Austin is a great city. I mostly grew up in it, and I still love it. I worked for the police department there and have the highest regard for its law enforcement, though the city’s politics often play havoc with those same cops. Still, Austin has one of the lower crime rates of Texas’ major cities — certainly the homicide rate doesn’t compare to that of Houston or Dallas, and most cases are, in fact, solved. Or they were when I worked at APD (as a civilian).
But a case caught my eye today that truly disgusted me — as so many have lately. In fact I’ll probably write about Austin crime quite a bit, as well as Austin politics and law enforcement. One was an officer-involved shooting (the suspect pulled a gun on the cop, cop shoots the suspect, suspect dies, and now the family is suing, crying racism). I’ll get to that case later. First this one. Why the title of this story? Well, you should be able to figure that out for yourself, shortly.
Brian Vanfossen, 22, is on trial for a variety of charges. He’s lucky one isn’t murder, or he’d be eligible for the death penalty, which if guilty he richly deserves. What did Vanfossen allegedly (don’t you just love that word? I know I hate having to continuously use it, but there you go) do?
On September 28, 2008, Vanfossen and a group of others “allegedly” kidnapped a man named Adrian Lopez to score some marijuana. This, according to opening statements made by his own attorney at the start of his trial today in District Judge Bob Perkins’ Travis County court.
Vanfossen’s attorney acknowledged the heinous nature of the crimes (as any halfway decent defense attorney presented with this kind of evidence would have to do) in opening statements. This, if you’ve ever sat through a major trial, is done to blunt the effect of the prosecution bringing it up later. But it doesn’t make it the crime any less evil, or what the victim suffered any easier.
So what exactly did Adrian Lopez suffer? Well, according to the defense attorney, Amber Vasquez Bode, “some of the most disturbing, disgusting, gory things that I hope you ever see in your life.” (Austin American-Statesman, 6/2/2009). Wow, she WANTS the jury to see these gruesome things? Maybe she just said it wrong. I don’t have much affinity for defense attorneys, so my apologies if my bias is showing here. OK, granted, she knows the jury is going to see this stuff. It’s in the evidence, but still…
What’s clear is that this was a drug case. Does that make the victim any less worthy of justice? No, certainly not. Plenty of innocent lives have been lost because of drugs, drug dealing, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I strongly believe that dealing drugs at all is contributing to murder, because somewhere, someplace down the line someone like Adrian Lopez, or some innocent kid sitting in his house, or some girl visiting a friend at the wrong time, will be killed because a drug deal went down. They may be part of it, or they may have nothing to do with it. But the drug deal ultimately led to the pain, suffering or death.
Back to Lopez, the victim in this case. He was, according to Prosecutor Mona Shea, kidnapped by a group of people including Vanfossen and taken to a vacant house in West Campus. The details aren’t yet clear to me, but apparently some heroin was missing, Lopez was accused of taking it, things escalated, the group begin to beat him with a bat….and it got worse from there. Much worse.
According to Shea, one of the men had a sawed-off shotgun and beat Lopez with it, and Lopez was forced into a closet where he wrote the initials of his attackers in his own blood (fully expecting to die) so that someone, hopefully, would know who had done this to him.
But Lopez’s ordeal didn’t stop there. His attackers cut him with a razor, beat him with a bat and — get this — injected toilet bowl cleaner into his neck and hand. It was later identified as Drano.
Vanfossen’s attorney claims the 22-year-old, who is on trial for kidnapping and aggravated assault (I think attempted murder should be added), only participated out of fear for his life and because a co-defendant told him to do so. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that excuse…let’s just say I wouldn’t be so cynical.
Luckily for Lopez (if anything in this case can be considered lucky for him), he passed out and possibly his attackers thought he was dead, leaving him alone. He made his way to help and called 911.
Now I know many of you might not have much sympathy for Adrian Lopez, this being a “drug crime.” Clearly this pack of animals (whoever did what was done to him) did so because they thought he had drugs on him. Honestly, I don’t know anything about the man. But I don’t think he deserved to be beaten with a bat, cut with a razor and injected with Drano by thugs looking for drugs. In fact I KNOW he didn’t deserve that. Whatever may come out later during the trial (and you can be sure things will come out; they always do), he was targeted and tortured.
Also charged are Justin Minor, 25, Victor Sanborn, 24, Gerald Fuller, 51, Matthew Brandon, 21, and Daniel Silverly, 21. They face aggravated assault charges and are in the Travis County Jail. Sanborn also faces aggravated kidnapping charges.
This may have (probably, in fact does have) no immediate impact on your life. But trust me, it has a very big impact on the life of Adrian Lopez and his family and friends. I’m sure the suspects’ families are also suffering, and they are feeling an impact of their own. But since you are so far removed from this case, and it isn’t making national headlines, you might not care to read about it.
I simply urge you to remember that with every heinous crime like this — and make no doubt that Lopez is very, very lucky to be alive — our society is degraded. We cannot dismiss these crimes. We cannot make celebrities of criminals of “persons of interest” like Drew Peterson. We must always focus on the victims, for if we don’t they will too soon be forgotten. And if Lopez had died, I fervently hope the Travis County DA’s Office would have sought the death penalty against each and every one of his attackers.
Let me preface this story by saying a few things. First, I strongly support our military. If you don’t stand behind them, feel free to stand in front of them. Second, please read this entirely before you form an opinion.
I have never really written about gay rights. I don’t discriminate against gays, I simply don’t have a “dog in the fight” and to be honest I don’t feel qualified to write about the subject. I am conservative. I believe in civil unions, but looking deep into my own heart I would probably say I’m against gay marriage. Does that make me a hypocrite? Possibly, if you look at it in terms of “seperate but equal.” I guess my gut just tells me that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Why am I telling you this? I’m simply putting my cards on the table. I am a tolerant person. I have known throughout my life many open and “closet” gay people I consider friends. It’s not something we talk about in length, but I have discussed it with some, and I know some who are perfectly comfortable with their lifestyles, while others absolutely would not “choose” to be gay. In their opinion, why would they? It is not an easy way to live and it makes life much harder for them, thus it was something they tried very much to overcome.
So, unlike some people who are very conservative and see homosexuality as a sin, I do believe that it is a complex issue and one I’m not qualified to truly address, other than to say that I think some people are, indeed, born that way.
I have no problem with this. I can’t say I like watching “flaming” gay people like Perez Hilton, who I find terribly offensive, but I also find straight people who flaunt their sexuality publicly offensive. An example would be Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton at the Academy Awards, where they famously announced that they’d just had sex in their limousine.
Now on to the purpose of this story. You know where I stand on our troops, that I consider myself tolerant, and if you’ve read anything I’ve written that I’m no fan of Obama. As for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military, I honestly have to say I have no idea how to fix that. The military is, obviously, made up more of men than women, and many of them are not comfortable with the idea of serving with gays. It would be easy to say “get over it” and that would be that, but in reality would that fix anything? Doubtful. However, I think many military personnel realize that they do, indeed, serve alongside homosexuals, who fulfill their duties with honor, and have no problem with that. Again, it’s something the military must address, and it should. I don’t pretend to know the answer.
My story focuses on one man, but he represents many. His name is Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, an Air Force fighter pilot who has served our country honorably for 18 years. I came across his story via a very conservative friend on Facebook who asked me to join a group in support of Lt. Col. Fehrenbach, who is facing discharge from the Air Force just two short years before he reaches retirement, and thus will lose his pension. Our fighting men and women don’t get paid that well to begin with, so this man deserves his retirement, but the Air Force is forcing an early discharge on him because he is gay.
I don’t know all the details of how Lt. Col. Fehrenbach’s sexual preference was discovered. I watched an interview in which he stated that he was set to deploy, once again, shortly before he was told of his impending discharge, or trial. He said this was right before the presidential election, and he “hoped” that Barack Obama would follow through on his promise to change the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military and it wouldn’t be an issue. That hasn’t happened. But Obama has failed to deliver on many promises, so pinning hope on him is, at best, a futile gesture and I simply fail to see why the gay community stands behind this man when his position before the election was the exact same as that of John McCain (they both supported civil unions, but not gay marriage).
But I digress. Back to Fehrenbach. A little background on this man and his accomplishments is in order. He’s received eight awards, one for Heroism, and he was chosen to protect the airspace around Washington, D.C. after 9/11. He has flown combat missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, I don’t watch MSNBC as a rule, but I’ve provided a video interview so you can judge for yourself if you believe this man has done anything wrong. In my opinion, he deserves to stay in the Air Force, which he has devoted his life to (and I know a little about the Air Force, having grown up as an “Air Force brat” myself).
There will be some of you who will automatically discard this and want nothing to do with the matter, simply because of his sexuality. Instead, I ask you to look into your heart and remember that while you were sleeping comfortably each night for the past eight years, he was protecting you, just like any other service member. I asked my husband, who is considerably more conservative than I am, how he felt about this issue, and he agreed with me. If you do as well, I’ve provided a link you can use to sign a petition asking that Lt. Col. Fehrenbach be allowed to stay in the Air Force or at least receive his pension.
Thank you for reading this and your thoughtful consideration.
So wow, what a night on American Idol. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of reality TV, but I’ve been addicted to AI since the first season. I even watched through that second awful season when I really didn’t care who won (I slightly favored Clay, but couldn’t get up much enthusiasm for either guy), and when Taylor Hicks was crowned champ (he can sing, but not anything I’d ever buy). I couldn’t stand Fantasia — her voice just irritated me and I thought there were others much better that season, but it wasn’t stellar by any means.
So what’s my beef? Simple enough. Adam Lambert clearly should have won. Now I have nothing against Kris Allen. I think the guy is a talented artist and if he’d competed another season (say, against Taylor Hicks) I would have been all for him. I also really liked Danny Gokey, Allison and Scott, as well as some of the others. It was a talented pool this year.
If I’m getting down to Idol faves, I’ve had several, and not all of them have been winners. David Cook, who I truly didn’t think would win last year, is one, and I have almost all his music. I loved both Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice, and have bought music from both (much more from Carrie, but I just prefer her). Daughtry — love the guy and he was eliminated WAY too early, but it worked out OK for him. I have quite a bit of his stuff. And Kelly Clarkson, the original Idol — I’ve bought quite a bit of her music as well. I have eclectic taste.
This season early on I thought Adam should win. It was a no-brainer to me. In a group of very talented individuals, he stood out. His raw talent is in a completely different league. Don’t get me wrong — I’ll probably buy music from Danny and Kris, and I was inspired by Scott and loved his piano songs. There were others who left way too soon who I hope get a chance to show their stuff.
But putting Kris up against Adam is like putting a college football player up against an NFL one. They are simply in different leagues. Take, for instance, my two favorite quarterbacks: Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys) and Colt McCoy (Texas Longhorns). Now Tony didn’t have his best year this season, but even so he if you put him up against Colt right now, he’d beat the pants off him. That comes from experience. Colt will get there, no doubt. But if they were playing against each other, Romo would win. Or if you don’t like him, take Tom Brady, or some other high-profile QB in the NFL. That’s Adam compared to Kris.
So why did Kris win? I have a few theories. First, Danny Gokey fans didn’t like Adam and they voted for Kris out of spite. Maybe Adam is a love him or hate him kind of guy. I just think he’s got mad talent. There were those who didn’t like him because of the eyeliner, the questionable sexual preference, whatever. Personally I don’t care about any of that. Again, Adam has mad talent and he stands (literally and figuratively) head and shoulders above Kris.
So no disrespect to Kris (or Danny, who brought me to tears with some of his music and probably should have been in the finals instead of Kris), but America, in my opinion, got it wrong. Was it the teen votes? Possibly, if my daughters are any indication. Was it a liberal/conservative thing? I don’t really think so, if you’re reading this blog. My husband and I were both heavily in favor of Adam, and he’s much more conservative than I am, and I’m fairly conservative myself. But that could have worked against Adam…not ruling it out, although I think it’s sad and unfair if so.
Using another analogy, it’s like putting me in a writing contest against Vince Flynn. I’d lose, hands down. Simply no competition. The guy is in a totally different league. I couldn’t compete, and if I won, it would be a total fluke. I admit it. Vince Flynn is simply a much better writer than I am, though I aspire to that level of talent some day.
Back to Idol — whatever the reason, it sucks, and I think even the new American Idol knows he didn’t deserve to win. No offense to Kris, because had he been up against Jordin Sparks, I’d have bet on him(though I wanted Blake Lewis that year — loved that beat box).
Well, America spoke, and once again I disagreed. But rock on Adam, and best of luck. I’ll be rooting for you. You seem like a genuinely nice guy, as well as a helluva talented artist.
Yes, even under the regime of Obama, life does go on. Sigh. I do have the countdown clock on my Facebook page so I know how many days he has left in office (provided ACORN doesn’t help him nab another term). Frankly, writing about him has become too depressing.
I did find it rather funny the other night when he had his “100 days” presser and every station except Fox aired it live. What did Fox air? One of its newer (and better) shows, “Lie to Me.” In that respect, I suppose by it’s title Fox was saying the same thing O was to the American people, but in three simple words. I said as much to my husband that night, and he said he heard the same thing on the radio the next day. It’s the little things that bring us joy
I am actually pissed at O, though, I have to say. This whole business with releasing the so-called “torture” memos and closing Gitmo…it’s just plain bullshit. Let’s use a football analogy here: If you are Coach Mack Brown of the Texas Longhorns, are you going to turn your playbook over to Texas A&M so it knows all your secrets for next season? Doubtful. And this is on a much grander scale. These terrorists (and I don’t care what Code Stink says about the guys — that’s what they are) are going to go back to their home countries and train the next generation of terrorists on exactly what to expect. Well, maybe not, since with O in office we’ll probably just have a catch-and-release policy.
That brings me to his idea of closing Gitmo. So the guys who have been locked up, who chant “death to America” on a regular basis, are just going to go home and say all is forgiven? I don’t think so. We have enough problems with regular criminals getting out of jail — now we’re setting free the very people who want to tear our country apart? Bomb us, kill our children, wipe us off the face of the earth? Yeah, they are SO going to be rehabilitated when they get home. All is forgotten and forgiven. NOT.
Seriously, who IS this guy and HOW did he get elected POTUS? Does he even LIKE America? Personally, I can’t figure him out. But a higher power than me is watching out for us, I have to believe. That and the fact that many Americans are waking up to his idiocy and will boot his cronies out of office next year. After the massive spending bill that was passed, I don’t see how anyone with half a brain can be happy — but there are those out there who always want more.
As for elections, I’m closely watching the governor’s race in Texas, and my support is solidly behind Kay Bailey Hutchison. I know that means we’ll get a new senator, but I think she’ll make a great governor. I would even love to see her as president one day. Check my earlier post for her accomplishments, or her website, http://texans.forkay.com/ for information and to volunteer.
In the meantime, I’m still NOT watching MSNBC or CNN because of the blatant media bias (truly sickening), and am actually writing that novel I’ve put off way too long.
Oh, and for those upset about my post concerning Texas’ right to secede — it was (in case you are too dense to understand humor) quite obviously a joke. Tongue-in-cheek, yes, because much of it is true, but still it was meant as humor, so don’t get yourself all worked up. I even said that at the beginning I was passing on an email that had been forwarded to me. But for the record, if Texas truly wanted to secede — I’m sure our leaders would find a way I’m, however, a proud American, and will ride out the storm that is Obama (and pray he doesn’t get us all killed).
Subject: Just Released - An Independent Call by Katherine J. Morrison
An Independent Call, is the amusing story of a New Hampshire Independent and McCain supporter in the 2008 election. Along with a lighter take on the presidential election, An Independent Call gives an insightful look at the political parties, and the media during this two-year long process.
Epping, NH April 19, 2009 – An Independent Call is a fun and original take on the presidential election through the eyes of a New Hampshire Independent and McCain volunteer. It recounts the journey of a skeptical observer as she was converted into a die-hard McCain supporter. From meeting candidates from both sides of the aisle, to becoming a blogger for McCain, to being chewed out on campaign phone calls, to receiving press credentials for the Republican National Convention, this account relates the experience of being a participant at the lowest level politics from an outsider’s perspective. An Independent Call is a mix of good humor and political opinion from the middle.
An Independent Call is published by Broad Side of the Barn Publishing, and is available for purchase on their website – BroadSideoftheBarn.com . The author Katherine Morrison is a New Hampshire resident and blogger. She is the creator/author of PurplePeopleVote.com, and has a background in web development.
Rockingham NH County Commissioner, Maureen Barrows, recommends An Independent Call stating that it is…
“A must read for anyone interested in the day to day life of a volunteer in a political campaign…attention to detail is brilliant.”
For more information on An Independent Call, please visit BroadSideoftheBarn.com, or contact Katherine Morrison at kmorrison55@broadsideofthebarn.com.
So I’ve been trying to block out, as much as possible, all thoughts of TOTUS lately. Not an easy thing (hence the gallows humor I try to take, a little something I learned from my law-enforcement days — if it’s too dark to deal with, making light of it sometimes makes it easier). If you can’t figure out what TOTUS is, just remember from my old posts that I do NOT consider Obama my president and his Teleprompter is more of a leader than he is. That should tell you something.
Well, the man’s ego is simply too much to ignore these days. His recent trip to Europe, for example. I suppose a cynical person might think he wasn’t feeling enough love here and remembered back to the good old days of his first grand European tour, the throngs of eager tourists, the media following him like rabid dogs…that could be one reason. Or I guess the G-20 could be another, but of course he made a splash along the way. I’m going with a combination.
What really chaps me is that TOTUS blew of PM Gordon Brown when he came to visit OUR country, yet the UK rolled out the red carpet for the Obamas. Every minute move was reported in the press. Did Michelle Obama touch the queen and was that a bad thing? No! The queen absolutely loved her. Was her dress too casual? Absolutely not. She looked lovely (gag — the woman can’t even stand up straight, probably because she’s as bent and crooked inside as her husband). Would MO or the French president’s wife show better fashion sense? When I heard that one, and some insipid entertainment reporter say “my bet’s on our girl” I thought “Who is our girl?” It literally took me a minute to realize that he was referring to Michelle Obama.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t give a flying flip about her fashion or rather the press think she looks good or not, but it just illustrated for me how disconnected I truly feel from TOTUS and his beloved, angry wife. They don’t represent me. I don’t think they represent America. At least not America as it was founded or as it should be. Please, Obama, stay in Europe, or go back to your fawning fans. I think I’d rather have Joe Biden around. Don’t like the guy, but I don’t think he’s quite as crooked as Obama (meaning he might have some semblance of a conscience).
I could probably still ignore all this and continue living my life, preparing for my peaceful protest via the upcoming Tea Party in my area. However, when I saw the “breaking news” report yesterday that TOTUS was making a detour to Iraq, ostensibly a surprise to rally the troops, I just couldn’t take it anymore.
Does NO ONE remember that Obama was too busy playing basketball on his last European tour to visit the wounded troops? The mainstream media sure doesn’t. Only news I heard was that the troops were thrilled to see him and greeted him like his other fawning fans. I guess his “Yes We Can” MoveOn.org guys have gotten boring. I think one story mentioned that he spoke disrespectfully about the United States, but that was a conservative outlet and it was quickly buried. Why did TOTUS even bother running for president when he clearly doesn’t like the USA? Jeez, can’t he just go run in Kenya or someplace like that?
Wow. I wonder what a staged production that troop enthusiasm was. I guess it’s not too hard to tell the people who WORK for you to act excited when the boss shows up, and I’m sure there are some who actually like him (none I’ve met, but I’ve heard of their existence). I’m also certain they were carefully culled to ensure the best media exposure for TOTUS. He isn’t quite the media darling over here that he was, oh, say, six months ago…though the press still hasn’t opened it’s collective eyes to his total disregard for truth, justice, and the American way (that would be capitalism, not socialism).
This guy makes me sick. Physically ill. Comrade Obama has been a crooked punk since his early Chicago days (go back and read my earlier blogs for details, or do your own research if you don’t believe me) and now he’s running, or ruining, the greatest country in the world. Are we perfect? Of course not. But we still had the best system going. He’s systematically destroying that. The terrorists at Gitmo are unhappy? No problem, let them go. Oh, and then they kill someone — well, hey, the guys have been locked up for a long time, they have anger issues (that’s actually what my daughter’s history teacher told her).
I won’t even get into the fact that he’s socializing banks, sent the federal budget into numbers so far in the red (and people complained about Bush) and gone back on every campaign promise he made (many before he was even elected, like town hall debates and public financing for elections. The guy is just about as bad as they come, and worse, he has the media on his side. This is a fight, and it’s time to take sides. A peaceful fight, but still a fight. The Republican Party, believe it or not, seems to be getting things together and standing firm. Unfortunately, Obama and his buds at ACORN manage to manipulate enough elections that there aren’t that many Republicans around, but I hold out hope for people like Bobby Jindal, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John McCain, Eric Cantor, John Carter, and a host of others. I think, if things shake out right, 2010 might be a turning point. At least we can “hope” for “change.”
So that’s it for my rant today. I could get into more specifics, but I think I’ll wait a few days and see what the MSM says about him versus what he actually does (or did). For now, God bless America. We certainly need it.
The House of Representatives and the Senate moved merrily forward toward
their decimation of the U.S. Economy in a party-line vote in favor on Obama’s
break-the-bank budget this week. Only 20 House Democrats voted against
the measure, with many Blue Dog conservatives still acquiescing to the
Administration’s massive social engineering expenditures which result
in a staggering debt to be paid for by generations to come.
Although a new coalition of “moderate” Senate Democrats emerged in March, many
of these members voted in favor of the budget excesses, with minor adjustments
intended to ’save face’ in their home states. Even the much-touted ’small change’
middle class tax cuts expire in the 2010 budget, leading observers to wonder
just what these Senators ‘hope’ to claim credit for with their consituents back home.
In a first show of party unity this year, all GOP voted against the budget, including
Senators Specter, Collins and Snowe, who until now have aligned with the Pelosi
driven flurry of Socialist engineered “Change” laws. It remains to be seen
where their loyalties will lie when the particulars in the budget return to the
floor for final decisions - particularly related to massive Health Care and Energy
programs yet to be finalized.
Estimates are that Obama’s new Energy Plan, alone, will cost the average
American household $3,000 to $4,000 annually in added utility costs.
His Health Care Plan remains fraught with special interest advantages,
combined with federally regulated mandates to trim diagnostic tests while
increasing cost-saving regulations to increase “hopeless cause” diagnosis-
thus reducing the quality and coverage of U.S. Health Care overall, especially
affecting senior citizens. Overall advantages of his plan would be afforded to
illegal aliens with the Federal government floating their health care costs.
Although it currently lays on the cutting room floor, credit is due House Minority Whip,
Eric Cantor, for steering a more sensible GOP Budget Plan, which
would have trimmed back the gluttonous spending of the already passed
OMNIBUS and HR 1 Stimulus Plan. While given no substantial attention by
Obama-controlled MainStreamMedia, the careful crafting of these alternative
Republican Budget proposals debunks the Democrat’s propaganda campaign
that has falsely disclaimed GOPs in Congress to be no more than negative
naysayers.
As with all legislation so far flying through the 111th Congress, achieving
this appearance of a Budget consensus, due diligence and fair reflection
were swept under the rug. Only 55 Senators voted for the Budget
while rule shuffling allowed for its passage with a simple majority of 51.
The only good news on the Budget Blueprint are signs of minor cracks in
Democratic cohesion and the emergence of greater GOP unity and clarity.
These indicate growing Capitol Hill apprehension on Obama’s Break America Plan.
Expanded public awareness of the dangers and deceits in this unprecedented
New Party takeover of our nation, combined with Activist Actions on Congress -
could continue to erode Pelosi’s stranglehold on Congress. That’s up to US!
This week’s passage of the revisionist Budget Blueprint is just one step in
a longer term battle whose outcome will show whether We the People take
back our government or let it overtake US. The emerging crisis conditions
within America’s overburdened, no-longer-represented mainstream middle
class needs to move US from shock and outrage to Get Involved and make our
voices heard in online, in the media and in Washington, D.C.
I’m no fan of Barack Obama. That’s pretty obvious.
It has nothing to do with race (to those of you who have called me a dimwitted racist). It has everything to do with his corruption, lies, socialist tendencies and the fact that he is systematically ruining this country. I don’t believe him or anything that comes out of his mouth. After studying the man for two years and looking into his backround, I believe I have good reason for my beliefs.
Barack Obama is a corrupt politician. Look at his words while he was on the campaign trail, and look at his actions now. I could go into further detail, and will be happy to do so, but for now — enough said. Just watch the video. Change you can believe in? Yes. He’s changing things. And it’s damn terrifying.
Let me start by saying (gasp) that I’m not really a Rush fan. That will probably get me in trouble with conservatives, but I’m an independent so I’m not too concerned. My problem with Rush is that I think he has, in the past, been a hypocrite (namely, his prescription drug abuse while he was calling on all drug users to go directly to jail). I also was disgusted by the way he made light of Michael J. Fox’s medical condition.
That aside, I do think the man has some legitimate things to say and he reaches a wide audience. I don’t hold his drug problem against him if he overcame it and paid the price. I’m just trying to show that I’m impartial here. I’ve never been a huge fan and I don’t listen regularly to him by any means. Rush Limbaugh has never been my cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean I disagree with what he says. But you can see how someone like me, who is fairly conservative and is not a real “Rush” fan, can be turned off by his manner. It wouldn’t take much for liberal-leaning people to hate him completely.
Well, that seems to be the path the White House has been taking as it plays games, trying to stew up trouble between Michael Steele, RNC Chair, and Rush. It’s a diversion, something Barack Obama so often decried during the election. It’s a diversion while Obama pushes and his cronies pushed through (and he signed) the huge porkulus bill that will keep us (and our great-great-grandchildren) in debt for, well, possibly ever. I guarantee you John McCain NEVER would have signed that bill. And NO, it is NOT last year’s business. If Obama truly thought that, he could have vetoed it.
Wait! Obama doesn’t do diversions, does he? In fact, I seem to remember him saying, anytime something about Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko or his nutty pastor were brought up that those were just diversionsary tactics and to ignore him. But then, Obama has always seemed to be a “do what I say, not what I do” kind of guy.
So to the matter at hand: forget the minor incident between Steele and Rush. It’s not even worth mentioning because it’s just petty B.S. (in my humble opinion). More important is the continued financial meltdown and the fact that our Comrade-in-Chief is trying to divert attention from what him and his cronies in Congress (who caused the mess — and yes, that would be Pelosi and the other Dems) caused in the first place. Housing crisis? Dems were in charge. Banking? Again, Dems. I voted for a couple of these guys in many cases before I did my research, so I take the blame too. But I DO know the facts now and refuse to blindly stick to a party that is, for all intents, turning into socialism. Destruction of America, anyone?
So Obama blew off the P.M. of Great Britain this week. Wow. The guy really is an arrogant SOB. Too tired. Here’s a tip, BO: Being president (which I don’t consider him), is a full-time job. You applied, apparently got the job, SO DO IT.
On a side note, I’m saddened (but not at all surprised) to hear from some of my military friends that they will no be “re-upping” because they do not want to serve under Obama. No shock there. One even said he was afraid to serve under Obama because if he shot a terrorist he might be arrested.
Sad, but true.
Here’s a transcript of a phone call (read closely for his remarks on the financial crisis) and his thoughts on socialism. He seems concerned. Not about the crisis, but about his possible socialist leanings. Duh. Those who haven’t had their heads in the sand have known this for years. The rest of you, WAKE UP! Please. Unless you want the country to go in that direction. In which case I kindly invite you to move to Cuba. It’s not far and I hear the beaches are beautiful. Plus, it has the system down flat. At the end of the transcript, you can actually listen to the audio and hear for yourself parts of the interview.
TRANSCRIPT
Tired, Frustrated Obama Inspires Zero Confidence, Scares Millions
March 9, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I got a couple of audio sound bites I want to play here for you from President Obama. Before playing these two sound bites, I want to recognize something that I don’t think the White House seems to understand, or maybe they do. It’s always problematic to characterize these people because you really don’t know what they know, what they understand, because they are so inwardly focused. But I want you to understand that I understand just how much fear there is in this country among people who have seen over half of everything they had saved vanish, and there is no indication that it is going to start building again. The whole notion that the American dream of hard work, ambition, combined with dreams can make things possible, more and more people are losing belief in that, understandably so. Not everybody is, but a lot of people are, more than you know. There is palpable fear.
Let’s talk about seasoned citizens first. Some of them have only their Social Security, but others have more or had more. They had retirement accounts, various places that their portfolio was diversified. Whenever anybody’s portfolio was, however it was diversified, half of it’s gone in six months with no end in sight, and certainly no rebound in sight. And people are wondering what to do. Should they take their money out of the market? They see everybody else shorting the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down 16 points today. It’s been flirting up 25, down 25, but it isn’t moving up, it’s not ticking up. So people are wondering should they actually pull their money out, convert it to cash and put it in a safe somewhere? There is fear of the banks not being solvent. More banks in Georgia were shut down late last week or over the weekend. It’s something that happens now with a predictable frequency. And generally people are talking, “Where is the bottom going to be?” Nobody can tell you where the bottom is going to be.
The president of the United States is not inspiring any confidence whatsoever. All of this economic tumult is really the result of a banking crisis with no effort to fix it. There is no plan. Geithner doesn’t know what he’s doing. He just got three assistants that were nominated to serve with him, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing. There’s nobody in this administration inspiring confidence that there is an end in sight to this. The only people being inspired are those who simply believe the words of Obama because he’s Obama, the same people that voted for him, because there’s certainly nothing of substance. Let’s listen to a couple of sound bites. This is last Friday. Less than 90 minutes after Air Force One landed on the way back from Columbus, Ohio, President Obama called the New York Times about the interview he gave them earlier.
One of the things that he was upset about, they’d asked him about whether he was a socialist, and apparently his handlers thought that his answer wasn’t any good, because he says, (paraphrasing) “I’ve been thinking about this socialist thing that you guys at the New York Times asked me about, and I thought you were joking, but if you were serious, I want to give you a serious answer to this.” Clearly the accusation that he’s a socialist is bothering him, and if you call a news agency back to try to set the record straight, in the first place he’s the only guy that can get away with that, calling back, “By the way, I want to change what I said to you guys,” da-da-da-da-da. If I tried something like that, “Uh-oh, uh-oh, we caught Limbaugh! Mr. Limbaugh called the New York Times back trying to change the record, but, a-ha, we’ve discovered that we hit a sore spot.” It’s not how it goes with Mr. Obama yet, but the New York Times reporter says, “So who’s watch are we talking about here, sir, when it comes to this socialism business?”
OBAMA: By the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system, and the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if coming in the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it.
REPORTER: Right.
OBAMA: You know, I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system.
RUSH: Now, that’s an inspiring thing to say. I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system. This does not inspire confidence among people who listen to what this man says. This frightens them. This whole answer that he gave, “I constantly try to emphasize to people that, if coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it.” The dirty little secret is, Mr. President, we had stimulated the banks. We stimulated Wall Street, and it didn’t work. This is a question that I asked last Friday. Aren’t we about out of time now? Don’t we have enough evidence that these political solutions don’t work? We bailed out General Motors. Their auditors are talking about bankruptcy. We bailed out Chrysler, ditto. We bailed out banks, they continue to go south, they continue to lose their share price. The New York Times has had to sell and buy back or done some maneuver with its own building today. Anything that we have touched, anything the US government’s bailed out is not working: AIG, Citibank, Citigroup, whatever, any of these banks, the vast majority of them, not all, continue to have trouble.
All of this stimulus, quote, unquote, is not stimulating, it’s not causing confidence. It’s not creating confidence, it’s not causing a rebound, it’s not causing an uptick in any market indicator. And the president says, “You know, I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system.” Mr. President, the financial system is all there is right now to people. The financial system undergirds every other failure that’s going on here, from the housing to the car industry to wherever you want to look. And then we hear that the president was too tired to give a proper welcome to Gordon Brown. Yeah, he didn’t know that you have to have a joint press conference and maybe a state dinner the first time the leader comes to see you from your number-one ally. He was just overwhelmed, just too tired, so much going on, he had no idea. Well, what is that supposed to mean? Did we elect a kid here that has no executive experience at all, is that what we’re now being told, that we elected a good-intentioned, a well-intentioned kid, a community agitator, he had no executive experience, and he’s going to figure it out at some point, but don’t hold it against him. He didn’t know that these kinds of things are important. What do you mean, he didn’t know? There’s all kinds of protocol people in the White House.
Have you ever stopped to think how it is the White House functions from one day when Bush leaves ’til the next day Obama goes in? Do you think everybody gets swept out? I tell you, it defies logic for me sometimes to try to understand how people are being told to appreciate or understand Obama. To say that there’s nobody in this White House that understands the importance of the allied relationship with Great Britain, that’s not the way to put it. The way to put it is this bunch doesn’t care about that relationship. That’s the way to look at it ’cause that’s the way it is. This bunch doesn’t care nearly as much as past administrations have about our allied relationship with the United Kingdom. Who do you think it is that tells the new arrivals how things operate when the old arrivals leave? There’s orientation. They can’t play this game of ignorance and inexperience, “Oh, I’m too tired, we didn’t know.” That’s a cover-up. Whatever they decided to do with Gordon Brown was purposeful and I would come up with something better as an excuse than to say our young, energetic, in-shape, very disciplined young president was tired. That just doesn’t wash. Not with me. Here’s the next sound bite, Friday aboard Air Force One, a portion of the interview where President Obama is talking about the economy.
OBAMA: What I — I don’t think people should do is to suddenly stuff money in their mattresses and pull back, you know, completely from spending. I don’t think that people should be fearful about our future.
RUSH: You don’t think people should be fearful about the future? Well, they are. They are because they’re losing it. They are losing their future each and every day, Mr. President. They see their future dwindling away and they’re wondering how to save what’s left. There’s no inspiration coming from the White House on this. There’s no motivation, there’s no uplifting whatsoever. And, by the way, the last time a president said, “Go out there and spend, engage in commerce,” it was George W. Bush, and the Democrat Party raked him over the coals for being insensitive. There’s supposed to be shared sacrifice because of the war in Iraq, it was supposed to be shared sacrifice. Well, hello. You’re getting shared sacrifice. This is what they meant all along, everybody gets poorer. That’s shared sacrifice.
Don’t you just love it when people disagree with you and, rather than make a valid argument for their point of view, sling names?
Apparently, I’m a dimwitted racist because I don’t like Barack Obama.
I make no bones about it. I absolutely can’t stand the guy. I think he’s a corrupt, morrally bankrupt, socialist liar who has consistently surrounded himself with criminals (I’m not ruling out criminal acts on his part, either) and will — actually already is — run America into the ground.
But that has nothing to do with his race, and it’s not because I’m “dimwitted.” So, “Pete” (or whoever you are — the coward didn’t leave a real email address and his comment was sent to my spam folder) — let me be clear here: I’ve researched Comrade Barry for the past two years and I know quite a bit about him. I know he won his first election by getting the other three candidates tossed from the ballot. I know he consistently voted “present” on controversial bills while a state senator and is in bed with the unions (including the teachers’ union, which is possibly the worst in his own state — as Chicago students can attest). I know he backed out of public financing, something he once praised, because it suddenly became “broken” — conveniently for him when he was raising so much money privately. He also backed out of town hall debates with Senator John McCain — I think it’s pretty obvious why, now, since we’ve seen him without a teleprompter and he can’t answer a question coherently without a blueprint. And people said Bush was bad.
I could go on about Obama, but suffice it to say that I support many minority politicians. Just not Barack Obama. Heck, I’m half Hispanic myself and I never supported Bill Richardson. And just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I want ANY woman to be the first president — I want a decent, well-qualified woman. I don’t want someone like Nancy Pelosi in power.
Slinging mud will get you nowhere. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind. If someone wants to read what I have to write and realizes that I actually do know what I’m writing about, great. Everyone has a right to their own opinion (at least we do right now — not so sure what the future holds for America). I listen to people I respect and do my own research. I don’t listen to the Hollywood elite. In fact, I’m rather disgusted by the bunch of them. Just because they can recite lines doesn’t make them qualified to tell people who to vote for, in my humble opinion. But I was never one to be star struck, so maybe I’m just weird like that. When I saw a headline that George Clooney missed the Oscars because he was meeting with Obama (wow, I’m so impressed), I pretty much wanted to gag. I used to like Clooney, and still think he’s a good actor. But his opions are whack, I believe, and using his position to shove them on his adoring fans is just as bad. Rather like Matt Damon giving an interview ripping into Governor Sarah Palin when he absolutely didn’t know the facts about her AT ALL. Do these guys NOT know the damage they are doing to our country?
So I’ll have to disagree with “Pete.” I’m not dimwitted. I have a college degree (it will probably kill you, “Pete,” to know that it’s from the University of Texas) and I’ve done my research. I’m certainly not racist. I actually used to be rather liberal, until the liberals in charge turned into socialists. I don’t like corruption in any party. I’m independent. And yes, I actually am working on a novel and I DO live right in the heart of Texas. So sorry, you are stuck with me.
Now if anyone cares to leave a legitimate comment about the porkulus bill or Obama’s shady past (and rather disturbing present) please do so. I’m also disgusted with Obama’s seeming total lack of care about national security and his release of Gitmo terrorists. I don’t view those guys as anything but enemy combatants. They are not criminals with rights. They were not fighting a war we entered and they did not sign the Geneva Convention. Feel free to leave your thoughts. Oh, I believe strongly in the death penalty as well. Go ahead and hate on that. Just remember: no spam accepted.
Back to writing for me. I’m actually feeling rather inspired these days.
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