BURRIS HAS CHUTZPAH IF NOTHING ELSE!

One has to admit that senator designate Roland Burris from Illinois has one thing goimg for him--audacity and boldness!
Despite the fact that the Senator designated to certify newly elected and appointed senators has publicly said he would not give Burris an office, nor issue him any payroll checks. Mr. Burris is taking his appointment, by arrested and still Governor Blagojevich, seriously. So much so that he is planing on taking a plane or train ride(he has not decided yet which) to Washington to talk to "people" to straighten everything out!

All this preparation despite the fact that President-elect Barack Obama has opposed the appointment of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris by Rod Blagojevich to his vacant Senate seat.

Disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested December 9, 2008 by FBI agents and charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as solicitation of bribery for attempting to sell the vacant seat. Under local law, the Governor appoints replacement Senators.

Obama said in a statement that he agrees with the decision by Democratic leaders not to approve the appointment. Source :The Inquisitr Blog

One thing Illinois politicians seem to have in common is the affinity to believe that they can talk themselves out of any predicament or adverse situation.

In this case the appointment was done despite the impending impeachment and or jailing of the Governor, and apparently in disregard of the public wish to have a general election to fill the Obama Senate seat.

While I have to admire his audacity. I question his wisdom in going to Washington unless he plans to make this a racial issue that could cloud and obfuscate the will of the people of Illinois. A few times since his appointment, the race card has been used to support his appointment, and deflect any contrary opinions about the legitimacy of the Governors appointment.

Let us all hope that this does not become a racial issue instead of a legal issue for the sake of legitimacy in the Senate. We have had too much race bating already!

THE CONGRESS CONSERVATIVE 24!!!

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

In action reminiscent of the Ronald Reagan years, 24 of the 128 members of the Republican minority Congressional delegation, have signed on to a Proposal to the Republican party by James Bopp vice-Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The Congresional Proposal argues that the financial bailout effectively nationalized the banking system, and that the rescue packages are "moving our free-market based economy another dangerous step closer to Socialism"!
If introduced as a Bill and approved, it would put the party on record as opposing the bailouts of the financial and automotive industries, and that no more bail outs would be voted for by Republican members of Congress.

Although this bill has little chance of passing in Congress much less in the Senate where the "Rich and Famous" Senators spend taxpayers money like they are playing monopoly. This action might just be the beginning of a resurgence of the Conservative principles that the Republican used to be noted for.

Although the White House insists Bush does not personally like the idea of government intervening in private business but that he backed the rescues out of necessity."This was the necessary and responsible thing to do to prevent a collapse of the American economy," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in a written statement.

In this blogger opinion he does not want his legacy to include the failure of many banks and the Big 3 auto makers in Detroit. He would rather that debacle be passed on to the incoming President, as it certainly must happen sooner or later.
Band Aid bail outs only delay the bottom that must be reached before the economy can begin it's gradual climb to economic stability, unless we embrace total Socialism and stagflation as seen in places like Argentina.

But the eight years of the Bush administration illustrates the gradual abandoning,by most Republicans of Conservative economic principles in favor of "bringing home the pork" to Congressional members districts. Bush had the option to veto any and all bills that contained the billions of dollars that contributed to a multi-trillion dollar deficit, but seldom used the pen. Now the taxpayer will have to pay the bill!

I believe what is needed to fix the banking industry is not a bailout, but rather a commitment to fiscal responsibility, and the Bopp resolution says just that. "Members of the Republican National Committee call for all members of Congress to oppose any and all future bailouts that might come before the Congress, including President-elect Obama's public works program." Source:Fox News

BLATANT ARROGANCE SEEN IN ILLINOIS

Rod Blagojevich, the scandal-plagued Illinois Governor who is accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s US Senate seat, astonished political observers last night by naming a retired, 71-year-old black politician as the replacement to fill it. Despite facing multiple corruption charges, impeachment proceedings and warnings from the Democratic leadership in Washington that anybody he chose would be unacceptable, Mr Blagojevich named Roland Burris, the former Illinois attorney-general, to succeed Mr Obama. The move was condemned by Mr Obama, who said that while Mr Burris was a “good man and a fine public servant”, the governor had no right to appoint him. “I agree with [the Democratic leaders’] decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it,” the President-elect said...Although Mr Burris had called for the governor’s resignation four days after his arrest, yesterday he described Mr Blagojevich as a man of “unquestioned integrity, extensive experience and a wise and distinguished senior statesman of Illinois.” SOURCE:CHICAGO SUN TIMES

Blagojevich,by going back on his word and appointing a replacement to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat,he stole from the Illinois voters the chance to select their own senator through a special election.
And whom did the governor choose? Just another Illinois politician, Roland Burris, the former attorney general whose political career is notable only for its lack of notable achievements.Source:Chicago Tribune

However, Mr. Burris is no "shrinking violet" of a politician. In the past he has had the following to say about himself: "I am a visionary,’’ he declared in Chicago Sun-Times interview in 2002, when he was running for governor, his third unsuccessful try at the job.
In another interview with the paper, Burris said his past success — election as state comptroller and attorney general — was “divine providence” that began as a teenager when he decided to become a lawyer and officeholder.
“People said I was either crazy or divinely directed. I accept the latter,’’ he said. “I believe without a doubt that I am predestined to be a role model.”

I guess the Gov. felt he was too!

At a news conference on Tuesday, Blagojevich insisted he was making the appointment solely for the benefit of the people of Illinois, who should not be deprived of a sitting senator another day.And, he said, the law requires it of him. But this would be so if he had not been already arrested for trying to sell the Obama Senate seat.

I don't know why Blagojevich chose Burris, who as Illinois comptroller was the first African American elected to statewide office.A hardened cynic might suspect that Blagojevich, by making the Burris appointment, is thinking not of the people of Illinois, but of the 12 jurors who will sit in judgment of him at a criminal trial.

The governor's defense now can argue that the governor never intended to sell the Senate seat. See for yourself -- he chose Burris.

Nor does Burris' appointment hurt Blagojevich if there happen to be African Americans on Blagojevich's jury, according to traditional thinking among the defense attorneys.

This all is indicative of my cynical thinking I admit, but the Illinois governor has invited cynicism for years! He is a hard man to take at his word. Rumors are flowing around Chicago, that before he entered politics, he was a "bag man" for the Chicago mob.

Blagojevich emphasized that his own political and legal problems should not reflect poorly on Burris when he said this: ""Please, don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man,"

But I think that anyone chosen by Blagojevich would be tainted, even the most accomplished politician. The only way the Senator that replaces President elect Obama will have any legitimacy is to have a general election. And the argument that it costs too much does not hold water. The State spends millions on failed welfare and public works projects with little or no objection. Why not do something that would bring legitimacy, if not honesty back to Illinois?

DEFEAT HAMAS OR THEY WILL DESTROY ISRAEL

The members of the anti-Israel Press are highlighting the numbers of "civilians" being killed by the bombs being dropped by the IDF jets that are trying to rid the World once and for all of a cancer that has festered in the Gaza Strip for decades.

To try to help readers of this blog understand just what Hamas is, and the threat it poses to the one ally the USA has in the Middle East. I have included a time line of the Hamas movement.

* Hamas is an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement and also means "zeal" in Arabic.
* It is formally committed to destroying Israel and putting an Islamic state in its place. But Hamas has said it would accept a Palestinian state in lands captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 war in return for a long-term truce.
* Hamas has rebuffed demands from Israel, the United States and other nations to recognize the Jewish state and disarm. Israel and the United States have sought to isolate Hamas.
* Hamas spearheaded a suicide bombing campaign against Israel starting in 2000 but later abide by a 2005 truce. Israel's deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday prompted Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to call for a new uprising.
* Hamas was helped in the 2006 parliamentary election by its pledges to eradicate graft in the Palestinian Authority and its fight against Israel. It is also popular because of a network of charities.

1987 - Hamas was established during the first Palestinian uprising.
1993 - Hamas rejects interim peace accords between Israel and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization.
1996 - Arafat elected Palestinian president. Fatah wins 68 out of 88 seats in parliament. Hamas boycotts the vote.
2000 - Second Intifada, or uprising, starts after the collapse of peace talks

Arafat dies in Paris and is succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas as head of the PLO and Palestinian president.
2005 - Abbas and Israeli leader Ariel Sharon declare ceasefire. Abbas wins support from Hamas, which largely abides by the truce. Israel ends 38-year Gaza occupation.

Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, taking 74 seats in 132-member parliament. Abbas's long-dominant Fatah movement wins 45 seats.
2007 - Hamas Islamists won a brief civil war in the Gaza Strip against secular Fatah forces loyal to Abbas.

Since then the Hamas controlled Gaza strip has been the launching site of male and female suicide bombers, rocket launching that has gradually increased in explosive power and range, and that poses a constant threat to Israel.

And if this is not enough to justify cleaning Hamas out of Gaza. Consider the effect that many tunnels built from Gaza were ostensibly to be used to transport supplies to Gaza, but are also used to transport weapons from Egypt and other Arab Countries that hate Israel.

These tunnels could be used to secretly transport nuclear weapons, when acquired , from Iran, China, North Korea and evn Russia, to carry out the avowed threatof Hamas, to wipe Israel of the face of the Earth!

To put the threat to Israel in perspective. What if terrorist elements took over the southern portion of Tijuana, Mexico? They began lobing rockets upon the southern parts of San Diego County, and suicide bombers in civilian clothing began coming over the border to attack buses and shopping centers in San Diego!
How long would the Liberal, anti-military element of this Country be successful in convincing Americans that a cease fire and "talks" would solve the problem?

It is easy for those around the world who are not under a daily threat of terrorist acts to tell the Israelis how they should act, but only the Israelis will have to suffer the consequences if the "talks" fail as they have for decades!

IT WORKED IN RUSSIA SO WHY NOT IN THE USA?

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

With rumors swirling around the Internet that ex-Weatherman William Ayers "ghost" wrote Obama's "DREAM memoirs, and based the book on Homers "Odyssey". It occurs to me that the pictures of President elect Obama body surfing and pictures of him in his bathing suit walking on the beach, may be an attempt by Obama handlers to depict him as a "he man" who will lead from strength!

In the following paragraphs I attempt to show the pictures of Obama "shirtless" are no isolated incident, but an attempt to show masculinity and power by his "team and the co-operating media.

In Russian Vladimir Putin's case, his shirtless pictures were a demonstration of the physical prowess of a man who is a black belt in karate, and a spy who worked covertly on the KGB for years before he became President of Russia.


Despite some incredulous reactions to Putin allowing himself to be photographed topless on blogs."Wilderness Putin," has been getting a lot of thumbs up in Russia as well. Many bloggers are calling him "sexy"!

The reactions should come as no surprise. Like any good politician, part of Putin’s popularity is based on his image. Compared to the Russian and Soviet leaders who came before him, Putin is leading the charge for the young and healthy generation.

At the end of the Soviet era, it was hard to keep up with which 70-year-old, visibly sick leader was in charge. After Leonid Brezhnev died, neither of the next two successors lasted more than 15 months before dying – leading to the joke of a guard demanding to see someone’s ticket to be allowed in to a Soviet leader’s funeral, to which he responds that he has season tickets. Source:Pravda

Now,Obama's physique has been well-exposed; photographers snapped him body surfing in Hawaii during the campaign. He was on the November cover of Men's Health and detailed his workouts for the magazine: 45 minutes, six days a week, alternating between weights and "cardio".

Obama is apparently now the world's biggest celebrity, just after Angelina and Brad Pitt. I guess some would say they're neck and neck right now.

The celebrity description is appropriate, even as Obama faces a plummeting economy and two wars upon entering office. He's seen as often on "Access Hollywood" as on the nightly news, and appears in "Us Weekly" with the regularity of a Jennifer Aniston.This is understandable when you consider that the media chose him as their messiah long ago!

When John F. Kennedy was pictured shirtless, there were media accounts fretting about the threshold we had crossed as a country, but nothing Obama does will ever get a negative spin in the Media.

Vladimir Putin. The black-belt-in-judo, non-smoking, rarely-drinking, cool and collected leader. While his popularity is certainly tied to his image – leading to everything from Putinka brand vodka to the girl-band pop song "Like Putin" (whose singers look for a man who is "like Putin/full of strength/like Putin/who won’t drink) – Putin’s image is, in turn, mirrored by his era.

This is an era in which Russia is getting stronger, reasserting itself internationally, becoming more stable at home and growing economically. And if it’s the image of a shirtless, machete-wielding president which best represents the man who can do all that and enjoy approval ratings at about 70 percent, maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

Is it such a stretch to think that the Obama "string pullers" are entering the image enhancement stage to reassure those who did vote for him, that he is physically fit to fight the problems our country faces? If so, look forward to more "puff" pictures of President Obama as his term in office turns ugly due to the decisions he must make that will not please all the special interest groups that put him in the Oval Office.

And the Left leaning Media took the bait! The following "Swoon" article illustrates the media's messianic opinion of the President elect.
"A paparazzi picture of a buff and shirtless Barack Obama Monday prompted a decidedly un-presidential reaction on the Web.
“Dang, my President is SMOKIN' HOT. Who else has such a fine leader? France? Great Britain? Eat your heart out, Sarkozy,” wrote one commenter on The Huffington Post, one of a select few outlets to receive the images Monday.
Peter Moore, the editor of Men’s Health magazine who interviewed Obama on his workout habits for a November cover story, told Politico his nearly seven-day-a-week regimen seems to have paid off. “No love handles to speak of on the sides. You see the definitions in his arms. He’s a dude. Wow.”

Well, when I look at the pictures of Obama and compare his physique with that of Putin. It leaves me wondering what they see that is so "hot"?