Saturday, June 20, 2009

Please Mr. Obama, Apologize For Me. signed "America" (signature forged by Tom Hayden)

Remember that anti-war activist from the sixties, Tom Hayden? You history buffs may recall the Port Huron Statement, (probably Hayden's most famous work). Well here he is again making the recommendation to Obama to apologize for America.: "The Obama administration needs to apologize for the past, respect El Salvador's right to self-determination and forgo the repetition of past patterns of low-visibility, high-casualty warfare that began in Central America and continues today across Colombia, Mexico, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan." (You can read the rest of the story and Hayden's attempt to re-write history here: El Salvador Rising [I was going to say, "...the rest of the story and Hayden's lies" but he may really believe himself.]) - Norman E. Hooben

Friday, June 19, 2009

Is Fox News Complacent in this matter? All of the above...or more!

"...your assertion suggests that you have seen his original birth certificate."

The Birth Certificate Question:
An Open Letter To Shephard Smith At Fox News

Dear "Shep,"
I am a regular viewer of your program, specifically the evening news, since I work. I appreciate your show and the news you deliver. As one who watches Fox because of its Fair and Balanced coverage, It is most unsettling that you would refer to those who challenge Obama's eligibility as "right wing crazies." Your definitive statement, "there is no truth whatsoever that Obama is not a natural born citizen" is problematic.
As one not given to "conspiracy theories," the larger issue surrounding Obama's eligibility strikes at the heart of the Constitutional underpinning of virtually all oaths of office at the Federal level, including Obama's. Your comments trivialize that exceptionally important issue for all Americans and for me personally and millions of past, present and future military service personnel or for that matter anyone who takes an oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
First, your assertion suggests that you have seen his original birth certificate. Okay, since you are in effect a "star witness" in a case of monumental proportions with millions Fox News viewer's being the jury, have you? If not, you might consider doing some no kidding investigative journalism and apologize to your viewers for the unfounded blather.
Second, there is considerable anecdotal evidence that Obama is not a natural born citizen. His eligibility is complicated further by his sojourn in Indonesia, or did you know that? It is my understanding that his step-father adopted him, is that true, or not? If so, the question then would be, "did that act confer Indonesian citizenship?" If so, where are the documents that "restored" his U.S. citizenship, if indeed he was natural born?
It is complicated even more by the fact that at the time of his birth his father, "The Old Man," was a British citizen, which alone would not be a show stopper, but given his paternal (Obama's father) grandmother's claim that she was present at Obama's birth in Kenya raises a legitimate question about citizenship, not to mention the "natural born issue." Is he a British citizen born of an underage American girl in Kenya? Would he then be a British citizen or an American citizen? Or, is he a dual citizen, and can a person with dual citizenship be President of the United States of America?
I would appreciate a definitive explanation of your rationale and sources, i.e., where did you get your information and an explanation so that would I can put this to rest. Because I would like to do exactly that, but it bugs the hell out of me that he is so clinched fisted about it, and so far you are an accomplice. I would expect that of MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, but it disappoints me greatly that Fox News would stoop, no grovel for Administration approval at the expense of the right of the American public to know.
On the other hand, if you do not have any definitive data and please don't brush anyone off with the "old saw" that "Hawaii issued a certificate," especially since it is well known that Hawaii issues or issued certificates for people born elsewhere, please make it your business to find out.
Given Mr. Obama's commitment to be totally transparent with the American people, please explain in detail why he has gone to such lengths to deny discovery of any of his records. Or, is that an untrue allegation? If he has nothing to hide, what's the problem? Either way, you have a responsibility to the public to find out not summarily sweep the matter aside especially with unbecoming derisive comments.
One must conclude that you have a set of journalist integrity problems:
1. Either you have your mind made up without regard to the issues, or
2. You have been told what to say by someone with power over you.
3. You don't know what you are talking about,
4. Someone is buying you off,
5. You are biased and don't care about truth much less letting the truth to be known,
5. You are too lazy to discover the facts, or
6. All of the above, and more.
Finally, we either have a Constitution or it is an anachronistic piece of paper. In addition to the "natural born" requirement, which is arguably suspect in Obama's case, it appears that there is a legitimate argument that the courts are shirking their responsibility by refusing to adjudicate the matter. So, absent the legal process, how does one clear the air? It would not matter that 100% voted for Obama, if he is not qualified, he cannot be President under the provisions of the Constitution. To repeat what I've already noted, we either have a Constitution or we do not.
Sorry, but your backhanded and insulting treatment of those who have a right, not merely a desire, but a right to know, and that includes every American citizen, diminishes both you and Fox News.
Please reconsider your comments at the least, or better, do some serious growing up with respect to those whose sacrifices have given you the right and opportunity to be who you are and dig into it. You have an historic opportunity and you are blowing it.
Semper Fidelis
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Col. Bob Pappas (USMC, ret.) writes for Gulf1.com from his home in Florida’s Panhandle. E-mail him at pappas@gulf1.com.


You can find this online at: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3533/pub_detail.asp

COPYRIGHT 2009 FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS INC.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

WAR ON GOD

Posted with the permission of the American Family Association, this video highlights a growing trend of political correct and historically inaccurate monuments and displays depicting our nations rich heritage.

It shows how the Capitol Visitor Center is the latest in a series of attempts to wash away America’s rich history of faith in God.

Note: The war on God has been going on for quite some time and is predominately sponsored by the Rockerfeller Foundation, The United Nations, and The Democratic Party. As noted in the video, the absence of the word God, at FDR's memorial is overwhelmingly the result of the Godless politicians who have infiltrated our governmental bodies...in this particular case it was former President Bill Clinton and his cronies that approved of the wording. Both Clinton and Obama are from the same school of thought and will sweet talk and ever more naive American citizenry with Alinsky-like rhetoric and do just the opposite of what they have promised. With an ultimate goal of some ill-percieved New World Order, the steps necessary to achieve that goal have been walked through with each succeeding administration...and the removal of God is just one step. And they won't stop until they succeed or are defeated...you have very little time to defeat these traitors from within non-violently for if they are successful at the polls in 2010 you can kiss your country goodbye. Do I see an American Revolution Part II on the horizon? You make the call!

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"Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American public school is a school of humanism. What can the theistic Sunday schools, meeting for an hour once a week, teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?" - from the Humanist Manifesto

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I Have A Dream - ...surround them, our backs to them all

Cross post from DTRT (Do The Right Thing)

When the political winds turn ugly, I will stand with the United States Constitution...and with my friend who has a dream. - Norman E. Hooben
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The Democrats fought the Civil Rights Movement. The Democrats created the KKK. The Democrats fought the end of slavery in the 1800s. The Democrats thrive on keeping racism and all the other ugly "isms" alive and well to feed on the down-trodden and keep them dependent of the government dole-outs of meager subsistence and subservience. It is a matter of public record. Ask Senator Byrd. He knows full well, him being a former Grand Kleagle and all.

However, my dream is much deeper than Martin Luther King Jr's dream was in my opinion. I am not taking away from his dream at all because it was a noble dream and a heartfelt dream and a matter-of-fact dream which had to come about for this nation's survival and reputation. Unfortunately, the Leftinistra in our land that dwell amongst us all stole his dream, made it their own and raped it. I laugh in scornful disdain every time I hear a member of the Leftinistra use his name in vain to further their political agendas of oppression, fear and hate.

On Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 4:35PM, I published an article under this same title, I Have A Dream. It was met with the usual fanfare of derision and scorn from the anti-Americanists we now recognize as the Leftinistra, the armies of the socialist liberals in this nation. Pat Dollard calls them AINOs...Americans In Name Only. He is correct and seeing that the Communist Party of the United States now soundly stands behind the racist and bigoted Puerto Rican from NY to be the next racist Justice on the SCOTUS, they firmly confirmed Pat Dollard's assertion.

If you so desire, feel free to click on the article I wrote over a year ago. If you read it, you will find that something strange is happening in America. Americans are awakening from their slumber - a self-induced trance evidently coming from their willful suspensions of their disbelief of what has taken place in this nation under their very noses. I read it again this evening and early morning hours amazed at the uncanny predictions. I was going to repost that article here but it would merely detract from this article...my New Dream. I don't know if it truly is a dream per se. It could very well be a wishful thought. At any rate, as I witnessed what transpired in Iran over the weekend and after witnessing the total absence of reason of the responses given by Biden and two days later Obama, I recalled this dream that I have discussed many times in private conversations and in conversations on the Blog Talk Radio circuits.

I was going to put the dream to paper and publish it when I received an email message from Pat Dollard with a link to a story from Iran: "Iran’s Day Of Destiny: A Million Brave Iranians Defy Death And Bring Shame To Cowardly Anti-Obama Americans". The title alone speaks volumes. The time for talk is done. The time for negotiating with the enemies amongst us has past us by. It is in fact time for action. Hopefully, that action will be peaceful...it will be from our side of the fence but most assuredly, it won't be peaceful from the Leftinistra. The public record of that is plainly and painfully obvious.

Nearly ONE MILLION proud Iranians stood up and were counted. The Second Iranian Revolution just might come to pass. Then again, it might not. However, they arose to the occasion and spoke out against the tyrannical dictators that are soon to plunge their Nation into war with other Nations or war within its own borders. Is that our destiny? If we do not stop the Marxist political coup in this nation, the answer will be in fact a woeful HELL YES!

So, how do we stop this? As Pat replied to a comment made on the linked article:

Comment 1:

Just remember Us Shameful Cowardly Anti-Obama Americans, still have our guns and ammunition. Our ForeFathers, knew a time will come; that time has not arrived Yet.

Pat Dollard replies:

I don’t know. The time for shooting hasn’t come, but the time for a national strike demanding investigations into voter fraud, racketeering in the auto industry, racketeering in the banking industry, a freeze on Obama’s National Health Care plan, an investigation into obstruction of justice and racketeering in the firing of the IG, obstruction of justice in the Black Panthers voter intimidation cases, Obama’s connections to ACORN and why they are being brought in to handle the census, and much more, certainly has come. May as well throw in a demand for resignation. The time for a massive national strike and the choking of the streets of DC and many state capitals most definitely has come.

So, without further ado...

I Have A Dream

I have a vision, a dream, perhaps a portent…not exactly sure what to call it. However, just imagine people showing up in DC or State and local capitals, no flags, no colorful banners, no signs, "normal" attire, no chanting, no loud horns, no sirens, no cat calls…nothing but silence.

Standing silently, shoulder to shoulder with our backs to the Halls of Congress as we surround them with our numbers. Standing silently, shoulder to shoulder with our backs to the now renamed Marxist House as we surround them with our numbers. Standing silently, no idle chit-chat…no chatter at all. Just standing there surrounding the buildings...our backs to them all.

The same can be done across this Nation's State government hide outs of the criminals that defy the United States Constitution and all that we were founded upon - freedom, liberty, life and free choice to be the individuals we are and live our lives within the confines of constitutionally derived Law and Order and not some declared and contrived emergency as our history reveals time and time again as shredding our very existence.

When asked questions, we do not answer - no eye contact, staring out beyond whomever stands before us and piercing through them as if they did not exist.

Standing in silence, ne'er a whisper, rain, shine, sleet, snow, hurricane, tornado.

Standing in silence for an hour or so, thirty minutes, ten - whatever we can bear - and then simply walking away, vanishing into the city.

And then returning to repeat the process at unpredictable times and intervals.

These are not scheduled "rallies" so no permits will be needed.

Spontaneous, silent defiance

He now seeks to subvert the Constitution...He now seeks to create a state of crisis... "we are hereby responding to the call..."

Click on picture to enlarge.
Let The Debate Begin: The ACTIVE Bible Is Here
UPDATED WITH ENTIRE PREAMBLE
June 13th, 2009 Posted By Pat Dollard.

bdsdtit2

After more careful consideration, past my state of exhaustion at having completed such a mammoth document, (a document that lays out everything ACTIVE is and how it will function, and therefor, the single document that ACTIVE can no longer continue to progress without), I have decided to lay out some of its more controversial selctions for feedback and consideration before burdening the entire organizaion with its contents.

Simpler matters of organization, command chain, etc. will not be published here. Throughout the rest of the night and morning I will publish the selections which are more likely to cause both the most inspiration and consternation.

Many of you will not be surprised to learn that those were some of the first things I wrote, and inserted them into the preamble. Here it is:

Preamble:

The American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front, aka ACTIVE, while the essence of simplicity in its organization and operational routines, is the single most ambitious grass-roots political movement in the history of this country. Although it is designed to stand every test of time in its ability to withstand any and all political threats against the United States of America (a country defined by its constitution) in the immediate sense it is designed to destroy the political forces of Dictatorial Marxism (euphemistically called Socialism, Liberalism, and Progressivism ) that have seized control of the Executive Branch and other offices and agencies of the Federal Government. To be clear, the Constitution of the United States of America is the United States of America. They are one and the same. Any individual or agency which seeks to subvert the Constitution and wage political and/or rhetorical war on it, are self-declared enemies of the United States of America, as they are subverting and waging war on the United States of America.

To wit, the American political arena is no longer defined by two American political parties engaged in honest debate over how best to protect and implement the Constitution as the law of the land, but is now defined by Marxist Revolutionary Forces who have seized control of the Democrat Party as their primary weapon of destruction of the Constitution, and who, as a result, are locked in political battle against forces that truly seek to maintain Constitutional rule of law. These pro-Constitutional forces are comprised almost exclusively of non-aligned Conservatives, Conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans and Conservative Democrats.

At this juncture, it is imperative to note that each and every defender of the Constitution is obligated to recognize, in an unadulterated, non-foot-noted, caveat-free, fashion, the single most important, ugly, and threatening truth of the American socio-political landscape: America is now a land populated by two warring tribes, only one of which is actually comprised of Americans. The second is comprised of anti-American revolutionaries (and their brainwashed dupes), who hide their status as insurgents by laying claim to the title of American by virtue of nothing more than their citizenship. However, given that these individuals function (under craven cloak of denial) as anti-Constitutionalists, they are Americans in name only, and in fact have inarguably so-defined themselves as anti-Americans. They are a people bound together by a Marxist ideology and Marxist revolutionary activities. They seek to terminate the existence of the United States and replace it with an as-yet unnamed Marxist nation, ruled by a Marxist dictator. The concepts of an Anti-American individual, an anti-American organization, and anti-American activity are not loose rhetorical notions. They are empirically defined entities and activities. They are anti-constitutionalist individuals, anti-constitutionalist organizations, and anti-constitutional activities.

As any comprehensive study of American history makes plain, the country has been under assault by Marxist forces, operating under a variety of guises and names, for over 100 years. These forces have used this time to devise sophisticated battle plans, each designed to meet the needs and achieve the objectives of a new type of war, a war without guns, a war of the mind.

They sought to obtain control of all of the nation’s information centers, from its schools, to its arts and entertainment industries, to its news media. Once these information centers were firmly under their control, they would be free to indoctrinate the population to Marxism, from cradle to grave, unfettered and unchallenged. They would also be free to annihilate all political opposition (primarily through character assassination) equally unfettered and unchallenged. They would be free to control all terms of political debate, because they would control all terms of acceptable, ie politically correct, language. And so they now are so, the day they fought for has come. We, the opposition, sit frozen in fear of speaking our minds, terrified of being crucified on an ice-cold cross of electronic media.

And finally, they sought to achieve a bloodless Presidential coup by sending a decades-long indoctrinated population to the polls to vote for a Marxist candidate disguised as an American Constitutionalist, a member of the Liberal wing of the Democrat Party. And, to ensure the success of this coup, they layered on the protective actions of voter fraud and economic manipulation.

In short, America is no longer engaged in a political debate between Americans, but a political war between Americans and America’s resident enemies, with the stakes nothing less than the survival of the country itself.

The titular leader of the anti-American insurgency, at present, is a self-described “former” Muslim; the most famous member of America’s most powerful Left-Wing Extremist political organization, ACORN; a politician whose claims of “Democrat” political orientation are given the lie by his actual policy decisions which are all undefinable as anything other than Marxist; and whose primary life associations are all with the most notorious of America’s radical Left-Wing Extremists. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.

He now seeks to subvert the Constitution at every turn, snatch up as much of American industry as he can in order to maximize the amount of revenue streams made available to his regime, and to obtain sufficient political and legal leverage to beat each and every American businessman into total submission, handing control of their businesses, and therefor their revenue streams, to the Federal government.

He now seeks to create a state of crisis by first terrifying the population with the specter of a great internal enemy, the Right-Wing Extremist, followed by catalyzing some sort of confrontation with this imaginary demon. (The darkest of ironies, as the only legitimate domestic threat to the rule of law and the safety and security of the United States of America, resides within America’s Left-Wing Extremist complex, headed by one Barack Hussein Obama). He has already sought to demonize the previous administration and all of its adherents as Right-Wing extremists. He is now setting the stage for a confrontation of his own creation and catalyst, between his regime and the opposition, by labeling any act of resistance as an anti-American act of Right-Wing Extremism. (Notice the timing of the release of the DHS memo on alleged Right-Wing Extremism: two days before the first Tea Parties. Notice how he personally attacked all Tea Party attendees in a speech a week later). He is most likely to go to any ends to create and/or catalyze some sort of violent activity that can be branded as an act of violent Right-Wing Extremism, in order to afford himself the opportunity to declare emergency, unconstitutional, extra-Presidential powers; at the very least, he is likely to do so in order to marginalize the opposition nearly out of existence.

As such, under the broad mandate of the American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front’s mission statement, we hereby resolve to remove, by non-violent political means, Barack Hussein Obama from the office of the Presidency, to prevent him for ever holding any political office again, and to hold him and his regime fully accountable under the law for all their transgressions of the law, ranging from electoral fraud to criminal racketeering in American industry, including but not limited to racketeering in the auto, banking and housing industries. They will also be held accountable for all racketeering and fraud in the upcoming census and in their attempts to establish an Obama Regime monopoly over the American health care industry.

We also hereby resolve to free the media from State control, and to liberate all of America’s information centers from Marxist control.

We also hereby resolve to re-establish free speech, the unfettered right to keep and bear arms, and to abolish Marxism as a legal political force in the country, as its very definition requires the illegal overthrow of the Constitution, the abolition of Constitutionally-protected indvidual liberty, and the notions of both democaracy and an American Constitutuional Republic.

War has been declared, but we have not declared it. We will, however, answer the declaration, not merelyin kind, but with overwhelming oppositional force.

What follows is nothing short of the people’s counter-insurgency manual, a detailed and exhaustive organizational and operational guideline to take America back from the tyrants who have seized it, and return it into the hands of the people who own it. For now, and forever.

Editor’s Note:

The so-named ACTIVE Bible is the detailed organizational and operational manual that follows the ACTIVE mission statement:

ACTIVE Mission Statement

Active, The American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front, is a permanent and enduring organization of American citizens dedicated to maintaining the foundational principles of the United States of America, as initiated by its Declaration of Independence and realized by its Constitution and economic system of free-market capitalism.

These founding documents and this economic system define the United States, and as such, there is no United States without them.

The changing tides of time allow for the development of threats capable of abolishing both, either through overt attack or the processes of slow erosion and unconstitutional change. The principles of free-market capitalism are eternal, and the only legitimate process to change the United States Constitution is that which is prescribed within it.

As such, it is a moral imperative for each and every loyal American to dedicate a sufficient amount of their blood, sweat, and tears to the preservation and defense of both the Constitution and free-market capitalism.

United we stand, divided we fall. Upon this eternal truth we hereby declare that it is incumbent upon the people of this great land to come together in broad union to demand that the freedoms granted to us by God, protected by our Constitution, and given wings by our self-chosen labors, are left intact.

We are the people by which the government is of and for. We are the grantors of the power that the government wields. We are the people who can recall that power from the government at any time of our choosing. We are the citizens of the United States of America. We are the defenders of the greatest nation in the history of man, and we are hereby responding to the call to become ACTIVE.

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Monday, June 15, 2009

Shanghaied in Shanghai - It can happen to you...

It can happen to you if the passenger three rows down from you has symptoms of swine flu !
Admittedly, the story that follows is a bit lengthy but I was struck by the ending (silver lining) to pass it on. This would never happen in America. Whoops, never say never...we have a new regime that may want to apply this tactic to the medical stimulus package! - Norman E. Hooben
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Journal of the plague year (Shanghai edition)

11 Jun 2009 11:45 pm

An extraordinary statement from someone now being quarantined in Shanghai is below and after the jump. First, a bit of context:

The World Health Organization has of course now declared H1N1 a "pandemic," while emphasizing that its effects so far are mild. You can look long and hard at the WHO's main site about the disease (nerds will note that the site's URL retains its original basename "swineflu" rather than the less porcophobic current term) without seeing any recommendations for widespread quarantine programs or closing of national borders etc.

To put the disease's toll in perspective: of the 30,000 cases reported so far all around the world, about 150 people appear to have died from this variant of flu. And in many "though not all" of these cases, according to the WHO, the victims had "underlying chronic conditions." For comparison: since the time I woke up this morning, about 150 people have died of tuberculosis in China alone.* Estimates vary, but "normal" seasonal flu typically kills around 1,000 people per day worldwide.

[*TB math: According to the UN, China's average annual death rate from tuberculosis is about 15 per 100,000 population. For a Chinese population of 1.3 billion, that would mean about 195,000 TB deaths per year, or about 535 per day.]

Of course any new disease strain raises new concerns about potential mutations. And of course a big, poor country like China has different public health considerations than, say, Switzerland might. But bear in mind the dimensions of this current disease threat relative to other real concerns while reading this account from earlier this week, by a person currently quarantined in Shanghai. The writer is originally Chinese but now with U.S. citizenship. It is quite long, but you will not regret reading to the very end. It begins:

When I landed in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon, a team of medical officials wearing white bio-hazard suites boarded the plane with heat wands and measured everyone's temperature. All passengers were required to remain in their seats while they went around to each individual to check them for physical symptoms of H1N1. These measures had become standard protocol in China due to fears of a H1N1 outbreak. We all passed the inspection and were let off of the plane. I thought I was free to enjoy my two weeks in China.

On Sunday, I took the subway into downtown Shanghai and spent most of the day visiting The Bund, Nanjing Lu and Yu Yuan (3 of the most crowded tourist attractions in Shanghai). At four pm, I received a call on my cell phone from the health department informing me that someone sitting three rows behind me on the plane had developed symptoms of H1N1 and that I was to be quarantined. I was told to go home immediately and a medical team arrived at the house to ask me questions.

After asking me to wear a surgical mask and gloves and disinfecting our house with some kind of spray, these men, dressed in masks and white suites like Martians, took me downstairs where another handful of men were waiting with an ambulance. Sirens blaring, I was driven through traffic to an isolated hotel on the outskirts of the City.

I am now sitting by myself in a room, in a building full of other "suspected" H1N1 patient. I can use the internet, the phone and watch TV but there is a lock on the front door and I'm not allowed to leave my room or talk to the other "guests". Three women dressed in full gear deliver food to me three times a day (7:30, noon and 5:30 pm) and I get my temperature taken too. They confiscated my passport but there are plenty of posters and pamphlets everywhere describing precautions and horror that is H1N1.

The funniest part about all of this? I don't have H1N1. Although the people here refuse to answer most of my questions, I was given an English document from the government describing proper procedure for the quarantine. I quote, from the section "When will you be free to leave"

"The time to lift the medical observation depends on the diagnosis of the passenger with fever symptoms. If the diagnosis rules out the possibility of A H1N1 infection, you will be free to leave immediately...However, if the test report shows anything suspicious or needs another diagnosis, your time of staying here will have to be extended according to official notice..."

That is what the official government notice says. "I will be free to leave immediately," yet when I asked the workers here about that statement, they claimed that I was misinterpreting the text. Clearly, my English skills have regressed rapidly. When I asked for a blood test, the official way to confirm whether or not I carry the virus, I was denied, "We only test people who look sick. You don't look sick. If you develop a fever, we will test you."

So I am still here in my hotel room, healthy but treated as if I have the plague. Counting down the days. One down, six more to go.

The standard procedure, quarantine for all passengers sitting three rows in front or three rows behind someone with H1N1, seemed amusing when I first heard about it a few weeks ago. I defended it as an understandable reaction for a nation which had screwed up badly during the SARS epidemic. Now, frustrated, bored, and utterly disappointed at the demise of a trip that I had look forward to since December, the reality is no longer amusing.

Those who know me know that I rarely lose my temper, but I lost it yesterday and many times since. I am angry because I see all of this as unfair. This hotel room feels like a prison and I'm being incarcerated for a "crime" that I did not commit with no way to prove my "innocence".

"Crime" is in quotation marks because, as those of us who lived through [a recent university commencement ceremony] can attest to, H1N1 is for all practical if not publicity purposes, no different from any other strain of flu. Yes people get sick from it and there is always the risk of mutation but is a 7 day isolation period the appropriate way to treat individuals who may or may not have the virus based on some artificial boundary of three rows? And if H1N1 was in fact deadly, how could have they even have allowed the suspected carrier to get off of the plane and travel through all kinds of crowded places before placing them in quarantine in the first place?

I thought I was free to enjoy my time in Shanghai until I was tracked down at a coffee shop on Nanjing Street. Not only did they track me down, which was pretty competent in an Orwellian sort of way, they also informed many of my parents' colleagues and neighbors of our "illness".

A picture of my mom and her basic information was featured on the news without her knowledge of consent. In this country, you are guilty until proven innocent and don't expect any privacy in the mean time. Ever since SARS, flu outbreaks have carried a heavy social stigma. I don't know what the implications will be for my parents whose entire circle of acquaintances and semi-acquaintances have somehow gotten news of this. But from the withering glances (plus a lot of pointing and mothers shielding their children) that my neighbors gave me when I was being taken away in an ambulance yesterday, I can probably guess.

Out of frustration, I complained that I was being treated unfairly. I spoke my mind and said that I felt as if my rights were being violated by the Communist government. When I said this, I sent my jailers into a frenzy, "Don't criticize China! Do not criticize China!" Those of you who know me know that in the past, I've always tended to defend the Chinese government. Yes some of their measures were draconian but they were also efficient and effective, I said. And at the time, I truly believed that it was a fair tradeoff. Fewer rights for faster outcomes.

I take all of that back. I rarely get angry but I am so angry now. I've never felt so keenly the disadvantages of living under a government that does not recognize the concept of personal rights. Some of that anger is personal, no one wants to spend most of their vacation alone and enclosed. But the deeper anger is directed at my sense of helplessness. I cannot do anything to extract myself from a nightmare that is out of my control and blown way out of proportion. I have no way of defending myself and have not come up with any logical justifications to soothe my anger. I am being treated courteously by the staff here but it still feels like being in prison.

Since I have infinite time on my hands, I've been watching a lot of Chinese television. The official state media is filled with reports of the dangers of H1N1. Yesterday, an entire talk show was devoted to interviewing a healthy Chinese woman studying abroad who is refusing to visit her family in China this summer because she did not want to risk infecting them with the disease. Reporters and officials in her hometown praised her sense of "civic responsibility" and "patriotism". The piece concluded with words to the effect of, China welcomes and embraces all of her children from around the world.

While this type of blatant propaganda would have amused me even a week back, watching it yesterday made me sick. I've been asked multiple times to provide the names of anyone I came in contact with during my 24 hours of freedom (friends, taxi drivers, cashiers, and waitresses...). I've refused so good luck finding them and the thousands of other people "exposed" to my presence in the city. Call me a horrible person but I refuse to help the "glorious cause".

Although the context is different, the political puppet show that is the H1N1 witch hunt has given me glimpses of the emotions and irrationalities which allowed the CR to happen only 40 years ago. If I had any illusions about what the government of this country will or will not do, I've been disabused of those notions. I feel sorry for the Chinese people who from watching the Chinese news, live in fear of being swamped by a deadly outbreak of H1N1 or other new forms of flu sure to arise in the future. I can no longer defend the actions of this government or look forward to living in a country where the precautionary response to H1N1 is the benign tip of the iceberg. There are many other things I want to say but I should probably censor myself from writing them in this email...

Although the official flight details are not being released to the press, [Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans] was on the same flight as me (though I had no idea that the mayor of NO would fly economy as the three row zone of quarantine would seem to suggest).

I have six day left here and I'll be spending them in "quiet" reflection. I will probably make peace with this at some point though it will take a while. Maybe I will look back one day and feel instead of anger and frustration, the humor in being caught in a situation so illogical that it must not be real. Maybe everything was too good in my life and karma was bound to catch up with me at some point. On the bright side, this is the closest I will hopefully ever get to prison though I did commit to spending the next two years in this country. If there is a silver lining, it is that I realize now that I am much more American than Chinese in my temperament and beliefs. I didn't feel any sort of emotion when I became an US citizen three years ago. In fact, I saw it as a practical decision. But now, I appreciate that privilege so much more.

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The NWO (New World Order) Crowd Pushing For NRO (No Religious Order)

The man with no conscience, Bill Clinton, and the character with no heart or soul, Barack Husein Obama, will impose their satanic will on the American people until there are no American people! ...But some of us are fighting back, thank you Congressman Forbes! (see video below)

We The People....
We the people have a new world order that we the people did not order! - Norman E. Hooben
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An editorial by Congressman Forbes was featured in the U.S. News & World Report on May 7, 2009. An excerpt from the editorial follows:

On April 6, 2009, President Obama, speaking halfway across the world in Turkey, effectively made a shocking proclamation: that the United States did not consider itself a Judeo-Christian nation.

"Although, as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation," he said. I do not challenge his right to make that statement, nor do I doubt that he believes it to be true. But there were two critical questions that he failed to ask and answer. First, did America ever consider itself a Judeo-Christian nation? Secondly, if it did, what was the moment or event in which it ceased to do so?
Our nation's history provides overwhelming evidence that America was birthed upon Judeo-Christian principles. The first act of America's first Congress in 1774 was to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress in the reading of four chapters of the Bible. In 1776, in approving the Declaration of Independence, our founders acknowledged that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." and noted that they were relying "on the protection of Divine Providence" in the founding of this country. John Quincy Adams said, "The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity." Also, the signers of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, insisted the treaty begin with the phrase, "In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity."

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Bill Clinton:
U.S. no longer dominated by Christians and Jews
Christine Simmons - Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton has told an Arab-American audience of 1,000 people that the U.S. is no longer just a black-white country, nor a country that is dominated by Christians and a powerful Jewish minority

In a speech to the group on Saturday, Clinton said that given the growing numbers of Muslims, Hindus and other religious groups here, Americans should be mindful of the nation's changing demographics, which led to the election of Barack Obama as president.

Clinton said by 2050 the U.S. will no longer have a majority of people with European heritage and that in an interdependent world "this is a very positive thing."

Speaking in a hotel ballroom to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee during its annual convention, Clinton also praised Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt, that was focused on the Arab world.

Clinton told the audience that it's important that they push government leaders for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He cited an experience in 1993 when he failed to persuade many Jewish-American and Arab-American business people to invest in the Palestinian areas because violence and bombings had deterred them.

"It just took one more bus bomb or one more rocket or one more incident and then people got scared of losing their money," he said.

As the U.S. continues to push for peace in the area, "I think it's really important to give the Palestinian people something to look forward to," Clinton said to loud applause.

Clinton, who wasn't paid for his speech, spoke in a wide-ranging 35-minute address that focused on people's identity in an interdependent world. He said the U.S. can't rely on its military might in global relations. "It has to begin by people accepting the fact that they can be proud of who they are without despising who someone else is," he said.

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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Obama is hoping you won’t notice ... more corruption and much more meddling!

Click on picture to enlarge.
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Obama’s Americorps scandal — and the First Lady’s meddling

By Michelle Malkin • June 12, 2009 09:43 AM

President Obama is hoping you won’t notice his abrupt change of inspectors general over at Americorps, the government-run, taxpayer-subsidized “community service” boondoggle (which Republicans helped expand as part of the $6 billion GIVE/SERVE Act in March despite its wasteful track record. Thanks, Republicans).

With intervention from Michelle Obama, the Americorps inspector general was given the boot and replaced — for doing his job too well, it seems, and uncovering squandering of funds by favored contributors, educational institutions, and left-wing groups.

This Associated Press article only scratches the surface:

President Barack Obama plans to fire the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs amid a controversy between the IG and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

The IG, Gerald Walpin, was criticized by the U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled an investigation of Johnson and his nonprofit group, St. HOPE Academy, which received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National Community Service. The corporation runs the AmeriCorps program.

On Thursday, Obama said in a letter to Congress that he had lost confidence in Walpin. Neither the president nor deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest would give details. The president must give Congress 30 days’ notice before removing Walpin, who is being suspended with pay for the 30 days. Earnest said, “The president will appoint a replacement in whom he has full confidence as the corporation carries out its important mission.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in a letter to Obama, pointed to a law requiring that Congress be given the reasons an IG is fired. He cited a Senate report saying the requirement is designed to ensure that inspectors general are not removed for political reasons. Grassley said Walpin had identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent and “it appears he has been doing a good job.”

In fact, there’s much more.

This little-noticed story in Youth Today yesterday points to another example of Walpin blowing the whistle on fraud:

The inspector general (IG) of the Corporation for National and Community Service is being removed by President Barack Obama, a week after the IG questioned the eligibility of the largest and most expensive AmeriCorps program, and while the IG was contesting the “propriety” of a settlement made with a mayor for alleged misuse of AmeriCorps funds.

Funding for the largest AmeriCorps program - the Teaching Fellows Program, run by the Research Foundation of the City University of New York - is in abeyance pending resolution of widespread problems identified in a recent audit. Although Walpin recommended that funding be curtailed and that previous funds (perhaps as much as $75 million) be repaid to the corporation, the corporation has said it will take no action on that matter.

Walpin concluded that nothing was being gained by the grants to CUNY and that the money was simply being used to subsidize an existing and funded program.

I highly recommend that you head over to the Americorps’ inspector general’s report site here. You can find the entire CUNY report here. Let me repeat what the IG found: Waste, duplication, ineffective spending, criminal background check lapses, and repeated violations of the grant rules. And they’re not doing anything about it. Just a snippet from the executive summary:

The Office of Inspector General (OIG), Corporation for National and Community Service (Corporation), contracted with Cotton & Company LLP to perform agreed-upon procedures to assist the OIG in grant cost and compliance testing of Corporation-funded Federal assistance provided to The Research Foundation of the City University of New York (RFCUNY). The Corporation awarded two Education Award Program grants to RFCUNY that were categorized as Professional Model grants.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

As a result of applying our procedures, we questioned education awards of $16,152,414 and draw downs of $773,254. In general, we questioned the education awards for members whose eligibility was not established in accordance with grant requirements for criminal background checks. Draw downs were questioned mostly for fixed fees related to members whose eligibility we questioned and also for drawing down in excess of fees earned. In addition, our compliance findings when taken as a whole indicate pervasive problems of eligibility, timekeeping, and documentation. A questioned cost is an alleged violation of a provision of law, regulation, contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or other agreement or document governing the expenditure of funds or a finding that, at the time of testing,
includes costs not supported by adequate documentation.

…Participants who successfully complete terms of service under AmeriCorps grants are eligible for education awards and, in some cases, accrued interest awards funded by the Corporation’s National Service Trust. These award amounts are not funded by Corporation grants and thus are not included in claimed grant costs. But at the time that a grant is awarded, and due to the grant award, these amounts become immediate obligations of the National Service Trust. Therefore, as part of our agreed-upon procedures, and using the same criteria used for the grantee’s claimed costs, we determined the effect of our findings on AmeriCorps members’ entitlement to education and accrued interest awards.

The following is a summary of grant compliance testing results…

1. RFCUNY drew down more funds than it was due.

2. RFCUNY did not follow certain AmeriCorps Provisions.

3. The supervisory signature on members’ timesheets was not the members’ supervisor, or that of someone with direct knowledge of hours served by the members.

4. Members did not always record actual service hours on their timesheets.

5. Some members’ timesheet hours were not accurately recorded in the Corporation’s Web-Based Reporting System.

6. RFCUNY did not require its members to timely submit their member contracts, forms, and timesheets.

7. RFCUNY used preprinted member documentation and did not ensure that all member documentation was completed, signed, and dated.

8. RFCUNY did not maintain documentation to demonstrate that each member’s evaluation complied with AmeriCorps Regulations and the Member Agreement.

9. RFCUNY did not maintain documentation to demonstrate that members received criminal background checks and that any background checks conducted complied with AmeriCorps Provisions.

10. RFCUNY entered incorrect member start dates in Corporation systems and in member contracts.

11. Some members worked beyond their contract-end date.

Another recent IG report on Americorps waste by open-borders lobbying group, La Raza (”The Race”) spotlighted its failure to complete background checks and institute secure financial controls. And on and on and on.

And guess who’s meddling in these affairs? Yep, First Lady Michelle Obama:

Some decisions about CNCS are being made by First Lady Michelle Obama, according to service advocates (who asked not to be named). Last week, Mrs. Obama announced that her chief of staff, Jackie Norris, would move to CNCS as a senior adviser. Officials said yesterday that Norris is scheduled to arrive on June 22.

Who’s looking out for you now? Cronies, that’s who.

More on the First Lady’s role in installing Norris and intervening to help pick the next Americorps CEO:

First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, Jackie Norris, is being sent to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) in what is both a White House shake-up and an indication of the first lady’s sway over the corporation that oversees AmeriCorps, Serve and Learn and the Senior Corps.

Observers believe Norris, whom Obama came to know early in the Iowa caucus campaign, was forced out of the White House so that long-time Obama friend Susan Sher could take over. But those same observers see her appointment as senior adviser to the corporation as an overall win for CNCS, believing that Norris still will have a straight line to the White House.

CNCS remains without a CEO after the withdrawal last month of Nike vice president Maria Eitel, even before her nomination went to the Senate. Although the corporation’s CEO must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, Michelle Obama reportedly has taken the lead in selecting the nominee.

This stinks. Shades of Travelgate, anyone?

The more things Change…

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Ed Morrissey: “Will Congress stand up to the executive branch and protect the Inspectors General? Or will they roll over and allow Obama to accrue even more power to protect his buddies and to allow corruption to run rampant?”

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Flashback on the Americorps/ACORN fraud history, circa 2004:

Although ACORN’s projects run a wide gamut, the group claims as its purpose helping low- and middle-income Americans — through initiatives ranging from improving urban public schools, to providing counseling on how to avoid “predatory lending,” to increasing the availability of “affordable housing.” Most of these programs are conducted locally, by state-level ACORN organizations — which are often set up as 501(c)3 nonprofit entities distinct from the national ACORN umbrella, a 501(c)4 lobbying organization. Sounds benign enough — except that, according to Bob Huberty, executive vice president of the Capital Research Center, these tax-exempt 501(c)3s “have no reason for existence other than to get grants from the government and foundations.” They are, essentially, an ACORN front for asking Uncle Sam to subsidize political activity.

Ask ACORN does — and it definitely receives. Take, for example, the most recent tax information from one of ACORN’s subsidiary nonprofits: the ACORN Housing Corporation, Inc., based out of the organization’s national headquarters in New Orleans. For the tax year beginning July 1, 2002, and ending June 30, 2003, ACORN Housing Corp.’s 990 Form shows a total of $1,710,203 received in government grants (the year before, the total was $1,977,306).

The nominal purpose of those millions is to “provide low rent housing & loan counseling services to low income individuals.” But if the government is funding the actual, legitimate work of ACORN at the local 501(c)3 level, it means that the national lobbying organization can dedicate more of its unrestricted resources to electioneering. Furthermore, explains Craig Garthwaite, director of research at the Employment Policies Institute, “The funding is not only fungible in that if they receive money for X, they can spend more on Y.” He cites one particular example of money-rerouting malfeasance: the crooked dealings surrounding an AmeriCorps grant in 1996. According to an EPI study, when the ACORN Housing Corp. applied for the grant, they denied any connections to the main ACORN lobbying group (the grant is not for political advocacy). But the AmeriCorps inspector general discovered that “not only was AHC created by ACORN, engaged in numerous transactions with one another, and sharing staff and office space — but it utilized the AmeriCorps grant to increase ACORN membership, a violation of federal guidelines.” (ACORN charges membership dues, much as labor unions do; thus, by exploiting AmeriCorps funding to inflate its membership rolls, ACORN used government resources to bring in even more money — money with no restrictions on its political use.)

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And another relevant flashback on Michelle Obama’s interest in government-directed “service,” via IBD last fall:

Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993. Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, “Universal Voluntary Public Service.”

Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they’ll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of “social change.”

The pitch Public Allies makes on its Web site doesn’t seem all that radical. It promises to place young adults (18-30) in paid one-year “community leadership” positions with nonprofit or government agencies. They’ll also be required to attend weekly training workshops and three retreats.

In exchange, they’ll get a monthly stipend of up to $1,800, plus paid health and child care. They also get a post-service education award of $4,725 that can be used to pay off past student loans or fund future education.

But its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about “social change” through threats, pressure, tension and confrontation — the tactics used by the father of community organizing, Saul “The Red” Alinsky…