Ron Paul Still Haunted by Racist Newsletters

The controversy that just won’t go away, a series of newsletters published by aging Texas representative Ron Paul that clearly contain racist content. They have haunted him for several years now and in spite of several denials from Ron Paul, they just won’t go away.

Thanks to the efforts of the New Republic we can now view portions of several newsletters that clearly contain racist and offensive content.

Much speculation has been made over who authored such inflammatory rhetoric in the newsletters. Unconfirmed claims state that it was Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell who were the main authors, but Ron Paul remains mum on just who authored the newsletters bearing his name if he did not.

A May 22, 1996 Dallas Morning News has him not denying authorship and actually claiming, “they were being taken out of context” and “It’s typical political demagoguery. If people are interested in my character . . . come and talk to my neighbors.”

To objections raised by the NAACP over the racist comments in 1996, Ron Paul was quoted, “If someone challenges your character and takes the interpretation of the NAACP as proof of a man’s character, what kind of a world do you live in?”

In an October 2001 Texas Monthly interview Paul admitted, “I could never say this in the campaign, but those words weren’t really written by me. It wasn’t my language at all. Other people help me with my newsletter as I travel around,” but those “other people” remain hidden.

The New York Times reminds us when Ron Paul was confronted about the newsletters in 2008 he then claimed, “I absolutely, honestly do not know who wrote those things,” adding that he did not monitor the publications closely because he was busy with a medical practice and “speeches around the country.”

Confronted on the newsletters by CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger Dec. 21, 2011, Paul said, “I’ve never read that stuff. I’ve never read - I came - I was probably aware of it 10 years after it was written and it’s been going on 20 years that people have pestered me about this and CNN does it every single time.” Pressed further he stated, “I didn’t write them, didn’t read them at the time, and I disavow them.”

But, in 1987 he was promoting the newsletter during his failed Libertarian run for president.

Although he denies authorship of the newsletters, his signature appears on a 1993 solicitation letter that warns of a “coming race war” and is filled with paranoid ramblings on the “new money” introduced in the early 1990’s.

The letter warns, “The New Money will steal our freedom and our prosperity; it will accelerate the transfer wealth and power from the people to the government and its friends” as we would be forced to exchange all money for these new bills that would be used to track our transactions and monitor us.

In spite of his signature clearly seen at the bottom of the letter, the Ron Paul campaign issued a denial claiming, “Dr. Paul did not write that mail piece and disavows its content.”

Other than some questionable comments on Israel, claims made by former Ron Paul senior aid Eric Dondero and the newsletter published under his name, you would be hard pressed to find any racist comments actually made by Ron Paul.

That leads Michael Brendan Dougherty at Business Insider to believe the newsletters were part of a failed political strategy he calls the “redneck strategy,” given that “Murray Rothbard argued that libertarians ought to engage in ‘Outreach to the Rednecks’ in order to insert their libertarian theories into the middle of the nation’s political passions.”

Dondero is quoted in a Reason article, “Paul’s inner circle learned between his congressional stints that the wilder they got, the more bombastic they got with it, the more the checks came in. You think the newsletters were bad? The fundraising letters were just insane from that period.”

As Steve Horowitz puts it, “although I don’t think Ron Paul is a racist, like Archie Bunker, he was willing to, metaphorically, toast a marshmallow on the cross others were burning.”

Ron Paul did not help help his cause when he accepted donations and the support of known white supremacists and neo-Nazi’s in his 2008 bid for president nor with his initial pandering to the 911 Truthers

Personally, I feel the use of such racist material as a political strategy, failed or otherwise and to raise campaign funds even more offensive than actual racism.

Paul is looking more and more as just another cheap political opportunist, willing to say anything and pander to whatever group he feels will help propel him forward. We can see that in his long held stance of being against earmarks, but packing more earmarks onto bills than any other Republican in congress. That he then votes against them, knowing the bill will pass anyway is an old political trick, allowing him to divert federal dollars to keep buying votes while claiming he opposes them.

Ron Paul has long showed he is not suited to hold any office higher than he now has. It matters not exactly who authored the racist newsletters as they appear to have only been a poorly designed political strategy of pandering to fringe groups in hopes of building political power.

It also accounts for why they will forever haunt him as long as he strives to be elected to the presidency.

I doubt any of this will matter to those starry eyed worshippers of his, the ones that believe he does no wrong and excuse every utterance he makes. To them, he is as a cult leader and they hang on every word he speaks while launching scathing assaults on any who dare question their “messiah.”

No, it is doubtful Ron Paul is actually a racist. But, he is not fit to be president either. The newsletters that continue to haunt him only reveal his willingness to pander and say what he thinks people wish to hear.

City Managers Should Thank Struggling Taxpayers for Their Wage Increases

That our national economy remains strained in this “Great Recession” is evident almost everywhere we look. Private sector jobs remain hard to find and we see median wages falling or remaining low.

According to a chart released by Washington State, Clark County’s median wage dropped over $3,000 a year between 2008 and 2009. 2010 showed an estimated increase in median wages in the county of a paltry $200 per year with a further estimate for 2011 of just $400 for the year, hoping to see a median wage of $54,951, still $3,000 below what was seen in 2008.

Many in the county, who are lucky enough to still have a job, have seen no wage increase at all and some have actually seen a significant drop in wages while at the same time we see taxes, rates and fees increasing across the board from city and county government.

However, not all of us have to sacrifice during these dire economic times. The Columbian tells us in November, “131 OPEIU members will get a 1.5 percent raise next year and another in 2013, followed by a 2 percent wage increase in 2014” as the city and the union reached their contract agreement. A small increase, but an increase just the same.

Earlier we saw settlements in contract disputes that also granted slight increases to city public union workers with an agreement for many to begin paying for a small portion of their health insurance premiums.

Last December taxpayers expressed their opposition to our 3 county commissioners receiving a wage increase that they wisely chose not to accept.

With such slight increases, while median income remains $3,000 lower throughout the county, little wonder even the Columbian questioned city manager Eric Holmes receiving nearly double a wage increase as did other city employees who avoided being laid off during this recession.

The slight outrage they expressed last week seems to be gone today as they report City managers’ pay rises across county, informing readers, “Four out of five [city managers] in Camas, Washougal, B.G., Vancouver, will receive increases in 2012.”

Chart from the Columbian

As seen in the chart above, appointed city managers are doing quite well in this recession while many middle class taxpayers continue unemployed, underemployed or with stagnant wages. Each city manager earns at least twice the current median income of taxpayers in the county.

The Columbian quotes Mark Stephan, a political science professor at Washington State University Vancouver, “Awarding pay raises to public leaders is important because it lessens the chance of a more affluent city or private company poaching them and, symbolically, makes the employees feel more appreciated.”

Stephan also rightly notes struggling middle class taxpayers will not receive the news of appointed city employees receiving these increases very well.

How nice to also read these wage increases do not include cost of living allowances that remain frozen “in order to save money.”

It cannot be forgotten that the governor wishes to increase the sales tax and public unions and members of the Democrat controlled legislature have filed a lawsuit against citizen initiatives to keep a high threshold for them to impose new taxes on us.

Locally, we continue to see our voices ignored as supporters of C-Tran, who is also giving wage increases to public union members engage in fearmongering to win a sales tax increase and working on yet another sales tax increase in 2012.

The CRC continues to suck up tax dollars with little accountability and working to keep taxpayers from voting on how we may want the project to go.

A searchable online database reveals over 250 public salaries in Clark County in excess of $100,000. Of the 661 salaries listed, over 600 are above the median income in Clark County.

We should also remember that shortly after lying his way into the mayor’s seat, Tim ‘the liar’ Leavitt floated the notion of making the job full time, presumably also with a six-figure salary while bombastic council member, Jeanne ‘gavel down’ Harris supported making city council positions full time that I have to believe would carry generous salaries.

It matters not whether or not these city managers deserve wage increases. Struggling middle class workers also deserve much, but we are not receiving increases, other than in what we must pay out in taxes, rates and fees.

Considering too that elected federal officials also receive $174,000 in base wage, plus extremely generous benefits that we struggling middle class taxpayers fund, it appears that being a public “servant” pays much better than those they allegedly serve receive.

It would seem the main incentive any of them have is devising ways to keep us paying for their lifestyles.

I’d say how nice it would be to at least receive a nice Thank You card from our public servants, but that too would probably come out of our pockets.

Washington State Democrat Party Chair, Dwight Pelz Shows A Disconnect

If there was ever any doubt just how disconnected Democrats really are from the struggling middle class, Dwight Pelz, in his latest effort to instill fear and mislead the public in the run-up to the 2012 election shows it.

Click image for full size view

Pelz claims, "The Republican nominee for president will lead the right-wing effort to impose a selfish, self-serving political agenda on the American people."

Who is acting more "selfish and self-serving" in imposing an agenda on the rest of us that the current Democratic Party supported Occupy Movement? We do not see Republicans or Tea Party people taking over public parks, destroying them, demanding hand-outs, breaking into foreclosed homes and claiming them for themselves and denying struggling middle class workers the ability to feed their families by their selfish act last week of shutting down Ports up and down the West Coast.

So far, arrests of Occupy people has exceeded 5,000 while there has not been a single arrest in any Tea Party rally of a Tea Party person.

Pelz continues, "Their attack on our Democratic values of compassion and progress will run from the Presidential campaign, through the congressional elections, right down to our State Legislature elections."

So far, those "Democratic values of compassion and progress" has given us $15 Trillion in debt, some of the highest sustained unemployment in decades, nearly nationalizing banks and private industry and ever increasing taxes on the backs of the very struggling middle class people they claim they have so much compassion for.

While it is popular to place blame on President Bush, since our economy began its downward spiral while he was still in office, it cannot be forgotten that it also began just a few months after those "compassionate and Progressive" Democrats seized both houses of congress in large majorities.

It cannot be forgotten that their "compassion" has them blocking private sector job creation an a lessening on our dependence on Middle Eastern Oil by maintaining a moratorium on recovering our own resources off the shores of our country and within our own borders.

Our own state, Washington, has been under complete Democratic Party control for over a decade now. The Governor's office has been Democrat held since the mid-1980's. The recent special session to deal with the growing budget deficit dealt with just about everything but addressing that deficit and leaving us with only a $1.5 Billion deficit to deal with.

This is nothing more than the usual projection of blame and fearmongering from the very people that continue to bankrupt us.

We must not fall for it again.

Democrats have shown themselves to be completely inept in governing both our state and the country.

It is time for a real change by sending incumbent Democrats and RINO's packing this next election.

Syrians Know the Impotence of Barack Obama

Hat Tip to Bad Rachel who states, "5,000 Syrians have been massacred by Bashar Assad since March, including 300 children. How are those sanctions workin’ out, Mr. Obama?"

For the inevitable troll claiming the sign being in English means it must be photoshopped, video of Syrian women protesting in the street carrying a sign clearly stating in English, "USA PEOPLE, YOU LIVED 11 SEPTEMBER ONE TIME, BUT WE LIVE IT EVERYDAY."




BHO is doing nothing other than kowtowing to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist radicals.

The Arrogance of Barack Obama, the 4th Best President Ever?

"I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president -- with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln -- just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history."

Better than Kennedy, Clinton, Truman, Reagan, George Washington, Eisenhower or Teddy Roosevelt, to just name a few?

And just what are his accomplishments? Highest unemployment in decades? Largest government expansion? The highest debt increase ever? The most out of touch president ever?

And, 60 Minutes Overtime conveniently omits the footage in their broadcast?

It's more accurate to claim his being the 44th best ever.

H/T Newsbusters

The full CBS interview

60 Minutes Overtime - Full Obama Interview
- Watch more Politics Videos at Vodpod.

KROFT: Tell me, what do you consider your major accomplishments? If this is your last speech. What have you accomplished?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we’re not done yet. I’ve got five more years of stuff to do. But not only saving this country from a great depression. Not only saving the auto industry. But putting in place a system in which we’re gonna start lowering health care costs and you’re never gonna go bankrupt because you get sick or somebody in your family gets sick. Making sure that we have reformed the financial system, so we never again have taxpayer-funded bailouts, and the system is more stable and secure. Making sure that we’ve got millions of kids out here who are able to go to college because we’ve expanded student loans and made college more affordable. Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Decimating al Qaeda, including Bin Laden being taken off the field. Restoring America’s respect around the world.

Didn’t someone else play a much bigger part in “decimating Al Qaeda?” Traveling the globe apologizing for America “decimating Al Qaeda” improves our image? Plunging us $15 Trillion in debt is an accomplishment? Expanding student loans while we have malcontents complaining about having to pay student loans back? Ending taxpayer bailouts, after giving more taxpayer bailouts than ever?

Is he on crack?

CBS 60 Minutes Overtime Transcript

Will Possession, Sales or Use of Tobacco in Washington State Become a Class C Felony?

In a move sure to please city council critter Jeanne Harris, a group calling themselves ‘Tobacco-Free Washington’ has gotten approval for a new citizen’s initiative that would make the use of any tobacco product in Washington State a Class C felony!

Proposed by a Seattle based Dentist, Dr. Edward Dolan, a 1996 Western Washington University graduate, and director of the World Lung Association, in Medina, Wa., the measure is designed to “make the sale, manufacture, or possession of tobacco products a Class C felony and redefine tobacco products as including ‘any product containing tobacco or nicotine that is expected or intended for human consumption’.”

The initiative has received approval from the Secretary of State and assigned the number of “512.”

From page 3 of “Initiative 512”

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 9.91 RCW to read as follows:

(1) It is unlawful to sell, manufacture, or possess any tobacco products including, but not limited to, cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco.

(2) A person who:

(a) Sells or manufactures any tobacco product is guilty of a class B felony punishable according to chapter 9A.20 RCW; or

(b) Possesses any tobacco product is guilty of a class C felony punishable according to chapter 9A.20 RCW.

(3) For the purposes of this section, "tobacco product" includes any product containing tobacco or nicotine that is expected or intended for human consumption.

Few people defend tobacco use any longer and anytime we defend our freedom of choice, we are automatically labeled as defending big tobacco, wanting to hurt children, having no compassion, you name it.

But, in all of these efforts to demonize tobacco users and pushing smokers further and further into the back allies is the disproportionate amount of taxes the state collects off of tobacco, at a time they are crying not having enough revenue from our taxes to maintain budgets.

Prohibition of alcohol failed miserably back in the 1920’s and total bans of tobacco have not yet received much favor. Partial bans, like we saw when smokers were ushered outside and more recently as they are told they must not use tobacco of any nature within Vancouver Parks have found favor with many.

Such a total ban that would have only made the use of tobacco a misdemeanor was tried by North Dakota in 2003. Their legislature defeated the Republican proposed measure with a vote of 88 to 4.

Their measure received heavy opposition from anti-tobacco groups that testified against the tobacco ban, such as “the North Dakota Medical Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, North Dakota Public Health Association and North Dakota Nurses Association.” They claimed, “There's no evidence banning tobacco would prevent and reduce tobacco use because no such approach has been implemented.”

There was also the strong probability that such a ban would have taken away much of the funding for these groups for their tobacco control programs.

Legislators admitted also that the state was “hooked on tobacco,” even though many did not smoke. Republican Wes Belter admitted, “It is time for us to think about just how hooked we are on tobacco, whether we smoke or not,” recognizing then how states are dependent upon tobacco taxes.

At a rate of $3.025 tax per pack of 20 cigarettes, it is easy to see how profitable tobacco is for Washington State and should this initiative collect enough signatures to make it on the ballot and win voter approval that would be many millions of dollars in tax revenue the state will lose.

In what can only be labeled ironic, as signatures are being gathered to make smokers felons, signatures are also being gathered to legalize marijuana in Washington State. In spite of claims by potheads on how “safe” marijuana is, has been shown to carry many of the same harmful effects as claimed for tobacco.

Ultimately though, as we see more and more of these efforts coming down the pike, voters must begin thinking just how far are they willing to go in efforts to “change cultural behaviors,” as Harris put it.

Is it really beneficial to make smokers felons and lose their tax dollars as the state’s budget gap continues to grow?

David the Occupier Tries to Justify Lost Wages to Middle Class Workers

David the Occupier, December 12, 2011 1pm [From Victoria Taft, KPAM 860]

It comes as no surprise that this group of malcontents, calling themselves “occupiers” but who in reality are nothing more than anarchists foolishly pushing for the country to become communist, justify their every action, no matter how much they hurt everyday workers.

Since they decided they have some “right” to take over and hold public parks, denying the rest of us our right to enjoy the parks, they have ratcheted up their discontent as they seek more notoriety, regardless of any destruction they may cause.

Just today, Monday December 12, 2011 we see them up and down the West Coast interfering with interstate commerce, shutting down ports, blocking middle class truckers from doing their jobs and earning a days wages. What they think they are accomplishing escapes me.

They claim the support of rank and file workers, but the online poll offered by KGW News shows overwhelmingly that they have little support among the middle class. I imagine the thousands of people who lost wages today due to their ongoing tantrum aren’t too happy about that.

One such protester, a young mother identified only as “Lotus” boasts of having her 4-year old daughter on the train tracks! (about the 1:15 mark)

“Lotus” claims, “The thing is, I have faith in humanity, I don’t think any person driving a train is going to haul through a bunch of peaceful people with children.” No doubt, had any injuries happened to the 4 year-old child, that ditz “Lotus” would be fast to find an ambulance chaser to sue the Port, the Rail Company and the city.

That these people are being tolerated by their illegal actions is an abomination upon itself. Their cries of “peaceful protest” are drowned out by their actions interfering with struggling middle class workers earning a living. And they still maintain support of rank & file workers, even though one sign seen in TV news reports stated, “Sorry for the inconvenience to your APATHY!”

To these twits, if you strive to care for your families, you are now “apathetic.”

The claim of sending a message to Goldman Sachs is laughable. How does taking money out of the pockets of middle class wage earners affect Goldman Sachs? They have the wealth to sit back and wait these morons out.

The longer these idiots are allowed to get away with such actions, the bolder they become. They falsely claim to be “the 99%” but are actually only the bottom 1% of society, those expecting to be spoonfed whatever they wish and contribute little, if anything to society.

Capitalism is what grew the middle class, not the communism and class warfare they advocate.

People across America are quickly getting fed-up with these freeloaders and mayors who abide by their wishes instead of dealing with the lawless fringe left. The media’s embracing of the jerks and the destruction they cause is equally as ridiculous.

Middle class workers are entitled to earn wages, without interference from anarchists and leftists trying to forcibly impose their desires on the majority.

Just as happened back in 1970, if the mayors and governors in America do not begin dealing with these whiny little freeloaders, others might know how to.

Democrats Shameless Support of the Occu-Twits

For a group that continues to claim no leadership and being non-partisan, it is obvious that partisanship is what fuels the mobs.

If you believe this is a newly formed mob, you're wrong.

March 2007, Portland, Oregon

Summer 1968

Those claiming they are only trying to protect America and the American worker are really misleading the public. This movement is about bringing about the collapse of America as we have long known it. What made America great is repulsive to them.

Don't fall for their lies of fighting to improve anything.

Similar groups in the waning days of World War One did the same and many fell for their rhetoric, ushering in decades of oppression in the former Soviet Union.

Shame on any Democrats who stand with these people.

Tip of the hat to Campaign to Defeat Obama

Survivors of Pearl Harbor Share Their Memories

Wednesday December 7, 2011 was the 70th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that thrust America into World War Two. In this video report, survivors recounted the horrific day.

On this 70th anniversary, 11 survivors of the attack from the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington area shared their memories at the commemoration services held at the Red Lion Inn at the Quay.

The event was hosted by the Pacific Northwest Sons & Daughters of the Pearl Harbor Survivors who will continue services previously hosted by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, who have announced disbanding due to an aging and declining membership.

May God continue blessing these heroes. May their sacrifices never be forgotten.

Occu-Commies Declare War on the Police?

What unmitigated gall this bottom 1% has

Communism, even pseudo-communism is not the answer.

You're not as anonymous as you think. Your numbers are not as large as you think. We do not need your forgiveness for anything. We of the 53% do not forget either, especially as we see freeloaders who are only a pain in our collective butts.

Liberal Hate Cartoon Links Child Rapist to Republicans

H/T Examiner

Vietnam Claims 40,000 Deaths From Old Munitions, But Ignore Millions of Deaths After the Communist Takeover

It’s always heart wrenching to read or hear of deaths long after a war’s end, due to forgotten and discarded munitions. We still occasionally hear of the discovery of old munitions left from World war One and World War Two. I imagine that is why Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung says of the war that ended in with the communist take over 36 years ago, “The war’s painful legacy, which includes hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs and unexploded ordnance, continues to cause painful casualties every day.”

Dung claims 100,000 Killed, Hurt by Abandoned Weapons since the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975.

The ABC article is quick to point out, “The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam government.”

We also read in the article, “Bui Hong Linh, vice minister of labor, war invalids and social affairs, said explosives remain on about 16 million acres (6.6 million hectares) of land, or more than one-fifth of the country.”

What is not said, and possible unable to determine is how much of those discarded munitions are actually not U.S. munitions, but landmines and other munitions laid their by the communist North Vietnamese to kill or wound American and South Vietnamese Troops during the many years of their struggle to remain a free people? Munitions built by the communist North Vietnamese as well as those supplied them by the former Soviet Union and Communist China?

In case people forget, it was not only America using weapons in that war and I would easily imagine the vast majority of landmines planted and forgotten were planted by the communist North Vietnamese themselves.

Another point and very heart wrenching is the “100,000 killed or maimed” over the 36 year period. No doubt a claim made to garner sympathy and more funds from other countries, most notably the United States. U.S. Ambassador David Shear states that America has already supplied some $62 Million towards the effort while Vietnamese continue to drag their feet in the effort to account for all of our missing POWs and MIAs.

As heart wrenching as the claim of “100,000” is, the Communist Vietnamese government ignores their own actions immediately after we saw tanks busting down the gates of the abandoned U.S. Embassy and Presidential Palace in Saigon long ago.

Only 2 years after the fall of Saigon, Vietnamese author Le Thi Anh wrote of the bloodbath occurring inside the country after America shamefully turned our backs on the struggling South Vietnamese and abandoned them with his article, The New Vietnam.

Just 4 years after the war’s end, CBS News broadcast a report, Re-education camps...or death camps? telling us how so many South Vietnamese who sided with Americans we sent off to “re-education camps” and how hundreds of thousands were ejected from the country on rickety boats, to become known as the “Boat People”, untold thousands perishing at sea as boats broke apart or never found their way back to land.

Reports of the continuing atrocities of the indigenous people of the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the Montagnards still flow out through the efforts of Montagnard-Foundation.org.

In an undated article we read, “At least 165,000 people perished in Vietnam's re-education camps after the fall of Saigon in 1975, according to published research in the United States and Europe. The Hanoi government declines comment,” followed by a lengthy “partial list” of those known to have perished.

An even more staggering claim of “through all this close to 3,800,000 Vietnamese lost their lives from political violence, or near one out of every ten men, women, and children. Of these, about 1,250,000, or near a third of those killed, were murdered” is made by R.J. Rummel at, Statistics Of
Vietnamese Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources.

Site after site documents the atrocities and revenge sought by the Communists after their victory in Vietnam go ignored by the Vietnamese Government, the United Nations and our own media today as they as they continue to play on our emotions, most likely to instill feelings of guilt in American citizens over our past allied efforts to help those who did not want to be subjected to brutality of communism.

The United Nations, more aptly labeled the “Useless Nations” by many, makes no effort to hold the Communist Government of Vietnam accountable for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of deaths of Vietnamese citizens who wished to remain free. Many who only worked alongside of us in a non-military capacity.

The anti-war left sarcastically labels such articles as seen at the top of this post as “War: The gift that keeps on giving” ignores their own complicity in dragging out our wars by their efforts emboldening enemy forces and eventually leading to victories for those enemies, causing many bloodbaths for innocent civilians in those countries.

By many accounts, North Vietnam was considering a negotiated surrender after they were decimated in their ill-fated Tet of ’68 Offensive, but fought on seeing how they had the sympathy of American Liberals who were marching on our streets in support of the Communist North. As history records, their tactic succeeded, to the detriment of the South Vietnamese people.

My effort is not to marginalize the claim of “100,000, 42,132 people killed and 62,163 others wounded” over the past 36 years, but to shine a little light and out it in perspective as Premier Dung seems to have forgotten the millions of Vietnamese claimed to have simply vanished in the immediate aftermath of the war.

Dung also seems to have forgotten that many of the very munitions lost and forgotten were placed there by his own forces all those years ago.

We in America will no doubt continue to help in the effort to clear munitions left over from the war, but I also feel a lot of that effort belongs on Vietnam itself as well as the Chinese and Russians who supplied many of those munitions to the Communist North Vietnamese as well as sent their own Military Personnel to Vietnam during the war.

Above all, we in America should never feel guilty that we tried to help a people struggling to remain free. If anything, we should feel guilt that we allowed our government to abandon freedom seeking people.

Portland Mayor Throws A Hissy Fit and Hangs Up On Radio Host

Portland, Oregon's soon to be ex-Mayor, Sam Adams threw a hissy fit over being questioned about why City Hall is flying a flag at half-mast for a young gang banger who was shot and killed. Adams soon hangs up on Lars Larsen claiming to be “too disgusted.”

Begins about the 6:25 mark

Mayor Sam Adams Blows Up...Then Hangs Up by TheLarsLarsonShow

Illusory Unemployment Drop Celebrated, While Real Job Growth Remains Blocked

“This holiday season is bringing more of the same bad news that millions of jobless workers heard last year… American workers are weathering the effects of an economy where there is only one job for every three individuals searching for a job.”

No, the above isn’t addressing our current economic quagmire, it is two sentences contained in the first paragraph of a letter sent to former President George W. Bush by Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader and Tom Daschle, Senate Democratic Leader in November 2003 complaining about what they felt was high unemployment then and urging more unemployment funding to combat it.

After suffering the worst terrorist attack in history, an attack right in the heart of our financial district and lingering effects of a recession that began shortly after taking office, unemployment had peaked at 6.3% in June 2003 and was dropping; reaching 5.8% in the very month the letter was written.

Democrats were complaining how unacceptable such unemployment numbers were as we heading into the 2004 election season.

Contrast that now as we see celebratory headlines like: Unemployment rate falls to 8.6 percent, lowest in 2½ years, with good signs for small business

Through the first two years of the Obama administration, Democrats had full and complete control of the government to implement the very policies they called for back in 2003. Unemployment, after dipping to 4.4% during the Bush administration, was setting at 7.8% when Obama took office, after two years of Democrats seizing control of both houses of congress in the 2006 election.

During that first two years of Obama’s reign, with full Democrat control of the country, unemployment peaked at 10.1% and for all but two months after the March 2009 “low,” remains at 9% and over, many Democrats calling 9% “the new normal.”

Don’t get me wrong, any drop in unemployment is good, if there really is a drop and not just a matter of cooking the books to create a false illusion of an improving economy. We’re told in the article linked above, “The country added 120,000 jobs in November” eliciting comments such as, “Something good is stirring in the U.S. economy,” by economist Ian Shepherdson.

We’re told the new numbers “clinched one of the best weeks in stock market history.”

As we head into the 2012 election season, with Obama seeking a second term, article and reports as this leads all to believe it’s all coming up roses.

What we do not read and should be considered is, “the main reason unemployment ‘fell’ is because the workforce has shrunk. Those who have given up looking for jobs are not included in unemployment statistics,” as shown in a Freedom Works post written by Celia Bigelow.

Confirming her claims, we read much deeper in the rosy article from the Washington Post,

“Still, more than 300,000 people stopped their job searches last month, so they were no longer officially counted as unemployed. That accounts for some of the drop in the unemployment rate.”
“The so-called underemployment rate, which counts people who have given up looking and people who are working part-time but want full-time jobs, did fall — to 15.6 percent from 16.2 percent.”
“But even with the recent gains, the economy isn’t close to replacing the jobs lost in the recession. Employers began shedding workers in February 2008 and cut nearly 8.7 million jobs for the next 25 months. The economy has regained about 2.5 million.”
“And most people aren’t getting raises. Average hourly pay slipped 2 cents last month to $23.18. In the past year, wages have risen 1.8 percent, but inflation has risen twice as fast, eroding buying power.”

Obama ironically says, “Now is not the time to slam the brakes on the recovery, right now it’s time to step on the gas,” as that is exactly what Obama and the Democratic Party has been doing while deepening our dependence upon foreign energy sources, by maintaining their moratorium on domestic and off-shore recovery of our own sources of energy.

From putting off construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the continuing moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, even to the call by all six Democratic West Coast Senators to permanently ban recovering our own sources of energy off the Pacific Coast, millions of potential private sector jobs fall by the wayside. Jobs that pay very well and generate Billions of dollars of new revenue for the treasury.

In reply to questions by Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Edward Markey, challenging the industries studies showing there really are millions of jobs to be made available, CEO and President of the American Petroleum Institute Jack Gerard made clear that such projections are indeed accurate and corrected false views often made against our energy suppliers.

Just days ago, a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed The Non-Green Jobs Boom told us, “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate remains a dreadful 9%. But look more closely at the data and you can see which industries are bucking the jobless trend. One is oil and gas production, which now employs some 440,000 workers, an 80% increase, or 200,000 more jobs, since 2003. Oil and gas jobs account for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period” and “While Washington has tried to force-feed renewable energy with tens of billions in special subsidies, oil and gas production has boomed thanks to private investment. And while renewable technology breakthroughs never seem to arrive, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized oil and gas extraction—with no Energy Department loan guarantees needed.”

While the Obama administration may celebrate an 8.6% unemployment rate, October saw North Dakota’s unemployment rate setting at 3.5% and straining the resources of the state with such rapid growth in a small region.

The resources will catch up in time, but the proof of the jobs waiting to be filled and that remain blocked by Obama and the Democrats is there for all to see. Opening other areas were known reserves of oil and natural gas sit, waiting to be recovered within our own country would not only alleviate the strain in North Dakota, but give much needed jobs across the country, speeding a real recovery for the country.

If Obama really thinks “right now it’s time to step on the gas,” he first needs to get his lead foot off of the brakes!