When a holiday such as Thanksgiving arrives, my attention to the world wanes for those few days, because, I know life will go on just the same. 

No matter what the future holds, it will come. 

I also know there are Americans tirelessly working to keep the great nation of the United States and its people safe. 

I would not live in any other country and will continue to seek to strengthen my liberties and pray and work for the liberty of others, which can only be accomplished through the strength and perseverance of the individual over any and all intruding bureaucratic systems and governments.  

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless the United States of America.

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After eight long years and the Left’s constant cries of, “Surrender!” in the face of success, American troops are scheduled to leave Iraq:  

Iraq and the United States signed a long-awaited accord on Monday requiring Washington to withdraw its forces by the end of 2011, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Now, what does this mean? 

Point one, we can say, “The United States won,” because the democratically elected Iraqi government is an equal partner in this success, which is theirs as well as ours.

"Definitely, today is an historic day for Iraqi-American relations," Zebari told reporters after exchanging signed copies with Crocker. Both men smiled and enthusiastically shook hands as officials applauded.

After signing the pact yesterday, U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker said : 

"It reminds us all that, at a time when U.S. forces will continue to withdraw from Iraq in recognition of the superlative security gains over the last few years, our relationship will develop in many other important ways." 

So, point two, any failure in the Middle East now rests squarely on the shoulders of the Democrat Party.

Point three, we now have a large, sophisticated military machine, the most experience in the world, which is people by young men and women who are not saddled by the loss of the Vietnam War, because this military knows victory. 

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Taxes will go up.  Everyone will be affected.  This is the reality, which will strike everyone, no matter what their income is.  Rich or poor, no matter how these two classes of people will be defined.  Everyone is a consumer. 

First, oil and everything associated with oil, from gasoline to plastic bags will go up.  In New York City, a five cent tax is already being considered:

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed slapping shoppers with a 5-cent surcharge for each plastic bag they get at stores.

Are you ready people?  By the results of this past election, this is what you wanted. 

Oh, I mentioned plastic in the last paragraph, because, for you who don’t know, and don’t pay attention to those petroleum commercials, plastic is everywhere, from laptops to surgical equipment to milk containers to water bottles.

Those people, who complained about ‘the Rich,’ while in their blind, envious and self-righteous rage, well, they stepped right on the railroad tracks, and you have no idea of the massive size of the train rumbling out of the tunnel.

First, the government does not have money.   I will repeat for those in the back row, “The government does not have money!”  All it has is our money, or rather, as government sees it, money that we are allowed to keep.  

Second, let’s get this “Big Business needs to pay hire taxes” business out of the way.   I’m referring to an increased capital gains tax.   What people need to understand—must understand is Big Business—corporations—don’t pay taxes!

The best and simplest way for me to explain this is (For the back row, the numbers aren’t the issue here, so put the calculator away):  You buy a box of pencils today.  You pay a buck.  Government increases the capital gains tax on the pencil company, and next week you buy another box of pencils, but the price is now a buck-ten.

Why did the price go up?  Because the capital gains tax is now being paid by you.   With an increase in the Capital gains tax, the cost of the goods and services goes up, and there is no law, not now, not ever, that can change that. 

For those in the back row,   Big      Business       does     not     pay     taxes.

So in the very near future, we will be paying higher energy prices and the capital gains tax.   There’ll be a growing list of taxes.  Government is very creative when it comes to duping the people who want to get back at ‘the Rich.’ 

As for me, I’m hoping for a turnaround at the mid-term elections, that is, if I can afford the gas to get to the polls.

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When the bottom fell out of the petroleum market, 401ks and subprime mortgages were not on the list of things to worry about in Russia.   Financial instability is one thing but social unrest is another:

Medvedev tells police to crush crisis unrest

Publish Date: Friday,7  November, 2008, at 11:59 PM Doha Time

ST PETERSBURG, Russia: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered police yesterday to stamp out any social unrest or crime arising from the global financial crisis.

We have a stable state ... We do not need a return to the 1990s when everything was boiling and seething,” Medvedev told a meeting of senior officials.

“The law enforcement agencies should keep track of what is happening,” he said.
“And if someone tries to exploit the consequences of the financial crisis ... they should intervene, bring criminal charges. Otherwise, there won’t be order.”

The longest economic boom in a generation has helped the Kremlin maintain political stability but some analysts say the financial crisis could give rise to a wave of social unrest.

Russia’s benchmark RTS stock exchange has fallen about 70% since May, making it one of the worst performers among emerging economies.

High oil prices which fueled Russia’s economic boom have fallen from a peak of over $140 in July to just over $60 now.

Again, average Russian citizens don’t have private pensions but they can be laid off, and Russia faces the specter of growing unemployment.  “Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told Medvedev at the meeting, in Russia’s second city of St Petersburg, that higher unemployment could lead to a rise in crime.”  Beyond unemployment Russia faces other serious issues: 

[Russian Interior Minister Nurgaliyev] also said there was a risk of greater extremism and racial tension centred on the millions of immigrants working in Russia, most of them from former Soviet republics.

“The mounting consequences of the world financial crisis could well have an unpredictable effect,” he said. “Anti-crisis groups have been set up in the regions ... to intercept any early indications of destabilisation.”

Destabilization of what?  Russia is already enduring damaging economic problems due to the plunge in oil prices.  So, what will these ‘Anti-crisis groups’ be looking for?

Analysts say the financial crisis poses no political threat to the Kremlin for the time being because opposition parties are too weak and divided to mount a serious challenge.

Kremlin opponent and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov predicted this week the crisis would bring new recruits to the opposition. He has announced the creation of a new anti-Kremlin coalition, called Solidarity.

“The processes happening in the opposition ... will of course be connected to the 10 to 15% of people who will feel the crisis breathing down their neck,” Kasparov told a news conference.

Kasparov and his allies in the past have staged street protests that were dispersed by police but they have failed to gather widespread support or win any seats in parliament.

Apparently, the Russian Regime doesn’t see Kasparov and his political allies as a serious political problem.  But then, what are all those ‘anti-crisis groups’ are really looking for?

We should keep Russian concerns over these “indications of destabilization” in mind, for whatever they may mean. 

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This man committed a crime. 

Man charged with stealing communion wafers from Jensen Beach priest

By staff report

Monday, November 10, 2008

JENSEN BEACH — Parishioners at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church stopped a man from leaving Saturday morning Mass after he "attempted to steal a handful of communion wafers from the priest," according to an arrest report.

At one time stealing was stealing.  John Samuel Ricci stole and was detained and arrested, but many of those commenting on the news story belittled the situation and the object of the theft. 

Why?  Well, religious bigotry is the only answer.  What deeper analysis is needed? 

The only interesting point is that the suspect,  John Samuel Ricci believe he could get away with committing the crime. 

Why?  Did he think Catholics would do nothing?  Possibly he thought Catholics were pacifists?   And would actually do nothing.

According to the Roman Catholic Church’s own teaching on theft, Ricci was stealing:

2408 The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing . . .) is to put at one's disposal and use the property of others.[190]

Let me emphasizes this point that Ricci was usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner, when he "attempted to steal a handful of communion wafers from the priest," that’s stealing, and just being good citizens, the parishioners  were allowed to detain him.

The value of the hosts? 

Going down to the lowest level of secular thought, people have fought over parking spots. 

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Veteran’s Day is America’s remembrance of her noble dead and her persevering living.  The day commemorates their sacrifice and exemplifies the simple fact that life on Earth is not perfectible. 

War is not noble, but the comradeship of the women and men who have served and died, and those who continue to serve is noble.  The strong bond can only be understood by those who have served, and that bond is most firm and true among those who have fought together. 

War is made because no government is perfect and no people are perfect, and no election, no political ideology can ever change that. 

Those who believe in a perfect government and a perfect citizenry are the ones who need to contemplate the meaning of Veteran’s Day the most. 

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Europe was for Obama and was soon in a state of exultation.   But what now?   Well, the French should’ve seen this coming:

French Tech Exec Calls for "True Equality"

on 09 November 2008, 21:10
by Joel Dreyfuss

The chairman of a French technology company has called on France to learn from the election of Barack Obama and take concrete steps to end discrimination against France's minorities. Yazid Sabeg, the only ethnic Arab to head a French public company, published a “manifesto” in the influential French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, calling for both private and public sectors to achieve “real equality” in France.

The election of Obama, he wrote, “highlighted the shortcomings of the French Republic and the gap that separates us from a country whose citizens have gone beyond the racial question to elect as president a man who happens to be black.”

Yazid Sabeg is an outspoken proponent of “positive discrimination,” which is what the Europeans’ call affirmative action, but it does sound creepier.  But the debate is on “about the lack of opportunity for people of color.”

France has always suffered from “Do as I say, not as I do” Syndrome, but now faces a serious social problem, which has been seriously mishandled: 

Libération, a liberal daily, ran several sobering articles last week lamenting the failure of left or right to take action to end discrimination. There is just one black member of the French Assembly who does not represent an overseas territory and just four of Arab origin in the Senate. By most estimates just a dozen of France’s 2,000 mayors are nonwhite.

Since the racial riots in France in 2005, the government has promised to take steps to correct inequalities. Earlier this year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has appointed several women of immigrant backgrounds to the most diverse cabinet in France’s history, announced a plan to reduce the isolation of poor mostly-minority suburbs around France’s major cities by improving schools, job training, and public transportation. Mr. Sabeg has described these steps as "an empty shell."

Periodic tests by the French media show that job candidates with identifiable ethnic names or addresses in poor areas are much less likely to be called for interviews than whites with identical credentials.

On the positive side, 80 percent of French responder to a survey had no difficulty voting for a black presidential candidate, while only 58 percent would for an Arab.  But what makes Yazid Sabeg’s challenge to the French government all the more interesting, is “Mr. Sabeg has said in the past that for several years his company was denied security clearance to do defense work for the French government because of malicious rumors that he had ties to Muslim militants. [My emphasis]

Rumors are just rumors, but the French habit of championing causes—in other countries—has found its way home.

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Apparently, to almost every member of the media, the election of a thoroughly unaccomplished man to the presidency is a definition of the American dream for the sole reason that he is half black. Even President Bush has said that Barack Obama’s election is a “triumph of the American story.”

The unfortunate truth, however, is that Obama’s election is a tremendous devaluation of the American Dream . . . more here.

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I know that many of you came here yesterday to read my thoughts on the election, and I instead gave a fire-and-brimstone homily about the moral collapse in this country. As they say, there are no atheists in foxholes, and the political drubbing Republicans took was much like being under heavy fire. I`m a believer in first principles; if you are right with the Almighty the rest will largely take care of itself. We haven`t been right with the Almighty, and this election was a punishment. I hope the Republicans-and Americans-will learn their lesson.

But I doubt they will; already we are hearing complaints that Conservatives hurt McCain, forcing him to the right when he needed to move to the middle. There is considerable spite against Sarah Palin, in particular, because she comes from outside the lofty circle and isn`t popular with the media. (I`ve always believed that being unpopular with the media is a resume` enhancement. If you are popular with the media, there is something wrong with you. . . .

READ MORE at Timothy Birdnow

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Nasty charges made by someone named Anonymous and Company are being spread by irresponsible news sources.  No surprise there.  But the key word to all this nastiness is Anonymous. 

Anonymous can say all manner of things, just like politicians running for office, and are never held to account for slander and deceit and the lies that are peddled.

With the abuse Governor Palin has dealt with throughout this election, the attacks on her now appear even more adolescent.  Those who support her will be angered but not dismayed. 

Those who are against Palin, still supported a losing candidate. And when Governor Palin runs for Senate and wins, will John McCain still be her buddy?

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Are there times when the people should have what they want?  This smacks of “They got what they deserve,” but it seems the whole election, even with massive MSM tampering, can be simply stated as “What were the choices?”

Republicans and Conservatives, those who didn’t jump the fence, knew John McCain had ‘issues.’  Issues which were directly associated with his bad habit of ‘crossing the isle.’  Basically, moderates seem to have a decision-making flaw, that being they want to be friends with everyone.  Of course, there are other issues having to do with McCain’s age, who he thought he needed to win, and the fact that he behaved like an elder statesman, or rather, someone who thought he had already been president. 

Barak Obama had his speaking ability, and benefited from the furious efforts of the Democrat party and the MSM.  And the fact that in the last eight years, President Bush has allowed his presidency to be beaten so far into the ground by the MSM and the Democrat party, only the Chinese can see how effective he has been.  Of course, this premature burial has been aided and abetted by the inaction of his party and--John McCain. 

Barak Obama has a major advantage and that is he was, and still is, an unknown quality.  To the majority of the American public that is the truth, and the MSM climbed to the greatest heights of political correctness to make sure he remained untouched.  The effort was well done and effective.  The racial element was important as well.  To repeat, Barak Obama also speaks of hope and change, and does so very well. 

So, to my mind why would a majority of Americans vote for John McCain?  Many hoped he could’ve possibly pulled it off, but that hoped didn’t bring change for McCain.

The 2008 Election suffered from a sort of political famine.  Though the MSM and the Democrats seemed to have cultivated some new and vibrate plant that could grow on barren ground, many are afraid of what this plant will produce, and those on the Republican side who chose John McCain, and later abandoned him, said “Let them eat cake!”  But as with the Louie XVI’s starving peasants, how could American voters ‘eat cake’, when there was no bread?

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Vice President-elect Biden did say that the presidential candidate Barak Obama would be tested within six months.  Times does fly:

Medvedev’s challenge to Obama

By Charles Clover in Moscow

Published: November 5 2008 13:49 | Last updated: November 5 2008 13:49

Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday became the first world leader to throw down a gauntlet to US president-elect Barack Obama, declaring that the Kremlin would station missiles in the tiny Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response to US plans for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe.

One does hope that two years of ‘running for the office’ has prepared president-elect Barack Obama for the task.

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With a fast searching, I slapped together a little list, first dealing with New Orleans:

1. “protecting hurricane protection got screaming ovations”  […] But his statement reflects a lack of understanding of the flood protection system's fundamental problems.
2. “His mention of wetlands in the next sentence is a start, but he indicated a lack of detailed knowledge about the systematic problems.”
3. “Obama said, "We will ensure that every displaced resident can return to a home." Displaced residents - excluding, unfortunately, public-housing residents - already have the legal right to return to their homes. How will Obama go further than the expensive, complex Road Home program in helping residents return? He offered no actual solutions to the problem of residents struggling to return to New Orleans.”
4. “Certainly, Obama's pledge at the end of his speech to spend every day working on this "priority of my presidency" may be substantial. But, as he noted himself, New Orleans has been abandoned by empty presidential promises before. Locals ought to press all of the candidates to be more specific in their policy recommendations.”

President-elect Obama also promised to 'remake the world':

1. "This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."
2.  "This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East."
3. "America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
4. “My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions.”
5.  â€œThe world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.”

Cutting military spending is one of those promises as well. 

Now, what is listed so far is not my words or things I’ve made up.  There is article after article of promises.  Of course, no one expects politicians to keep promises, but I don’t know if President-elect Obama supporters know that.  It’s already been said elsewhere that his campaign’s was recently making efforts to drawdown his ‘I promise’ level.  Well, he’d been elected now, and we don’t know if his supporters got the memo. 

Yes, President-elect Obama stands at an historic point, but is it a pivotal point?   To keep even some of his promises, the new president is going to have to pivot and be able to pivot often.  His party, presently, owns the whole shebang, but Midterm elections will come fast and furious to the unwary.   The last time the electorate was displeased the Democrats lost both houses.

President-elect Obama is the new leader of the ravenously party and he’s going to have to keep them fed. 

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Military personal have a difficult enough job without having their vote dismissed.  Party affiliation is irrelevant.

Beginning yesterday, McCain’s people are already on the offense and suing in Virginia over military ballots. Better now than matter.  He’s already letting Obama know he’s not going to be pushed around and McCain’s push first.

Problems with validating military ballots aren’t new:  

In a victory for Republican George W. Bush, a U.S. district judge yesterday ordered all Florida counties to reexamine discarded military absentee ballots and to count them in final vote totals if they were properly signed and dated.

McCain needs to have his lawyers marshaled and ready to go.  He’s waited to long for his shot at the presidency and I don’t think he will let it go to easily.  Not now. 

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This is an important issue:

Here I was standing in line on a damp morning waiting to vote, and people complained about not having the convenience of voting online from home or how ‘lucky’ people were to vote weeks ago!  (How wonderful . . . :(

Now, on day, which only comes once every two years, what is the problem? 

I won’t go in the long soliloquy of how important it is to vote, blah, blah, blah.  Everyone has heard it before and should at least; know the litany by heart or by whatever mass conscience they may believe in.   Or by some obnoxious TV ad with a movie/TV star who’s out of work or in the mood to politic. 

I’m not going to say what they say about the importance of the vote.  I’m saying, “Don’t complain.”  Even idle complaints should be avoided.

In fear of a long line, take a book.  Play with your cell phone or IPod or a favored electronic gizmo. 

But don’t complain.

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Considering the source, aren’t the results of this non-scientific poll at least interesting?   

Yes:  51%

No:    47%

Not Sure:  0%

Remember, we’re talking about PBS here!

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Money talks, even socialists know that.  But for them, money like behavior and language must be controlled from the top down, from the government to the citizen.  All that is needed is opportunity, which this coming election offers.

As with everyone else, socialists, along with progressives and liberals, know that money is a powerful tool, and they want it to sing and dance, but to their tune.  Socialists sing a song of economic redistribution with an accompanying chorus of social justice. 

Control of society, for what socialists see as the greatest good, began with how women and men interacted and how children could be socially conditioned through education, by instigating cultural clashes and insisting on political correctness and other behavior controls.  So, social behavior and language have been warped, twisted and tugged to manipulate the American culture.  Money is just another string which socialists want to attach to the nation to complete their own societal marionette. 

Being the puppet master of the most powerful nation on the world stage is seductive.  Socialists have the avaricious desire to make the nation sing and dance—and talk the talk and walk the walk socialist style.  To accomplish that goal requires financial manipulation and that economic slight of hand has already been stealthily practiced.  Over decades, those in government have already performed monetary management which has brought into being a number of social and welfare programs:  Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment compensation, child welfare, government involvement in banking, and mortgages (mortgage is French for death-grip), and multitude of other governmentally finessed financial maneuverings.   

Bent on a massive scale of redistribution, under the guise of doing the greatest good for the greatest number, how far will socialists and their progressive/liberal compatriots go?   If they are given the opportunity, the imagination reels.

To gain ultimate control, for the common good of the state, one must control the money and those who spend it.  That would seem to be the Holy Grail of socialistic goals, and if that is so, why not implement monetary control from cradle to grave?   

For the ‘common good’ there must be a common fund, as far as socialism is concerned, it’s not your money to begin with:

1.      One Federal bank account will be authorized per social security number.

2.      By law all ‘wages, salaries, tips, etc.’ should be direct deposited to assigned accounts only.

3.      All deposits and withdrawals are subject to Federal, state and local contribution regulations and entitlements. 

4.      A fixed interest rate will be ‘set’ annually by the FDIC (Federal Depositors Investitures Committee) in conjunction with the annual fiscal plan established by the Secretary of the Treasury via the Congressional Fiscal Committee on National and International Regulatory Fiscal Policy (CFC). 

5.      No international financial transfers are permitted except those authorized by CFC plans in accordance with National and International Regulatory Fiscal Policy.

Some may take exception to my dalliances into what they think is a ludicrous piece of fiction, but Federal bank accounts should smack more of the possible than impossible.  Do consider the fact that, just recently, it was uncovered that an insidious plan is in the works for a governmental grab for the 401Ks of millions of Americans to bolster a failed Social Security system.  Given the opportunity, what could stop this?  Surely no recall vote, no impeachment, no faxes, emails or phone calls could. 

Federal bank accounts are hardly an ‘impossibility.’  Nor would these accounts be personal because a personal account would not be for the common good and all this money would be held in those accounts right next to the Social Security ‘Lockbox.’  You know, the lockbox filled with the IOUs. 

What would be next?  Getting paid under the table to get a few extra bucks might get you thrown in jail.  So, the government would go on managing ‘the people’s money’, and then tell Americans what they can buy and from which store.  Or worse still, what line to stand in.

Cradle to grave financial management, a socialist dream and an American nightmare. 

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When the going gets rough, Barak Obama knows how to deal with nay-sayers!  In the next few days matter will on get worse, because word is McCain is gaining serious ground.  And purging the plane may not be a good strategy—especially when that kind of tantrum is made public.

PURGE: SKEPTICAL REPORTERS TOSSED OFF OBAMA PLANE
Fri Oct 31 2008 08:39:55 ET

NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON TIMES TOLD TO GET OUT... ALL 3 ENDORSED MCCAIN

**Exclusive**

The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states -- and all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!

The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs -- and possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines, ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned . . .  

Purging the plane may not be the best strategy—especially when that kind of tantrum is made public and the excuse seems more than a little transparent.

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