Too many of us are hearing but not listening

Imagine you can’t pay all your bills.

For the sake of simplicity, you owe $1000 this month but you only have $600. You will have to borrow $400 to make it through the month. Now imagine you have to do that every month for the next year. That’s $4800 you will need to borrow to pay your bills for the year. And you know that you’re going to have to borrow that same amount every month for the next year (and the foreseeable future.)

Now add the interest to that $400/month loan, that is if someone or some entity will loan you this money.  Interest at 13% (that’s a really good rate on your Visa card) adds $624/year to the balance or $52/month. So now you will owe $5424 for the year.

You know that you can’t pay your bills with the income you have now. You know that you can’t pay your bills without borrowing $4 for every $10 that you spend, or $40 for every $100 or $400 for every $1000. Or as in the case of the United States of America – .40 for every $1.00 that it spends.

What would you do?

You could start by calling  your banker or your credit card company and ask them to raise your borrowing limit.  Chances are real good they will laugh at you, before telling you no. And anyone with a high school education knows that raising your DEBT LIMIT will only dig your hole deeper in the long run.

So, you sit down at the kitchen table and prioritize. If you’re an average American, you start cutting out all the things you can do without so you can pay for the things that matter, like your mortgage and medicine and your personal yacht.

Then you put a lid or a cap on all your future spending.

No more dinners on Broadway or flying your favorite pizza chef in from Chicago.

No more Spanish vacations in your private jet. What? You don’t have a jet?

No more entertainment like those private Paul McCartney or Stevie Wonder concerts.

Next, you start looking around your house at the things you can live without and sell off. But remember, that’s only going to get you through a month or 2. Eventually, you’ll run out of things you can sell, unless you live in the White House and then there’s an unlimited amount of things of value to sell.

Maybe your Wall Street friends will throw fund raising parties for you. Oh please. Don’t tell me you have no Wall Street buds.

Publish a book with a well known terrorist ghost writing it for you? You don’t know any terrorists? Sucks to be you, then.

You don’t have a $10 million winery in California that you can sell? Oh, sorry. I’d mistaken you for Nancy Pelosi.

This isn’t our life. But we are shouldering the burden for these expenses and all the expenses that benefit everyone else, including and most irritating – the political class.

Most of  us would fore go our social security checks for a couple more years. Most of us would be willing to work a couple more years rather than dump these bills on our children and grandchildren. Most of us are willing to do with less or do without to balance our books and not leave unheard of debt for our kids.

And most of us would like to see the ruling class suffering just a little bit with us.

The whole world hasn’t been watching closely enough

Marilyn Katz: Self described Marxist and former head of security for the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS.) She was a major player in the ’68 riots at the DNC in Chicago. She was a sorority girl turned mouthpiece of a terrorist organization turned anti-capitalist capitalist communist.

Read on, she’s been a major player in positioning the Manchurian president we have now.

Marilyn Katz at the '68 DNC/Chicago riots. from therealbarackobamafiles.wordpress.com

Today, many claim that SDS was a “peaceful organization.” Take Marilyn Katz, who oversaw SDS security during the 1968 Chicago riots.

During the “Chicago Seven” trials, a police officer testified that on one chaotic night in Lincoln Park, Ms. Katz briefed a group of protesters on a new addition to their arsenal of anarchy — guerrilla nails.

“She had two types,” the officer recounted. “One was a cluster of nails that were sharpened at both ends and fastened in the center. It looked like they were welded or soldered. She said these were good for throwing or putting underneath tires. She showed another set that was the same type of nails, sharpened, but they were put through a Styrofoam cylinder. There was a weight put through the middle, another nail, held together with something that looked like liquid solder.”

Katz was communications director for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. And is now owner of a communications firm and a paid, registered lobbyist, as well as a close personal friend of the Obamas. So much for her anti-capitalism marxist philosophy, eh?

Her list of friends is a Who’s Who of the powerful elite in Chicago, Washington and the White House.

Don Rose, another SDS member and avowed Marxist, who coined the famous battle cry of the ’68 riots – “the whole world is watching” – is a close friend and comrade of Katz and the mentor of David Axelrod. The three of them have a friendship and history that spans some 30 years.

Katz has long been acquainted with Obama supporter and former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers. In April 2008 Katz told the Chicago Sun-Times that she had first met Ayers when he was a 17-year-old fellow member of Students for a Democratic Society, “a peaceful group from which the Weather Underground splintered.” (emphasis added) from DiscoverTheNetworks.org

It was Katz who organized the anti-Iraq war demonstration in Chicago, 2002 where Obama made his first anti-war speech. He was an invited speaker. It was his coming out party. And it was a speech that Obama referred to many times in his presidential campaign. Marilyn Katz, one of the event’s organizers, recalls the audience’s reaction. “The crowd was pretty much transfixed,” she said.

Marilyn Katz today.

… Katz, a lifelong socialist revolutionary who said last August that she “probably” rejects violence, is a close friend of Jarrett — and of Barack and Michelle Obama. She even visited the White House this July.

It was Katz who introduced Michelle Obama to Valerie Jarret and the “very sophisticated inner social circle” of Chicago elite Marxists. … Michelle “was recognized as brilliant and beautiful, and immediately accepted into a very sophisticated social circle.”

[Liza] Mundy [biographer of Michelle Obama] writes Michelle “and Barack…enjoyed a range of relations with people who shared their lifestyle, as well as their progressive views and political involvement. ‘These are folks,’ says Marilyn Katz, a member of their social circle, ‘who talk to their friends a number of times a day.” Katz repaid her friend by becoming a campaign bundler for Obama ‘08.

…And possibly trying to buy Jarrett a senate seat. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has indicated, after Obama’s presidential election, Katz contacted his wife, Patti, with a deal to name Valerie Jarrett to the open senate seat in exchange for a White House payoff, brokered through SEIU.

Despite the controversy, in late July Katz joined Valerie Jarrett and Susan Sher in Washington for the Obama administration’s celebration of the 37^th anniversary of Title IX.

Given her radical history (beginning with SDS during the Days of Rage) and close association with our president and first lady, it may be that Katz helped introduce or reinforce [Dr. Quentin] Young’s arguments [for universal heath care] to the Obamas. They could have been sold socialist ideology by any number of their friends, acquaintances, and contacts. The relationship of Katz, Jarrett, Ayers, the Obamas, Young, Carl Davidson, the New Party, the late Rabbi Arnold Wolf, and many others are as hazy as they are disconcerting. It seems a constellation of Marxists hovers over the first couple at all times — and this is not by chance.

By all accounts, the Obamas are close with their friends — including Katz. The nation is at peril when the White House has an unrepentant ’60s radical on speed dial.  NewsRealBlog.com

Obama-ites need to stay out of the deep end

Biggest bungle of a lifetime: party crashers with Biden, initially blamed on a Secret Service lapse.

Desiree Rogers, best known for her bungling of the Indian state dinner at the White House that allowed uninvited guests into the presidential bubble, has apparently resigned for greener pastures. How any pastures can be any greener than the White House, is beyond me, however.

Asked if she was hit hard by the resignation [of Desiree Rogers], longtime friend and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told POLITICO in an e-mail: “No, it didn’t hit me hard. Desiree never intended to stay more than about a year.”

An easy-out, kinda like “I’m resigning to spend more time with my family.”  Kinda like the easy-out of Anita Dunn, who only planned on being in the WH for the first year.

Yea, sure. We all believe that. (insert rolley eyed emoticon here.)

Around the same time, she began appearing at fashion shows in New York City without telling anyone in the East Wing and committing the first lady to events without reaching out to East Wing staffers, the source said.

At one point, Rogers wondered why she didn’t have her own driver, the source said.

There’s that entitlement mentality again: “I want my own driver, a personal secretary and a chef. After all, I’m owed this for the bang-up job I’m doing for my BFF! Who gives a damn if the tax payers are paying for me and all this bling!”

Desiree Rogers from the WSJ Magazine

“It became the Desiree show,” the source said. “She was far more interested in being a principal herself and people started to notice, including the First Lady.”

No one better upstage Michelle or she’ll flex those famous and envied biceps of hers. She’ll put you right out of the People’s House.

“The West Wing was really embarrassed by Desiree’s behavior,” the source said.

“She never really seemed to get the protocol and what was appropriate and what wasn’t,” the source said. “She was politically tone deaf in a way that you wonder how she made it in the corporate world.”

More evidence that this WH is in over their head. Another high profile member of the Chicago staff who has no clue what the job really is or how to even behave in the position. If you can’t swim with the big fish, stay out of the water and it’s for damned sure, don’t go in over  your knees!

These people are utterly clueless and one after another, they keep drowning from their lack of class.

From Politico.com

How we arrived here – a 25 minute lesson

The left needs a cause and if that cause disappears (as the Viet Nam war did or as women’s rights mostly have) they have to find a filler.

Remember that famous quote by Bill Ayers at the end of the Viet Nam war?

“Is there life after war?” he lamented.

Yes, Bill, there’s life and a professorship, a home in the best part of Chicago and a good job at a top rated law firm for your wife, all after war and all in the capitalist nation that you hate.

And there’s always a new cause for you to glom onto.

Listen carefully. You will hear the roots of the current marxist cause – the green movement – in the next video:

And some added points of interest:

The Frankfurt School was funded by, among others, the Rockefeller Foundation, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the American Jewish Committee, International Labor Organization, several different American intelligence agencies and a very high brow Beverly Hills psychotherapy clinic – the Hacker Institute.

It’s also interesting to note that Herbert Marcuse worked for the OSS during WWII and was a Soviet policy analyst during the McCarthy era.  At the end of his days he returned to West Germany and helped found the environmental extremist Green Party.

Blogging Rules for Radicals @ PajamasMedia.com: suggested reading

Months ago I heard Mark Levin mention Saul Alinsky and his book Rules for Radicals. I have a brother who is a socialist and it drove me crazy trying to understand what could possibly have made him this way. (Yes, I admit it. I think socialism is a mix of mental illness and religion.) So my fingers ran to Amazon.com and I ordered the book, hoping this would give me some enlightenment on my brother, the leftist movement and also, what the government is becoming.

As I read the book, I kept seeing more and more of Alinsky’s influence in the behavior and actions of the current administration. I saw his tactics in use during the campaign. It became crystal clear to me what was going on, what they were doing and how it was going to play out for us. In short, it scared the hell out of me!

I read up on Alinsky, himself, too. Where he came from, what educational background he had and so forth. I was surprised to learn he came from Chicago, just as Obama and his cronies had. Several months ago, I blogged about him here.

Right now, on PajamasMedia.com, Barbara Curtis (BarbaraCurtis.com) is doing a read-a-long book blog about Alinsky and his book. Bloggers are reading the book with her, she blogs about each chapter and they then discuss. This is part one of her Blogging Rules for Radicals. She and her blogger/readers have done 3 parts, so far.

I recommend that you take the time to read her blogs and the blogger comments.

In the words of Sun Tzu: If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.

There is much to learn and little time to do it in.

Someone needs to thank them

In September Najibullah Zazi was arrested for what is alleged as terrorist plots on New York sites. His plan was to use weapons of mass destruction on “persons and buildings in New York City” and a Brooklyn grand jury brought down an indictment. There is now evidence to suggest that this bus driver had contacts with a very high Al-Qaida official.

Has the White House or the Attorney General said anything positive about those involved in breaking this case? Have there been any pats on the backs from TheOne’s administration or TheOne himself, to those who are working to keep our country safe?

Holder is too busy trying to take down the CIA to acknowledge what appears to be a job well done by our intelligence and law enforcement communities. TheOne is too busy talking about how our cops “act stupidly” and not paying any attention to the bludgeoning of Derrion Albert in Chicago, to say a few words about what a debt we owe these hardworking cops who do their best to keep us safe.

I’m going to be constantly amazed and deeply appreciative at what law enforcement is doing to protect us, especially when I consider the onslaught they are suffering from Holder and the Obama administration.

It’s just disgraceful!

Wasting our $$ and what if Chicago doesn’t win?

Do you know what it costs and what is involved in a presidential/first family trip? Me neither.

But I know it must cost a helluva lot of money. You know, he has to have a cargo plan to fly is limo to wherever he’s going. Reports say that he and Michelle are taking 600 others with them on this Chicago-Olympic pitch trip. And they flew in seperate planes. All the secret service guys. All the assistants to make-up and hair directors for Oprah, Valerie and Michelle.

Geeze.

And I thought we were all suffering and tightening our belts these days… well, all of us but the folks in power.

Van Jones – only white suburban kids are mass murderers; black kids just kill in packs

CHICAGO — Cell phone footage showing a group of teens viciously kicking and striking a 16-year-old honors student with splintered railroad ties has ramped up pressure on Chicago officials to address chronic violence that has led to dozens of deaths of city teens each year.

The graphic video of the afternoon melee emerged on local news stations over the weekend, showing the fatal beating of Derrion Albert, a sophomore honor roll student at Christian Fenger Academy High School. His death was the latest addition to a rising toll: More than 30 students were killed last school year, and the city could exceed that number this year.

Prosecutors charged four teenagers Monday with fatally beating Albert, who was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in the mob street fighting, authorities said.

The violence stemmed from a shooting early Thursday morning involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor’s office. When school ended, members of the groups began fighting near the Agape Community Center.

During the attack, captured in part on a bystander’s cell phone video, Albert is struck on the head by one of several young men wielding wooden planks. After he falls to the ground and appears to try to get up, he is struck again and then kicked. Simonton said Albert was a bystander and not part of either group.

//

Chicago police said they were looking for at least three more suspects, but would not discuss a possible motive for the attack.

Simonton said Albert was knocked unconscious when Carson struck him in the head with a board and a second person punched him in the face. Albert regained consciousness and was trying to get up when he was attacked a second time by five people, struck in the head with a board by Riley and stomped in the head by Shannon, Simonton said.

Fenger students said Albert’s death intensified tensions at the school, with arguments about him breaking out in hallways all day Monday. Several blocks away, a memorial erected on the spot where he was beaten was burned down. Police also increased patrols before and after school and in the neighborhood.

“They’re still trying to retaliate,” said sophomore Toni Gardner, 15. She did not elaborate.

For Chicago, a sharp rise in violent student deaths during the past three school years — most from shootings off school property — have been a tragedy and an embarrassment.

Before 2006, an average of 10-15 students were fatally shot each year. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year.

This month, the city announced a $30 million project that targets 1,200 high school pupils identified as most at risk to become victims of gun violence, giving them full-time mentors and part-time jobs to keep them off the streets. Some money also will pay for more security guards and to provide safe passage for students forced to travel through areas with active street gangs.

Albert’s family attended a news conference Monday with school district leaders and police, but did not speak. They wore T-shirts with a picture of him in a cap and gown, with the words, “Gone too soon, too young.”