Uninvited Guest At The White House Dinner

Just a quick post about the White House dinner the other day. We've all heard by now about the couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who got into the White House dinner even though they weren't on the guest list. The story.

"I want to stress that these individuals went through magnetometers and several other levels of screenings just as all of the guests attending the dinner did," - Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan

While this may prove to be a mistake by the Secret Service I believe they do a great job. Donovan has also ensured that no one was ever in any danger. However, there's a book you should all read about what the Secret Service actually do and how the problem's they face are made more difficult by the administrations they protect.

For example, the Secret Service thinks it was a mistake for George Bush to make the Secret Service part of the Department of Homeland Security. As for the magnetometers mentioned above, Obama staffers told the Secret Service to just let people go through without screening if the crowds were too big when he was on the campaign trail. This was potentially dangerous.

Remember when Joe Biden threw the first pitch at the Yankees vs. Orioles game? What if someone in the crowd had a gun and was able to get off a few shots?!! It's all talked about in a fascinating book called In The Presidents Secret Service. If you get a chance you should read this book.

This may be a slip up of the Secret Service but the administrations they protect cause more problems for the Secret Service than many of us realize. Here are some samples from the back cover of the book. (The Jimmy Carter one would be funny if it weren't so pathetic):

"Threats against President Obama are up 400% compared with those against President George W. Bush."

"Barack Obama met secretly with Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., during his presidential campaign."

"Vice President Spiro Agnew, a champion of family values, had extra-marital affairs while in office."

"George W. Bush's daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, gave their Secret Service details a hard time and would try to lose their agents."

"Based on a psychics vision that a sniper would assassinate President George H. W. Bush, the Secret Service changed his motorcade route."

"To make the press think he came to work early, Jimmy Carter would walk into the Oval Office at 5 a.m., then nod off to sleep. He refused to allow the military aide with the nuclear football to stay near his home in Plains, Georgia, jeopardizing the nation's safety when he was staying there."

"Lyndon Johnson gave dangerous instructions to his Secret Service agents and engaged in extensive philandering at the White House and at his ranch."

This book is a real eye-opener for what the agents go through and what the Secret Service goes through with some administrations. I hope that both this and all future administrations begin to do a better job of listening to the advice of the Agency.

For the record the Agency wanted to put 2 agents on the back of JFK's car and he said no. We all know what happened to him. The 2 extra agents may not have saved JFK but it makes you wonder.

"Kennedy - code named Lancer - himself told agents he did not want them to ride on the small running boards at the rear of the car."

"An analysis of the ensuing assassination - including the trajectory of the bullets which struck the president - indicates that it might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car's running boards."

I have great respect for the Secret Service and hope most others agree. It'll be interesting to see how this story of the uninvited guest's plays out.

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So Many Issues, So Little Time

I've been thinking about what I should talk about next for awhile. With so much happening so fast sometimes it's hard to decide what issue I should cover next. I'm going to try and cover several things here that have been on my mind.

Have you ever heard liberals trying to teach what conservatives believe. Here's an example from Alec Baldwin.

"Health care reform means less money for insurance companies. Thus less money for the GOP. We should pass this bill for that reason alone."

What about the fact that health care reform also means much more money for lawyers and unions. Thus more money for the Democrats.

How's Obama's stance against lobbyist coming along? Liberals will tell you he's doing great.

"The OMB Watch-CRP study found 1,418 "deregistrations" of federally registered lobbyists during the second quarter of 2009, a marked increase for any reporting period during all of 2008 and 2009. This occurred shortly after President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13490, which created new restrictions on former lobbyists appointed to the executive branch."

Sounds great right? Like everything else in politics these days though it's a trick.

"Another troubling issue highlighted by the organizations is that the thousands of lobbyists who appear to have left their line of work may not have actually done so. At the federal level, many people working in the lobbying industry are not registered lobbyists, instead adopting titles such as "senior advisor" or other executive monikers, thereby avoiding federal disclosure requirements under the Lobbying Disclosure Act."

Are you getting angry yet? Here's the story those quotes are from. Maybe that shines some light on who a few of Obama's "advisers", "czars", or whatever else he wants to call them really are.

We have a 2,000+ page health care bill now, (and we thought HR 3200 was bad with roughly 1,100 pages), and we already know about some bribes in the bill. Like the $100 Million for Louisiana.

That's just one thing. After seeing what happened with the failed Stimulus bills and the earmark filled Omnibus bill I can only imagine what else lurks in those 2,000 pages. The government is asking for us to trust them with this reform bill.

Massachusetts will get to keep Romneycare. So now, if it passes, I'll have Romneycare, Obamacare, or ....I'm not sure. They should just call this the Healthulus bill.

Were you happy when you found out about all of the wasteful spending in the stimulus bill? I doubt it but here's the key: You didn't find out about it until after it was passed. I suspect this health care bill will work out in a very similar way. We won't know about all of the problems with this bill until it becomes law and we can't stop it. Regardless of your political affiliation would that surprise you at this point?

Now I'm starting to see the campaign signs and hear the ads for the people who want to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate. I'd like to see Scott Brown win here but I don't think it's possible. Massachusetts is just too liberal. Of course we did vote Romney in for governor so maybe there's a better chance than I'm giving credit for Scott Brown to put in a good fight. I doubt it though.

The government's lying about job creation and the economy, no surprise there. A big we told you so is due for that one but don't expect Obama to admit his stimulus critics, like us, were right.

Let's talk a little bit about what you can do. If you can make it to a tea party rally that's great but many of us can't. One thing you can do is keep up as best as you can with history and current events. The politicians are counting on you becoming too frustrated to pay attention to what they are doing. They get frustrated when you do pay attention though. It is for that reason that they no longer allow us to read the bills online, even though it was a campaign promise of Obama's.

The other thing you can do is communicate with everyone you can. Talk politics wherever you can get away with it. I talk politics all the time as you can see from this blog. Use social networks, e-mail, blogs, etc. Attend any town hall meetings you can, get to or at least support the tea parties.

Stick to the message that we know works. Stand by conservative principles regardless of any criticism you will face from the other side. History is on our side. The facts and results will be on our side. Ignore political correctness and substitute it for actual correctness. Call terrorists what they are...terrorists.

Last but certainly not least. Make sure you take a minute to think about all you truly can be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Family, friends, your ability to stay sane despite all the craziness going on at the moment, eggnog, or whatever else makes you happy. Have a great Thanksgiving.

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Swine Flu Shots, The Final Verdict.

I've posted before about the swine flu shot. The last time I talked about it I talked about the government considering forcing you to get the shot by law. I of course opposed it then as I do now.

I never told anyone not to get the shot as I don't believe it's my place to do so. In fact what I said in my last post about the swine flu was this:

"If you choose to get the flu shot then that's fine as long as YOU CHOOSE."

My position has not changed there. We're hearing stories from both sides of this issue regularly. Legitimate doctors on one side will say you're crazy if you get the shot while other's say you're crazy if you don't.

I was critical of President Obama for not getting the shot and for not having his kids get the shot. While the president still hasn't since he claims to want "priority" people to get it first. His children have now gotten the swine flu shot.

In a previous post about Obama's health care plan I mentioned that my mother is an RN so I called her to get her opinion about the swine flu shot.

Here's the deal. Do not get the inhaler version of the virus, the injection is safer. The inhaled version is mostly for people terrified of needles. The injection is a dead version of the virus and the inhaled vaccine is a live version of the virus.

I've heard about some people getting rashes etc. from the vaccine and she explained the most possible explanation for that as well. The vaccine is made inside of eggs, (don't ask me how since I have no idea), therefore it's possible for people to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine. It's actually a reaction to the eggs used in making the vaccine, an allergic reaction to eggs may cause an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

If you get the vaccine and still end up with the flu it's most likely that you had the flu to begin with but it can be in your body for several days before you come down with the symptoms. You'd be in worse shape without the vaccine.

The biggest risk for those of you with kids are whether or not they are in school. I have one in school and due to all of the interactions with other kids and germs in general it puts children in school at higher risk.

If you have children who are too young to be in school the risk comes from the risk of an older sibling who is attending school or you getting the virus at work etc. and bringing it home.

Now that I've been given this information from a source I trust I will be getting the swine flu shot's for my kids. I can't tell you to do the same any more than I could tell you not to. It's your family and therefore it's your choice. I can only pass on the information I've received and give you my thoughts on the subject.

I asked about the vaccine in the '70's making more people sick than the actual virus and was assured that the advances in medicine make the current vaccine safer so we shouldn't have to worry about a repeat of the past with this one.

This vaccine was tested on children around 5 years of age whose parents were doctors and the testing was successful. While I've now made up my mind to give my children the vaccine I have another problem....supply.

Remember the outrage over the seasonal flu shot shortage during the Bush administration? Example.

"This may be Bush's Waterloo!"

That's just one example and of course there are many. Even though that vaccine wasn't developed in America and we got a bad batch. Besides that was just for the seasonal flu.

Now the government has scared the crap out of everybody convincing us all that our kids will die if we don't get them the swine flu shot and when many of us actually listen we show up to hear that there aren't any vaccines available. In fact the Obama administration is millions of doses behind schedule.

"But the administration, and in particular Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, have come in for strong criticism from those who say they created a false sense of expectations with overly optimistic predictions about the availability of the vaccine."

Bush was criticized for the shortage of the flu vaccine before and it's rather amusing to see the Obama administration take the same kind of heat. What's not amusing is the fact that people, especially children, are dying because of the swine flu incompetence of this administration.

Mr. Obama is learning rather fast what we've known for years. To criticize an administration you oppose, (like Bush's), is easy. To defend your own failures is much harder.

This administration has spent months worrying us about the swine flu. They've spent months warning us to get the vaccine and especially to give it to our kids. They claimed there would be plenty of vaccines in the previous link I provided.

Early on, Mr. Obama told his aides he wanted them to “learn from past mistakes,”

The biggest question to ask is this:

If the government can't handle distributing a flu vaccine they had several months to build a supply of and prepare for do you really think they can handle controlling the entire health care system of the country?

I don't.

This post wasn't about the health care debate but I think that last question is one that had to be asked.

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MoveOn.org's Godfather Tactics

Dear MoveOn member,

$3,578,117!

That's how much progressives pledged this week to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who blocks an up-or-down vote on health care reform with a public option.

It's a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots.

Here's another way to make sure conservatives think twice before joining with Republicans: Many of these senators hold coveted committee chairmanships that give them significant power within the Senate.

Our friends at Democracy for America have launched an open letter urging Senate Democrats to strip committee chairmanship from any Democrat who filibusters health care. Will you join in? Clicking below adds your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/norewards/o.pl?id=17815-17182837-6INyX.x&t=3

The message of the letter is simple. It says, "If ANY member of the Democratic Caucus joins a Republican filibuster of health care reform with a public option, the Caucus must immediately strip that Senator of all Committee Chairmanships."

In the Senate, the majority caucus has control over who chairs committees. Committee chairmanships are highly coveted because the chairperson has a lot of power over which bills get considered and what's in them.


But chairing a committee is a privilege, not a right. So if a member of the Democratic Caucus joins with Republicans on the most important vote in a generation, then they certainly don't deserve a position of power controlled by Democrats. The Democratic Caucus needs to make that clear to its members.

The fact that 66,000 MoveOn and Democracy for America members pledged more than $3.5 million to a primary challenge makes clear just how angry they'd be with any Democrat who helps Republicans doom health care reform. But as conservative Democrats decide what they're going to do, they should know that it's not just the grassroots they'd have to worry about if they filibuster, but also their colleagues.

Can you sign the open letter to the Democratic Caucus? Clicking below will add your name.

http://pol.moveon.org/norewards/o.pl?id=17815-17182837-6INyX.x&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Laura, Kat, Daniel, and the rest of the team

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I didn't know Don Corleone was advising moveon.org. Obviously I didn't add my name to the letter but I figured you'd all like to read this one.

"It's a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots."

I think that after the recent elections where 2 out of 3 major races were lost by the Liberals, Conservative Democrats, (yes, they do exist), are a little more worried about this grassroots movement.

Great job raising your $3,578,117 MoveOn.org but anyone can send a $54.21 check to you, (that's the average given by the 66,000 members), and claim they represent the country.

However, real grassroots shows when thousands of people attend town hall meetings to voice their concerns to representatives. It shows when thousands attend tea parties to show discontent with government. It shows with D.C. rallies and protests. It shows when the President's approval rating drops 15 points in 9 months, and it showed last Tuesday when voters turned against the "progressives".

The fact that New Jersey went Republican even though Obama repeatedly campaigned for Corzine and he lost is huge. New Jersey is a Liberal state that voted for Obama yet the Liberals lost. The president and company can pretend it means nothing all he likes if it puts a smile in front of the camera but I think he's too smart to see what's happening and not think it matters.

2010 will be the real test of Obama's agenda and the "progressive" agenda in general. Many seats are up for grabs in 2010 and if we see a repeat of '94 then perhaps the Liberals will start to pay attention.

The "progressives" have pushed us far enough......

all of the tea parties etc. have scared them into calling us extremist for one simple reason......

they are seeing how strong our conservative message can be, and they are realizing how powerful the Conservatives can be when we push back.

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By the way I know it's been awhile since there's been anything new on this blog and I apologize for that. We have families too. Besides, even a political junkie like me needs a brain break for the sake of sanity once in awhile.

As always thanks for reading and following this blog. It helps to know there are those of you out there who support what we do here at he counted wrong.

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