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New York (CNN) -- The clock is ticking in Washington on the bipartisan super committee, those 12 members of Congress tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving.

More than 140 of their colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, are encouraging them to be bold and go bigger -- reaching $4 trillion of deficit reduction in order to put the U.S. on stable long-term fiscal footing and avoid another round of downgrades.
But if their colleagues' counsel isn't persuasive, there's an additional voice the super committee could find inspiration from -- the original founding father, George Washington.

In his farewell address to his fellow countrymen in 1796, George Washington set out his lessons for future generations. It was penned as the "warnings of a parting friend," and in it, Washington laid out the long-term dangers that his understanding of history and human nature dictated could undermine the independence of our democratic republic.

Washington warned about the dangers of what we would today call hyper-partisans: "They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community." These platoons of polarization have driven us to the paralysis we are now in, too often unable to reason together even in the face of crisis.

Crucially, Washington understood that out-of-control debt could undermine American independence. He warned that we must "cherish public credit ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear."

Put on your decoder rings and you'll see that Washington's wisdom could have referred to our own time. After all, much -- though certainly not all -- of the deficits and debts accumulated over the past decade came from two foreign wars. The Afghan war was necessary in retaliation for the attacks of 9/11 -- but the war in Iraq, as we now know, was far from "unavoidable" -- it was a war of choice. Moreover, as Sen. John McCain and others pointed out, it was the first time in U.S. history that we did not raise revenues in order to pay for wars. Instead we cut taxes and turned a hard-won surplus into a deficit, which grew exponentially after the stimulus bill under President Obama.

George Washington understood that dealing with debts was government's responsibility, but leaders would be unlikely to make unpopular choices in a democracy unless the public was both enlightened and understanding: "The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives," he said -- meaning the members of Congress. "But it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant."

In other words, man up and deal with math. Paying down debts means raising revenue as well as cutting costs. It is a basic profit and loss ledger. Whining endlessly about taxes ignores their central role in securing our civilization. So sayeth not some commie hippie but George Washington himself.

Bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.

That speaks to the impasse the super committee is at right now -- whether to include any revenue increases to pay down the deficit and the debt. Outright tax increases -- even restoring the Bush tax rates on people who make more than a million dollars a year -- is apparently not on the table right now. More ambitious tax reform is seen as a bridge too far given the limited time frame left.

Nonetheless, there are some slight signs of progress. Sen. Pat Toomey -- former President of the Club for Growth -- deserves credit for recently saying he was open to revenue increases, albeit combined with the reduction of the top tax rate from 35 to 28 percent. This was met with some derision from Democrats who are increasingly hearing from their constituents that the growing gap between the rich and poor in the nation is unsustainable. Democrats have more readily crossed their partisan Rubicon, offering support for modest entitlement reforms as a way of bending the long-term cost curve.

The most hopeful declaration of independence that has occurred in recent weeks is the growing number of Republicans willing to break ranks with anti-tax absolutists. They are putting the Pledge of Allegiance over the no-tax pledge advanced by conservative activist Grover Norquist. "There is a lot of talk about pledges," Ohio Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette said. "It's time to put the pledges in a bonfire."

In some ways what we face now is a choice between George Washington and the Grover Norquists of the world. It is a choice between the long-term national interest and the short-term special interest.

The goals are clear and the path is known. We have the Bowles-Simpson Commission, the Rivlin-Domenici Commission and the Gang of Six plans to look at. We now have a Gang of 140 members of Congress from both parties encouraging the super committee to be bold and go big.

While reaching $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction is far better than the automatic cuts to defense and discretionary spending that will take place if the super committee fails, it alone cannot be regarded as a success. It is a stay of execution. Because we'll be right back at the negotiating table in a few months, trying to forestall yet another downgrade.

As the clocks ticks closer to the deadline, the super committee should have the words of George Washington's farewell address echoing in their heads, adding to their sense of urgency, determining not to ungenerously throw "upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear."

If they are driven by such a sense of generational responsibility, they can declare independence from their respective special interests, forge a constructive compromise and present a balanced bipartisan plan that serves the national interest. They have it in their power to put patriotism over partisanship -- we are waiting to see if they have the will.]]>Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:25:14 PST1321201514WikiLeaks, the site that offers a "public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public," I thought it was a cool idea. But now I'm wavering. In the references section of this article is a CNN story on how military documents released on Wikileaks could be endangering the lives of troops and foreign civilians. The story also expresses that the FBI will be involved in investigating the how the documents leaked.

Bottom line, some documents are sensitive, and therefore not shared, for a reason. The line has to be drawn somewhere in terms of what can be shared and what can't. A Hollywood story, that's one thing, but leaking on your country's military operation, that's quite different.

I haven't done any research yet on what options the government has in this situation regarding WikiLeaks. If it were in China, we know what the hell they would do.



Anyhow, this is America, where we perpetually must perform the balancing act on what's free speech and what isn't. But because this is America, it's also where we can say, affirmatively, that Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, deserves an ASS WHIPPING ---


]]>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:06:26 PDT1280448386
The men told investigators they tried to connect with Islamist militant groups in Pakistan and were intending to cross the border into Afghanistan and fight U.S. troops. These men were born and raised in America with all the schooling everyone gets in the USA, etc. “These are America citizens in the news.”

All were reported missing a week ago after one of them left behind a note of militaristic farewell. “It was a video saying Muslims must be defended.” Think about this for a good moment before you write it off. This behavior is driven by the “religious fever” that all of the Muslim community is now being known for. “All the Muslims,” yes I said all of them.

England suffered some recent terrible, “bomb attacks” in the subways of high-traffic areas where citizens were completely defenseless, etc. The Muslims who planned the attacks were doctors and physicians. They also pleaded, “Muslims must be defended.”

This is not just a verbal statement of connection to Islamic values and beliefs. It is a direct connection to the Muslim faith itself.

A “faith based value judgment” they were ready to murder for.

When any violence is committed in the name of Islam, the perpetrators often say that Muslims were never meant to enjoy good relations with followers of other religions, specifically Jews and Christians. They invariably quote verses from the Quran which they argue prove that, “Jews and Christians” are inherently hostile to Muslims.

A Muslim’s “faith based” motivations in life should scare you!

The Islamic Muslim’s monotheistic system founded in Arabia in the 7th century and based on the teachings of Muhammad as laid down in the Koran; "Islam is a complete way of life, not a Sunday religion" etc.

“Any other religion is offensive to Muslims.”

Islam; an Arabic word which, since Mohammed's time, has acquired a religious and technical significance denoting the religion of Mohammed and of the Koran, just as Christianity denotes that of Jesus and of the Gospels, or Judaism that of Moses, the Prophets, and of the Old Testament.

Koran; (The Holy Qur'an) the sacred writings of Islam revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad during his life at Mecca and Medina. It is the sacred text of Islam, divided into 114 chapters, or suras: revered as the word of God, dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel, and accepted as the foundation of Islamic law, religion, culture, and politics. Muslims believe the Qur'an, in its original Arabic, to be the literal word of God that was revealed to Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years until his death.

Muhammad; Arab prophet of Islam. At the age of 40 he began to preach as God's prophet of the true religion. Muhammad established a theocratic state at Medina after 622 and began to convert Arabia to Islam. Born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca he was orphaned at a young age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection.

According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he claimed to receive his first revelation from God.
By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam; and he united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.

The revelations (or Ayat, lit. "Signs of God")—which Muhammad reported receiving until his death—form the verses of the Qur'an, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based.
Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims. They discuss Muhammad and other prophets of Islam with reverence, adding the phrase peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned.

There are no terrorists. There are only scattered Muslim’s doing what is expected of them. This is a "religious fever" not reported.

Wake-Up! The Muslim community does not correct or attempt to punish the
ones who kill and perform terrorist acts on us everywhere, etc. They do
watch silently, hoping to go unnoticed in their daily lives because in all of them lives the Islamic fundamental ideas of their religion.

We cannot even begin to understand, "brain washing" in comparison to what Islam does to a Muslim follower. Mothers who send children with bombs, fathers who kill daughters and many more horrible acts in the name of Islamic fundamental religion.

Can we educate them without destroying a sacred part of their life?

Sadly, it seems we must wait until another Muslim want to do jihad. It is a scary notion to consider all the possible ramifications but where do we start?

A "religious fever" not reported is like a camp fire in the woods.]]>Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:59:41 PST1260554381

'Going Rogue' reignites Palin divide, even in her hometown

OK, look---who is really interested in Palin and WHY? It bothers me that she is writing a book (which I'm sure she thinks is a fast track to the White House---following Obama's success with his books). But seriously, Palin represents maybe 25% of the country (at most), and that percentage is made up of the people that we want to evolve (in many ways) anyways. When Palin speaks, I feel like I'm crammed in a hot living room, against my will, having to endure an Amway presentation---I just want an exit!

So, if anyone cares enough, please tell me what value Palin brings to not only politics (because she's even trouble to McCain who, unfortunately, gave her the idea) but our country and government? She is completely transparent in my opinion, and what we see in her is not complex, just average, and she's not even good at being average. Furthermore, if Palin really wanted to serve our country, she'd disappear (except for appearances in Mad magazine, et al.), like the majority thought she would. I mean face it, it's a fact that she pisses off most people anyways and rarely has anything unique to say. She can only speak to a polarized audience. Her leading would be a disaster or a massive lowering of our nation's stock of intelligence. Yes, it would be mind numbing.

As much as I like this sticker below, it still irks me to view it. That's how distasteful Palin is to me. I mean give me reason to change my views, please, because it's rare that I don't trust someone as much as I don't trust her. But again, she's aiming beyond her capabilities in my opinion, and even worse, she's trying to force it. Too bad she didn't stay in China following her business seminar there. Maybe Greenland, or Antarctica, could use a governor. Ah, but then she'd drill both of those future refuges into the sea.



]]>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:54:11 PST1258170851
Enough is enough. We're calling for the Impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama. And if you agree, you can join us right now.

Right here and right now, you can add your voice to ours... and add your name to the Articles of Impeachment against Barack Hussein Obama.

Why are we calling for the Impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama? Radio-personality Tammy Bruce may have said it best:

"... ultimately, it comes down to... the fact that he seems to have, it seems to me, some malevolence toward this country, which is unabated."



Oh... there are many reasons to call for the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama and there is more than just cause to call for his impeachment.

But as Bruce said, Obama's "unabated malevolence toward this country, which is unabated" makes it all the more imperative that we take action now... without delay.

How long must we wait... how long should we sit back and permit Barack Hussein Obama to rip apart the fabric of this country before we take action? Parent Source

This effort is wacky, as far as I'm presently concerned. If destroying the "fabric" of our country is Obama's crime, I'd be interested in knowing impeachment petitioners' true definition of fabric. Sad to say, many would base that on ethnicity, tradition, religion, or some other subjective, short-sighted view.

As for becoming a socialist regime, that's rather absurd. Most of the individuals screaming this are in one or more ways in need of the programs, whether health care or monitoring of large finance institutions and credit practices. They're just screaming like the Old South screamed during the Civil War---illogical arguments at all costs to sustain their "traditional" viewpoint on the country.

Regarding the petition effort in general, Bush would have received 10 times the petitions from not just the USA but the world, but that wouldn't have made a difference either, which is, in part, why Obama was elected.

I think instead of wasting time on the petition, these people should read factual info and THINK versus passing chain e-mail that is largely hearsay and conspiracy entertainment.

Take Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 911": if factual it would have been enough for impeachment and beyond for Bush. Therefore, in contrast to the Bush conspiracies that were around previously, these exaggerations of Obama's leadership of the country and the conspiracies, you'd think, would pose a less severe consequence than calling for impeachment or even death, as the Facebook pollster recently incited. However, add Obama's race in there and you get an entirely different reaction to accusations far milder than the worse of conspiracies regarding Bush.

It's true that a large part of America resents Obama's ethnicity. This fact shouldn't be a surprise. Think about how people reacted during the Civil Rights movement and other progressive movements.



Well, Obama's presidency is an equally progressive movement as he's the first black president. These outlandish conspiracies are not fooling anyone... the true motivation for much of the opposition is clear.

If Clinton were in office, the right's arguments would have quite a different shape.

]]>Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:28:16 PDT1254346096

Google is donating 10 million dollars to implement user-submitted ideas focused on improving some aspect of the world. The ideas have already been compiled into to projects, and now it's time to vote on them.

Check it out and vote now on an idea (any e-mail address can be used to vote).

After voting, add a critique on what you voted for and why. You may find it quite challenging to pick just one project.







Source: http://www.project10tothe100.com/]]>Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:13:46 PDT1254262426
If you haven't already seen him, please welcome Steve Anderson, the newer hate monger and hate-crime wannabe, and possibly a future martyr, regretfully:



Link

From Anderson's church's Web site: Pastor Anderson holds no college degree but has well over 100 chapters of the Bible committed to memory, including almost half of the New Testament. source

The one thing that you can give Anderson credit for, if it's a credit at all (especially at this point), is taking the bible literally. How seriously dangerous it is that he takes things so literally, as he preaches to kill abortionists? In my view, just dangerous enough to question whether or not Anderson does in fact have slaves, among other things---

You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you. (Deuteronomy 20:10-14)

Is Anderson buying daughters these days also?

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

Enough is enough. The fact that this pastor's congregation has not fled just reminds me of the Waco, Texas, massacre.

I hold firm to my points that 1) religion can in fact be VERY dangerous and 2) a religious speech is NOT a guaranteed privilege, especially not at graduations, and anyone that thinks otherwise may need to take a zealot test or admit to propagating anarchy by suggesting all religions can peacefully impose on the public's ear.

Read what one of Anderson's followers has to say, and here's the gun he's toting:



Here's a blurb from Anderson's Web site, and surely he couldn't have gotten it wrong (I'm being sarcastic here):

Pastor Anderson was sent out by a totally independent Baptist church to start it the old-fashioned way by knocking doors and winning souls to Christ. This is the scriptural method.

A quick question before ending this article---Tell me, if one of Anderson's disciples were set to give a graduation speech, would it be in the best interest for the school administrators to allow this speech to resume and the diverse viewing audience to be forced to endure it?

Me personally, I think not, and that's a logical decision, not bias or right-restricting. Give Anderson's followers their free speech, sure, in his strip-mall church, but keep that garbage the hell away from those that didn't ask for it, be it a graduation audience, an employee meeting, or the public airwaves----with one exception... Feel free to direct the message towards the secret service, just in case it happens to be a hate/murder-inciting speech (or llano, since s/he is open to all speeches anytime, even if delivered at the same time or wrong time).]]>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:24:22 PDT1252452262
On to GM. this issue must cease. GM has long been a symbol of America, they make the Corvette for God's sake. That ship needs to be tightened almost as badly as the banks. Make better fucking cars, it's not hard. There is a reason that Honda, Nissan and everyone else does it better. For an American company Gm is sadly out of touch with reality. I saw a commercial recently that stated the only "chapter we are (GM) concerned about is chapter one". If that is true, then start pain attention to what Americans want. Having had the privilege to live in Florida and Illinois (Chicago), 2 places where having a car is a must and not having one and relying on public transit lowers your carbon footprints by half, I know. Just make Cars that are pleasing to the eye and cost affordable, with good gas mileage, then people will buy.

That's all i got, I'm going out to enjoy Chicago, the greatest city in America. I wanted jot down these thoughts down. I'm in a rush.
Peace and Love Always,
Ryan the Great!]]>Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:45:39 PDT1247370339
And it gets worse---This Web site, FireDavidLetterman.com, is just stupid. The guy behind this movement, John Ziegler, also made a film attempting to depict media bias in the recent election, which he claims gave Obama an advantage.

In my opinion, if you think the media is bias in one particular direction, you are not open minded. Pretty much everything in the world is inherently bias---fact. Here's a factual attestation to bias contrasting Ziegler's fanatical propaganda against left bias:

I saw a Fox News television commercial the other day that almost made me puke. Here's the reason. Fox News attempted to define for us what it means to be an American. Watching that commercial is just an insult to my intelligence and should be such to anyone else that can read. The last thing I want to deal with are fellow countrymen brainwashed by an uncompromising media regime that uses a dangerous form of psychological warfare (e.g., creation of a guilt complex; us-or-them mentality) to create cyber-zombies, the manufacturing of which is what politics in our country is becoming all about. What I wonder is how we can teach people to be more critical of media and how to deflect the brainwashing tactics that promote irrational thinking and intolerance.

Here's an good example of mild intolerance in the making: Despite Letterman's Apology, Protesters Call for Sponsor Boycott. There's just no balance in this report. It's like the article is for people that don't partake in any form of comedy, much less watch television. My point here is that certain media is deliberately brainwashing and can easily manufacture negative emotions. I'm worried about the people that don't realize where they are getting their opinions from.


]]>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:10:37 PDT1245208237
At that point, "The VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods," Wilkerson wrote. "The detainee had not revealed any al Qaeda-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, 'revealed' such contacts." Al-Libi's claim that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's government had trained al Qaeda operatives in producing chemical and biological weapons appeared in the October 2002 speech then-President Bush gave when pushing Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. It also was part of Powell's February 2003 presentation to the United Nations on the case for war, a speech Powell has called a "blot" on his record. Al-Libi later recanted the claim, saying it was made under torture by Egyptian intelligence agents, a claim Egypt denies.

And then I hit this part:

He [Al-Libi] died last week in a Libyan prison, reportedly a suicide, Human Rights Watch reported. Stacy Sullivan, a counterterrorism adviser for the U.S.-based group, called al-Libi's allegation "pivotal" to the Bush administration's case for war, as it connected Baghdad to the terrorist organization behind the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

That single mention of a recent suicide, and in light of all the media attention torture is getting, I had to search for more info. I found a good article on the issue of Al-Libi's alleged suicide:


"Coverage of al-Libi 'Suicide' Almost Wholly Absent from U.S. Mainstream Corporate Media"

AB shared some very good information on torture in "Stupid is as stupid does," and I'm not writing to debate that subject. If our military can undergo waterboarding for training, as I read in the reference in AB's article, then I think threats to our country can as well.

But my curiosity is on how timely alongside the recent media coverage on torture Al-Libi's death is. Now I can't say for sure if the media would attempt to interview him again if he were alive, but that's a possibility.



By no means am I suggesting that we shouldn't do what is necessary to protect our country---



However, I think it's worth looking into complex situations to try to better understand them in there entirety.

I like to think that the corruption we see in movies is just pretend, but could it be true that Al-Libi's death was in someway forced or coaxed?



]]>Fri, 15 May 2009 00:54:20 PDT1242374060