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Browsing Posts published in January, 2010

Flying on Obama‘s private plane (AKA:  Air Force 1) Obama looked at Oprah, chuckled  and said, “You know, I could throw a  $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy!”

Oprah shrugged her shoulders and replied, “I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy!”

Michelle added, “That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10
bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy.”

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his
co-pilot, “Such big-shots back there. I could throw all of them out of
the window and make 156 million people very happy!”

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CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/CHRIS McLEAN — Members of the audience gathered for a Tea Party meeting Thursday night applaud at the remarks of political candidate Alexander Mugatu.

Local chapter has about 800 members on e-mail lists; 200 attended Thursday’s meeting.

By PETER ROPER

THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

If members of the Southern Colorado Tea Party (SOCO) were feeling cocky at their monthly meeting Thursday night, it was understandable — they’d just seen Massachusetts elect a Republican senator, Scott Brown, with a healthy share of the credit falling to like-minded conservative voters.

Local Chapter has 800 members on email lists: 200 attended Thursday's meeting!

Southern Colorado Tea Party

“We don’t want any candidates that have been picked by the anointed,” Sheldon Bloedorn, chairman of the local group, told the audience of nearly 200 people at the Pueblo County Conference Center. He was referring to both mainstream Democratic and Republican officials. “We want candidates selected and elected by the people.”

That got cheers and some fist pumps from the audience.

Which is a reason the Tea Party movement could be posing a challenge to Republican candidates as well as Democrats. The local chapter has about 800 members on its e-mail lists and Bloedorn announced the group is endorsing Bob McConnell, a retired Army colonel and lawyer from Steamboat Springs, in the 3rd Congressional District race.

McConnell doesn’t yet have the name recognition or financial support of state Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, who is also running in the 3rd District race. But McConnell was clearly popular with the local members Thursday night and they are preparing to attend the March 16 GOP precinct caucuses to get themselves elected to the county and state GOP conventions. Meaning they are a new force for the mainstream Republican Party to contend with.

“I had a meeting with (Colorado Republican Party Chairman) Dick Wadhams,” Bloedorn explained to the crowd early in Thursday’s meeting. “And he told me the party is defined by the people who participate in it. And people, we’re going to be participating in it. We’re going to move the Republican Party to the right and that means supporting conservative candidates who believe what we believe.”

Which is why a list of Republican candidates came to the monthly meeting Thursday night to woo that support.

- Dan Maes, a businessman who is running for governor, acknowledged that former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis is the better-known Republican running for governor this year, but that may not carry much weight in Tea Party circles.

“I’m not a lawyer, is that okay?” Maes asked, knowing the crowd would cheer. McInnis is a lawyer. “I’m not a career politician, is that okay?” Maes went on, getting more cheers. McInnis spent 12 years in Congress. “I’m a conservative and I’m a Republican, and as we all know, those two don’t always go together these days — but with me, you get both.”

Maes clearly understood that scoffing at Democratic themes would be like tossing meat to hungry wolves. “Aren’t you sick and tired of the word ‘green?’ ” he asked to an ovation, saying he would fully develop Colorado’s oil shale and uranium deposits to boost the state’s energy economy.

He made a point of saying he was anti-abortion, opposed to gay marriage, and a strong believer in gun owner rights.

- Cleve Tidwell is a retired businessman running for the U.S. Senate and he even unrolled a copy of the Constitution to illustrate his pledge to stick to it when making laws.

Tidwell is from Georgia and has a soft drawl, but his words were more hard-edged. He will not take campaign money from lobbyists or special interests, he pledged. “That won’t happen. If it does, you call me on the phone and I’ll come home,” he said.

Electing lawyers, lobbyists and others who already work in the political system would just be putting “clones” into the government, according to Tidwell. He’s never been a part of that, he said.

A former Marine, Tidwell said he still reads the Bible at night.

- J.J. Ament is running for state treasurer. The investment banker got a laugh by saying he’d be the first state treasurer in a long time who’d actually been trained in finance. Ament did his best to link Democratic Treasurer Cary Kennedy to Gov. Bill Ritter, saying Kennedy had not opposed any of Ritter’s tax or spending policies.

In fact, most state treasurers get little attention unless they choose it. Former Gov. Roy Romer, for example, used the office to publicly oppose the Colorado Lottery and then ran for governor. But Ament charged that Kennedy had failed to make smart investments with Colorado tax revenues, costing the state money instead of earning more interest revenue.

- Alexander Mugatu, of Pueblo, is running for the state Senate District 3 seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Abel Tapia. Mugatu said he would oppose any efforts in the Legislature to evade the restrictions on taxes and revenue in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. He also said he wanted to replace the members of the Colorado Supreme Court.

Mugatu said he would fight to restore state sovereignty from the federal government and “cut the Gordian Knot of socialism” coming from the federal government.

proper@chieftain.com

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New advances in manufacturing may make oil-based plastics a thing of the past.

Polylactic acid (PLA) is biodegradable, made from renewable materials, and safe for food packaging, reports the Economist.

Korean researchers have developed a new, less expensive technique to make PLA.

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Members of Congress have a generous pension plan that for all intents and purposes insulates them from stock market fluctuations that currently threaten the retirement accounts of most of the rest of us.

U. S. House and Senate members are offered a defined-benefit pension backed by the U. S. Treasury and largely protected from market forces. According to The Associated Press, defined-benefit plans are rare, available to only 5%of private sector employees.

In fact, 46% of the private sector is offered no workplace pension of any kind, not even 401(k)s that are so at risk in today’s market and certainly not the guaranteed benefits available to Congress.

It’s no surprise that government and public employed pensions at many levels fare better than most. However, members of Congress are at the top of the heap of this privileged class of Americans.

Our federal representatives and senators are eligible after five years for full pension benefits at age 62. Better yet, those with 20 years in office can get full pensions at 50, younger than most people who really work for a living.

A full congressional pension starts at 80 %, adjusted annually for inflation, of the average of the highest three years of salary – currently $169,300 a year for the rank and file and $188,100 a year for the Senate and House majority and minority leaders.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rakes in the highest congressional salary, $217,400 a year, on which she continues to build her retirement nest egg. Figure her pension would start at nearly $174,00 pear, plus annual inflation thereafter, except it probably will rise higher by the time she leaves Congress.

On top of all that, members of Congress may choose to invest in 401(k) or similar retirement accounts that are not backed by the Treasury. But unlike the rest of us, these optional retirement funds are just gravy for Congress, whose members still can count on guaranteed pensions.

As the AP put it, “Despite the financial crisis…Congress has made no effort to revisit its unusually sweat retirement deal.”

Remember that when these members of the ruling class in Washington say they feel your pain or they promise to go after the pensions of greedy corporate executives who led companies to the brink of financial disaster.

How about Congress? It’s part of the privileged class that bears responsibility for what ails the nation.

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It’s better to be paralyzed from the neck down, than to be paralyzed from the neck up…Dr. Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer

Dr. Krauthammer is on Fox News. He is an M.D. and a lawyer and is paralyzed from the neck down. A friend went to hear Charles Krauthammer. He listened with 25 others in a closed room. What he says here, is NOT 2nd-hand but 1st. The ramifications are staggering for us, our children and their children.

Last Monday was a profound evening, Dr. Charles Krauthammer spoke to the Center for the American Experiment. He is a brilliant intellectual, seasoned & articulate. He is forthright and careful in his analysis, and never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is NOT a fear monger nor an extremist in his comments and views. He is a fiscal conservative, and has received a Pulitzer Prize for writing. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News and writes weekly for the Washington Post. The entire room was held spellbound during his talk. I have summarized his comments, as we are living in uncharted waters economically and internationally.

Even 2 Dems at my table agreed with everything he said! If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded and have not drunk the Kool-Aid, feel free.

Summary of his comments:

1. Mr. Obama is a very intellectual, charming individual. He is not to be underestimated. He is a cool customer who doesn’t show his emotions. It’s very hard to know what’s behind the mask. The taking down of the Clinton dynasty was an amazing accomplishment. The Clintons still do not understand what hit them. Obama was in the perfect place at the perfect time.

2. Obama has political skills comparable to Reagan and Clinton. He has a way of making you think he’s on your side, agreeing with your position, while doing the opposite. Pay no attention to what he SAYS; rather, watch what he DOES!

3. Obama has a ruthless quest for power. He did not come to Washington to make something out of himself, but rather to change everything, including dismantling capitalism. He can’t be straightforward on his ambitions, as the public would not go along. He has a heavy hand, and wants to level the playing field with income redistribution and punishment to the achievers of society. He would like to model the USA to Great Britain or Canada .

4. His three main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, and NATIONAL HEALTHCARE by the Federal government. He doesn’t care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus. The cap and trade will add costs to everything and stifle growth. Paying for FREE college education is his goal.. Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof. The only way to control costs is with massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada . God forbid!

5. He has surrounded himself with mostly far-left academic types. No one around him has ever even run a candy store. But they are going to try and run the auto, financial, banking and other industries. This obviously can’t work in the long run. Obama is not a socialist; rather he’s a far-left secular progressive bent on nothing short of revolution. He ran as a moderate, but will govern from the hard left. Again, watch what he does, not what he says.

6. Obama doesn’t really see himself as President of the United States , but more as a ruler over the world. He sees himself above it all, trying to orchestrate & coordinate various countries and their agendas. He sees moral equivalency in all cultures. His apology tour in Germany and England was a prime example of how he sees America , as an imperialist nation that has been arrogant, rather than a great noble nation that has at times made errors. This is the first President ever who has chastised our allies and appeased our enemies!

7. He is now handing out goodies. He hopes that the bill (and pain) will not come due until after he is reelected in 2012. He would like to blame all problems on Bush from the past, and hopefully his successor in the future. He has a huge ego, and Dr. Krauthammer believes he is a narcissist.

8. Republicans are in the wilderness for a while, but will emerge strong. Republicans are pining for another Reagan, but there will never be another like him. Krauthammer believes Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl (except for his terrible speech in February) are the future of the party. Newt Gingrich is brilliant, but has baggage.. Sarah Palin is sincere and intelligent, but needs to really be seriously boning up on facts and info if she is to be a serious candidate in the future… We need to return to the party of lower taxes, smaller government, personal responsibility, strong national defense, and state’s rights..

9. The current level of spending is irresponsible and outrageous. We are spending trillions that we don’t have. This could lead to hyperinflation, depression or worse. No country has ever spent themselves into prosperity. The media is giving Obama, Reid and Pelosi a pass because they love their agenda. But eventually the bill will come due and people will realize the huge bailouts didn’t work, nor will the stimulus package. These were trillion-dollar payoffs to Obama‘s allies, unions and the Congress to placate the left, so he can get support for #4 above.

10. The election was over in mid-September when Lehman brothers failed, fear and panic swept in, we had an unpopular President, and the war was grinding on indefinitely without a clear outcome. The people are in pain, and the mantra of change caused people to act emotionally. Any Dem would have won this election; it was surprising it was as close as it was..

11. In 2012, if the unemployment rate is over 10%, Republicans will be swept back into power. If it’s under 8%, the Dems continue to roll. If it’s between 8-10%, it will be a dogfight.. It will all be about the economy. I hope this gets you really thinking about what’s happening in Washington and Congress. There is a left-wing revolution going on, according to Krauthammer, and he encourages us to keep the faith and join the loyal resistance… The work will be hard, but we’re right on most issues and can reclaim our country, before it’s far too late.

Do yourself a long term favor, send this to all who will listen to an intelligent assessment of the big picture. All our futures and children’s futures depend on our good understanding of what is really going on in DC, and our action pursuant to that understanding!! It really IS up to each of us to take individual action!! Start with educating your friends and neighbors!!!

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