Peace! Be Still

TEN FOR '10

It's not too late to sign the petition.  

Read it through, and see if you agree!  (It's short and sweet.)

Crowder in Berkeley

Steven Crowder did a real knock-out job on his latest video, which was also featured on Glenn Beck. Berkeley is the #1 public university in the country. . . my school UVA's ranked #2.  I shudder at how our student body would fare with these questions.  From what I see everyday, my guess is it would look a whole lot like the spectacle below.  This kind of brain-wave-halting, apathetic stammering is everywhere.  

Stutter

Forgive me - class coursework has hit me hard.  I won't be MIA for long.  In the meantime, a poem I turned in for class with the poet Gregory Orr.

Boy With a Stutter

When I met him on the bus

his voice, a trap-

door, swung out

from under his feet.

Such heavy rain that summer

our town’s poplars were bent over

the road and could spot

themselves in puddles.

Finger to the glass I said to him

hope they like what they see but he

was lookin at me with eyes so humid

and evergreen

it hurt my teeth to speak;

my mouth revved

against itself

like a pink VW in a ditch.

That boy and I, both

the other’s for the asking

 

but oh, that asking:

unhinged; bumper-deep.

 

500 Days Dance Sequence, to get me through.

9/21

A super interesting article.

with a video camera and their grandmother's chinchilla coat

Even Jon Stewart sees (and is disgusted by) the absurdity and the shiftless shiftiness of our national news media's apparent refusal to investigate this ACORN debacle.  Watch the video below - he makes a good point, hysterically.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Audacity of Hos
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

It's Wednesday...

...so a micro-poem might be in order.  Untitled -- 

    ***

Tonight, 

DJ on the

radio's 

got a stutter - 

saying stuff like

that ain't ssssssssstatic

folks, that's just

mm-me.

jeers from the media

The storm surrounding ACORN's slime is big news, but the mainstream media is sneering.  (here.  here.)

It's pretty obvious this disdain for BigGovernment's sting springs from their distaste in having to now (vaguely) report on a story that jeopardizes the liberal agenda and doesn't cater to a zombie-like advocacy of the Obama Administration.  Or maybe it's just jealous bile and a vague stab of guilt at this familiar, long-lost scent of actual journalism.  (FOX is slaying in the ratings.)  Either way, it's pretty pathetic.

My new friend the popular Catholic blogger American Papist has a post on ACORN - wonderfully done, as usual. He takes his coverage a step further, discussing how it is time to "toss Catholic Campaign for Human Development [CCHD] into the fire too," given its past partnership with ACORN:

The fact that it funded ACORN for so many years (and continues to fund highly-questionable organizations) simply proves the leadership of CCHD is completely at-odds with responsible Catholic social activity.

Full AMP piece here.  The guy gets it.  Get it, too.  Get it, get it.

More Excuses and Finger-Pointing

With the past three videos, Acorn has slung some seriously feeble excuses.  The video's false and defamatory.  The video is doctored and dubbed.  Okay, so maybe it's true, but the video doesn't reflect ACORN as a whole.  The wrong here lies with the investigative reporters (James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles) carrying a concealed camera, not what our employees divulged.

One thing ACORN consistently can't do, is defend themselves with a head-on, openly candid handling of the situation.

The tune they're singing this time?  They were in on the trick all along.

Silly. 

Article here.

ACORN Sting #4

Oh Have Mercy.  This is the worst one yet.

A few hours ago, Glenn Beck broke the fourth stunning ACORN Sting.  Once again undercover as a pimp/prostitute team, here is new footage of ACORN employees (California) advising them on setting up an under-the-radar, underage brothel, and chatting it up about her good old days of shooting her husband and running her own escort service.

On his show, Glenn Beck prefaces the footage beautifully.  What he so viscerally and passionately wants to get across, is the fact that this is NOT a partisan issue.  This is not a question of Republican or Democrat, this is a matter of the most basic, elemental, human decency.  The footage should have Americans up out of the chairs and demanding an enormous investigation into what it is ACORN stands for, and its part in our current Administration.  

Big Government's website is being updated regularly with the ACORN sting information.

wah wah waaaahh

Take off your glasses, Kanye. You're inside.

Course work is mounting at a crushing rate, so today I'm just going to be playing highway patrol on here, directing you to some highlights.

Check the super-ego of Kanye West absolutely humiliating poor Taylor Swift as she accepts an award at the VMAs:

Can you believe it?

no sweat

KA-POW

Break Even - The Script

Tea Time

At the Washington DC tea party - tremendous crowd - absolutely electrifying - protesters viscerally and soulfully upset - good luck finding a more thoroughly American display than this.

I have a few pics from the protest up on my twitter page from my blackberry - apologies for their various angles...

ACORN - advising pimps and prostitutes on the sly?!

ACORN is, once again, glowing as the beacon of civic concern and moral high-ground that it is.

Footage from Big Government's undercover sting operation is gonna have your jaw bone hanging low. You also might cry.

These reporters went into ACORN disguised as a prostitute and her pimp, where they then received some helpful pointers on, oh, federal tax evasion, how to commit welfare fraud, and - yeah - how to keep underage-hooker sex trafficking under wraps from the bulls.  

(HotAir has the full transcript available if you can't make out the audio.)

Before even seeing the full video, ACORN stamped their foot and said it was all a big mean trick.   Yeah, okay.  These videos of ACORN employees not batting an eyelash at trafficking young girls for sex is clearly the result of some state-of-the-art special effects.  Clearly nursing their own reputation takes priority to concern for the blatant perpetuation of underage sexual abuse espoused by the organization's employees.  I'm relieved to learn that ACORN's priorities are so noble.

Outrageous.  The whole thing makes my skin crawl.  

AP's Fact Check

After last night's speech, the Associated Press whipped out their calculators and common sense and did a fantastic job debunking Obama's misleading glorification of the health plan.  It's so good I'm literally going to lift the entire thing for you so that none of it gets fuzzy or frumpy in my translation.

We have basically two options.  

Option A: Continue to cheer our comic-book-commander-in-chief, as, with the help of his spandex-cape, he overhauls our entire health system without adding a "dime" to the national deficit.  As you'll see in the AP figures below, THAT'S superhuman.

Option B: : Look at the grim mathematical reality of this proposal, and conduct ourselves accordingly, with justified skepticism and opposition.

(Big thanks to Chris for this hilarious video!) 

Option A:

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Option B (a la AP): 

OBAMA: "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future. Period."

THE FACTS: Though there's no final plan yet, the White House and congressional Democrats already have shown they're ready to skirt the no-new-deficits pledge.

House Democrats offered a bill that the Congressional Budget Officesaid would add $220 billion to the deficit over 10 years. But Democrats and Obama administration officials claimed the bill actually was deficit-neutral. They said they simply didn't have to count $245 billion of it — the cost of adjusting Medicare reimbursement rates so physicians don't face big annual pay cuts.

Their reasoning was that they already had decided to exempt this "doc fix" from congressional rules that require new programs to be paid for. In other words, it doesn't have to be paid for because they decided it doesn't have to be paid for.

The administration also said that since Obama already had included the doctor payment in his 10-year budget proposal, it didn't have to be counted again.

That aside, the long-term prognosis for costs of the health care legislation has not been good.

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf had this to say in July: "We do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount."

___

OBAMA: "Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have."

THE FACTS: That's correct, as far as it goes. But neither can the plan guarantee that people can keep their current coverage. Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they'd be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats and said that by 2016 some 3 million people who now have employer-based care would lose it because their employers would decide to stop offering it.

In the past Obama repeatedly said, "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period." Now he's stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan "requires" any change.

___

OBAMA: "The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." One congressman, South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, shouted "You lie!" from his seat in the House chamber when Obama made this assertion. Wilson later apologized.

THE FACTS: The facts back up Obama. The House version of the health care bill explicitly prohibits spending any federal money to help illegal immigrants get health care coverage. Illegal immigrants could buyprivate health insurance, as many do now, but wouldn't get tax subsidies to help them. Still, Republicans say there are not sufficient citizenship verification requirements to ensure illegal immigrants are excluded from benefits they are not due.

___

OBAMA: "Don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut. ... That will never happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare."

THE FACTS: Obama and congressional Democrats want to pay for their health care plans in part by reducing Medicare payments to providers by more than $500 billion over 10 years. The cuts would largely hit hospitals and Medicare Advantage, the part of the Medicare program operated through private insurance companies.

Although wasteful spending in Medicare is widely acknowledged, many experts believe some seniors almost certainly would see reduced benefits from the cuts. That's particularly true for the 25 percent of Medicare users covered through Medicare Advantage.

Supporters contend that providers could absorb the cuts by improving how they operate and wouldn't have to reduce benefits or pass along costs. But there's certainly no guarantee they wouldn't.

___

OBAMA: Requiring insurance companies to cover preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies "makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives."

THE FACTS: Studies have shown that much preventive care — particularly tests like the ones Obama mentions — actually costs money instead of saving it. That's because detecting acute diseases like breast cancer in their early stages involves testing many people who would never end up developing the disease. The costs of a large number of tests, even if they're relatively cheap, will outweigh the costs of caring for the minority of people who would have ended up getting sick without the testing.

The Congressional Budget Office wrote in August: "The evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall."

That doesn't mean preventive care doesn't make sense or save lives. It just doesn't save money.

___

OBAMA: "If you lose your job or change your job, you will be able to get coverage. If you strike out on your own and start a small business, you will be able to get coverage."

THE FACTS: It's not just a matter of being able to get coverage. Most people would have to get coverage under the law, if his plan is adopted.

In his speech, Obama endorsed mandatory coverage for individuals, an approach he did not embrace as a candidate.

He proposed during the campaign — as he does now — that larger businesses be required to offer insurance to workers or else pay into a fund. But he rejected the idea of requiring individuals to obtain insurance. He said people would get insurance without being forced to do so by the law, if coverage were made affordable. And he repeatedly criticized his Democratic primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for proposing to mandate coverage.

"To force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh penalty," he said in a February 2008debate.

Now, he says, "individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance — just as most states require you to carry auto insurance."

He proposes a hardship waiver, exempting from the requirement those who cannot afford coverage despite increased federal aid.

___

OBAMA: "There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage."

THE FACTS: Obama time and again has referred to the number of uninsured as 46 million, a figure based on year-old Census data. The new number is based on an analysis by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, which concluded that about two-thirds of Americans without insurance are poor or near poor. "These individuals are less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage," the report said. By using the new figure, Obama avoids criticism that he is including individuals, particularly healthy young people, who choose not to obtain health insurance.

Even mushy/moderate Lindsey Graham was offended by the tone of Obama's speech last night.  In his words:

I was incredibly disappointed in the tone of his speech. At times I found his tone to be overly combative and believe he behaved in a manner beneath the dignity of the office. I fear his speech tonight has made it more difficult -- not less -- to find common ground.

He appeared to be angry at his critics and disappointed the American people were not buying the proposals he has been selling. The president’s confrontational demeanor increased the emotional and political divide. I hope the President will learn that true bipartisanship begins with mutual respect. Criticism of a public official is to be expected and not all criticism is demagoguery.

When it comes to the public option, the President is either being disingenuous or misinformed. The public option, contrary to the president’s claims, will eventually lead to a government takeover of our health care system.

One very surprising reaction to this health care debacle has been Salon Writer Camille Paglia's recent OP-ed (an adamant Obama supporter), which was very critical of the direction taken by the current administration .

You can find her article here.

Long day of classes ahead of me, so I'd better bounce.

What poetry students texting each other from different classes typically looks like. Jealous?

Chels:

Sept. 9, 2009 12:40:28 PM  The mission of art is to disclose the radiant fragment.

Peace:

Sept. 9, 2009 12:41:24 PM  And it's motivated by the wound that will not close.

Peace:

Sept. 9, 2009 12:42:05 PM  Wow.  We're DORKS.

preemie denied care - for being preemie

After her premature son Jayden was refused treatment, Sarah Capewell is fighting for new guidelines on when infants should be given intensive care.

She begged for her baby to be given the treatment he needed, but the doctors allegedly told her  they were following national guidelines that babies born before 22 weeks should not be given medical treatment.

Article here.

the spin / the sobs / the silence

Byron York (whose car I've frequently baby-sat while he's graced the airwaves on the Ingraham Show...ha!) wrote a really great piece on the mainstream media's reaction to Van Jones resignation.  

Americans clearly dodged a bullet with this guy: Van Jones's status as an unhinged "truther," and his fearfully radical past as founder of the communist organization STORM (creepy manifesto available here) are just a couple unsavory lines from his resume.  But the media can't seem to help themselves, spinning this scandalous appointee's resignation as a manipulative conservative victory, instead of a legitimately fortunate outcome for all of us concerned.

In York's words:

The first words of the Times' story on Jones' resignation were, "In a victory for Republicans and the Obama administration's conservative critics. ..." One news anchor suggested Jones was "the Republican right's first scalp." Other coverage called the Jones affair a victory for Glenn Beck, Fox News, right-wing blogs, and even Sarah Palin, who played no role in the matter.

If you throw in Rush Limbaugh, you have all the bogey-people of the conservative world. To some on the left, including some journalists, denying them a victory was a top priority, no matter what Van Jones had said and done.

There was a day, not too long ago, when the Times and other influential news organizations could kill a story -- could deny the bad guys a win -- simply by ignoring it. Sometimes they still try. But it just won't work anymore.

Suddenly, in place of what should be non-partisan disgust for Van Jones agenda, it's a big turning into a big, sloppy cry-fest.  Check out Governor Howard Dean's sniffling:

The middle of the video is where it gets gross.  Transcript:

Dean: "This guy's a Yale educated lawyer; he's a best selling author about his specialty.  I think he was brought down, I think it's too bad - Washington's a tough place that way.  I think it's a loss for the country.

<Governor, how about fact he made a series of statements and had signed this petition in 2004, suggesting the gov had some role or some complicity in 9/11?>

Dean: "He was told by the people waving those clipboards around that he was signing something else, i think that's too bad ; look, all of us campaigning for office have had people throw clipboards in front of our face and ask us to sign, and he learned the hard way you ought not to do that, but I don't think he really thinks the government had something to do with causing 9/11."

Oh, so the fact that Van Jones - who was, or course, duped into signing the document, would sign-off on something without knowing what it was would recommend him for public office?

It's just too dumb - to intellectually insulting - to handle.  

Meanwhile, the White House's strategy is to simply plug their ears and pretend like none of this happened- which is obviously an extremely mature handling of the situation.

Take it away, Michelle:

Thank you, Reverend. I feel Jesus' Peace all around me.

whether we like it or not

With healthcare reform having so many Americans up in arms, Obama has been doing some rebooting and re-strategizing.  There have been murmuring about dropping parts of the bill to keep the American people assuaged (but don't let your guard down - the bill's original intent is not likely to be abandoned), particularly the bit about the public option [AKA an admitted single-payer situation (video available)].

But regardless whether these technicalities get dropped from the current bill (which is called H.R. 3200 in Congress, and "Affordable Health Choices" in the Senate) plans for abortion funding (and all of its ethical ramifications) are to remain in both. 

According to LIfeNews:

Even if the scheme is dropped, the second portion of the health care proposal, which would provide subsidies to help tens of millions of people buy health insurance, also includes abortion funding.

Regardless of what happens with the current measures -- H.R. 3200 in the House, and the “Affordable Health Choices Act” (unnumbered) in the Senate -- pro-life advocates will continue fighting to remove abortion and rationing or defeat the bill.

When it comes to the public option, HR 3200 would kick it off with $2 billion in start-up funds from the Treasury and, as amended, the bill "explicitly authorizes the Obama Administration to fund abortion" for any reason under the public plan, from day one," says Douglas Johnson of National Right to Life.

"So, once the Secretary of HHS has ordered that all abortions be covered under the 'public option,' what would that mean? It would mean that you would not be allowed to enroll in the new government plan unless you were willing to pay an additional premium to cover the cost of elective abortions -- in effect, an abortion surcharge," he explains.

Johnson told LifeNews.com the Capps amendment added to the House bill Pelosi wants approved "explicitly requires that the federal official who runs the program must calculate the total cost of abortions and increase the premium for all enrollees enough to pay for the aggregate cost of the abortions."

"The amendment specifies that this 'abortion surcharge' (my term) cannot be less than $12 per enrollee per year, but the amendment does not set an upper limit," he says.

So what on earth does all that mean?  Let's recap:

Regardless of which gov health plan we're talking about, abortion - which at its very definition is the termination of a life - will be made not only available to the American people, but also paid for by the American people.  It is a way of either excluding (and thereby penalizing pro-life Americans) or forcing the hands of tax-paying citizen enrolled in the government plan to assist in sustaining the abortion industry.  The government health care plans discriminates against anyone with ethical qualms about abortion, and put us in a very difficult, very unfair position.  

Remember the nurse back in July who was forced by the hospital she was employed by to participate in an abortion procedure against her religious beliefs?  I could be way off base here, but to me this all seems like a macrocosmic example of this story.

So our big government wants us to surrender money to fund the cutting down of our smallest and most innocent?  Go ahead and try.  

shoutout to a little Brick terminology

Krauthammer's recent article.  READ IT.  The man's a viking.  He throws a strong one at the Obama-loving hash heads. He's got all five senses and slept last night, which puts him six up on the lot of them. 

9/7/09

Victory: Van Jones resigns (but not before he saved face with some snide jabs at those who opposed his radical agenda.  Congrats are in order to "the Conservative grassroots which draws its energy from FOX News, talk radio, and the Drudge Report, and often leaves Republican officials scrambling to catch up."

America is gaining nerve when it comes to speaking out against policies and appointees we object to - so join the bloc party!   Start a blog, or attend a tea party, or write into your local news papers.  Start a twitter page and use it to reference friends to crucial articles.  Just get your voice in the mix!  

We are SO lucky for the many outlets for voice-throwing here in the states.  Look at what's going on in Venezuela, with Chavez closing down Venezuelan radio stations to stamp out public debate. (Sound familiar?  Does the "Fairness Doctrine" ring a bell?) Anti-Chávez protesters, all dressed in white, are protesting 11 years with a sick dictator standing purposefully in the way of the people, and arresting those who speak out.  

We'll that's just perfect. He's a 'truther' too.

Conservative media's all over this Van Jones debacle and our administration's arrogance in appointing him.  Yet meanwhile, yesterday, all three morning shows on CBS, NBC, and ABC blatantly skipped over mentioning this huge Van Jones controversy, with his recent connection to the crazy 9/11 "truthers."  (Van Jones is taking a page out of fellow czars' books and actually attempting to deny it...) So much for reporting the news.

Instead of covering the fact that our Green Jobs Czar's signature was found on 9/11 truther documents, word on the street is that these news sources opted for more hard hitting segments, such as a taste-test comparing store-bought pizza to brand pizza, autumn lawn care tips, and back-to-school fashion.  

So if you've been sacrificing brain cells to the mainstream media and aren't up on the innumerable Van Jones offenses, the blog Gateway Pundit has been doing a gorgeous job covering it.  

Van Jones has much of America up in arms, but the White House is being strangely - dare I say disrespectfully - tacit on the subject.  

Alison Townsend

I've posted this Alison Townsend poem back in January, but I just came across it in my book and (as always) found it so terrifying and electrically sad.  So I wanted to re-post it for those of you who never saw it.

What I Never Told You About the Abortion

That it hurt, despite the anesthetic,
which they administered with a long needle, shot straight into the womb.

That they hit the vagus nerve the first time and I fell down when I tried to stand.
That after the second shot my legs snapped shut--

instinctively as any wild mother protecting chick, kit, cub.
That I held the hand of a young Hispanic nurse and wept

when she said, "You know, hon, you don't have to do this."
That I believed I did, though I nearly got up and left.

That the doctor was crude, saying (when he saw me conscious),
"It's always the ones who want to be awake who should be put out."

That dilation and curettage is exactly what it sounds like:
opening, scraping, digging out a scrap of tissue that clings.

That mothers both create and take life. That I crossed a picket line
to get into the clinic. That I wanted to come back another day

but knew if I left then I wouldn't return. That my mind was not, 
as I let you believe made up that night at Planned Parenthood,

the positive lab slip shining in my hand like a ticket to heaven.
That this was where the deep root of sadness began to take hold.

That I stood in our bedroom a few days before the "procedure,"
my blouse open and bra undone, looking at my breasts, marveling

at the way they swelled, even at eight weeks, like fruit I'd never seen,
remembering the rise and fall of my mother's body as she nursed my sister.

That I felt inhabited then. Incarnate, the cells of my skin glowing,
bright and scared. That I wished we were married, though it seemed uncool.

That I wished you'd said "A baby? Let's do it!"
instead of "It's your body. You decide."

That it was all surgical and neat, not even
any blood afterward on the Kotex that made me feel fourteen.

That I dreamed of it for weeks. That we married years later, that dream
torn between us. That I had wanted to feel the hard bowl of my belly.

That I believed it was practical--you in grad school,
no health insurance, me the one with a job.

That the table I lay on was cold. That there was a poster
of a kitten dangling from a tree limb, with the words "Hang in there, baby"

on the ceiling above me. That I turned names
over and over in my head like bright stones:

Caitlin, Phoebe, Rebecca, Siobhan.
That the nurse wept with me, like some twentieth-century

Southern Californian fate, midwife to death
in her uniform printed with flowers.

That she wrapped my hands in her navy blue sweater.
That I described the thumb-size embryo inside me in all the obvious ways --

shrimp, peanut, little bud-wanting-to-open.
But not baby, never baby.

That I saved the paperwork as proof I'd been admitted
to the college of mothers. That I told you a good story,

letting you believe I believed I might not be able to write with a child,
that this was the beginning of the end of us.

That though we are kind now, and always cordial when we meet,
a decade after our divorce, it is the one thing I cannot forgive you.

That it has taken me twenty years to find words for this story.
That no matter how many thats I write, there are not--will never be--enough.

-Alison Townsend

Start The Brainwashing Young

The education department wrote a letter to principals across the country, strongly urging schools to utilize lesson plans which scoot along the president's agenda.  For example: having the students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

Michelle Malkin talks to Hannity about the issue (&c) as only she can:

Plummeting From Grace

Congressional favorability has fallen to an all-time, shameful low.

(Aaaaa - I've been itching to use this photo for a month.)

According to Pew Research Center:

Currently, 37% express a favorable opinion of Congress, while 52% hold an unfavorable view. Positive opinions of Congress have declined by 13 points since April and are now at one of their lowest points in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys.

At the same time, intentions to vote Democratic in the next midterm election are markedly lower than they have been over the past four years. Voters are about evenly divided when asked how they would vote if the election for Congress were being held today: 45% say they would vote for a Democratic candidate in their district, or lean Democratic, while 44% say they would vote for a Republican or lean Republican.  At about this point four years ago, Democrats led in the generic congressional ballot by 52% to 40% and went on to win a majority of the popular vote and regain control of Congress the following November.

Hotair was kind enough to clarify what has gone down in Congress since that could have, oh, I don't know, contributed to America's dissatisfaction...

What has happened since April to knock 13 points off of Congressional favorability?

• Partisan Porkulus package failed to stimulate the economy
• Cap-and-trade got passed in a rush without opportunity to read the bill
• Pelosi and Obama tried jamming ObamaCare through the House

I'd imagine that the senate approval rate is not far behind.  

Here we have the government strapping debt to our ankles for generations to come, and our elected can't even look up and spare a little attention on the American people's behalf.

(Connecticut Senators - picture taking on September 1, 2009)

Say it with me now:

WA-TER-LOO.

New CNN Poll (that's right - not Fox News. CNN.) reveals that the majority of Americans want to scrap the Obamacare plan.  51% stand in opposition to the bill.

HotAir picked a few highlights of the poll which are particularly telling about our nation's disenchantment with Obama-bytes.  No matter how many times he throws up his hands and promises he's not 

We Americans are a romantic people.   We're attracted to progressive ideals like "change," but our country is feeling caught off-guard to just what kind of "change" Obama had up his sleeve.  We all want to see health care reformed - a prudent amount of reform is undoubtedly in order - but tell Americans to raise their hands for taking the Obamacare plunge, and everybody keeps their hands in their pockets.  

Check out the change of tune:

Wait...when you said change, you meant CHANGE? Oh, no, no, no!

Keep working hard to make sure the majority of American's opinion is heard, and respected.

had this song on repeat for the past 24 hours

as if social networking sites could get any creepier - -

Drudge, NLPC, and HotAir are all running stories about the latest "White House New Media" coup: a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites.  Given the Obama Administration's unbridled insecurity, it wouldn't be totally surprising.

It all sounds a little crazy to me, but then again, we've seen a whole lot of crazy come to pass lately.  

Our gem of a Green Jobs Czar

Have you met our new "Green Jobs" Czar, Van Jones?  Have you heard about his previous incarceration, and his past as a communist/anarchist activist?  How he founded a group called "STORM," which committed itself to "revolutionary Marxist policies," worked especially hard to train their ideology to the youth, and openly revered Chinese Dictator  Mao Tse-tung?

  Arm yourself with some invaluable info on Obama's pick for the new "Green Jobs Czar."  The administration is hustling to clean up his image, but don't be a zombie.  Educate yourself, and make your own decision.   I personally feel that Obama's decision to entrust a great deal of power to a man with a history of communist agenda-touting blatantly disrespects the America people.  

But I dunno, that's just me.

The following video is absolutely critical.  Watch it in it's entirety.  Should leave you green.  But not that kind of green:

The media can go on vilifying and slandering about Glenn Beck, but it doesn't change a thing.  When someone like Beck is passionate enough about issues to take time to in package the information a way that resonates and strikes home within the public, people respond.  The state-run media has reacted with fear, and their ratings are pitiful.  TV viewers are flocking to Beck's time slot.  It takes a strong individual to depart from the average, bleached mainsteam reporting.  I think we're lucky to have his voice questioning the government on our behalf.  

Here are more bits of Beck (and Malkin) on Van Jones.  Very much worth the sit-through.

Beck runs features like this and the media hits the floor in the fetal position.  And then they call Beck crazy.  But you know what's crazy?  Minimizing the mass murder of 3,000 people at the hands of terrorists, by dubbing "Mother Earth" the real terrorist:

The WWF campaign was set to run: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”

And you know what else is crazy?  Like, mustard-on-eggs crazy?  The arrogance of our government's environmental-activists, who hand unbridled amounts of power over to an man like Van Jones  in the name of a cause that has yet to even remotely prove its own worth.  Here is what I mean:

The 7 Myths of "Green Jobs" (courtesy of Heritage Foundation):

1. Myth: Everyone understands what a green job is.
   Reality: No standard definition of a green job exists.
2. Myth: Creating green jobs will boost productive employment.
   Reality: Green jobs estimates include huge numbers of clerical, bureaucratic, and administrative positions that do not produce goods and services for consumption.
3. Myth: Green jobs forecasts are reliable.
   Reality: The green jobs studies made estimates using poor economic models based on dubious assumptions.
4. Myth: Green jobs promote employment growth.
   Reality: By promoting more jobs instead of more productivity, the green jobs described in the literature encourage low-paying jobs in less desirable conditions. Economic growth cannot be ordered by Congress or by the United Nations. Government interference - such as restricting successful technologies in favor of speculative technologies favored by special interests - will generate stagnation.
5. Myth: The world economy can be remade by reducing trade and relying on local production and reduced consumption without dramatically decreasing our standard of living.
   Reality: History shows that nations cannot produce everything their citizens need or desire. People and firms have talents that allow specialization that make goods and services ever more efficient and lower-cost, thereby enriching society.
6. Myth: Government mandates are a substitute for free markets.
   Reality: Companies react more swiftly and efficiently to the demands of their customers and markets, than to cumbersome government mandates.
7. Myth: Imposing technological progress by regulation is desirable.
   Reality: Some technologies preferred by the green jobs studies are not capable of efficiently reaching the scale necessary to meet today’s demands and could be counterproductive to environmental quality.

poem

Choice

How many burrows

been smoked out!

            Forced like toothpaste

from a tube, to make

that single-

syllable word

feel at home.

Happy Sunday

South Dakota say HEEEEYYYY

Still stuck waiting  on a stool in this foresaken Apple Store.  But good news!  

In South Dakota, a state judge ruled that abortion-performing establishments are required to brief the woman with the truth: that the procedure ends a human life: a "whole, separate, unique, living human being."

This admission of what exactly abortion does isn't pro-life rhetoric, or misleading, manipulative language.  It is what it is.  Think about what each of those words mean: whole.  separate. unique. and living.

The full encouraging story is available here.

Seems pretty simple, right?   Almost redundant?  But abortion clinics around the country have violated informed consent laws, shrouding the cold, uncomfortable medical and scientific actualities of abortion.  They also conceal the phyiscal, emotional, and psychological damage suffered by most post-abortive women.  The abortion industry is all about the Big Buck$.  Every year Planned Parenthood rakes in about 900 million dollars, keeping patients in the dark to insure that business continues to boom.  Why - if the full truth would surely drive them away - would this industry ever attempt to give women the full story?   Planned Parenthood is engineered for the sole purpose of preying on pregnancies.  It may be harsh to hear, but women are just as victimized by the abortion industry as the slain unborn.

I remember writing ad nauseum about abortion's violent aftermath a couple years back.  Check it out for a refresher.   Abortion's just bad news for everybody involved.

If Planned Parenthood is forced nationwide to simply let their "patients" in on A: exactly what is going on during the abortion, and B: the devastating side effects women often sustain in the aftermath, their bustling business would find itself in a serious a slump.  

Can you imagine what just a little sliver of the truth could do?  How many whole, separate, unique, little lives could be saved?

VIVA PRINT

Today my computer started yelling at me in Dutch.

So I'm currently in my local APPLE Store, waiting on a stool at the Genius Bar with my sick macbook.  Today my computer finally took its [almost] charming spell of temper tantrums to a very new, very ugly level.  In addition to its speaking in tongues, we're talking an implosion that all but blew feathers.

So I am praying, praying that they can resurrect my hard drive and thereby locate my FOURTH-YEAR THESIS.  If not, and 4 years worth of poetry has been lost, I will collapse and grieve for years.  Asking for prayers

Sitting in this teeming spectacle of techno-gawks, clutching my Galway Kinnell book, I'm feeling a little bit scared.  I've finished my book.  Keeping my hands busy is a must, or I will resort to doodling on the table or sticking pins in my eyes.  So I am going to use this time to share a news story or two I've been hoarding in my emails all week.  In the meantime, please say a quick prayer for my....hard-drive... :(

one of the funniest things I've seen all week

all month, even.

oh, oh ouch

During rush hour few mornings ago, this young man took up a penitential stance of sackcloth and ash.

Lesson learned??  

SO DON"T EVEN!

license to exterminate our unborn

FactCheck.org (a non-partisan, political watch dog website) came out with a crucial clarification: what Obama has been telling the American people is wrong.  Abortion WILL be funded in the bill under the umbrella of "Health Care."  

Abortion procedures as healthcare?  The concept is appalling and intellectually offensive.  

Story here.  Take a look and please pass it on.

Oh, and watch for this one too - they're using Ted Kennedy's  name as a trumpet for abortion funding.  Truly, they'll lunge at anything in the name of this agenda.

Actual unemployment rate 20.6??

Unemployment numbers are rolling round like rusty pin balls, but the fact is this: it's far worse than the White House is willing to admit.

But I think it's pretty safe to say the American people are more than just catching on. 

According to Gallup, Obama's drowning approval ratings are being dragged to the bottom far faster than most of his predecessors.  

Our boy Steven Crowder (remember?) summed it up nicely last week:

So keep it up!  Speak out, and question everything, cause this is our future!!