Steve Wynn--On America

Go here, to watch a 4 minute interview by Steve Wynn about America

Don Rumsfeld-"Freedom"

Friday, June 25, 2010

Rummy on Freedom [Andy McCarthy]
Former Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld made remarks at a Pentagon ceremony today unveiling his portrait. Here is some of what he said:

Some might ask how our country has endured? Well, it should be no mystery. It is because we are a free people, blessed with a free political and a free economic system – Where we are: free to think and act; to believe and protest; to vote and petition; and, yes free to succeed, to fail, and to start again.

The night satellite image of the Korean Peninsula, my favorite as many of you know well, captured many miles above the earth, tells the whole story. Below the 38th parallel, South Korea is bathed in the light of dozens of cities, monuments to that nation’s freedom. In one of the most successful economies in the world, millions of South Koreans go about their work, creating opportunity and prosperity for themselves and their families. North of the DMZ is darkness. There live exactly the same people, with the same natural resources. But those millions of Koreans labor not for themselves or their families, but for a regime that enslaves them.

The stark difference between the free and the unfree is illuminated in that picture. The boundless energy of human beings is most assuredly not unleashed by governments of boundless power. That energy is unleashed only by free political institutions and free economic systems.

But because we are free, as a people, we face choices:

We can choose to engage with the world, strengthening alliances with our friends, expanding trade agreements, deterring potential foes, and taking the fight to them when necessary. Or we can retreat, or make the truly tragic mistake of modeling our country after systems that are obviously unsuccessful. If we choose the latter path, let there be no doubt, we are certain to fail the generations to follow.

On September 12, 2001, hard hats unfurled an American flag over the still burning and deeply scarred Pentagon. Joyce and I wanted to include that scene in this portrait because those traits of resilience and perseverance – while remarkable – are not uncommon for the men and women of this Department. They are what built and sustained this country. And they are what I saw every day in the men and women I served alongside in the months and years after the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history.

To each of those who serve – military and civilian – or have served, and to your families, there will come a time when the achievements you’ve made, and the trials you’ve endured, will recede into history. But although time will pass, and memories fade, certain important things will remain always – your pride of service and the appreciation of a grateful nation.

This country – which has treated me so well, and which offers so much opportunity for us all – exists and prospers because the members of the United States armed forces, have stepped forward and volunteered to protect it. In a very real sense, America is their gift to the future.

Obama's Plan

By Allyn Root

Barrack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.


Barack Obama is my college classmate (Columbia University, class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.

-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?

-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kickback hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."

-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.

-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America. But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.

-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America. The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.

-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.

With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.

Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.

Mr President-Jon Voight

From Washington Times:

An open letter from actor Jon Voight to President Obama:

June 22, 2010

Dear President Obama:

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone's enemy - and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm's way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.

You have brought this to a people who have given the world the Ten Commandments and most laws we live by today. The Jewish people have given the world our greatest scientist and philosophers, and the cures for many diseases, and now you play a very dangerous game so you can look like a true martyr to what you see and say are the underdogs. But the underdogs you defend are murderers and criminals and want Israel eradicated.

You have brought to Arizona a civil war, once again defending the criminals and illegals, creating a meltdown for good, loyal, law-abiding citizens. Your destruction of this country may never be remedied, and we may never recover. I pray to God you stop, and I hope the people in this great country realize your agenda is not for the betterment of mankind, but for the betterment of your politics.

With heartfelt and deep concern for America and Israel,

Jon Voight

If Israel Goes Down, We All Do

“We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and – in contrast with Islamic countries – respect for religious and political rights.”

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Obama to file suit on AZ

Radical Obama Administration Will File Suit Against Arizona

He won’t secure the border — But, he’ll sue states that do.

The radical Obama Administration will file suit against Arizona over their new immigration law that upholds federal law. Governor Jan Brewer heard the news first yesterday from Ecuadorean television.

President Obama broke his word with Governor Brewer. He said he’d get back with the Arizona governor within two weeks about sending the national guard to the border.
He didn’t. But, he will sue her state.

More

As one of the commenters stated: "When was the last time the federal government sued a state for making a law to protect its citizens?"

More on Christie

Alvin Greene, US Senator from SC

In our land of political correctness, we can't state the obvious. Especially when the person is a person of color. IE, black.

Alvin Greene is stupid. When I say "stupid", I don't mean it in the sense of name calling. I mean stupid as marked by lack of intellectual acuity. A state of mental numbness.

There's nothing wrong with being stupid. But just try to be honest and admit that. Mr Greene is stupid. He's an embarrassment to the democratic party.

Why Mosque on 911 Site

New York Times, Geert Wilders

From Newsrealblog

One can always count on the New York Times to be biased and boringly predicable — traits which have rendered it to be the one thing it must dread becoming: irrelevant.

The Times article on the recent Dutch elections does not disappoint. Dutch elections would normally not garner even a back page passing reference, but when candidate Geert Wilders finishes a strong third place, doubling Party of Freedom parliamentary count to 24 seats, the world, and the Times, pays attention.Readers of NewsReal Blog and FrontPage know Wilder’s story well and we know reflexively that the Times will regurgitate the usual drivel in describing Wilders. Anti everything, extremist, far-right, and the inevitable linking to a neo Nazis such as the late Austrian politician Jorg Haider. (Can these Times reporters even try to be original anymore?)

Even the Times, however, can trip on itself; interesting nuggets can slip through the sensors that allow for amazing candidness and clear thought, even if by happenstance.

The Times calls on a Dutch academic to enlighten us to one of the secrets of Wilder’s success:

Dick Houtman, a professor of political sociology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, said that Mr. Wilders had built on Mr. Fortuyn’s legacy, successfully avoiding the overtly racist language of far-right politicians in other countries by highlighting issues like freedom of speech, female equality and gay rights. “That serves to exclude Muslims from the Dutch political consensus,” he said. (emphasis mine)

Maybe this statement is too obvious for the Times to pick up on. But read it again. By being in favor of freedom of speech, female equality, and gay rights, Wilders serves to exclude Muslims from the Dutch political consensus! How dare he? Extreme indeed! Apparently to be part of the postmodern Western “political consensus”, too be inclusive of Muslims, we need to be against freedom of speech, gay rights and female equality?

Houtman, aware of it or not, has made a brilliant, if obvious, observation. In order for many Muslim immigrants to feel culturally and politically included in the West, most clearly in Holland, they need to exist in an environment that is not open to the pluralistic, open and free West of the Enlightenment of the past 300 years.

So when a Western politician like Wilders openly embraces the values of liberty, he is called an extremist, hate monger and radical with ties to neo Nazis. The elite class, currently in Washington and throughout the halls of Western academia and the media, feel it more important to be inclusive of Muslims then holding true to the values that created the most open and free society the world has ever seen. And to oppose this new orthodoxy makes one a criminal, as the Left hopes to make of Wilders.

We can thank the Times for offering some clarity on this issue. Who would have thunk it.

Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or get angry. But I like when

Getting Interesting

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

While UN Ambassador Susan Rice is reported to have played an important role in pushing for U.S. support of a UN investigation, the decision is, one official stressed, of course the president's. The government of Israel has been consulting with the U.S. government on its own Israeli investigative panel, to be led by a retired supreme court justice, that would include respected international participants, including one from the U.S. But the Obama administration is reportedly saying that such a “kosher panel” is not good enough to satisfy the international community, or the Obama White House.

While Obama can't come out and actually say what he thinks about Israel and America, as Jesus said, You know the tree by the fruit it bears.

Hostility to Hirsi Ali

The left’s strange hostility to Hirsi Ali

MARK STEYN: Nicholas Kristof is just the latest great thinker to talk himself into a rosy view of Islam

Despite being a bit of an old showbiz queen, I’m not much for the huggy-kissy photo wall of me sharing a joke with various luvvies. I make an exception on the bureau behind my desk for a shot of yours truly and a beautiful woman, Somali by birth, Dutch by citizenship, at a beachfront bar in Malibu at sunset. I like the picture because, while I look rather bleary with a few too many chins, my companion is bright-eyed with a huge smile on her face and having a grand old time—grand, that is, because of its very normality: a crappy bar, drinks with cocktail umbrellas, a roomful of blithely ignorant California hedonists who’ll all be going back home at the end of the evening to Dancing With the Stars or Conan O’Brien or some other amusement.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali can’t lead that life. She lives under armed guard and was forced to abandon the Netherlands because quite a lot of people want to kill her. And not in the desultory behead-the-enemies-of-Islam you-will-die-infidel pro forma death-threats-R-us way that many of us have perforce gotten used to in recent years: her great friend and professional collaborator was murdered in the streets of Amsterdam by a man who shot him eight times, attempted to decapitate him, and then drove into his chest two knives, pinning to what was left of him a five-page note pledging to do the same to her.


What would you do in those circumstances? Ayaan and I had repaired to that third-rate bar after a day-long conference on Islam, jihad, free speech and whatnot. That’s usually where I run into her, whether in Malibu or at the Carlton Club in London or at a less illustrious venue. Would you be doing that with a price on your head? Or would you duck out of sight, lie low, change your name, move to New Zealand, and hope one day to get your life back? After the threats against the Comedy Central show South Park the other week, Ms. Hirsi Ali turned up on CNN to say that the best defence against Islamic intimidation is for us all to stand together and thereby “share the risk.” But, around the world, every single translator of her books has insisted on total anonymity. When push comes to shove, very few are willing to share the risk. The British historian Andrew Roberts calls her “the bravest woman I know.” I would say she is not only the bravest but also, given her circumstances, the most optimistic. I have an unbounded admiration for her personally, but a not insignificant difference philosophically, of which more momentarily.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s great cause is women’s liberation. Unfortunately for her, the women she wants to liberate are Muslim, so she gets minimal support and indeed a ton of hostility from Western feminists who have reconciled themselves, consciously or otherwise, to the two-tier sisterhood: when it comes to clitoridectomies, forced marriages, honour killings, etc., multiculturalism trumps feminism. Liberal men are, if anything, even more opposed. She long ago got used to the hectoring TV interviewer, from Avi Lewis on the CBC a while back to Tavis Smiley on PBS just the other day, insisting that say what you like about Islam but everyone knows that Christians are just as backward and violent, if not more so. The media left spends endless hours and most of its interminable awards ceremonies congratulating itself on its courage, on “speaking truth to power,” the bravery of dissent and all the rest, but faced with a pro-gay secular black feminist who actually lives it they frost up in nothing flat.

The latest is Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. Reviewing Ayaan’s new book Nomad, he begins:

“She has managed to outrage more people—in some cases to the point that they want to assassinate her—in more languages in more countries on more continents than almost any writer in the world today. Now Hirsi Ali is working on antagonizing even more people in yet another memoir.”
That’s his opening pitch: if there are those who wish to kill her, it’s her fault because she’s a provocateuse who’s found a lucrative shtick in “working on antagonizing” people. The Times headlines Kristof’s review “The Gadfly,” as if she’s a less raddled and corpulent Gore Vidal. In fact, she wrote a screenplay for a film; Muslim belligerents threatened to kill her and her director; they made good on one half of that threat. This isn’t shtick.

But Kristof decides to up the condescension. Of the author’s estrangement from her Somali relatives, he writes: “I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps Hirsi Ali’s family is dysfunctional simply because its members never learned to bite their tongues and just say to one another: ‘I love you.’ ”
Awwwww. Group hug! Works every time.

For more

Getting Older-Staying Healthy

When I get older, especially retired, boy, by then I'll get in really good shape. I'll have all the time I want to focus on health, and watch out Jack LaLanne.

Doesn't seem to work that way, does it? My health are habits built over a lifetime. I'm not going to eat ice cream, drink beer, sit on my ass all day long and be healthy. Health is something I have to work for, to earn on a daily basis, and it's something I've been remiss at lately, and I don't like it. I admit, my diet is restrictive compared to most, but it's a diet I believe in, and makes me content.

I always thought, "Wow, once I retire, I'm going to have so much time to work on myself". When I'm at the gym, I see old retired guys working out, but as time goes by, I never see their body shape change. Their body shape hasn't changed and it won't be changing anytime soon.

My dear friend has just gotten health insurance. He's all excited because now he's going to get all the check-ups, medications, and X rays he desires. Unfortunately, I don't believe it's going to help him. I really think the answer is here, in living a life with a certain amount of asceticism. We have so many daily choices, and we're so rich, saying "no" must be done continually.

Brave Voice From the Left

Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan? Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel? Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? Why don’t they defend Israel’s right to exist? Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism? An finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet?

The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don’t inform, they propagandize. When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren’t any accusations left to level against her. At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.

OC Register, Real Estate

I don't see how the OC Register can say we're out of the recession, housing prices will go up, when CA is broke, unemployment is high, and the fed spends over a $trillion per year more than it receives.

From OC Register

8.4% of O.C. mortgages 90 days late
June 7th, 2010, 3:43 pm · 9 Comments · posted by Jon Lansner
According to CoreLogic’s latest late-mortgage report, 8.40% of Orange County home-loan borrowers as of April are 90 days-plus late with their house payments. That’s +2.60 percentage points vs. a year ago. Also …
April OC CA US
90+ day delinquency (This year) 8.40% 11.60% 8.90%
90+ day delinquency (Last year) 5.80% 8.45% 6.03%
Percentage pt. chg. in delinquency
+2.60 +3.15 +2.87
Foreclosure rate (This year) 2.37% 3.14% 3.20%
Foreclosure rate (Last year) 2.22% 3.20% 2.46%
Percentage pt. chg. in foreclosure
+0.15 -0.06 +0.74
REO rate (This year) 0.35% 0.76% 0.57%
REO rate (Last Year) 0.45% 1.02% 0.58%
Percentage pt. chg. in REO
-0.10 -0.26 -0.01
Compare that change in delinquency rate to the national movement in a year of +2.87 percentage points vs. a year earlier or +3.15 percentage points in California.
2.37% of Orange County homes were in the foreclosure process; +0.15 percentage points vs. a year earlier.
0.35% of Orange County homes were repossessed by banks as REO (real estate owned); -0.10 percentage points vs. a year earlier.
Orange County 90-day delinquency rate is -3.20 percentage points vs. the state’s slow-pay rate and -0.50 percentage points vs. national pace
At right is a table showing how Orange County mortgage troubles compare to state and national payment woes.

Read this from Dr. Housing Bubble:
This has been the worst May on record dating back to 1962. Many Americans are finally waking up realizing that they have been scammed