Amazing Things

Homeowners who are in trouble need INCENTIVE to accept government money.

The government plan would provide cash incentives to both loan officers and borrowers for successful second-mortgage modifications. A loan officer would receive $500 upfront, plus $250 a year for up to three years as long as the loan remains current.

Borrowers who make payments on time will receive $250 a year for as many as five years.

Your tax dollars at work.

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The bad guys in Iraq have turned to blowing up poor, Muslem, women and children looking to get food because somehow that will make us go away.

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While looking to save $100,000,000 the administration spends $328,000 to scare citizens.
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1984, 25 years later.
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This new administration is going to escalate the drug war in Afghanistan. I sure was “hoping” that at least this policy would “change”.

The plan to send 20,000 Marines and soldiers into Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul Provinces this summer promises weeks and perhaps months of heavy fighting, since American officers expect the Taliban to vigorously defend what makes up the economic engine for the insurgency.

It certainly hasn’t made things safer in Mexico.

Reporting from Tijuana — Heavily armed gunmen staged a series of surprise attacks against municipal police forces in this tense border city, killing seven and wounding three in brazen assaults that shattered a four-month period of relative calm.

Tracking

I think tracking is fun and wish I had time/money to get into it with more depth. Reading about it, doesn’t really do the trick.

But Michael Yon has found himself being invited to participate in a tracking school in Borneo.

I’d recommend his dispatches. Sign up, send money.

HHS

I think it’s worth a chuckle today at the NYTimes where they blame Republicans for the fact that there is no head of HHS. They don’t even mention the tax problems of a previous nominee.

While health officials scramble to keep up with the fast-moving virus, it is deeply disquieting that the Obama administration has few of its top health officials in place. The Senate, delayed by Republican objections, is finally scheduled to debate the confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday to be secretary of health and human services.

Perhaps if they had vetted their first nominee instead of nominating someone recently voted out of office……..

My Local Newspaper vying for a spot with the MSM

How is my little local newspaper the Longmont Times-Call looking to win it’s spot with the big ol’ MSM?

This is the FRONT PAGE news story today.

Some looking to military for job security as economy stays sour

Nice caveat…”some”. So you’d think they’d have one example anyway, right??
Sadly, no.

Example 1:“My mom wanted me to get the experience of having the financial stability the military provides, before going out on my own,”
Example 2: “Was the economy a factor for me? No, …But my (college) graduating class, a lot of my classmates are starting to graduate and telling me how how hard it is to find a job in the civilian world. ”
Example 3:”The Navy post in Longmont that signed up Valenzuela and Christensen has seen the same amount of walk-up traffic as usual: about 20 to 30 applicants a month, resulting in about four to five recruits.”

But…the recruits are older. Equating to…….

The economy may very well make a difference, so write about it!! Find someone who signed up because of the economy, not because their mom was worried about the economy!! Good Lord.

In the meantime OPFOR hat tips the Heritage Foundation who has these numbers which are of course older than now but that you would think just MIGHT be part of a story on the military, it’s recruitment and the economy!!

*U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officerswho do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds…..
*Members of the all-volunteer military are sig nificantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. …..
*American soldiers are more educated than their peers. …..
*Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service. …….

The facts do not support the belief that many American soldiers volunteer because society offers them few other opportunities. The average enlisted person or officer could have had lucrative career opportunities in the private sector. Those who argue that American soldiers risk their lives because they have no other opportunities belittle the personal sacrifices of those who serve out of love for their country.

The Longmont paper starts out with this bit:

Serve your country. See the world. Earn a steady paycheck.

That last part can look appealing in the middle of a recession, which is one reason the U.S. military is having no problems with recruitment these days.

As if the first 2 bits count for jack and as if the story might actually be a story about the last bit!!!!!!
Unbelievable. Now I’m cranky today.

Obama/Osama and Torture

In case you missed it like I did, OPFOR links.

Americans should be clear on what Obama has done. In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families.

His personal beliefs are that “definition” of torture vs enhanced interrogation.
Now the UN is pressuring the US to prosecute those who wrote their own opinions on pieces of paper. Not lawmakers mind you…lawyers.

Venezuela

Hugo Chavez admits that his country is a cesspool. At least that’s the only way I can read this item on his Declaration. It doesn’t say he’s going to write a check.

7. As for climate change, developed countries are in an environmental debt to the world because they are responsible for 70% of historical carbon emissions into the atmosphere since 1750. Developed countries should pay off their debt to humankind and the planet; they should provide significant resources to a fund so that developing countries can embark upon a growth model which does not repeat the serious impacts of the capitalist industrialization.

He’s the one selling oil to the developed countries, so doesn’t that make him even MORE responsible? Because frankly “selling the oil” would be some form of capitalism which is

leading humanity and the planet to extinction.

How do people live with these world’s colliding type of paradigms?

Obama’s Suggestion Box

Obama has a “new” idea. A suggestion box in the halls. Dinocrat notes it’s not very new.

I wonder how many people in the Federal Government will put the slip of paper in that reads:

“Give me a pink slip”

Day By Day

LOL.
Go see this cartoon.

Links..again

Porter Goss on the torture memos.

Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned.

“slack-jawed”. You don’t hear that word very often.
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Tom Bergeron with advice to Susan Boyle.

The real problem is that too often we don’t have the courage to sustain wonder. Susan Boyle walked onto that stage and faced down a sea of smug.

That courage doesn’t sustain and folks are already moving back to the sea of smug.
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Newt Gingrich explains to Henry Waxman that the government is by/for/and of the people and not an entity for “threatening” the people, as Waxman says:

You’ve gotta have some threats,

I wish is were as funny as it sounds.

Happy Weekend.

Friday Calf Blogging

Poor Barbie lost her mother to some weird problem this week so she’s getting bottle fed and trying to sneak a few suckles from Ken’s mama.

Ken doesn’t seem to mind. Plenty to go around!