Obama's America

December 20, 2012 by Wayne Allyn Root 

Hello, I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. First, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas during these tough and troubled times. Enjoy your family, enjoy the holiday, enjoy the food and thank God we’ve all been blessed to be born in the greatest country in the history of the world.

Unfortunately, a majority of Americans have forgotten what made us great — or they are taking those blessings for granted. Even at Christmastime (perhaps because it’s Christmastime, because it’s a time for prayer and reflection), I think it’s important to remind you what America could become: the collision course toward disaster we are on. That path is so clear, there is no longer a debate. The proof is in. The proof is Detroit.

Detroit is dysfunctional, insolvent and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. What a surprise.

There are three valuable lessons to be found in Detroit’s decline:

Lesson No. 1: Barack Obama claimed he saved Detroit and the auto industry. He was re-elected based on this claim. Obama was lying; he didn’t “save” anything. He just dumped billions of our taxpayer dollars down a rat hole to buy Democratic votes. Detroit was never going to be saved. Like an out-of-control drug addict, Detroit is a self-destructive spending addict headed for a tragic ending. Obama only postponed the inevitable and bought votes by using your children’s and grandchildren’s money. They’ll be paying the interest on this debt 50 years from now, and they won’t even get a car in the bargain.

Lesson No. 2: Mitt Romney was criticized harshly for saying Obama bought the election with bribes. Did you see the Democratic councilwomen from Detroit saying that the voters of Detroit voted overwhelmingly for Obama, so now he owes them? It sounds like Romney hit the nail on the head. Obama’s voters did indeed vote for the candidate they thought would provide them with the most freebies (bailouts, free contraception, entitlements) and handouts. Here is the irony: This is the exact same mentality that led to the death of Detroit.

Lesson No. 3: Detroit’s demise is America’s future under Obama. Look at the facts. Detroit is a one-party town. For decades, it has been run 100 percent lock, stock and barrel by liberal progressive Democrats — politicians who ruled with the exact same agenda and policies as Obama. There is no opposition party; there are no checks and balances. Republicans sightings in Detroit are just a rumor from the past — kind of like extinct dinosaurs. So Detroit is the perfect test case for proving what happens when you allow Democrats like Obama to run things their way. For decades, Detroit has followed Obama’s policies of big government always knows best, and massive taxing and spending.

Look at the results. Detroit has $2.5 billion in debt, similar on a local level to Obama’s $16trillion in Federal government debt. (With unfunded liabilities, it’s actually more than $100 trillion). Due to too many government employees who are paid way too much and allowed to retire way too young with obscene pensions and unaffordable healthcare paid for life, Detroit has $11 billion in government employee retirement obligations — $11 billion in one abandoned city.

Obama’s America, for exactly the same reasons, has several trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities for government employees. None of these absurd pensions can ever be paid. Detroit has to go bankrupt, and its union contracts will have to be voided in bankruptcy court. There is no way to ever pay them. America has to start thinking about how to do the exact same thing on the Federal level. I used to say, “We are Greece, except 1,000 times bigger.” But now just think of us as Detroit on a much bigger scale.

Detroit’s unemployment rate is sky high — just like Obama’s America. Actually, unemployment is twice as high as the metropolitan area around Detroit. Why? Because many of the towns around Detroit are Republican suburbs run with discipline, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes and lower spending.

Unemployment and bankruptcy aren’t the only results of Obama’s progressive liberal policies. Detroit is the most violent, crime-ridden big city in America — with strict gun control, by the way. Gun control is a joke. The only thing it controls is good people, who are prevented from getting guns to defend themselves. Criminals and murderers run free in “gun-free zones.” That school in Newtown, Conn., was a gun-free zone. Did that designation save those poor kids? What it did was leave the adults in the school unarmed and unable to defend the kids. Is gun control working in Detroit or Cleveland or Chicago or Washington, D.C.? Those cities with the strictest gun laws also happen to lead the Nation in murders, because gun control leaves the good citizens defenseless.

But I digress. The list of Detroit’s damage and dysfunction continues. Detroit has America’s most disgraceful public schools. Two-thirds of Detroit’s street lamps are broken. But why fix them? No one lives there anymore. During the past decade, a quarter of its population has escaped, leaving a literally vacant town. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Detroit’s abandoned lots combined are bigger than the entire city of Paris.

Detroit’s historic Woodmere Cemetery, where the town’s most prominent citizens have been buried since 1867, has been vandalized and desecrated, with desperate thieves stealing copper doors off mausoleums and selling the stolen goods for scrap metal. Folks, this is what Armageddon looks like. This is Greece in America. And this is what happens when Democrats get their way. Detroit is the test case for what America will look like if Obama gets his way. There’s no debate: Detroit’s Democrats got their way. This is the result.

Detroit’s policies are Obama’s dream come true: big government, big taxes, big spending, powerful unions, out-of-control entitlements, big deficit and debt, too many government employees, early retirement, obscene pensions, public schools run by all-powerful teachers’ unions with no competition and no choice for parents, and free healthcare provided by government (for government employees and the poor, which is pretty much the entire Detroit population). Do you want to bet Detroit leads the Nation in the percentage of the population on food stamps? If it doesn’t, it’s only because Obama’s Chicago is in first place.

What is at the center of this tragic American nightmare? Unions. You know, the ones that are Obama’s staunchest supporters and contributors. The same ones that now own him and most progressive liberal politicians. The Wall Street Journal points out that Detroit will spend $160 million this year and $135 million next year on just the retirement benefits of government union employees. That’s after factoring in the mayor’s labor reforms.

Unions bankrupted Detroit — just like unions bankrupted the auto industry. And because they bribed Obama with millions of dollars in campaign donations in 2008, Obama looted the taxpayers to bail out those unions — just so they could continue the scam: paying bloated salaries and obscene pensions to drill rivets into fenders, while the company that pays the bills go deeper and deeper into debt. This is now how America is run, too.

Government employees in Detroit have “defined benefit” pension plans that let them retire in their 40s and then get paid a fortune for 40 or 50 years — twice as long as they worked. This exact insanity is bankrupting cities, counties, States and even our Federal government from sea to shining sea. Keep in mind there are more than 22 million government employees in America. Yes, I said 22 million. All are aiming to retire with big pensions in their 40s; to live 40 more years of leisure built around golf, cruises, early-bird dinners and, of course, voting Democratic on Election Day. And here’s the really scary thing: With medical advancements, they may live 50 or 60 more years. That would add $2 million to their pensions.

This is Obama’s America with everyone working for government or unions or living on entitlements and handouts provided by government. This is what happens when an economy is run based on “The Big Obama Three” principles of “fairness, equality and social justice.” This is what happens when the politicians and bureaucrats of government get together with the unions, entitlement addicts and class-action lawyers to rig the system so that “the rich” and the business owners are the targets to pay for it all.

The final result is just like Greece: The rich and business owners leave as fast as they can. They run for their lives to protect themselves and their families. Recognize the result. I’m not making this stuff up, folks. They did leave Detroit. Everyone with money and smarts left. And they escaped to places like Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia: States with lower taxes and smaller government. Soon, (just like Detroit) with Obama in charge, people like that — the ones who pay the taxes –are going to leave America.

Detroit is the Obama blueprint. This is how you run a country with no Republican opposition in the way. Detroit is our future laid out before our eyes. Detroit is our canary in the coalmine.

By re-electing Obama, a majority of Americans, after decades of being dumbed down and indoctrinated by members of the teachers’ union in public schools, voted for… Detroit.

Be scared. Be very scared — for your assets, for your income, for your future, for your children and grandchildren. This is the future we have to stop before we all live in a Third World country like Detroit.

I’m Wayne Allyn Root. This Christmas think about about what America used to be about, should be about and must be about in the future if we are going to survive: God, faith, family, capitalism, small business, private-sector taxpayers, economic freedom, free speech, the right to carry a gun to protect ourselves not just from criminals but from government, patriotism and American exceptionalism. We must get back to those values, if we want to save America.

Let’s reflect on those values this Christmas. Kiss your kids for me, and tell them how blessed they are to be Americans. Let’s stand up and defend the real America — not Obama’s America. I’m Wayne Allyn Root for PersonalLiberty.com. Merry Christmas and God bless America.

A little Daisy

Gianna marches in the annual firetruck light display parade in Collingswood on Dec. 14. She's a Daisy now and handing out candies to the bystanders.

Tax Rich Liberals: Coulter

By: Ann Coulter

12/12/2012 07:10 PM

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Republicans have been forced into a Hobson’s choice of either letting the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone or agreeing to a tax hike on the top 2 percent of income earners (not to be confused with “the rich,” who have already made, inherited or married their money).

If Republicans object to the Democrats’ hitting job creators with a tax hike, three things will happen: Taxes will go up for everyone; Republicans will be seen as the “party of the rich”; and the inevitable economic collapse will be blamed on Republicans.

If Democrats were merely trying to raise taxes on the rich in a vacuum, it would be easier for Republicans to oppose raising anyone’s taxes. But because the Bush tax cuts are only temporary, unless the high-income earners’ taxes go up, everyone’s taxes revert to pre-Bush tax rates.

Republicans cannot be the party that raised everyone’s tax rates to prove that they can’t be pushed around by the Democratic Senate and Democratic president. You don’t want job-killing tax hikes on producers? Vote Republican next time.

It is not helpful to complain, “But Republicans will be blamed no matter what they do!” Yes — true. When has that not been true? It’s not a novel insight, and it’s certainly not an argument for handing our enemies a baseball bat to bludgeon us with.

Consider that the media’s neurotic fixation on an alleged Republican “War on Women” was going nowhere. It wasn’t even working with soccer moms — until Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock started prattling about rape and abortion.

Suggestion for Republicans: Stop living up to the Non-Fox Media’s stereotype of us as woman-hating Cro-Magnons who care only about the rich.

The fact that the NFM is against Republicans doesn’t mean Republicans can never win any battles. (The demographic shift to Third World welfare recipients will soon mean Republicans can never win any battles.)

Apart from gay marriage, the only issue the NFM has ever cared more about is aborting babies. And yet, intelligent pro-lifers swung the debate and public opinion by pushing parental notification laws, spousal notification laws and partial-birth abortion bans.

Even now, when we’re down to a slight majority in one-half of one branch of government, there are crucial battles Republicans can win.

I note that rich liberals — who somehow manage to avoid paying high taxes themselves — are always wildly enthusiastic about raising taxes on the middle class to keep the strivers down.

Forget the top 2 percent. The top 1 percent of the top 1 percent keep voting for higher taxes — and then take advantage of indefensible tax loopholes and deductions. Get them.

Let’s have a class warfare bloodbath.

Californians, for example, apparently adore high taxes. By contrast, Texans — and the Californians who have relocated there — do not. So why should residents of high-tax states be able to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal taxes? Texas and other no- or low-tax states are being forced to subsidize the profligate states.

The five highest-taxed states are New York, New Jersey, California, Vermont and Rhode Island — with California soon pulling into the lead. The five least-taxed states are Florida, Alaska, Nevada, South Dakota and Wyoming.

See the pattern?

You want high taxes, New York and California? Then pay them — with no deductions for state and local taxes on your federal returns.

Billionaire liberal Warren Buffett keeps gassing about how he’s dying to pay a higher tax rate (while employing a phalanx of lawyers to argue that he owes less in taxes than the IRS says he owes). Buffett is taking advantage of an unwarranted tax loophole that allows full-time investors like himself to report their entire income as capital gains, not ordinary income.

But that’s his job! A stock-picker like Buffett is completely different from a doctor, whose job is to save lives, or a lawyer, whose job is to wreck them.

They pay the full income tax rate for what they earn doing their jobs, and then pay a lower capital gains rate on investing the money they get to keep.

Buffett’s only job is to earn capital gains. He and others like him should be paying the ordinary income tax rate like the rest of us on the money he earns from his job. Close that loophole. Almost no Republicans will be harmed in the making of this tax change. (There’s a reason Sen. Chuck Schumer fought so hard to save it.)

Finally, as Glenn Reynolds — the law professor known as “Instapundit” — has been arguing, it’s time to end Hollywood’s exemption from excise taxes.

Excise taxes are taxes imposed on goods and activities, passed on to the consumer, such as alcohol and tobacco taxes. There are excise taxes on gasoline, airlines, tanning salons, fishing and archery products, truck driving, long-distance telephone service, and on and on.

Hollywood movies used to be subject to an excise tax, but, for no reason whatsoever, rich Hollywood liberals have been relieved of excise taxes on their products since the 1950s.

Reynolds suggests that, for “extra fun,” Republicans “could show pictures of David Geffen’s yacht and John Travolta’s personal Boeing 707 on the Senate floor.”

Republicans can’t block the Democrats from raising taxes on “the rich” without themselves being responsible for raising taxes on the middle class. But they can at least force liberal fat cats to start paying their fair share.

XFINITY Connect: Inbox (21)

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Don't sneeze!!!

The atheists (less than 5 percent of the population, if that much) and the scaremongers are taking over our country founded on JUDEO-CHRISTIAN philosophy with a belief in a SUPREME BEING. For instance, read this:

Consider the story of a first-grade girl in West Marion, North Carolina, who had the word "God" stripped from a poem she wrote and was going to read at her school's Veterans Day assembly earlier this month.

The poem honored her two grandfathers who served during the Vietnam War.

“He prayed to God for peace," she wrote of one of them. "He prayed to God for strength.”

Unfortunately, a parent found out about this, and complained to the school district.

At a McDowell County Board of Education meeting last week, employee Chris Greene said, "We had one parent concerned with the use of the word God in this program. This parent did not want the word God mentioned anywhere in the program. When the demand from this person was heard, the rights of another stopped. It did so by hushing the voice of a six-year-old girl.”

School Board member Lynn Greene told McDowell News, "My understanding on the law is a teacher cannot promote any certain religion, but when it comes to students voicing their opinion or expressing themselves in a poem we pretty much have to give some leeway. To me this whole thing is a violation of that child’s rights. Nobody forced her to write the poem, that was her part of the program. She was asked to write a poem about veterans and she did. My personal opinion is that her rights were violated.”

After fully examining the issue during the BOE meeting, President and Chief Executive Officer Ken Paulson stated the school did in fact have the right to remove the word "God" from the child’s poem.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/11/29/school-removes-god-first-graders-poem#ixzz2DjkJQRyo

These simpletons are the reason why we're in the shape we're in. BOE members are survivalists and really don't give a damn about the students or education. What they do care about is anyone's guess. What would they have done to this child if someone in the audience at the school meeting sneezed and she said, "God bless you"?

That child wasn't trying to profess a certain religion. She simply mentioned God. That one parent who objected to the inclusion of the Deity in her speech, was apparently a smelly atheist, who would undoubtedly call out to God if he or she were about to die at the hand of a terrorist (can we use that word under Obama NewSpeak?) or heading towards earth in an airplane that was about to crash. What's that old expression?..."There are no atheists in foxholes."

Let's carry this absurdity a step further. We mustn't say "good-bye" anymore because it could offend an atheistic bastard since the expression is a contraction of the words, "God with with ye." But we're pretty safe with that because most atheists are ignoramuses and wouldn't know the origin of this expression.

Many years ago in Jersey City a Nativity scene was erected in front of a building and the atheists and their henchmen, the ACLU, protested and demanded the Nativity be dismantled because it was on public property. Turned out it was erected on private property. The protesters lowered their heads, put their tails between their scrawny legs, and walked away in silence. 

Ann Coulter

MAKE THE DEMOCRATS OWN THE OBAMA ECONOMY

By: Ann Coulter
11/28/2012 06:51 PM

AAA

One bright spot of Barack Obama’s re-election was knowing that unemployment rates were about to soar for the precise groups that voted for him — young people, unskilled workers and single women with degrees in gender studies. But now the Democrats are sullying my silver lining by forcing Republicans to block an utterly pointless tax-raising scheme in order to blame the coming economic Armageddon on them.

Democrats are proposing to reinstate the Bush tax cuts for everyone … except “the rich.” (Why do only tax cuts come with an expiration date? Why not tax increases? Why not Obamacare? How about New York City’s “temporary” rent control measures intended for veterans returning from World War II?)

Raising taxes only on the top 2 percent of income earners will do nothing to reduce the deficit. There’s not enough money there — even assuming, contrary to all known history, that the top 2 percent won’t find ways to reduce their taxable income or that the imaginary increased government revenue would be applied to deficit reduction, anyway.

Apart from Obamacare, it’s difficult to think of a more effective method of destroying jobs than raising taxes on “the rich.” This isn’t a wealth tax on useless gigolos like John Kerry — it’s an income tax on people who are currently engaged in some profitable enterprise. Their business profits, which could have been used to hire more employees, will instead be used to pay the government.

But Republicans are over a barrel. Unless Republicans and Democrats reach an agreement, the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year. By pushing to extend the tax cuts for everyone except “the rich,” Democrats get to look like champions of middle class tax cuts and Republicans can be portrayed as caring only about the rich.

And when the economy tanks, the Non-Fox Media will blame Republicans.

The economy will tank because, as you will recall, Obama is still president. Government rules, regulations, restrictions, forms and inspections are about to drown the productive sector. Obamacare is descending on job creators like a fly swatter on a gnat. Obama has already managed to produce the only “recovery” that is worse than the preceding recession since the Great Depression. And he says, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The coming economic collapse is written in the stars, but if Republicans “obstruct” the Democrats by blocking tax hikes on top income earners, they’re going to take 100 percent of the blame for the Obama economy.

You think not? The Non-Fox Media managed to persuade a majority of voters that the last four years of jobless misery was George W. Bush’s fault, having nothing whatsoever to do with Obama.

The media have also managed to brand Republicans as the party of the rich, even as eight of the 10 richest counties voted for Obama. And that doesn’t include pockets of vast wealth in cities — Nob Hill in San Francisco, the North Shore of Chicago, the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the Back Bay of Boston — whose residents invariably vote like welfare recipients. Seven of the 10 richest senators are Democrats. The very richest is the useless gigolo.

Republicans have a PR problem, not an economic theory problem. That doesn’t mean they should cave on everything, but seeming to fight for “tax cuts for the rich” is a little close to the bone, no matter how tremendously counterproductive such taxes are.

Yes, conservatives can try harder to get the truth out, but as UCLA political science professor Tim Groseclose has shown, media bias already costs Republicans about 8 to 10 points in elections. Try arguing a year from now that Republicans’ refusal to agree to tax hikes on the top 2 percent of income earners — resulting in an expiration of all the Bush tax cuts — had nothing to do with the inevitable economic disaster.

Republicans have got to make Obama own the economy.

They should spend from now until the end of the congressional calendar reading aloud from Thomas Sowell, Richard Epstein, John Lott and Milton Friedman and explaining why Obama’s high tax, massive regulation agenda spells doom for the nation.

Then some Republicans can say: We think this is a bad idea, but Obama won the election and the media are poised to blame us for whatever happens next, so let’s give his plan a whirl and see how the country likes it.

Republicans need to get absolute, 100 percent intellectual clarity on who bears responsibility for the next big recession. It is more important to win back the Senate in two years than it is to save the Democrats from their own idiotic tax plan. Unless Republicans give them an out, Democrats won’t be able to hide from what they’ve done.

Even Democrats might back away from that deal

Good-bye Hostess?

Union strike leads to loss of jobs for 627 workers

By AP Staff November 13, 2012 12:00 pm

(AP) - Hostess Brands Inc. is permanently closing three bakeries following a nationwide strike by its bakers union.

The maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread said Monday that the strike has prevented it from producing and delivering products, and it is closing bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati. The facilities employ 627 workers.

Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, operates 36 bakeries nationwide and has about 18,300 employees. It warned earlier this month that the strike, by about 30 percent of its workforce, could lead to bakery closures.

“We deeply regret this decision, but we have repeatedly explained that we will close facilities that are no longer able to produce and deliver products because of a work stoppage — and that we will close the entire company if widespread strikes cripple our business,” Hostess Brands CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said.

Hostess said customers will not be affected by the closures.

A representative for the union could not be reached immediately for comment Monday.

Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike Nov. 9 to protest cuts to wages and benefits under a new contract offer, which the union rejected in September. Union officials say the company stopped contributing to workers’ pensions last year.

Hostess has argued that workers must make concessions as it tries to improve its financial position. The privately-held food maker filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade. Hostess cited increasing pension and medical costs for employees as one of the drivers behind its latest filing.

The company, founded in 1930, is fighting battles beyond labor costs, however. Competition is increasing in the snack space and Americans are increasingly conscious about healthy eating.

A short story of mine....

For the Love of God

November 13, 2012 · thestoryshack

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ernie Virgilio was a very obedient boy. He listened to his mother and father. He cleaned his room, made his bed, ate his vegetables, did his homework, and treated his parents with respect. He loved them very much. But more importantly, he was faithful to his God and went to Mass every Sunday.

He was a product of the Catholic school system. He studied hard and diligently and, true to form, he was obedient to the teachers (mostly laypeople these days – there was a shortage of nuns and priests – but they still represented God and the Church and demanded respect). He was graduated from St. Aloysius Prep School with a 4.0 average, a grade that could easily get him into virtually any college of his choice. He wasn’t interested in just any college, though.

He wanted to become a priest, a decision that caused his mother, Erminia, to rejoice and to light candles and to make novenas. His father, Rafael, on the other hand, realized he would never get the grandchildren he wanted and deserved. Since Ernie was an only son, as well as an only child (Erminia was unable to have anymore children after he was born), the prospect of the Virgilio name dying with Rafael was very real.

But the father would honor his son’s decision and wished him well. Inside, though, he wanted so much for his son to change his mind and to get married. Marriage was a vocation, too, just as the priesthood was.

Because the religious life was still something of a mystery to him, something that should be thoroughly explored, Ernie would often consult with Msgr. Bombiglio, the parish pastor.

They met many times in the office of the parish rectory. Ernie spent his childhood as an altar boy and trusted the priest and his counsel. During their last meeting, Ernie looked for the sign that could help him to finally make up his mind.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” the priest asked him.

“I am, Monsignor,” Ernie replied. “This is what I want to do.”

“Tell me again why you want to become a priest.”

“I want to devote my life to God and to the Church. I…have this need in here,” tapping his chest “It’s really something I must do.”

“You feel this is your calling?”

“Yes. I really feel that”

“And what about your family? Tell me again about them.”

Ernie smiled. “My mother has been supportive from the beginning. My father,” a shrug, “wants grandchildren but he understands.”

“Your mother is a saint,” Msgr. Bombiglio said. “She comes to Mass almost everyday. And your father…he’s a good man, but I don’t see him in church very often. Still, I can understand how he feels. My own father had the same misgivings.”

The pastor peered down at the floor of his dark, wood-paneled office, a contemplative look on his face, his jowls overflowing the Roman collar, almost obscuring it. “But, like your father, he, too, finally understood what I needed and must do.” He stared hard into Ernie’s brown eyes, wide with wonder and innocence. His round, boyish face was topped by light brown wavy hair that turned almost blond during the summer. (He loved the beach and spent many hours there roasting under the sun.)

“You must know what it means to be a priest,” said Msgr. Bombiglio. “Once you take your vows, you must be obedient to the Church and to God. You must control all desires of the flesh. You must forsake everything most people consider their God-given right: marriage, children….” a pause, “…sex. Are you willing to give this all up?”

Ernie looked into the cleric’s eyes and, without hesitation, proclaimed, “Yes! All of it. My calling is real and profound.”

Through Msgr. Bombiglio’s influence, Ernie was able to get into one of the best Catholic universities and seminaries in the country. When the time came for his ordination, Rafael and Erminia beamed with pride, especially Rafael. He finally came to terms with his son’s vocation and actually bragged to his cronies at the club that since his son was a priest, “I now have a one-way ticket to heaven.” His wife would reproach him for saying that and, if she were standing near him, she’d give him an elbow in the ribs.

A few days before Ernie was to go to his first parish assignment, he had Sunday dinner with his parents. His mother made rigatoni with brasciole and lamb and an eye-of-the-round roast with three different vegetables as side dishes and fruit for dessert.

When Ernie saw all the food, he shook his head and smiled.

“It’s only the three of us, Mom.”

“But who knows when you’ll get another decent meal?” she responded.

“The rectory will always have a cook, wherever I’m assigned.”

“Yeah,” Rafael cut in, “but can she cook Italian?”

Ernie laughed. “Dad, there are other types of cooking.”

“Are there?” he growled as he dove into his plate of rigatoni.

All during the meal and, later, while they relaxed in the living room, his mother stared at her son, dressed in his black suit and white collar. She was proud of him but there was a void near her heart. She wanted grandchildren, too, just like her husband, but she never said anything to Rafael about this. If the Lord willed that Ernie serve Him, sobeit. There was nothing she could do about it. She would not quarrel with God’s plan.

Still, it would have been nice to have a baby or two running around the house, the way Ernie used to. Apparently it was never meant to be.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Ernie asked his mother as he sat in an easy chair, sipping a glass of red wine. He stared down at himself. “Is something wrong?”

Erminia smiled. “No. I just can’t believe how grown up you are and that you’re a priest. I’m proud of you, my son,” Then she laughed. “The only thing is I can’t see myself calling you ‘father.’”

Ernie chuckled, “You don’t have to do that,” he said. “That’s just for other people. I’m still Ernie to you and dad.”

Rafael walked into the living room at that moment, dunking a biscotto into a glass of wine. “That’s good to know,” he said as he sat on the sofa next to his wife.

He bit off the soaked end of the long, slender cookie before it could fall back into the glass.

“Calling you ‘Father Virgilio’ doesn’t sit right with me,” he said, smiling, “but I suppose I’ll get used to other people calling you that.” He dunked the rest of the biscotto. “I guess I’ll get used to a lot of things, now that you’re a priest.” He finished the cookie and wine and placed the glass on an end table. He looked at his son.

“I was against this in the beginning,” Rafael said to Ernie. “You know why. But I’ve come to accept it. You’re a priest. A man of God. I suppose I’ll even go to you to confession one day. Not right away, though. I…need time to adjust.”

“You haven’t been to confession since, when? you got married?” Ernie said with a smile. “If I can get you back to confession, then the sacrifices will have been worth it.”

Later, when it was time to leave — a large Tupperware bowl filled with rigatoni and brasciole in his hand — Ernie stood in the doorway of the house of his youth and kissed his parents on the cheeks. He hugged them both.

“I won’t be far,” said Ernie. “I’ll only be a few miles away. I can come to dinner every week if you want me.”

“We want you,” Erminia said and embraced him again. “We want you,” she whispered in his ear.

His father squeezed his shoulders with his massive hands, made strong and powerful by years of labor.

“Good luck,” he said. “You got problems with your work, see your pastor, pray. You got other problems, see me.”

Ernie shook his father’s hand, then went down the steps of the porch into the cool spring air, the bowl held protectively under his arm. His parents watched him climb into the Focus parked at the curb — the one they bought him for his ordination — and drive away. Then slowly, they closed the door and walked quietly into the big, empty, and silent house.

Rich Luongo has been a journalist/edtitor for more than 40 years. A handful of short stories have been published over the years and, since retiring as a full-time journalist, he has been pursuing the fiction end of his writing.

Illustration by: Grace Gao

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Booker for Governor?

Friday, 09 Nov 2012 12:50 PM

By Bill Hoffmann

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is planning meetings with potential fundraisers to determine whether he has the support to take on Governor Chris Christie.

The Newark Star-Ledger reports the well-liked Democrat will decide by mid-December whether to challenge the Garden State’s hugely popular Republican governor.

Sources told the newspaper that Booker make take at least one trip to California to speak with potential backers, and appear at a party hosted by Troy Carter, the manager of Lady Gaga and an entertainment-industry powerhouse.

“If Mayor Booker wants it, it should be his for the asking," former Governor James Florio said Tuesday at an election night party.
"He’s got the money and the name recognition."

Carter, who launched his career in Philadelphia working with rapper-turned-acting superstar Will Smith, donated $60,000 to the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina two months ago.

Booker’s charismatic appeal has translated to big bucks in the past. In the 2010 mayoral election, he raised more than $1 million from California donors, including from Carter and other entertainment bigwigs.

In preparation for his campaign-money hunt, Booker has hired Mather Martin, a fundraiser and veteran of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, the Star-Ledger said.

Sources told the newspaper the mayor has informed his political team to take a vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday and to get ready for a potentially busy December.

While Christie’s camp has been adamant about him seeking reelection, the possibility remains he’ll be tapped for a presidential run in 2016. Christie delivered the keynote address at this year’s Republican National Convention.

Other potential challengers for Christie’s seat, Christie’s include state Sen. Barbara Buono (Middlesex), Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assemblyman John Wisniewski.




© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Postpone the elections?

Rush: Left Wants Obama to Postpone the Election

Tuesday, 30 Oct 2012 05:42 PM

By Todd Beamon

 

Radio show host Rush Limbaugh said on Tuesday that left-wing media outlets are pushing for President Barack Obama to postpone next week’s election because of Hurricane Sandy — something he says Obama has no authority to do.

“The president has no power whatsoever to do this,” Limbaugh said on his radio program. “The president cannot do it. The fact that so many people want the president to is alarming, because it indicates how many people would be comfortable with that kind of autocratic, totalitarian power.”

Limbaugh cited articles published on such websites as Politico, Slate, and The Atlantic – as well as questions posed by reporters on Tuesday to White House spokesman Jay Carney as indications that left-wing organizations are pushing for a delayed Election Day.

Urgent Poll: One Week Until Election Day. Obama or Romney?

“But in our constitutional system, the president has no say,” Limbaugh said. “I hate to tell you this, but the president can't do a thing about this. The Constitution sets the terms of the election. The states determine where the elections are, the federal government and states together.”

Limbaugh quoted from the Politico report, which suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could have a role in moving the election from Nov. 6.

“Here just one sample story on moving the election. It's from The Politico. The headline: ‘Hurricane Sandy: Could It Push back the Election? — [FEMA] is preparing for Hurricane Sandy to disrupt next week’s elections, agency Administrator Craig Fugate said Monday afternoon.’ Really? How's FEMA preparing for Hurricane Sandy to disrupt the elections?” Limbaugh asked.

“What's FEMA got to do with it? FEMA doesn't have anything to do with this. ‘We are anticipating that, based on the storm, there could be impacts that would linger into next week and have impacts on the federal election,’ said Craig Fugate, the FEMA administrator.

“He can ‘anticipate’ all he wants, but FEMA's got nothing to say about this,” Limbaugh continued. “Congress sets the date of election. The states have to get their re-elects in by the middle of December. They've got 34 days to have their electors vote. States don't set the Election Day; the Congress does.”

Urgent Poll: One Week Until Election Day. Obama or Romney?

He suggested the reason for all this talk is because, “They don't realize that the longer this goes, the worse it's gonna get for Obama. If they were smart, they'd want to move the election up.

“But, of course, that isn't gonna help 'em, either, because Romney is leading in the early voting 52-45, plus seven,” Limbaugh said. “There is nothing the president can do, legally. He can't do anything about the election. If he could, he could also cancel it, couldn't he? He doesn't have that power.”

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

No Oil Drilling: Obama

The Obama administration, citing environmental concerns, has banned drilling on half of the vast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in a move decried even by Alaska’s congressional delegation.

“The price of gasoline, which was $1.84 a gallon the day President Obama took office, has more than doubled since, willfully aided and abetted by an admi...

nistration that claims we can't drill our way to energy independence as we ignore vast reserves of North American energy that dwarf OPEC's and we sit on 100 years' supply of petroleum,” Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) stated in an editorial.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), not to be confused with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to the east, is a 23.5-million-acre, Indiana-sized tract on Alaska’s North Slope. It was established by President Harding in 1923 to ensure oil supplies for the U.S. Navy.

The desolate NPRA has been described as the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States and includes a point 120 miles from the nearest village or usable road.

In 1976, the reserve was transferred to the Interior Department and Congress designated it as a strategic oil and natural gas stockpile to meet the “energy needs of the nation.”

But in August, Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that new drilling would be allowed on half of the reserve while the other half will be off-limits to oil and gas exploration.

Environmentalists had lobbied to protect the habitat of caribou, eider ducks and other Arctic species.

“The move drew praise from environmentalists but sharp criticism from oil and gas proponents who said it would restrict the industry’s ability to tap the nation’s hydrocarbon resources,” the Washington Post reported.

The off-limits portions of the reserve are “the most productive areas” of a tract that IBD says contains 2.7 billion barrels of oil and 114 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Alaska’s congressional delegation — Sens. Mark Begich (a Democrat) and Lisa Murkowski, and Rep. Don Young — call the administration’s action “the largest wholesale land withdrawal and blocking of access to an energy resource by the federal government in decades.”

They also said the move “will significantly limit options for a pipeline” through the reserve to transport oil and gas.

Erik Milito, the American Petroleum Institute’s group director of upstream and industry operations, said the plan “continues to leave domestic energy resources, jobs and government revenue off the table.”

IBD concludes: “The move is typical Obama sleight of hand: Take credit for increased oil production on public lands that you had nothing to do with, lock up resources on federal lands with the exception of places the oil companies find unprofitable or unpromising, then blame them, not your administration, for driving up prices.”

Where is the rage?

PATRIOTS for AMERICA 

Benghazi Update: WHERE IS THE RAGE??? I'm posting here because the media is protecting Obama... By now everyone knows that Obama lied about Benghazi and was still lying about it at the UN on 9/25, two weeks later.... No protest, No video. Denied security requests. And, people got murdered.

But, have you heard Charles Woods, attorney, judge and father of murdered Navy Seal Ty Woods? He called Beck on Thursday and was interviewed by Hannity yesterday to try and get the truth out:

When his son's body arrived at Andrews AFB, Mr. Woods met with President Obama, VP Biden and Hillary Clinton.

According to Mr. Woods: President Obama wouldn't look him in the eye, mumbled an insincere apology and was like shaking hands with "a dead fish".

VP Biden inappropriate exclaimed in front of the parents: Your son must have balls the size of cue balls. And, Hillary continued the lie...

Ms. Clinton told him: We'll get the guy who made this video...

Why didn't Obama, Biden and Hillary tell him: We'll get the terrorists who MURDERED your son?

All Mr. Woods wants to know is: Who, at the WH, gave the order NOT to save my son?

The attack and firefight last for 7+ hours... Cameras in the compound, drones overhead and satellites streamed LIVE LIVE LIVE video to the State Department, CIA, FBI, Pentagon and the WH Situation Room. Did Obama watch Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans die in REAL TIME, or did he sleep on it and watch it in the morning en route to more campaigning in Las Vegas?

Mr. Woods wants to know: Did Obama personally block the orders to send in the Quick Reaction Force commandos from Sicily or elsewhere nearby? The Seals were using lasers to "paint" the targets where the mortar attacks were coming from, for air support that never came...

How's that for leaving them for dead? I'm sure the FBI, CIA and military are brimming with confidence to see how the Commander-in-Chief "has their back". Making a mockery of these murders, lying about it and now blaming the "fog of war".

Why did it take three weeks to get an FBI investigation team there, when CNN could stroll in the next day and get Ambassador Steven's journal? I'm sure Team Obama (and the biased, corrupt media) are just hoping voters won't find out the truth until after the election. After all this is all about Obama and HIS campaign. Remember, to Obama these murdered Americans are just "bumps in the road." NO RAGE from Obama...

Americans were MURDERED and Obama, Hillary and everyone else let it happen, then LIED and continue the COVER-UP.

Where is the RAGE at EVERY campaign event Obama has? How about the media? If this had been Bush or any Republican they'd be covering this non-stop, 24/7. Are they so far gone for Obama they have no morals, or sense of right and wrong, either?

Where is the RAGE????????????

Unbelievable!!!

Read the Washington Post story. That leftwing rag — once a major newspaper — endorses B.O. for re-election, then cites his shortcomings. Unbelievable! These shortcomings are reasons NOT to endorse him. Liberal fools do not see the forest for the trees. Unbelievable! This country is going straignt down the tube.

Washington Post Endorses, Criticizes Obama

On Friday, The Washington Post endorsed Barack Obama for re-election, but was quick to criticize the President for his shortcomings.

The paper said Obama is a better "navigator," who "could better lead the country during the next four years — and, most urgently, who is likelier to put the government on a more sound financial footing."

The iconic liberal paper said it made its judgment "with eyes open to the disappointments of Mr. Obama’s time in office."

The Post cited some of these failures:

• He did not end, as he promised he would, “our chronic avoidance of tough decisions” on fiscal matters.
• "We were disappointed that Mr. Obama allowed the bipartisan recommendations of his fiscal commission to wither and die and that he and Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) failed to seal a fiscal deal in the summer of 2011."
• "Mr. Obama alienated Congress and business leaders by isolating himself inside a tight White House circle that manages to be both arrogant and thin-skinned. Too often his administration treats business as an obstacle rather than a partner."
• He hardly tried to achieve the immigration reform and climate-change policy he promised.
• In reviewing his foreign policy record, the Post said Obama "was hesitant and inconstent in responding to the two greatest and most unexpected foreign-policy opportunities of his presidency: the pro-democracy uprising in Iran in 2009 and the Arab Spring two years later."
• "Mr. Obama kept the United States on the sidelines as Syria plunged into civil war, costing more than 30,000 lives — most of them civilians — and breeding extremism that may destabilize a half-dozen countries."
• "By not securing a presence in Iraq after ending the U.S. military mission, he failed to capitalize on America’s decade-long commitment to that nation, and his ambivalence regarding Afghanistan — sending more troops, but with artificial deadlines and no clear commitment to their success — promises trouble in coming years."

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

42nd Annual Regatta

Philadelphia - October 25, 2012 -  The 42nd Annual Head of the Schuylkill Regatta®, Philadelphia's largest and most inclusive regatta attracting more than 6,500 competitors in 1,430 boats, is this Saturday, October 27th and Sunday, October 28th on Philadelphia's historic home of rowing, the Schuylkill River. Competitors from 26 states (as well as the District of Columbia), and from four nations (Canada, United Kingdom, Greece and Australia) are registered for this weekend's regatta.  Featured this year will be current Olympians, as well as Olympians from the recent past, including Esther Lofgren, Gold medal winner in the women's eight from the London Games, who will race her single in the women's open heavy singles at 9 a.m. on Saturday.  Also on Saturday, Sarah Garner and Christine Collins, Bronze medal winners in the 2000 Olympics, will compete in the women's open heavy doubles. A keystone event in the 2012 Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series, the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is a 2.5 mile head race for high school, colleges, open and masters' rowers, as well as featuring adaptive and recreational categories over both days.  Races begin on both days at 8 a.m. and continue to 4 p.m. each day.  Admission to view the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta, on the banks of the Schuylkill River along Kelly Drive, is free of charge.  The starting line for this weekend's Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is above the Strawberry Mansion Bridge, with the finish line above the "Viking" statue on Boathouse Row.  The Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is what is commonly referred to as a "head" race: A rowing head race is one where competitors race the clock over a course typically two to three miles long, compared to sprint races of 1,000 to 2,000 meters. Head races are a format that began in England. The launching site for out-of-town crews, as well as the Festival Site, including awards ceremonies, vendors, exhibitors, artists, entertainment and food, is approximately one mile North of Boathouse Row on Kelly Drive at the "Three Angels," the popular name for the Carl Milles' sculpture "Playing Angels." Free transportation will be provided to spectators this weekend, from Lloyd Hall on Boathouse Row to the "Three Angels" statues, as well as to nearby parking areas.  Limited parking for cars is available nearby in Fairmount Park. Presenting sponsor of the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is NSM Insurance Group.  Gold Sponsors include the Greater Philadelphia Tourism & Marketing Corp; Aleden Rowing; ARAMARK; East River Bank; and Exelon.  Silver Sponsors include:  OarTec; Shimano Rowing Dynamics; Ace Insurance; and Mariner Insurance.  Bronze Sponsors include:  Semanoff, Ormsby, Greenberg & Torchia LLC; and ROTHMAN INSTITUTE. Along with Lofgren, Megan Kalmoe and Hendrik Rummel, 2012 Olympic medal winners, will appear on the medals stand to help present Head of the Schuylkill Regatta medals to first, second and third place winners in each race.  They have also agreed to sign autographs at the USRowing booth (#23) in the Festival Tent.   The Festival Tent features vendors including: Boathouse Sports, the Perfect Snaque, PhotoBot, Henson, Wave One, Regatta Sport and Approach in addition to the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta's exclusive food vendor, Winnie's LeBus Manayunk.  NK is the official sponsor of this weekend's "DJ," and will be the voice of the regatta in the Festival Tent.  For the first time, there will be a warm-up tent, sponsored by OarTec, with "ergs" for crews that would rather warm up on land.   More than 250 volunteers, including members from across Boathouse Row and the rowing community, as well as from Philadelphia City Rowing, will begin working early Friday, October 25 until the end of the day Sunday, October 28 to make Philadelphia's largest regatta a success on and off the water.   The official Twitter feed of the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is https://twitter.com/The_HoSR, and results will be posted there with the hash tag #the_hosr.  Results will also appear on the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/HeadOfTheSchuylkill?fref=ts. This weekend's Head of the Schuylkill Regatta has its roots in 1971, when three members of University Barge Club launched the idea for a new fall race, transforming the 1,000 meter Graduate Sculls race into a head racing format. The aim of 1960 Olympian Lyman Perry, Jay Pattison III, and the late Raul Betancourt was to offer rowers of all ages congenial autumn competition. At a time when only elite, college and junior athletes competed in "head" or distance races, the newly-established Head of the Schuylkill Regatta emphasized graduate oarsmen and opened racing to newly emerging masters' and women's teams. In time, the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta became the world's largest one-day rowing competition, but its popularity soon exceeded the river's capacity, so in 2008 the format was changed to a two-day event. Additional information about the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta is available at http://www.hosr.org. With three of the largest regattas in the Mid-Atlantic region on the schedule, as well as two of the nation's oldest regattas, the Philadelphia Classic Regatta Series connects the rowing competitors of today to the historic home of the international rowing elite. It is built upon a tradition that launched November 12, 1835 with the first organized regatta on the Schuylkill (a full eight years before the start of the rowing program at Harvard). Over 175 years later, the Schuylkill River hosts more regattas annually than any other river in the nation. Additional information is available at http://www.BoathouseRow.org.