The Sky's The Limit

In an interview with Brian Williams of “NBC Nightly News”, President Obama said that he ignored Glenn Becks’ 8/28 “Restoring Honor” rally:

It’s not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That’s been true throughout our history…what I’m focused on is making sure that the decisions we’re making now are going to be be not good for the nightly news, not good even necessarily  for the next election, but are good for the next generation.

What does this man take us for? Do we look like fools? Beck was able to assemble by all estimates a crowd of 300,000-650,000 people on the mall in Washington. If that isn’t strength in numbers then I don’t know what is! For a sitting president to declare that he “ignored” the assembly of this many people strains credulity and credibility. Are we to assume that he’s either a liar or a plain old-fashioned imbecile? Or maybe a political high wire walker?

Now, perhaps instead of following Beck’s exploits, Obama spent his time in rapt attention of the “crowd” that “Reverend” Al Sharpton assembled, purportedly 3,000 strong, to celebrate the 47th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Three thousand marchers, now there’s a demonstration of political will! Maybe Obama ignored Beck’s rally for the same reason that Sharpton held his — rally envy!

Sharpton claims that Beck’s rally was a affront to the memory of Dr. King and that Beck was attempting to hijack the civil rights “movement.” Al: Wah, wah, wah. Even if Beck were successful in doing so, it would be a change for the better given the “leadership” of this movement by the likes of you and Jesse Jackson.

But I guess all that is water over the dam…with the exception of a stern and grim-faced Sharpton appearing on every broadcast media outlet for a while expressing his effrontery and decrying the alleged usurpers. Please Al, enough is enough already.

But let’s forget Al…his 15 minutes of fame ran out over two hundred thousand hours ago! Please, just go away.

I suggest, in all seriousness, that Mr. Obama in retrospect take a closer look at the Beck rally and its participants and try to see that he is not as righteous and as forward thinking as he portrays himself to be. He may see himself as the savior of “the next generation,” but does that mean he’s willing to discard the cares, hopes and dreams of this generation? Perhaps he is, as political agendas are intoxicating and powerful stuff. But maybe, just maybe the crowd that swelled on the mall on Saturday is just the small tip of a growing iceberg of citizen and voter dissatisfaction that he should take heed of.

But the over-confident president should choose his words better, and he should ignore such a vast display of unity at his own political peril. Because surely those folks at Beck’s rally, and other countless millions of like-minded souls, will “ignore” the Democrats in November. And given your dismissive attitude towards them, I predict that they will similarly “ignore” you in 2012.

Apparently the deep thinkers at the Associated Press can’t keep their story straight. On today’s news wire they have several stories purported to be reports of Glenn Beck’s 8/28 “Restoring Honor” rally. The real story in all this are their stories, and what’s included and what’s missing.

As an organization that is obviously über left-leaning, the AP must revert to form when trying to do “objective” reporting. This means that most or all of the information that comes from them is filtered through the prism of liberal politics. And, as the assumed house news organ for the Obama White House, they must add their pink tinge to the stories that they write.

Excellent cases in point are their collective reportage on 8/28 “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Here are some of the examples:

1.) Beck: Help us restore traditional American values

But they found it necessary to add these incongruous tidbits in this story:

A group of civil rights activists organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton held a counter rally at a high school, then embarked on a three-mile march to the site of a planned monument honoring King. The site, bordering the Tidal Basin, was not far from the Lincoln Memorial where Beck and the others spoke about two hours earlier.

Sharpton and the several thousand marching with him crossed paths with some of the crowds leaving Beck’s rally. People wearing “Restoring Honor” and tea party T-shirts looked on as Sharpton’s group chanted “reclaim the dream” and “MLK, MLK.” Both sides were generally restrained, although there was some mutual taunting.

One woman from the Beck rally shouted to the Sharpton marchers: “Go to church. Restore America with peace.” Some civil rights marchers chanted “don’t drink the tea” to people leaving Beck’s rally.

Sharpton told his rally it was important to keep King’s dream alive and that despite progress more needs to be done. “Don’t mistake progress for arrival,” he said.

He poked fun at the Beck-organized rally, saying some participants were the same ones who used to call civil rights leaders troublemakers. “The folks who used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves,” he said. He urged his group to be peaceful and not confrontational. “If people start heckling, smile at them,” Sharpton said.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s delegate to Congress, said she remembers being at King’s march on Washington in 1963. “Glenn Beck’s march will change nothing. But you can’t blame Glenn Beck for his March-on-Washington envy,” she said.

and

Other activists distributed fliers urging voters “dump Obama.” The pamphlet included a picture of the president with a Hitler-style mustache.

2.) Beck draws on Obama stump speech from 2008 race

Again, the AP found it necessary to insinuate a non sequitur into their article about Beck’s rally –  a reference to President Barack Obama:

At his rally with tens of thousands on the steps of Lincoln Memorial, Beck used the closing lines of then-candidate Obama’s campaign stump speech of 2008.

Obama used a similar message on the campaign trail. He used to say that one voice could change a room, one room could change a city, and one city could change a state. Obama liked to say that state could change a country and urged supporters to go out and change the world.

The “one man can change the world” like has been around far longer than Mr. Obama. In fact, the AP says that Beck uses a “similar message” when in fact Beck’s and Obama’s messages are quite different. So, why the comparison? Why now?

3.) Beck says US has ‘wandered in darkness’ too long

Yet another example, similar to Eample 1.) where they had to force in unrelated statements into the mix:

Civil rights leaders protested the event and scheduled a 3-mile plus march from a high school to the site of a planned King memorial near the Tidal Basin and not far from Beck’s gathering.

Karen Watts, 57, of Mount Vernon, N.Y., was among those attending the King rally and march. “The dream is not forgotten,” she said. “I live my life honoring Dr. King to make sure I’m part of that dream, by serving my community.”

Of Beck’s rally, she said, “They’re American citizens. So long as they don’t infringe upon my rights … let them do what they do.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s delegate to Congress, said she remembers being at King’s march on Washington, which she said prompted change and ended segregation in public places. “Glenn Beck’s march will change nothing. But you can’t blame Glenn Beck for his March-on-Washington envy,” she said.

and

Many in the crowd watched the proceedings on large television screens. On the edges of the Mall, vendors sold “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, popular with tea party activists. Other activists distributed fliers urging voters “dump Obama.” The pamphlet included a picture of the president with a Hitler-style mustache.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, leading the civil rights march and rally, mocked the Beck production. “The folks who used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves,” he said. “We come because the dream has not been achieved. We’ve made a lot of progress. But we still have a long way to go.”

He said he wasn’t seeking a confrontation with those at the Beck rally.

“We wouldn’t disgrace today by allowing you to provoke us,” he said in remarks directed at the Beck followers. “If peopple start heckling, smile at them,” he told fellow marchers.

4.) Crowds for rally disrupt DC rail system (from the Boston Herald)

This whole story seems to be a knock at the rally attendees as though the act of riding the metro system was in itself “distruptive.”

So let’s see, the AP tried to constantly remind the reader that there was a competing rally held by Al Sharpton in Washington. And by all estimates, the crowd at Beck’s ranged from 250,000 to 500,000 — whereas  Sharpton’s “rally” could only muster (by very generous estimates) 3,000! Yet there is the AP doing what a good propaganda organization always does; it makes up the truth as they see it rather than reporting on reality. But try as they could, they just couldn’t seem to be able to morph Beck’s rally into a Seig Heil-ing Nuremberg rally, replete with swastikas and burning effigies of their heroes.

Nope, the only folks that attended were fed up Americans, many our friends and neighbors, looking for a way out of the current morass that grips our nation. And you know what? Glenn Beck should be lauded for the fantastic job that he did organizing and then successfully pulling off this rally. For such a large crowd, there were NO reports of violence or trouble. I’m so proud of each and every man, woman and child, exemplary Americans each, that attended and showed the strength of character of our nation, even when faced by such derision in our representation and our government. And when faced by such apparent hostility and condescension by the MSM.

My advice to you is simple: When it comes your consumption of the news — Caveat emptor, my friends.

• Rally Envy. Al Sharpton is proving his irrelevance in all matters socio-political. He is also proving himself the consummate racist, as his opinion on Glen Beck’s “8/28: Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech suggests that Dr. King and his legacy belongs only to black Americans. He implies that because Beck invokes Dr. King’s memory that he (Beck) is somehow hijacking the civil rights movement and seeking to gratuitously use the memory of MLK for some sinister purpose. Not to be outdone, Sharpton is holding a counter rally on 8/28 in Washinton. Sharpton obviously missed the nub of Dr. King’s speech and his movement — that we are all the same, regardless of the color of our skin. But Sharpton operates in the racial victimization atmosphere — racism and race are his oxygen. Care to bet which rally will genuinely (and not hyped or diminished by the MSM) attract more attendees??
• Congressional Knuckleheads, Redux. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has finally indicated what everyone suspected — that as author of the onerous Obamacare he didn’t read the entire bill. As a reply to a question from an attendee at a meeting in Libby, Montana (with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius), Baucus said: “I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It’s statutory language,” Baucus said. “We hire experts.” Uh, Sen. Baucus, we really, really, really do want you to read every single page of each and every piece of legislation that comes before you for consideration. If you don’t want to be bothered “wasting” your time doing your job, then I’m sure there are plenty of serious candidates for the senate who would be glad to uphold their duly sworn constitutional duties and responsibilities.
• Excellent, Schmexellent. Jerry Springer laid bare his lunacy on FOX’s “Hannity” show last evening when he declared with a perfectly straight face that Barack Obama was an “excellent” president. Even under the influence of the world’s strongest narcotic, and using any single or set of measurement metrics, Barack Obama never rises past mediocre in his performance as president. And mediocre would be a generous, finger on the scale, assessment. Poor deluded Springer and his ilk; they’ve invested so much hope capital in Obama and placed a large bet on his success, that they cannot accept reality. So Springer and the rabid Obamites substitute their version of reality for the original. I’ll I can say is GOOD LUCK TO THEM.
• Politics With A Bullet. The EPA was considering a petition from apparently righteously crazy environmentalists to ban the lead in bullets. Apart from being a blatant end run around the 2nd Amendment, it presented a no-win situation to EPA administrator Carol Browner. Had she been crazy enough to take  up this matter (which it turns out was prohibited by 1976 congressional legislation), this would have guaranteed a complete rout of Democrats in the November elections — and perhaps lit a fire under the impeach Obama movement. But it appears that cooler and more discerning heads prevailed, and the EPA begged off this issue in almost record time.

The next time that you have the chance to rub elbows with any of the candidates for US representative, please ask them how they stand on Article  I, Section 8 of the Constitution. If they look at you with a puzzled expression, gently remind them that this section deals with the “Powers of Congress.”

In a perfect world, you should receive an answer that includes and acknowledges the following:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

If they hem and haw over the question, have them elucidate on the passage that gives them the power to force US citizens to procure health care or to enforce Cap-and-Trade legislation. Don’t take no for an answer…pin them down to an unqualified reply: Make them go on the record.

This may be the most important question that you will ever ask…and the answer will be the most important in the career of the incumbent or challenger.

Because the answer that they give should have more influence over your vote than their party affiliation or them being a “good guy or gal.” PLEASE, for the sake of yourself and your children, PLEASE vote for the Constitution rather than the candidate. If we are to emerge from the mess that we’re in, we need strict Constitutionalists representing and serving us in the Congress. We don’t need more Constitutional abuse and contempt for us…in other words, more of the same.

Period.

The Obama administration is looking for a do over for the Lockerbie bomber.

You have got to be kidding me!!

Almost nary a tough word was spoken when this vicious killer was released for “humanitarian” reasons by Scotland almost one year ago to the day. But now, learning that Abdel Al-Megrahi is essentially fit as a fiddle and the Libyans are thumbing their noses at us, the Obamites want to push the giant diplomatic reset button (think the Staples’ “EASY Button” and you’ll get the picture) and put Al-Megrahi back into Scottish prison to serve out his sentence. I’ve got two words for ya Barack and Hillary:

FAT CHANCE!

Al-Megrahi is now legend in Libya. And the insane, preening Muammar Gaddafi isn’t going to let his trick pony go that easily. This whole release brouhaha was, from the Libya’s point of view, a masterstroke of deception and one uppsmanship. They’ve been the low guy on the world’s totem pole for a long time, and have received their rightful fair share of discipline and criticism from the rest of the world. But now Al-Megrahi gives them a symbol of ersatz superiority over the US and its allies. Al-Megrahi stuck his finger in the eye of the Great Satan and lived to tell the story — and made it back home to a hero’s welcome to boot. It didn’t matter that through his actions that 270 people died over and in the quiet hamlet of Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988. They were just collateral damage in a much larger, irrational jihad against the Western world.

So now, in order to stem the impending November election blowback, our newly diligent administration wants to raise their objections a little more strenuously than they did last August. US citizens, many may voters, are FURIOUS that Al-Megrahi was released and this situation portends to be yet another reason to “inoculate” the US from Obama’s failed policies. The Obama brain trust knows this…and there’s little they can do except negotiate with Libya. But these negotiations are from a position of weakness (after all, Al-Megrahi is home now) and the Libyan government can drag its feet for a good long time.

If I were in Obama’s shoes, I’d consider sending special-ops Ninjas into Libya and put Al-Megrahi out of his misery. Perhaps they could explain his untimely demise as a bad case of the “Tripoli flu.”

But in the mean time, we’re going to be stuck on wimpy…negotiating with craven murderers who would just as soon provide our citizens with a Lockerbie a day if they had the resources to do so. Now is not the time for theoretical and the measured diplomacy, it’s time for bare knuckles and blunt trauma.

It’s time for action. It’s time for justice.

You can chalk up the catchy phrase “Summer of Recovery” up there with “Mission Accomplished” with regards to its political damage and its inaccuracy.

The jobless numbers released today are as vivid a warning as a flaming tomahawk in a movie settler’s door. The increase in jobless claims by half a million is a cold water in the face, kick in the groin indication that the economy is in decline once again.

Let’s be clear…there is no recovery. There will be NO recovery until the insane agenda and the inane policies of this administration are trimmed back significantly. This agenda and these policies create unbelievable uncertainty in the business community, and one doesn’t need a PhD in economics to make the connection between the continued joblessness and the actions (and inactions) of this administration. And if we add in the impending sun-setting of the Bush tax cuts, then the business climate goes from toxic to downright radioactive.

It is a common trait of politicians to possess the inability to admit when they’re wrong. Mr. Obama, give Americans a refreshing look at US politics (one which, by the way you promised on your way in the door) and declare your policies wrong…and acquiesce to the obvious logic of extending the Bush tax cuts until the economy is on steadier feet. Any act of goodwill towards the business community will be a welcome sign. It might be the catalyst necessary to help spur some confidence and some much-needed new business activity.

However, continued and future hostility towards business and capitalism will surely guarantee us jobless numbers like those released today for the foreseeable future.

The ball is and will be in your court. Let’s see if you can recognize and prescribe the medicine we need as a nation to get us moving forward once again.

Today the Associated Press (AP) published a “news” story by AP writer Alan Fram declaring:

Poll: Growing number incorrectly call Obama Muslim

Incorrectly call Muslim?? This poll reflects the opinions of those individuals polled. Their opinions on President Obama’s perceived religion may run contrary to the actual one that he declares, but they are not “wrong” until it is proven beyond a shadow of doubt that Mr. Obama is indeed Christian. He was rasied Muslim…attended Muslim schools in Indonesia…and then attended Jeremiah Wright’s, to put it kindly, unconventional church. Does his mere attendance constitute a public display of his Christianity? The president doesn’t seem to be a church-going man, or at least church attendance and overt spirituality don’t seem to be particularly high on his list of personal priorities. So it wouldn’t be surprising that average Americans might associated him with the religion of his youth.

Could it be that the president uses his apparent Christianity as a tool of political advantage — his trying to fit in with what the public sees as mainstream? Mr. Fram needs to bolster his factual evidence that Obama is indeed a baptized, practicing Christian before he can make claims regarding the correctness of the results of a public opinion poll.

The poll results might indicate that the poll takers have a misapprehension or a misconception regarding his religion. But does that make them wrong? If the results of the poll indicated that a large proportion polled thought that Obama was born on Neptune, then Mr. Fram would rightly be able to happily declare that the poll takers were wrong. Or silly. Fram misses the point of the poll results entirely. He skims over the fact that the president is such an aloof person that even his averred religious affiliation is challenged by the masses. The story that Fram misses is that a growing majority can’t connect with this president.

But the use of the word “wrong” is yet another display of intellectual and moral superiority by the AP, which has become a trusted source of propaganda and positive reportage for the present administration.

It may be beyond their liberal comprehension, but the AP does more to further the old adage that “today’s news is tomorrow’s fish wrap” than any other news organization.

Today former Vice President Al Gore called for major rallies to protest congressional inaction on climate change legislation. It either must be a slow news day or Mr. Gore senses his evil climate empire is slipping through his fingers as each day without Cap-and-Trade legislation passes.

All I can think is ‘the wheels on the bus go round and round…”

Yawn…

The ‘Man Who Could Do No Wrong’ appears to have recently acquired a reverse Midas touch. He’s tanking in the polls (Rasmussen has him at 43% approval and Gallup has him at 42%), he’s alienating Democrat congressional candidates (they’re avoiding him like he has swine flu), he’s kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest by weighing in on the Ground Zero mosque, and he’s *still* blaming his moribund economy on George W. Bush.

Seems that nobody wants to be Obama’s BFF any more!

Let’s face it, Obama and TOTUS have had a very bad week indeed. No amount of frequent flier miles on Air Force One are going to help his rose-colored glasses orations that “things are improving” in this Recovery Summer. Anyone waking regularly in the real world can see that the economy is dismal and that job prospects are poor. And our country’s fiscal situation totters between dire and catastrophic.

The United States is paralyzed with fear — fear of the uncertainty of the anti-business and anti-capitalism agenda that our maniacal POTUS and his congressional accomplices are unveiling with each passing day. Luckily for us all, Congress takes a generous summer vacation, so we at least get a break from the steady stream of onerous and Constitution-challenging legislation.

But like a deranged Energizer Bunny, Obama just keeps going from state-to-state campaigning for his ideological trolls and making inane statements about the economy and other affairs of state. And trying to sell his “accomplishments” as successes…in spite of the abundance of evidence to the contrary.

Perhaps during his umpteenth summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard the president will finally give his voice and our ears a well deserved rest. I’m quite sure that TOTUS will cherish “his” time off too.

I experienced my first hard drive failure EVER in my office workstation on Friday night.

Now this would be bad news for the average computer owner, as a hard drive failure is certain death for all the data on their system, as well as the system itself. The only thing that a failed hard drive is good for is a door stop.

But I didn’t even break a sweat!

I designed my system to be a little more robust than the average system when I put it together last spring. The most important feature that I added to this system was redundant hard drives. In fact I divided my hard drive into two logical segments — a 500GB “system” drive with 6 partitions on it where the Windows XP operating system and all my programs reside and a 4TB “storage” drive with 10 partitions on which I keep all my business data and data backups. The most important feature of these two drive sets is the fact that the 500GB drive is configured with two physical hard drives configured redundantly as RAID1, and the 4TB is configured of two pairs of 2TB drives configured redundantly as RAID1. The RAID1 configuration creates mirrored data on each of the physical drives in the array. If one drive fails, the other keeps on working with no data loss.

When one of the 500GB drives failed, I received an alert message telling me that the RAID array went critical, visually indicating on my screen that the drive had failed. At that point is was a matter of removing the drive from the system using the front panel removable, hot-swap drive bay — no tools required!

After a trip to Micro Center in Cambridge, MA where I bought two new 500GB drives, I replaced the unit that had failed. After some minor software configurations and settings for the RAID control software, the new drive was busily rebuilding as a mirror of the remaining drive. This process took around 3 and a half hours. Once the new drive was rebuilt and up and running, I removed the original “good” drive and replaced it with the second brand new drive, repeating the process. Again, the rebuilding took around 3.5 hours…which I scheduled to happen overnight. I replaced the used, good drive simply as a precaution because it was of the same pedigree and age as the failed drive.

To be sure you can do periodic data back ups to a USD external hard drive, or use an offsite backup service like Carbonite to protect yourself. But if you experience a hard drive failure, you will need to replace the drive and then go through the tedious process of reloading your operating system in order to restore your system from the backups. This can end up being a lot of work!

The moral of the story is that if you value your computer and your precious data, you MUST have a redundant drive array to prevent catastrophic data loss. It costs more, but it requires so much less work to recover from a hard drive failure. I figure the RAID configuration saved me at least 10 hours of futzing around with CDs and hard drives…all I spent was around 10 minutes removing and replacing hard drives from the drive bay caddies and around 3 minutes initiating the rebuilding process.

And as I recollect, the hot swap bay for 6 disks was approximately $150 and the added cost of the hard drives was approximately $250. This is a cheap date for a time-conscious business owner with lots of irreplaceable data. Based on the time I saved dealing with this failure alone I consider what I spent on the drive arrays and the drive bays MONEY WELL SPENT!!

I urge that you to do the same!