"Posterity — you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." —John Quincy Adams

Friday, June 1, 2012

Bush shows humor and class at White House unveiling of portraits

CBS News reported, "Former President George W. Bush brought a light-hearted tone to the unveiling of his official White House portrait on Thursday, winning over an audience of friends, family and former colleagues with jokes, "  while The Washington Examiner focused first on Obama's poor  choice of venue to take a 'jab' at Bush before reporting on the lighter side.

Personally, I appreciate President Bush's humor and that he chooses to take the high road. --bc

Portraits below the fold.
The portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were painted by John Howard Sanden, who received the first John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the American Society of Portrait Artists in 1994 (per CBS News).
The portrait of Mr. Bush shows the former president standing in the center of the Oval Office with his right hand resting on an armchair that was made for the White House in 1818. Over his right shoulder hangs a 1929 western painting, A Charge to Keep, by William H. D. Koerner. Mr. Bush used the same title for his 1999 memoir (per CBS News).
The portrait of Laura Bush shows the former first lady in the White House Green Room, which she helped refurbish in 2007 (per CBS News).
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Bill Clinton criticizes Obama's Bain attacks, praises Romney's ‘sterling business career'

Former President Bill Clinton suggested in a television interview Thursday that he believes President Obama's re-election campaign should stop trashing Mitt Romney's work in the private equity industry.  Read more at ABC News...

Rush and other Conservatives are reporting that Clinton 'endorsed' Gov. Romney for President and many speculate that Bill Clinton is paving the way for Hillary to run in 2016.  You be the judge... here's what the former president  said, "There is no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and basically performing the essential functions of the office, a man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold.” Read More......

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Clackamas County to Ditch ICLEI Membership While Portland Spends and Spends

An announcement of momentous import was made at the April 26th 2012 Board of County Commissioners meeting of Clackamas County, Oregon.  Commissioner Jamie Damon revealed that Clackamas County would not be renewing their membership in “ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA” at the next annual dues deadline.  Commissioner Jamie Damon stated, “This was brought up several business meetings ago, and I was unfamiliar with the organization, so I did some research and looked up the organization as well.  And we have decided to not continue as members of ICLEI.  So I just wanted to let you know that.” The remaining crowd in the room erupted in applause.  It was nearly at the end of the meeting around one hour fifty nine minutes (video on their web).  Read more at Red County/Colony Rabble... Read More......

Republican's War on Women? Hardly!

SENATE DEMS BETRAY LILLY
Senate Democrats pay female staffers less than male staffers  - A group of Democratic female senators on Wednesday declared war on the so-called “gender pay gap,” urging their colleagues to pass the aptly named Paycheck Fairness Act when Congress returns from recess next month. ✧ However, a substantial gender pay gap exists in their own offices, a Washington Free Beacon analysis of Senate salary data reveals. Of the five senators who participated in Wednesday’s press conference—Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.), Patty Murray (D., Wash.), Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.)—three pay their female staff members significantly less than male staffers. Read more at The Washington Free Beacon...

14 CONGRESSWOMEN BLAST OBAMA IN 'WAR ON WOMEN'  (Hat tip: OFRW May 2012 Newsletter) - “Democrats have been accusing Republicans of waging a ‘war on women,’ as if some honest disagreements between the parties — over matters like how an Obamacare mandate should affect religious institutions or the proper scope of federal law on tribal land — constitute a deliberate GOP campaign to take away women’s rights,” the women say.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, and Republican women have been at the forefront exposing these myths. Let’s face it: Republican women — like us — would never be part of a party that didn’t believe in women’s rights, equal pay for equal work, and strong laws against sexual violence. The Republican Party believes in all of those things.”

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, launched the campaign on Monday, with appearances on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews and CNN’s John King, USA.

“The Democrats are creating a controversy where it doesn’t exist,” McMorris Rodgers said on Hardball. “It’s a myth to say that we are waging this ‘War on Women.’ The Violence Against Women Act – I am confident that it will be reauthorized. There are women like me – Republican women – who are committed to it; it’s a very important program." 

She said President Barack Obama was the one who sparked the issue of who pays for contraception funding, through the Department of Health and Human Services. "It wasn’t the Republicans, it was the president, McMorris Rodgers said. 

 "They’re creating distractions. They’re trying to divide America. And they’re really trying to distract women from the real issues that face this country. Women are concerned about the economy. They’re concerned about the debt.”

She told CNN's King, “What the Democrats recognize – and why they’ve calculated and put together this ‘War on Women’ is because they know it was the Republicans who won the women’s vote in 2010." That year, Republicans earned a majority of female votes for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president.

In the letter, the congresswomen said that what women really want is empowerment, independence, and equal opportunities without special favors. And it’s Republican policies rather than Democrats’ big government that can fulfill those ideals.

“When Republicans talk about freedom, entrepreneurship, patient -centered health care, and fiscal responsibility, most women respond positively,” the women write. Women support Republican efforts to cut taxes on small businesses, House Republicans’ plan to shrink the deficit, and repeal of Obamacare, they say.

Bottom line: “The Republican Party is the real party of American women,” the congresswomen write.

In addition to McMorris Rodgers, the letter's signers include Sandy Adams, R-Fla.; Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y.; Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; Renee Ellmers, R-N.C.; Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo.; Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan.; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Candice Miller, R-Mich.; Sue Myrick, R-N.C.; and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. their visions of utopia, including leveling the playing field, taking away liberties, breaking down the family unit, and likens them to the goals of the Progressives of 2012.
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Schlafly: It's none of the government's business!

Phyllis Schlafly writes, "What is it about bureaucrats and school personnel that they want to pry into the personal life and habits of American citizens of every age? There seems to be no end to the imperial demands by government and schools to require both grownups and kids to reveal personal information." Read more at WND... Read More......

Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Whole Truth

Via email: The Democrat Party produced a television ad purporting to show Rep. Paul Ryan 'throwing grandma off the cliff' for opposing ObamaCare.  Doctors Ori Hampel, Kris Held and Jane Hughes of Houston and San Antonio, TX  responded with an effective counter ad (full video below). Visit americandoctors4truth.org for more information. (Hat tip: Lou)

Read More......

Friday, May 25, 2012

Unions angry with Dems over lack of help in Wisconsin recall

Top union officials are lashing out at Washington Democrats, claiming they haven't done enough to help them unseat Gov. Scott Walker (R) in Wisconsin's recall election. ✧ President Obama has been silent on the race since his campaign released a statement endorsing Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) immediately after his primary victory two weeks ago. The Obama campaign is helping Barrett with get out the vote operations, but the president has not publicly mentioned the race. ✧ The Democratic National Committee has been similarly tight-fisted. The DNC sent out a fundraising email for Barrett and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) will be in Wisconsin for a fundraiser next week, but the national party has refused entreaties to give the state party money. ✧ The election is on June 5, ten days away. Read more at THE HILL... Read More......

Saturday, April 28, 2012

WT: Feds bow to pressure, kill child farm-labor rules

[...] While labor officials said their goal was to reduce the fatality rate for child farmworkers, the proposal had become a popular political target for Republicans, who called it an impractical, heavy-handed regulation that ignored the reality of small farms. ✧ “It’s good the Labor Department rethought the ridiculous regulations it was going to stick on farmers and their families,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican. “To even propose such regulations defies common sense, and shows a real lack of understanding as to how the family farm works.” Read more at the Washington Times... Read More......

Thursday, April 26, 2012

You have been fed a load of crap!

You're not supposed to be this well informed! If you agree, don't read this...
2012: The Progressive Elite vs. the American Hard Hat by By Larry Leonard, published by Oregon Magazine
    April 21, 2012 — You have been fed a load of crap. It comes to you in two types. The first is in the form of a lie. Something is this, and the liars tell you that it is that. The second type of lie is more subtle, and is created by omitting information from a story. These are known as lies of co-mission and lies of omission. Used simultaneously, they throw a blanket of fantasy over reality. ✧ We’ll use energy as a model for this essay, but remember that the process works in education, campaign speeches, the presentation of history, economics — you name the topic and somewhere in each information pot you will find deception of the type described above.  
    Energy and the American Economy - All this week, from all the news sources in America, you have been misinformed by both the liberal MSM and fair and balanced FOX. The MSM did it intentionally. FOX did it unintentionally. To set up this section, here’s something you’ve heard for weeks: “The president says that if he opened up government energy locations, it would not lower the price of gasoline.” ✧ That is a beautiful attempt to sidestep the key political issue today by way of what sounds like a reasonable lie about another, related subject. I’ve been waiting for weeks for FOX to pick it up. They haven’t, so it’s time Oregon Magazine did. Read more at OregonMag.com...
I particularly like Mr. Leonard's summation, "...Euro-socialism or a dynamic economic revival. It’s up to you." --bc Read More......

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Allen Alley: Rainbows and Moonbeams

"Rainbows and Moonbeams"
By Allen Alley
Was it a “Portlandia” script or an Oregonian front page story? The April 17 article on Governor Kitzhaber and Cylvia Hayes, who spent three hours in a class to learn how to construct a happiness index, could have been either one.  This happiness index, promoted by a Portland State University professor, purports to give a more accurate picture of economic health than the value of all goods and services produced, also known as gross domestic product (GDP).

The happiness index or Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) was promoted at a recent United Nations summit meeting on happiness and originated in that bastion of economic energy, Bhutan.  The Kingdom of Bhutan is a tiny Himalayan country with a GDP per person of $2,600.  Bhutan’s GDP ranks 129th in the world with other economic powerhouses such as Bolivia, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.  In perspective, the U.S. GDP per person is 18 times higher than Bhutan.

Is the Governor really going to model our economy after a third world country?  Are we giving up trying to measure ourselves by the economic measures of successful nations and instead partner with the Bhutanese and the UN to just make up our own happiness index?  Even “Portlandia’s” writers could not have conceived of this plot twist.

A trip to Taiwan in 1982 proved to me that economic prosperity creates happiness and a cleaner environment.  At the time, the streets of Taipei looked like a scene from Blade Runner.  Acid rain literally etched the buildings and stripped the paint off cars and signs.  Swarms of smoke-belching dilapidated scooters were the transportation mode of choice.  It seemed that Taiwan might sink into the ocean under the weight of the detritus of society, and all that would be left would be an oil slick and Styrofoam packing worms.  Then an amazing thing happened.  They became prosperous.  Today the GDP per person of Taipei is second only to Tokyo in Asia and is higher than that of Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.  Once they became economically prosperous, they did not want to live in squalor.  They had the community wealth to clean up their environment, and they did. 

Oregon’s economic report card is apparently so stubbornly awful that rather than creating an environment where prosperity can flourish, Governor Kitzhaber is going to change the grading system.  Now our economic F will be waved away, because we try really hard and have nice parks.

Global economic competition is brutal.  There are no bonus points for effort or style.  You either succeed or fail, and lately Oregon has been failing.

Since 1995 Oregonians have been getting poorer relative to other Americans.  We have slipped 10 places in state personal income ranking from 22nd to 32nd.  At the same time our neighbor to the north Washington rose from 16th to 13th.  In 1995 an Oregonian earned $750 less than the average American in personal income, today we are $3,700 behind.  That means the average family of 4 in Oregon is $14,800 a year poorer than the average American family.  So either we have to have significantly higher taxes or settle for inferior schools, roads, and public safety.  We cannot fill potholes with happiness.

Governor Kitzhaber, we need to embrace GDP and rededicate ourselves to creating an environment where it actually increases.  We must maximize access to the assets that make Oregon a potentially great place to build prosperity.  Open and expand our ports.  Use our natural resources.  Go out and actively promote Oregon timber as the greenest building product on earth.  Keep power rates low.  Manage the Columbia River to extract more economic value for Oregon.  Embrace hydro power as the renewable, CO2 free, source of clean energy that it is.  Create an environment where we feel our state is a partner in prosperity, not an impediment.

It’s difficult to attain long-term happiness without some measure of security and prosperity.  Gone are the days when a barter economy could provide all of the goods and services we need.  Besides, much of the capital created in Oregon comes from trade with other states and nations.  Happiness is a result, not a thing that can be traded.  Oregonians cannot pay their mortgage with moonbeams, and even the governor is unlikely to convince the public employee unions to accept rainbows rather than raises.

Here is the link to the op-ed on the Oregonian website. This op-ed was received via email, which also included a link to the ORP donation page.
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Sunday, April 22, 2012

GOVERNMENT: Gigantic Special Interest Group

(Hat tip: Patricia Anderson)
Link to video: http://youtu.be/xOAgT8L_BqQ Read More......

Thursday, April 19, 2012

HR 347: Obama Signs Bill to Abridge Free Speech

Obama signed HR 347 - March 2012 (Hat tip: Stella Guenther)
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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Millennial Generation not so 'green'

On March 15, the Corvallis Gazette-Times published Study: Young people not so 'green' after all based primarily on the research of Jean Twenge, who was "shocked" that the Millennial Generation trusted others less, showed less interest in government, social problems and concern over the environment than their preceding generations, baby boomers and Gen Xers. ✧ In the comments section of the Salt Lake Tribune (online) Liberated Jim responded to the study's findings:
This is actually good news. Those boomers who were out to change the world that didn't need changing, out to save a world that didn't need saving, and all the other CRAP that came from the 60's are now seeing their stupid ideas falling short. I love the line, "I was shocked!, We have the perception we are getting through to these people." I would say that they are getting through to these people and their message is being ignored as a stupid, over-bearing hand-wringing message of doom and gloom. Perhaps the new generations will find better, more positive and constructive methods of solving the problems their elders foisted upon them. [Emphasis added]
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Foreign Company Buys U.S. Election Results Reporting Firm

Posted on The Drudge Report
Bev Harris - In a major step towards global centralization of election processes, the world's dominant Internet voting company has purchased the USA's dominant election results reporting company. ✧ When you view your local or state election results on the Internet, on portals which often appear to be owned by the county elections division, in over 525 US jurisdictions you are actually redirected to a private corporate site controlled by SOE software, which operates under the name ClarityElections.com [from Spain!]. Read more at blackboxvoting.org...

Related Articles
Foreign Company owns U.S. election software, Holder’s Ballot least of our worries
Outsourcing US voting system: To Foreign Company - National Security concerns raised
Spanish Company Will “Count” American Votes Overseas In November Read More......

Contentions: The Role of Rhetoric in Christie’s Rise

The latest Quinnipiac poll showing Chris Christie’s approval rating at 59 percent in New Jersey has been raising eyebrows. As Aaron Blake writes at the Washington Post, “New Jersey is notoriously tough on its politicians – it’s rare that anybody cracks even 50 percent approval – and the state’s Democratic lean makes Christie’s success all the more notable. Despite his tough rhetoric, 54 percent say he’s a leader, while 39 percent (read: Democrats) say he’s a bully.”  ✧ Blake gets one thing backwards, though. New Jersey residents see Christie as a leader not “despite” his tough rhetoric, but in large part because of it... Read more at Commentary/Contentions... Read More......

Monday, April 9, 2012

GOP lawmaker calls for change to how government measures unemployment

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) intends to press GOP leaders to move his bill to include the number of individuals who gave up looking for work in the percentage of jobless claims. ✧ Should the government measure unemployment with Hunter's figure, the unemployment rate would be higher than the current rate of approximately 8 percent– a potentially devastating assessment for the White House, especially in an election year.  Read more at The Hill... Read More......

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Examiner: Ignore conservative ideas at your own peril

The liberal establishment is discovering the danger of assuming that your opponents' arguments are ridiculous and unworthy of consideration. Last week, they learned that the people who actually pass judgment upon them might disagree. Read more at the Examiner...

Don't miss this article! --bc Read More......

Unions Would Recall Scott Walker For His Success

Thuggery: Backed by a massive, well-financed Big Labor machine, the Democratic Party is determined to reverse the democratic election of Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker. His crime? Fixing his state economy. Read more at IBD... Read More......

Did Obama Say Capitalism Doesn’t Work?

4/2/2012 - Raising campaign cash in Maine on Friday, March 30, Obama said Republicans want to return to economic policies that would let Wall Street play by its own set of rules and allow insurance companies to roll back health coverage. "We won't win the race for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security if we cling to this same old, worn-out, tired 'You're on your own' economics that the other side is peddling," Obama said. "It was tried in the decades before the Great Depression. It didn't work then. It was tried in the last decade. It didn't work," he said. "You know, the idea you would keep on doing the same thing over and over again, even though it's been proven not to work. That's a sign of madness."  Read more at Fox Nation... Read More......

Climate-change scepticism must be 'treated', says Oregon enviro-sociologist

Scepticism regarding the need for immediate and massive action against carbon emissions is a sickness of societies and individuals which needs to be "treated", according to an Oregon-based professor of "sociology and environmental studies". Professor Kari Norgaard compares the struggle against climate scepticism to that against racism and slavery in the US South. ✧ Prof Norgaard holds a B.S. in biology and a master's and PhD in sociology. Read more at The Register and the University of Oregon Statement...

 So then, in a Telegraph [UK] article, Global Weirding: the new Big Lie, James Delingpole has a word or two about  Professor Norgaard. Read More......