A Light Shines Very Briefly in Olympia

Moments of lucidity, however brief, are rare from our Democrat led state legislature in Olympia. We see them so rarely that once one happens, no matter how brief, it just amazes us. But, just as former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened,” we can rest assured those moments won’t last long.

In this case, an article originally appearing in The Spokesman-Review, As gasoline use drops, so does state revenue, leaves me nearly speechless that they didn’t know this would happen as they pushed for less driving and more dependence upon public transportation.

Who’s More Clueless, Oprah or Joe Biden?

If we ever needed more proof of just how clueless the left in America is, these two noted individuals, TV personality Oprah Winfrey and career politician Joe Biden show us beyond any shadow of doubt that they remain completely detached from reality.

Oprah was interviewed recently by Parade magazine, mostly on her soon to be launched TV Network. After the usual gushing praise and ass-kissing, readers were treated to the following little exchange.

Can I ask about President Obama? Are you concerned, disappointed?
No. I think that no one understands until you’ve been in that seat the enormous pressure to please and satisfy everybody. And I think instead of being grateful for where we are and what he has done, we’ve forgotten that we were on the brink of a depression when he took over this office. And as everybody celebrates the holiday season and sits around with their families, regardless of your circumstance, we could’ve had breadlines. How soon we forget that.

Depression? Breadlines, Oprah?

Repeal Lame Duck Democrats Destruction of DA/DT in 112th Congress

Contributed by Rees Lloyd

As a former enlisted man who joined the Army at the age 17, as do many recruits, I know about the enormous power of non-commissioned and commission officers over the lives of those in the enlisted ranks. I think it is unconscionable for members of House, Senate, and the White House to congratulate themselves on voting to compel young enlisted men and women to serve under openly practicing homosexual non-coms or officers, including predatory homosexuals, who may have a sexual rather than military interest in them, and who have enormous power to retaliate if their advances are rejected.

Just how does a young man or woman subject to military discipline, culture, and control, protect himself or herself, and seek redress, from unwanted sexual interest, advances, or assaults? A member of the military in the ranks is often at the mercy of non-coms or officers, including in duty assignments which can not only be the worst of unwanted duties but assignments which can put them in harm’s way at risk of loss of limbs or life.

Simply stated: Military life is not civilian life. A victim of “sexual harassment,” predation, or actual assault in the military cannot respond to such sexual abuse as can a person in civilian life. Enlisted personnel cannot, without great fear of retaliation, report a non-com or officer for homosexual misconduct. A member of the military cannot respond to an advance by a homosexual non-com or officer with crude language, or threats of physical action that would be used in a civilian situation. A member of the military cannot physically ward off unwanted homosexual contact by a non-com or officer without risk of court martial for a major crime, i.e., “assault on an officer.” A member of the military cannot file a complaint with local police, or with local, state, or federal agencies enforcing anti-discrimination laws. A member of the military cannot sue a homosexual molester, or the predatory homosexual’s employer, i.e., the military branch in which the victim serves.

A Soldier’s Christmas Poem

For all who have served or are currently serving, especially those who might be far from home, or have missed having holidays with their families.

Have tissues on hand.

As Christmas draws to a close, please remember those far from home and their families.

Grandma Got Molested At The Airport

Shouldn’t Real Heroes Receive Honor Too?

Once again we are approaching the end of another year. As usual, we are treated to a remembrance of so-called celebrities who have passed away during the year. Celebrities that produced movies, acted in or starred in them, singers, songwriters, book authors, and the whole gamut of those who entertain us or otherwise make millions of dollars creating fantasies for us to lose ourselves in.

The Seattle PI gives us 40 Celebrity Deaths for 2010, containing such names as, Teddy Pendergrass, Jean Simmons, J.D. Salinger, Peter Graves, Robert Culp, Lynn Redgrave, Lena Horne, Art Linkletter, Patricia Neal, Tony Curtis and many more.

Most all of us have viewed, read or listened to these celebrities and have enjoyed their work over the years and their passing is no doubt sad.

Yet, looking over the list, I noticed some names not listed. Names like Melvin E. Biddle, David H. McNerney, David C. Dolby, Nick Bacon, Vernon Baker and John William Finn. These names don’t actually merit the listing as celebrities, even though each one did more for all of us than all of the celebrities in the world. Who are the men behind these names?

Is Jaime Herrera Pregnant?

After being married for a year and half, congressperson elect Jaime Herrera suddenly issued a press release yesterday, December 22, 2010 announcing that from now on, she is to be referred to as ‘Jaime Herrera Beutler’ (pronounced Butler), indicating she has decided to take her husband’s name.

The Columbian: It’s now Jaime Herrera Beutler

Seattle Times: Jaime Herrera takes husband’s name, belatedly

Speculation on the why of the sudden announcement is, naturally, all over the board. But one that no one seems to have mentioned nor entered my own mind, is if she is pregnant. I mention it now due to an email I just received from a Republican PCO that said,

“re Jaimie…do not be too hard on her just now. Maybe I am dead wrong, BUT, photos, her appearance at our PCO meeting and her change of name may or may not point to a possible pregnancy. I am sure she would want her son or daughter to have her husband’s name etc.”

Patty Murray Out of the Closet: Brags of Disdain for Straight Troops

I have long maintained that Washington State’s senior senator, Patty Murray has no real appreciation of love of our Military, in spite of her public proclamations of just that. Last evening, December 20, 2010, she all but openly admitted her disdain in an email expressing her happiness over her voting to repeal the so-called ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy implemented by former president Bill Clinton in 1993.

Murray’s email said,

“Last week, I proudly cast my vote for legislation to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. For far too long, men and women with the courage and commitment to serve our nation have been asked to hide the truth about who they are. This is shameful, it’s bad policy, and it needed to end. In a speech on the Senate floor prior to final passage, I urged my colleagues to repeal this failed policy and told the story of Major Margaret Witt, from Washington state, who was discharged under DADT.”

While Murray’s words are wrapped in gushing praise, she obviously did not bother to actually discuss the issue with front line combat Troops, but relied upon claims of a small segment of people in the Military who knew they would be ousted for declaring their sexuality and did so anyways.

Battle Ground City Council: Insufficient Evidence Against Zandamela

The Battle Ground City Council met this evening, December 20, 2010 to hear allegations of ethics violations brought against fellow council member Paul Zandamela by council member Lisa Walters.

As was outlined in a November 17 Columbian article, Zandamela was “accused of violating two sections of the city’s ethics ordinance, which was unanimously adopted by the council Aug. 16. The first allegation is Zandamela provided false information to the city council, leading the members to make decisions based on non-factual information. The second allegation is Zandamela tried to influence administrative decisions, which are to be made by the city manager.”

At tonight’s proceedings, Mr. Zandamela exercised his right to an attorney for the proceedings to argue his defense, which ended up turning the scheduled one hour meeting into just over 2 hours. The attorney presented a very effective defense, at times reminding me of older black & white episodes of Perry Mason. But still, his attorney, Jeff Lindberg, gave a very effective defense, focusing often on just what was the status of meetings Zandamela was alleged to have made the statements claimed he made.

“Forgive the expression, ‘A Christmas Party’?”

How ridiculous that the assault on Christmas is now an expression requiring a request for forgiveness when spoken on air by NPR reporter Nina Totenberg.

VIDEO

The transcript of her words, spoken in a broadcast discussion over the recently defeated Omnibus Bill,

“I want to say one thing about the budget that didn’t get passed, the omnibus bill. You know, we talk a lot about – we just passed this huge tax cut in part because business said, you know, we have to plan, we have to know what kind of tax cuts we have. Well, these agencies, including the Defense Department, don’t know how much money they’ve got and for what. And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this. These are law enforcement people don’t know exactly what kind of money they can spend for what.”

Will John Laird or Lou Brancaccio pick up on this blurb and editorialize on how silly her words are? Don’t hold your breath.

After all, haven’t we been told that it is us who are being silly and creating a problem where none exists?

Will “Christmas” one day be transformed into “Expletive Deleted” by the politically correct media types?

H/T Newsbusters.com

Chicago Mayoral Candidate Meeks: “Minority Should Apply to Blacks ONLY!”

Lighting off a firestorm in the Chicago Mayor’s race, candidate James Meeks, an African-American touched off a firestorm in the city when he was asked why “African-American businesses got a 7 percent sliver of Chicago’s $1 billion spending pie through Aug. 31, down from 8 percent a year ago.”

He replied, “The word ‘minority’ from our standpoint should mean African American. I don’t think women, Asians and Hispanics should be able to use that title. That’s why our numbers cannot improve — because we use women, Asians and Hispanics who are not people of color, who are not people who have been discriminated against.”

He continued, “I don’t believe white women should be considered in that count ….You have white women in the category. They receive contracts. Then, white men receive contracts. Where does that leave everybody else?”

Chicago “currently earmarks 25 percent of all city contracts for minorities and 5 percent for companies owned by women.”

In trying to put out the fire, hours after the remarks Meeks said he would only exclude white women if elected mayor.

Read more at the Chicago Sun-Times

Video HERE

Coming Soon, Anti-Israel Ads on Seattle Buses

Reported by Seattle’s KING 5 News, A group calling itself the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign is paying nearly $2,000 to place the ads on some Seattle Downtown buses.

Spokesman for the group claim the ads are geared towards Israels attacks 2 years ago on Gaza, that were intended to stop rockets attacks on Israel and the smuggling in of weapons used against Israel. Group spokesman, Ed Mast stated, “I wouldn’t say it’s an anti-Israel message any more than any complaint about a country is anti-that country. We would like Israel to stop violating human rights. We would like Israel to give equal rights to its Palestinian citizens and its Palestinian subjects who live under occupation,” even though the ads contain inflammatory words of “our tax dollars at work” and feature photos of children.

Government Take Over of Food, Restaurants, (Land?) in Offing for Multnomah County. Food As a “Right.”

Contributed by Victoria Taft, KPAM 860

Think I’m exaggerating? As promised, I’m now blogging what I’ve pointed out all week on the program: on January 27th the Multnomah County Commission will consider the “Multnomah Food Action Plan.” Find it HERE. This trojan horse represents itself as a way to fight hunger while at the same time getting rid of what its authors determine is “unhealthy” food. It puts the government at the forefront of making food related decisions for you; including where you buy it including government sanctioned, “food hubs.” It encourages more people to be put on welfare and government housing. The plan calls for manipulating the urban growth boundary, urging land trusts, and forcing people to grow food on empty lots. It would look better on paper if the authors considered private property rights and individual liberty in their plan, but alas, in the People’s Republic this is a plan that has at its heart, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. HERE.” It’s a socialist utopian dream–which has never worked and which seeks to use our money to accomplish it. It makes food–and maybe even shelter–a right. Instead of working, able bodied people will have to do virtually nothing to support themselves. If you think times are financially tight now, just wait till Multnomah County becomes an even bigger welfare magnet than it already is. As Margaret Thatcher once observed, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.”

Details of the plan after the jump.

Will Repeal of D.A.D.T. Lead to the Reinstatement of the Draft?

As all know, the Senate passed the repeal of the controversial Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy implemented by former president Bill Clinton that allowed Gays to serve in the Military, so long as they keep their sexuality to themselves. All that is left now is for Barack Obama, who campaigned on repealing the policy and allowing Gays to openly declare their sexuality within the ranks of the Military to sign it into laws and for the Pentagon.

Repeal passed by a 65 – 31 margin in the Senate, 8 Republicans abandoning so-called Republican principles and joined by 2 Independents to help Democrats pass their long sought after repeal. Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mark Kirk of Illinois, George Voinovich of Ohio, Richard Burr of North Carolina, John Ensign of Nevada and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

Repeal had earlier passed in the lame duck House by a margin of 250-175, 14 Republicans abandoning those so-called Republican principles there. Judy Biggert (IL), Mary Bono Mack (CA), John Campbell (CA), Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao (LA), Mike Castle (DE), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL), Charles Djou (HI), David Dreier (CA), Vern Ehlers (MI), Jeff Flake (AZ), Ron Paul (TX), Todd Russell Platts (PA), Dave Reichert (WA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL)

Massachusetts traitorous Senator, John ‘F’in Kerry said of the repeal, “The military remains the great equalizer. Just like we did after President Truman desegregated the military, we’ll someday look back and wonder what took Washington so long to fix it.”

Kerry has a decade’s long history of being wrong on issues.

Signs of the times

Contributed by Margaret Tweet

On Tuesday Dec. 7, I attended the 6 PM Clark County budget hearing to object to tax, holiday, and benefits inflation in Clark County government ,when inflation is reportedly at bay. One citizen informed Commissioner Stuart that his political signs were up past the due date for removal. The election was Nov. 2. She noted that his signs boasted a motto like, Because We Care. I also informed Commissioner Stuart that one of his signs was still up on Mill Plain near the East Vancouver police station and he took notes on the location. I also pointed out that other democrat signs still littered Mill Plain, mostly in the median including those of Jim Moeller, Jim Jacks, Tony Golik ,Shotwell , Denny Heck and Doug Lasher on 192nd. As of 2 PM Friday December 17, these same signs still littered Mill Plain, and Doug Lasher’s sign is picked up. A purple Janet Seekins sign is over by the Camas Mill. Do the rules in Vancouver apply to democrats ?

Citizen after citizen testified about the harsh realities of lay- offs, pay cuts, inability to afford insurance, and foreclosures as well as rising contributions to insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles. County employees haven’t yet contributed anything to insurance premiums for medical, dental, vision, long term disability or life insurance. These premiums add up to as much as $1772 for full family coverage per month in 2010, and are going up in 2011. The county will pay over $26 million for those insurance premiums in 2010. Meanwhile, Governor Gregoire recently renegotiated with state workers to increase the state employee contribution to medical premiums from 12- 15%. Private business typically contribute more, about 19% for employee only, and 27% for full family coverage according to a 2010 Kaiser Foundation study. It’s time for the county to renegotiate so that county employees pay their fair share.

The county also grants generous paid vacation, holiday and sick leave schedules.

Vacation accumulates to very high limits and is paid out when employment stops. Sick leave also accumulates and is partially paid out. Unions successfully lobbied for another holiday too, now 15 holidays for many employees starting in 2011. In comparison, Ft. Vancouver libraries and the City of Vancouver have 10 holidays.

On the budget, the good news is that a 2.5% salary perk that the county paid into deferred comp plans for some managers making from about $ 83,000 to $170,000/year was suspended for 2 years. This will save the county about $ 80,000/year. The bad news was taxes were unnecessarily hiked again by 1% of the general fund, this year unanimously. Last year, Commissioners Stuart and Boldt raised taxes over Commissioner Mielkes’ “NO” vote. If employees contributed just 10% to the $26 million of insurance premiums in 2010, the budget “shortfall” would have been met with funds leftover to avert a discussed tax hike for the road fund next year.

Compiled by Margaret Tweet

Public Transportation, At Its Finest

Read more at Seattle Times

Will this be prosecuted as a “hate crime?”

Will Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson flock to Seattle to “preach” the love to cold hearted Whites who may think the 5 were wrong?

Will Blacks that condemn the acts of the 5 be ostracized and called “Toms?”

The Dream of the 90′s

By Portlandia

I have to wonder, how many taxes are drawn off of dreams?

From the Mouth of a Democrat

A senior Democrat at that.

Yes, why bother reading anything before passing it, right Lurch?

And, you Democrats wanted this idiot for president?

Obama’s Organizing for America pushing for DREAM Act and Repeal of DADT

Barack Obama’s group set up to persuade citizen’s to buy into his agenda is working overtime today. With our country in dire straits, unemployment increasing, jobs drying up, national debt spiraling out of control and all of the maladies facing the nation, isn’t it odd that the main focus remains to be on passing the backdoor amnesty act for children of ILLEGAL Aliens brought to the country when young and caving into Gays who want to force acceptance of their sexuality upon the country.

Don’t believe me? I received the following just today in my email.

And, to make sure you do it right with the proper words, they even supply you a script to go along with the names and phone numbers of who to call to encourage calling legislators to pass these bills.

Shouldn’t we worry first about getting the nation back on sound economic footing?

Do you appreciate your name and phone number being given out to strangers on an email list?

Is Repealing DADT Really All That Important Right Now?

Just in case no one has noticed, our country is in deep trouble. We are spiraling ever downward into an economic depression that seems to have no end. We are borrowing more than ever before, national debt doubling in just 2 years, unemployment is approaching unheard of highs not seen since the 1930’s, jobs are drying up, states are going bankrupt, people’s homes are being foreclosed on, the government is taking over banks all of the time, bailing out large corporations on the brink of disaster and congresses major worry is letting Gays serve openly in the Military?

Why is this even being considered at this time? With all of the problems we are facing, will allowing Gays to openly declare their sexuality in the ranks improve anything in the country?

No!