Give Democrats power and this is what you get

You’ll have trouble unclenching your jaws after reading this

Check out who and what is receiving funding with the passage of the 2009 Omnibus spending package approved by the Democrat congress.

This information was made available by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan budget watchdog organization, which has been doing “earmark” analysis for years.

And, in its own inimitable and highly readable style, the New York Post provides a fascinating look at the excesses you are underwriting. 

We guarantee you’ll be Seeing Red AZ.

More on Obama: Intelligence Choice

The Wall Street Journal has an opinion piece by Gabriel Schoenfeld regarding Barack Obama’s highly controversial selection of a China apologist and Israel basher to head the National Intelligence Council.

This informative overview of the selection of former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles “Chas” Freeman Jr., will likely leave you shaking your head in bewilderment.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid maintains that paying income taxes is “voluntary”

   

 Those Democrats are such cut-ups!

Make plans to join the Arizona Taxpayer Tea Party: Friday, February 27, Noon

Tom Jenney, AZ Director of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), issues an invitation to one and all to join taxpayer activists for an Arizona Taxpayer Tea Party, this Friday, February 27, at noon at the Tempe Beach Park, to protest (and stop!) the tax increases proposed by big-spending politicians at the federal, state, and local levels.

Join them in sending a powerful message to the politicians, special interests, and the mainstream media by taking part in the Arizona Taxpayer Tea Party.

The initial meet-up will be at 11:45 a.m. at the Tempe Beach Park, west of the Mill Avenue Bridge. A parking lot is available next to the park, on Rio Salado Parkway.

Map and driving directions are available here.

Please let them know you will attend by sending an email to infoAZ@afphq.org

18th-century attire welcome. Tar and feathers optional, Jenney notes.

For more information, check out AFP’s website here.

John Potter should be wearing a mask — he’s making out like a bandit

Although his agency is tanking, John Potter’s base salary climbed to $265,000 last year from $186,000 in 2007. He also received a performance bonus of $135,000, despite massive losses. In all, his total compensation — salary, bonuses, retirement benefits and other perks — topped $850,000.

Not bad for a guy who is cutting back on the services his business is mandated to provide.

Who is John Potter you ask?

He’s the guy who recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service will be cutting back on basic services, once again raising the price of stamps, freezing salaries and has even floated the trial balloon of completely eliminating Tuesday mail delivery.

John Potter is the U.S. Postmaster General.

And while his agency is hemorrhaging $2.8 billion in fourth quarter losses, he is rewarded as though he had found a cure for aging.

Potter’s salary adjustments, approved by the Postal Board of Governors and contained in a little-noticed regulatory filing in December, brought him to more than double the salary of the President of the United States — whose base pay is $400,000.

Read the FOX News report here.

Napolitano Newspeak to congress: We have no enemies, we were never attacked

Rep. Peter King: “This can’t be the evil we don’t speak about”

In George Orwell’s novel “1984,”  the fictional language of Newspeak was glowingly described as the “only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.” The virtue of the simplified vocabulary was that it well suited the totalitarian regime of the controlling Party, which sought to criminalize alternative thinking or speech by removing any words relating to the concepts of freedom or rebellion. The shrinking volume of the new dictionary was validated this way: “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”

In Newspeak the term for the English language as we know it, is Oldspeak, which was to be completely obliterated by 2050. It appears we have reached that marker 41 years earlier than Orwell envisioned.

What a classic example of Orwellianism we see with Janet Napolitano’s avoidance of the terms “terrorism” or “Sept. 11″ in remarks prepared for her first congressional testimony. AP describes it as signaling a sharp change in tone from her predecessors and Napolitano as the first homeland security secretary to drop the term “terror” and “vulnerability” from remarks prepared for delivery to the House Homeland Security Committee.

Tom Ridge, who headed the agency when it was launched in 2003, mentioned terrorism 11 times in his initial presentation. In 2005 Michael Chertoff, the second secretary, mentioned terrorism seven times.

Napolitano uses the word “attacks” less than her predecessors. Instead she talks about hurricanes and disasters, a sign of the department’s evolving mission following Hurricane Katrina — emulating President Barack Obama who has avoided using the term “war on terror.”

Democrat Bennie Thompson, (D-MS) the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee does not mention terrorism or Sept. 11 at today’s hearing either.

The committee’s ranking Republican Peter King (R-NY) said he was struck that Napolitano does not mention terrorism, Sept. 11, new threats or a formula for distributing counterterrorism grants to states and cities. “This can’t be the evil we don’t speak about. Any testimony on homeland security should be centered around the threat of terrorism and what we’re doing to combat it.”

When reporters asked Napolitano why she avoids the terms, she said terrorism fits into what she calls “action directives” that she has issued. Yet in those directives, she mentions terrorism only once, speaking about a law that contains the word in its title. Instead, she speaks of reviewing the Gulf Coast recovery from Hurricane Katrina, information sharing, and immigration and border security programs.

Pressed further on the absence of terror vernacular, she said she has been working with members of Obama’s national security team since the November election, and she is briefed regularly on “incidents around the world.” She does not single out terrorism “because it’s almost become part and parcel of what we do every day.” The department’s mission is straightforward: “To protect the American people from threats both foreign and domestic, both natural and manmade; to do all that we can to prevent threats from materializing, respond to them if they do and recover with resiliency.”

That’s our Janet — inspiring confidence once again.

McCain insiders to address activists

Members of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign will have a major presence at the April 16 -19 Log Cabin conference of GOP homosexual activists in Washington, DC.

Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of the former presidential nominee will be among the featured speakers at the annual convention. The title of her speech is “Winning the Next Generation — How can the Republican Party attract more young voters?”

Also speaking will be Steve Schmidt, McCain’s former campaign manager. The topic of Schmidt’s address is “Moving Forward.”

And, former Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe will host a Trustee Reception at his home.

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says McCain is taking the wrong message to young voters.

“I’m afraid that some Republicans are going to think, ‘Hey, we have to go pro-gay and try to be hip to get the youth vote,’” suggests LaBarbera. “Look, the kind of youth who are going to be the long-term heroes in the Republican Party are going to be the principled youth of today — and the principled youth don’t want us to play around or go half-way on homosexuality, or just fight gay marriage and not anything else.”

OneNewsNow covers the scheduled event.

She just can’t stop herself

Arizona Republic’s Linda Valdez is at it again

Worshipping at the altar of Napolitano is a difficult habit to break. Editorialist Valdez was experiencing her own Winter of Discontent in December when she absurdly opined that former Gov. Janet Napolitano needed to stay on the job here although she had accepted a cabinet level position with the Obama administration.

The thought of Secretary of State Jan Brewer — a Republican — sitting in Janet’s sacred chair and running the state was just too difficult for even a stalwart like Valdez to bear.

Now, she beseeches St. Janet of Napolitano to extinguish Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Turn the hoses on him, remove his badge, take away his larynx, put her sturdy shoe on his neck. Whatever. Just take that duly elected and popular sheriff away, St. Janet.

Today’s supplication to her patron saint can be read here.

Then, for another view — from Sheriff Joe Arpaio himself — watch this hilarious retort.

Fear of dissent curtails freedom of speech

According to an AP report,  Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl is hosting a closed-door film screening for members of Congress at the Capitol building Thursday. Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, who asserts that Islam inspires terrorism produced the film. The event is sponsored by the International Free Press Society.

The British government — concerned about inciting its growing Muslim population, has banned Wilders from visiting the country to show his 15-minute film “Fitna” at the House of Lords, although he was invited by a member. United Kingdom officials said he posed a threat to “community harmony and therefore public security.”

A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put Wilders on trial for making anti-Islamic statements. “In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to… draw a clear line,” the court in Amsterdam said.

Wilders said the judgment was an “attack on the freedom of expression. Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted,” he said.

Not only he, but all Dutch citizens opposed to the “Islamisation” of their country would be on trial, Wilders warned. “Who will stand up for our culture if I am silenced?” he asked.

The International Free Press Society has written a masterful open letter to the government of the United Kingdom, regarding Wilder’s ban from the country. Among the group’s Board of Advisors are the familiar names of Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Brigitte Gabriel, Daniel Pipes and Mark Steyn.

This is a scenario for proponents of freedom to watch carefully.

Retailer’s losses a gauge of difficult times

Steep declines mark Target’s fourth quarter

Discount retailer Target is proving to be a barometer of the national mindset of consumers — as fourth quarter profits plunged nearly 41 percent, exceeding Wall Street’s low expectations. The numbers are a reflection of skittish shoppers paring back spending and delinquency in payments on Target credit cards.

The retailer has a strong presence in Arizona with nearly 50 stores, many of them the new Super Target — featuring expanded selections including complete grocery stores.

The results mark Target’s sixth consecutive drop in quarterly profits as basic commodities such as food purchases take precedent over discretionary spending.

Net income fell to $609 million, or 81 cents per share, for the fiscal fourth quarter which ended January 31, from $1.028 billion, or $1.23 per share, a year ago.

CNN’s real time market watch is available here.