Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Wake Up America

Another post received via email, which screams to be shared:

Pamela "Atlas" Geller began her publishing career at The New York Daily News and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She left The Observer after the birth of her fourth child but remained involved in various projects including American Associates, Ben Gurion University and being Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and Performance Evaluation at The Brandeis School.

After 9/11, Atlas had the veil of oblivion violently lifted from her consciousness and immersed herself in the education and understanding of geopolitics, Islam, terror, foreign affairs and imminent threats the mainstream media and the government wouldn't cover or discuss.

by Pam Geller

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codified into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people whom we know could never pay back? Why? We learned recently that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September.

Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "We the People," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change.. Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning.

I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission.

And then he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media - Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and .. . .. change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though ..

Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years - a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe - and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong. But, I do not think I am.


*************************************************************** Since many of you enjoy senior citizen status or will sometime in the not too distant future, I thought you might be interested in this information.

IN GOD WE TRUST

Most of you know by now that the Senate version
(at least) of the "stimulus" bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited today by Bloomberg with the following statement.

Bloomberg: "Daschle says health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them."

If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject to this new law if it passes.

Please use the power of the Internet to get this message out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We have an election coming up in one year and nine months. We have the ability to address and reverse the dangerous direction the Obama administration and it allies have begun and in the interim, we can make our voices heard! Lets do it!

If you disagree, don't do anything.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Letter to the White House

I received this letter via email. The author is unknown to me, but it certainly expresses the feelings that many appear to share.

April 23, 2009


The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


Mr. Obama:

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.

You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.

I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe ? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directlyfrom this heritage. Do you not understand this?

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don't show Great Britain , our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you!

You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey . You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What's the matter with you?

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.

You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.

What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members * on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven't said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn't!

Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million * not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now.

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.

Sincerely,

Every real American

Sunday, April 26, 2009

What Next?

It seems we failed to learn much from 9/11. Rather than protecting our borders, we've thrown them open to be helpful and politically correct, but to what end? Our Chief of Homeland Security elects to use the phrase, "Man-made disaster," over "Terrorism," so have we now created a true man-made disaster by allowing ourselves to be exposed to a pandemic?

Latest news is that the US has declared a public health emergency because of the Swine Flu that has now invaded the US from Mexico. New York reports 8 possible cases and two have just been confirmed in Kansas. For years, conscientious medical officials have warned of the possible health risks imposed by allowing those from other countries who have not been inoculated inside our own borders. Are we liable to see the revival of the diseases from which we've ceased protecting ourselves because of their dormancy? Maybe we should listen to those who know medicine and stop trusting agencies who don't give health threats a second thought.

When do we start worrying more about ourselves and less about those who live in other countries? I know we are a humane race and we want to take care of the world, but do we want to die trying to do it?

Borrowed from http://www.michellemalkin.com:

A new flu strain that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico could become a pandemic, the World Health Organization warned on Saturday, as health experts tried to track the disease’s spread.

Hospitals tested patients with flu symptoms for the never-before-seen virus, which has also infected eight people in the United States. No further deaths had come to light since Friday afternoon, but officials warned the person-to-person infections meant there was a risk of a major outbreak…

…Mexico has shut schools, cinemas and museums and canceled public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections. Weekend soccer matches were played in empty stadiums and people on the street wore face masks.

The strain of flu has spread fast between people and infected some individuals who had no contact with one another.

The WHO says the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients is genetically the same as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas. All of the eight later recovered.

An emergency committee of WHO experts, convening on Saturday, will advise Chan on issues including possibly changing the WHO’s pandemic alert level, currently 3 on a scale of 1 to 6.


Scary stuff!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I worked at an institution of higher education for over two decades, and many of those years were spent processing applications for admission. Back then, my children were approaching college age and I wondered, even if they showed the vaguest interest in attending, how I would ever afford it. I was working fulltime as was my then husband, and the cost at a major university was beyond our reach. With President Obama putting Education at the top of his list, I thought it might be interesting to share some statistics with you.

Although I realize the importance of population diversity, it still reeked of sour lemons to see how many international students took spots to do important research and study on our soil while our clerical people mailed denial letters to those US citizens with promising GPAs and letters of recommendations so our campus could diversify. I always wondered why tax payers children didn't warrant more consideration than a 'thank you for applying, but..."

I also questioned the lack of concern with with paperwork issued to obtain student visas, but it wasn't within my purview to know exactly how things were handled. I just know there were several instances when students were out of status and we wouldn't have known had they not come seeking assistance with the problem. Nothing was really done to track when paperwork expired to force students to depart the United States...especially once they graduated. I expected ICE would monitor that, but 9/11 proved no one was really watching out for those who had stayed beyond the limits of their visas.

In the years following 9/11, I read that international student numbers dropped. It appears from the recent report by the Institute of International Education they have risen again, and I'm always amazed at the numbers. According to IIE's website, 623,805 international students enrolled in the US in 2007/08, which reflects a 7% increase over previous years.

I found this portion of their press release interesting:

"For the seventh consecutive year, Open Doors reports that the University of Southern California hosted the largest number of international students, this year reporting 7,189. New York University moved from third to second place with 6,404 international students, and Columbia University, now in third place, hosted 6,297 international students. Rounding out the top five 2007/08 host institutions are University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (5,933 students) and Purdue University (5,772 students). Open Doors reports that 153 U.S. campuses each hosted more than 1,000 students." (For the lists of top host institutions, see http://www.opendoors.iienetwork.org.)

Ever wonder how they pay for their education?

Primary Source of Funding 2007/08 for International Students:
Personal & Family Funds - $388,821
U.S. College & University - 161,633
Home Gov't or University - 21,085
U.S. Government - 3,282
U.S. Private Sponsor - 6,013
Foreign Private Sponsor - 6,522
International Organization - 1,390
Current Employment - 29,399
Other Sources - 5,660

Total 623,805 (All funding info taken from IIE Website)

When I was handling admissions, the majority of international students coming to our campus had to certify funding for one year. After establishing residency, they became eligible for fellowship/scholarship consideration. In addition, to help them meet the financial constraints imposed to obtain a visa, many (at the Graduate level) were offered 50% teaching or research assistantships which paid quite a hefty chunk for part time work. Research assistants work in the labs under the guidance and funding of grants gained by the professors, while Teaching assistants do a large part of the instruction at the undergraduate level. For many years, we handled complaints about the language differences, until the campus finally imposed a SPEAK test which international students had to pass in order to hold a TA position. So...I wonder how much of the current employment numbers should actually fall under U.S. University funding as those salaries came out of the budget there.

I'm all for helping to educate the world, but I really think our own children should take precedence. In addition, I believe that when we are add odds with a country, all students and visitors on visas should immediately be sent home. Just my thoughts, but hey...I'm retired now. *smile*

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Seriously?

During the campaign, I cringed when people referred to Sarah Palin as 'soccer mom,' as if that was a bad thing. Honestly, I think the woman got a bad rap in the deal. Clearly, she's smart enough to head a state and has had just as much experience as President Obama, but I digress.

Sarah's party not only lost the election, her running mate, who so strongly endorsed her as his Vice President and cheered her to her face, promptly stabbed her in the back with his public refusal to support her in a future bid for President. Evidently, he only agreed to her on a shared ticket, hoping to garner votes from the females who planned to support Hilary. Basically, he used her. Men...you can't live with 'em, and you can't shoot 'em.

So, instead we have VP Biden. Now here's a prize. The man has been a proven plagiarist several times over--snippets of his speeches compare verbatim to famous speakers who preceded him. He even, in an interview with Katy Couric on CBS Evening news, showed his ignorance about US history. While making reference to the Great Depression, he said, "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Now while on the surface, it might sound plausible, Herbert Hoover was president...and in 1929, television was still in the experimental stages.

Sure, we all make mistakes sometimes, but when you hold one of the highest offices in the nation, you'd better watch what you say...everyone else surely will. *smile*

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I surprise myself, because for most of my adult life, I've kept my head buried, content only to listen to network news reports, and pay little attention to our government at work. In many ways, I wish I was still that same person because it was a lot less frustrating and a whole lot less scary.

More people need to sit up and pay attention to where our country is headed. The time to act is now, not once we arrive. I saw a perfect sign at the Tea Party in Nashville..."If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Sounds logical to me, but our current administration can't seem to put the shovels down.

Unfortunately, with our first 'president of color', people who disagree tend to find themselves labeled as racists or extremists. I could care less if Mr. Obama turned purple tomorrow, I still wouldn't view the choices he and congress are making as wise ones because I tend to believe what Beck, Hannity and those on Fox News report. You'll never hear most of what happens on ABC, NBC and CBS because like the special interest groups that have Congress by the wallet, the network news will never slant a negative report toward our nation's leaders. Here's a sample of opinions you'll not see shared there:

Monday, April 20, 2009

Can You Believe It?

Besides this little cartoon meter of the Obama Administration's spending, there is actually a website tracking how many of the 500 promises the new President made during his campaign speeches have been kept, are in the works or have yet to see action. I found it quite interesting, and it might be something you'll want to follow:
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/browse/

Given the fact he hasn't been in office that long, he has made good on some of his promises, but I believe his biggest lie came when he signed a pork-laden Omnibus bill after promising to do a line-by-line veto of excess earmarks. Blaming the Bush Administration for putting in the earmarks was a cop out in my opinion.

I also scratch my head at his appointees. Tim Geithner, a known tax cheat in the treasury? Janet Napolitano as head of Homeland Security? Wasn't she the Governor from Arizona who refused to consider a fence on the border. Yeah, the same Arizona that's now having so much trouble with the Mexican cartel and drugs. And then there's Leon Panetta as head of the CIA?

Quoted from the Los Angeles Times: "He would step into the post at a time when the CIA is struggling to stay abreast of the demands of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the pursuit of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups."

Shouldn't someone directing an organization so crucial to our national security be a little more informed about the duties he's going to step into? I guess I'm basing my decision on applying for past job openings. No matter how impressive your credentials, usually employers prefer you have some experience that ties into the job description. Maybe President Obama used the "Magic Eightball" to decide who to appoint to these positions. I'm not feeling very safe, knowing I'm one of the "right-wing extremists" the Department of Homeland Security warned about when issuing alerts about the Tea Party attendees. I've been a Democrat most of my life and I'm left-handed. So there!

I Couldn't Resist Sharing

Sunday, April 19, 2009

My Other House

Welcome to my other house--the one where I can be as vocal as I want without offending my fans and fellow authors. I actually don't consider myself an 'offensive' person, but evidently my posts concerning political issues rub some people the wrong way. I decided rather than risk losing fans who appreciate my novels and novellas, I'd be better off to establish a site where people can elect to visit to see what's driving me crazy. I guess despite Janine Garofolo's unfair labeling of those who participated in Tea Parties as redneck racists without a clue, she still has some adoring fans out there. Who knew?

Don't get me wrong...this won't be about just politics...but anything considered taboo on my other site will fit nicely here.

Stay tuned for more. :)
WARNING: I support the office of the President, not the person currently holding it!