Oi Vey.  The love affair Obama is having with the former Clinton administration is getting annoying.  How is this change?  Sounds to me like we are going backyards in time instead of looking forward.

Here’s a good one for you.  The newest pick for CIA director was made public without Obama’s permission.  The media got their information through leaks.  Oh yea.  That makes me feel safe. 

From the NY Times:

The choice (Leon Panetta), disclosed Monday by Democratic officials, immediately revealed divisions in the party as two senior lawmakers questioned why Mr. Obama would nominate a candidate with limited experience in intelligence matters.

In the middle of a war with terrorists Obama thinks its a good idea to nominate someone who has only been a politician.  Oh weeee, this is getting fun, isn’t it?

Here is what experience Panetta has:

As President Clinton’s chief of staff for two and a half years, Mr. Panetta regularly attended daily intelligence briefings in the Oval Office, and he has a reputation in Washington as a skilled manager and power broker with a strong background in budget issues. But he has little direct intelligence experience, and did not serve on the House Intelligence Committee during his 16 years in Congress.

No experience in intelligence, only experience as a politician.  You may be wondering what others think of this pick:

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and the new chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee……“My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time,” she said.

Senator John d. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia….shares Ms. Feinstein’s concerns….

Ms. Feinstein’s Republican counterpart on the Intelligence Committee, Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri…..“looking hard at Panetta’s intelligence expertise and qualifications.”

“It’s a puzzling choice and a high-risk choice,” said Amy Zegart, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles………“The best way to change intelligence policies from the Bush administration responsibly is to pick someone intimately familiar with them,” Ms. Zegart said. “This is intelligence, not tax or transportation policy. You can’t hit the ground running by reading briefing books and asking smart questions.”

I saw only three positive remarks for this pick in this article.  Only 1 of those positive ones actually had a full quote.

So why did Panetta get chosen?

Democratic officials said Mr. Panetta’s gravitas and ties to Mr. Obama would give the C.I.A. a powerful voice within the administration, particularly in bureaucratic jockeying with the Pentagon, which has a much bigger budget and more bureaucratic clout.

Hasn’t the Democratic party had enough problems with pay-to-play scandals?  Oh – and another reason he  may have been picked is because he doesn’t believe in the CIA’s interrogative techniques.  We all know how Obama wants to have tea parties and beg our enemies not to hurt us.  He just may have nominated a CIA director who believes the same thing.

Now for the most disturbing points in that article:

If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Panetta would take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior leaders of Al Qaeda around the world.

Now I bit more information from Fox News:

Sens. Diane Feinstein and Jay Rockefeller, the incoming and outgoing intelligence committee chairmen, wanted Kappes or an intelligence professional chosen for CIA director.

Feinstein’s spokesman said the California senator did not receive a phone call about Panetta from anyone in the Obama camp and  learned about the decision from news reports.

A source told FOX News that the news got out before the transition was ready to announce it, and suggested Feinstein would have been consulted at some point. However, it seems as if she would have been informed rather than consulted, inasmuch as they have already chosen Panetta.

So Obama’s change is going to be keeping secrets from the people who need the information and not getting advice from the people who have the experience.  Oh yea. 

The Minnesota senate election is getting embarrassing.  It’s getting down to the Demorates wanting to defraud every vote so they can win.  It’s a disgrace.  From the Wall Street Journal:

Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor.

Mr. Franken…..who was insisting on "counting every vote" wants to shut the process down. He’s getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.

(I)t appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote.

And one Canvassing Board member, State Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, has acknowledged that "very likely there was a double counting." Yet the board insists that it lacks the authority to question local officials and it is merely adding the inflated numbers to the totals.

(Hennepin County) officials may have accidentally run the ballots through the machine twice on Election Night — the Canvassing Board chose to go with the Election Night total, rather than the actual number of ballots in the recount. That decision gave Mr. Franken a gain of 46 votes.

Ramsey County precinct ended up with 177 more ballots than there were recorded votes on Election Night. In that case, the board decided to go with the extra ballots, rather than the Election Night total, even though the county is now showing more ballots than voters in the precinct. This gave Mr. Franken a net gain of 37 votes, which means he’s benefited both ways from the board’s inconsistency.

Many Franken-leaning counties did so (re examining rejected absentee ballots), submitting 1,350 ballots to include in the results. But many Coleman-leaning counties have yet to complete a re-examination. Despite this lack of uniformity, and though the state Supreme Court has yet to rule on a Coleman request to standardize this absentee review, Mr. Ritchie’s office nonetheless plowed through the incomplete pile of 1,350 absentees this weekend, padding Mr. Franken’s edge by a further 176 votes.

And the Canvassing Board appears to have applied inconsistent standards in how it decided some of these challenged votes — in ways that, again on net, have favored Mr. Franken.

Minnesota’s other Senator, Amy Klobuchar, is already saying her fellow Democrats should seat Mr. Franken when the 111th Congress begins this week if the Canvassing Board certifies him as the winner. This contradicts Minnesota law, which says the state cannot award a certificate of election if one party contests the results.

(W)e can’t recall a similar recount involving optical scanning machines that has changed so many votes, and in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate. The Coleman campaign clearly misjudged the politics here, and the apparent willingness of a partisan like Mr. Ritchie to help his preferred candidate, Mr. Franken.

I believe Mr. Franken has been certified by the board as the winner now.   He’s already made his victory speech.

So, lets see.  Since Obama’s win we have Democratic Illinois governor, Blagojevich, being charged for trying to sell Obama’s senate seat which hasn’t stopped him from nominating Roland Burris as the new Senator.  Bill Richardson, Democratic Governor of New Mexico, had to withdraw from being nominated as Commerce Secretary because he’s being investigated for pay-to-play dealings (which completely blew me away!).  And now Democratic Al Franken may be Minnesota’s next Senator under obvious fraudulent recounts.

This is giving Democracy a bad name. 

If there is any doubt in your minds that the world has become a place where we eliminate our problems rather than deal with them, the following two stories should remove it.

On August 1st, a 12 year old boy from Sierra Vista, Arizona was told to clean his room.  He did not talk back.  He did not complain.  He did not argue.

Instead, he took a took a .22 caliber pistol and shot his mother 8 times, killing her.  It is unclear whether or not he ever cleaned his room.

Conlogue ruled that prosecutors had proved the boy acted intentionally and with premeditation when he shot Sara Madrid, 34, eight times on Aug. 1. The shooting happened after the boy had argued with his mother over his chores.

Madrid had left the family home after the argument, and the boy got a .22-caliber pistol from her bedroom closet, waited for her to return and then repeatedly shot her, according to court testimony.

Madrid’s live-in boyfriend of 10 years, Alfonso Munoz, witnessed the shooting and said the boy gave him the empty gun afterward.

Munoz, who helped raise the boy, said he had taught the child how to use the weapon for emergencies and self-defense.

The boy’s lawyer, Sanford Edleman, had argued that the boy did not intend to kill his mother but only wanted to get back at her for abusing him.

His aunt described him as “a docile, and sweet boy”.  Yikes.

Last Friday, 22 year old Danny Platt, of New Orleans, didn’t want to pay child support.  He felt it was unfair.  He did not complain.  He did not argue.  He did not go to court.  Instead he killed his 2 1/2 year old son. 

NEW ORLEANS —  A man who initially told police gunmen kidnapped his 2 1/2-year-old son was arrested Saturday, accused of committing an “extremely hideous” murder because he was ordered to pay child support, Police Superintendent Warren Riley said.

continue reading "Oh Yeah? Over "their" dead body"

We now live in the world of perfection.  We are trying to eliminate all forms of diseases or disorders by aborting it out of existence or using genetic testing to make sure only the "pure" get implanted.  We are missing out on so much. 

From Fox News:

Edwin Rivera, a severely disabled 22-year-old, was supposed to be escorted home from his special-needs school.

Instead, authorities said Friday, a matron eager to get to an appointment knowingly stranded him on a bus where he spent an icy New Year’s night alone. He was found, curled up and rocking, after more than 17 hours parked in a Brooklyn bus yard.

One of his sisters, Khristine……"Just because he is the way he is doesn’t mean he’s less of a person," she said. "He just needs extra help."

Their 6-foot-2 son, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to communicate verbally, still had his seatbelt on when he was found, police said. His body temperature had dropped about three degrees during a night when the outside temperature ranged from 15 to 30 degrees, according to the criminal complaint.

continue reading "The Disabled Treated Like Second Class"

There has been a slew of pro choice Catholics running for and taking, office these days.  Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and John Kerry come to mind.  But none so clearly demonstrates the huge divide between Church and state as the Kennedy clan. 

Caroline Kennedy, now vying for Hillary Clintons old job, is the latest example of a Catholic gone traitor.  I think the Kennedy’s should just open there own church.  There is enough of them, and they all sing the same song.  Abortion on demand.  Did you know, however, that they were given the green light by none other than the Church herself? 

In some cases, church leaders actually started providing “cover” for Catholic pro-choice politicians who wanted to vote in favor of abortion rights. At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a “clear conscience.”

The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book “The Birth of Bioethics” (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.

Mr. Jonsen writes that the Hyannisport colloquium was influenced by the position of another  Jesuit, the Rev. John Courtney Murray, a position that “distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue.” It was the consensus at the Hyannisport conclave that Catholic politicians “might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order.”

Father Milhaven later recalled the Hyannisport meeting during a 1984 breakfast briefing of Catholics for a Free Choice: “The theologians worked for a day and a half among ourselves at a nearby hotel. In the evening we answered questions from the Kennedys and the Shrivers. Though the theologians disagreed on many a point, they all concurred on certain basics . . . and that was that a Catholic politician could in good conscience vote in favor of abortion.”

continue reading "Pass the Duct Tape…"

There is just no way to introduce this one:

Turn off that Wi-Fi network — it’s disturbing our chakras.

That’s what many residents of Glastonbury, a lovely medieval town turned New Age hub in southwestern England, are demanding the local government do.

(R)esident Linda Taylor (says) "People are complaining of headaches, tingling skin among other symptoms. This makes me wonder what is it doing to the children."

"I don’t want my son exposed to risk 24 hours a day, including at his primary school, which is within the Wi-Fi zone," yoga teacher Natalie Fee (said).

One man has even begun making orgone generators, which use crystals, semi-precious stones and gold to purportedly put out positive energy to combat the negative vibes flooding the town from the Wi-Fi base stations.

Others Glastonburians say their levels of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep and is seen as a wonder drug by natural-health types, have been all out of whack since the Wi-Fi network went on.

I do have to admit that I’ve thought about the damage being done by all the radiation transmission watchamacallits around the world.  I just never thought to build a orgone generator.  I don’t think I ever will.

The Texas Jail where 4 inmates escaped from in 2002 is again under investigation:

A jail in northern Texas has been closed and its nearly 60 inmates transferred as authorities investigate what they call dangerous conditions for jailers and those behind bars…

continue reading "Hippies Freakin, Jailers Jailed, Separate Twins and a Travolota Tragedy"

How many times have we all heard that mantra?  I personally, respect this claim.  I do not refer to the pro choice crowd as pro abortion and am fine if they refer to me as anti choice.  We all know what we mean, and getting caught up in the semantics game only serves to divert attention away from the real argument…the taking of innocent human lives.

However, it is really difficult in some situations to respect this choice of words.

The first stumbling block is, obviously, the “choice” itself.  In order to soften the concept of abortion, the word choice was substituted for abortion, hoping to lessen the impact of what the actual “choice” was.  It worked.

But as more and more people realized the full extent of the choice, and began exposing it for what it was, the pro choice crowd had to defend more and more of the horrors of abortion.

First they had to defend the right to take a life, usually claiming it was under such dire circumstances as the result of incest or rape.  Or that slam dunk argument, to save the life of the mother.  Then it was to defend the particular procedures.  Saline abortions,  dilation and curettage, and the mother of all abortions, partial birth.

Then they had to defend taking them post viability.  After all, to deny access to one, is to risk denying access to all.  As the procedures became more gruesome and the abortions came later and later, the pro choice crowd found themselves backed into an ever tighter proverbial corner.  Finally, president elect Barack Obama, capped it with his defense of letting a born child die, if the child was the result of a failed abortion attempt.

Which brings us to today’s article.

From The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute:
continue reading "We’re NOT Pro Abortion…We’re Pro CHOICE"

Some interesting news in the Headlines these past weeks.

On December 23 President Bush signed a law to stop Human Trafficking:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Assistant Secretary John Torres were among 16 federal agency and private organizational leaders in the Oval Office who witnessed the signing of H.R. 7311, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.

The bill, which was passed by voice vote in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate on December 10, authorizes appropriations for FY 2008 through 2011 for the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

The trafficking bill signed today was named after English abolitionist William Wilberforce, who led the Parliamentary movement against the British slave trade in the early 19th century.

I guess Wilberforce knew the saying "If you don’t stand for something, You’ll fall for anything." 

What’s going on with the Indianapolis Planned Parenthood?

A grand jury will investigate whether an undercover video shot at an Indianapolis Planned Parenthood clinic shows any criminal violations, a prosecutor’s spokesman said Thursday.

Prosecutors intend to subpoena the unedited video shot by Lila Rose of the anti-abortion group Live Action, said Mario V. Massillamany, spokesman for Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi. Prosecutors also want to talk with Rose, he said.

The video released by the group Tuesday shows a counselor at the clinic and Rose, posing as a 13-year-old who says the man who impregnated her was 31. "I don’t care how old he is," the counselor said.

continue reading "A Law, A Cover Up and Intolerant Request For Tolerance"

Australia is taking things to a new level in an attempt to protect children from predators.  Highlights from the Miami Herald:

SYDNEY — A proposed Internet filter dubbed the ”Great Aussie Firewall” is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.

Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 websites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography and advocacy of terrorism. Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.

The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn’t making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.

One of the world’s largest child-advocacy groups questions the allocation.

”The filter may not be able to in fact protect children from the core elements of the Internet that they are actually experiencing danger in,” said Holly Doel-Mackaway, an advisor with Save the Children. “The filter should be one small part of an overall comprehensive program to educate children and families about using the Internet.”

Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material such as child pornography is mainly traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.

”People don’t openly post child porn, the same way you can’t walk into a store in Sydney and buy a machine gun,” said Geordie Guy, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, an Internet advocacy group.

continue reading "Can Censorship To Protect Kids Go To Far?"

I love the character of Catwoman.  I always have.  At a time when women were usually portrayed as either the dizzy blond or the Cleaver’s Mother a little TV show included Batman’s arch nemesis Catwoman.  She was sexy, intelligent and thorn in Batman’s side.

Eartha Kitt was the 2nd Catwoman in the 1960’s series and was seen as controversial at the time because of her mixed heritage.  However, she was much much more than just Catwoman.  Her career is an amazing one and she paved the way for women and minorities to be seen as something more than just a stereotype. 

This is on her official website:

EARTHA KITT is an international star who gives new meaning to the word versatile. She has distinguished herself in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television. Miss Kitt is one of only a handful of performers to be nominated for a Tony (three times), the Grammy (twice), and Emmy Award (twice). She regularly enthralls New York nightclub audiences during her extended stays at THE CAFÉ CARLYLE and these intimate performances have been captured in her newest recording, Eartha Kitt, Live at The Carlyle.

Yesterday, on Christmas day, Eartha Kitt passed away.  From Sky News:

continue reading "Eartha Kitt - The One and Only Catwoman"