The Wright Brothers: The Other Brothers Obama Missed in his SOTU

During the State of the Union address last night, President Obama mentioned a couple of Brothers from Oakland County:

Already, we're seeing the promise of renewable energy. Robert and Gary Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company...  Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert's words, "We reinvented ourselves."

This statement isn't totally truthful. It wasn't a 'loan', it was $500,000 in Stimulus Funds. As Reported here:

With the aid of $500,000 from federal stimulus dollars, they recollected their abilities in regards to the Luma Resources and are now successfully making solar shingles.

Another article cites this:

As a member of the Senate Energy Committee, Senator Stabenow championed the State Energy Program, which helped them retool their plant and launch an entirely new business, Luma Resources of Rochester Hills, to manufacture solar shingles.

Sadly, the Allen Brothers did not 'reinvent' themselves, the American Taxpayer did.  American innovation stems from an idea and those that pursue others to invest in their dream.  The Wrights Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, all had an idea and set out to 'reinvent' themselves.  Each did this on their own without the assistance of 'Stimulus Funds' from a broken government.  Their idea's are what we call "Innovation" and their "Innovations" are what made the United States prosperous in the last century.

We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

Ronald Reagan -September 29, 1981

At Least Clapper Wasn't Asked What 'News' Paper's He Reads

Yesterday, Janet Napolitano HHS appeared on CNN defending the 'deer in the headlights' moment of our National Intelligence officer, James Clapper.  "To be Fair", he was so busy wheeling and dealing the passage of the START Treaty that he couldn't have possibly known about the round up of terror suspects in London.  I mean, after all, you can't expect our National Intelligence Officer to be briefed on issues of terrorism prior to going on National Television, even though the incident occurred just hours prior to his interview.  Yet, as  FOX News Reports, Napolitano defended Clapper saying:

"Well, let's -- let's be fair. I knew. John Brennan knew. We also knew there was no connect that had been perceived to anything going on in the homeland and that we were in perfect connectivity with our -- our colleagues in Britain."

She went on defending the security of our airports, now that we have full body scanners and physical groping of Nuns and small children, adding"

"that the new technology and the pat-downs were "safer for our traveling public."

Don't you just feel so warm and fuzzy all over knowing our Nations Intelligence and Homeland Security is so on top of everything?  Well before you do, there was another incident that was just reported a week before.  An Iranian American had boarded on an International Flight out of Houston with a loaded 'Baby' Glock in his briefcase last fall.  As ABC reports:

He didn't realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along the belt and was x-rayed. When he got to his hotel after the three-hour flight, he was shocked to discover the gun traveled unnoticed from Houston. 

ABC then continued to report on other security 'failures':

According to one report, undercover TSA agents testing security at a Newark airport terminal on one day in 2006 found that TSA screeners failed to detect concealed bombs and guns 20 out of 22 times. A 2007 government audit leaked to USA Today revealed that undercover agents were successful slipping simulated explosives and bomb parts through Los Angeles's LAX airport in 50 out of 70 attempts, and at Chicago's O'Hare airport agents made 75 attempts and succeeded in getting through undetected 45 times.

Napolitano wasn't buying any of it.  Saying of the report:

"Many of them are very old and out of date and there were all kinds of methodology issues with them. Let's set those aside," she said. "We pick up more contraband with the new procedures and the new machinery."

Apparently, the incident last fall was one of those 'old and out dated' reports and 'To be Fair', Clapper wasn't asked which newspapers he reads, only what his opinion was on a 'Current Event'.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

There isn't a Porkulie that Stabenow or Levin could pass up

Senator Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma posted the 'earmarks' here.  I wanted to see just how many earmarks our two Senators from Michigan are responsible for. 136 total combined amounting to $281,128,000.  That is over one quarter of a billion dollars for my two Senators alone.

Some of my Favorites:

• $4,375,000           Innovation Station, East Lansing, MI 
• $1,300,000           Rivers Edge Roadway Infrastructure and Street-scape Initiative, MI
• $24,803,000         Reading is Fundamental authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
• $25,646,000         National Writing Project for activities authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

These are only 4 of the 136 earmarks I found.  You can scroll the document below for additional Pork that is being thrown into this Omnibus Bill.  When this nation is broke, do we really need a National Reading Project when our own Senators and Congressmen can't be bothered to read the crap they are passing?

UPDATE 1:  A friend has pointed me to this database that highlights with an interactive previous Porkulus Spending.  Between this bill and previous earmarks for FY2011, $7.5 Billion has been or will be earmarked by our Michigan Senators.


UPDATE 2:   Senator Levin was quoted by CNS News:

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) also said he was currently trying to read through the bill and would be working to read through the entire measure before it comes up for a vote.
“I’m going to read as much of it as I possibly can,” Levin said. “If I’m lucky, I’ll read all of it, if I have enough time. And I’m working hard to get the time because it’s important that we read these bills.”

UPDATE 3:  Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill.  Posted at Breitbart.com A/P reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats controlling the Senate have abandoned a 1,924-page catchall spending measure that's laced with homestate pet projects known as earmarks and that would have provided another $158 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nevada Democrat Harry Reid gave up on the nearly $1.3 trillion bill after several Republicans who had been thinking of voting for the bill pulled back their support. 

This is Great News.


Stabenow Levin Pork

"By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket." ~John McCain

It's abundantly clear that our Current Commander and Chief is painfully lacking any knowledge of our Military.  In February of this year he honored our Navy 'Corpse-Men' not once, but twice in the same sentence. Today, Politico is reporting that while in Afghanistan Obama omits the Coast Guard during his 'shout out' to those serving there.  Even though someone in the crowds yells out 'Coast Guard', Obama appears put off saying "Coast Guard?" "Is that what I heard" and then continues on with his speech as if this particular branch of service is insignificant as far as he is concerned. The relevant portion of this is located at around the 1:12 of the clip below.






Originally, I hadn't gone past the 1:12 mark of his speech.  I had honestly thought that ignoring one of our branches of service was bad enough, but it wasn't.  Around the 6:24 mark of this video, Obama once again has the audacity to say "America is not defined by our borders".  As the Blogging Professor writes,

"A nation without borders is no nation at all - a concept Obama never got:"

Peters Dogs Small Businesses - Votes with Pelosi to kill Job Growth

On December 2nd, Rep. Gary Peters voted along with his party again, to extend the 'Bush Tax Cuts' to those making under $250k a year.  This is not what the Congressman promised back in September.  In fact, in a letter to Speaker Pelosi, Peters along with three other Congressmen wrote:

"We urge you to consider legislation to extend all of the income tax cuts," the letter to Pelosi reads. "In recent weeks, we have heard from a diverse spectrum of economists, small business owners, and families who have voiced concerns that raising any taxes right now could negatively impact economic growth. Given the continued fragility of our economy and slow pace of recovery, we share their concerns."

Today we find the unemployment numbers have climbed from 9.6% to 9.8% and these numbers will certainly rise with the additional tax burdens that Congressman Peters has imposed on our small business owners and he calls himself a Moderate.

More here from A Conservative Teacher

Ignorance & Ideology is a Dangerous Mix: How 25,000 could have been killed by Political Correctness.

Bryon York has an article up this morning in the Washington Examiner that details the ignorance of the Portland Oregon's City Council going back to 2005.  The Council, working with the ACLU and angry with the Bush Administrations 'conduct on the war on terror', decided that Political Correctness out weighed the safety of their citizens and banned their law enforcement teams from working with the FBI on any Joint Terrorist Task Force.

Fast forward to 2010 where we have the Towns People gathered for the celebration of Annual Lighting of the Christmas Tree at the Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square. Meanwhile,Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-born naturalized U.S. citizen and unknowingly working with undercover FBI agents, had dreams of a jihad dancing in his head.

In the Mohamud case, it appears that Portland's anti-law enforcement stand might actually have influenced Mohamud's decision to undertake an attack in the city.  According to the FBI affidavit, the undercover agents asked whether he worried that law enforcement would stop him. "In Portland?" Mohamud replied.  "Not really.  They don't see it as a place where anything will happen.  People say, you know, why, anybody want to do something in Portland, you know, it's on the west coast, it's in Oregon, and Oregon's, like you know, nobody ever thinks about it."

And how does the current Mayor Portland Oregon feel about a Joint Terrorist Task force today?. "[Adams] stressed that he has much more faith in the Obama administration and the leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s office now than he did in 2005."  You got that..  It's Bush's Fault.

Read More here at The American Spectator: Portland's Mayor Goes Into Politically Correct Mode