe Wilson Speaks What We Think
September 9th, 2009.  As He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected is spouting off, declaring how his amazing health care reform plan will save this nation, I watched this clip several times, and really, even though Joe Wilson (R-SC) yells "You lie!" at the 1:22 mark, he really could have yelled it at any point.  He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected is lying about "death panels" being a fabrication, about tax dollars not being used to fund abortions, about illegal immigrants not being covered under this plan and about tax dollars not being used. 



And what happens?  Wilson gets censured on the floor for "being disrespectful".  Heck, I'm glad that at least for one few shining moment, a Republican actually got passionate and stood up to He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected.  Cause in most speeches I've heard from He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected, "You Lie!" would fit.   And now you know.  And knowing is half the battle... Go Joe!

84... Paepcke Gets Told
Speaking of politics... let us turn to NBC Investigative Reporter Jon Paepcke, who is a former co-worker and a friend.  On October 28th, 2009, Birmingham's fine mayor, Larry Langford, was convicted on everything from bribery and embezzlement to tearing the "do not remove" tags off of his mattresses.  So, he does what he does best... mug for the camera.

Langford is doing a press conference about his innocense, when somewhere in there (its not in the video), Jon Paepcke actually asks Langford what he thinks this will do to Birmingham's Olympic chances in 2020.  When I saw that, I thought I was going to absolutely pass out.  Langford has been saying for years that the Olympic Games should come here--and he speaks as if this city not only has a shot, but a real shot.


(FYI... whoever loaded this video put their own commentary on screen--its the only copy of the video I could find to post, so please 'scuse)
 
So then, Langford them proceeds to go off on Paepcke, calling him a snake, the worst reporter of them all, and so on.  It was great.  I couldn't see the face of the blond reporter standing in front of Paepcke, but I can't imagine how priceless her awkward expression much be.  When he came into The Happiest Place in the Mall a few weeks ago, I ribbed him about it, and told him that video would be on this list.  He seemed proud.
 
83... "Men of a Certain Age"
I really dig this show.   And I would say the diggedness of this show is in no small part to the main three stars, Ray Romano (that "Ray" show), Scott Bakula (that "Leap" show) and Andre Braugher (that "Homicide" show), three guys I have always enjoyed in just about everything they've done.
 
Essentially, the plot is the friendship between three college friends – Joe, Owen and Terry – who are now in their late 40s/early 50s. Joe (Romano) is a slightly neurotic divorced father of two (Brittany Curran as Lucy, and Braeden Lemasters as Albert) who hoped to become a pro golfer but now owns a party store. Owen (Braugher) is an overstressed, diabetic husband and father, who is a car salesman at his dad's dealership. Terry (Bakula) is a struggling actor dating a much younger woman.



 
Ten years ago, I wouldn't have really enjoyed this show as much, mostly because I just wouldn't have understood it.  But the very first scene we see Owen in, when he's sitting up in bed, slightly overweight, looking frumpy and tired, sighing because its just another day... well, that I can identify with.   Its rated MA for language. 
 
Is it bad that I feel like in ten years, this show will be about me, my best mate Wookiee and Mikey?  With the Good Rev'rn Ty "Sharpton" Coffey tossed in?
 
82... "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"
I'll be honest, I wanted to see this film from the moment it came out.  I knew it would be bad.  I figured it would be bad.  I mean, its got Kevin James portraying... A Mall Cop.  The previews made both The Lovely Steph Leann and I laugh out loud, but they looked a little formulaic, a little cliched, and I thought, "Wow, that's going to be terrible."  And then a few weeks ago, I watched it via Netflix's Watch It Now Option.
 
...aaaaannnnndddddd........
 
I thought this movie was great, it made me laugh and was a good, shallow movie to sit back and enjoy.  I liked it because it didn't try to be anything that its not.  I liked it because Kevin James has a knack for being the guy who represents all of us kinda dorky guys who learns he only has to be his dorky self to be awesome.  I liked it because Jayma Mays, the ingenue/love interest, wasn't this unbelievable knock-out supermodel that would unrealistic to approach, she was this cute, down to earth girl that any of thinks we could at least talk to, and I liked it because the movie wasn't dirty, it didn't wallow in crude humor, it just told its story, made me laugh, then rolled the credits.  Yeah, yeah, its a little unbelievable that a group of robbers could take the mall on skateboards, but go with it...
 
...and this is unlike the other mall cop movie, "Observe & Report", with Seth Rogan, which might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen.  Here's what I said on June 5:
 
...I saw "Observe and Report" tonight at the $1 theater with Mikey. It was pretty terrible. It was a random (not in a good way) movie, it didn't go anywhere, it veered off into fifteen different directions, it wanted to be a comedy but still wanted to be taken as "smart" comedy, which it wasn't. Out of every character in that movie, including a usually reliable Seth Rogan's Ronnie, Anna Faris and several other "that guys" and B-listers, including Ray Liotta, the ONLY character in the entire movie I actually liked was that of Nell, the Cinnamon Bun stand worker, played by Collette Wolfe... otherwise, the movie was really lame...

81... The Amazing Race
This was the 15th edition of The Amazing Race, and the 11th that I'd watched.  Unlike Survivor, The Amazing Races all seem to kind of run together (ie, I couldn't name or even describe more then say, two winning teams in all 11 I've seen, excluding the last one), so it's always the contestants that make it for me.  And you're telling me that this one has two members of the Harlem Globetrotters named Flight Time & Big Easy?  Sold.
 
I would love to be on Survivor, but The Amazing Race would be awesome too, because its not so much a social game, as its a "get there as fast as you possibly can" game, which is awesome... sometimes, The Lovely Steph Leann and I will sit and watch together, usually picking out the challenges that she or I would do... though I told her that if we came to a 80 foot waterslide, one that was located in a resort, not in a tropical rain forest, and whooshed into a big pool, not a pirahna infested lake, and she refused to go down it--much like Mika did, while Canaan begged and pleaded for her to just let go of the bar--I think we'd get counseling.  It didn't help that Flight Time & Big Easy showed up, told her how scary it was and talked her out of it.  Mika & Canaan were in fact eliminated.
 
The big feud was Flight Time & Big Easy against Sam & Dan, brothers were both gay, and really, were just annoying and seriously a couple of jerks.  Naturally, though, the couple that fights and whines the most ends up winning, and thats exactly what Meghan and Cheyne (pronouced "shane", though not spelled the same for some unknown reason... perhaps they have a propencity for extra letters in their names.  Kinda like if I spelled my name "Dahyvedd".  I like it.)

Coming up...  A new "Bohemian Rhapsody"... Kate Wins... and more Pickles!  And later, could one of my friends be the next American Idol?

Dismantling America

Every now and again I come across something that is just awesome. Its written like I wish I could write, sharing ideas and ideology in a way that I wish I could get across. Just a note--the video is my own addition. As featured on TownHall.com:

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

Does any of this sound like America?

How about a federal agency giving school children material to enlist them on the side of the president? Merely being assigned to sing his praises in class is apparently not enough.

How much of America would be left if the federal government continued on this path? He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected (my title, not his-d$) has already floated the idea of a national police force, something we have done without for more than two centuries.

We already have local police forces all across the country and military forces for national defense, as well as the FBI for federal crimes and the National Guard for local emergencies. What would be the role of a national police force created by Barack Obama, with all its leaders appointed by him? It would seem more like the brown shirts of dictators than like anything American.

How far the President will go depends of course on how much resistance he meets. But the direction in which he is trying to go tells us more than all his rhetoric or media spin.
Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to "change the United States of America," the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country.

Jeremiah Wright said it with words: "God damn America!"


Lest you forget, here's the man that led the church attended by He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected for six months. Wait, it was more, right? I meant a year. What? More? Okay, five years. But he didn't really know him, right? Uh... what? More? How many? TWENTY YEARS? He was our president's pastor for TWENTY YEARS? But... but... He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected didn't really know him. Right? Right.

Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted. Community activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people.

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children.

Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?

Nothing is more consistent with his lifelong patterns than putting such people in government-- people who reject American values, resent Americans in general and successful Americans in particular, as well as resenting America's influence in the world.

Any miscalculation on his part would be in not thinking that others would discover what these stealth appointees were like. Had it not been for the Fox News Channel, these stealth appointees might have remained unexposed for what they are. Fox News is now high on the administration's enemies list.

Nothing so epitomizes President Obama's own contempt for American values and traditions like trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year-- each bill more than a thousand pages long-- too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question-- and the biggest question for this generation.

Written by Thomas Sowell, former Marxist, reformed Conservative, author, economist and professor at Stanford University.

"I don't care. This is racist. You should respect our first black president. This is a bigoted piece written by some white bureaucrat who never knew a hard days work in his life!"

Oh yeah, Sowell is also more black than He Who Must Not Be Re-Elected, 100% certified.

Politically Cartoony

Pardon me, but I wanted to post this for quite a while. So I thought I would...

I think political cartoons are awesome, and truly, there is no finer example of the First Amendment... like these I found...


This was done by a guy named Alex Ross, appearing on the cover of The Village Voice on October 6, 2004... see, Dubya is sucking this country dry of liberty! Hilarious!


Oh, and this one that Shepard Fairey did in 2004, appearing on the cover of LA Weekly. Its fearless. Its one of the finest cartoons you find. Bush. Satan. Same thing, really. Hilarious!


Oh, and here's a great one of Justice Scalia "puppeting" Justice Thomas. Cause like, Clarance Thomas is really nothing more than a stupid brotha' from the streets, right? Just doing what "The Man" says to do, right? Just a mouthpiece! I be knowin' dat's right! Oh no he di'int! Hilarious!


And speaking of Uncle Toms, what about Aunt Toms?! Here's Condi Rice just bowing down to "The Big Man in Charge", you know, doing whateva' the good massah say to do, right? What you say massah, what you say! She ain't nothing but a stupid bird, doing whatever she told! Hilarious!

Kind of reminds me of when Harry Belafonte called then-Secretary of State Colin Powell a "House N*****". I'm sure glad there wasn't a media uproar about it, because our country has bigger issues than a legendary singer poking fun at someone.


This is a great example of freedom of speech... an actual movie was made about not just the assassination of a president, but the Assassination of George W. Bush! Wow! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!


And for you literary people out there, a book was made about the assassination of the president! But not just any president, mind you, but the assassination of George W. Bush, even going into detail about how it could be done, if you so chose! Wow! Brilliant!


Artist Drew Friedman submitted this to Vanity Fair in 2007. Its called "No Joke". See, it depicts Dubya as an evil villain, a terrible person who is hellbent on the destruction of our country and its Constitution, which is nothing more than a "g****mn piece of paper". (warning--link has quotes using Non Emmy Turnbow Safe language) Wow! Hilarious and brilliant!

Oh, and this?


See, this just offends me. When are we going to stop this bigotry and vitriol? We have to realize that such racism is outdated, such hatred has no place in the unified society we are trying to build not only for ourselves, but our children, and even our children's children. You may not agree with him, but you owe him your support as he is your President, and the office of the Presidency MUST BE RESPECTED. Now I'm ticked off and saddened.

Just sayin'.

Front Porch Sign Says Yard Sale

The front porch sign says yard sale... real estate sign says "sold"... family picnic table holds all that it can hold... on the grass and on the sidewalk, yeah there must be half the town... ain't it funny how a broken home can bring the prices down... Sammy Kershaw's "Yard Sale", from the 1991 album "Don't Go Near the Water".

Old school country, really. Its from Sammy's album "Don't Go Near the Water", debuting in 1991. It really is a little cheesy, but its pure, true country... the chorus says, "...They're sorting through whats left of you and me... paying yard sale prices for each golden memory... oh, I never thought I'd ever live to see... the way their sorting through whats left of you and me..."

The video is even better... poor Sammy watches his woman take her ring off, lay it on the table and slowly walk out. We see him just wander around the yard, watching people pay a few bucks each for all of the prized and cherished possessions of their marriage.

The video is here, but YouTube won't let me post it. Some crap about copyright infringement... whatever.

Anyway, this was all up in my mental jukebox this weekend as The Lovely Steph Leann and I raced around the house gathering up stuff out of The Cabana's depths, cabinets, closets and so on... we were invited by The Tebershaws to join in with their own yard sale... Tiffiany, the Tebershaw lady, is going to have herself a little baby, so she and Teber are working on clearing some space for a youngling. Gemini and Heather King recently downsized into a smaller habitat, so they had a bunch of stuff to get rid of.

I mean, its a yard sale. Stuff that you had five years ago, stuff that you held so dear and precious, stuff that you'd neeeeeeeevvvvvveeeerrrr get rid of (and I say this tongue in cheek, as typically I was the one that did just that very thing) suddenly, now, don't seem so important. Yeah, there was a few things I kept, for reasons here and there, but sifting through boxes, seeing stuff I hadn't since before we left The Casa de Pesos for The Cabana

You left two Sunday dresses in the backporch and on the line... lady just brought them to me, said she thinks they'll fit just fine... well, there goes the baby's wagon and the mirror from the hall... I'd better take just one last look before they take it all...

Anyway, here's a few snapshots from the weekend...


The driveway of The Tebershaws home, where we lined up three couples worth of stuff. It was kinda comical to begin with, as we actually had an "electronics", a "home decor", a "Christmas" and an entire table of picture frames, of which we sold nearly all of them.


I finally sold what remained of my home video collection. Yes, I do have a few irreplaceable videos here at The Cabana, but mostly, this was it. Back in 2004, The Lovely Steph Leann and I--both married in our late 20s, so we carried into the marriage numerous things that we suddenly had two of, like dishes, furniture, movies, towels and so on, of which I had to get rid of most of mine because hers was better--joined forces with Mikey and his wife Ashleia, and we had a yard sale. Mikey and I, tenants of The Deuce, probably owned at least 600 videos between the two of us, and both of us were jumping headfirst into the DVD revolution.

Well, that yard sale, The Lovely Steph Leann and I made about 700 dollars, Mikey and Ashleia made somewhere around 500, and probably half of both of our totals was videos. And we managed to sell several this morning, first at $2, then $1 per. Top left, you'll see my Monkees video collection, when I used to get a tape each month with three episodes of the serious. I was a diehard Monkees fan back in the day, and still am to some respect. Wookiee used to make fun of me. The "Abs of Steel", however... not mine.


The price sticker says 25 cents on it, but we taxed it much more. Its a great cup, though. Whatever you put in it, it looks great and smells great and seems awesome on the outside. What you actually get, though? Not so much. (I had a dozen of these rolling this morning...)


Not sure which couple this belonged to, but it seemed like a funny picture... a contridiction, if you will.


Gemini sold some boots that had been worn in Iraq, carrying with it geniune Iraqi dirt.


Not to be outdone, this kangaroo puppet is straight from Australia. Seriously. My friend Darlene brought it to me when she went there on missions... finally, though, 12 years or so later, it was time to let it go.

That's the problem with friends that go on missions and bring stuff back... you feel so obliged to keep it, because not only were they nice enough to think of you, but its stuff thats from... well, around the world. Scotty Latta brought us back a stuffed banana, while my little sister Ashley brought back some Chinese stuff from... China. We've still got them.

My most prized "missions gift" though is a hand carved mancala set from South Africa that my friend AmyAlex brought back years ago. She and I have lost touch, but I still have that set, and won't get rid of it for anything.

On another topic, The Lovely Steph Leann and I find ourselves... well, I "find" myself, she seeks it out... watching "Clean House" on, what, Oxygen? WE? Style! Yeah, that's it, Style... anyway, I preferred "Clean Sweep" on TLC, mostly because it amused me that a family show would sample "Blowin' Me Up With Her Love" by JC Chasez for its title tune, but "Clean House" is the same concept... in the show, usually around the yard sale time, the head designer appeals to the homeowner about a certain item, one that they just don't want to get rid of, because it holds a special memory of a loved one, often times deceased.

For me, this moment came when this woman picked up my dad's old camera.

It was a Minolta, with two lenses, and one of those flashes that towered above the camera itself, in a big column, and the flash faces out in a rectangle. It was in the case, still with the instructions, had been used maybe, four, five times, ever. Value of the camera when purchased, with all the accrutrements? At least $400. And here it was, some 23, 24 years after it had been bought, and almost 10 years since my dad passed, the camera sat on the table with a $20 price tag. And this woman dared to haggle me about the price. Actually, I had already marked it down to $10, so I didn't understand why this woman wouldn't pay the full ten, not bring it down more...

Of course, to her it was just an old camera, much like if I went to her house and spotted a 1987 edition of Univision Monthly on her table... to me, just an old magazine, to her it might contain a special story that means something, or perhaps her cousin was featured in a novella on that Thursday night or whatever... one man's trash...

So, she paid 7. I took the money, she put the camera strap on her shoulder, and she walked away. I stood, silently, watching the camera go down the driveway, disappear into a hatchback and drive away forever. With my right hand, I wiped away a little moisture in my eye (it was dusty in that garage, mind you) and then went out marking other stuff down, as it was getting later in the day.

MZ asked me later why I got rid of it, and at first, I didn't know... but I knew. It was taking up space. I was never, ever going to use it. It was so old, I wasn't even sure it all worked. And I've got mementos from my dad from before he died, so it wasn't as if this camera held a lock of his hair or something... it was... well, it was just a thing. And I'm okay with it being gone.


What I wrote on the box speaks for itself.


On top, kids, thats a Vee Cee Are... it stands for Video Cassette Recorder. Say it with me... Vee... Cee... Are... and below that is a DVD player that we only sold because we just bought a Blu Ray player.

I wanted to keep this one, and replace one upstairs in the guest room... this one here belonged to me, therefore, it was a better machine, and the one I wanted to replace belonged to The Lovely Steph Leann. And guess which one we still have, and which one we sold. Yup.


Was there any bigger misleading investment potential than that of Beanie Babies? The Lovely Steph Leann even commented that ten years ago, these things would go for a few bucks more than the 50 cents we were selling them for here.

So that was our yard sale, and our end of it pulled in about $230 or so. Course, to look in The Cabana's hallways and such, you wouldn't know that anything was missing... everything just collapsed in on itself to fill the now empty space.

"Oh, they're sorting through what's left of you and me... paying yard sale prices for each golden memory... oh, I wonder what you'd say if you could see... the way they're sorting through whats left of you and me...."