Christmas 2009 - The Winter of Discontent in America

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The Slumbering Giant is Awakened

Was it just a year ago that a fresh new president had been elected promising a tired and battered America change and hope? No more secret dealings in the White House and Congress. No more partisan politics and pork barrel projects. No more caving in to Wall Street and the financial sector. Our new president was going to listen to Main Street, not Wall Street, not lobbyists and not play backroom politics. In fact our new face of hope was going to bring in fresh faces, new ideas and stop special interests from owning our national agenda.



Well friends, there is a reason 2009 is the winter of discontent. Now we know that Obama was just another politician from a long line of Chicago politicians who sold their souls for power, surrounded themselves with master manipulators, adopted a secret code of omerta far more powerful than anything the mob ever had, and seems to think the American public is going to stand aside while they destroy everything that is important to Americans.



Sound harsh? Then think of this. The American military has always represented what is good, strong and patriotic about America. From George Washington to George Patton our leaders have demanded the best from the military and we have stood alone in defending the world from evil, from terrorism, from human rights violations and from far worse human suffering than we have seen.



For 100 years the world rested easier whenever they heard the American military was coming and when they got there for the most part the world was indeed safer. Only when politics attempted to limit war did we not complete our mission. Then came the past few decades, the legacy of both political parties playing politics with war.



It started with President Johnson in the 1960's, a Democrat, in Vietnam. Then Nixon, a Republican was elected to clean up the mess. Pretty soon Carter, a Democrat got elected to cleanup Nixon's political mess and along came the capture of our American embassy and staff in Iran. Reagan, a Republican cleaned up that mess but Bush 1, a Republican inherited a world in which terrorist actions were now being rewarded and he was forced into playing politics with Iraq and their invasion of Kuwait.



As the dust settled on that skirmish we had now demonstrated beyond doubt that our resolve was fading. So Clinton, a Democrat, wanting to avoid war then played the highly political non-war games financing a defacto war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.



Oh yes, we financed Osama Bin Laden in a battle against the Soviet empire and in time the terrorists, our terrorists won. With that we had now sanctioned terrorism as a viable war strategy. Unfortunately, the terrorists used us just as we used them as the Islamic radicals had an underlying purpose to all they did. Our ally Israel was always the target of terrorists.



While we helped build up the terrorist fighting machine in Afghanistan they exported it to the Middle East and used it to start attacking our very own assets in the Arab world. Loyalty was never a concern to the terrorists. Before Clinton left office the terrorists were busy working on the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.



Osama Bin Laden's goal was to strike a blow into the heart and soul of America, the core of our financial system, and then to occupy our national consciousness in diversions from the ultimate goal of inciting a world war in the Middle East with Israel as the target. There was never any doubt as to his purpose or resolve had we taken the time to study him.



Whether it was the genius behind the Bin Laden strategy or the lack of morals and ethics on wall Street, Bin Laden knew us better than we ever expected. He seemed to know that greed would drive Wall Street once America was no longer a safe haven. You see, our financial institutions had loyalty only to their own bottom line and America had been the cash cow for bankers since our Revolution.



Very quietly toward the end of the Clinton presidency while America was embroiled in the shenanigans of a wayward president and his impeachment for womanizing, the agents for the financial institutions embedded in the Clinton administration quietly raped the regulatory controls of government to insure a whole new and unregulated line of business could be launched outside the control of government but able to use the government treasury as if it were their own.



All that was needed was a trigger to cut loose the financial greed and that trigger was fear, fear that America, the bastion of world economic commerce, was no longer free from the ravages of war. What better way to destroy confidence in the American economy than to strike a deadly blow to the heart of Wall Street, the World Trade Center.



Bush 2, a Republican followed Clinton and in his first year in office the fruits of the terrorist plan were realized as five of our own commercial planes were used to destroy the greatest symbol of American might the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Bush saw the results of a couple of decades of political wars when the World Trade Center was obliterated from the earth.



In retaliation Bush 2 launched the Afghanistan and Iraq wars against terrorism thus diverting the attention of the American public toward two political wars. At the same time fear hit Wall Street as they were no longer safe here. It seemed as if our financial institutions seemed to decide that America as an unending source of money had a very limited future.



While the world watched our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan the money manipulators launched all those secret devices approved during the Clinton impeachment, unregulated devices like hedge funds, derivatives, swaps and mortgage bundling which flooded the stock market while futures in commodities and oil were moved outside the control of the federal government.



Fear drove the financial suits to use all the secret tools they injected into the system during the Clinton impeachment as a backdoor to raid the Treasury if they could not make money legitimately. Osama was right. One need not destroy a house of cards to bring it down, just pull the right cards from the bottom of the stack. The house will then collapse by itself just as the World Trade Center collapse triggered the raid on the US Treasury by the financial institutions. Make no mistake, when the Clinton team made those secret changes to the federal regulatory laws they knew exactly what they were doing.



For those who think the World Trade Center was an isolated incident you forget the purpose of Bin Laden, to destroy the American economy. By the time Bin Laden had battled us for eight years in the deserts of the Middle East and the financiers had bled the markets dry with the unregulated speculation and unsecured new investment vehicles our military machine and economy were in shambles.



Bin Laden has no loyalty to anyone or any institution. Neither do the financial institutions of Wall Street who used the US Treasury as a petty cash fund and could care less if they bankrupted the nation. In fact they were so bold as to demand a bailout when their economic corruption caught up with them. In the end Wall Street finished the job for Bin Laden.



And along comes Obama, a Democrat, to break the chain of politics as usual. But Obama is already in the back pocket of Wall Street long before he is elected thanks to his right hand Little Napoleon, Rahm Emanuel, the Clinton and Democratic party insider from Wall Street and top fund raiser for the past two decades. Nothing has changed in Washington. Thanks to Little Napoleon Goldman Sachs reigns supreme. There is a serious question as to whether Obama is the president or puppet. There is a more serious question as to whether he can ever be president no matter how much damage Napoleon's White House gang does to him and to America.



Now we have the new Obama strategy in Afghanistan. The only thing new is that he has tied the hands of our military leaders more than any president in history. Imagine if Roosevelt had told his generals they have 18 months to end World War II. That is what the White House concluded after 92 days of thinking. That is about the dumbest reason for delay I have ever heard. Perhaps it is a result of all those years the ivy league boys got deferred from military service and they do not understand the concept of military strategy. About the only White House insider with military experience was Little Napoleon and he was a mechanic in the Israeli army.



Will we ever have a president who is proud of the American military, confident in their ability, and stands back and says to them go kick their butts and let me know what you need. Our nation has 233 years of history to be proud about. For most of that time we were the only nation in the world that defended the world without asking for anything in return. Our military was feared and our resolve was ferocious. It will take more than a toothless president and a politics playing Napoleon in the White House to take that away from us.



If they do not change their ways it will be Napoleon, his puppet and gang who are looking for a new home. What the fools in Washington have done is not destroy the spirit of America but they have awaken the spirit of America, a slumbering giant, and no one can take that love of life and freedom away from us. Clearly it is again time for a change. Only American patriots should be in Washington.



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Report on G20 Summit in London in April

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After Thinking for 92 Days Obama at West Point - The Enemy Camp

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Leave it to the idjit Democratic liberals to cast dirt on their own president as Chris Matthews of the comrades in arms network MSNBC called our nation's Military Academy at West Point "the enemy camp". As usual when a elitist liberal shoots off at the mouth he got caught and immediately began to backpedal faster than Obama's promise for transparency in government.



One thing the liberals said was right concerning the speech on Afghanistan was it certainly came across dry and clinical, a typical professor speaking down to the students even those he was sending these students off to war and some will not be coming home. If the cadets were grave perhaps it was the subject matter.



Then again, there was none of the motivational lines, uplifting rhetoric, and pride most presidents have demonstrated when addressing his troops. It took at least 92 days for the president to figure out what to say from the time his own general asked for more troops. Over the past three months of indecision his poll numbers crashed from 56% approval to 35% on his handling of the war. As usual he apologized for all the mistakes by America.



Obama then proceeded to give the generals pretty much all they wanted in terms of troops, 30,000 more as fast as possible. Now most red blooded Americans will support the president on the troops because in America patriotism is a way of life and we are getting tired of endless wars. But Obama never claimed we would win. He didn't claim any positive result but merely mumbled about we will see how it goes.

Suddenly the bombshell, obviously meant to appease all the flaming liberals in his White House, as he said we would start withdrawing troops 18 months after the troop build up, and that we would complete our withdrawal before the 2012 presidential elections. It seems a bit much to expect 30,000 more troops will give us victory in just 18 months when it has been over eight years since we started the war.



Obama has to be the first commander in chief in history to predict the end of a war when he just sent more troops to the battleground. To commit might be the second dumbest thing he has done next to thinking he was anointed president in the first place. What did the new policy do to VP Biden's reputation? He was very much opposed to it in White House deliberations. Hillary, on the other hand, approved of it.

Still, anyone with experience knows there is no way we can start leaving 18 months after reaching full force so his words will slip by unnoticed and when the deadline comes and goes it will just be another in the series of failed promises to his rapidly fading liberal base.



Now Afghanistan has given him the opportunity to count the votes on health care and decide it was time to change his priorities. Of course the war in Afghanistan will only dominate the president for a day as he starts a whole new campaign to define a new strategy for joblessness and the floundering economy. I guess taking 92 days to think about Afghanistan pales in comparison to the economy which has been ignored since he passed the ill fated bailouts and stimulus bills at the beginning of his term.

Let's see, Afghanistan yesterday and joblessness tomorrow, does that mean health care is no longer a priority or did he finally decide to blame any failure in health care on Nancy Pelosi whose pork barrel bill gives new meaning to fat cats in our nation's capitol?

The Obama record on foreign policy leaves a lot to be desired. Every day another of his "enlightened" new foreign policies seems to self-destruct. He wanted to sit down with North Korea and Iran and got fireworks he didn't seem to expect. North Korea fired off missiles in defiance of the president while Iran boasts it will build ten more nuclear reactors and create even more powerful enhanced uranium for nuclear weapons.



Israel greeted warnings from Obama to stop building settlements with a ban on settlement construction where it was not happening and ordering 8,000 more homes built in the controversial East Jerusalem settlements. Some ban. Every day Israel is closer to attempting to take out the Iranian reactors with military force which will instantly move the world a step closer to world war.



China scolds us for causing the world economic meltdown, Russia ignores calls to lean on Iran, China ignores calls to lean on North Korea. Europe seems to ignore just about everything he asks of our European allies. Even the global warming cartel led by Al Gore and Goldman Sachs is self-destructing with the release of a pattern of liberal scientists who manipulated and made up numbers to justify the global warming debacle.

Ironically, the White House just announced the president would go to the world conference on global warming on his way to pick up his Nobel Peace prize, hummm, just a few days after expanding the war in Afghanistan. Can't wait to hear his Peace prize acceptance speech.



And then, well, it was disclosed that Obama and his friend Tiger Woods are featured on the cover of Golf Digest under the story ten things Tiger can teach Obama on the same day Tiger admitted to his digressions that hurt his wife and family.

Finally Obama's patron saint Goldman Sachs continues to raid Obama's US Treasury and pay out $23 billion in bonuses and this week it was announced Goldman has forbidden employees to gather in groups of 12 or larger and that Goldman employees are filing for gun permits in NYC to protect themselves from the threats they seem to be receiving for raiding our treasury.



And then there was the crashing at the White House state dinner by socialites who got pictures with Obama and Biden. Is the president safe in his own home? What a week for our commander in chief.

Thanksgiving 2009 - When Did This American Tradition Start?

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a national holiday, yet many people have no idea of the history of the holiday. Those of you living around Coltons Point should know this history as it began around the colonial days, exactly 155 years after the colonists landed here, the oldest continuous settlement in the original thirteen colonies.



Now not to overlook the Spaniards, they did hold some form of Thanksgiving celebrations in Saint Augustine in 1565, then San Elceario (near today's El Paso) but neither was part of the original colonies. In 1619 Virginia colonists held such a feast and in 1621 the Plymouth, Massachusetts colonists held such a feast but this was before the founding of the nation and they were not annual traditions.



After the founding of the United States the first holiday was declared by President George Washington, a religious feast to thank the "providence of Almighty God" for his help. Still, it was not designated a national holiday but states were encouraged to participate.



Of course George was born directly across the river from Coltons Point and when younger he walked this area as a surveyor.



George Washington

As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the following proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.



The national holiday came during the darkest hours of the Civil War when Lincoln was president. The year was 1863, and it was the bloodiest days of the Civil War. It followed the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg and Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg to honor the most soldiers killed in one battle in our history, Lincoln, heartbroken by what he had seen at Gettysburg, may have used Thanksgiving as a time to give the people to reflect and hope. He was not a publicly religious man, but he used his Thanksgiving proclamation to find humility and gratitude, and to remember how richly blessed we as a nation really were despite everything. His proclamation was one of the first times he used strong religious overtones in his public speech.



Abraham Lincoln

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.



I hope you all join me in Thanksgiving, honoring the Almighty God as Washington and Lincoln told us, and honoring our sons and daughters around the world defending our right to be free.



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Taylor Swift Sweeps Awards, No Longer Just Country Queen but Queen of the Pop World

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Now that the American Music Awards, to the shock of the non-country music industry, has anointed Taylor Swift as the voice of American music, what does that mean to the good old folks back home? In winning five AMA awards including artist of the year over Michael Jackson and others, what does that hold for the future.



It was a very good night for country music in spite of the Swift landslide but one wonders how much was because of the Swift coattails which were very much in evidence with the award to Gloriana as breakthrough artist of the year without being well known compared to Lady Gaga who lost to both Swift and Gloriana. Taylor did take Gloriana on tour with her to help introduce the singers.



Still, Swift is the story as she is now known as America's pop queen having demolished the competition in the Country Music and American Music Awards, competition that included all the best performers, male and female in country and pop music including Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, George Straight, Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, and pop starts Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Kings of Leon, Beyonce and Daughtry.

So how does a 19 year old kid dominate the greatest artists of all music genres for the last couple of decades? How has Taylor gained world recognition as the queen of pop music and the best selling artist in the world for all types of music? And what will be the Swift impact on country music?



Just like her friend Miley Cyrus who also came from country roots, Taylor Swift is already facing the many seductions of entertainment fame and fortune as they tend to first become a self contained money machine hungry to dominate every aspect of the entertainment business. Both quickly took control of every aspect of their lives from writing music to television appearances.



The rocket to fame opened doors to performing and recording with other established artists. An avalanche of money allowed them to break new ground with music videos. Their packaging for concerts and special performances was flawless. But each degree of control has a price.



Taylor Swift has shattered record sales in a time when the tough economy has driven down the sale of records. That means a whole bunch of other performers have been squeezed out of the fragile sales market. Her concerts are becoming more rock like all the time leaving less money and fan support for other artists.



By writing her own music she has blocked untold writers from ever being a success. When she co-writes and performs with anyone else it is usually because that person is also successful, note, Miley Cyrus, Kellie Pickler, etc. But those hand picked friends are always successful in their own right thus further closing the doors of opportunity to other struggling artists and writers.



In the record business more than any other money talks. But just like Wall Street, money only feeds on more money as costs escalate, video production becomes more extravagant, concert shows become more complex and expensive, and the price of everything from tickets to records has to go up to make sure the public is bled dry.



You reach a certain point and suddenly risky investments stop while formula ideas, known techniques, or songs or styles whose cost benefit analysis offers the least risk begin to dominate. The industry vultures hover around you at all times. Some kids can handle it. Most don't.

The more commercial the kid, for example, young Miley, the more demands on them to continue making tons of money to feed their own machine. They become an industry in and of themselves and they become a slave to their own success. All the time their creativity, which thrives in the early stages gets worn out in the later stages.



That is when they are forced to compromise everything they stood for when they were young and unknown in the first place. Fame has a horrible price to pay. Just look at the lives of music legends like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. You reach a certain point when you can never again be one of the genre but become the genre. Yesterday Taylor Swift was the hope for country music, today she is the poster girl for pop music.

It will be a miracle if she ever has control of her young life again. As she is seduced by the masters of entrapment in Hollywood, New York and Wall Street through television and movies, then fashion and cosmetics, her world will open up just as her life is becoming more and more isolated. All the time the greed of those using her will keep pushing her while denying other aspiring artists the chance for any hope of success.



The people of the entertainment world now pouring ideas and dreams into this new star are masters at their game and their game is pure and simple, greed. Squeeze every last ounce of profit out of the celebrity because they might break under the pressure at any step along the way and suddenly the gravy train is gone. To them she is the golden goose and when the goose stops producing it is cast aside for the next Taylor Swift waiting in the wings.

Right now young Taylor has the enthusiasm and energy of youth. But her breakneck schedule and the amazing diversity of activity they have her doing cannot be sustained for long. Most likely she has already been lost to the country music industry. The lure of Hollywood and the mega bucks in the genre will take care of that. Others are pushed in that direction, like Carrie Underwood, but they do not stay there and survive. If they are lucky, they get back to their roots before they are broken.



Swift was a talented kid who just happened to break through in country music. There is no evidence that she was grounded in country as her roots were never deep enough to establish that fact. It was only a matter of time and luck before she found her home and most likely that is in the pop culture. Her music is every bit as much pop as country so the genre of the arrangement determines which doors are open to the artist.



Now that she is the best selling female of all music, and the heir apparent as pop queen, her true roots will never be known. Her opportunities may be endless, but the risk reward ratio just took a gigantic leap forward, meaning what you may ask? It means this. When you have reached the pinnacle of your life's endeavor there is no way to go but sideways or down. You go sideways by jumping from country to pop but from either perspective the only way to go is back down.



Let us hope and pray that Taylor Swift is not already a victim trapped in her own success. She needs to find her own way but also needs to understand she never walks alone. As she is faced with untold wealth and opportunity may she never forget that the gifts she has came from a higher source and the success as measured from that perspective is how you use your gifts to help others in need of help, not those already drowning in success.



Compassion and empathy comes from the heart, not from the largess of foundations and tax deductions. Young Taylor is at a crossroads where she can find a solid foundation in life or forever walk on quicksand. The latter comes from a world of glamour and glitz while the first comes from listening to the heart and soul.



Perhaps she should journey to the Hopi Indian reservation in Arizona with no media, no photo ops and no status symbols and see how the most sacred and oldest of cultures has survived with nothing but a bond to Father Creator and Mother Earth and a desire to bring all people together. Honoring God and all God's creations is the highest service possible to the Hopi, the Children of God and People of the Sun. Then Taylor will see what being grounded is all about.

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