If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).

I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 5 or 6 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).

I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.

I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.

And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, always remember: We do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

There were explosions at an Iranian nuclear facility. Israel is saying that these explosions were not accidental.

Although there have been reports about GM doing much better, what appears to be at the heart of these reports is, GM is receiving quite a number of subprime loans (guess from who?), and they are building a LOT of cars. Apparently, they are not also selling these cars. So far, I don’t believe that this story is getting much play in the media.

The CEO of General Motors has offered to buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire. There are approximately 6000 Volts on U.S. roads today.

Abound Solar, a green energy company, was given a $400 million Department of Energy loan guarantee for a project expected to create 400 permanent jobs. There is apparently a close relationship between Abound Solar and Bohemian Companies, which was founded by billionaire and Obama bundler Pat Stryker.

Obama Department of Energy just awarded $230,000 In Taxpayer dollars to a website that promotes "Green Jobs;" however, it apparently forbids the listing of any actual jobs.

In a story out just this week, Bloomberg news reported that the Fed, with some involvement from Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner, made $7.77 trillion in loans to troubled banks during the height of the credit crisis in late 2008 and early 2009. This was unknown to the general public until now.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in secret talks with European leaders while there are reports the IMF could intervene in the financial problems of Europe. Conservatives say they will try to block the International Monetary Fund from bailing out Italy and Spain, which they say could leave U.S. taxpayers with a huge bill.

The Seattle public transit system has rejected an advertising campaign urging people to buy American and shop locally because the advertising was seen as too political. They have since reversed this decision.

In our government’s rush to remove anything which may discriminate against homosexuals in the armed forces, the sodomy law was repealed. However, with this, went out bestiality as well. So, the Senate has been taking some time debating and determining whether or not the military should ban bestiality.

The United States Senate voted for the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows for indefinite military detention without a trial for American citizens. Now, I have no problem with that being applied to someone picked up on the battlefield who is engaged in battle with us; but can this be applied to any group that the government has determined to be “anti-government”? Apparently Rand Paul got the Senate to approve the measure by an actual vote as opposed to the voice vote. The indefinite military detention was removed, apparently, because of Paul.

The Justice Department provided documents to Congress which revealed that department officials have been giving inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the unfortunate law enforcement initiative where guns were allowed to walk across the border.

The American Civil Liberties Union has begun a petition asking for Apple to update Siri to direct users to places to access birth control or abortion clinics when asked.

President Barack Obama says Congress should pass a payroll tax cut before their end-of-the year break, and he's raising the possibility that "we can all spend Christmas here together." The president promises that he will keep pushing Congress to approve the payroll tax cut.

On December 17^th, the President will take a 17 holiday to Hawaii, making his first visit there since November of 2011.

Huffington Post internships can be bought on CharityBozz.com, which sold one for $5200 this week. Yes, they pay to be an intern there.

The ACLU has called on the FBI to immediately remove all biased training materials and intelligence products, and to establish effective standards and procedures both to vet trainers and analysts and to ensure that training is aimed at actual threats, not prejudice. This means, they do not want references to Islam and terrorism placed together in training manuals for the FBI or for the military. In a related story, there are now over 18,000 radical Islam attacks which have occurred throughout the world since 9/11.

The Taliban recent purchased Sherzai, 13 year old boy, for 15,000 Pakistani rupees (170 dollars). He was going to be used to carry out a suicide attack. Sherzai did escape from the Taliban.

Over the past year, it has become apparent that there are Haqqani death squads who target specific officials, informants and people they just don’t like in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. The are responsible for at least 250 assassinations and public executions.

As I have said on several occasions, we should have enforced religious tolerance and a Bill of Rights in Iraq. This week, there have been riots against Christian held businesses in Iraq, in what was described as a pre-planned assault where witnessing police did nothing.

Amnesty International has called for George W. Bush to be arrested while traveling in Africa, promoting AIDS relief efforts. Bush is wildly popular in much of Africa.

California Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, a Democrat, is out pushing his California Opportunity and Prosperity Act, which essentially will make California a sanctuary state.

Presidential hopeful Herman Cain, who has been dogged by a bevy of women who have claimed sexual harassment, sexual assault or sexual affairs, is suspending his campaign.

Boston Police commissioner is complaining that crime is out of control with the Occupy movement there. The mayor seems to be a supporter of the movement and is issuing no orders to curtail it.

Occupy Wall Street activists are protesting plans for a California firm to open a location in Cedar Rapids where it will build drones that will be used for emergency response and police work. They are concerned that drones will be used to spy on innocent people.

Van Jones is encouraging the 99% to occupy ports and to shut down ports all over the United States. After reviewing a list of their ports, it seems clear that they do not know where the 3^rd largest port in United States is.

Earlier this year, a man won $2 million in a lottery; he continues to receive food stamps.

Vanessa Gibbs, was detained for a long time at the airport because her purse had a gun design on it: “And she [the TSA agent] was like, well, you know this is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun; I’m like, but it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense? ...common sense, it’s a purse, not a weapon.” Although a well-placed duh may have been appropriate, Vanessa still made her point.

President Barack Obama on the campaign trail: "I'm going to need another term to finish the job."

President Barack Obama: “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition. I'm not going to remind people of what I said not just during the campaign, but even on the night we won. I said real change, big change is hard. It takes time. It takes more than a single term. It may take more than a single president.”

President Obama: "Tonight, Senate Republicans chose to raise taxes on nearly 160 million hardworking Americans because they refused to ask a few hundred thousand millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.”

Obama on the payroll tax cut: “Let’s just be clear: if they vote no, your taxes go up; if they vote yes, you get a tax cut.”

Obama: “Tell them [the republicans] not to vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays. Tell them to put country before party. Put money back in the pockets of working Americans. Pass these tax cuts.”

Barack Obama: "We still have a health care system that has to get more efficient and that has to improve its quality. And so we're going to have to implement the Affordable Care Act in 2014, and that means I've got to win in 2012."

Obama on his kids: "Our kids are going to be fine. And I always tell Malia and Sasha, look, you guys, I don't worry about you - I mean, I worry the way parents worry - but they're on a path that is going to be successful, even if the country as a whole is not successful. But that's not our vision of America. I don't want an America where my kids are living behind walls and gates, and can't feel a part of a country that is giving everybody a shot."

First of all, is this real? What if this was a text message from Herman Cain to his latest accuser? Would he not be considered having an affair with a message like this?

Vice President Joe Biden on Iraq: "We're not claiming victory. What we're claiming here is we've done our job the administration said it would do. To end a war we did not start, to end it in a responsible way.”

When asked if he would run for president in 2016, Joe Biden answered: "I am never ready to close the door on anything. I am intent on reelecting Barack Obama president of the United States of America. The rest will take care of itself."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: "I don't know what the middle class ever did to the Republicans that they're so out to get them...whether it's job creation, economic growth, the tax code and the rest - the deck is getting stacked against the middle class."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta: "National security is not just dependent on military power; It's also dependent, [among other things], on the quality of life in this country - to educate our kids, to provide health care. All of that is part of our national security.”

DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "[Republicans] know they can't win elections on the merits, so they're trying to rig elections by blocking people's access to the polls." By blocking access, she means requiring a picture ID in order to vote, a measure which has recently been passed in several states.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis: "Last year the unemployment rate was at 9.8%, this time around it's at 8.6. Can we do better? Absolutely. That's why I think the president's plan to come up with some alternatives like extending the payroll tax, extending U.I. (unemployment) benefits are all going to help put people back to work."

Former SEIU Chief Andy Stern who Obama had appointed to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility: “The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model-so successful in the 20^th century, is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA's results-a jobless decade, 30 years of flat median wages, a trade deficit, a shrinking middle class and phenomenal gains in wealth but only for the top 1%-are pathetic. This should motivate leaders to rethink, rather than double down on an empirically failing free-market extremism. As painful and humbling as it may be, America needs to do what a once-dominant business or sports team would do when the tide turns: study the ingredients of its competitors' success. ”

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius: “[The nation's health] really is an issue of national security," she told the nurses group, adding that a healthy, productive work force "is an essential part of our prosperity." Again, only a problem that government can conceive of and therefore only a problem that government can solve.

Recently homeless woman with 12 children in Tampa, her husband having been arrested: "Somebody needs to pay, all my children...Somebody needs to be held accountable, and they needs to pay." There is one organization which pays for her rent now and her furniture, but according to the news report, that is not enough.

Democrat Congresswoman Donna Edwards to Occupy D.C. people, as part of a chant: "It’s not fair, it’s not right; It's time for us to occupy America."

Handwritten sign of a solitary protester perched on a railing at the edge of Zuccotti Park: "You Can't Occupy An Idea."

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, who poses as a “conservative blogger” for WaPo: “Well, I think part of the conservative media operates in opposition to what they see as the liberal media. That is their cause, that's the way they gather an audience. That's entertainment for many of their viewers, and I think sometimes that overrides their other function or their other role which is news coverage, news analyzation, and the rest. So, I think we've had a lot of sort of defensive media from the right. I actually think that is changing however somewhat over the last few weeks. And the last few days, rather. And I think you see a more critical vein now that he is rising in the polls, now that there is a lot of questions about his past, now that his past representation of Freddie Mac, now that his positions on global warming, on the individual mandate are coming out, you're seeing a much more critical voice begin to emerge.”

PBS’s Mark Shields: “The Republican field - Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman - stand between a landslide reelection victory of Barack Obama if Newt Gingrich is the nominee. If Newt Gingrich is the nominee, it will not be a competitive race. It will be a landslide. It will be a walk to reelection at a time when the nation needs a major debate.”

Colby King, Washington Post: “I like everything that is going on right now [in the Republican primarry]. God answers Democratic prayers. And so, I hope if we just hold on, Newt will make it, and make it to the nomination. That would be just beautiful [because Newt can be easily defeated by Obama, was his point, agreeing the Shields].”

Time Magazine columnist Joe Klein: “Newt probably is a more serious contender than Herman Cain was. Cain was clearly just a parking place, and especially after we started to attack Cain; then, you know, Republicans -- populist Republicans -- decided to support Cain just to send us a message.”

ABC’s David Kerley on Herman Cain possibly ending his campaign: “[Cain] called himself the CEO of self. Is he about to fire himself? Has the Cain train made its last run? We are getting some indications from supporters and some staff members that he may end his campaign, no final word. One Web site is suggesting that Mrs. Cain wants him out, and he has said that Mrs. Cain could decide to reduce the Republican field by one candidate.” This is news with a heavy insertion of ridicule.

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir: "But if Herman Cain is proven to be lying and drops out of the race, doesn't that also disqualify him from holding a position in the local church? ...[The church doctrine says this] ‘Nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth but his own determined depravity and voluntary rejection of the Gospel.’ If Mr. Cain withdraws from politics, then he must surely resign his position in the church, because one thing is for certain: Hypocrites can lie in the pew, but they should never lead from the pulpit.”

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “And, Jake, stand by, because we also have some news from Herman Cain. Yesterday, he gave this interview to the Manchester Union Leader where he said, and this was a surprise, that his wife didn't know anything about Ginger White, the girlfriend that we spoke to earlier this week.” In case you do not get this, Ms. White has never been proven to be Cain’s girlfriend. If text messages and emails make someone your girlfriend, then Stephanopoulos has a several dozen of them.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, reacting to Herman Cain suspending his campaign: “Well, first of all, what is the fundamental strategic goal to the entire bizarre charade? . . . Fundamentally, this entire bizarre song-and-dance was about making sure he could keep getting donations and for making an exit from this campaign that preserves his status as a highly-paid [more derisive laughter] motivational speaker . . . Herman Cain is really sort of the perfect example of what, I think it was Mark Halperin, called the freak show.”

NBC’s Brian Williams: “The Newt Gingrich that a lot of folks will remember from his speakership days back in the '90s was back on display making statements about controversial issues that left some of his critics slack-jawed. Our report from NBC's Chuck Todd.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd: “Former Speaker Gingrich was quintessential Newt in Iowa today, making broad assertions and diving into issues that haven't been front and center, like child labor laws and the work habits of the poorest Americans.”

Newt Gingrich on video: “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works.”

Todd: “Those remarks came as Gingrich tried to clarify his claim at Harvard two weeks ago that child labor laws are quote, truly stupid.”

Yeah, that’s exactly what is going on; Newt Gingrich is out to overturn the child labor laws.

CBS's Jan Crawford: “Now, Gingrich is going to be hit hard for his ties to corporate interests, the ethics allegations, and charges he faced when he was Speaker of the House- you know, even his personal relationships- his adulterous affairs. So this ad just shows what he's got to face in the weeks ahead, and his opponents are ready to attack, to start eroding that frontrunner status.” This was only one of several Republican and Newt bashing quotes during this relatively short segment.

Chris Matthews to Barney Frank: “Let me ask you about good and evil...do you believe that there’s some people like New Gingrich that personify one side of this Manichean struggle in our life?”

Barney Frank: “I really dislike Gingrich and disapprove of him...I wouldn’t call him evil...in Gingrich’s case, there is an unusually preponderance of the bad qualities.”

New NPR President Gary Knell: “I think the important thing here is that our audience does not feel that we are promoting a political agenda. So these questions come in whether there is going to be an impression of a political agenda if reporters, journalists or producers are also advocating political positions. And I think part of joining a news organization is the need, I think, to present a fair and balanced view and not have that sacrificed in some way, where people can perceive bias.”

As an aside, I listened to NPR Saturday morning, and Obama’s agenda and point-of-view was promoted clearly and without any sort of criticism; while Herman Cain, in the next segment, was presented in a very negative light.

Former secretary of state Zbigniew Brezinski: “The West today is somewhat corrupt, uneasy about its own value system. The United States is becoming rapidly one of the most socially unjust societies in the world. And that is raising basic questions about the relevance of the West to a world that is now universally awakened.”

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell: “I agree with just about everything that Dr. Brzezinski has said, except that I'm not as optimistic as you are about the Eurozone [Brzezinski had predicted that Europe will solve its financial crisis]. The disparities between rich and poor is this country are the underlying tension. You see the exaggerated forms of it on both sides. With what we saw with the Tea Party, the objection to a social compact on health care a couple of years ago. And then, the emergence of the Occupy movement. That's a real movement. There is real passion and anger there.”

Kevin Boyle, from the New York Times this week: “Imagine a political movement created in a moment of terrible anxiety, its origins shrouded in a peculiar combination of manipulation and grass-roots mobilization, its ranks dominated by Christian conservatives and self-proclaimed patriots, its agenda driven by its members' fervent embrace of nationalism, nativism and moral regeneration, with more than a whiff of racism wafting through it. No, not that movement. The one from the 1920s, with the sheets and the flaming crosses and the ludicrous name meant to evoke a heroic past. The Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, they called it. And for a few years it burned across the nation, a fearsome thing to -behold.”

Markos "Kos" Moulitsas: "For a while, Republicans were talking about class war. 'We can't have class war.' But what they're realizing is that people kind actually do want a class war, they want to go after the rich. So that wasn't working, so this is, I guess, Plan B."

Keith Olbermann: "Yeah, to say nothing of the fact that there has been a class war in progress for 30 years and it was waged by the rich on the poor."

President Obama, from 2009: "I will be held accountable. I've got four years and . A year form now, I think people are going to see that we're starting to make some progress, but there's still going to be some pain out there . If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition."

President Obama, in November 2009: "I think that we've restored America's standing in the world, and that's confirmed by polls."

From Grrlmissbhaven (typical liberal blog) almost immediately after Gabby Giffords was shot: “It appears that Sarah Palin and Glen Beck's rhetoric really does work. Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D) was shot in the head by terrorist Jared Loughner. She is still in critical condition. A nine-year-old girl was shot, a Federal Judge, and a few on-lookers were shot and killed, with an additional amount of others injured. The gunman is (not surprisingly) tied to a White Nationalist group known as the American Renaissance, an anti-immigration, anti-semitic, anti-anything that isn't white and stupid kind of group...This tragedy is a clear example of partisanship gone too far. Right-wing media is demanding that its angry white citizens "take America back" from the supposed leftists in our country (ironically Gabrielle Giffords was considered more of a Blue Dog Dem.) The prayers of Sarah Palin and Glen Beck have been answered. "Don't retreat- reload" has trumped political debate and compromise. What these kind of people want is another Civil War. It also makes one wonder what this means for the election of 2012. How can Republicans redeem themselves when their party has been tainted racists and bigots who use the 2nd Amendment as an excuse to rid the country of those who don't believe in their views? How long before someone else entranced by Fox News decides to take matters into their own hands and decide what's right for America not only by killing a politician, but American citizens all together?”

And, of course, there was a large map of the districts that were “targeted” for takeover, which was, of course, code, that white conservatives should take up arms and go kill the Democratic representatives and senators in that district.

From Rmuse in 2010 posted on Politics USA: “For the past 21 months, and during this election cycle, there is an increase in hate and vitriol from groups like the Tea Party (led by Jim DeMint et al) that are directly tied to the Ku Klux Klan`s ideology. There are members of the Tea Party who are not blatant racists, but for the most part, teabaggers espouse a return to a white-only America that is in direct contrast to the Constitution and freedoms it guarantees for all Americans. Unlike the KKK, teabagger groups mask their bigoted philosophy with notions of protecting liberty and returning to the strictest interpretation of the Constitution. Regardless the teabag rhetoric, at the core is a hatred of gays, immigrants, Jews, people of color, and non-Christians, which is exactly the same philosophy of the KKK.”

The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former non-voting delegate who represented the District of Columbia: "We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux -- I meant to say the Tea Party. You all forgive me, but I -- you have to use them interchangeably."

Rachel Maddow, of MSNBC on the TEA party’s response to Tom Tancredo calling for literacy tests for voters: “[However] it was hard to tell exactly what the sounds meant because they were sort of a little bit muffled by the white hoods [they were wearing].”

Radio personality Randi Rhodes: “Gingrich, of course, is identified by the Washington Post as a man of ideas - oh yeah, he's got ideas. Uh -so do ax murderers, so do Dick Cheney, so did George Bush - but so what? I've been railing on this piece of human waste for the past couple of nights now because I know Gingrich! You know- I - I spent enough time around this freak when he was a member of Congress from um the congressional district right next door to us and I've been to enough public functions in Atlanta over the past 20 years to have gotten, in a sense, to know what this smelly bastard is like. And he really is vile! I say smelly because he's got breath that would knock a buzzard off a crapwagon from 100 yards. He really is a bad man!”

Mike Malloy, previously employed by CNN: “Republicans really don't wanna be talking about character, 'cause when it comes to Mitt Romney, it raises questions of why did he tie his dog to the roof of his car...When you're talking about Newt Gingrich, it has to do with being a serial adulterer...When it comes to Herman Cain, it has to do with all of this stuff that's coming out. When it comes to Rick Santorum, strange things like bringing home a miscarriage and putting it on the mantel for the kids to look at. Strange character stuff in the Republican Party.”

Retiring Rep. Barney Frank: "Mitt Romney is the tin woodman without the heart, and Rick Perry is the scarecrow [who has no brain]...Newt's the Wizard of Oz."

Iranian cleric Sharif: "Today, 70% of married American women say that they would be happier if they had a dog and a Toyota instead of a husband...[some Americans] would rather marry animals and robots than a human being."

Kuwaiti preacher Sheik Nayef Hajjaj Al-Ajami, on Kuwait TV: “Brothers and sisters, you should read history books, so you my know the history of this people, and so you may know that the Jews of the past were evil, and the Jews of today are even worse. They are ungrateful, they distort the word [of Allah], the worshipers of the golden calf, the slayers of the prophets, the enemies of the divine prophecies, the scum of mankind, who incurred the curse and wrath of Allah, and whom Allah transformed into apes and pigs and into taghut worshipers.”

President Barack Obama: "More than 2,000 years ago, a child was born to two faithful travelers who could find rest only in a stable, among the cattle and the sheep. But this was not just any child. Christ's birth made the angels rejoice and attracted shepherds and kings from afar. He was a manifestation of God's love for us."

Bill Clinton: "[Gingrich is] articulate and he tries to think of a conservative version of an idea that will solve a legitimate problem...I think he's doing well just because he's thinking, and people are hungry for ideas that make some sense."

MSNBC host Chris Matthews: “In terms of just a pleasant outlook for the year, this President, Barack Obama, would want to prefer, it seems to me, looking forward to a series of genteel debates with Gov. Romney where he's sort of predictable and he'll throw his Sunday punch but you know what it's going to be. Whereas Newt will have 40 or 50 follow-up punches, you won't know where they're coming from, and they may be thought up on the spot. Go ahead. Your thoughts.”

Jennifer Donahue, Huffington Post: “I totally agree. I think that Newt Gingrich turns on a dime. He's a great debater. He's not afraid to really go for the jugular. But he doesn't do it in a very negative way either. So I think he actually could do it and dismantle Obama and make it very difficult for Obama to be, to defend his record. And I also think that Gingrich has the capacity to lead on television which Romney doesn't. And Romney also doesn't connect in person.”

Mehgan McCain comparing Michel Bachmann to Sarah Palin (there is no reason to list Mehgan as a conservative): “I actually think she is more, just more smarter, I think that she's more, um, you know, on foreign policy, I just think all of the things she's done the debates I’m just very impressed. And I just think she's older and more established and, you know, she’s been a member of Congress for a very long time.”

Adam Carolla about the Occupiers: "We are now dealing with the first waves of participation trophies. . . `I feel so f- good about myself. Everybody's a winner, no one's a loser...There's something coming up in this country that didn't used to exist, and it's envy...They've been shamed by life because they haven't been prepared for life. They've had so much smoke blown up their collective a--, by the time they get out in the real world and they realize the real world doesn't give a f- where you're from or what your mommy said you were or how pretty you are...we’ve created a bunch of f___in’ self-entitled monsters.”

President Obama at a fundraiser with a preponderance of Jewish donors: “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration. And that's not just our opinion, that's the opinion of the Israeli government. Whether it's making sure that our intelligence cooperation is effective, to making sure that we're able to construct something like an Iron Dome so that we don't have missiles raining down on Tel Aviv, we have been consistent in insisting that we don't compromise when it comes to Israel's security. And that's not just something I say privately, that's something that I said in the U.N. General Assembly. And that will continue.”

An unnamed pro-Israel insider"The problem with the president is that he'll say anything to donors for the sake of a couple bucks. But fortunately most Americans aren't living on Mars--and they'll be aghast at the ridiculousness of the president's remarks."

Charles Krauthammer:"It is not and I'm sure Obama knows it. If he doesn't, he's delusional. And this is really chutzpah. This president has done more to delegitimize and undermine Israel's position in the world than any other president and he did it by arriving on the scene and imposing and demanding of Israel a freeze on settlements, including the building of the Jewish homes in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem of all places, something that had never been precondition in 17 years of negotiations."

Tax pledge guy, Grover Norquist: “The idea that if you take a dollar out of the economy and then -- from somebody who earned it, either through debt, or through taxes -- and give it to somebody who's politically connected, that there are more dollars around, that if you stand on one side of the lake and put a bucket into the lake, and walk around to the other side in front of the TV cameras, pour the bucket back into the lake and announce you're stimulating the lake to great depths. We just wasted $800 billion on stimulus spending that added to debt, that killed jobs”

Grover Norquist: "[the Democrats believe that] the peasants aren't sending enough cash in for the king to spend.”

Sarah Palin on the corruption of Congress trading on stocks based upon legislation that has not yet been passed: “It’s an entire system of public servants feathering their own nests.” Palin was very instrumental in removing corruption from both the left and the right in her home state of Alaska.

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich: “Can you really stand four more years of this?”

Newt Gingrich: “Obama can’t get elected in a clean, direct, honest campaign.”

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich: "[President Obama is] legitimately and authentically a Saul Alinsky Radical."

Retired Israeli Major-General and former national security chief Giora Eiland on explosion in Iranian nuclear site: "There aren't many coincidences...When there are so many events, there is probably some sort of guiding hand, though perhaps it's the hand of God."

Allen West: "The first thing I got sworn into was the Congressional Black Caucus. Now you talk about being fun - being the only black Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, but I did kind of get a warm welcome. John Lewis . . . John Lewis from Atlanta, Georgia - same neighborhood that I grew up in down there . . . great time. And so I'm walking up behind John Lewis and he really let me feel like this is a family man, because I kept hearing him talk about some guy named Uncle Tom. There was Maxine Waters and I thought, "Man, Maxine Waters must really have a sweet tooth because she kept talking about Oreos. and Double Stuffs at that. So I figured this was gonna be nice. I've got a family oriented guy here with John Lewis. I got someone who likes Oreo Cookies with Maxine Waters, but I'll tell you what, it's been a good experience being there with the Congressional Black Caucus."

NJ Governor Chris Christie on Obama and the Super-Committee: "I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the super-committee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn't get involved. Well then what the hell are we paying you for? It's doomed for failure so I'm not getting involved? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?"

Herman Cain on reassessing his campaign: "Since I've been campaigning all week, I haven't had an opportunity to sit down with her [his wife] and walk through this with my wife and my family. I will do that when I get back home on Friday. I am not going to make a decision until after we talk face to face."

Caller on the Dennis Miller program on Herman Cain: “There’s too much steam on the windows and not enough in the engine.” Quoted from memory.

NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham: “We have a media elite that wants to run the presidential nominating process and not let the people make the decisions. I'm tired of that, I think that a lot of people are tired of that. They ought to let the process unfold and they ought to actually do journalism instead of constantly -- All they've done for the last three days, they haven't advanced the story about who is Ginger White? Is she a viable person, somebody we can understand? They haven't been doing the journalism. All they do is have these horse race conversations about who's up, who's down, and who's going to get out. It's tiresome. People want more than that.”

Dennis Miller on Barney Frank: “I think he’s Nancy Pelosi with a spittle problem.” Okay, with Miller, may I ought to have a Conservative Civility subgroup.

Rush Limbaugh: "Every policy Obama has is designed to grow government and shrink the economy."

Rush Limbaugh: "The assumption wherever you go -- ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, USA.com, wherever you go, the assumption is Obama's gonna be reelected and the assumption is that the Republican nominee, whoever it is, is an idiot, is a flawed character, something terribly wrong about every one of them."

Rush Limbaugh: "That's all the Sunday shows are about, is which Republican can we pick apart with negative ads or opposition research to make it easier for Obama to win."

Rush Limbaugh: "If everybody could just come to grips with who liberals are, what they do, how they operate, it would be over. But somehow they've cornered the market on the fact they are compassionate. They've cornered the market on appealing to people with emotion, which is a much easier link to establish than thought."

Rush Limbaugh: "Reagan's negatives? He was a bumbling buffoon; he was dangerous; he was a cowboy; he was a bad actor; he was unproven; he was unstable. He was everything that they're saying about every one of our candidates except Romney."

Rush Limbaugh: "I have the hardest time coming to grips with the fact that people born in this country hate it. I just can't get my arms around that. Of all the other places in the world you could be, of all the other places in the world that need to be changed, improved, this is the last place. It's not perfect. Nothing ever is."

Rush Limbaugh: "American exceptionalism is not a braggadocious term. American exceptionalism is not a superiorist term. American exceptionalism is an acknowledgement that this country was an exception to the way people lived, to the way people were forced to live."

Rush Limbaugh: "There's no news anymore. The media don't even make any pretense. There's not even any mainstream press. It's just a giant White House public information office."

Rush Limbaugh: "The short answer of what's happening in Europe: it's the war between the takers and the makers, and it's the same thing happening here, folks. It is a forerunner of what we face, faster than we think, if something doesn't change."

Rush Limbaugh: "Who would have ever believed that we would have elected a president who could literally pass such a freedom-killing piece of legislation called Obamacare? Who would have believed that we would have elected a president who has purposely, systematically destroyed how many millions of jobs in the private sector for one reason, to grow the government."

Rush Limbaugh: "This election is about the individual versus the state. This upcoming election is about the public sector versus the private sector. This upcoming election is about state control of property versus individuals controlling their own private property. This is an election of the makers versus the takers, and what hangs in the balance really is the American way of life."

Rush Limbaugh: "This is serious. There are people in our country who think that this election will determine, in the long run, whether we remain a free people or not."

Rush Limbaugh: "The Founders were not perfect. There is no human being who is perfect. There's no perfect plan. Just like there's no utopia. Yet these standards somehow end up being applied to us, our candidates, conservatives, where does this come from, where does this start?"

Rush Limbaugh: "The Constitution's premise is that human beings with too much power will abuse it and imprison and tyrannize people. The whole point of it was based on the imperfection of people, and yet here we are apparently looking for the perfect -- and I'm not running, so it's not gonna be findable."

Rush Limbaugh: "We finally reached a point here, ladies and gentlemen -- and this is something I have been warning you people about for two-plus decades -- where liberals are comfortable citing communism as the endgame."

Rush Limbaugh: "What has been going on in this country since 2008 is not capitalism. Capitalism is not responsible for what's happened to this country since 2008. Barack Obama is. Capitalism does not need to be defended. Capitalism is not responsible for all of this unemployment and economic degradation. Capitalism has not been tried the last three years."

Rush Limbaugh: "The job universe from January, 2009 when Obama was immaculated to the present is down about 2.5 million jobs. There are 2.5 million fewer jobs in our country in the two and a half, almost three years now, that Obama has been in orifice -- and that's the dirty little secret."

Rush Limbaugh: "Would somebody explain to me where is the valor in sitting on your butt taking money from other people? Where is the honor, where is the greatness, where is this entitlement that allows people to get up every day and think they are owed something because of some mysterious crime against them that's gone on all of their lives."

Rush Limbaugh: "The New York Times today in an article on Barney Frank called him 'prickly,' and I think they probably meant that as a compliment given that the New York Times said it. Can you imagine what would happen if I described Barney Frank as 'prickly'?"

Rush Limbaugh: "We have articles out there all over the place today in the conservative world again about Newt and Cain and how horrible they are. We don't have any stories anywhere about how bad Obama is, how bad Obama has been. We don't have any story about how bad Pelosi and Reid or any of that is."

Rush Limbaugh: "Why are we sending kids to college if work is such a tainted concept? We're sending them to college for indoctrination. We're educating then with worthless degrees. They come out not knowing how to do anything, and they blame people who have gone a different route."

Rush Limbaugh: "Somebody tell me what is wrong with wanting to teach somebody the concept of work and being paid for it. What's wrong with it?"

Rush Limbaugh: "Work in the old days was something honorable. To want to get a job... I shined shoes when I was 13. That was my first job. I made $50 in three months shining shoes at a barber shop, and my dad was beside himself with pride. He was excited."

Rush Limbaugh: "Look at Occupy Wall Street, look at who they're mad at. They're mad at the people that build things, they're mad at the people that accomplish things, they're mad at the people that achieve things, and think those people somehow ought to be made to give it all up. When it used to be that those were the people that were admired."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, going on the attack on behalf of Mitt Romney: "Speaker Gingrich has never run anything. And he's been a legislator. I have to tell you, I don't think being a legislator is the best calling card. Look at the guy we have in the White House now. He never ran anything and was a legislator."

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney: "I am proud to announce the support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski." Ms. Murkowski has a 68% American Conservative Union voting record (by comparison, John McCain’s is 96%).

There are demonstrations in Pakistan, a nuclear country, against Obama, Hillary and the drone strikes which have become a favorite tool of President Obama.

Mike Huckabee had a great presidential “debate.” Newsmen did not ask questions, but 3 attorneys general asked the questions. There were no “gotcha” questions, and there were no pandering questions. These were tough questions which explored the philosophy of the candidates in relation to state and federal powers and the overall balance of power between the branches of government; the different regions of government, and the power of the people. If you don’t think there are 8 or more substantive candidates on the Republican side, then you have not seen this “debate” (it was actually more of a forum):

FoxNews’ Bret Baier interviews Mitt Romney. According to Baier, Romney complained to him about this interview, saying that he was overly aggressive.

I must admit that I have not paid much attention to Grover Norquist, the anti-tax conservative. David Gregory interviews him and Norquist acquits himself quite well:

O’Reilly interviews Beck this week; and it is quite good (quality of vid is so-so):

Rand Paul has been out there talking. On the Fox Business Channel, he covers a number of different topics with Gerry Willis:

Adam Carolla makes a some great points, using the F-word quite a number of times:

This girl might not be very articulate, but she seems to make a lot of sense. She was stopped and detained by a TSA agent for having a purse with a gun design on the front of it.

Jodi Miller: “New census date projects that, by the year 2050, there will be 9 million Americans over the age of 90. Unless, of course, the Supreme Court upholds Obamacare.”

Jodi Miller: “Robert Kennedy Jr.s so-called green energy company received a $1.4 billion payout from the Obama administration. Here’s a little secret; when you hear the word green, it usually refers to taxpayer money.”

Seth Meyers: “In Saudi Arabia, they warn that if women are able to drive, after 10 years, there won’t we any virgins left. Yikes, how do cars work over there? I think you’re doing it wrong.” [from memory]

1) So, when Obama talked about giving middle class Americans a tax cut (they won’t pay into social security), how many of them would like this, knowing that it came out of the pocket of another American?

2) Remember that nice comment that Clinton made about Gingrich 1.5 weeks ago? Dick Morris suggests that this is a set up. They want Newt as the opposition candidate. They have a ton of stuff on him, very little of which has been released, but will begin to pour out before the election.

3) In my lifetime, this is the first time I have seen a president clearly demand that one group of Americans give another group of Americans money. Requiring that millionaires and billionaires pay for a tax cut (the temporary removal of the payroll tax) of those who make less money. Of course, this has been done before, but never have I seen it to be so transparent.

4) Like everyone else, I am affected by news casters and news reports, and I had begun to doubt the depth of the Republican candidates. However, the Huckabee Presidential forum is fantastic. Every single candidate came off well. The forum was substantive with no gimme or no gotcha questions. If there were time limits, they were not emphasized. Once and awhile a candidate would be cut off, once he had answered the question, in order to go on to more questions. Check Watch this! for the links. And, if you are a guy, then you will certainly enjoy Pam Bondi asking many of these questions.

5) Even though Cain is out of the race, the media is still firing shots at him. This is what it means to be Palinized. You do everything you can to destroy your opponent by any means possible.

6) Show me anywhere that has over 10,000 viewers where personal potshots like this are taken at Barack Obama for anything apart from his policies? I guess part of it is, they just thought of some new clever things to say and had to say them.

The average unemployed person spends 40 minutes a day looking for a job and 3 hours and 20 minutes watching television.

Poverty in China is defined as somebody earning less than a dollar to a $1.25 a day. Poverty in the United States is defined as $29,500 for a family of four.

The federal government has accumulated $1.1 trillion in new debt in the first 11 months of calendar year 2011, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury on Thursday.

16 of the 20 green companies receiving loan guarantees from the federal government have direct ties to Obama donors and bundlers.

Sanitation officials said that they expect to haul away 30 tons of debris from the Occupy L.A. encampment.

Nearly 3000 “honor” attacks were recorded by Great Britain police last year. Such an attack is against Muslim women who have dishonored their family in some way.

Tax cuts = extension of the payroll holiday for another year; to be paid for by another set of taxpayers.

Is it legitimate take money from a millionaire and give that money to another taxpayer?

The Democrats have been struggling to find the issue that Obama can run on, since his signature legislation, the healthcare law, and Dodd-Frank and the Stimulus Laws are generally viewed unfavorably, they have hit upon the temporary suspension of the payroll taxes; the payroll tax holiday, as it were. They want Republicans to do 2 things: cave to this demand for a tax cut and, at the same time, pay for it by taxing millionaires and billionaires. This is being framed as a “tax cut for millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the middle class.” This is a fairly astute move on the part of Democrats because this gives them an issue to run on, and a two-fer, if Republicans agree to it. They desperately want Republicans to raise the taxes for anyone; and they want to be seen as those who are looking out for the middle class, giving them every possible tax break possible. If they can hang tough on this issue—and the media will back them up and talk about it over and over—this will give Obama a clear talking point to seel himself. If nothing passes, this is just as good—the Republicans protected their rich friends and simultaneously prevented Democrats giving a tax break to most Americans.

The NY Times, of course, does a lead story on this, rooting clearly for the Democrats:

Whereas, you might find a 15 page story in the website of the NY Times (or the Washington Post) that chronicles Newt’s marriages, his infidelities, along with the various mistakes that he has made; a similar article will not be printed which contrasts his vision of America with Obama’s; or his approach to economic policy (or foreign policy) versus Obama’s; or his approach to the constitution versus the liberal approach to the constitution.

I have predicted this before, but let me say it again; this coming election is going to be bloody and vicious. Whoever the Republican candidate is will receive relentless pounding by the media and by the press. Just as you saw, 4 years ago, flattering pictures of Obama on the cover of nearly every magazine, with a bright cheerful story inside, expect to find a myriad of stories everywhere, about how much of a rat Newt is (assuming that he is the Republican nominee).

I am pretty certain that Obama is going to hold firm on the payroll tax cut combined with the tax increases for high income taxpayers. He doesn’t have any issues really to run on, apart from the flaws of his opponents, and this gives him a class warfare issue that he hopes will resonate. Give $1000 to almost every single voter and get, in exchange, the Republicans to fold on raising the taxes of high income voters. It is a powerful ploy and it is tough to determine if taxpayers as a whole will recognize that, what Obama has done so far is pretty awful.

This is a pretty easy call: most of those in the Cain camp will endorse Gingrich, include Herman Cain himself. However, it is possible that Cain will not say anything until after Iowa and New Hampshire, if he is on the ballot at that time.

Don’t be surprised if strong liberal groups begin pouring money into the Libertarian party. This is a key to Obama winning; split the conservative vote.

2 or 3 weeks ago, I remarked about how, the young adults today are those who were kept from competition, received ribbons and trophies for participation (and losing), and now these belong to the Occupy movement. Rush, Sean Hannity and Adam Carolla all made that observation this week.

People will vote in 2012 without realizing what has happened between 2009–2012.

President Warms Congress about Christmas Vacation while Setting up 17-Day Vacation in Hawaii

Similar headlines will be missing for the next year or so from the mainstream media; no matter who the Republican candidate is.

I was listening to NPR this morning, which I often do on Saturday mornings, and there was a story about Barack Obama followed by a story on Herman Cain. On their webpage on Herman Cain, on today’s story, they write But under the glare of the national spotlight he fumbled policy questions, leaving questions about whether he was ready for the presidency. On this show this am, they said about the same thing.

Now, I want you to hearken back to when candidate Obama was on the campaign trail, and he said that there are some ireputable doctors out there who, rather than try to catch diabetes as soon as possible, would rather wait until a person’s foot was ready to fall off, and then they could saw it off and make more money. Obama said this, he was serious, he never withdrew this absurd allegation, and yet, how many media sources came out with headlines, like, “Do you really want this man to run healthcare?” “Is Obama really ready?” “This is the stupidest allegation a presidential candidate has ever made.” “Obama should apologize to doctors.” Nope. You did not see or hear that; not on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the NY Times, the Washington Post, etc. etc. etc.

There were also some ridiculous allegations about sexual activity that Obama participated in. Do you recall seeing any stories on it? Did you see 90 stories from one media source on this, and questions about it every time Obama took questions? Of course not! I believe that the accuser is a nut and should have been given little or no credibility; and the same seems to be true of Cain’s accusers. But, these things are presented as facts. There are people who really believe that Cain is a serial sex harasser, although there is not a single description out there of him doing anything. One of his accusers came forward by name. What did he do to her? We don’t know. She’s never said. However, people have just assumed that he is guilty of sexual harassment, not only without proof, but without an actual description of what took place.

I have mentioned the double standard so many times. Do you know about Clinton? He was accused by over a dozen women who would come out and allow themselves to be named and questioned, one of whom accused him of rape; another of whom accused him of sexual assault. Do you recall the press running story after story after story on this? There were more stories on Herman Cain in the first two hours of the first accusation than there were of Clinton’s most reported accusers in total (apart from Monica Lewinsky). And don’t forget—Clinton paid off one of these women to the tune of $800,000+; so these could not have been all made up stories.

Cain did not pay off any of his accusers; Cain apparently never went to court and was never involved closely with any of the cases against him. His company found it more efficient to settle at least one case, without involving Cain directly.

So, how do you explain this? One candidate says that your doctor wants to cut your foot off because he can make more money, and that absurd and stupid allegation is all but ignored by the media. Another candidate stumbles on knowing what Obama is doing in Libya, and he is castigated for it; and this brain freeze reveals just another reason why he is not ready to be president.

One candidate is accused of sexual harassment, but without any specifics whatsoever being offered, and 90 stores on this come out within a week from one source alone. Another man—Bill Clinton—is accused of far worse, and a handful of media even report these charges; and fewer focus on they payout or the large numbers of accusers (Cain has nothing on Clinton when it comes to number of accusers).

These are all candidates and presidents in the same arena; but, conservatives get continually harangued by media coverage; and liberals skate away as if nothing happened. There’s nothing to see here. Why don’t we just MoveOn (dot org)?

America is getting poorer. The U.S. government has just released a bunch of new statistics about poverty in America, and once again this year the news is not good. According to a special report from the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. The number of those living in poverty in America has grown by 2.6 million in just the last 12 months, and that is the largest increase that we have ever seen since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959.

Not only that, median household income has also fallen once again. In case you are keeping track, that makes three years in a row. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the United States dropped 2.3% in 2010 after accounting for inflation. Overall, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation since December 2007. So should we be excited that our incomes are going down and that a record number of Americans slipped into poverty last year? Should we be thrilled that the economic pie is shrinking and that our debt levels are exploding? All of those that claimed that the U.S. economy was recovering and that everything was going to be just fine have some explaining to do.

Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty. Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty. The last time the poverty level was this high was back in 1993.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the government definition of poverty rises based on the rate of inflation. If inflation was still calculated the way that it was 30 or 40 years ago, the poverty line would be much, much higher and millions more Americans would be considered to be living in poverty.

So why is poverty in America exploding? Who is getting hurt the most? How is America being changed by this? What is the future going to look like if we remain on the current path?

Unemployment is rampant and the number of good jobs continues to shrink. Once upon a time in America, if you really wanted a job you could go out and get one. Today, competition for even the lowest paying jobs has become absolutely brutal. There simply are not enough chairs at the "economic table", and not being able to get a good job is pushing large numbers of Americans into poverty.....

*There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million people to the population since then.

*Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

*If you gathered together all of the unemployed people in the United States, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world.

*According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if you factored in all of the short-term discouraged workers, all of the long-term discouraged workers and all of those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, the real unemployment rate right now would be approximately 23 percent.

*If you have been unemployed for at least one year, there is a 91 percent chance that you will not find a new job within the next month.

The number of low income jobs is rising while the number of high income jobs is falling. This has created a situation where the number of "the working poor" in America is absolutely skyrocketing. Millions of Americans are working as hard as they can and yet they still cannot afford to lead a middle class lifestyle.

*Since the year 2000, we have lost approximately 10% of our middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

*Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

*Between 1969 and 2009, the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

*According to a report released in February from the National Employment Law Project, higher wage industries are accounting for 40 percent of the job losses in America but only 14 percent of the job growth. Lower wage industries are accounting for just 23 percent of the job losses but 49 percent of the job growth.

*Last year, 19.7% of all U.S. working adults had jobs that would not have been enough to push a family of four over the poverty line even if they had worked full-time hours for the entire year.

*The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

Because they cannot get good jobs that will enable them to support themselves and their families, millions of Americans that used to be hard working contributors to society are now dependent on government handouts. Nearly every single measure of government dependence is at a record high, and there are no signs that things are going to turn around any time soon.

*One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

*Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment benefits. That number is almost four times larger than it was back in 2007.

*More than 45 million Americans are now on food stamps. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

*Approximately one-third of the entire population of Alabama is now on food stamps.

*Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

*In 1980, just 11.7% of all personal income came from government transfer payments. Today, 18.4% of all personal income comes from government transfer payments.

Millions of American families are being financially crippled by health care costs. The U.S. health care system is deeply, deeply broken and Obamacare is going to make things even worse. Health care is one of the top reasons why American families get pushed into poverty. Most of us are just one major illness or disease from becoming financially wrecked. Just ask anyone that has gone through it. The health insurance companies do not care about you and they will try to wiggle out of their obligations at the time when you need them the most. If you talk to people that have been through bankruptcy, most of them will tell you that medical bills were at least partially responsible.

*In America today, there are 49.9 million Americans that do not have any health insurance. One single medical bill could easily wipe out the finances of most of those people.

*Only 56 percent of Americans are currently covered by employer-provided health insurance.

*According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

*According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

The United States has a child poverty rate that is more than twice as high as many European nations. We like to think that we have "the greatest economy on earth", but the reality is that we have one of the highest child poverty rates and it increased once again last year.

*The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010. That means that tonight more than one out of every five U.S. children is living in poverty.

*It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

*There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

*More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

*It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

The elderly are also falling into poverty in staggering numbers. They may not be out protesting in the streets, but that does not mean that they are not deeply, deeply suffering.

*One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

*Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.

*The Baby Boomers have only just begun to retire, and already our social programs for seniors are starting to fall apart. In 1950, each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers. According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now only 1.75 full-time private sector workers for each person that is receiving Social Security benefits in the United States.

Rising inflation is squeezing the budgets of average American families like never before. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke claims that inflation is still low, but either he is delusional or he has not been to a supermarket lately.

Personally, I do a lot of grocery shopping at a number of different stores, and without a doubt prices are absolutely soaring. Many of the new "sale prices" are exactly what the old "regular prices" were just a few weeks ago.

Some companies have tried to hide these price increases by shrinking package sizes. But there is no hiding the pain on the old wallet once you fill up your cart with what you need to feed your family.

*Over the past year, the global price of food has risen by 37 percent and this has pushed approximately 44 million more people around the world into poverty.

*U.S. consumers will spend approximately $491 billion on gas this year. That is going to be a brand new all-time record.

*Right now, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is$3.649. That is 94 cents higher than 12 months earlier and it is a brand new record for this time of the year.

The size of the "economic pie" in America is shrinking, and the share of the pie for those that are poor is shrinking a lot faster than the share of the pie for those that are wealthy.

*According to the Washington Post, the average yearly income of the bottom 90 percent of all U.S. income earners is now just $31,244.

*When you look at the ratio of employee compensation to GDP, it is now the lowest that is has been in about 50 years.

*At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans now control just 2.5% of all of the wealth in this country.

*Big corporations are even recognizing the change that is happening to America. Just consider the following example from a recent article in the Huffington Post....

America is fundamentally changing. We were a nation that had the largest middle class in the history of the globe, but now we are becoming a nation that is deeply divided between the haves and the have nots.

Perhaps you are still doing fine. But don't think that economic disaster cannot strike you. Every single day, thousands more Americans will lose their jobs or will discover a major health problem. Every single day, thousands more Americans will lose their homes or will be forced to take a pay cut.

If you still have a warm, comfortable home to sleep in, you should be thankful. Poverty is a very sneaky enemy and it can strike at any time. If you are not careful, you might be the next American to end up sleeping in your car or living in a tent city.

It is easy to disregard a couple of statistics, but can you really ignore the vast amount of evidence presented above?

It is undeniable that America is getting poorer. Poverty is spreading and hopelessness and despair are rising. There is a reason why the economy is the number one political issue right now. Millions upon millions of Americans are in deep pain and they want some solutions.

Unfortunately, it appears quite unlikely that either major political party is going to offer any real solutions any time soon. So things are going to keep getting worse and worse and worse.

Should we just keep doing the same things that we have been doing over and over and over and yet keep expecting different results?

What we are doing right now is not working. We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline. Both major political parties have been fundamentally wrong about the economy. It is time to admit that.

If we continue on this path, poverty in America is going to continue to get a lot worse. Millions of families will be torn apart and millions of lives will be destroyed.

by billionaire investor Leon Cooperman [who made public his letter to the President, in which he calls for Obama to end his class warfare rhetoric and appeal to all voters today. Cooperman, below, makes the point that the President's comments are divisive at a time we can least afford it. The chairman of Omega Advisors was a one-time Goldman Sachs asset management chief.]

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

November 28, 2011

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

It is with a great sense of disappointment that I write this. Like many others, I hoped that your election would bring a salutary change of direction to the country, despite what more than a few feared was an overly aggressive social agenda. And I cannot credibly blame you for the economic mess that you inherited, even if the policy response on your watch has been profligate and largely ineffectual. (You did not, after all, invent TARP.) I understand that when surrounded by cries of "the end of the world as we know it is nigh", even the strongest of minds may have a tendency to shoot first and aim later in a well-intended effort to stave off the predicted apocalypse.

But what I can justifiably hold you accountable for is you and your minions' role in setting the tenor of the rancorous debate now roiling us that smacks of what so many have characterized as "class warfare". Whether this reflects your principled belief that the eternal divide between the haves and have-nots is at the root of all the evils that afflict our society or just a cynical, populist appeal to his base by a president struggling in the polls is of little importance. What does matter is that the divisive, polarizing tone of your rhetoric is cleaving a widening gulf, at this point as much visceral as philosophical, between the downtrodden and those best positioned to help them. It is a gulf that is at once counterproductive and freighted with dangerous historical precedents. And it is an approach to governing that owes more to desperate demagoguery than your Administration should feel comfortable with.

Just to be clear, while I have been richly rewarded by a life of hard work (and a great deal of luck), I was not to-the-manor-born. My father was a plumber who practiced his trade in the South Bronx after he and my mother emigrated from Poland. I was the first member of my family to earn a college degree. I benefited from both a good public education system (P.S. 75, Morris High School and Hunter College, all in the Bronx) and my parents' constant prodding. When I joined Goldman Sachs following graduation from Columbia University's business school, I had no money in the bank, a negative net worth, a National Defense Education Act student loan to repay, and a six-month-old child (not to mention his mother, my wife of now 47 years) to support. I had a successful, near-25-year run at Goldman, which I left 20 years ago to start a private investment firm. As a result of my good fortune, I have been able to give away to those less blessed far more than I have spent on myself and my family over a lifetime, and last year I subscribed to Warren Buffet's Giving Pledge to ensure that my money, properly stewarded, continues to do some good after I'm gone.

My story is anything but unique. I know many people who are similarly situated, by both humble family history and hard-won accomplishment, whose greatest joy in life is to use their resources to sustain their communities. Some have achieved a level of wealth where philanthropy is no longer a by-product of their work but its primary impetus. This is as it should be. We feel privileged to be in a position to give back, and we do. My parents would have expected nothing less of me.

I am not, by training or disposition, a policy wonk, polemicist or pamphleteer. I confess admiration for those who, with greater clarity of expression and command of the relevant statistical details, make these same points with more eloquence and authoritativeness than I can hope to muster. For recent examples, I would point you to "Hunting the Rich" (Leaders, The Economist, September 24, 2011), "The Divider vs. the Thinker" (Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2011), "Wall Street Occupiers Misdirect Anger" (Christine Todd Whitman, Bloomberg, October 31, 2011), and "Beyond Occupy" (Bill Keller, The New York Times, October 31, 2011) - all, if you haven't read them, making estimable work of the subject.

But as a taxpaying businessman with a weekly payroll to meet and more than a passing familiarity with the ways of both Wall Street and Washington, I do feel justified in asking you: is the tone of the current debate really constructive?

People of differing political persuasions can (and do) reasonably argue about whether, and how high, tax rates should be hiked for upper-income earners; whether the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended or permitted to expire, and for whom; whether various deductions and exclusions under the federal tax code that benefit principally the wealthy and multinational corporations should be curtailed or eliminated; whether unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut should be extended; whether the burdens of paying for the nation's bloated entitlement programs are being fairly spread around, and whether those programs themselves should be reconfigured in light of current and projected budgetary constraints; whether financial institutions deemed "too big to fail" should be serially bailed out or broken up first, like an earlier era's trusts, because they pose a systemic risk and their size benefits no one but their owners; whether the solution to what ails us as a nation is an amalgam of more regulation, wealth redistribution, and a greater concentration of power in a central government that has proven no more (I'm being charitable here) adept than the private sector in reining in the excesses that brought us to this pass - the list goes on and on, and the dialectic is admirably American. Even though, as a high-income taxpayer, I might be considered one of its targets, I find this reassessment of so many entrenched economic premises healthy and long overdue. Anyone who could survey today's challenging fiscal landscape, with an un- and underemployment rate of nearly 20 percent and roughly 40 percent of the country on public assistance, and not acknowledge an imperative for change is either heartless, brainless, or running for office on a very parochial agenda. And if I end up paying more taxes as a result, so be it. The alternatives are all worse.

But what I do find objectionable is the highly politicized idiom in which this debate is being conducted. Now, I am not naive. I understand that in today's America, this is how the business of governing typically gets done - a situation that, given the gravity of our problems, is as deplorable as it is seemingly ineluctable. But as President first and foremost and leader of your party second, you should endeavor to rise above the partisan fray and raise the level of discourse to one that is both more civil and more conciliatory, that seeks collaboration over confrontation. That is what "leading by example" means to most people.

Capitalism is not the source of our problems, as an economy or as a society, and capitalists are not the scourge that they are too often made out to be. As a group, we employ many millions of taxpaying people, pay their salaries, provide them with healthcare coverage, start new companies, found new industries, create new products, fill store shelves at Christmas, and keep the wheels of commerce and progress (and indeed of government, by generating the income whose taxation funds it) moving. To frame the debate as one of rich-and-entitled versus poor-and-dispossessed is to both miss the point and further inflame an already incendiary environment. It is also a naked, political pander to some of the basest human emotions - a strategy, as history teaches, that never ends well for anyone but totalitarians and anarchists.

With due respect, Mr. President, it's time for you to throttle-down the partisan rhetoric and appeal to people's better instincts, not their worst. Rather than assume that the wealthy are a monolithic, selfish and unfeeling lot who must be subjugated by the force of the state, set a tone that encourages people of good will to meet in the middle. When you were a community organizer in Chicago, you learned the art of waging a guerilla campaign against a far superior force. But you've graduated from that milieu and now help to set the agenda for that superior force. You might do well at this point to eschew the polarizing vernacular of political militancy and become the transcendent leader you were elected to be. You are likely to be far more effective, and history is likely to treat you far more kindly for it.

Sincerely,

Leon G. Cooperman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Omega Advisors

A group of historians polled by Georgetown University has named Barack Obama the best President in the history of the United States. Not wanting to be seen as premature, a spokesman for the group stated that based on what the president has planned for the country, and assuming all campaign and inaugural promises come to pass, Obama's legacy will absolutely trounce that of all previous occupiers of the Oval Office.

"We felt we waited long enough in making this inevitable declaration," historian Albert Hedgefellow said at the press conference this morning. "It's obvious to anyone with a knowledge of world events and conjecture that President Obama will end up with accomplishments greatly outnumbering those of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin Roosevelt combined."

Despite his first year in office so far being marred by an ugly battle over healthcare reform, increased fighting in Afganistan, and Chicago losing its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the 44th President's announcements concerning the greatness of life in the future and potential of the world to come has been more than enough for many.

"We have complete faith in the president's ability to achieve all the lofty goals he has set for himself and America," fellow historian Louise Verna said. "Just because no one has managed to fix healthcare up until now doesn't mean it can't be done. And even though we live in a time where Republicans and Democrats are more divided than ever, there is no reason to think that the president can't convince the sides to come together and agree on the tough issues that plague our society."

heavenonearthThe world of 2012 - long assumed to be the magical future time Obama aims for - is scheduled to be fraught with employment and prosperity, all soldiers returned home from the two-pronged war in Iraq and Afganistan, universal healthcare afforded to every man, woman, and child in the nation, the infrastructure of our highways and roads in tip-top shape, worldwide nuclear disarmament complete, Osama bin Laden dead as disco, Social Security prepared to support the exploding senior citizenry, and Detroit again a significant, proud city of automotive excellence, peace, and harmony.

"Isn't that a world you'd like to live in?" Hedgefellow asked. "With all that coming down the pike, how could we as a learned, educated body not state with certainty that Barack Obama is the greatest president this country has ever known? Heck, we didn't consider world leaders throughout the ages in the debate, but I can't see who would top Obama even then."

While some have expressed concern that proclaiming the president "the most exemplary display of presidential embodiment humanly possible" can only increase the pressure and ratchet up expectations on the still relatively new-on-the-job leader of the free world, Obama for one took the announcement in stride.

"I am very humbled by this declaration," the president said. "This august body has made a very flattering, encouraging decision, and I can only consider this recognition as a call to action."

The choice of the sitting president was a surprise to many, who've come to expect certain names at the top of this type of list. Perhaps even more surprising in the ranking, though, was Michelle Obama placing 37th, despite being at least seven years away from even running for the office. This position placed her ahead of such presidential disasters as James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover, and Andrew Johnson, and just directly behind Richard Nixon

[After 2 months of occupying, one group is finally going to tell us what their deal is]

We have been captives of corrupt economic and political systems for far too long. The concentration of wealth and the purchase of political power stifle the voices of the increasingly disenfranchised 99 percent. Corporate dominance subverts democracy, intentionally sows division, destroys the environment, obstructs the just and equitable pursuit of happiness, and violates the rights and dignity of all life.

Occupy D.C. is an open community of diverse individuals, facing different forms of oppression and impacted by economic exploitation to differing degrees, but united by a shared vision of equality for the common good. The harsh economic conditions that have plagued the poor, working class, and communities of color for generations have begun to affect the previously financially secure. This acute awareness of our common fate has united us in our struggle for a better future. We recognize that inequality and injustice systemically affect every aspect of our society: our communities, homes, and hearts. To build the world we envision, we commit ourselves to overcoming our personal biases so we can successfully challenge systems of oppression in solidarity.

We are peaceably assembled at McPherson Square, practicing direct democracy on the doorstep of K Street, the epicenter of destructive corporate and governmental relationships. Recognizing that the term `occupy' is associated with exploitation, violence, and imperialism, we are reclaiming it to mean the peaceful liberation of public space. In this disenfranchised city, we are insisting that our economic and political systems serve the people's interests. Now is the time to advance and complete the struggles of the many who came before us.

■It is absurd that the 1 percent has taken 40 percent of the nation's wealth through exploiting labor, outsourcing jobs, and manipulating the tax code to their benefit through special capital tax rates and loopholes. The system is rigged in their favor, yet they cry foul when anyone even dares to question their relentless class warfare.

■Candidates in our electoral system require huge sums of money to be competitive. These contributions from multi-national corporations and wealthy individuals destroy responsive representative governance. A system of backroom deals, kickbacks, bribes, and dirty politics overrides the will of the people. The rotation of decision makers between the public and private sectors cultivates a network of public officials, lobbyists, and executives whose aligned interests do not serve the American people.

■The entrenched two-party system overlooks public interests by pursuing narrow political goals. This climate encourages candidates to polarize voters for individual power and personal gain. Citizens' meaningful input has been compromised by gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, and unresponsive politicians. Residents of Washington, D.C., continue to lack autonomy and legislative representation.

■ The 1 percent benefits from economic, political, and legal structures that oppress communities long targeted by displacement, denial of sovereignty, slavery, and other injustices. These persecuted but resilient communities continue to suffer through generations of disproportionately higher rates of unemployment, poverty, criminalization, and homelessness. Facets of the 1 percent campaign to blame these groups for these problems while obstructing healing and restoration.

■ Those with power have divided us from working in solidarity by perpetuating historical prejudices and discrimination based on perceived race, religion, immigrant or indigenous status, income, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability, among other things. These divisions have inhibited our ability to work in solidarity, though today we recognize the power of uniting as the 99 percent.

■ Financial institutions gambled with our savings, homes, and economy. They collapsed the financial system and needed the public to bail them out of their failures yet deny any responsibility and continue to fight oversight. Corporations loot from those whose labor creates society's prosperity, while the government allows them to privatize profits and socialize risk.

■ Corporate interests threaten life on Earth by extracting and burning fossil fuels and resisting the necessary transition to renewable energy. Their drilling, mining, clear-cutting, overfishing, and factory farming destroys the land, jeopardizes our food and water, and poisons the soil with near impunity. They privilege polluters over people by subsidizing fossil fuels, blocking investments in clean energy and efficient transportation, and hiding environmental destruction from public oversight.

■Private corporations, with the government's support, use common resources and infrastructure for short-term personal profit, while stifling efforts to invest in public goods.

■The U.S. government engages in drawn-out, costly conflicts abroad. Numerous acts of conquest have been, and continue to be, pursued to control resources, overthrow foreign governments, and install subservient regimes. These wars destroy the lives of innocent civilians and American soldiers, many of whom suffer adverse effects throughout life. These operations are a blank check to divert money from domestic priorities.

■Government authorities cultivate a culture of fear to invade our privacy, limit assembly, restrict speech, and deny due process. They have failed in their duty to protect our rights. Exacerbated by profiteering interests, the criminal justice system has unfairly targeted underprivileged communities and outspoken groups for prosecution rather than protection.

■Corporatized culture warps our perception of reality. It cheapens and mocks the beauty of human thought and experience while promoting excessive materialism as the path to happiness. The corporate news media furthers the interests of the very wealthy, distorts and disregards the truth, and confines our imagination of what is possible for ourselves and society.

■ Leaders are trading our access to basic needs in exchange for handouts to the ultra-wealthy. Our rights to healthcare, education, food, water, and housing are sacrificed to profit-driven market forces. They are attacking unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, creating an uncertain future for us all.*

We, the Washington D.C. General Assembly occupying K Street in McPherson Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble and reclaim the commons. Re-conceive ways to build a democratic, just, and sustainable world.

To all who value democracy, we encourage you to collaborate and share available resources.

Join your voice with ours and let it amplify until the heart of the movement booms with our chorus of solidarity.

Jimmy Carter headlines a liberal Baptist group, where as many as 30,000 were expected to attend nationwide. The 250 who showed up found that they had their pick of seats. In the Satellite locations, sometimes as few as 5 or 6 showed up to be inspired.

The Occupy Wall Street rap sheet, so far, so the next time that you talk to a liberal, who tells you, “those arrests are just a handful of goofballs” give them this website:

NY Times suggests that GOP hardline on immigration will possibly win Arizona for Obama. As Rush has said many times, those in the news business could care less about the country. They are simply looking for a way to get their man elected:

NY Times Brian Stelter says the motto of the Occupy movement (“We are the 99%”) is like “Give me liberty or give me death”

ABC’s top tweets of 2011 do not include Weiner’s salacious tweets? Most of the tweets, you haven’t heard of.

19 year-old Black South Carolina student wins the privilege to display a confederate flag in his own dorm room. He sees it as a sign of southern pride and not as a flag that represents racism.

Really, money given to a green jobs website where green jobs that are available will not be listed:

More on how there is a direct line between the TEA party and the KKK (and this is posted in The Nation, for gosh’s sakes!):

RUSH: There was news over the holiday weekend, ladies and gentlemen, in the UK press. "Climategate scientists DID collude with government officials to hide research that didn't fit their apocalyptic global warming." This is the second time now that e-mails have been released from the Hadley Climate Center, University of East Anglia, where we know that the information was doctored, altered, and made up to fit an agenda.

"Five thousand leaked e-mails reveal that scientists deleted evidence that cast doubt on their claims that climate change was manmade." They had evidence they were wrong; they through it away. They were colluding with government. This is nothing more than a hoax. It is a fraud. It is indoctrination of children. It is liberalism. What is there to compromise with?

Investors.com picks up on the story. "The left's proposed solutions for the world's ills are based on the idea that carbon dioxide is a climate-heating poison that must be scrubbed from the global economy at all cost. Yet another study shows this is foolish. The study in the journal Science found that global temperatures appear to be far less sensitive to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere than originally estimated." Do you realize the fundamental claim has now been debunked? The fundamental claim that CO2 in the atmosphere is causing warming has been cast aside. There's nothing left to the global warming argument but the continued fraud, lying, and hoax that it is.

As Investors.com says, "This a bombshell -- another in a long line of revelations showing the scientific fraud at the heart of the anti-global warming movement. The study's findings are simple and devastating. 'This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought,' said Oregon State University's Andreas Schmittner, the study's main author." Doesn't it really stand to reason, it's what we exhale, for crying out loud. We ought to be extinct. The whole thing has been nothing but a giant lie from the get-go and I have known it from the get-go because I know liberals. You know, it's frustrating. It really is frustrating. If everybody could just come to grips with who liberals are, what they do, how they operate, it would be over. But somehow they've cornered the market on the fact they are compassionate. They've cornered the market on appealing to people with emotion, which is a much easier link to establish than thought, and it's really no more complicated than that.

[Rush has been talking for some time how the administration and the news want the unemployment to drop below 9% in order to push Obama’s candidacy]

RUSH: I don't want to be an I told you so, but I told you so, and I told you so five weeks ago. Gallup, every week, puts out their own unemployment numbers and Gallup has been signaling that this day unemployment below 9% was coming. They've been blatantly saying so, based on their own unemployment data, which is not related to the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. It's their own surveys; and in the last five weeks, occasionally they will say that their numbers that they come out with on a Wednesday or Thursday indicate that we're getting very close to a Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment number of under 9%. I said, "The regime needs this, and when we finally get to under 9%, it will be eight-point-something, but the point-what won't matter. The only number that's going to matter is the eight.

"It could be 8.9; it won't be 8.9, it will be '8.'" Well, it's 8.6, but it doesn't matter, it's eight; and predictably, the media's all over it, and that's the headline. You know, I got up this morning and I did the show prep routine and one of the first places I always go is Drudge and I saw it right there in red, and it's 8.6, and that's all it said, and I knew what it was. It's Friday, and I didn't need to know anything else. I knew that was the unemployment number, 8.6, and that's all anybody else is gonna hear. They're not gonna dig deep and find out how it happened. Some people have, some people are. There's a slight bit of reservation in certain sectors of the Drive-By Media. But most of the Drive-By Media is doing hosannas and hallelujah and merry...

Well, Happy Holidays. They don't do Merry Christmas in the media. But we're back, it's done, they got the headline: "Unemployment, 8.6%!" Now, the truth of the matter is -- and Bloomberg News even points out that the only way -- it's a corrupt number. It is a corrupt number. Folks, the number of people who have quit looking for work in the last few weeks is 315,000. Those are the people have thrown up their hands after 99 weeks or more of being unemployed; and they've said, "I'm quitting. I'm not looking." So they're not counted. Therefore, the universe of jobs available in the country is down by 315,000. That is the labor force participation rate. The labor force participation rate is a meager 64%. It fell to 64% from 64.2%. So the 0.2% drop equals 315,000 people leaving the workforce.

That means there are 315,000 fewer jobs to have, so the universe of jobs has been steadily

shrinking. What was the number of jobs created? It's 120,000 jobs. It's 120, 126,000, whatever. That's in the ballpark. That number of jobs created can lower unemployment rate 0.4%, almost one half of a percent? Creating 120,000 new jobs can do that? That alone tells us how small the labor force participation rate is. That tells us how small the universe of available jobs in the country is, when creating 120,000 -- and we still have, don't forget, over 400,000 applications for unemployment compensation reported yesterday. So just 120,000 new jobs can lower the unemployment rate almost a half a point. That's not possible without that 315,000 figure, the 315,000 people who have just walked away.

Bloomberg News is even reporting this means that more people left the workforce than got jobs. Now, stop and think of this. More people left the workforce than got jobs, and the unemployment rate goes down? We're dealing here with a serious form of corruption, manipulation of data; but, we all knew it was coming. After all, we're talking about the regime. We knew this was coming. We know the fact, we know the histoire, that no president's been reelected with an unemployment rate higher than 8%. So here we are 11 months away from the next election, voila! Heading into the Christmas, slash, holiday season, and we're at 8.6%, the 0.6 doesn't matter, we're at 8%. And the media is having orgasms out there, O-gasms.

But everybody in the country knows the economy is not growing, that new jobs are not being created a massive, robust way that signals, or feels like economic growth. But the sad thing is that all these details that I have provided -- probably, sadly -- won't even matter because the regime has gotten the headline that it wanted. It got 8.6. The regime got unemployment 8.6%. That's what they wanted; that's what they got. All these other details are irrelevant. Now, this is the U3 unemployment rate. The U6 unemployment rate counts the 315,000. The U3 is a government marker. U3 is what is reported. The U6 unemployment number counts the 315,000 who have given up looking for a gig. The U6 unemployment number is around 16, 17% -- and that's real unemployment.

The job universe from January 2009 when Obama was immaculated to the present is down about 2.5 million jobs. There are 2.5 million fewer jobs in our country in the two and a half, almost three years now that Obama has been in orifice -- and that's the dirty little secret. You shrink the workforce by two, 2.5 million people is the only way you can report the unemployment rate going down. More people leave the workforce than found jobs, and the unemployment rate went down a half a point. So again we are being massaged, we are being spun, we are being inundated with corrupt numbers, but it was all predictable, all understandable. Again, so small has the employment universe become -- so small, so many people having dropped out of the system altogether...

No longer counted, is what that means, as being unemployed. No longer counted as being alive in terms of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When you quit looking for a job, you're only counted in that U6 number, which is not the one that's reported. The U3 number is. So you drop out of the system altogether, you're no longer counted by the Obama regime. A mere 126,000 job increase drops unemployment rate almost one half of a percentage point. This is nothing more than the government manipulating the real work situation that exists in the country. It's all calculated to create a false impression of economic recovery and a healthier job market. It's truly outrageous -- and watch how the Obama media cronies regurgitate this propaganda for the most part. Watch how they'll all fall in line. You've probably heard it already this morning. I have examples of it here in the sound bite roster, but I don't... Ah, I'll probably play a couple of them just for the fun of it.

RUSH: Let me give you another way of illustrating what the regime did to get to this unemployment number, and it is very similar to how baseline budgeting works. Another way of looking at this is this. You had 120,000 jobs that were created. You have 315,000 people who dropped out. What you do is add those together and you get a number 435,000, and that 435,000 the government today says are no longer unemployed. So 435,000 jobs created... No. No, no. Let's not go that far. So, 435,000 people no longer unemployed results in an unemployment rate dropping from 9.0 to 8.6. See how that works? This is what they do. This is what they did.

This is how it happens: 120,000 people find work, 315,000 quit looking; those 315,000 are no longer called unemployed. That's the U3 clarification, qualification. U3 is made up of people looking for work and people who have lost their jobs and so forth. The 315,000 stop looking. They are added to those who are unemployed, and you get a grand total of 435,000. That's how it happens. It's almost a dead returning for the fraud and the misleading way that budgeting is done, baseline budgeting, such as there are never any cuts. Even with the super committee, there aren't gonna be any cuts in spending. There are just going to be reductions in what was projected to be spent.

They're still gonna spend more, just not as much as was projected in the current services baseline. That's what it's actually called: Current services, meaning what is at present being spent is the baseline. Not zero, but what's presently being spent or at present. And then if you add 10% to what is being spent as a projection, it's what we're gonna spend next year and you only spend 7% of it, "Oh, no, that's a 3% cut in that department! That's a Draconian cut of 3%. We were gonna spend 10%, and you're only gonna spend 7%!" It's a 3% cut. That's how baseline budgeting works. It's the same thing here with the unemployment number.

RUSH: Here's Mary in Chicago as we go back to the phones. Great to have you with us. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for taking my call. It's an honor and a pleasure to talk to you.

CALLER: I had a question for you regarding that 8.6% unemployment rate that was reported. I was wondering if you know whether there are other government programs that people are taking advantage of and switching over. There aren't too many people like your first caller who is obviously very honorable and doesn't want to accept disability payments. There's a lot of people who want to take advantage of the system and perhaps two years of unemployment is not enough, so they figure, "Hey, let me get on a better plan, maybe I can get on Social Security disability in addition to some food stamps and some other programs and take advantage of the government that way." Do you have any information on what the statistics are on those other plans?

RUSH: Well, in relation of one program to the next, no. But I can tell you that the number of people on food stamps is at an all-time high, and we've gone up. Just in the years that Obama's been president we've increased it by 5%, I think it's from 20 to 25% or 40 to 42. It's 44.5 million people, and more than one program these people are availing themselves of -- and by design. It's the Democrat Party buying votes via dependency.

CALLER: Twenty-plus years of dittos to you, Rush. Thanks for the education and certainly the joy on the airwaves of.

CALLER: You know, I know that you are absolutely not only the sentimental type but you are also the caring time, the loving Maha Rushie that you are. I've got an idea for you Rush and I honestly think you'll like it. I hope you do anyway -- and this is for all the Occupy folks because I know you care about them, and I know you love the military and you love a lot of the things that they do. I'm a member of the military myself. How about a "Toys for Snots" program.

CALLER: Toys for Snots, all the snots down on Occupy Wall Street. You could like throw them out toys like, "You Owe Me Elmo," where you pull the string and it says, "Health care is a right," or something like that.

CALLER: Maybe we could have "Sponge Off Taxpayers" or "Captain AmeriCorps." You know, he stands for deceit, social justice and the Marxist way.

CALLER: -- could come down the street in a big open sleigh like downtown Macy's, because you know how much they love Macy's. Go right down to Wall Street chucking out all these "You Owe Me Elmos" and --

RUSH: I absolutely love it! Play off of Toys for Tots. You know, I first became aware of Toys for Tots when I was working in Pittsburgh and the radio station had a joint thing going with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the time, and we'd go into shopping malls late in the afternoon to stay with the Marines and the Toys for Tots and so forth. It was a hoot; it was fun. It's one of the most recent times I've been to a mall. It would be 19'73. I even did one with former Pittsburgh Steeler John "Frenchy" Fuqua, number 33. The guy showed up with goldfish in the heels of his shoes. John "Frenchy" Fuqua. Yeah, he's a great guy, and Pittsburgh people will no doubt remember him and the goldfish in the heels of the shoes, and now Two If By Tea associated with Marines. "Toys for Snots," a giant sleigh at Occupy, Toys for Snots? (laughing) Ah, that's one of those things I wish I had thought of myself. But the problem is, somebody has to tell the Toys for Snots snots that there's no Santa. Who gets that job?

RUSH: What Andy Stern calls an economic model is actually a political philosophy that makes the individual subservient to the state. So here we are. We finally reached a point here, ladies and gentlemen -- and this is something I have been warning you people about for two-plus decades -- where liberals are comfortable citing communism as the endgame. Andy Stern, he proudly declares it! He's singing the tune; he's singing the hymn. It's in the Wall Street Journal: We need to become communist! They have been doing it and saying it for two plus decades. This is progress to people like Barack Obama and Andy Stern, and this is why Obama does want a second term. I don't buy this notion that he's not interested. So the progressives, because of the panic that they're in, are finally being honest here.

It's a movement towards an all-powerful, centralized state government, unencumbered by a constitution, unencumbered by a Bill of Rights, unencumbered by a separation-of powers. This is what Andy Stern is saying: Screw a Constitution! Screw limits on a grand pooh-bah leader. We need us, the smart people, able to move mountains with a wave of our wand. So we're in the process here of defining, folks, the larger purpose of the 2012 elections. It isn't just Barack Obama versus a generic Republican. This election is about remaining a free people. This election is about the individual versus the state. This upcoming election is about the public sector versus the private sector. This upcoming election is about state control of property versus individuals controlling their own private property.

This is an election of the makers versus the takers, and what hangs in the balance really is the American way of life. These people -- Andy Stern, Barack Obama, and they're cronies -- are on the verge of rendering the American Revolution null and void, and the regime's minions know it. They're one election away from remaking America. Obama's even said it. We've got the sound bite coming up here somewhere. He's telling these people in the Occupy crowd, "Hey, it's worse than I thought. We need four more years. You've got to give me four more years to make sure that my question plan is fully implemented." Four more years to finish the job, four more years to finish them off. (interruption) Well, Snerdley's in there laughing, but I'm telling you: This is how I see it. Four more years to finish the job. Four more years to fully implement Obamacare. What's so important about that?

I have this Daniel Hannan piece. It ran at the Telegraph, UK Telegraph.com. "What has happened since 2008 is not capitalism. In a capitalist system, bad banks would have been allowed to fail, their profitable operations bought by more efficient competitors. Shareholders, bondholders and some depositors would have lost money, but taxpayers would not have contributed a penny. ... Those of us who believe in small government are not motivated by the desire to make the rich richer. We're really not. We are, in most cases, nowhere near having to pay top rate tax ourselves; our most eloquent champions over the years have been modestly paid academics. We believe that economic freedom will enrich the country as a whole." This is in Hannan's memo to the Occupy people. He's just talking to, you know, deaf ears, trying to explain conservatism to them. They're not listening. They don't care to know.

Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.

The Times Watch, which gives example after example of the latest bias on mainstream news sources:

Stolen History. This is a Black historian who seeks to teach the actual history of the Black man in America:

The Right Scoop, where there are a number of videos, mostly of recent speeches of presidential candidates.

Stop the Machine under October 2011, which apparently had permits for months for October. This is very organized; these are not people who just showed up suddenly. Their issues: protect the planet, healthcare for all, end wars, tax the rich and end corporate welfare.

In case someone tells a fib about Obama, we need to turn that person in. Luckily, the President has provided for us such a website:

The Obama Diary. This appears to be a pretty serious site, dedicated to telling you what the president is doing right:

Workforce Fairness Institute (it sounds like a liberal group, but it looks like a conservative group):

Wrote Left Turn and measures media bias as well as individuals. There is a 40 question test to measure your political quotient and the quotient of various media outlets are given.

Sunshine State News (almost the only news service which ran a story on Mack’s Penny Plan). They are not a conservative news source, by the way.

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis (a number of fairly easy to understand article on economic matters):

Start Thinking Right, a mostly conservative blog, but he does not support every single conservative in each and every case:

Watts Up With That (a lot of recent scientific news is posted here—there were 9 stories for July 5^th alone):

If you are a small business and you want to air out your problems with how government has hampered your business, here’s the place to go (enjoy the video):

Framing the Dialogue (mostly individually produced blog postings and interesting articles):

Shadow Government Statistic; excellent economics site (some information is free, but this is a subscription site):

A George Soros funded site to go after specific Fox anchors through their advertisers (is there any parallel to this on the right?):

Men with Foil Hats (occasionally borders on conspiratorial without being completely nuts; mostly a repository of news stories from elsewhere):

iwatch news is a repository of interesting news items; there might be a slight left slant? It is hard to tell.

American Legislative Exchange Council (Limited government, free markets and federalism):

It is mostly libs who post here, but this way, you get their weird perspective on things political:

Translating Jihad. What is broadcast in the Arabic is one thing; and how it is said in English is something entirely different:

The right weather underground (blog, with some emphasis upon the phony green agenda).

The Other Half of History (the history which is ignored in the modern classroom):

Liberty’s Army (mostly economic and middle eastern revolutionary news right now):

The Iowahawk, which is a blog, at times, heavy with stats, and at other times, it is hard to tell:

In case you want to refer others to this; statistical comparison between gays and straights:

Meadia Research Center where the bias of mainstream news is exposed again and again.

Stuff you probably did not know about greenhouse gases (this is a good link for friends):

The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming (I am fairly certain that this is serious; but it is really hard to tell). It is saying goodbye to French Wines, glaciers, guacamole, mixed nuts, French fries, baseball and Christmas trees and saying hello to cannibalistic polar bears, jellyfish attacks, giant squid attacks, more stray kittens, suffocating lemmings, burning cow poop and acidic oceans.

Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare (this includes individual health insurance costing as much as $695/month by 2016—which is not the only cost):

The Publius Forum (more of a newscast than a blog; located in Chicago, I believe):

Political Affairs, which used to be called the Communist (in case you are interested in what the Democratic Par, I mean, the communist party is up to.

This is one of my favorite lists; this is a list of things which global warming causes (right now, it causes over 800 things—most of these are linked):

100 things we can say goodbye to (or, hello to) because of Global Warming (all of these are linked). They are very serious about these things, by the way:

Conservative blog, but with an eye to the culture and pop culture (there is a lot of stuff here):

Conservative and pop culture blog (last I looked, there were some Beatles’ performances here):

Send this link to the young people you know (try the debt quiz; I only got 6 out of 10 right):

PA Pundits, whose motto is, “the relentless pursuit of common sense” (I used many of the quotations which they gathered)

The anti-Jihad resistence (which appears to be a set of links to similar websites):

Mostly a liberal blogger, who says vicious things about most conservatives; and yet, says something sensible, e.g. posting many of the things which the healthcare bill does to us.

News Organization (I mention them because I have seen 2 honest stories on their website, which shocked and surprised me):

Even though this group leans left, if you need to know what happened each day, and you are a busy person, here is where you can find the day’s news given in 100 seconds:

Weatherman Underground 1969 “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Janine Turner’s website (I’m serious; and the website is serious too). This is if you have an interest in real American history:

Judith Miller is one of the moderate and fairly level-headed voices for FoxNews:

This is an odd blog; conservativism, bikinis and whatever else posted by either a P.I. or the brother of a P.I.:

Info Wars, because there is a war on for your mind (this site may be a little crazy??):

The Magic Negro Watch (this is peppered with obscenities and angry conservative rhetoric):

Do you want to watch what is happening on our border? These are actual videos of observations cams along the border:

No matter what your political stripe, you will like this; evaluate your Congressman or Senator on the issues:

AC/DC economics (start with the oldest lessons first; economics in 60 second bites):

The Freedom Project (most a conservative news and opinion site which appears to concentrate on matters financial)

This appears to be a daily pork report, apparently as pork in Washington bills is discovered, it gets posted at Tom Coburg’s website:

Weekly poll, asking you to identify what we ought to cut in governmental spending:

This is an interesting site; it seems to be devoted to the debate of climate change:

This is indispensable: the Wall Street Journal’s guide to Obama-care (all of their pertinent articles arranged by date—send one a day to your liberal friends):

Obamacare class action suit (as of today, joining in on the suit costs you whatever you want to donate, if I understand the form correctly):

A Muslim apologetic site (they will write out letters to express your feelings, and all you have to do is sign them, and they will send them on):

Since this will be with us for a long time, the timeline of the BP gulf oil spill:

This is cool: a continuous timeline of the spill, with the daily info and the expansion of the oil, and the response:

Army Ranger Michael Behenna sentenced to 25 years in prison for 25 years for shooting Al Qaeda operative

Maybe the White House does not need to hold press conferences? It releases exclusive articles daily right here:

This is quite helpful; it is a list of all leftist groups, with links to background information on each of these groups (when I checked, 879 groups were listed). This is a fantastic resource.

In case you need to reference this, here are the photos of all those on the JournoList:

Are you tired of all the unfocused news and lame talking heads yelling at one another? Just grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and see what is really going on in the world:

Conservative New Media (it is so-so; I must admit to getting tired of seeing the interviewer high-fiving Carly Fiorina 3 or 4 times during an interview):

One of the more radical people from the right, calling for the impeachment of Obama:

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a free enterprise site (there are several videos on the flat tax):

This is a pretty radical site which alleges that Obama is a Marxist hell-bent in taking over our country:

1982 interview with Larry Grathwohl on Ayers' plan for American re-education camps and the need to kill millions

This is a news site which I just discovered; they gave 3 minute coverage to Obama’s healthcare summit and seemed to give a pretty decent overall view of it, without slanting one way or the other:

I have glanced through their website and it seems to be quite professional and reasonable. They have apparently been around since 1942.

This is fantastic; Florida (the Sunshine State) is now putting its state budget online:

Suzanne Somers s supposed to be older than Bill O’Reilly? He interviewed her this week, and she looked, well, hot. She is big into vitamins and human growth hormones.

The National Journal, which is a political journal (which, at first glance, seems to be pretty even-handed):

And I am hoping that most people see this as non-partisan: Citizens Against Government Waste:

This website reveals a lot of information about politicians and their relationship to money. You can find out, among other things, how many earmarks that Harry Reid has been responsible for in any given year; or how much an individual Congressman’s wealth has increased or decreased since taking office.

This is an outstanding website which tells the truth about Obama-care and about what the mainstream media is hiding from you:

Politico.com is a fairly neutral site (or, at the very worst, just a little left of center). They have very good informative videos at:

On Obama (if you have not visited this site, you need to check it out). He is selling a DVD on this site as well called Media Malpractice; I have not viewed it yet, except pieces which I have seen played on tv and on the internet. It looks pretty good to me.

Liberal filter for FoxNews: News Hounds (motto: We watch FOX so you don't have to). Be clear on this; they do not want you to watch FoxNews.

Conservative Review
Issue #206	Kukis Digests and Opines on this Week’s News and Views	December 4, 2011