There is a glimmer of hope, indeed a ray of sunshine, that shines through in this article in The Daily Beast about the Aspen Ideas Festival. Written by Lloyd Grove, it recounts that even though “the folks attending this cerebral conclave pairing the Aspen Institute think tank with the Atlantic Monthly magazine might even be seen as President Obama’s natural base,” all is not well.

They are [bites knuckle] questioning Obama’s economic “policy.”

Harvard business and history professor Niall Ferguson offered a withering critique of Obama’s economic policies and was joined by billionaire real estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman in lambasting Obama’s trillion-dollar deficit spending program as fiscally ruinous, potentially turning America into a second-rate power.

Zuckerman added that he detects in the Obama White House “hostility to the very kinds of [business] culture that have made this the great country that it is and was. I think we have to find some way of dealing with that or else we will do great damage to this country with a public policy that could ruin everything.”

This was greeted by hearty applause from a crowd that included Barbra Streisand and her husband James Brolin. “Depressing, but fantastic,” Streisand told me afterward, rendering her verdict on the session. “So exciting. Wonderful!” Brolin’s assessment: “Mind-blowing.”

The consensus was similar in an afternoon panel discussion on the decline of the American middle class. “He said jobs were going to be his No. 1 priority - there’s a huge disconnect between Washington and what’s going on out in the country,” nominal Obama supporter Arianna Huffington said. “The president’s economic team kept talking about a ‘cyclical’ problem. Larry Summers said jobs were a lagging economic indicator. All these things are simply wrong. The president put all his trust in the wrong economic team - an economic team that didn’t understand what was happening.”

Doesn’t it appear that some of them are (perhaps, maybe, finally) beginning to get it?

The left is doing their best to diminish the tea parties by pointing out the lack of black participation. Is that really so difficult to understand?

In the 2008 Presidential election, major exit polls showed between 96% and 97% of African Americans who voted, voted for Obama. Since then, support in the black community has remained strong. A recent New York Times survey found that 96% of blacks still approve of the job that Obama is doing as president. This approval stands in stark contrast to Obama’s approval numbers now at below 50 percent in all major polls.

And if that wasn’t enough, according to the Tax Foundation (www.taxfoundation.org), 41.7 percent of African Americans will file a tax return with no liability. So roughly 42 percent of blacks have little reason to associate themselves with a “Taxed Enough Already” (TEA) movement since they pay no federal income tax.

Duh.

And the final straw is the intense vilification of any person of color who dares to question the liberal “progressive” party line and align themselves with those unclean conservatives – eeewww, gag.

Personally, I’ve never seen or heard any racially disparaging remarks made by those sympathetic to the Tea Party movement against black participation. In fact, any blacks who show the cojones to join with their white brothers and sisters to protest the out-of-control administration in Washington, DC would be welcome with open arms.

Well, here it is – finally. After much “rassling” of the data, it is now (I think) correct. As is usually the case when the democrats are involved, the data just didn’t want to be agreeable. I had a difficult time getting multiple lists to agree. When I finally began double-checking the final list, I found three representatives who had voted “NO” on the list. That would be a real disservice, to name someone who voted against that crap sandwich as having voted for it. And I also found two names not on the list who did vote for the bill. My point is, if you pick up another list as a source of who voted for the aberration, you better check it out against a known quality list to be sure that they agree.

I started by using a list that had full names and states, but not districts. That’s the reason for using that list. I then looked up the district for each of the reps. That first list was not wholly accurate, although I didn’t know it at the time – it was a more friendly format for entry into my Excel spreadsheet.

Once the spreadsheet was done, I checked it against two reputable sources, the clerk of house.gov and opencongress.org. That’s when I found the errors. Here are links to those two sources:

And this is the one that I consider the definitive one since it’s from the house.gov site, it has all of the “aye” votes together, alphabetically by last name: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll165.xml

Note: although this is the correct url that I used, it wouldn’t work for me Saturday afternoon. UPDATE: It didn’t work Sunday morning, but did work at 7:00 pm on Sunday – don’t know what’s going on there, but the url IS correct. If it doesn’t work for you all I can say is “keep trying.”

Remember in November

My fellow Americans, we have been scammed, tricked, and defrauded by 219 of our so-called elected representatives.

219 individuals that we elected to represent us in Washington, D.C. voted as a conspiracy to take away freedoms, saddle ourselves and our grandchildren with unsustainable debt, and ruin a health care delivery system that was the envy of the world. They are solely responsible for forcing down our collective throats, a “crap sandwich.”

They followed the orders of Speaker Pelosi and accepted Obama’s promises, and voted against the wishes of the American people. They ignored the polls showing that Americans were against passage of the bill. They tuned out our voices and the 219 democrats on this list voted against us, finally passing the bill.

Contrary to promises made by Obama and Pelosi, it was anything but bipartisan – indeed the only bipartisanship was on the “no” side of the vote, which included all 178 Republicans and 34 democrats. The passage of H.R.3590 by (at least) 216 votes, was a cause - a challenge - to the congressional leadership, most notably Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Reid – for them, it was a personal crusade, an us-against-them contest. And they won.

While the bill has become known as “Obamacare,” that is really a misnomer. It should be more accurately known as “Demcare.” The congressional democrats are solely responsible for it – they own it, and they will be held accountable for it.

Most of these traitors lined up to vote in favor of the legislation long before the drafting was complete. Their intention was clear, to pass a “healthcare” bill regardless of its cost or whether it was good for the country. They were prepared to do anything to get it passed – damn the Constitution and damn the people – “full steam ahead.”

Our choice is clear. We must replace each of these turncoats. They did not represent us, they represented Pelosi and Reid. They demonstrated the very definition of political arrogance. We will have our opportunity on November 2, 2010 to repay their betrayal.

I’ll post the names here on Pesky Truth here at Townhall as well as my other blogs on WordPress and Blogspot. I will also send e-mails to each of my friends and family members notifying of them of my latest posts. Like all bloggers, I aspire to a larger readership, but lacking that, I’ll keep reminding everyone within my reach.

If each of us does the same, we can remind everyone of those individuals who spat in the face of American citizens and make sure that voters don’t forget who they are. They are betting that our memories will gradually fade and we’ll forget how incensed we are right now. I intend to do all that I can to prevent that from happening.

I’ll take the responsibility to gather the names and format them into an attachment that will allow an easy e-mail distribution to all who want to participate. It should be easy for you to simply cut/paste the contents of the attachment into a post on your blog and publish it – obviously, along with any editorial content that you might want to add. We can coordinate when we publish between us so we don’t all do it on the same date. We want to remind all of those within our circles that the named congresspersons intentionally chose to ignore the Constitution and cast their vote against the best interests of the country’s citizens.

I fully realize that our meager efforts may only be a drop in the bucket, but if we can assure a few hundred (hopefully thousands) of additional votes against these traitors in November, it will have been worth it.

Let me know of your thoughts.

Note to Congress: We’re watching You.

Like never before, millions of citizens are watching the actions in play in Washington, D.C. and to put it mildly, we are not happy.

All polls show that the citizenry is against passage of the current skulduggery commonly called the “healthcare” bill. It’s obvious that you think that we’re all idiots and can’t possibly understand that the legislation will be “good for us.” If it’s so good, why aren’t you folks part of it? Truth be told, it is smoke and mirrors, pure and simple.

You think we don’t understand it – you’re wrong. We understand much more than you suspect and we don’t want it, we can’t afford it – and we especially don’t want it shoved down our collective throats via arcane parliamentary maneuvers. You’re going to “deem” it passed? Give me a break, you’re all afraid of a direct vote on a final “finished” bill. You are cowards.

You think that we’ll forget – you’re wrong again. It’s less than eight months till mid-term elections – we will not forget. Hundreds of thousands of conservative activists and bloggers will not allow the voting public to forget.

You think that Speaker Pelosi and/or Senate Leader Reid will give you some cover or promise some cushy appointment when you lose your job (and you will). Wrong again. You had better have a fall-back gig, because you’re about to lose your “day job.” You might want to be practicing a “want fries with that?” sales pitch.

In order to believe the president and congressional leader’s description of the positive results that will accrue to the country if the bill passes requires the willing suspension of disbelief. They (and you) are lying to the American people, you know you are, and we know you are.

You can’t hide from your vote. Even without a direct vote, we’ll know who was party to passing this fraudulent legislation and you will be held accountable.

I’m formally proposing that henceforth, a class picture of the 111^th Congress be displayed as part of the references for “chicanery” in all dictionaries and encyclopedias. They are indeed, the very illustration of the word.

Even though most democrats are doing their best to ignore the congressional skullduggery currently underway, we have an opportunity to educate them on a descriptive noun that accurately describes what Speaker Pelosi, Senate Leader Reid and the democrat majorities are doing.

One simple word can paint the mental picture that truly describes the activities of this Congress. And that word is … chicanery … here is a definition:

chi·can·er·y

–noun, plural-er·ies.

1. Trickery or deception used to trick, deceive, or evade

Some synonyms: cheating, deviousness, dishonesty, double-crossing, double-dealing, fraud, hanky-panky, plot, ploy, ruse, skullduggery, subterfuge, surreptitiousness, underhandedness.

It was bad enough when they played dishonest games with the original healthcare bill by specifying that ten years of revenue would be included, but only six years of expenses. This was done to artificially reduce the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimate of the bill’s cost over the required ten year projection. They said that the House bill (based on the input given the CBO) would increase the deficit by $239 billion over 10 years. But what would that number be if there were an additional four years of expenses added in? How much more would the deficit be increased with four more years of expenses? Even a farm animal could reason that if the forecast was based on the same period for revenue and expenses, the cost would be substantially higher. Ten years of revenue and only six years of expenses does not yield a true 10-year cost of the legislation. That is dishonest and is meant to deceive us, the taxpayers – and that is - congressional chicanery.

Then, in order to stop a scheduled 21% reduction in Medicare payments to doctors, they moved the legislation designed to “fix” the doctor’s reduction (by rescinding it, it’s called the “doctor fix”) to an entirely separate, unrelated bill. This was done to keep the $210 billion dollar fix out of the healthcare bill because it would have added another $210 billion to the cost of the bill. The “Doctor Fix” was moved to what is referred to as the “Jobs Bill” to keep the cost of the healthcare insurance reform bill under that “magic” $1 trillion figure. That is slight-of-hand and fraud, and even more congressional chicanery.

Those are only two egregious examples, there are countless more.

So, we’re not being told the truth about the real cost of the proposed healthcare overhaul and Congress is intentionally lying to us, they know that they must, else we’d never allow the legislation to pass.

The legislation is bad enough. But an even more troublesome activity is the methodology that they’re using to force the bill into law. There will be no single bill, negotiated by conference committee, on which to vote as is usually the case. There will be no “up or down” vote as we, the taxpayers, might expect. Indeed, there may not even be a vote on a “final” bill at all. Instead, Speaker Pelosi and her thugs are proposing that they just “deem” the bill to have been passed because the House passed a bill (bill “A”) and the Senate passed a different bill (bill “B”) – they say that each body did indeed pass a bill.

This action would (supposedly) allow Obama to sign the bill into law although legislators are not on record as having voted for it (they voted for that “other” bill). This way they could deny having voted for this travesty. Yet another case of deviousness, dishonesty, and double-crossing of we the people.

They are scrambling now, beating the bushes to find any way to get the bill passed – regardless of the method. Apparently, they will do anything to pass healthcare now.

This Congress is spitting in the face of we the people. They are acting in their own interest – not ours. They are pulling every dirty, underhanded trick to “fool” us into believing that our healthcare will be improved, it will cost individuals less, it will not increase the deficit, and everyone will happy that they forced it down our throats.

In any other endeavor, their actions would be deemed (there’s that word again) fraudulent and subject to prosecution – but no … “they’re just our ‘public servants,’ doing their duty.”

That’s a load of B.S.

They cannot be allowed to pursue these devious, dishonest, double-crossing, double-dealing, fraudulent activities without consequences.

We all aspire to leave our children and grandchildren a better life. We want them to be happy and safe, emotionally and economically sound, and free to follow their dreams, whatever they may be.

If we allow this congressional chicanery to continue – to go unpunished, we will have failed all of those who follow us and they will reap the whirlwind.

It’s Plain as the Ears on Obama’s Head

We are vindicated.

Those of us who warned of Obama’s lack of executive experience have been vindicated. It has become painfully apparent that he is in way over his head. Even with his “superior” intelligence (his flock calls it genius), and surrounding himself with multitudes of “experts” in every discipline imaginable, he has been unable to accomplish anything of substance. Even aided and abetted by Democrat majorities in both the House and Senate, and a blindly supportive media, his success in fixing the country’s problems has been virtually nonexistent. Indeed, he has caused or exacerbated many of our current woes.

His follower’s blind faith automatically transmuted his charismatic appearances and inspiring rhetoric into misplaced confidence that he could produce tangible results. He didn’t need any of that pesky experience and stuff, he was Obama the Magnificent, and he could overcome any obstacle that might deter an ordinary mortal. But, campaigning is not governing and he’s finding it difficult to leverage his one strength – evangelical sermons read from a teleprompter, into genuine leadership.

“In a campaign, you’re not held to the same standard of actually doing what you say you’re going to do,” said Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director and Obama campaign adviser. No kidding? In other words, he never expected to be held accountable for the statements and promises made during the campaign, it was all to influence uninformed voters.

Now, at least once a month, he announces a new policy that (coincidently) looks very much like one implemented by that “imbecilic spawn of Satan” himself, George Bush. Of course, his staff will add a little camouflage so that the policy won’t be immediately recognizable as a Bush policy – at least not by Obama’s congregation. Obama’s people will proclaim it to be a carefully considered, thoughtfully nuanced solution to a difficult and complex issue. But beneath it all, Bush’s fingerprints remain.

Obama’s ego won’t allow him to admit that he is unqualified to handle the job of POTUS. His narcissism requires worship and adoration to fuel his ego, so it’s impossible for him to consciously accept that he is using Bush’s leftovers to fix some of his most challenging problems. His approach is that of an academic: loads of studies, charts, obscure references, and Powerpoint presentations – lots of talk, reams of paper, but no real substantive action. Truth be told; he’s never been held accountable for anything. If there’s any doubt, check on his accomplishments as a community organizer (dismal). Look at his successes as an attorney (never tried a case) and a State Senator (without Emil Jones, he did nothing). And don’t forget the barely two years he spent as a U.S. Senator before announcing for President, during which he sponsored two (2) bills that became law (both inconsequential). As has been said by many, whenever Obama walks into a room, he is almost certainly the least qualified person in the room. Yet, here he is, our President.

The economy is in shambles, and while Bush 43 contributed mightily to that problem, Obama has doubled-down on Bush’s errors and raised the ante. He pushes “Obamacare” while jobs and the economy are more serious and pressing problems. Except for Obama’s omnipresent straw man (known as “there are those who say”), everyone else agrees that health care needs to be fixed. But, is health care more pressing than an unemployment rate hovering around ten percent? Or more important than helping the 14.9  million now out of work find gainful employment? (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mar. 5, 2010).

The labor market is now roughly 12 million jobs below what would be needed to return to the pre-recession level of unemployment (Economic Policy Institute, Mar. 5, 2010). But didn’t Obama promise that 3.5 million jobs would be created (or “saved”) when the $787 billion dollar stimulus bill passed? And wasn’t the unemployment rate going to top out at 8 percent?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the 2010 deficit will be 1.5 trillion ($1,500,000,000,000) with an unemployment rate estimated to average 10.1 percent for the year. And the 10-year outlook released by the CBO now estimates that President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade - fully $1.2 trillion more than the White House had projected.

Based entirely on his record – his history of results - why would anyone believe anything he now says? His record is abysmal, nothing he’s forecast or promised has come to pass. He has simply been wrong at every turn. Yet, Obama’s efforts are single-mindedly devoted to passing a healthcare bill that Americans don’t want and can’t afford.

Obama and the “progressives” are in full “shopaholic” mode. They’ve seen it, they want it, and damn the cost - they’ve just got to have it.

The Pesky Truth Gazette 

"Today’s news, just a splat or two after it hits the fan®."

Volume: 2, Number: Ocho Cinco

In the spirit of transparency (made so popular by Congress and the Obama administration), we at Pesky Truth feel compelled to expose ourselves. We will fling open the figurative raincoat of concealment to reveal that we have moles.

Our moles are the human covert-operator kind, not the furry kind related to shrews (shrew meaning Suncus murinus, not to be confused with Nancy Pelosi). They occupy trusted positions in Congress and the White House and are able to feed PT real insider information not available to the usual news sources. Our moles stay underground, out of the public eye. You won’t recognize a name; they are nameless. You wouldn’t recognize a face; they are faceless. In fact, we have a tough time finding them ourselves. But rest assured, they are there, digging deep for the true stories.

Really? The only facts we’re still waiting for is the mix of how many were killed and how many are still hospitalized.

The fact is: Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim, killed at least twelve of our soldiers and wounded approximately thirty more. He was reportedly upset at being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

He was a psychiatrist, he wouldn’t have been on the front lines. Most likely, he’d be in a protected area and safe from harm – unlike those that he cowardly attacked.

I can’t begin to tell you how it breaks my heart to have countless spouses, moms, dads, sisters and brothers all agonizing over how this could happen to those they loved, on U.S. soil, on a military base. Preparing to voluntarily go into hostile territory to keep America safe is the true definition of a hero. They were all heroes. God grant them all the Glories of Heaven, they paid the ultimate price for being soldiers.

And I didn’t forget the children of those soldiers, those affect me the most. I don’t dare dwell on how their lives will be affected by taking away their mom or dad. I’m not a crying kind of guy, but if I dwell on that thought too long, I’ll tear up – I know I will. My heart aches for those babies, toddlers, kids, and young men and women who have had their caregiver, their protector, their mentor, their coach, their teacher, and the person who above all, would love them without reservation, snatched from their lives. Can anyone ever lose more?

Though many murders can be described as “senseless,” this event can’t be described otherwise. These soldiers did nothing to Nidal Malik Hasan, they didn’t threaten him or his family. It’s unlikely they even knew him. They were simply going about their business, preparing to leave their families and go into harm’s way – to protect Nidal Malik Hasan and his American countrymen. And for this, he murdered them.

Obama and the pro-Muslim forces will try to put a smiley-face on this atrocity. They’ll sweep aside the fact that Nidal Malik Hasan was a Muslim and tell us that it wasn’t a hate crime … the victims weren't murdered, they were merely issued “Involuntary Deployments into Permanent Inactivity.”

A Challenge to TH Bloggers

This is an honest-to-goodness, in-your-face challenge to all of you who blog about the Obama, Pelosi and Reid’s dismantling of the U.S.A.

It’s all been said before; our government is no longer by or for “the people.” Under the current administration, it is for the liberals, the unions, and the special interests.

We’ve all blogged about the obfuscation, the “behind closed doors” deals, and the out and out lying that is apparent daily in Washington. We‘ve railed against the massive bills that are passed without being read. And we know that the Democrat majorities in the House and Senate allow them to pass legislation that goes against the wishes of the majority of the country’s citizens and, worse yet, violate the spirit and letter of the U.S. Constitution.

For the most part, our blogs are preaching to the choir. Have we made a difference? Have we changed anyone’s mind?

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is probably “no.”

Recently, a small band of TH bloggers determined to make a difference. We formed the “We’re Watching You” group and we have developed a plan that really could impact the 2010 elections. Familiar names contributed to the project: Bobbie, dawndawn, The Adjuster, glnflwrs, Gray Ghost and Garnet92. We’ve also received encouragement and behind-the-scenes help from many other TH friends.

The concept is this: reduce the Democrat majority in the House by replacing some of its most vulnerable members. We’ve selected the ten most susceptible and will work to: 1) convince them that they are being monitored and they must not blindly follow Nancy Pelosi’s lead or we will work to replace them, and 2) we will encourage campaign contributions to their opponents to improve the chances that the incumbents will be replaced.

We believe this may be the quickest and most effective way to slow (or stop) the wholesale dismantling of America.

And before some suggest that there are also Republicans that should be replaced, we recognize that, but replacing a Specter/Snowe RINO with Ronald Reagan himself wouldn’t change the Democrat’s majority – they’d still control the House. Overturning the Democrat’s majority must be the first priority, we’ll get to the RINOs later.

Now, the choice is yours. You can create a new blog post complaining about the sorry state of current affairs – OR – you can join with us and actually DO something to take the country back.

Take those twenty or thirty minutes you would have spent on writing one new blog post and instead use that time to send ten letters to the selected House Democrats informing them that “We’re Watching You.” If we can influence some of these ten House members, we can begin to put the brakes on runaway spending and enactment of laws that we neither need or want.

This is an opportunity for you to step up and do more than complain. Go to our website www.werewatchingyou.net and check it out – see if you agree with us. If you do, download the letters and mail, fax, or e-mail them to the Democrat incumbents. THEN, you can sit back and revel in the knowledge that you have taken the first step to actually take this country back. Sending those letters will cost you nothing except a few minutes of your time.