Things that Piss Me Off Right After Christmas

New York Times calls the U.S. the stingiest Nation. I shouldn't even get mad at anything coming out of the New York Times which basically has the same credibility as the National Enquirer, but,...these America haters continue to pick a topic and get it bass ackwards. Not only does the U.S. give generously to all sorts of charities and nations, we give money to our enemies. We give hundreds of millions of dollars to Palestinians who were cheering in the streets while watching the 9-11 attacks on Television. The problem is that we are too generous to the wrong people and nations.

Social Security Payroll Tax Cut. This is the issue where the Federal Government reduces the amount of tax that comes out of our pay checks towards Social Security. Rather than enact any kind of Federal Income Tax or Capital Gains reduction or reform, Obama's brilliant brainstorm of reducing the amount we contribute to the already unfunded and going bankrupt Social Security is a brain teaser to put it mildly. The Democrats and the mainstream liberal media (there I go being redundant again) sure spun this as a Democrat victory and a Republican defeat. A rational person will see this as a defeat for the American People. We the People get a tiny amount of additional take home income in out checks, while social security continues heading towards a cliff. Obama gets to shelf any decision on the oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S., and we'll be back in the same boat again in two months. The promise of the Democrats to work towards a year long reduction in social security payroll tax is like staring at a flat tire when your engine is blown and the steering wheel is missing.

Then we have that idiot Harry Reid (D-NV who stated: "Everything we do around here does not have to wind up in a fight." Well Harry, I reckon it does when one side wants to spend this country into bankruptcy and default, while over taxing the job creators to sabotage the economy, meanwhile placating the people by giving them tax reduction gimmicks that put a few bucks in their pockets at the expense of Social Security solvency. Are we to be bought that cheaply?


Making Newt to look like a Bomb Thrower. With George H.W. Bush formally supporting Mitt Romney, the media train is reporting that Newt Gingrich is too much of a bomb thrower,...much too caustic to gain mainstream Republican support. On the other hand, they paint him as a classic political insider. Wonder which one is closer to the truth as it can't be both. Where the "Bomb Throwing" rep comes from is the 1990 fight between the first Bush Administration's desire to raise taxes, despite Bush's promise not to do so. Anyone remember the "Read my lips, no new taxes" speech? Gingrich's refusal to support Bush's 1990 budget deal was seen as both disloyal and anti-pragmatic, and that's we the lack of support from the Republican mainstream comes from.

Air Force to purchase Brazilian planes – Obama nixes more jobs

First Obama is trying to derail a pipeline from Canada to Texas that would help alleviate our dependency on Middle Eastern oil as well as provide jobs for a reported 20,000 Americans. Now he is sending Defense contracts to foreign countries. Shame on him.

Editor’s Note – In this year of Presidential race politics, with National Security and Jobs/Economy the top concerns of the American voter, why is Obama continually finding ways to kill jobs. The delay on the Canadian oil pipeline until after the election means thousands of jobs will not be filled, maybe ever. Then there is this $1 Billion Air Force project going to a foreign company. Not just any company, but one with ties to Iran . How does this make sense? Your tax dollars are going overseas and possibly into the very hands of our enemies.

Remember, when the Pentagon spends money inside the United States , tax-payer money, those funds go into our economy. It creates jobs, and the money earned goes directly into the system, keeping others employed, all with our tax dollars. Instead, that money will go to Brazil. That is a double hit on our economy.

Obama Admin Bans US Aircraft Maker, Favors Non-US Firm with Ties to Iran on Light Aircraft Project

PJ Tattler
By Bryan Preston

Late Thursday the Obama administration abruptly knocked Kansas aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft out of contention for a $1 billion project to make a fleet of lightweight counterinsurgency aircraft for the Air Force. Hawker Beechcraft is, understandably, disturbed and asking questions.

The Air Force has notified Hawker Beechcraft Corp. that its Beechcraft AT-6 has been excluded from competition to build a light attack aircraft, a contract worth nearly $1 billion, the company said.

The company had hoped to its AT-6, an armed version of its T-6 trainer, would be chosen for the Light Air Support Counter Insurgency aircraft for the Afghanistan National Army Corps. The chosen aircraft also would be used as a light attack armed reconnaissance aircraft for the U.S. Air Force.

The piston planes are designed for counterinsurgency, close air support, armed overwatch and homeland security, The Wichita Eagle reported.

Hawker Beechcraft officials said in a news release that they were “confounded and troubled” by the Air Force’s decision. The company said it is asking the Air Force for an explanation and will explore all options.

Hawker Beechcraft said it had been working with the Air Force for two years and had invested more than $100 million to meet the Air Force’s requirements for the plane. It noted that the Beechcraft AT-6 had been found capable of meeting the requirements in a demonstration program led by the Air National Guard.

“We have followed the Air Force’s guidance close, and based on what we have seen, we continue to believe that we submitted the most capable, affordable and sustainable light attack aircraft,” the company said.

The company has said that winning the contract would have kept its T-6 production line running after 2015. About 1,400 employees in 20 states – including 800 at Hawker Beechcraft in Wichita – work on the AT-6 and T-6 programs for Beechcraft and its U.S. suppliers and partners.

So that’s another 1,400 American jobs lost. And it gets worse. By knocking Hawker Beechcraft out, the Pentagon has limited the “competition” to one company, a company that is not only not an American manufacturer, it’s a government-owned entity with ties to our enemies. The company is Embraer, which is controlled by the government of Brazil and has close ties to the government of Iran , as Timothy Lee wrote for the Tatler on Nov. 10.

According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, “In 1989, Brazil chose to sell Tucanos, Embraer’s relatively low cost and basic military aircraft, to Iran .” Currently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air Force operates around 40 Embraer T-27 Tucanos, according to theWashington Institute. In fact, the Iranians use the Tucano as their primary close air support aircraft.

In recent years, Brazil has continued its troubling friendship with Iran and ruthless leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Hudson Institute notes that, “Another area of tension between Brazil and the United States relates to Iran . In November 2009, President da Silva invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Brazil . In May 2010, da Silva helped broker a deal in which Iran would ship only a portion of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey for reprocessing; the rest would remain in Iranian hands, where it could be further enriched for nuclear weapon production.”

That willingness to set ethics aside for the betterment of their bottom line illustrates the danger in the US purchasing military aircraft from Brazil .

The matter becomes even more troublesome as news trickles out about the recent Iran-lead assassination attempts on Saudi/US officials on American soil. Even more recently, details have emerged implicating Iran as the mastermind of an illegal plot to smuggle electronic components used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) out of the US through Iran for US on our troops in Iraq.

Why is the administration making a decision to exclude an American manufacturer in favor of a maker with such a history? This is the Obama administration’s second billion-dollar giveaway to the Brazilian government in 2011; the first was its outrageous offshore oil loan guarantee decision in March. The two decisions siphon more than $2 billion and more than 21,000 jobs out of the US economy. Of the two, putting a foreign manufacturer with ties to our enemies in charge of a project to build anti-terror weaponry may be the most disturbing. And this is the Obama administration’s second major decision against an American aircraft manufacturer, the first being the NLRB’s unprecedented lawsuit against Boeing and its South Carolina Dreamliner plant. Both states impacted — Kansas and South Carolina — are right-to-work states. And then there’s this president’s sustained rhetorical war against corporate jet owners. Somebody has to make those jets, and Hawker Beechcraft is among the manufacturers indirectly targeted.

God In America

The following was sent to me by a Veteran I know and accredited to the writings of Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees... I don't feel threatened.. I don't feel discriminated against.. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. .... Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about.. And we said okay..

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein