Stories by haystack
Posted at 12:05am on Jul. 9, 2008 Dear Senator Obama: What You HAVE And What You Want?...Well, It Ain't Gonna Happen
By haystack
I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the title of THIS piece at Army Times. Apparently, the would-be Commander in chief wants to make kissy face with the Military now...in hopes they might trust him somehow if he gives them some candy. Mind you, there won't be much OF it because he wants to give as much of it as he can to lesser-deserving Americans...but he hopes a few limp carrots on an over-bent stick might just be enough to buy their love after all:
Obama said he hopes the military community will see him as “a guy looking out for us and not someone trying to score cheap political points.”
Military members and their families deserve better pay and benefits, he said, and although money might be hard to find for a generous increase, he supports increasing basic pay to keep up with inflation and private-sector salaries, and he believes housing allowances need to be increased so young service members and their families can afford adequate places to live.
He also wants to spend more to improve veterans’ health care and reduce the wait for a disability claim to be processed.
“I don’t know a higher priority than making sure that the men and women who are putting themselves in harm’s way, day in and day out, are getting decent pay and decent benefits — so that when they return home as veterans, they don’t have to wait six months to get benefits that they’ve earned, that they’re not winding up homeless on the streets, that they’re being screened for post-traumatic stress disorder, that if a spouse is widowed, the benefits are sufficiently generous,” he said. “These are just basic requirements of a grateful nation.”
Obama said he did not want to be more specific because he did not want to make promises he might not be able to keep. “I think we can do a much better job than we’re doing right now,” he said. But, he added, “I want to be honest: We are going to be in a tight budget situation. We’re not going to be able to do everything all at once.”
A promise of a cost of living raise isn't "trying to score cheap political points?” Hunh...and he knows of "no higher priority" yet he's gangbusters on a lot of OTHER priorities...none of which we can actually afford...? Ah, well, who cares about those nasty little details anyway? There's lies to be told, promises to be made and broken, and fat ladies to make faint in the audience.
Tight budget situation, indeed, Obama. By the time you rape the rest of us in new and expanded taxes and give it all back to "Fathers" and "Health Care" and "Global Poverty"...what will these Soldiers see? Bupkus.
A one or two percent raise in salary? Give me a freaking break. Trust starts with believing in the cause YOUR Soldiers are fighting for...not telling them they'll be made to surrender and forfeit the field because you promised your MoveOn and Code Pink friends you'd withdraw if they gave you that $2300.00 check.
Nice try though Barry...nice try.
Posted in 2008 | Obamafiles — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:17am on Jul. 6, 2008 Democrats: "Whose interest is it to settle anything now?"
By haystack
Admitting I almost spit my coffee out onto my poor defenseless screen while reading THIS AP piece this morning, it occurs to me that the quote in my title says everything we need to know about what's at stake in November.
I know I have been harping and ranting for quite some time now about this, but really-when the fight on the Hill is about power and not about attending to the needs of "we, the People"...and the Democrats go so far as to SAY so...doesn't that tell us everything we need to know about who cares about US and who cares about themselves? I'd say BOTH sides are more interested in themselves than they are about their constituents, but at LEAST with the Republicans this self-interest is driven by them knowing we're pissed off at them. The Democrats' self-interest appears to be more based on expanding their control OVER us. The AP piece is basically a summary of where we are this legislative cycle, and what is likely to get done between now and the General...and what is likely NOT to get done. I like the way they introduce the story:
Democrats bent on showing they can govern and Republicans anxious about a sour re-election climate are pushing a pared-down summer agenda in Congress.
Pared down? Phhhhhht...they are already dubbed the "Do Nothing Congress"... how much less can they actually do?
More below the fold...
Posted in 2008 | Do Nothing Democrats — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:25pm on Jul. 1, 2008 Do Nothing Dem Congress Slow-Bleeding US Auto Industry
hey...don't Unions vote FOR Democrats? Weird love affair, that...
By haystack
hey...don't Unions vote FOR Democrats? Weird love affair, that...
This just in: GM, Ford, Toyota Plunge as Buyers Reject Big Trucks.
General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the biggest auto retailers in the U.S., said June sales plunged as fuel prices above $4 a gallon drove consumers away from gas-guzzling trucks.
GM sales fell 19 percent, Ford was down 28 percent and Toyota dropped 21 percent. Honda Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, which rely on cars for the bulk of their sales, each rose about 1 percent.
Weird, I thought Democrats owed their pandering loyalty to ALL Union-based industry. Now, pay close attention to what Obama said a month ago about the effects of high gas prices: "Americans [will] start changing the kinds of cars they drive if gasoline prices continue to climb." What he DIDN'T say was that "Hope and Change" really means Union members must HOPE for lifetime Unemployment Insurance after Obama's destruction of the economy CHANGEs their employment status to "plant closed." Again, from Bloomberg:
The vehicles that people want are in short supply because the industry has turned on a dime in terms of demand and supply can't quite handle that,'' Alan Baum, director of automotive forecasting for Planning Edge in Birmingham, Michigan, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. You'll continue to see a decline for the next several months.''
For the second straight month, Ford's F-Series large pickup, perennially the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., was outsold by four cars: Toyota's Corolla and Camry and Honda's Civic and Accord. Nissan Motor Co. reported an 18 percent total decline.
Propping up foreign competition while driving American jobs into the ground...hmmm...you know, coal and oil may be making us sick...but this "do nothing Democrat Congress" is killing us. As the Saudi King has suggested: Get Used To It.
Posted in Do Nothing Democrats | Liberals | unions — Comments (46)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:29pm on Jun. 30, 2008 "A Plague That Does Not Discriminate By Economic Class, Race Or Age"
By haystack
[image courtesy Red Planet Cartoons]
Such has our fuel price crisis been described by AP reporter Alan Fram:
[S]oaring fuel prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. Nine in 10 expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half-year, an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Monday says.
Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas.
As the price has spiraled upward so, too, has the public's ire.
Reid and Pelosi don't care. Whatever liberties and freedoms to move about the country we might otherwise enjoy, were we able to actually afford to GET there, are slowly being taken away from us by the inaction of our elected officials. BOTH Houses of the "do nothing" Congress blew off any energy legislation to help us get through the summer...THEY are on vacation now, and we can't afford to join them. Instead, we look out our windows at cars we can't refuel and worry about how we're going to get back and forth to work so we can keep supporting these losers through ever-increasing taxes.
Nearly 70% of us are travelling less or not at all, in large part because the national average price for a gallon of gasoline climbed to $4.086, and "Gas prices have risen 2.9% in the last month and are almost 38% higher than where they were a year ago." Waddya think jumpin' genius Joe Klein over at Time says we ought to be doing?
More below the fold...
Posted in Bad Energy Policy | Congress | do-nothing Congress | High gas prices — Comments (85)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:43am on Jun. 20, 2008 In Which A Haditha Marine Considers How *Best* To Show Murtha His Appreciation For All That Troop Support
By haystack
An interesting development with one of the exonerated Marines in the Haditha mess Jack Murtha and Time Magazine's Tim McGuirk created not so long ago has bubbled up...the highest ranking officer accused is considering suing them:
With most of the eight Marines charged in the Haditha, Iraq, incident now exonerated, the highest-ranking officer among the accused is considering a lawsuit against Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who fueled the case by declaring the men cold-blooded killers.
In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk host Michael Savage, the lead attorney for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani said he and his client will look into suing Murtha and the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGuirk, who first published the accusations by Iraqi insurgents.
As lawsuits go, THIS is one I would thoroughly enjoy watching. I can think of no better example of giving back to the anti-war Democrats a little of that "support" we keep hearing so much about. All that distortion, misrepresentation, and shrill rhetoric comes at a real cost to the Soldiers actually doing the heavy lifting for us in Iraq and I would LOVE to see them hold Murtha and his ilk accountable for their actions and their words.
The rest below the fold...
Posted in Haditha | Marines | Miscellanea | Okinawa Jack | Thanking Democrats for their Soldier support — Comments (11)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:28pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Democrats Skip Right Over Socialism; Land Squarely In The Land Of Karl And Hugo
..and we all settle in nicely to our bonny new Communist America
By haystack
Picking up where Mr. Hahn left off...
Elections DO matter folks. The lunatics we put in power in 2006 have rather nicely gone and outdone themselves with this little brainstorm... I swear I'm stuck in a really bad episode of the Twilight Zone:
House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.
Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.
[...]
We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.
My head is exploding...they're doing SO well with all the other things they run, aren't they? These are the very same "geniuses" who, just a few days ago blocked efforts to make MORE of them, when they kicked H.R 3089 (No More Excuses Energy Act of 2007) out of Committee. The bill was submitted by Rep Mac Thornberry [TX-13] back in July 2007 [attaboy Mac-thanks for trying, at least].
These people on the left are freaking insane.
Watch as my hair spontaneously combusts below the fold..
Posted in absolute power corrupts absolutely | Congress | Democrats | Energy Policy | stick it to the little guy — Comments (55)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:00pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Democrat Strategy For America: "Slow Bleed 'Em"...One Useless Bill At A Time
By haystack
Man, talk about fiddling while Rome burns...guess what the House is taking up today for Legislative consideration? Can anyone help me understand how, exactly, honoring the life of Tim Russert, or allocating land in Montana for a cemetery, or fussing over the treatment of non-human primates helps us all stop BLEEDING from the current crisis on fuel prices? No? Yeah, me either...
Minority Whip Blunt asks the question "So Why Hasn’t Congress Acted to Lower Gas Prices?" and all I can come up with is they've been too busy on (as he calls them) "a few other higher priorities." For example:
Of the 244 laws that the Democrat Congress has enacted (thru June 6, 2008):
- 92 (38%) were to name government buildings or lands;
- 39 (16%) were to extend existing laws or make technical corrections to existing laws;
- of the remaining bills enacted into law, 87 (35%) were so uncontroversial that they passed either without a recorded vote in the House or with fewer than 10 votes in opposition.
But, heck-who am I to bellyache? At least the Democrat House gave us “Frank Sinatra Day,” “National Train Day,” “National Plumbing Industry Week,” and “National Passport Month” according to a recent Blunt presser. Feel all warm and fuzzy yet? No? There's more-"the Democrat House has been so busy naming months for various causes that they have now named 51 months...27 more than are actually on the calendar for a two year Congress."
Well done, Nance...well done. For the rest of us who are drowning in gas price-hell, give a peek at what President Bush said today about this nation's energy crisis:
For many Americans, there is no more pressing concern than the price of gasoline. Truckers and farmers and small business owners have been hit especially hard. Every American who drives to work, purchases food, or ships a product has felt the effect. And families across our country are looking to Washington for a response.
Still with me? Good...at least somebody in Washington understands the living hell we're being made to endure...
Let's go below the fold for MORE of what the "No Policy" Democrat policy is doing to America, m'kay?..
Posted in Congress | Democrats | High gas prices | pwning the taxpayer for fun | stick it to the little guy — Comments (14)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:11pm on Jun. 16, 2008 Dear Democrats: Why Does The Saudi King Know What To Do About Gas Prices, And You Don't?
By haystack
[image via House Minority Whip regularly updated]
King Abdullah seems to GET IT about how to deal with the crisis at the pumps...while our friends in the majority on the Hill continue to have no freaking clue. From The Independent:
Next month, the Saudis will be pumping an extra half-a-million barrels of oil a day compared to last month, bringing total Saudi production to 9.7 million barrels a day, their highest ever level. But the world's biggest oil exporters are coupling the increase with an appeal to western Europe to cut fuel taxes to lower the price of petrol to consumers.
You hear that Democrats?
Cut the freaking taxes and increase the freaking production. It's just not that hard, kids.
More below the stinking fold...
Posted in Bad Energy Policy | Congress | Democrats | High gas prices | stick it to the little guy — Comments (41)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:57am on Jun. 12, 2008 Redstate Posse: Rounding Up Democrats Wherever They Hide
By haystack
We all know Democrats have their own Culture of Corruption. Easy hits like Murtha's ABSCAM bribery charges which never stuck because he didn't actually "take" the money (yeah, I'll leave the earmarks his District AND his son directly benefit from out of it for now) are getting old. Of course, there's the little matter of William Jefferson who actually DID take the money and hide it in his freezer...and we shouldn't fuss over his Brother, Sister, and Niece now being indicted as well...no-there's just as much fun to be had rounding up the Scandal Scum™ outside the Beltway.
There is a green bubbling Democrat froth on the pond INSIDE the beltway, to be sure, but this week we thought we'd bring you a couple of the seven deadly sins from New Jersey, and from Maryland, and from North Carolina, and a teaser or two from Alabama...just to keep things light and fluffy.
From money laundering, to conspiracy, to bribery and mail fraud, to corruption, to perjury and obstruction of justice, to extortion...with a little sexual harassment thrown in for the easily titillated...and everything in between; Democrats make the Redstate Posse's work long and tedious, but we're sworn to serve...and that's what we'll do.
This week's blotter below the fold...
Posted in Corrupt Democrat Watch | Liberals — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:18pm on Jun. 9, 2008 Nick Lampson (Like ALL Democrats) Likes To Bite The Hands That Feed Him
By haystack
Ever notice how Democrats like to demonize those they promise to save us from while they surreptitiously take money from them all the same in order to get themselves re-elected? In today's episode of Democrat hypocrisy, let us consider the money Nick Lampson has received from the very groups he wants to make his potential voters believe are the biggest problem this country has ever faced.[mp3 audio] Lampson suggests there are 4 main industries that are getting all the money in our country. 1- Defense(not the troops but the defense industry) - the weapons makers. 2- Oil. 3- Insurance. 4- Pharmaceuticals. The money quote starts at 1:18:
"Across the board, where those industries are putting their finances into, you’ll see that politicians get the big contributions from the lobbyists who work for those four industries and they work on the legislators to pass the legislation that benefits those industries so that more money will go there.
So, I asked myself..."haystack? Where does Lampson get his campaign contributions?" and shock of all shocks...it's from many of the same types of people he tells this audience are the biggest problem with the country today.
Hunh? Whodathunk?
I worked up a little summary from my clicking around a bit. Between 1998 and 2008 (near as I can figure), compliments of these 4 so-called evil industries, Lampson has dumped a lot of cash into his pockets:
Defense Oil/Gas Insurance Pharmaceuticals
$72,500 $92,923 $7,250 $14,000
He goes on to suggest the whole money game is an iron triangle. Funny, that. Out here in the sticks we use a triangle to call everyone home for supper. Wonder how long before Lampson goes hungry once his donors find out he's tearing them up behind their backs...
Oh, and by the way, it looks like Lampson received $329,117 in contributions from Moveon.org on top of that...boy howdy...he's doing pretty good for being out to save the little guy, ain't he?