Views by Lu

Obama = Pharaoh = Slavery

2009-10-13T23:08:00.003-05:00

I received this in my email today and I thought that it was BRILLIANT!

Wake UP Americans!

Don't let this happen to "We The People!"

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I would love to give the Pastor of this predominantly black church in Virginia a hug and a high five. This guy is obviously a leader and not one of the sheep. Perhaps we should each decide who our real leader is. It is amazing to see that very little has changed in 4,000 years.

RECENT VIRGINIA CHURCH SERVICE -STIMULUS SERMON Gen 47:13-27 Good morning, brothers and sisters; it's always a delight to see the pews crowded on Sunday morning, and so eager to get into God's Word. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will to the 47th chapter of Genesis, we'll begin our reading at verse 13, and go through verse 27.

Brother Ray, would you stand and read that great passage for us?

....(reading)...

Thank you for that fine reading, Brother Ray.... So we see that economic hard times fell upon Egypt, and the people turned to the government of Pharaoh to deal with this for them. And Pharaoh nationalized the grain harvest, and placed the grain in great storehouses that he had built. So the people brought their money to Pharaoh, like a great tax increase, and gave it all to him willingly in return for grain. And this went on until their money ran out, and they were hungry again.

So when they went to Pharaoh after that, they brought their livestock -their cattle, their horses, their sheep, and their donkey - to barter for grain, and verse 17 says that only took them through the end of that year..

But the famine wasn't over, was it?So the next year, the people came before Pharaoh and admitted they had nothing left, except their land and their own lives. "There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh." So they surrendered their homes, their land, and their real estate to Pharaoh's government, and then sold themselves into slavery to him, in return for grain. What can we learn from this, brothers and sisters?

That turning to the government instead of to God to be our provider in hard times only leads to slavery? Yes. That the only reason government wants to be our provider is to also become our master? Yes.

But look how that passage ends, brothers and sisters! Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly." God provided for His people, just as always has! They didn't end up giving all their possessions to government, no, it says they gained possessions!But I also tell you a great truth today, and an ominous one. We see the same thing happening today - the government today wants to "share the wealth "once again, to take it from us and redistribute it back to us. It wants to take control of healthcare, just as it has taken control of education, and ration it back to us, and when government rations it, then government decides who gets it, and how much, and what kind. And if we go along with it, and do it willingly, then we will wind up no differently than the people of Egypt did four thousand years ago - as slaves to the government, and as slaves to our leaders.

What Mr. Obama's government is doing now is no different from what Pharaoh's government did then, and it will end the same. And a lot of people like to call Mr. Obama a "Messiah," don't they? Is he a Messiah? A savior? Didn't the Egyptians say, after Pharaoh made them his slaves, "You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh"?

Well, I tell you this - I know the Messiah; the Messiah is a friend of mine; and Mr. Obama is no Messiah! No, brothers and sisters, if Mr. Obama is a character from the Bible, then he is Pharaoh.

Bow with me in prayer, if you will.

Lord, You alone are worthy to be served, and we rely on You, and You alone.We confess that the government is not our deliverer, and never rightly will be. We read in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel, when Samuel warned the people of what a ruler would do, where it says "And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day." And Lord, we acknowledge that day has come. We cry out to you because of the ruler that we have chosen for ourselves as a nation. Lord, we pray for this nation. We pray for revival, and we pray for deliverance from those who would be our masters.Give us hearts to seek You and hands to serve You, and protect Your people from the atrocities of Pharaoh's government.

In God We Trust...

Transparency, Truth, and Eligibility

2009-06-06T21:29:00.003-05:00

Subject:

Transparency, truth, and eligibility

To:President Barack Obama & Several Representatives

June 6, 2009

I am truly appalled at the lack of proper vetting which goes on in our government. This is supposed to be the "Truth and Accountability" Administration - where facts and eligibility do not exist, but suppression of the facts does.

I am not amused at the number of failed appointees, all of whom think the law applies to other folks, and the cover-up being perpetrated on We The People by our own Congress. It is not at all amusing to cover-up affairs with mistresses, failure to pay taxes, employment of illegals, and ineligibility to hold office,

Racism in a candidate for the United States Supreme Court is likewise insupportable.

Toledo , OH

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I copied the above from another concerned American. I couldn't agree more with what he/she wrote.

We expect more from our representatives than this.

Please read this: http://www.therightsideoflife.com/?p=6216

and this: http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100161

and this: http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100312

and this: http://dirtyrottenscoundrels.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/national-secrets-under-review-what-about-obamas-secrets/

Now please tell me if you have seen 100% proof of Mr. Obama's eligibility to be our president, (as listed below), and that you're ready to send it all out to the press. If not . . . .WHY? . . . and what are you waiting for to demand it?

There were congressional hearings to determine Sen. McCain's eligibility for goodness sake. Is the government trying to say that Mr. Obama is immune to the Constitutional requirements or having to prove said requirements

Obama has refused all efforts to have him release the following documents, relying on sealing of records and/or privacy laws:

Punahou High School records,

Occidental College records,

Columbia College records,

Columbia Thesis paper,

Harvard College records,

Selective Service Registration,

medical records,

Illinois State Senate records,

Illinois State Senate schedule,

Certified Copy of original, LONG FORM, Birth Certificate,

Harvard Law Review articles that were published,

University of Chicago scholarly articles,

exit and entry immigration records covering all of Obama’s travels out of the United States; passports; and record of baptism, if any.

Why? If there is nothing to hide then Why? You would think that Mr. Obama would Want to clear this all up so that NO questions of his eligibility would be hanging over his presidency in anyone's mind.

The Above list of documentation is what the American People Need. The Above list of documentation is what the American People Deserve to see and Nothing Less will do. We expect our congress to do something about it.

Thank you for your time,

Dyersburg, Tennessee

ONLY 100 Days Til The March on DC

2009-06-04T22:42:00.001-05:00

LuraPoe RT @912DC Only 100 days left until the #912 March on DC! Are you registered? What about your friends? http://bit.ly/64FcR #TCOT

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Event Details
It’s time to take the tea party movement directly to Washington, D.C. Please join thousands of local organizers and grassroots Americans from across the country as we gather in our nation’s capital to deliver a message to the politicians: Enough!

We’ve had enough of the out of control spending, the bailouts, the growth of big government and the soaring deficits. And we reject the future tax increases to pay for all of this spending and debt down the road. We are gathering on 9-12-2009 to deliver our message in person that we’ve had enough!

Tentative Agenda:

Thursday, 9-10
Morning: Liberty Summit with limited government advocates
Afternoon: Grassroots lobbying visits on Capitol Hill
Evening: Free time to tour Washington

Friday, 9-11
Morning: September 11th Never Forget Memorial
Afternoon: Grassroots leadership training seminars
Evening: Dinner Event

Saturday, 9-12
8:00am Set up for stages and volunteers
10:00am Event begins at West Front of the U.S. Capitol
2:00pm March on Washington Begins (details to come)

For travel information, please click here

Note: The names below only represent those that have signed up on the upgraded registration system. Our previous system had over 4,000 registrations.

______________________________________
***Send the following press release to all of your local radio, newspaper and television stations.***
______________________________________
Press Release is as follows:

For Immediate Release
Contact: Joyce Rae Kardos Tel: 330-348-6938
Email: kardos4@gmail.com

WASHINGTON D.C. RALLY SEPTEMBER 12 & 13 2009

Freedomsfirst rally for the Constitution (We want America Back)

Join us!

We will come together in a peaceful rally.Our government is for the people and by the people. Where is that now? We are PRO GOD, PRO LIFE, PRO GUN Americans who see our rights slipping away. It is time our voices are heard. It is time for us to shout loudly and strongly that we refuse to live under a socialist regime. Let us speak for the rights of our unborn children, for they cannot.

We have already committed to be speakers at our rally notable names such as, Rev Manning (Trinity Broadcasting Network), Dr.Mike Ritze ( Oklahoma State Representative), Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs),Ambassador Alan Keyes (tentative) Senator Randy Brogdon (Oklahoma), Dr Orly Taitz (Attorney) a key figure in several cases regarding Obama’s constitutional qualifications to be president, Mr. Lloyd Marcus (Singer & Song Writer), Joyce Kaufman (Radio talk show host from 850am WFTL Miami Florida, Chaim Ben Pesach (Speaker of the Jewish Task Force), Rolling Thunder, National Right To Life, The National Rifle Assoc. as well as musical entertainment and many other guest speakers that are proud Americans.

Join us at the Lincoln Memorial next to the Reflection Pool. Join our estimated crowd of One Million fellow Americans. Let us take America back and return her onto the correct path that our Founding Fathers intended.

National Concert Productions will be doing our Stage, Video and sound.l

If you would like more information about this rally or any other projects at Freedoms First, or to schedule an interview with the founder of Freedoms First. Contact freedomsfirst@inbox.com and ask for Steve Domina (President), or you may call or write the listed representative. Please visit our site at http://www.freedomsfirst.org.

Please donate to this worthy event at http://www.freedomsfirst.org.
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http://912dc.eventbrite.com/

How Did We Get Here?

2009-04-18T22:41:00.001-05:00

Over the past year or so, I have been asking myself with ever more urgency, How Did We Get Here? How did we become a nation that is so incredibly divided?

I remember when I was a child, the rule was, "You never talk politics." Years later the new rule became, "Let's just agree to disagree and we can still be friends." Later still the rule became, "You're 100% wrong and I'm 100% right and we shouldn't speak to one another." And Now . . . .Now the rule is, "You're an IDIOT! You're STUPID! WHAT A MORON! I HATE YOU! YOU'RE EVIL! IT'S MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY . . . .NOPE! . . .NO COMPROMISE . . . .MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY!!"

I heard somewhere recently that it is the fault of our politicians that we are in this divided state. After thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that they may very well be correct. Think about it. Year after year political campaigns have become more vile and filled with the mud slinging. Politicians have chosen as part of their platforms some of the most controversial issues and used them to against their opponents to win elections. They get everyone so worked up and angry with the "OTHER" side, that people actually start hating each other for having opposing views. And its all for their own personal gain . . .And at the expense of our country. Just look at what our elected officials are doing in Washington right now! I see a lot of accusations, finger pointing, no compromise, My Way Or The Highway, even putting down and dismissing American Citizens . . . but very little is being done for the GOOD of the country . . .IMHO.

I have never liked dirty campaigns. They make me ill. But now I'm making it MY Rule that I will not abide any politician who thinks that running a dirty campaign is the thing to do. Sure, distinguishing yourself from your opponent is a must, but we all know that there is Way too much embellishing, stretching and even out-and-out Lying. Some even delve into their opponents personal life.

This is the way "I" think it should happen. You're running for office and your opponent starts running a nasty campaign against you. You correct any false statements and refuse to mention anything other than your opponents TRUE political record . . . .and then drop it and move on to promoting your own platform. GEEEEZZZZ!!

We have got to find our way back to each other somehow. I know the divide is so deep now. I don't really even know where we should begin, other than being willing to truly listen. We have GOT to find a way to bring COMPROMISE back into the mix. I totally FEAR what will happen if we don't.

Shoes For You With Designs By ME! ;o)

2009-02-06T08:00:00.003-06:00

Everyone loves a great pair of comfortable, casual and fun shoes! What better gift could you give yourself or someone special, than a pair of Ked’s Shoes. You can choose from 3 comfy styles and designs by me that you will only find in my Zazzle Gallery. If you like a design of mine that is not on the style shoes that you want, just leave me a note and I will add it for you ASAP. ;o) So run on over to my Zazzle Gallery and make yourself some Happy Feet! :oD

Art By LuraDee . . . . .Ked's Shoes

http://www.zazzle.com/luradee/shoes?rf=238761194675487836

My Zazzle Gallery - Art By LuraDee

2009-02-05T12:01:00.003-06:00

Valentine’s Day is Fast approaching. So why not customize your own Card from the variety of designs that I have in my Zazzle Gallery. You can have your own personal message printed inside the card of your choice. Your Valentine will surely treasure such a personal card made especially for them.

Art By LuraDee

http://www.zazzle.com/luradee?zbar=true

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

2008-11-02T07:56:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association

Social Security ~ THIS IS WORTH READING and PLEASE PASS IT ON!!

2008-11-02T07:30:00.002-06:00

Your Social Security
Just in case some of you didn’t know this. . .
Be sure and show it to your kids.
They need a little history lesson on what’s what.
And it doesn’t matter whether you are Democrat of Republican.
Facts are facts!!!

Our Social Security
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
Security (FICA) Program. He promised:
1.) That participation in the Program would be
completely voluntary.

2.) That the participants would only have to pay
1% of the first $1,400 of their annual
incomes into the Program,

3.) That the money the participants elected to put
into the Program would be deductible from
their income for tax purposes each year,

4.) That the money the participants put into the
Independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the
General Operating Fund, and therefore, would
only be used to fund the Social Security
Retirement Program, and no other
government program, and,

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees
would never be taxed as income.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are
now receiving a Social Security check every month –
and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
the money we paid to the federal government,
you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which political party took Social Security from the
Independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it in to the
General Fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratically-
controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which political party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which political party started taxing Social Security annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which political party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?
AND MY FAVORITE:
A: That’s right!
Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party.
Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65,
they began to receive Social Security payments! The
Democratic Party gave these payments to them
even though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA),
the Democrats turn around and tell you that the
Republicans want to take your Social Security away!
And the worst part about it is, uninformed citizens believe it!

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of
awareness will be planted and maybe changes will
evolve. Maybe not, some Democrats are awfully
sure of what isn’t so.

But it’s worth a try. How many people can YOU send this to?
Actions speak louder than bumper stickers.

AND CONGRESS GIVES THEMSELVES 100% RETIREMENT FOR ONLY SERVING ONE TERM!!!

“A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is strong enough to take everything you have.”
-Thomas Jefferson

AND NOW……LOOK WHO THEY’RE ATTEMPTING TO
GET ELECTED TO BE OUR NEXT
PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some great quotes from Ronald Reagan.

2008-11-02T07:08:00.000-06:00

Some great quotes from Ronald Reagan.

His words sure hold true in this election….

‘Here’s my strategy on the Cold War:
We win, they lose.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘The most terrifying words in the English language are:
I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s
just that they know so much that isn’t so.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too
strong.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked
like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘The taxpayer: That’s someone who works for the federal government but
doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one
end and no sense of responsibility at the other.’
- Ronald Reagan!

‘The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a
government program.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have
learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short
phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it
stops moving, subsidize it.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards;
if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as
the will and moral courage of free men and women.’
- Ronald Reagan

‘If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation
gone under.’
-Ronald Reagan

Obama Calls Low Taxes "Selfishness"

2008-11-02T07:06:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGAYc66vK7k

That "tingle up your leg" is nothing more than ENTHRALLMENT

2008-10-28T17:34:00.001-05:00

I received the following in my email. I don't agree with all of it . . .but I certainly found it interesting and thought provoking.

Do any of you see any anything similar to the Hilter craze of the 30s going on here… Too me it is very plain.. But I guess even in Germany there were Germans that figured it out but could not stop it, They are the ones who helped the Jews escape while the rest really started believing they were the “super race”.Hitler hated Jews, his mother was Jewish.
Obama does not like whites, his mother was white. Germany’s economy collasped, our economy is going under (thanks to the Dems) Hitler gave them “hope through change”. Hmm sounds familiar…. I have been through the death camps in Germany, I have stood in the showers where they gassed innocent men, women and children, I have seen lamps and wallets made from human flesh, I have seen the horrible things that man can do against man….Because of one mans agenda…. Now our country is face with a man with an agenda….. How many people are being duped into following what might lead to destruction of a people,,, Will you go slowly , blindly following until it is too late to stop it. I will not go into anything so that one man can persue his own dreams…. I will not go quietly nor will I follow anyone not worth following,,, No man blinds me from right….McCain 2008

TO OB Supporters–that “tingle up your leg” is nothing more than ENTHRALLMENT–something a lot of BO disciples are suffering from. How do I know? A long time ago a man named Hans, who started out in Hilter’s Youth spoke about ENTHRALLMENT. He said Hilter was very charismatic, promised CHANGE. Whenever he listened to Hilter, he felt inspired, he felt hope, he felt energized, –he said he found himself WANTING to believe everything Hilter told him. When asked about RUMORS, he said, yes they heard bad rumors–but, he either dismissed them immediately to the point they literally no longer existed, or, he would immediately put a positive spin on it. He said that he was so ENTHRALLED with Hilter he was no longer thinking for himself–but at the time he did not realize this–and if anyone would have tried to tell him he was enthralled, it would have made him angry. He said, “it took a long time–too long to see the truth.” And now after all these years, We are seeing ENTHRALLMENT for ourselves. PROMISE CHANGE, APPEAL TO THE MASSES, TARGET THE POOR AND HOW YOUWILL HELP THEM, GET INDUSTRY BEHIND YOU. Sound familiar? Don’t feel bad about being enthralled, it has happened to people down through the centuries–just DO SOMETHING about it now before it’s too late.

Obama's Pattern Of Supporting Wealth Redistribution!

2008-10-28T17:14:00.000-05:00

October 27, 2008

Listen to this 2001 interview in which Sen. Obama is clear that he supports "redistributive change" and that one of the tragedies of the Warren Court was that it didn't do more to help redistribute the nation's wealth.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=301256

Forward this news item to your friends and family.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - IN HIS OWN WORDS

2008-10-27T11:30:00.000-05:00

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - IN HIS OWN WORDS

Audacity of Hope: “Lolo (Obama’s step father) followed a brand of Islam ….” “I looked to Lolo for guidance”.

Dreams of my Father: “The person who made me proudest of all, though, was [half brother] Roy .. He converted to Islam.”

Dreams of my Father: “In Indonesia, I had spent two years at a Muslim school”

Dreams of my Father: “I Studied the Koran.”

Audacity of Hope: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

Dreams of My Father: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race”.

Dreams of my Father: “The emotion between the races could never be pure….. the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart.”

Dreams of my Father: “Any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning.”

Dreams of My Father: “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites”

Dreams Of My Father: “I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself..”.

Dreams of My Father: “That hate hadn’t gone away,” he wrote, blaming “white people — some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.”

Dreams of My Father: “There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names”

Dreams of my Father: “Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for many blacks, times were chronically desperate. If nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.”

Dreams of my Father: “To avoid being mistaken for a racial sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chi-canos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and p-unk-rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy.”

Dreams of my Father: “there was something about him that made me wary,” Obama wrote. “A little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.”

Dreams of my Father: “the reason black people keep to themselves is that it’s easier than spending all your time mad, or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you.”

Dreams of my Father: One line in Malcolm X’s autobiography “spoke” to Obama “it stayed with me,” he says. “He spoke of a wish he’d once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged.”

B. HUSSEIN OBAMA:

For 20 years I have attended Trinity United Church of Christ. Ahhh I listened to Rev Wright’s sermons on a weekly basis and entertained him in my home. He was my spiritual advisor, my pastor, ahhh teacher and mentor. He married Michelle and I and baptized my daughters. So we go back a long, long time. In all of those years, ahhh I have never heard Rev Wright making ahhh any racist remarks and wasn’t aware of his poisoned view of this country. Yes, ahh I did appoint him to my official presidential campaign religious council. Then all of these tapes of his sermons became public and ahh I was stunned hearing his racist and anti-American rants. Rev Wright is not the same person that I have known for 20 years.

I know many of you are wondering about my relationship and Tony Rezko. Let me be very clear, ahhhh all I did was ask Tony to help me find a home. Ahhhh I don’t have any control over his generosity. I had no idea he was under investigation. As I look back he is not the same person I once knew!!

Now I understand that Bill Ayers is a home grown terrorist? Well I think I was about eight years old when he did those bad things. I didn’t know, he was just a neighbor to me. Well OK we were working on community matters but ahhhh well OK I helped him with millions in tax payers funds but I didn’t know much more about him then.

With respect to Larry Sinclair, ahhhh he makes these allegations of a sexual encounter and so on ahhhhh and says his is telling the truth well you know it all depends on what is ..is … ahhhh he too is not the same person I once knew.

You accuse ahhh my step father, Lolo, who I look to for guidance of being a radical Muslim. Well let me be very clear ahhh he is not the same person I once knew.

I supported and encouraged my cousin Railo Odinga’s political ambitions in Kenya several years ago. Ahhh at that time I did not know that Railo was an Islamic Militant. When he led a rebellion that killed hundreds of Kenyans I was shocked. Railo is not the same person I once knew.

It looks like I’m attracted to people who transform themselves to villains’ right under my nose. I know ahhhhh my past doesn’t look good but I will redeem myself. If elected I hope to get a fresh start and ahhhh meet with Ahmadiejad, Kim Jong II, Hugo Chavez, Fidel & Raul Castro and even Mugtada al-Sadr.

Some of you have questioned ahhhh my perspective on the global front. Well you know that we cannot expect others to respect us while we drive SUV’s, eat as much as we want, and set our thermostats at 72 degrees. Ahhhhh we need to change our life style and set the example and learn to speak a foreign language.

Now let me clarify my ahhh position on the flag pin and anthem. As I’ve said before about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides. There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. I’m wearing it now just to satisfy my critics. And the Anthem itself ahhh conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.’ If that were our anthem, then I might salute it.’

I am not a Muslim now but…. If the political winds shift in an ugly direction I will stand with the Muslims.

The TRUTH About Where Our Economic Troubles BEGAN!!

2008-10-27T09:12:00.002-05:00

They want you to believe that it’s been the Bush policies of the “last eight years” that have cause our current economic troubles. That’s BULL

So here's the breakdown of what led to our economic troubles. It's long, but our troubles actually started a long time ago with a Democrat. So if you care to learn the truth, Here it is!

In Short, here is the most relevant part:
Rep. Arthur Davis (D-Ala), …now admits Democrats were in error: "Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong."

1977
Sen. Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) introduced a “creeping socialism” community reinvestment Senate bill. Opponents argued the bill would allocate credit without regard for merits of loan applications, thereby threatening depository institutions. Proponents countered that it was only to ensure that lenders did not ignore good borrowing prospects in their communities. The bill’s sponsor stressed it would neither force high-risk lending nor substitute the views of regulators or those of banks.
President Carter, pressed by grassroots organizations — though opposed by the banking industry, signed into law the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). In the years following the Act has undergone several revisions.
To boost community development laws, CRA was a provision designed to stem bank “redlining,” the practice of drawing a red line around low-income communities and denying lending in these areas. The original intent of CRA was to encourage banks to foster homeownership opportunities in these underserved communities in which the lending institutions are chartered.
According to Section 801 of title VIII, “regulated financial institutions are required by law to demonstrate that their deposit facilities serve the convenience and needs [i.e., credit and deposit services] of the communities in which they are chartered to do business.” Accordingly, “regulated financial institutions have continuing and affirmative obligation” to meet these needs. Moreover, the title required each “appropriate Federal financial supervisory agency to use its authority when examining financial institutions, to encourage such institutions.”

1990s
With the mechanisms in place, the community organizing groups began developing directed strategies to exert more and more pressure on the lending industry in the cloak of complicity with CRA. Community organizer Barack Obama worked closely with ACORN activists. Employing the radical Alinsky intimidation tactics Obama had learned and was teaching — “direct action” — activists crowded bank lobbies, blocked drive-up teller lanes and demonstrated at the homes of bankers to browbeat risky lending in poor and minority communities. Those who resisted were accused of racism to the media and government officials.
The agitators could now stall or hijack bank mergers by filing complaints of non-compliance against the institutions. Lawsuits alleging redlining and racism began flooding the court system. With the prospect of expansions and mergers threatened, banks settled cases and, significantly, increasingly made loans they would not have normally made. The net effect, as ACORN litigation increased, was that credit standards lowered.
Initially the GSEs resisted purchasing these risky mortgages but eventually the Clinton Administration instructed them to substantially increase the percentage of these mortgages in their portfolios. The government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of the Clinton reforms became “a feeding trough,” in the phrase of Peter Ferrara.
The poor communities and their exploitive leaders benefited from the capitalization with a surge of homeownership, at least on the surface. Wall Street benefited from increased sales of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and guaranteed mortgage-backed securities, as the housing market benefited from new capital channeled from Fannie and Freddie. And the GSE heads profited, with political support in Washington in the form of campaign contributions.
In the period 1989-2008, topping the list of recipients of contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Dodd (D-Connecticut), who received $165,400. Second on the list is Sen. Obama (D-Illinois), receiving $126,349 with only three years in the Senate. Rep. Frank (D-Massachusetts), received $42,350.

October 1992
Congress, enacting the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, allowed legislation to “amend and extend certain laws relating to housing and community development.” The Act created the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) within HUD to “ensure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are adequately capitalized and operating safely.” It also “established HUD-imposed housing goals for financing of affordable housing and housing in central cities and other rural and underserved areas.”
Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) warned about the impending danger non-regulated GSEs posed. As the Washington Post reports, his concern was that Congress was “hamstringing” the regulator. Complaint was that OFHEO was a “weak regulator.” Leach worried that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were changing “from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the stockholding few.”
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) countered, as the Post reports, “the companies served a public purpose. They were in the business of lowering the price of mortgage loans.”
September 1993
The Chicago Sun-Times reports an initiative led by ACORN’s Talbott with five area lenders “participating in a $55 million national pilot program with affordable-housing group ACORN to make mortgages for low- and moderate-income people with troubled credit histories.” Kurtz notes that the initiative included two of her former targets, Bell Federal Savings and Avondale Federal Savings, who had apparently capitulated under pressure.
July 1994
Represented by Obama and others, Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Citibank had “intentionally discriminated against the Plaintiffs on the basis of race with respect to a credit transaction,” calling their action “racial discrimination and discriminatory redlining practices.”
November 1994
President Clinton addresses homeownership: “I think we all agree that more Americans should own their own homes, for reasons that are economic and tangible and reasons that are emotional and intangible but go to the heart of what it means to harbor, to nourish, to expand the American dream. . . . I am determined to see that you have the opportunity and together we can make that opportunity for the young families of our country. I am committed to a new and unprecedented partnership between industry leaders and community leaders and Government to recommit our Nation to the idea of homeownership and to create more homeowners than ever before.”
June 1995
Republicans had won control of Congress and planned CRA reforms. The Clinton Administration, however, allied with Rep. Frank, Sen. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Waters (D-California), did an end-around by directing HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to inject GSEs into the subprime mortgage market.
As Kurtz notes,”ACORN had come to Congress not only to protect the CRA from GOP reforms but also to expand the reach of quota-based lending to Fannie, Freddie and beyond.” What resulted was the broadening of the “acceptability of risky subprime loans throughout the financial system, thus precipitating our current crisis.”
The administration announced the bold new homeownership strategy which included monumental loosening of credit standards and imposition of subprime lending quotas. HUD reported that President Clinton had committed “to increasing the homeownership rate to 67.5 percent by the year 2000.” The plan was “to reduce the financial, information, and systemic barriers to homeownership” which was “amplified by local partnerships at work in over 100 cities.”
Kurtz concludes, “Urged on by ACORN, congressional Democrats and the Clinton administration helped push tolerance for high-risk loans through every sector of the banking system — far beyond the sort of banks originally subject to the CRA. So it was the efforts of ACORN and its Democratic allies that first spread the subprime virus from the CRA to Fannie and Freddie and thence to the entire financial system. Soon, Democratic politicians and regulators actually began to take pride in lowered credit standards as a sign of ‘fairness’ — and the contagion spread.”
Attorney General Janet Reno, with a number of bank lending discrimination settlements already, sternly announces, “We will tackle lending discrimination wherever it appears.” With the new policy in full force, “No loan is exempt; no bank is immune.” “For those who thumb their nose at us, I promise vigorous enforcement,” reiterated Reno.

April 1998
HUD announced a $2.1 billion settlement with AccuBanc Mortgage Corp. for alleged discrimination against minority loan applicants. The funds would provide poor families with down payments and low interest mortgages. Announcing the Accubank settlement, Secretary Cuomo said, “discrimination isn’t always that obvious. Sometimes more subtle but in many ways more insidious, an institutionalized discrimination that’s hidden behind a smiling face.”
Before the camera, Cuomo admitted the mandate amounted to “affirmative action” lending that would result in a “higher default rate.” The institution would “take a greater risk on these mortgages, yes; to give families mortgages who they would not have given otherwise, yes; they would not have qualified but for this affirmative action on the part of the bank, yes. It is by income, and is it also by minorities? Yes. . . . With the 2.1 billion, lending that amount in mortgages which will be a higher risk, and I’m sure there will be a higher default rate on those mortgages than on the rest of the portfolio.”

May 1999
The LA Times reports that African Americans homeownership is increasing three times as fast as that of whites, with Latino homeowners is growing five times as fast, attributing the growth to breathing “the first real life into enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act.” This breath of “life” mandated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages with deviant down-payments and debt-to-income ratios which allowed lenders to approve mortgages for lower-income families that would have been denied otherwise.
By now all pretense had disappeared, lending practices were based upon concerns of discrimination in the banking system regardless the consequences. The administration threatened to veto a bill passed by the Senate which had “shortsightedly voted to retrench” CRA, as the advocative Times put it.
Under pressure, Fannie Mae was resisting increased targeting, arguing that the result would be more loan defaults. Barry Zigas, heading Fannie Mae’s low-income efforts, argued, “There is obviously a limit beyond which [we] can’t push [the banks] to produce,” the Times reported.

September 1999
With pressure from the Clinton Administration, Fannie Mae eased credit requirements on loans it would purchase from lenders, making it easier for banks to lend to borrowers unqualified for conventional loans. Raines explained that “there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market,” reported the New York Times.
With this action, Fannie Mae put itself at substantial risk in the event of an economic downturn. “From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” warned Peter Wallison. “If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.” The danger was known.

2000
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition instructed on how to exploit the new CRA regulations, “Timely comments can have a strong influence on a bank’s CRA rating.” NCRC asserted, “To avoid the possibility of a denied or delayed application, lending institutions have an incentive to make formal agreements with community organizations.” That is, the mere threat to intervene in the CRA review process had equipped the ACORN groups for the massive shakedown.
Moreover, ACORN had been given a compelling incentive, as CRA allowed the organizations to collect a fee from the banks for their services in marketing the loans. The Senate Banking Committee had estimated that, as a result of CRA, $9.5 billion had gone to pay for services and salaries of the organizers.

March 2000
Rep. Richard Baker (R-Louisiana) proposed a bill to reform Fannie and Freddie’s oversight in a House Subcommittee on Capital Markets.
Rep. Frank (D-Massachusetts) dismissed the idea, saying concerns about the two were “overblown” and that there was “no federal liability there whatsoever.”
Treasury Undersecretary Gary Gensler testified in favor of GSE regulation. He argued that the bill would promote private market discipline, increase transparency and preserve market competition, reducing the potential for subsidized competitors to distort financial markets.
Fannie Mae spokesmen responded by calling the testimony “inept,” “irresponsible,” and “unprofessional.”
Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute testified to the subcommittee that the bill was “a milestone in Congressional efforts to gain control of the Government Sponsored Enterprises.” He added that the “political courage and stamina that was required to introduce this bill and to continue to press it forward cannot be overstated.” He emphasized that the bill was only an “interim step in the necessary process of dismantling the GSEs and eliminating both their threat to the taxpayers and to the private financial sector of our economy.”
Wallison explained why Fannie and Freddie “pose a serious problem for both the public and private sectors.” First, they contain an inherent contradiction. “It is a shareholder-owned company, with the fiduciary obligation to maximize profits, and a government-chartered and empowered agency with a public mission. It should be obvious that it cannot achieve both objectives. If it maximizes profits, it will fail to perform its government mission to its full potential. If it performs its government mission fully, it will fail to maximize profits.”

Congressional Democrats and GSE representatives vigorously attacked any such criticism. “We think that the statements evidence a contempt for the nation’s housing and mortgage markets,” rebuffed Sharon McHale, Freddie Mac spokeswoman. Congressional Democrats and GSE representatives prevailed.

June 2000
Fred L. Smith Jr., writing in Investor’s Business Daily, recalls testifying before the House Financial Services Committee that GSE “special privileges create a serious hazard to the market, to taxpayers [and] to the economy.” He warned that these GSEs were “strange organizations, neither private-sector fish nor political-sector fowl” and that “as a result, no one is quite sure how these entities should be evaluated or held accountable.” These new debt portfolios “will certainly increase the likelihood of a Fannie-Freddie default.”
Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania): “Mr. Smith, that is almost a fallacious argument,” adding that rapid growth of GSE debt holdings was nothing to worry about as it simply reflected “inflation and the growth of population. “Everything, proportionately, is that much larger.”
Rep. Marge Roukema (R-New Jersey): “very few banks or S&Ls could, even in this day and age, even now, meet the stress-testing requirements which Fannie and Freddie are required to meet.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) regarding the Treasury Department line of credit: “It is really symbolic, it is obsolete, it has never been used.” “Would you explain why it would be important to repeal something that seems to be of little use?”
Smith: “as long as the pipeline is there, it is like it is very expandable. . . . It is only $2 billion today. It could be $200 billion tomorrow.”

November 2000
George W. Bush elected President

April 2001
Fiscal Year 2002 Budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is “a potential problem,” because “financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity,” says a White House release.

July 2001
Subcommittee hearing on a bill proposed by Rep. Baker to transfer supervisory and regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and abolish the OFHEO.
Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania) responded: “This bill would dramatically restructure the current regulatory system for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In my opinion, it also represents a solution in search of a problem. Nearly a decade ago, Congress created a rational, reasonable, and responsive system for supervising GSE activities, and that system with two regulators is operating increasingly effectively. H.R. 1409 would unfortunately interrupt this continual progress.”

May 2002
In an OMB Prompt Letter to OFHEO, the President calls for the disclosure and corporate governance principles contained in his 10-point plan for corporate responsibility to apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

February 2003
OFHEO reports that “although investors perceive an implicit Federal guarantee of [GSE] obligations . . . the government has provided no explicit legal backing for them,” warning that unexpected problems at a GSE could immediately spread into financial sectors beyond the housing market, according to a White House release.
2003
Rep. Richard Baker (R-Louisiana), chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee with GSE oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, was informed by OFHEO “on the salaries paid to executives at both companies,” according to the Washington Post. Reportedly, “Fannie Mae threatened to sue Baker if he released it, he recalled. Fearing the expense of a court battle, he kept the data secret for a year.” “The political arrogance exhibited in their heyday, there has never been before or since a private entity that exerted that kind of political power,” he said.

July 2003
Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina) and John Sununu (R-New Hampshire) introduced legislation to address Regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill was blocked by Democrats.

September 2003
In an interview with Ron Insana for CNN Money, Rep. Baker warned, “I have concerns that if appropriate resources aren’t allocated for internal risk management, the consequences will be far more severe than just a real estate slowdown. The losses would fall quickly through the capital these companies have and down to shareholders and taxpayers. These companies have some of the lowest capital margins of any financial institution in the nation, yet, at the same time, they are two of the largest. The concern is that if something doesn’t work out the way they predict, the American taxpayer could be called on to pay off the debt in some sort of bailout.”

The New York Times reports that the Administration recommended “the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago,” calling for new supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the Treasury Department. Reportedly, Congressional Democrats “fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts): “I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. . . . I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury. . . . I believe that we, as the Federal Government, have probably done too little rather than too much to push them to meet the goals of affordable housing and to set reasonable goals.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts): “These two entities - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - are not facing any kind of financial crisis. . . . The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

November 2003
Council of the Economic Advisers Chairman Greg Mankiw warned, “The enormous size of the mortgage-backed securities market means that any problems at the GSEs matter for the financial system as a whole.

Mankiw explains that any “legislation to reform GSE regulation should empower the new regulator with sufficient strength and credibility to reduce systemic risk.” To reduce the potential for systemic instability, the regulator would have “broad authority to set both risk-based and minimum capital standards” and “receivership powers necessary to wind down the affairs of a troubled GSE,” says a White House release.

February 2004
Fiscal Year 2005 Budget again highlights the risk posed by the explosive growth of the GSEs and their low levels of required capital, and called for creation of a new, world-class regulator: “The Administration has determined that the safety and soundness regulators of the housing GSEs lack sufficient power and stature to meet their responsibilities, and therefore . . . should be replaced with a new strengthened regulator,” reports a White House release.

June 2004
Deputy Secretary of Treasury Samuel Bodman spotlights the risk posed by the GSEs and called for reform, saying “We do not have a world-class system of supervision of the housing government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), even though the importance of the housing financial system that the GSEs serve demands the best in supervision to ensure the long-term vitality of that system. Therefore, the Administration has called for a new, first class, regulatory supervisor for the three housing GSEs: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banking System,” the White House reports.

September 2004
OFHEO reported that Fannie Mae and CEO Raines had manipulated its accounting to overstate its profits. Congress and the Bush administration sought strong new regulation and authority to put the GSEs under conservatorship if necessary. Fannie Mae ran radio and television ads ahead of a key Senate committee meeting, depicting a Latino couple who fretted that if the bill passed, mortgage rates would go up.” Again, GSE pressure prevailed.

October 2004
Rep. Baker again warned about the coming crisis in the Wall Street Journal: “Then there’s the lesson of a company, Frankenstein-like, seemingly grown so powerful that it can intimidate and arrogantly flout all accountability to the very government that created it.”
Baker adds, “Although their bonds bear the disclaimer ‘not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government,’ the market does not believe it and looks right past the companies’ risk strategies to the taxpayers’ pockets.”
In a subcommittee testimony, Democrats vehemently reject regulation of Fannie Mae in the face of dire warning of a Fannie Mae oversight report.

Chairman Baker (R-Louisiana): “It is indeed a very troubling report, but it is a report of extraordinary importance not only to those who wish to own a home, but as to the taxpayers of this country who would pay the cost of the clean up of an enterprise failure.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-California): “In addition to our important oversight role in this committee, I hope that we will move swiftly to create a new regulatory structure for Fannie Mae, for Freddie Mac, and the federal home loan banks.”

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California): “Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-New York): “There’s been nothing that was indicated that’s wrong, you know, with uh Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac has come up on its own. And the question that then presents is the competence that, that, that, that your agency has, uh, with reference to, uh, uh, deciding and regulating these GSEs. Uh, and so, uh, I wish I could sit here and say that I’m not upset with you, but I am very upset because, you know, what you do is give, you know, maybe giving any reason to, as Mr. Gonzales said, to give someone a heart surgery when they really don’t need it.”

Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri): “This hearing is about the political lynching of Franklin Raines.”

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Alabama): “So the concern that I have is you’re making very specific, what you have correctly acknowledged, broad and categorical judgments about the management of this institution, about the willfulness of practices that may or may not be in controversy. You’ve imputed various motives to the people running the organization.

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Connecticut): “And we passed Sarbanes-Oxley, which was a very tough response to that, and then I realized that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wouldn’t even come under it. They weren’t under the ‘34 act, they weren’t under the ‘33 act, they play by their own rules, and I and I’m tempted to ask how many people in this room are on the payroll of Fannie Mae, because what they do is they basically hire every lobbyist they can possibly hire. They hire some people to lobby and they hire some people not to lobby so that the opposition can’t hire them.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts): “Uh, I, this, you, you, you seem to me saying, ‘Well, these are in areas which could raise safety and soundness problems.’ I don’t see anything in your report that raises safety and soundness problems.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts): “But I have seen nothing in here that suggests that the safety and soundness are at issue, and I think it serves us badly to raise safety and soundness as kind of a general shibboleth when it does not seem to me to be an issue.”

January 2005-July 2006
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), co-sponsored by Sens. Sununu and Dole and later Sen. McCain, re-introduced legislation to address GSE regulation.
“The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

Greenspan testified that the size of GSE portfolios “poses a risk to the global financial system. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to bail out the lenders [GSEs] . . . should one get into financial trouble.” He added, “If we fail to strengthen GSE regulation, we increase the possibility of insolvency and crisis . . . We put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership.”
Greenspan warned that if the GSEs “continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road . . . We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.”

Bloomberg writes, “If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. . . . But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter. That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the Democrats was obscene even then.”

April 2005
Treasury Secretary John Snow again calls for GSE reform, “Events that have transpired since I testified before this Committee in 2003 reinforce concerns over the systemic risks posed by the GSEs and further highlight the need for real GSE reform to ensure that our housing finance system remains a strong and vibrant source of funding for expanding homeownership opportunities in America. . . . Half-measures will only exacerbate the risks to our financial system,” from a White House release.

May 2005
At AEI Online, Wallison warned that “allowing Fannie and Freddie to continue on their present course is simply to create risks for the taxpayers, and to the economy generally,…

January 2006
Chairman Greenspan, in a letter to Sens. Sununu, Hagel and Dole, warned that the GSE practice of buying their own MBS “creates substantial systemic risk while yielding negligible additional benefits for homeowners, renters, or mortgage originators.” He stated, “. . . the GSEs and their government regulator need specific and unambiguous Congressional guidance about the intended purpose and functions of Fannie’s and Freddie’s investment portfolios.”

March 2006
Sens. Sununu and Hagel introduced an amendment to a Lobbying Reform Bill directing GAO to study GSE lobbying and requiring HUD to audit the GSEs annually.
May 2006
After years of Democrats blocking the legislation, Sens. Hagel, Sununu, Dole and McCain write a letter to Majority Leader William Frist and Chairman Richard Shelby expressing demanding that GSE regulatory reform be “enacted this year” to avoid “the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the Housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.”

May 2006
Sen. McCain (R-Arizona) addressed the Senate, “Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were ‘illusions deliberately and systematically created’ by the company’s senior management. . . . Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. . . . OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.”
McCain stressed, “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole. I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.”

April 2007
In “A Nightmare Grows Darker,” the New York Times writes that the “democratization of credit” is “turning the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare for many borrowers.” The “newfangled mortgage loans” called “affordability loans” “represent 60 percent of foreclosures.”

September 2007
President Bush: “These institutions provide liquidity in the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital they operate safely and operate soundly. So I’ve called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs . . . the United States Senate needs to pass this legislation soon.”
2007-2008
The housing bubble began to burst, bad mortgages began to default, and finally the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac portfolios were revealed to be what they were, in collapse.

September 2008
Rep. Arthur Davis, whose testimony is found above in October 2004, now admits Democrats were in error: “Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong.”

From an article by M. Jay Wells: ‘Why the mortgage crises happened’

WHAT DOES THAT LAST SENTENCE MEAN!?!? SCARY!!

2008-10-23T21:20:00.000-05:00

John Tennant wrote on John McCain's Facebook page
at 9:13pm on 10/23/08

“Mark my words,” Biden told donors at a Seattle fund-raiser Sunday night.
“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America.
“Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.
“And he’s going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it’s not going to be apparent initially; it’s not going to be apparent that we’re right.”

Two main things abou Biden's statement concerns me: 1st- he isn't talking to the " public" but to supportors. 2- WHAT DOES THAT LAST SENTENCE MEAN!! He is basically saying " We (obama & dems) are going to do something and you may not think its the right thing but TRUST us, it will be right.

Obama Thinks He's Gonna 'Fix' Washington Politics???????

2008-10-23T20:29:00.001-05:00

Richard Semrau (UIllinois) wrote on John McCain's Wall on Facebook
at 7:42pm - 10/23/08

Chicago Politics

Body Count In The Last Six Months

292 Murdered In Chicago

221 Killed In Iraq

Our Leadership In Illinois ;

Sen. Barack Obama

Sen. Dick Durbin

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Gov. Rod Blogojevi Ch

House Leader Mike Mad Igan

Atty. Gen Lisa Madigan

Mayor Richard Daly

All Democrats

Thank You For The Combat Zone In Chicago

Of Course They Are Blaming Each Other.

Can't Blame The Republicans, Because There Aren't Any!!!!!

State Pension Fund $44 Billion In Debt, Worst In The Nation.

Cook County (Chicago) Sales Tax 10.25%, Highest In The Nation.

Chicago School System One Of The Worst In The Nation.

This Is The Political Machine That Obama Says He Comes From In Illinois .

And Now

Obama Saya He's Gonna 'Fix' Washington Politics!?!?!?!?!?

Save America

OUTSTANDING piece of investigative work

2008-10-23T10:43:00.001-05:00

This is an OUTSTANDING piece of investigative work by two young conservative journalist. Very comprehensive with solid supporting evidence:

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/21/the-comprehensive-argument-against-barack-obama/

Pass it on!!

This Should Make Us All Think!

2008-10-23T07:50:00.000-05:00

This was posted on John McCain's Wall on Facebook by a lady named Anna.

I had never even thought of this but WOW does it make me go HMMMMMMM!
________________________

Barack Obama has put out an ad that simple-minded John McCain cannot use
a computer.

Well guess what: Barack cannot land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier
at night.

If Barack Obama would apply for a job with the FBI or with the Secret
Service, he would be disqualified because of his past association with
William Ayers, a known terrorist.

If he became an officer in any of the Armed Services, he would not
qualify for a top secret security clearance.

If he is elected President he would not qualify to be his own body
guard!
(And sadly, one-half of all Americans are ready to vote him into the
highest office in the land.)

Howard Stern Exposes Why Black People Support Barack Obama

2008-10-20T19:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4Njtmbb10

Is it actually possible that people are REALLY going to Vote on something OTHER than the ISSUES??? UNREAL!

Lawsuit Filed Against Obama-Does Not Qualify For President

2008-10-16T09:59:00.000-05:00

LETTER THAT I SENT TO MY STATE'S REPRESENTATIVES

2008-09-26T09:15:00.000-05:00

If you are as fed up as I am . . . .then please let your representatives know!!

************************************************************

I am a conservative and I have absolutely HAD IT with all of your Partisan Nonsense!! You Democrats just Have to criticize McCain's decision to suspend his campaign. Of course You Republicans just Have to come back and defend him and then criticize Obama for Not suspending His campaign. I was really hopeful that just for once our elected officials could work together in a bipartisan manner in order to get something done . . .especially during a crisis! So Much For That!

I swear . . .I am going to pour through all of my representative's voting records, (Democrat AND Republican), and if it shows that they have always voted along party lines and have never even tried to work across the aisle to accomplish the work of the people, I am going to campaign for whoever is running against them. There will not be another politician to get my vote unless they PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS ! ! !

I REALLY DO WISH that we did Not have two main parties, then we could vote on the individual and not the party. Perhaps Maybe . . .Just MAYBE our government could actually stop the bickering and do the job that THE PEOPLE hired them to do ! ! !

I PROMISE ALL OF YOU THAT I WILL DO EVERYTHING THAT I CAN TO VOTE OUT ANY POLITICIAN, (DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN), THAT DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS ! ! !

Please feel free to spread the word amongst yourselves . . . .because I assure you that I intend to!

WE DESERVE IT DIVIDEND ! ! ! !

2008-09-25T21:51:00.001-05:00

I just received this in an email . . . . .Thanks Dana! WOW . . . .Wouldn't it be nice! LOL!
__________________________________________________

Pure Brilliance!!!.... Anything is better than putting
those who caused it- government especially plus
some wall street folks - in charge of fixing their
own mess. I don't know where this originated
but it's good...for left or right side -

***************************************************************
To my fellow Americans......

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in
a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000
bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to
$595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – it'll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S
Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can 'never work.'

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC.

And remember, this plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is
returned
instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for a laugh
or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

Bar Stool Economics

2008-09-25T08:01:00.002-05:00

I received this in an email this morning:
_________________________________________________

We need to send this to all of our legislators and Barak Obama as an economics lesson. They and he specifically seems to think that the Presidents job is income redistribution and not revenue enhancing tax policies

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

This is PURE TREASON . . .Using OUR TROOPS for Political Gain!!!!

2008-09-18T08:10:00.000-05:00

Barrack Obama is NOT President "YET!"

He DOES NOT determine Foreign Policy "YET!"

He should be under investigation and tried for this TREASON!!!

OUR TROOPS are NOT PAWNS to be used for Personal, Political Gain!!!

It is Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE the lengths that he will go to in order to win the Presidency!!

_____________________________________________

This is One article that I found on this and I will include a couple of additional article links at the end of this article:

http://swordattheready.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/obama-works-to-stall-iraq-troop-withdrawal-so-he-can-be-seen-as-the-one-who-brought-troops-home/

Obama Works to Stall Iraq Troop Withdrawal So He Can Be Seen As The One Who Brought Troops Home

In another honest age and time, this would be known as Treason.

But not today, when the world is upside down and Marxists are on the verge of a complete takeover.

Barrack The Hussein Obama, the Annointed One of the Marxist Left actively worked behind the scenes in Iraq to undermine U.S. Policy there, even before elected to the office of President, in order to set the stage for exiting U.S. forces from Iraq during HIS Presidential Administration in 2009-2010.

Amir Teheri reports that while campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, The annointed messiah, Sen. Barack Obama tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

Obama tried to deny and rebut this news story spending more than five hours on Monday attempting to figure out the best refutation of the explosive New York Post report.

However Obama campaign sources admitted that the report was true.

There were at least three other people in the room with Obama and Zebari to confirm the conversation, and there was concern that there were enough aggressive reporters based in Baghdad with the sources to confirm the conversation that to deny the comments would create a bigger problem.

Instead, Obama’s national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi told reporters that Obama told the Iraqis that they should not rush through what she termed a “Strategic Framework Agreement” governing the future of U.S. forces until after President Bush left office. In other words, the Iraqis should not negotiate an American troop withdrawal.

According to a Senate staffer working for Sen. Joseph Biden, Biden himself got involved in the shaping of the statement. “The whole reason he’s on the ticket is the foreign policy insight,” explained the staffer.

Obama told NBC News at the time: “The foreign minister agreed that the next administration should not be bound by an agreement that’s currently made… and my concern is that if the Bush administration negotiates, as it currently has, and given that we’re entering into the heat of political season, that we’re probably better off not trying to complete a hard-and-fast agreement before the next administration takes office…“

So beyond all the lying spin and cleverly crafted obscurity that Obama is famous for throwing out to cloud his changing positions, this one is plain: Obama tried to DEMAND of Iraqi government officials that Iraq not agree to any troop withdrawals of American forces until HIS Administration takes office.

That way, Obama can take the credit for “getting us out of Iraq”.

How can a sitting Senator go to Iraq, talk with Iraqi officials to undermine or make policy to stall decisions the President and the military commanders made when he is not the Executive yet, if at all?

Is Obama wishing for our country’s foreign policy to fail in Iraq, or is he working actively to cause it to fail? the following element of U.S. Code Title 18 might be of interest:

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

At one time, there would have been a trial for this treason.

But not today.

Today, Democrat Elities routinely commit treason, including visiting our enemies and denouncing America from foreign soil. Pelosi did so from Syria, Obama does so from Iraq and Berlin.

Update: More reports on this breaking story

Fox News: “Obama Tried to Delay Withdrawal Agreement of U.S. Troops”

_________________________________________________

Be sure to check out the links above as well as the links to articles below:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75438

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/15/obama-camp-denies-he-tried-to-delay-withdrawal-agreement-of-troops-from-iraq/

WE REALLY NEED TO THINK ABOUT THIS . . . .

2008-09-12T02:33:00.000-05:00

I posted this on April 23, of 2007 and thought it was very appropriate to post again.

_________________________________________________________

Here is another email that I received around 8 months ago. I believe that we can learn a lot from our past . . . .and this email certainly did SHOCK me and made me think and quite frankly, made me afraid for our future.

_________________________________________________________

THINK ABOUT THIS

About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage

"Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million;

Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000

States won by: Gore: 19; Bush: 29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare...

"Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

PS . #9 If the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship to 20 million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then goodby USA in less than 5 years.

An Iraq Veteran has a personal message for Barack Obama: Dear Mr. Obama

2008-09-11T17:25:00.000-05:00

SARAH PALIN'S SECURITY CLEARANCE

2008-09-11T01:05:00.002-05:00

Here is another interesting email that was sent to me:

___________________________________________________________________

Before you dismiss the fact that Sarah Palin is Commander of the Alaska National Guard consider this:

Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It's on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units.

As governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden's and certainly by far exceeds Obama's.

She's also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF), a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security's counterterrorism plans.

Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country's defense. Given Alaska's proximity to Russia , she may have security clearances we don't even know about.

According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets. She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.

You ain't gonna like losing

2008-09-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

I just received this in my email from a good friend and felt that it was important to pass along. . . . Thank You Lucy! :o)

I Totally Agree With The Following Message . . . .

Lura
_________________________________________________________________

I know everyone has a different opinion on the war and our current President, but this article makes a lot of sense. Take two minutes, read it and give it some thought. Don't miss the last paragraph.

When electing the next President, the only decision you have to make is who you want sitting in that seat in the White House when--not if --WHEN we get hit again and millions of American lives are put at risk!

This is from: 'You ain't gonna like losing.' Author unknown.

President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq. Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not.

Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders.

Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not.

And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.

Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort.

Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition, trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap to butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.

You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And a bunch even enlisted.

And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops!

Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage. No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies. A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning.

There were a lot of things different back then. We were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio.. We did not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets.

No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve..

It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorra and the Land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.

We are in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists' cause... Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits. So... We either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing.

America is not at war. The military is at war.

America is at the mall, or watching movies.

(Remember Obama said in his book 'Audacity of Hope,' 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction'.....what better place for the Muslims to control our country, than in the office of the President of USA! Friends, if we don't have a president who will stand forever with Israel, God's chosen people, then we don't want that president.) , If ever an email needed to be forwarded, now is the time. Ask God to watch over us this Election Day. Please pray about all of this. Remember: Pray, Vote, Pray.

Let Me Explain My Own Personal Political Views. ;o)

2008-09-09T01:08:00.000-05:00

First of all, I have to state that I am neither a Democrat or a Republican. I AM, however, a conservative. Now, what this generally means is that I would more often than not identify with Republicans. It does NOT mean that I would never vote Democrat. I can absolutely see myself voting for the "Right" Democrat.

Here's the problem though . . . .In nearly the past two decades the Democrats have started leaning more and more to the left, some to the point of becoming super radical . . . .on the other hand there have been Republicans who have started leaning more and more to the right, some of which have also taken it to the point of being radical. So when you have two main parties who are leaning further and further apart, the parties do a lot of arguing and Nothing for the Country. Pretty soon it leaks out onto the people of the country, who are sick and tired of a government that is in gridlock and can't or won't get anything done for the people, and we end up with a country divided.

Soooooo . . . .What's a voter to do? USE YOUR VOTE TO CLEAN HOUSE!! Get rid of every politician who has Never Even Tried to compromise and work across party lines! . . . Republicans & Democrats!! Get rid of every politician who has a Huge record of ear-mark wasteful spending! Vote for new Government Leaders and let them be put on notice that their term will be short indeed if they can't do their jobs for the people who put them in office!

In this presidential election, it has been fairly clear that I would not be able to vote Democrat. Barack Obama has a record of being one of the most far left liberals in the Senate. He has requested nearly $1,000,000.00 per day in ear-marks, (hidden request for money buried within legislation). He wants to create social government programs that will provide health care to everyone, send everyone to college, and he wants to raise taxes on those that he calls wealthy and give a tax break to 95% of Americans.

Now first of all, I absolutely hate the idea of ear-marks, (pork barrel spending), If it is a worthy cause, then why bury it within unrelated legislation? Throw it out on the table and let everyone know what you are doing.

Big social government programs to provide health care and higher education Really do sound GREAT . . . .but who in the world do you think is going to pay for these government programs. Trust me . . . .SOMEONE is . . . .It's not just free money falling from the sky! YEP . . .That's right . . .WE are going to pay for it . . . . if not in higher payroll taxes then by higher gas taxes and the like and we will probably pay for it with lower quality health care!! All because the Government just had to get involved!

I totally disagree with raising the taxes on the wealthy and lowering everyone else's taxes. I am by no means rich by any one's definition, but it's just NOT right to punish someone for being a success in this country and have them turn over 25%-39% of their income to the IRS. Plus within the definition of wealthy are small businesses. Now what do you think higher taxes on small businesses is going to do to our economy? That's right . . .people will have to take pay cuts . . . .people will get fired or laid off . . . .small businesses will go under . . . .Our Economy will go down the drain because Small Business is the lifeblood of this country.

Barack Obama is all about BIG GOVERNMENT . . . ."Just tell us your problems and we'll start a BIG government program, (paid for by the tax payers), and we'll fix it for ya!"

That is NOT what The United States of America is all about. We are the Land of the FREE, The Home of the BRAVE and the Land of OPPORTUNITIES . . . . .NOT Government Program Handouts! Anyone in this Great Nation can make a Wonderful life for themselves with just a little effort. Sure, sometimes things happen and you need a helping hand up . . .and the USA is a very Generous Country that will most certainly lend a hand . . . .but that should always be the exception not the rule.

I believe in SMALL GOVERNMENT! Let us work and earn our weeks pay! Keep our taxes fair so that we will be allowed to make our own decisions on how to spend our hard earned dollars. It has been proven over and over that the American People are much better at spending their money than the Government is. So let us keep more of it. . . . Then we can choose our own health care plans and make our own plans for higher education. And the taxes that we do send to the Government . . . .Demand that they STOP the wasteful spending and start using our tax dollars wisely!

Our politicians have to stop thinking about their party and start thinking about doing the work of the people!! This means EVERYONE . . .Move a little bit closer to the center . . . . stop the arguing . . . . . be prepared to compromise, then DO SO . . . .And get on with the work that the PEOPLE HIRED YOU TO DO!!

John McCain is the Presidential Candidate with the Most Experience, Foreign & otherwise.

Sarah Palin is the Only Candidate who has Executive Experience as the Governor of Alaska.

John McCain is the only candidate in this election who has often reached across party lines to get things done for the people. Trust me . . .I know . . .one of his compromises almost caused him to loose my vote!

John McCain has NEVER had a record of ear-mark wasteful government spending. As a matter of fact he Has fought to stop all wasteful Government Spending and will continue to do so.

John McCain wants to make our tax-breaks permanent so that WE can CHOOSE where our money will serve us best, whether it be saving for education, saving for retirement, investing, buying a new car or buying groceries!

John McCain wants to give taxpayers who need it a credit so that they can CHOOSE their own health care insurance and keep the Government out of our business!

John McCain wants us ALL to be able to make our OWN CHOICES and NOT have the GOVERNMENT make choices FOR US! What a scary thought it is to have the Government make many of our important personal decisions for us! YIKES . . . .That's Not the USA! For goodness sake . . . .that's what makes us a FREE Nation is the fact that we are able to make OUR OWN CHOICES!!

Obama is Too Inexperienced and Far Too Liberal to be President. Maybe in several years after he gets more experience and is willing to move more toward the center where compromise lives, maybe then he will be ready.

Soooooooo . . . . .

All of MY Family & Friends & of course ME are

VOTING FOR McCAIN!!!!!

And I hope you are too . . . .but if not . . .it's all Great! That's what makes the United States of America the Greatest Nation in the World! We can disagree and still be connected as AMERICANS and Friends.

VOTE . . . .VOTE . . . .VOTE!!!!

Whoever your candidate is . . . . .It is your duty as an American to cast your VOTE. As my husband has told me many times . . . ."If you don't exercise your Right To Vote . . . .then you have No Right to complain later, because you Had Your Chance to make a difference and didn't use it!!"

So Use It!!!

VOTE . . . .VOTE . . . .VOTE!!!!

:oD

I AM THRILLED WITH THE McCAIN / PALIN TICKET !!!!

2008-09-08T02:21:00.002-05:00

NOW I finally feel like I have a ticket that I can REALLY get behind and support!

THIS IS AN AWESOME TICKET FOR AMERICA!!!

.

2008-03-15T19:17:00.007-05:00

2008 Presidential Race

2008-02-10T03:33:00.000-06:00

After watching all of the debates on both sides and going through the Primary process, I am just amazed at how this race is going thus far.

The Democrats are running a race that will probably be too close to call right up until the convention and the Republicans have a front runner who does not exactly warm the hearts of the true conservatives of the party.

I have come to the conclusion that it may not really matter at all, with the choices that Republicans are left with, who becomes the next president.

Oh, believe you me, I Am going to cast my vote come election time. My husband has always told me that if you don't exercise your right to vote, then you have absolutely No Right to complain later when you have a problem with how the government is being run. I tend to think he is right. This fact doesn't change the fact that I am seriously struggling with the choices that we are left with.

A lot of what the Democrats say sounds pretty good for America, but some of my concerns should a Democrat become president, are:

1. I believe that the Democrats will create amnesty for the illegal immigrants that are currently in the United States and they will do very little to secure our borders.

2. We already know that the Democrats plan to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home. My worry is what will happen to Iraq then? What will happen with Iran? What will the terrorists next move be and what will the Democrats be prepared to do to keep our country safe.

3. I am worried about what will happen with our taxes.

4. Until I hear exactly what their plan is, this idea of socialized healthcare scares me. I have read horror stories from other countries with such plans in place where people sit on a waiting list, sometimes until they die, trying to get basic and even critical care. I don't want our quality of care to diminish in the least.

There are other concerns that I have, but these are the largest. Sooooooooo . . . .with all of these concerns, very few choices and No good ones . . . . what's a voter to do?

I guess for now I'm just going to see how the primaries play out and then I'll give some more thought. ;o)

Bizzy & Her Ears . . . . .

2007-06-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

Poor lil Bizzy has been having trouble getting her ears to stand up, so after she was groomed this morning, the Dr. took a look at her ears and glued them together. She doesn't seem to mind though. LOL! We will be taking her back in a week so that the Dr. can check the progress. Keeping my fingers crossed. LOL!

Here is a picture of our sparkling clean baby and her glued ears . . . .it was late and she was not much in the mood to cooperate with the photographer! HeeHeeHee! :oP

Immigration Bill . . . . .

2007-06-14T21:19:00.000-05:00

I have written on the immigration problem in the United States many times and I have even written to my state representatives. Now this 800 page Monster has been tabled for the time being . . . . .But Wait . . . . .They are going to try to bring it back!!!!

WHAT????

Was it not clear the first time around that the American People HATE this Bill!!!!!???

First of all, 800 pages . . . .What's up with that? . . . .And how much garbage can be hidden in 800 pages????

Second of all, why do we need a new bill anyway??? We already have approved bills and laws on the books. If our government would simply follow through . . . . . .then . . . . . .Problem Solved!!!!

The only things that I think we need to do is: 1. Make it tougher for businesses to hire illegal immigrants and impose tough penalties should they try to ignore the law and hire illegal immigrants anyway. . . . . . And . . . . . . 2. We should also force all state and local law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Putting up a wall along the southern boarder has already been approved. . . .Soooooo . . . .BUILD IT!!!

So what do we have here? . . . . .:

1. Build the wall!!

2. Make sure that businesses hire American Citizens OR LEGAL immigrants ONLY!!

3. Force State and Local Law enforcement to cooperate with (ICE), which will ensure that illegal immigrants who commit crimes are deported post haste!!! OH . . . .And if they refuse . . . . .Take away any Government Funding going to said city or state! It is NOT an option!!

How long do you believe that the US will have an immigration problem if we build the wall and follow the laws that are currently on the books? I believe that the problem will be OVER. We will not even need to deport many of the illegal immigrants, they will simply leave on their own with no jobs to be had here by illegals. Then, and Only then, can we move forward with speeding up the LEGAL immigration process and any guest worker proposals.

Leave it to Our Government to make it complicated and create an 800 page bill when we already have perfectly good laws that need only to be enforced!!!

Lu

Humor . . . .Or Maybe Not . . . . .

2007-06-07T00:20:00.000-05:00

I received this in my email:

_______________________________________

Subject: The Ant and the Grasshopper

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

---------------------------------

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome."Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote.

Did You Know . . . . .?

2007-06-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

I received this in an email:

_____________________________________________________________

THIS IS TRUE…..I LOOKED IT UP…HERE’S THE LINK

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp

Ok. I don't know where to begin because the last 2 days of my
life have been such a blur. Yesterday, My youngest daughter
Halle who is 4, was rushed to the emergency room by her father
for being severely lethargic and incoherent. He was called to her
school by the school secretary for being "very VERY sick." He
told me that when he arrived that Halle was barely sitting in the
chair. She couldn't hold her own head up and when he looked into
her eyes, she couldn't focus them. He immediately called me after
he scooped her up and rushed her to the ER.

When we got there, they ran blood test after blood test and did
x-rays, every test imaginable. Her white blood cell count was normal,
nothing was out of the ordinary. The ER doctor told us that he had
done everything that he could do so he was sending her to Saint
Francis for further test.

Right when we were leaving in the ambulance, her teacher had come to
the ER and after questioning Halle's classmates, we found out that she
had licked hand sanitizer off her hand. Hand sanitizer, of all things.
But it makes sense. These days they have all kinds of different scents
and when you have a curious child, they are going to put all kinds of
things in their mouths.

When we arrived at Saint Francis, we told the ER doctor there to
check her blood alcohol level, which, yes we did get weird looks
from it but they did it. The results were her blood alcohol level
was 85% and this was 6 hours after we first took her. There's no
telling what it would have been if we would have tested it at the
first ER.

Since then, her school and a few surrounding schools have taken this
out of the classrooms of all the lower grade classes but what's to stop
middle and high schoolers too?

After doing research off the internet, we have found out that it only
takes 3 squirts of the stuff to be fatal in a toddler. For her blood
alcohol level to be so high was to compare someone her size to drinking
something 120 proof.

So please PLEASE don't disregard this because I don't ever want anyone
to go thru what my family and I have gone thru. Today was a little better
but not much.

Please send this to everyone you know that has children or are having
children. It doesn't matter what age. I just want people to know the
dangers of this.

Thank you

Lacey Butler and family

Garden Pics . . . . .

2007-06-05T10:33:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of my "Baby" vegetable garden. I am so pleased with it so far.

There are other pictures of my garden, flowers and things around my yard in my Flickr Album.

2007-06-01T00:53:00.000-05:00

Garden Growing . . . . .

2007-05-30T23:40:00.000-05:00

I am soooo excited. Rusty and I went walking around our flower bed and vegetable garden, and the plants and vegetables are growing like CRAZY!!! I just LOVE IT!

The only problem we have been having with the garden right now is trying to keep our dogs out of the garden. I am already limiting their time outside. Any other ideas??????

We are going to have to get a new freezer when harvest time comes because back in November when we moved here, the movers dropped our freezer and broke it. LOL! OH well . . .you do whatcha haveta do. LOL!

This is Harrison and Darcy's last week of school and they have already been informed that they will be helping to weed the garden as well as other duties. For some reason, they are not very happy about this plan. They would rather do nothing but the fun things like play in the pool, jump on the trampoline, swing, play video games . . . .etc . . . I guess they will just have to be upset with us because Rusty and I Both feel that having chores around the house is important for children. Hopefully they will realize that the harder they work on their chores, the more fun they will get to have in the end.

I will try to remember to take some pictures of our lil baby garden and I'll post them here.

2007-05-29T21:38:00.000-05:00

Remember & Honor . . . . .

2007-05-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

For the freedoms that we all enjoy and maybe take for granted, today let us Remember and Honor those who have fought, (living or dead), in order that we may have these freedoms, and yes, even take them for granted.

God Bless America!

Lu

Lightning Bugs . . . . .

2007-05-27T11:40:00.000-05:00

Early yesterday evening Rusty and the kids went outside and caught 3 Lightning Bugs and put them in a jar with holes in the lid. The kids spent part of the evening in the dark watching their new pets light up. They even named the bugs.

This morning Rusty picked up the jar and said that he thought that at least one of the bugs had died. Then when Darcy came in and asked why one of her new pets wasn't moving, Rusty told her that he thought that it had died. She said that she was going to take them outside and let them go.

After about 10 minutes, I looked at Rusty and said, just how long does it take to release some bugs? He just shrugged. LOL!

She finally came in and said that she let two of them go and she buried the one that had died and put flowers on it's grave.

Aren't children just a Pure Joy and Incredible Gift from God?

UPDATE: Darcy & Taylor just came in the house with a new pet. They now have flowers and a Bee in the jar named Honeysuckle. LOL!

Drawing / Animation . . . . .

2007-05-26T11:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a drawing that I made and animated a couple of years ago. ;o)

Another Response To My Letter . . . .

2007-05-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

The following is a response from Congressman John Tanner to the letter that I wrote regarding illegal immigration. Let YOUR Representatives know how you feel about important issues!

My Letter: Letters Sent . . .

__________________________________________________________

May 25, 2007

Ms. Lu
XXXX XXXXXXXX
Dyersburg, Tennessee

Dear Ms. Lu:

Thank you for contacting our office to express your opposition to the Senate's compromise with President Bush on immigration reform. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with me on this important issue.

The Bush Administration has made comprehensive immigration reform one of its top domestic priorities for the 110th Congress. The Department of Homeland Security estimates there are more than twelve million undocumented individuals residing in the United States. With the increasing threats of global terrorism, I find this fact unacceptable, which is why I believe the first step in immigration reform must include securing our border. In the 109th Congress I was a firm supporter of border protection measures, including H.R. 4437 the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, and also H.R. 6061 the Secure Fence Act. Both pieces of legislation authorized federal funding for hundreds of miles of border security measures that incorporated more border patrol agents, fence construction, and guard towers along the United States Mexican border.

Following months of negotiation with the Bush Administration, the Senate has reached agreement on initial legislative language on immigration reform. I am still in the process of reviewing the language included in the proposal, and as of today companion legislation has not been drafted in the House of Representatives. I am well aware of the strong feelings of many Tennesseans, and I appreciate their willingness to express their opinions to me.

Over the years legal immigration into the United States has played an instrumental role in making our country what it is today. However, many of us have reservations about offering amnesty to those illegal immigrants who did not follow the appropriate legal procedures. I am hopeful the Bush Administration and Congress can find a reasonable solution, which is not this bill, to the illegal immigration issue that respects and honors every American citizen.

Again, thank you for contacting our office, and please continue to express your opinions to me on issues of your concern

Sincerely,

John Tanner, M. C.

Taylor's Last T-Ball Game Today . . . .

2007-05-24T23:40:00.000-05:00

There is Nothing cuter than a team of 4 year-old little boys playing T-Ball.

More pictures in my Flickr Album.

The Kids Taking More Pictures Yesterday . . . . .

2007-05-24T18:09:00.000-05:00

Boy . . . .Since I put new batteries in that "Kid Tough Camera," it is the "HOT" item with all of my kids right now! LOL!

They all had a ball taking pictures yesterday.

Here is one of my favorites . . . . .You know there are many more in my Flickr Album.

Taylor & His Kid Tough Camera . . . . .

2007-05-23T00:48:00.000-05:00

I finally remembered to put new batteries in my children's Kid Tough Camera, after much begging and reminding from Taylor. LOL!

He was so happy to play with his camera so I thought that I would share some of his pictures here.

Not bad for a 4 year old . . . Huh?

I have got to remember to tell them to stop putting the camera right in front of their face for the self portraits that they are doing. LOL! Makes for a very scary picture! HeeHeeHee!!

You know that there are more in my Flickr Album . . . .just click on the thumbnails on the sidebar.

Playing And Taking Pictures . . . . .

2007-05-21T14:10:00.000-05:00

I have been playing a bit and taking a few pictures around the yard. We have four bird "couples" that have built nest in our garage and front porch. I think they are finches, but I am not sure. If you know for sure I would appreciate a little note letting me know.

I am planing on getting a new camera soon. The digital camera that I have now is about 9 years old and sooooooo obsolete. You take my obsolete camera along with the awful lighting in my garage and you get some pretty poor pictures!!! GRRRRRR!! LOL!

There are more photos in my flickr album.

Lu

Now This Should Have Already Been Done . . . .

2007-05-21T13:16:00.000-05:00

Some of you may remember the post that I made several days ago regarding military members loosing custody of their children while they are deployed:
Deployed troops battle for lost child custody

Rusty emailed me a link to the following article. Now this is what the law should have stated all along. I am THRILLED that they are doing something about this. Hopefully they can get it passed Very quickly. Our troops deserve peace of mind when they are deployed to serve our country.

Lu

____________________________________________________________

Article from: http://www.militarytimes.com/

House: Protect custody for deployed parents
By Rick Maze - Staff writerPosted : Thursday May 17, 2007 22:16:39 EDT

The House of Representatives moved Wednesday to protect deployed service members from losing legal custody of their children.

An amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill, approved by voice vote, prevents states from making permanent custody changes while a service member is deployed on a contingency operation. It also prohibits a court from considering a military member’s deployment as a reason for denying custody.

Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, who sponsored the amendment, said he is trying to provide some peace of mind to deployed parents.

“My amendment provides certainty to service members deployed in a contingency operation that their child custody arrangements will be protected,” Turner said. “In some cases, courts are overturning established custody arrangement while the custodial parent is serving our country in a contingency operation, such as Iraq or Afghanistan.”

His amendment is modeled after a change in law passed by Michigan in 2005.

Under the amendment, no court may modify or amend a previous child custody judgment, or order or issue a new order while a service member is deployed, with one exception: The provision allows a temporary custody order “if there is clear and convincing evidence that it is in the best interest of the child.”

Additionally, if the motion to change custody is filed before or after a deployment, no court may consider absence for deployment when determining what is in the best interest of a child.

“Much is asked of our service members, and mobilizations can disrupt and strain relationships at home,” Turner said. “This additional protection is needed to provide them peace of mind that the courts will not take away their children because they answered the country’s call to serve.”

The defense policy bill passed the House on Thursday but still faces a long road to becoming law. In the Senate, the armed services committee will write its version of the bill next week, with plans for the full Senate to pass the bill by early July. At that point, differences between the House and Senate bills and objections from the Bush administration will have to be reconciled before a final bill is passed and becomes law.

Gardening Today . . . . .

2007-05-20T19:10:00.000-05:00

We are almost finished planting our vegetable garden. All we have left is to plant some tomatoes and some speckled butter beans. :o)

I took some pictures of the kids and Dad working in the garden and of some flowers growing around our yard.

Check out my flicker album on the sidebar. Just click on the pictures.

Poll Question . . . . .

2007-05-20T00:43:00.000-05:00

Take the poll

Free Poll by Blog Flux

Gardening . . . .

2007-05-19T21:52:00.000-05:00

Rusty tilled a Huge flower bed for me along with a nice spot for a vegetable garden. Today we tossed a TON of flower seeds all around my new flower bed, covered them with dirt and watered thoroughly. Now we will just wait and see what nature will do with these seeds. LOL! No. . . .I'm not the green thumb gardener . . .but I do love pretty flowers. So . . . we will see which flowers can grow the Lu way of gardening! LMBO!!

Tomorrow we are going to plant a bunch of vegetables. Rusty is good at growing a vegetable garden, so I will take my tips from him.

I can't wait until the vegetables are ready to be harvested. I am looking forward to having a freezer full of FRESH . . . .YUMMY vegetables. I am especially looking forward to fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes. Rusty and I both LOVE a good tomato sandwich and the tomatoes from the super market don't have nearly the flavor of one fresh out of the garden.

Lu

More Humor . . . . . :oP

2007-05-18T08:53:00.001-05:00

Humor . . . .

2007-05-18T07:55:00.000-05:00

Baseball In Heaven

CUTE

Two 90-year-old men, Moe and Joe, have been friends all of their lives. When it's clear that Joe is dying, Moe visits him every day.

One day Moe says, "Joe, we both loved baseball all our lives, and we played minor league ball together for so many years. Please do me one favor: when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's baseball there.

"Joe looks up at Moe from his deathbed, "Moe, you've been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you."

Shortly after that, Joe passes on.

At midnight a couple of nights later,Moe is awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to him, "Moe, Moe."

"Who is it?" asks Moe, sitting up suddenly. "Who is it?"

"Moe -- it's me, Joe."

"You're not Joe. Joe just died."

"I'm telling you, it's me, Joe," insists the voice.

"Joe! Where are you?"

"In Heaven," replies Joe. "I have some really good news and a little bad news."

"Tell me the good news first," says Moe.

"The good news," Joe says, "is that there's baseball in Heaven. Better yet, all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime, and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play baseball all we want, and we never get tired."

"That's fantastic," says Moe. "It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's the bad news?"

"You're pitching Tuesday."

:oO

Loved My New Dr. . . . .

2007-05-18T07:41:00.000-05:00

I absolutely LOVED my new Dr. He and his staff were very friendly and personable. They did not make me feel like I was just another patient to rush in and out of the clinic. I was made to feel like I was his only patient. And isn't that the way it Should be with All Doctors?

Very Pleasantly surprised.

I still miss My Dr. Walt! . . . . .but at least I know that my new Dr. is one of the good guys too. It makes the transition so much easier.

Lu

My Angels . . . . .

2007-05-17T12:25:00.000-05:00

Letter Sent . . . . .

2007-05-17T08:18:00.001-05:00

Here is the letter that I just sent to Bill O'Reilly. If you live in or near TN, or if you agree that something needs to be done, consider sending an email of your own to any and All of the news organizations to bring this city into the spotlight. Maybe then the leaders of this city will do what is necessary to protect it's citizens, and it's tourist for that matter.

____________________________________________________________

Bill,

If ever a city needed a spotlight on it right now, it is Memphis, TN.

Memphis used to be a nice city to visit, to shop, to tour, to go to Liberty Land. Now it is little more than a haven for criminals. The people who can afford it, are leaving Memphis hand over fist.

I don't live in Memphis, but I used to enjoy going there on a long weekend.

They have lost Liberty Land, they are loosing residents to the point that Memphis is trying to annex neighboring communities in order to get their tax dollars back.

Memphians who are returning from Iraq are calling Memphis "Little Bagdad." I think that pretty much says it all.

The straw that hit for many Memphians came the day before yesterday when a mother picked her son up early from school when he was sick with a stomach virus.

When she arrived at her house she ran in and just pushed the door closed without locking it, as she was trying to get her child to the bathroom. Two thugs saw her arrive at home and just walked freely into her home and proceeded to rob her, beat her and rape her.

The citizens of Memphis are at their wits end. They had a town meeting and it was heard over and over that they feel that they have the right to feel safe in their town and especially in their own home. They were told that laws needed to be made or changed in Nashville. The citizens stated that at the very least they wanted more police added to the city.

Please consider putting the pressure on the failing leaders of this city to do what is necessary to protect their citizens.

Thank You,

Lu

Going To The Dr. . . . .

2007-05-17T00:14:00.000-05:00

I have an appointment. to see the Dr. this morning.

We moved here this past November and this is my first visit to a new Dr.

I HATE . . .HATE . . . .HATE going to the Dr. anyway, so going to a stranger makes it just that much worse!!!

I Want My Dr. Walt!!!!! LOL! He had been our family Dr. for nearly 13 years. He looks like a little Santa Clause and is just as sweet as he can be. All of my children asked for their Dr. Walt even if they had a simple case of the sniffles. He also works with his wife, who is an absolute DOLL herself. They were not only our health care providers, they are our friends and I miss them both soooooooooooo much.

In any case . . . .Hopefully I will like this new Dr. and hopefully I will be feeling Much better very soon. :o) If not . . . . .I will be driving 4 hours south to see My Dr. Walt!!!!!!!! ;o)

Lu

Jerry Falwell . . . . .

2007-05-16T22:54:00.000-05:00

I think that it is sad the way that some are rejoicing over this man's death.

I do not believe that it is my place to judge anyone for their beliefs or choice of lifestyle.

It is also not my place, or the place of others, to judge those who DO think it is their place to pass judgement.

Mr. Falwell did appear to pass judgement on some people and their lifestyles. Obviously I believe that this is wrong, nevertheless, it is Still Not My Place, or the place of others, to pass judgement on Mr. Falwell. Judgement is to be left to God and God alone.

I believe in the loving, caring, and forgiving God.

I believe that God wants me to love and show compassion to all of his children, even if I personally disagree with their beliefs or lifestyles.

Mr. Falwell has family who loves him. Being a Christian or just a decent human being should demand that you show love and compassion to the man and especially his grieving family regardless of how much you might have disagreed with his views.

Lu

I'm Going To . . . . .

2007-05-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

I'm going to have lunch with my 4 year old lil Taylor and then we are going to go and play in the pool. I'm hoping that soaking up a few rays of sun will make me feel better.

I might even plant a few flower seeds if I'm feeling up to it.

If nothing else . . . . .My Lil Taylor will cheer me up somewhat. . . . .You can't help but to feel better when you are around my lil man. :o)

Lu

Sorry . . . . .

2007-05-14T23:42:00.000-05:00

Feeling a bit blaaaaa lately.

News gets me down . . .

People don't seem to care about the country or each other any more . . .

People stand by and watch senior citizens get beaten and do nothing . . . .

Most politicians don't care about the country any more, they only care to further their own careers . . . .

So many don't care about the negative affect that having millions of illegal immigrants has on the United States . . . .

People argue about petty things . . .such as what is politically correct . . . .Wouldn't an argument over what Is and what is Not Moral serve us better? . . . . .

But . . .Morality in the United States is dwindling every year . . .

We are turning into the "Feel Good" nation. . . .It doesn't matter whether it is Moral or not . . .If it feels good . . . .or if it will benefit "ME" . . . .Then DO IT!!! . . .

Government is getting bigger and bigger . . . . If this trend continues, we will all be completely dependent on the government . . . . What Then?

I wish I had all the answers . . . .

I wish people would wake up . . . .

I wish I could see more people seeing the light . . .

I wish for yesteryear when I knew very little of the news and politics . . . .

Ignorance really IS Bliss . . . .

But we must all grow up and face the reality of the country that we live in . . .

I pray for our leaders daily that they will be led to do what is right for our country and not what is right for them personally or for their party . . .

I pray that I will get past this blaaaa feeling that I have right now so that I may once again become fired up to act rather than sinking into sadness.

Lu

Hope All Of You Mothers Had A Great Day . . .

2007-05-14T23:19:00.001-05:00

I hope you all had a Fantastic Mother's Day!

My sister came for the weekend with my niece and we played in the pool and had a lovely time visiting.

All of my children made me BEAUTIFUL cards for Mother's Day and Rusty brought me breakfast in bed.

Great Day . . .Great Weekend.

Lu

Taylor . . . . .

2007-05-10T18:58:00.000-05:00

I was playing around with my web cam and my 4-year-old, Taylor, decided to get in on the action.

Don't even ask me . . . . .I have NO CLUE what he is talking about! :oO LMBO!!

I may have to make this a weekly thing with all of my kids! Too Funny!

I Want My Pool!!! . . . .

2007-05-09T09:08:00.001-05:00

OK . . .The weather is Perfect so Rusty and I decided that it was time to take the cover off the pool and get it set up and ready for use. YEA!!!

Well now you just know it couldn't be that easy . . . .didn't ya? LOL!

After taking the cover off, filling the pool with water and re-attaching the pump, we discovered that there is a serious leak coming from either the pump or the filter.

Rusty went to see the "Pool Guy" yesterday and he said that it would be much better and less expensive for us if WE could determine where the leak was coming from exactly. WHAT??? If we could tell Exactly . . . .We wouldn't have gone to the "POOL GUY" to begin with!! LMBO!!

Basically, I think that this guy is very busy right now and doesn't have the time to deal with us. So now Rusty is going to have to try to figure out where the leak is coming from and then decide what we need to do about it.

BUT I WANT MY POOL NOWWWW!!!!

LOL!

Sounding like one of my kids aren't I???

LMBO!

Working on my patience here!! :oP

Lu

Cats On Tuesdays . . . . .

2007-05-08T08:32:00.001-05:00

This is Tigger. He is one of 3 cats that live with us. Tigger is the quietest, shyest and the most lovable of our three cats.

My "NoFollow" Has Now Been Disabled . . . .

2007-05-08T03:33:00.001-05:00

Here is a list of bloggers who have disabled the "NoFollow" on their blogs, thereby enabling the search engines to track links within the comment section of blogs.

This means that if you comment on a blog that has disabled the "NoFollow" on their blog, the search engines will track the link back to YOUR site, making it a win-win for BOTH blogs.

I found this list at Randa Clay Design, along with the "U Comment / I Follow" Logo. Be sure to go and check our Randa's site as well as some of the other sites listed below and join the the growing list of "DoFollow" Bloggers. I'm sure you will find a discussion that you will want to comment on.

Views by Lu

Randa Clay Design

Wendy Piersall of eMoms at Home

David Airey of Creative Design

Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog

Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com

Chris Cree of SuccessCREEations

Char of Essential Keystroke

Chris Garrett of chrisg.com

Andy Beard of AndyBeard.eu

David Paul Robinson of davidpaulrobinson.com

Lars-Christian of Lars-Christian.com

Char also of Casual Keystrokes

Michelle of Scribbit

Ponn Sabra of Empower Women Now

Jason of Webomatica

Robert Hruzek of Middle Zone Musings

Mario of mariosalexandrou.com

Lisa Mills of Work at Home Revolution

Aaron Potts of Today is That Day

Heather of Home Ec 101

Laura Spencer of Writing Thoughts

Kirk of JustThinkin

Gayla of MomGadget

Alister Cameron- Blogologist

Karen of The Pond

Jonathan Phillips of SmartWealthyRich

Susan of Life Is Risky

Vin of Dummies Guide to Blogger

René of ProBlogger World

Elaine’s Place

Aaron at Foobr

Julie Bonner

Ryan at BloggingForBills

BobMeetsWorld

The Fibromyalgia Experiment

B.J. at 2Perfect

Niki at The A Team

Gilda at Holiday in the Sun

Deployed troops battle for lost child custody

2007-05-07T15:00:00.001-05:00

You MUST read the article below. It has me in tears.

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/05/ap_parentsatwarcustody_070505/

I know that most parents love their children and would love to have primary custody of their children . . . . .BUT . . . . .Seeking primary custody of a child when one of the parents has been deployed to SERVE THEIR COUNTRY is so very WRONG in so many ways and on so many levels!

"The federal law called the Servicemembers
Civil Relief Act is meant to protect our
military service men and women by staying
civil court actions and administrative
proceedings during military activation.
They can’t be evicted. Creditors can’t seize
their property. Civilian health benefits, if
suspended during eployment, must be
reinstated."

This law MUST be revised to protect military parents who have been activated and deployed so that they can serve our country without having to worry about loosing their children in a totally unfair and unbalanced custody battle.

I am just shocked that this can even happen to our military service members! I am OUTRAGED!!!! They do so much for our country. We should ALL expect for them to be treated better Here in the United States than to be stabbed in the back by our court systems the second that they are activated and deployed.

OUTRAGED!!!!

War . . . . .

2007-05-06T19:33:00.000-05:00

You know, after doing a lot of research and reading I have come to the conclusion that I believe that it is VERY possible that the US going to war with Iraq was a HUGE mistake. I believe that it is VERY possible that any faulty intelligence given to the government, prior to the US taking military action in Iraq, was intentionally created to induce the US to go to war with Iraq.

Now who would do such a thing and why? I don't know the answers to these questions, and quite frankly, other than bringing the guilty culprits to justice,(which I do not believe will ever happen), it's crying over spilt milk.

The fact is that we DID go to war with Iraq. We DID remove Saddam Hussein from power. I believe that our actions are the reason there is currently a civil war in Iraq that our troops are caught in the middle of.

So now here are the BIG questions that we MUST answer . . .

1. Do we pull our troops out of Iraq and bring them Home?

2. If we do bring our troops home, what if any, consequences will this have for the United States?

3. How will the WORLD view the United States if we pull our troops out of Iraq when they are in the middle of a civil war that we are responsible for?

4. If we do bring our troops home, will it be leaving Iraq vulnerable to being taken over by neighboring countries? AND . . .if the answer is Yes, would bringing our troops home inevitably cause there to be a threat of some sort against the United States?

5. Realizing that we have made a HUGE MISTAKE by going to war with Iraq, and realizing that we are the reason for the instability in Iraq, are we obligated to clean up the mess that we have made in this country so as not to leave Iraq vulnerable to being overtaken by other countries or terrorists groups?

6. If we do keep our troops in Iraq, do we give the Iraqi government a timetable for being able to keep their own country secure? If so . . . . .what is the right amount of time? . . . . The FAIR amount of time to give the Iraqi troops time to become well trained soldiers who can keep their own country secure?

These are the questions that I believe most Americans feel very strongly about.

Here are my own personal answers to the above questions:

1. No, I do not believe that we should bring our troops home at this time . . . . .Not Yet

2. I believe the consequences to the United States would be HUGE if we were to bring our troops home at this time.

3. I believe that we are already viewed badly around the world and if we pull our troops out of Iraq after we have made such a mess there, then we will only look worse in the world community.

4. YES, if we pull our troops out of Iraq, it will leave Iraq totally vulnerable to attack . . . .AND . . . .YES, I believe that bringing our troops home now could inevitably be the cause for additional threats to the United States!!!

5. Yes, I do believe that we are obligated to help provide stability to Iraq, especially when WE are the ones who caused ALL of the instability. To just drop the mess in the lap of Iraq, after we caused all of this chaos would be criminal.

6. Yes, I do believe that Iraq needs to be given a FIRM . . .BUT FAIR . . .timetable allowing them to have their troops properly trained. Once the training is complete, then, and only then, should we bring our troops home.

Lu

Another Animation . . . . .

2007-05-04T23:12:00.001-05:00

This is a little drawing that I did and then animated a couple of years ago. ;o)

A Little Humor . . . .LOL! ;o)

2007-05-04T11:57:00.000-05:00

HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK...

1. Open a new file folder in your computer.

2. Name it "Hillary Rodham Clinton"

3. Send it to the trash.

4. Click "Empty the trash."

5. Your PC will ask you, "Do you really want to get rid of "Hillary Rodham Clinton?"

6. Firmly Click "Yes."

7. Feel better?

PS: Next week you can do Nancy Pelosi.

You deserve to feel GOOD!

LOL! ;oP

Did You Know . . . . .?

2007-05-04T11:46:00.001-05:00

I recently received this in an email.

All I can say is WOW!!!!

_________________________________________________________

HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?

This outta boggle your mind!! HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?

1 . At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.

2 . This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target
sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco
+ K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the
largest private employer.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the
history of the World.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger &
Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.

8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy
(including Winn-Dixie).

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other
store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of
which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years
ago.

11. This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur
at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion).

12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

News Celebrities . . . . .

2007-05-02T23:10:00.001-05:00

I have taken all of the news clips off of my blog because I simply don't trust any of them any more. I did, however, add the headlines from the Associated Press because I do want some news on my blog.

I used to trust FOX, but have recently added them to the rest of the news networks as having an agenda to fulfill when reporting the news. Personally, I am sick and tired of being fed garbage by the news networks and then having to dig through it to find the truth somewhere in all their spinning!

I remember a time when news people NEVER . . . .EVER gave their own personal opinion while reporting the news. It was the FACTS and JUST the FACTS. That is the way it should be again.

The public tends to look at the people who report the news as celebrities of sorts. When these so called "News Celebrities" give their opinions while reporting the news, they are unfairly influencing public opinion and it is WRONG.

Like it or not, the news networks are in a Very Powerful position due to their Unfair Influence on public opinion. People change political parties, people back a certain candidate, and people win and loose elections due to the Unfair Influence of the news networks.

With the upcoming 2008 Presidential Election, you will see that the news networks have their favorites and will attempt to influence the American Public to their way of thinking.

We ALL must be more careful in what we choose to believe and how we allow our opinions to be swayed while watching the news each day. I plan on doing a lot of self evaluation to make sure that my opinion is actually MY OWN and not one that was Fed to me by some "News Celebrity." I will also try to become more aware of when I am listening to the FACTS and when I am listening to someone's opinion being dressed up as Facts. We must All learn to tell the difference.

Lu

Response To My Letter . . . .

2007-05-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

The following is a response from Senator Bob Corker to the letter that I wrote regarding illegal immigration.

Seeeeeeee . . . .You HAVE to let your Representatives know how you feel about important issues!

My Letter: Letters Sent . . .

__________________________________________________________

April 26, 2007

Mrs. Lu
*** ****** ***
Dyersburg, TN

Dear Mrs. Lu,

Thank you for contacting my office to share your concerns about comprehensive immigration reform. Your input is important to me, and I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts.

As you know, immigration is an issue that deserves in-depth attention. I am in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. This issue should be taken up on the floor of the United States Senate and should be discussed directly with all the options laid out on the table. Comprehensive immigration reform should provide real solutions in one specific piece of legislation rather than inadequately attempting to change things by passing hit and miss amendments to unrelated bills. I will work to ensure that the rights of our citizens are preserved and that just changes are made for the betterment of our state and country.

Controlling our borders and patrolling our points of entry are essential parts of combating the problem of illegal immigration. Additional resources, both personnel and technology, must be employed along our borders to provide an effective deterrent against illegal entrants.

We also need to make sure that we allow people to work here, but only if they're legal. We need instant employer certification so employers know if people they're hiring are legal, and punish employers who hire illegal workers. I do not support amnesty. I also believe that all immigrants who want to become American citizens must learn the English language.

Thank you again for your letter. When this issue is brought before the United States Senate, I will certainly take your concerns into consideration. I hope you will continue to share your thoughts with me over the next six years.

Sincerely,
A

Bob Corker
United States Senator

Initials/kr

A Little Humor . . . .LOL! ;o)

2007-05-01T22:08:00.001-05:00

HOW TO TELL IF YOU NEED TO PRAY AT WORK

· When a co-worker comes in a little too happy singing "good morning" to everyone and you think, "Somebody needs to slap the s#@! out of her"...You need to pray at work.

· When someone comes in and announces, "office meeting in 5 minutes," and you think, "what the f*&% do they want now?"..... You need to pray at work.

· When your computer is mysteriously turned off and you want to say, "which one of you sons of b*&^%$# turned off my computer?"..... You need to pray at work.

· When you and a co-worker are discussing something, and a third person comes in and says, "well at my last office...," and you want to throw a stapler at him...... You need to pray at work.

· When you hear a co-worker call your name and the first thing that crosses your mind is, "what the h*&^ does she want now?" and you try to hide underneath your desk......... You need to pray at work.

· When you are asked to stay late and help do someone else's work and the first thing that pops in your head is, "both of y'all can kiss my a@@!!".... You need to pray at work.

· When you take some vacation time and come back to find a mountain of paperwork sitting on your desk because no one else would do it and you think, "sorry a## M#$^%F%&#s"........ You need to pray at work.

· If you have ever thought about poisoning, choking, punching, slapping or flattening someone's tires that you work with...... You need to pray at work.

· If you avoid saying more than hello or how are you doing to someone because you know it's going to lead to their life story......You need to pray at work.

· If you know all the words that have been bleeped out....You need to pray at work!

LET US ALL BOW OUR HEADS

We're HOME!!!! YAY!!!

2007-04-30T21:28:00.001-05:00

We had an AWESOME time at the races in Talladega this weekend.

After a 6 hour drive, we arrived in Birmingham, Alabama around 5:00p.m. Friday evening. We got settled into our hotel and then went out for a nice steak dinner and a couple of drinks.

We woke up around 6:00a.m. Saturday morning and arrived at the track at 9:00a.m. There was plenty of sight-seeing to do at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and lots of souvenirs to buy before the Bush race started at 2:30p.m.

I must mention though, that the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the track are at least a mile apart . . . . and OH YES . . . .you are walking that mile from where you parked your car . . . .And BACK!! LMBO!! Then we had to climb what seemed to be 100 steps to get to our seats, (row 53 in the Tri-Oval Towers). Main point here . . . . .I have found muscles that I had forgotten that I even had until they started screaming out in PAIN!!! LMBO!!

OH . . . .and another thing . . . .If you EVER go to a race, remember that they DO allow each person to bring a small bag that can be a vinyl cooler if you like. We did not know this on Saturday and after paying $4.00 for every drink, $5.00 for a plain burger & 4.00 for a small order of fries . . . . . .We Wised up and went straight to K-Mart after the Bush race and stocked up on peanuts, cheese snacks, trail mix and sodas. It saved us a TON of money during the Nextel race on Sunday.

After the race was over on Sunday, we headed to our car and began the long wait to get out of the track. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get from the track to Birmingham, a trip that normally takes about 45 minutes. Once free of all the traffic we drove for 4 hours to Rusty's sister's house to pick up our children. We arrived at her house about 10:30p.m. and then another 2 hours driving had us home once again at 12:30a.m.

We toted the kids in and tucked them into bed, unpacked the car and our luggage, then collapsed.

GEEEEEEZZZ It's GREAT to be HOME!!! LOL!

Here are a few pictures of Rusty at the track. You can see more located in my flicker album over on the sidebar.

Have a GREAT Evening!

Lu

Busy Week & Gonna Be . . . . . .

2007-04-26T23:40:00.000-05:00

It sure has been a busy week around my house . . . .and it is gonna be a busy, (but fun), weekend as well.

Rusty had to work out of town Monday and Tuesday, leaving me to juggle the baseball/softball schedule of our three children. It is WILD trying to get three children to their games on time, at two different parks, that are on the opposite side of town!! LMBO!

AND . . . .It doesn't help much when you suffer from anxiety attacks in situations that involve being around a lot of people. Yes, I am on medication, but it doesn't totally take the anxiety away. It allows me to do what I absolutely HAVE to do to take care of me and my family. I am very lucky because I the most Wonderful, Understanding Husband In The World. He tries very hard to take up the slack for me when he senses that I am becoming very stressed and anxious.

In any case, this week is coming to an end and TOMORROW . . . . . .Rusty and I will be taking our children to his sister's for the weekend and then we are going to Talladega to see the Nascar races. Talk about a possible anxiety attack! LOL!

I had never even watched a Nascar race until I married Rusty. Now I like to watch HIM while he is watching the race. LOL! I will have to pick someone that he HATES to Pull for . . . .Just to make it interesting. LMBO!

I dread the long drive though because driving always puts me to sleep, and if I happen to be the one driving at night . . . . .Well . . . .let's just say that my night vision is AWFUL! Rusty always waits until it is dark to ask me to take a turn driving. Even after I have told him that if he wants me to drive, he needs to let me drive in the DAYLIGHT . . . .He Still waits until dark to ask me. What's up with that? LOL!

Anyway . . . .Since we won't be taking a computer with us, I won't be around for a few days. I will probably be back online late Monday or Tuesday.

Until then, Ya'll be good to each other.

Lu

Write Your Representatives . . . .

2007-04-25T11:08:00.000-05:00

People . . . . .

If you believe that providing Amnesty to the 12,000,000 - 20,000,000 Illegal Aliens that are currently living in the United States will have massive consequences for us on a multitude of levels, (not the least of which are economic & political), then you need to send letters out to your Senators and Congressmen immediately to let them know how you feel on this issue.

Read this article posted by Lou Dobbs today:

Big media hides truth about immigration

You can also read the letter that I sent to all of my representatives:

Letters Sent . . . .

Gun Free Zones ???

2007-04-24T03:10:00.000-05:00

Email received on 4/20/07 . . . .I receive a lot of very thought provoking emails. All information is good.

________________________________________________________

WACO, Texas (CNN) -- Zero tolerance, huh? Gun-free zones, huh? Try this on for size: Columbine gun-free zone, New York City pizza shop gun-free zone, Luby's Cafeteria gun-free zone, Amish school in Pennsylvania gun-free zone and now Virginia Tech gun-free zone.

Anybody see what the evil Brady Campaign and other anti-gun cults have created? I personally have zero tolerance for evil and denial. And America had best wake up real fast that the brain-dead celebration of unarmed helplessness will get you killed every time, and I've about had enough of it.

Nearly a decade ago, a Springfield, Oregon, high schooler, a hunter familiar with firearms, was able to bring an unfolding rampage to an abrupt end when he identified a gunman attempting to reload his .22-caliber rifle, made the tactical decision to make a move and tackled the shooter.

A few years back, an assistant principal at Pearl High School in Mississippi, which was a gun-free zone, retrieved his legally owned Colt .45 from his car and stopped a Columbine wannabe from continuing his massacre at another school after he had killed two and wounded more at Pearl.

At an eighth-grade school dance in Pennsylvania, a boy fatally shot a teacher and wounded two students before the owner of the dance hall brought the killing to a halt with his own gun.

More recently, just a few miles up the road from Virginia Tech, two law school students ran to fetch their legally owned firearm to stop a madman from slaughtering anybody and everybody he pleased. These brave, average, armed citizens neutralized him pronto.

My hero, Dr. Suzanne Gratia Hupp, was not allowed by Texas law to carry her handgun into Luby's Cafeteria that fateful day in 1991, when due to bureaucrat-forced unarmed helplessness she could do nothing to stop satanic George Hennard from killing 23 people and wounding more than 20 others before he shot himself. Hupp was unarmed for no other reason than denial-ridden "feel good" politics.

She has since led the charge for concealed weapon upgrade in Texas, where we can now stop evil. Yet, there are still the mindless puppets of the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun organizations insisting on continuing the gun-free zone insanity by which innocents are forced into unarmed helplessness. Shame on them. Shame on America. Shame on the anti-gunners all.

No one was foolish enough to debate Ryder truck regulations or ammonia nitrate restrictions or a "cult of agriculture fertilizer" following the unabashed evil of Timothy McVeigh's heinous crime against America on that fateful day in Oklahoma City. No one faulted kitchen utensils or other hardware of choice after Jeffrey Dahmer was caught drugging, mutilating, raping, murdering and cannibalizing his victims. Nobody wanted "steak knife control" as they autopsied the dead nurses in Chicago, Illinois, as Richard Speck went on trial for mass murder.

Evil is as evil does, and laws disarming guaranteed victims make evil people very, very happy. Shame on us.

Already spineless gun control advocates are squawking like chickens with their tiny-brained heads chopped off, making political hay over this most recent, devastating Virginia Tech massacre, when in fact it is their own forced gun-free zone policy that enabled the unchallenged methodical murder of 32 people.

Thirty-two people dead on a U.S. college campus pursuing their American Dream, mowed-down over an extended period of time by a lone, non-American gunman in illegal possession of a firearm on campus in defiance of a zero-tolerance gun law. Feel better yet? Didn't think so.

Who doesn't get this? Who has the audacity to demand unarmed helplessness? Who likes dead good guys?

I'll tell you who. People who tramp on the Second Amendment, that's who. People who refuse to accept the self-evident truth that free people have the God-given right to keep and bear arms, to defend themselves and their loved ones. People who are so desperate in their drive to control others, so mindless in their denial that they pretend access to gas causes arson, Ryder trucks and fertilizer cause terrorism, water causes drowning, forks and spoons cause obesity, dialing 911 will somehow save your life, and that their greedy clamoring to "feel good" is more important than admitting that armed citizens are much better equipped to stop evil than unarmed, helpless ones.

Pray for the families of victims everywhere, America. Study the methodology of evil. It has a profile, a system, a preferred environment where victims cannot fight back. Embrace the facts, demand upgrade and be certain that your children's school has a better plan than Virginia Tech or Columbine. Eliminate the insanity of gun-free zones, which will never, ever be gun-free zones. They will only be good guy gun-free zones, and that is a recipe for disaster written in blood on the altar of denial. I, for one, refuse to genuflect there.

_________________
"Facilis Descensus Averno"
(: the descent to Avernus is easy : the road to evil is easy)

Did You Know? . . . . . .

2007-04-23T23:46:00.000-05:00

Here is another email that I received around 8 months ago. I believe that we can learn a lot from our past . . . .and this email certainly did SHOCK me and made me think and quite frankly, made me afraid for our future.

_________________________________________________________

THINK ABOUT THIS

About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage

"Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million;

Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000

States won by: Gore: 19; Bush: 29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare...

"Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

PS . #9 If the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship to 20 million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then goodby USA in less than 5 years.

Did You Know? . . . . . .

2007-04-22T22:44:00.000-05:00

I received this in an email about 4 months ago and thought that I would share it here:

__________________________________________________________

How many of these did you know about?

A sealed envelope - Put in the freezer for a few hours, then slide a knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed. (hmmmmmm...)

Use Empty toilet paper roll to store appliance cords It keeps them neat and you can write on the roll what appliance it belongs to.

For icy door steps in freezing temperatures: get warm water and put Dawn dish washing liquid in it. Pour it all over the steps. Theywon't refreeze. (wish I had known this for the last 40 years)!

To remove old wax from a glass candle holder, put it in the freezer for a few hours. Then take the candle holder out and turn it upsidedown. The wax will fall out.

Crayon marks on walls? This worked wonderfully! A damp rag, dipped in baking soda. Comes off with little effort (elbow grease that is)!

Permanent marker on appliances/counter tops (like store receipt) rubbing alcohol on paper towel.

Whenever I purchase a box of SOS Pads, I immediately take a pair of scissors and cut each pad into halves. After years of having to throw away rusted, unused and smelly pads, I finally decided that this would be much more economical. And now a box of SOS pads last me indefinitely! In fact, I have noticed that the scissors get sharpened this way!

Blood stains on clothes? Not to worry! Just pour a little hydrogen peroxide on a cloth and proceed to wipe off every drop of blood. Works every time!

Use vertical strokes when washing windows outside and horizontalfor inside windows. This way you can tell which side has the streaks. Straight vinegar will get outside windows really clean. Don't wash windows on a sunny day. They will dry too quickly and will probably streak.

Spray a bit of perfume on the light bulb in any room to create alovely light scent in each room when the light is turned on.

Place fabric softener sheets in dresser drawers and your clotheswill smell freshly washed for weeks to come. You can also do this with towels and linen.

Candles will last a lot longer if placed in the freezer for at least 3 hours prior to burning.

To clean artificial flowers, pour some salt into a paper bag and add the flowers. Shake vigorously as the salt will absorb all the dust and dirt and leave your artificial flowers looking like new! Works like a charm!

To easily remove burnt on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove top.

Spray your TUPPERWARE with non stick cooking spray before pouring in tomato based sauces and there won't be any stains.

Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.

When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's natural sweetness.

Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.

Don't throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces (Left over wine? What's that?)

To get rid of itch from mosquito bites, try applying soap on the area and you will experience instant relief.

Ants, ants, ants everywhere. Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself.

Use air-freshener to clean mirrors. It does a good job and better still, leaves a lovely smell to the shine.

When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily.

Now look what you can do with Alka Seltzer. Clean a toilet. Drop in two Alka Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush! and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous China.

Clean a vase. To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka Seltzer tablets.

Polish jewelry. Drop two Alka Seltzer tablets into a glass of waterand immerse the jewelry for two minutes.

Clean a thermos bottle. Fill the bottle with water, drop in four AlkaSeltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary).

Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of white vinegar. Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water.

Makes you wonder about ingesting Alka Seltzer doesn't it?

When things get tough, always remember. Faith doesn't get you around trouble, it gets you through it!

Letters Sent . . . . .

2007-04-22T04:02:00.000-05:00

I sent the following letter to:

Tennessee Senator - Bob Corker
Tennessee Senator - Lamar Alexander

Congressman
Tennessee's 8th District - John Tanner

________________________________________________________

Senator / Congressman,

With the jump of Presidential hopefuls all of a sudden coming from every direction, there have been many political issues that have also been brought to the forefront.

It is my belief that only Democrats, who lean a little to the Right, and Republicans, who lean a little to the Left, will EVER be able to work together for the GOOD of Our Country.

Immigration Reform is a huge concern for many Americans. Something must be done to secure our borders.

Every citizen of the United States has a Social Security Number and they are in "The System." It doesn't make much sense that we have what, 12,000,000 or so, Illegal Imagrants that we have very little or No information on.

The task of deporting Illegal Immigrants is too great to take on all at once, but we must start a system of either deporting Illegal Aliens once their status is discovered and/or set up a program to help people, who meet Certain Guidelines, become American Citizens.

I strongly believe that anyone who hires an Illegal Alien, for any reason that defies the law, should face Very stiff penalties. We must stop making it worth it to the companies and the Illegal Immigrants to take these risk.

I believe that our border guards MUST be given the authority to do their jobs without fear of their own government. I am appalled by the treatment and imprisonment of our US Border Guards who were imprisoned for trying to stop Criminals. It is Outrageous that OUR Government made a deal with the Illegal Alien CRIMINALS in order to prosecute OUR Border Guards! If these guards are still in jail, they should be released immediately. Something has to be done about this situation so that our border guards can do their jobs without fear of their own government.

Most Americans, myself included, have no problem with people coming to our country legally. WELCOME and WELL DONE!! I hope that all of their dreams come true in the Greatest Country on Earth. Some of my dear friends are here legally from Mexico. Most are now citizens and are doing very well in our country. I am thrilled for them. Those who enter and stay in this country illegally are putting a tremendous burden on this country at a very high cost to its Citizens.

My fear is that some politicians will do what they think is best for their political career, rather than doing what is best for the country. Think about it, if a politician were to vote to make 12,000,000 Illegal Aliens Citizens . . . . .Well Then . . . .That would be a Guaranteed 12,000,000 votes for that party come election time.

The American people are exhausted by politicians who only look to further themselves politically rather than doing the job that they were hired by the people to do.

Now about the "War." The "HR" and the Senate have all of the important information on this subject. I know that the war is not very popular right now, but you must answer these questions first before pulling our troops out and bringing them home. What is going to happen in Iraq if we leave now, and what might happen here, on our own soil, if we turn a blind eye? I just don't want us to look back in hindsight, after we have brought our troops home, and realize that we have made a mistake and that there may have been a better answer out there somewhere. I know that people are saying that they want our troops home right now, but what I think they may really mean is that they want something that will WORK right now. Yes, I believe that change is needed, I just don't want us to rush to judgement just to regret it later.

Respectfully,

Lu

My Sleeping Angels . . . . . .

2007-04-22T01:09:00.000-05:00

Tonight . . . . . . . . My Sleeping Lil Angels . . . . . . . . .

They Put Everything back into perspective for me.

In Memory Of . . . .

2007-04-20T01:52:00.000-05:00

In Memory Of All Our Fallen Heroes Who Have Sacrificed Their Lives In The Service Of Our Country.

Mothers, Fathers, Sons, Daughters, Brothers, Sisters, Wives, Husbands, Nieces, Nephews, Aunts, Uncles, Grandchildren, Grandparents & Friends . . . . .

Your Sacrifice Will Not Be In Vein & Will Never Be Forgotten!

Casualties In Iraq As Of 4/18/07

3,357

Pieces of Me . . . . .

2007-04-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

September, 1989

My mother was 46 years old, I was 23. She was my mom . . .my very best friend, to whom I told everything . . . .my touchstone. And suddenly I am lost . . . .she is gone . . . .and I no longer have my safety net.

Oh, I never fooled myself about my mother, she was no angel, and certainly was not the Perfect parent, but God knows that she loved her children and we knew it. Isn't knowing that you are LOVED the most important thing for a child? No matter her faults, I have to say that Mama instilled a very strong set of moral values in her children. Some of these values came by way of, "Do as I say, and not as I do." OR "Take it from me . . .LEARN from My mistakes." In any case, I am forever thankful for all that I learned from her.

Mama was married for probably less than a year in the early 1960s to a man who's name I do not even remember. A year or so later she married my father, who was the son of a prominent area farmer, in 1963. In 1964 they had a daughter, my sister. In 1966 I made My glorious entrance into this world. Before I was a year old . . . .my parents were divorced.

Almost immediately following the divorce from my father, my mother was married again to a man named Tommy. I don't remember very much about him, but I do remember that I loved him and his family. I believe that their marriage ended within a year or less.

Shortly thereafter, Mama was married again to a man named Ralph in 1969. In 1971 they had a son. Although my sister and I continued to visit our biological father a few times each year, Ralph was a wonderful stepfather, and the man that raised us. We finally had what seemed to be a stable happy family.

In 1984, 15 years after they began their life together, Mama & Ralph's marriage came to an end and they went their separate ways. By this time my sister and I were both in college and although we were very saddened by this news, it didn't really affect our day to day lives as we were living the "Campus" life in the dorms. It was our brother who was the most affected by their divorce. He went a little wild for a time and Mama seemed to stop even trying to discipline him. I believe that one of the reasons for this is because she was a bit preoccupied with a relationship that she had begun with a married man.

This relationship lasted for 4 or 5 years with the man leaving his wife for a time and then going back to her. I talked to my mother several times about this man and I would tell her that she just needed to forget him and find an "Available" man who would treat her the way that she deserved. She would always burst into tears and say that she believed that he was her last chance to have companion in her life. I would tell her that she was a beautiful, smart woman and that she didn't need ANY man to make her happy. The problem . . . .I was never able to convince her of this.

This man went through the back and forth over and over and over again between my mother and his wife. Each time he would leave my mother, she would go into a depression and would stay in her bed for days at a time. During one of her times of depression, I went to his office and I stood over his desk and said, "You have got to leave her alone and stay away from her. You have GOT to give her a chance to get over you because Every time that you do this to her she gets more and more suicidal." He replied by saying, "I know it, but I just can't help it. I don't want her to get over me." I told him that I thought that he was the most selfish person that I had ever met and that he was KILLING her. He burst into tears and repeated that he knew, but just couldn't help it. His words still ring out through my head to this day . . . . ."I know . . . .But I just can't help it."

During one of their splits, Mama even went to stay with a friend of hers in Florida so that she might find a job and start a new life. My poor brother who didn't know any better, told him where Mama was and he followed her there and brought her home to Mississippi.

I got married to my first husband in March of 1989. My new husband had just enlisted into the Air Force, so while he was off at basic training, I split my time between my father and my mother. Once again I spent time trying to talk sense into my mother regarding this man to no avail. In September of 1989 I was in Rantoul, Illinois with my first husband who was in Tech. School for the Air Force when we got a call from one of his superiors saying that my mother had been shot. At first I didn't understand, had someone broken in her home, was she in the hospital, was she going to be ok?

I called my sister who had been staying with my mother and she told me that this man had once again left our mother and it was obviously the last straw for her. She went on a rampage, breaking things, drinking and screaming. When she couldn't get Mama to calm down, my sister called several of Mama's friends to come and talk to her. They came and tried and then they left telling my sister that she would be fine after she got a good nights sleep. Shortly after that my sister heard the gun shot. Mama had locked herself in her bedroom and while standing at the foot of her bed she placed the gun barrel right in front of her heart and pulled the trigger. My sister and my mothers "boyfriend" broke down the door and my sister tried to stop the bleeding, all the while screaming at Mama, "Don't You Leave Me, I Love You!," over and over again.

The ambulance came and they worked on resuscitating her at the house and in the ER, but it was no use. She had hit her heart just as she had meant to. The Dr. even made a comment later that most people really don't know exactly where their heart is.

I was 23, my sister was 25 and our brother was 18. Adults? . . .You might could say we were . . . .And even though my sister and I were married . . . .I still considered us just kids who needed their Mama. OH MY GOD how lost we were.

I have gone through most of the stages of grieving . . .but I have gotten stuck in each one for years before moving on to the next. It wasn't until I had children that I moved to the anger stage, and that is where I am still at today. I was cheated of having my mother with me when I needed her, to help me with the pregnancies or to tell me what to do when the baby was screaming and wouldn't stop. I needed my Mama. My children were cheated out of having a grandmother to love and spoil them. When my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 years ago, she came to me crying and tired after one of her treatments and said, "I really need my Mama to take care of me." I told her . . ."Honey, you come stay with me and I will take care of you." She told me, "I know you would, but it's just not the same." She is right . . . .Nothing is the same as having your Mama when you need her.

It's been nearly 18 years now and I still ache, hurt & cry rivers of tears wishing for and needing my Mama. No . . .she was No Angel . . . .but Oh how she loved me . . . .And Oh How I Love Her Still!!

Lu

best_mom

Poor Little Bizzy . . . .

2007-04-19T16:31:00.000-05:00

We took Bizzy to get her shots yesterday and to have her ears cropped. I picked her up this morning and thought that I would post some pictures.

Poor lil thing. It almost breaks my heart to see her ears all taped up like this.

I'll post additional pictures in a couple of weeks, once she is all healed.

Did You Know? . . . . . .

2007-04-18T15:31:00.000-05:00

I received the following in an email about a year ago and thought it was worth sharing. As a matter of fact, I have honey all over my face right now! ;oP LMBO!!

_______________________________________

Tape this inside medicine cabinet

Did You Know That? Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately -- without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional "pain relievers."

Did you know that Colgate toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns.

Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoids peppermints. They'll clear up your stuffed nose.

Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 Tablespoon of horseradish in 1 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

Sore throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take 1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer . Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly -- even though the product was never advertised for this use. ( Note : Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine is not the same..and contains aspirin, which can cause stomach bleeding if you have ulcers.)

Honey remedy for skin blemishes ... Cover the blemish with a! dab of honey and place a Band-Aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin sterile, and speeds healing. Works overnight.

Listerine < < /I > > therapy for toenail fungus ... Get rid of unsightly toenail fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic leaves your toenails looking healthy again.

Easy eyeglass protection ... To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear nail polish to the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Coca-Cola cure for rust ... Forget those expensive rust removers. Just saturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain. The phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer ... If menacing bees, wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can't find the insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409 . Insects drop to the ground instantly.

Smart splinter remover ...just pour a drop of Elmer's Glue-All over the splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter sticks to the dried glue.

Hunt's tomato paste boil cure ....cover the boil with Hunt's tomato paste as a compress. The acids from the tomatoes soothe the pain and bring the boil to a head.

Balm for broken blisters ...To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few drops of Listerine ... a powerful antiseptic.

Heinz vinegar to heal bruises ... Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and speeds up the healing process.

Kills fleas instantly . Dawn dish washing liquid does the trick. Add a few drops to your dog's bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well to avoid skin irritations. Goodbye fleas.

Rainy day cure for dog odor ... Next time your dog comes in from the rain, simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly making your dog smell springtime fresh.

Eliminate ear mites ... All it takes is a few drops of Wesson corn oil in your cat's ear. Massage it in, then clean with a cotton ball. Repeat daily for 3 days. The oil soothes the cat's skin, smothers the mites, and accelerates healing.

Quaker Oats for fast pain relief ....It's not for breakfast anymore! Mix 2 cups of Quaker Oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl and warm in the microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly, and apply the mixture to your hands for soothing relief from arthritis pain.

Tape this to your medicine cabinet. ;o)

A Day of Terrible Sadness . . . . .

2007-04-17T10:23:00.000-05:00

It Takes a Tragedy . . . . .

2007-04-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

It takes a senseless, violent tragedy to get the news to stop making such a big deal out of the mistaken comments made by Don Imus.

I am absolutely sickened by this massacre at Virginia Tech.

My love and prayers go out to the families, friends and the communities who have been directly affected by this unbelievable tragedy.

May the Lord comfort and hold you in this time of sadness and pain.

All My Love,

Lu

Sick & Tired of the Double Standard! . . . .

2007-04-16T00:42:00.000-05:00

We as Americans must learn to put the past in the past and view each other as Human Beings, not just someone of a different race to be despised.

I am so sick and tired of the double standard that exists among races in America.

Yes, there is racism in America, but I personally believe that the biggest contributors of racism are:

1. There are Some African Americans who feel that the "White People" OWE them.

2. There are Blacks who feel that they "OWN" certain words that They, And Only They can say.

3. Whites, who had NOTHING to do with Slavery and the awful treatment of blacks, get defensive because of the blacks who feel that they are owed something.

4. Whites, resent the fact that the government does so much for minorities, such as Affirmative action, Welfare, Scholarships . . .etc, that it is now the Caucasian Americans who feel discriminated against. There is also resentment due to the fact that these programs are More Than Abused.

My response to #'s 1 & 3 . . . .African Americans who feel that they are owed for something that has not been in existence for 142 years should start being thankful for the opportunities that they have as American Citizens. There is Nothing that can't be accomplished by ANY Citizen of this Great Nation. If they would adopt the attitude of "Nobody owes me anything that I didn't earn," then the Caucasian Americans would have so much more respect for those African Americans and there would be no need for them to be on the defensive.

My response to #2 . . .I Do Not and Will Not buy into this Double Standard. NO ONE OWNS any words for their own personal use. If a portion of the African Americans feel the need to use the "N" word or any other word or phrase that is derogatory to the African American Community, then they have NO RIGHT to be offended when another race uses those words. On this same note, if you are racist and make racist remarks, then you also have NO RIGHT to Scream Racism when racist remarks are used against you. These are HUGE Double Standards . . . .AND IT IS WRONG!

My response to #4 . . .I personally have seen Caucasian people, who were more qualified for a job, passed up due to Affirmative Action. I DO believe that Affirmative Action was most definitely needed at one time, but I believe that time has past and we now need to hire people based on their qualifications and experience . . . .NOT the Color of their Skin. I have seen people passed up for welfare benefits because they drove a 3 year old car, but then I go to the store and see a family with a fist full of food stamps and 2 baskets full of groceries climb into a brand new van or Cadillac. Why wouldn't there be resentment there?

If we want to work on racism in America, then we must start by addressing the above issues and then work from there.

I think that the African Americans who believe that they are "OWED" are in the minority of their race, but their voices are the loudest and the most offensive. By far, most African Americans are just your average every day "AMERICAN" living the American Dream, and that is How it should be for ALL Races.

Why Is It . . . . . . .?

2007-04-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

Why is it that MOM always gets to be the "BAD GUY?"

Earlier today Rusty and I had a discussion about all the electronic games that our children play. I told Rusty that little-by-little, the kids have started playing some violent games that were originally purchased for my, "Big Kid," Rusty.

I stated that it is my opinion that we should ban the kids from playing these games because I feel that they make the kids of today less sympathetic or empathetic towards others. I also said that I didn't think that they should have Any games that Taylor, (our 4 year old), can't play. After all, they all play in each others rooms and any games would be too accessible to him.

Rusty agreed and he went to talk to Harrison about it. Harrison looked at Rusty and said, "You gave into her didn't ya?" Rusty said, "Noooooo! We discussed it and came to an agreement."

Now why is my child's first reaction to BLAME ME??????

What's Up With THAT??? LOL!

Lu

Pieces of Me . . . . .

2007-04-15T14:00:00.000-05:00

In early December, 2001 we found out that I was pregnant with our third child. Since we had not planned on having any more children, we call him our "Happy Lil Surprise!"

In January, 2002 my older sister by 2 years, (who was only 37 at the time), found out that she had breast cancer. My heart sank when she told me. She was basically the only immediate family that I had left, (and my Best friend after my husband), and now I was scared to death of loosing her too.

It was a very hard time in our family with me being pregnant and my sister going through surgery and chemo therapy and all of the side effects that go along with it. I have to say though that my sister is one of the bravest people that I know. She only cried a little in the beginning, and then she became this tough fighter, and she continues to fight today.

My sister's husband obviously couldn't handle taking care of a cancer patient. He began having an affair which continues to this day. My sister refuses to get a divorce, because she still believes that their marriage can be saved. So she and my niece live alone and her husband has visitation with their daughter.

My sister is now a 5 year cancer survivor and she will see my youngest child, Taylor, turn 5 this year. She has been through so much in her life. I pray every day that the Lord will shine his blessings down on her so that she may finally live a life of peace & happiness.

Lu

Another Animation . . . .LOL!

2007-04-15T01:00:00.000-05:00

I made this a couple of years ago using a picture from our wedding, which was 9 years ago.

Animation . . . .

2007-04-15T00:36:00.000-05:00

This is a simple drawing, but a complex animation that I created about a year ago. :o)

Cat Gone WILD . . . .AGAIN!!!!

2007-04-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it Check Out, "Cat Gone WILD . . . ." The First Occurrence!!!

I just don't get what is wrong with our cat Buddy. He attacked me AGAIN for the second time in less than two weeks.

Once again it indirectly involved our new puppy, Bizzy. I let Bizzy outside with Duke, who is her big buddy now. After about 15 or 20 minutes had passed, I heard her hollering outside. I jumped up and ran to the back door to get her, when I felt something hit the back of my calf. I turned around and saw Buddy crouched down behind me, hissing!!! He had chased me across the house and bit the back of my calf, leaving 4 nice, embedded tooth marks and a HUGE bruise.

Rusty said that we have give him up now, but I just can't. We have had Buddy for over a year now and he has NEVER done anything like this before.

Is he going crazy? Is it that he just can't take any kind of excitement, like a puppy hollering or someone frantically running through the house? What? What is going on with him?

Lu

The O'Reilly Factor . . . .

2007-04-13T05:01:00.000-05:00

Michell Malkin filled in for Bill O'Reilly yesterday while he was away receiving an award. The following is what she had to contend with . . .and I am still fuming about it. I just don't get the double standard that people are trying to sell, or should I say trying to Shove Down Our Throats.

Opio Sokoni said that the use of all this bigoted, foul mouthed name calling of today is the fault of the "White Slave Traders."

The last time I checked, there were NO Slave Traders running around today! Did someone forget to give me the Memo?

People can't keep blaming the problems of today on all of the dead white people of the past. There comes a time that you just have to, plain and simple, accept the blame and the consequences for your own actions. You Do It . . .You Say It . . .You Own It . . .PERIOD!!!

AND that member of the Black Panther Party called Michelle a "Political Prostitute" who was working for a sexist, racist . . .ect, man like Bill O'Reilly.

I despise this kind of name calling. It makes me ill to hear anyone talk this way about others. However, what I hate more is the fact that we have people going around saying things like "White Slave Traders," "Political Prostitute," "White Crackers," and "Honky" and they believe that everyone is supposed to be just fine with that, and all the while they are just waiting and daring anyone else to make an inappropriate remark.

I'm So sorry, but it does Not work that way. You can't run around Being a racist and then Cry racist when it suits your Own purpose.

You know, maybe Someone should have led the charge against Don Imus, but it certainly should NOT have been Jessie Jackson & Al Sharpton. They are two of the most RACIST people that I have ever seen! How can they in good conscience lead a moral charge of Racism against ANYONE when they are More Racist than Anyone. Feel free to tell them that they are not fooling anyone with their hypocrisy.

Lu

Nancy Pelosi

2007-04-11T11:47:00.000-05:00

I have to say that Nancy Pelosi scares me to death.

It is not the fact that she went to Syria, it's the fact that she went knowing that the President did not want her to go. People may not want to believe it, but this kind of behavior sends a very strong message to the World. The US is a country Divided! The US is a country that is turning on itself! We may have our differences, but is this really the message that we want to send to the WORLD!?!?

AND NOW I hear that she is wanting to go and visit with the president of Iran?????? The man who wants to wipe Israel & the US off the face of the earth???? The man who is providing weapons, bombs and training to the insurgents in Iraq so that they can kill OUR Troops???? What is she thinking????

Don't think for one second that these countries don't take the image of one of the United States highest ranking officials and plaster it all over their airways to deliver political propaganda to their own people.

She has thrown the punch that has given the US a HUGE Black Eye!! This is a total embarrassment for our country.

OH . . .And Now she won't even entertain talking to the President about funding for the troops??? I was under the impression that it is her JOB to discuss and debate such things in order to get bills passed. She has this, "It's My Way, Or The Highway!!," attitude that is seriously hurting our country.

BOTH sides must Work Together! They Must Find A Way! Or else what is left for us??

Lu

Cat Gone WILD!!! . . . . .

2007-04-10T15:15:00.000-05:00

This happened a week ago this past Sunday, but I am just now recovering from the shock.

Last Sunday Evening we were getting ready to sit down to supper, so we put our new puppy, "Bizzy," in her little kennel so that she wouldn't beg at the table.

Shortly after we sat down to dinner, Bizzy started screaming and hollering like she was Badly hurt. I ran over to the kennel and saw that she hand gotten the hook from the stretch band that the original owner had placed around the kennel hooked behind her back teeth and she could not get loose.

Well I was on my hands and knees trying to get her loose, when Buddy, (our grey long haired cat) lost his mind and ATTACKED ME!!! It felt like I had been shot in the eye and blood was going everywhere. Rusty wanted to check on me, but I told him NO . . .that he needed to get Bizzy loose first.

He finally got her loose, checked her over and discovered that she was not really hurt but had scared herself more than anything.

So Now we both had to go and check on my face and my eye. Buddy had bitten me in the face and had caught my Eye with his teeth and then made a really nasty gash right under my eye. It took me a couple of days to be able to open my eye because is just hurt too bad. I was beginning to wonder if he put my eye out altogether.

Now Buddy has always been a bit of a grumpy cat . . .but he has always been ALL BLUFF . . .Never actually biting anyone . . .Just acting like he wanted to. So Why On Earth did he attack me while Bizzy was hollering??? I thought maybe he thought that I was hurting her . . .BUT . . .Buddy doesn't even like Bizzy! LOL! So I am at a total loss as to why he would do such a thing.

In any case, I'm healing ok, I guess, and I'm starting to pet Buddy again. I just wish I knew what in the world made him attack me.

Unreal!!

Lu

A Lovely Day . . . . . . .

2007-04-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

We had a Wonderful Easter Sunday Yesterday.

We drove about 2 hours south, just past Memphis, to the home of Rusty's sister. We thought that it was going to be a small gathering, but when we got there we discovered it was more of a Family Reunion for Rusty's family. LOL!

After a Huge lunch, we all filtered outside where the kids went out onto the peer over the pond to fish, (the fish were thrown back after being caught), while the adults walked around the Huge yard and enjoyed an all around great visit.

Once the fishing became a bit of a bore for the kids, it was time to hide around 130 eggs for the younger children. Most of the eggs were candy filled plastic eggs with just a few real eggs mixed in. Poor lil Darcy didn't want to hunt eggs at first because the last time that she hunted for eggs at school, she didn't find a single one because the other kids would race her to the eggs when she found them and she was so embarrassed. Darcy is such a shy and polite child that I'm not surprised that she would back out of the way if she thought that another child was going for the same egg that she was. Once, during one of her very first basketball games, she told me that she just couldn't try to take the ball away from the other girls because she thought that it was just RUDE!! LOL! Yes . . .we had to have a serious discussion on this! LOL! After talking to her a bit and assuring her that she would have a Great Easter Egg Hunt this year . . .she finally agreed . . .and Guess what . . .Mom and Dad were Right! She had a GREAT Time and found a ton of eggs!

After the hunt was over all of the kids started taking turns riding a small 4-wheeler slowly around the yard, usually 3 at a time. It didn't concern me much because they were going slowly and they were staying within eyesight of the adults. Rusty and I were visiting with his cousin when I happened to look up to see my three children riding the 4-wheeler. Taylor was in the front, Harrison was in the middle and driving and Darcy was in the back. THIS did concern me because I knew that Harrison had never driven a 4-wheeler before. Rusty and I both started walking towards them and putting up our hands, trying to motion Harrison to stop. Well I guess he thought we were calling him to us, so he sped up and with a turn too sharp, he tipped the dang thing over, throwing all of them onto the ground. Rusty & I took off running, (I ran right outta my shoes! LOL!). When we got there . . .Darcy was Laughing, Harrison had jammed his thumb and was a bit worried about how much trouble he might be in and poor lil Taylor was scuffed up on his face and side, scared to death and crying huge crock tears. I scooped him up and he squeezed my neck so tight I don't believe that he could have been pried loose.

Well . . .After all of this excitement . . .Rusty and I were both ready to call it a day and come home. So we started the Hour & a Half long goodbye as we made our way to the car. I love Rusty's family . . .but they so tickle me with the long goodbye thing. First you have to hug Everyone . . .then you have to visit a few more minutes . . . .then they feel like you have been there long enough that you have to hug and say bye all over again! LOL! OH . . .and it doesn't help when we are almost ready to get into the car and Taylor asks, "Mama, can I show everyone my new cars?" Of course I said yes . . . .and he dumps around 50 cars out on the ground for everyone to see. LOL! Well, this reminded Rusty's 25 year-old nephew, Andy, that he had a box full of old match-box cars, from when he was a small child, in the back of his truck. So he went and got them out of his truck and gave them to Taylor. These old cars are such a treasure to Taylor. He has played with nothing else since Andy gave them to him. What a great young man Andy is. He has always been so good with my kids.

An Overall Fantastic Day . . .With only one lil Uh-Oh! LOL!

Lu

Just My Opinion . . . .

2007-04-09T00:50:00.000-05:00

OK . . .I have heard all of the recent talk regarding comments made by Rosie O'Donnell and the response made by Bill O'Reilly.

I do agree that the clip of Rosie talking about WTC7 should have been the complete sentence that she made. Had they included the entire sentence, people would have heard that although she did believe that WTC7 was taken down by explosives, that she had No Idea Who could have done it. Rosie may indeed believe that our own government conspired to take down WTC7 . . . .I personally believe that the questions that she poses are very leading in that direction . . . .but none of us know for sure that this is what Rosie believes . . .for these words have not come from Rosie's lips.

As a Big fan of FOX News, I have to say that you dropped the ball on some of the responses made in regards to what Rosie said.

NOW . . .On the flip side of this coin. Rosie did state as Fact that the British planned all along for their own military personnel to be taken as hostages by Iran in order to give the US & Britain a valid reason to go to war with Iran.

I personally find this an outrageous idea and can't fathom ever saying such a thing myself unless I had some facts, Any facts, to back it up.

I can find no fault with any FOX News responses regarding the British Hostages.

We must all realize that it is Rosie's job to state her Opinion . . .NOT the News . . .Her Opinion. As outrageous as we may believe some of her statements to be, they are just her Opinion.

Bill O'Reilly's job is to cover News . . .throw his opinion out there . . . .and usually have someone on his show who opposes his opinion. As I stated at the beginning of this post, it's not perfect, but it is the most fair and balanced news channel I have found that almost Always represents All sides of any story. I don't watch the news 24/7, so I can't say 100% Always. . . .but I can say that when I Have watched All sides are represented. It makes for balanced viewing that Anyone can watch no matter which side of the fence you sit on.

From the clips that I have seen of The View, Elisabeth's views do oppose Rosie's . . . .BUT . . .Poor Elisabeth can't hold her own against Rosie. Rosie is a very outspoken person, and Elisabeth can't get a word in edgewise. Don't get me wrong . . .I think that being outspoken can be a very good thing. . . .BUT . . .In order for The View to be a Fair and Balanced show, they need someone EQUALLY outspoken who opposes Rosie's views. It would not only take the one-sidedness out of the equation, it would make the show so much more interesting.

As far as the Bill & Rosie thing goes, this is how I see it. She exercised her freedom of speech . . .then he exercised his. Now you are free to exercise yours too. LOL! Some say that Rosie's statements are irresponsible . . . .maybe so . . .but I give people the credit for having the intelligence to decide this for themselves.

There are many things that I DO admire about Rosie and there are a few issues that I do agree with her on. There are also Many issues where we couldn't possibly see things more differently . . . . .BUT . . . . .That is what makes the world go round.

What actual good does it do to get Angry and Hate someone because they do not think as you do? Oh yes . . .Sometimes I just don't get it when people don't see things the way that I do . . . .But Hey . . .They may feel the same way about me. LOL! I don't see that as a reason to get angry and hate.

A friend once told me that to get Angry and Show your Temper is a CHOICE that you make. You can just as easily CHOOSE NOT to get angry. A very hard lesson that I have learned over the years is that when I get angry, I am the person who gets hurt the most.

When you are angry you tend to become illogical and rant. You say things that you don't mean and that you can't take back. You probably also give yourself a headache and expel all of your energy in this awful emotion, leaving yourself totally drained and exhausted. I don't always succeed . . . .but for the most part . . .I CHOOSE NOT to get angry.

Here's hoping that the BO & RO issue fades quickly.

Lu

Happy Easter!!

2007-04-08T03:00:00.000-05:00

I hope that you all

have a Wonderful

Easter Sunday today

surrounded by

the Love of

family and

friends and

above all our

Lord and Savior.