The Party of Corporate Interests?

BOTH major Parties are beholden to Corporate interests, and that’s probably to be expected, given the money they can churn out. But for decades, many American voters have believed the Republicans were the “Party of Big Business,” when that really isn’t the case.

How beholden are the Democrats to Corporate interests?

Well, the staid Washington Post noted that, "(Soft) money has become increasingly useful to the parties, and their receipts have surged. In 1980, when soft money was born, Republicans and Democrats combined raised an estimated $19 million, with the GOP collecting the largest share, $15 million, according to Colby College political scientist Anthony Corrado. Two decades later (2000), that total had ballooned to $487 million, split nearly evenly between the two sides. Once a sideline, soft money had become a major part of party financing, accounting for nearly half of the Democratic Party's receipts and more than a third of the GOP's."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20461-2001Mar17?language=printer

There it is, the Democrats, as recently as 2000, relied on Corporate cash for HALF their receipts, while the GOP relied on Corporate cash for a THIRD of theirs!

This year (2007) corporate donors have made a seismic shift since January toward the new Democratic chairmen. In the first six months of this year, political action committees donated $41 million to Democrats, compared with $24 million for Republicans. During the previous year, Republicans received $32 million in PAC contributions, compared with $22 million for the Democrats, the report concluded.

What Happened to “the Alienated America”

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According to the far Left – the Moore-Gore-Soros Axis, “America has alienated the world, leaving us with few friends and more enemies than ever before.”

The MSM takes that on faith, but is it at all true?

Almost a year ago, Germany ousted the Schroeder administration and elected the pro-American Angela Merckel, who has declared among her goals to “make Germany’s economy more like America’s.

Back in May, the Giuliani-like Nikolas Sarkozy swept to victory in France and last month, his Party retained control over the French Parliament. Amon other things, Sarkozy intends to proceed with the promised “masss deportations” of the millions of Muslims now living in France. Australia’s John Howard and Canada’s Stephen Harper are both very pro-American.

Gordon Brown (pictured above), England’s new PM was seen as a last best hope for the “alienated America” chorus, but as Prime Minister Gordon Brown prepared to visit the United States on Sunday, he said he plans to use the trip to strengthen what Britain already considers its "most important bilateral relationship."

"It is a relationship that is founded on our common values of liberty, opportunity and the dignity of the individual," Brown said in a statement. "And because of the values we share, the relationship with the United States is not only strong, but can become stronger in the years ahead."

He denied speculation that the relationship was cooling.

A funny thing happened on the way to this “alienated America,” the rest of the world moved into sync with the Bush policies regarding the global war on terrorism and that bodes well, not only for America but for the West...and for the rest of the world, as well.

More Western governments are beginning to see the very real threat of jihadist terrorism both at home and abroad and here in America, more people are beginning to see the dual threat of global jihadist terror AND the far Left jihadists...”that Moore-Gore-Soros Axis).

Changing Times

The Moon (Lunar eclipse shown left) has been gradually slowing the Earth’s rotation and gradually INCREASING the length of a day on Earth, which could eventually (very eventually) be good news for all those people who "just can't find enough hours in the day."

Some 900 million years ago, an Earth day lasted only EIGHTEEN (18) hours, and an Earth year had 481 calendar days (except there weren't any calanders...a human invention, back then), while some 900 million years from now, at the current rate of change ( appx. 2 seconds every 100,000 years), a single Earth day will be nearly 30 hours long hours and an Earth year will have just 292 days!

http://www.solstation.com/stars/earth.htm

This happens due to what scientist call “tidal effect.”

The same side of the moon always faces Earth because the moon rotates on its axis at the same rate as it revolves around the Earth - about once a month. This is called "synchronous rotation".

Long ago, the moon's rotation rate was much faster, but it was slowed down by the tidal effect. The Earth’s gravitational pull caused a "tide" on the moon, in which the part of the moon closest to Earth tended to bulge outward. Over time, the attraction between the Earth and the moon's moving tidal bulge caused its rotation rate to slow down.

The same thing is now happening to the Earth, but much more slowly - attraction between earth tides and the moon is slowing down the Earth's rotation. The Earth’s rotation has been slowed by about 2 seconds every 100,000 years. Eventually, it will match the moon's revolution rate, and about one billion years from now we'll see the 30 hour day and one day in the far distant future one day will become equal in length to a current month. Yikes! 360 hours of daylight followed by 360 hours of darkness...that'd be tough to take.

One of America’s BEST Writers...

...Is Vince Flynn, who writes about CIA operative Mitch Rapp, with extremely accurate detail and great insights into current events on the global war on jihadist terror. Flynn is a writer in the mold of Tom Clancy, though Mitch Rapp, Dr. Irene Kennedy, Senator Hank Clark are as compelling a cast of characters as any you’re likely to ever come across in such novels.

His Mitch Rapp novels make great summer reading;

Third Option

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Option-Vince-Flynn/dp/B000066TQ6/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3

Act of Treason

http://www.amazon.com/Act-Treason-Mitch-Rapp-Novels/dp/0743270371/ref=sr_1_2/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185584857&sr=1-2

Consent to Kill

http://www.amazon.com/Consent-Kill-Thriller-Mitch-Novels/dp/1416505016/ref=sr_1_3/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3

Memorial Day

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416548009/sr/ref=pd_cp_b_0/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_r=1ZKGGQM67Z6FGYGRY42J&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=252362401&pf_rd_i=1416505016

Executive Power

http://www.amazon.com/Executive-Power-Vince-Flynn/dp/0743453964/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3

Transfer of Power

http://www.amazon.com/Transfer-Power-Vince-Flynn/dp/1416516352/ref=pd_sim_b_2/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3

Term Limits

http://www.amazon.com/Term-Limits-Vince-Flynn/dp/1416516344/ref=pd_sim_b_4/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3

Separation of Power

http://www.amazon.com/Separation-Power-Vince-Flynn/dp/0671047345/ref=pd_sim_b_2/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&qid=1185585052&sr=1-3

AND Coming October 30, 2007;


Protect and Defend

http://www.amazon.com/Protect-Defend-Thriller-Vince-Flynn/dp/074327041X/ref=sr_1_1/002-3336864-9453631?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185585781&sr=1-1

There isn't a bad choice in the group, though Memorial Day is a favorite of mine.

More “Nothing to See Here”

As Michael Moore and the far Left still insist, “There is NO terrorist threat.” It’s not the adherents of “the religion of peace” we have to worry about, according to these folks, but war-mongering Americans.

A July 20th Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Bulletin told Airport security officers around the nation to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, after four curious seizures at airports since last September.

The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the TSA to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies.

The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern."

Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that look like improvised explosive device components."

The four seizures were described this way:

• San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person — either a citizen or a foreigner legally here — checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

• Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person's carryon baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.

• Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals and pipes.

• Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

Kos Goes Nuclear on O’Reilly

Recently Bill O’Reilly was instrumental in getting Jet Blue to drop its sponsorship for the Yearly Kos Convention and has highlighted the hypocrisy of many moderate and Liberal, though not far Left, Dems who’re planning to attend the event. Democrats, like Hillary Clinton, who are regularly lambasted in the Kos comments section.

Now Kos is going after O’Reilly....hard.

O’Reilly claims his moderators scrub his board of vile, vulgar comments and personal attacks. Now O'Reilly is charging that some Kossocks are posting comments on his board and claiming they’re from O’Reilly members in an escalating war between the two sides.

Interestingly enough, one Kossock recently attributed the quotes that other Kossocks claimed were from posters on O’Reilly’s board to O’Reilly himself; “Last week, the falafel-loving Bill O'Reilly declared a jihad against "the" Daily Kos, declaring it a hate site on par with the Nazis and the KKK.

"And in keeping with his non-existent journalistic standards, he produced random posts that he mined from the thousands of comments made here everyday...check that. He had had some low-level intern search for examples of hate from the thousands of comments made here everyday and presented them as representative of Daily Kos.

"Well, what's good for the goose is good for the fried balls of spiced fava beans. Here, presented for your consideration, are some deep thoughts from the denizens of billoreillydotcom, and following the logic of Bill O'Reilly, it means that:

"Bill O'Reilly advocates an armed rebellion against our government:

"Harry Reid playing politics? I wonder who's pulling his strings... I am ready for the new surge. Oh Keep your guns loaded. Mine are.

"If she wins which hopefully she won't. My guns are loaded for the revolt are yours??
"President Hillary Rodham Clinton no way I am keeping my guns loaded if she is elected because there will be a civil war."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/25/14044/5057

Well, all this brought me back to a relatively recent furor involving the far Left and Bill O’Reilly. On June 4th, O’Reilly took the NY Times to task for failing to cover the recently busted “JFK Terror Plot” on page 1, as most news organs around the country had done.
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A friend of mine emailed me that a website charmingly named oreilly-sucks.com had posted that they'd caught O'Reilly in a lie. I was skeptical when I saw the name of the site, but checked it out and found this;

"6-5-07 -- Last night Bill O'Reilly devoted an entire segment to attacking the NY Times for not covering the arrests made in the JFK airport terrorist plot on the front page...

..."One problem there Billy, the New York Times did cover the JFK terror plot on the front page of its Sunday edition. You wouldn't know it from watching O'Reilly, who chose to show only the top half of the front page. "Now I'm not making this up," he told his viewers. "You see it. This is not the Colbert Report. This is The Factor and this is the fact."

"But his fact is a lie, and he was making it up, he literally made it up, here is what Billy had on the screen." (they showed the front page of the 6-3-07 Sunday NY Times, above the fold)

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/oreillynytimeslie.htm

Well, I still had the Sunday NY Times of 6/3/07 at that time and when I saw that story and guess what?

The NY Times DID NOT cover the story on the front page, below the fold or anywhere else!

Except Bill O'Reilly DID make a technical error. The story was NOT on page A-37, but on A-30.

The folks at oreilly-sucks.com even had a NY Times front page pictured, but it's largely unreadable, though I wouldn't be surprised if they photoshopped the page A-30 article onto their online front page.

Ironically enough, they were undermined by the old "Gray Lady" herself, when the NY Times acknowledged not putting the story on page one and rationalized their reasons for doing so, shortly after this dust up.

Even other NYC newpapers noticed. The NY Post wrote a piece on that curious bit of journalism that went;

GRAY LADY, GRIM AGENDA

"June 5, 2007 -- Terror plot? What terror plot? That's what The New York Times seems to be asking, even as most news outlets are giving front-page coverage to the recently foiled scheme to blow up JFK Airport's fuel pipeline.

"The paper's goal seems to be getting America to lower its guard - which can only lead to disaster.

"The suspects were "Short on Cash / And a Long Way From Realizing Goals," one Times headline insisted yesterday. Regarding two of the men arrested, a second headline asserted that "Neither Seemed an Extremist."

"Indeed, on Sunday the paper barely covered the arrests of three suspects behind the plot: Its main story appeared A-37 pages back. A second piece undermined the significance of that story: "Plot Was Unlikely To Work, Experts Say, Citing Safeguards and Pipeline Structure."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06052007/postopinion/editorials/gray_lady__grim_agenda_editorials_.htm

OK, they, like Limbaugh and O'Reilly had the page wrong (A-37), although that makes me wonder whether it was different pages in different editions.
But Brian Maloney over at the radioequalizer got it right;

IT WAS ON PAGE A30

"After their assertion was refuted even by the New York Times itself, a nasty attack by liberal bloggers against conservative talk show hosts has backfired.

"After Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and other hosts lambasted the Sunday New York Times for burying news of the JFK terror plot bust, Think Progress, News Hounds and other lefties accused them of lying.

"By claiming the story actually was covered on page one and even asserting that O'Reilly intentionally misled viewers by showing only the top part of the page on camera, these smear sites were truly pulling a fast one.

"While Limbaugh said JFK terrorism plot coverage was found on page A30, O'Reilly says he found it on A37.

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2007/06/rush-limbaugh-bill-oreilly-jfk-terror.html


After seeing a number of egregious misrepresentations from these sites, I'm convinced they weren't just "pulling a fast one," as Brian said, but were engaged in something far more deliberate and malicious, and very possibly civilly actionable.

That story was my introduction to such "websites" and as I suspected, judging by many of their names, I expected very little and wasn't disappointed.

Suffice to say, if such people would lie about such an obvious and easily provable issue (whether or not the NY Times covered the “JFK Terror Plot” on page A-1 -they did not), then they’d almost certainly lie about ANYthing.

Whether they realize it or not, these bloggers are open to civil litigation and the attorney's I know all seem to feel that that would be a wise course in some of the more egregious cases, as it wouldn't merely stand a real chance of winning damages for the accused, even if it didn't, it would cost the defendant in legal fees.

You can't leave off any qualifiers, or intros when quoting someone, for instance, if O'Reilly said, "While I'm against the death penalty, there are times when I'd support the death penalty for pedophiles and not lethal injection, the very prolonged and painful deaths, their acts warrant," it is civilly actionable to say "That O'Reilly said, 'I'd support the death penalty for pedophiles and not lethal injection, the very prolonged and painful death, their acts warrant.' " The fact that that snippet is in there does not shield that deliberate, egregious and obviously malicious misquote from civil action. In fact, THAT kind of misquote, the kind that changes the entire meaning of what the commentator said is demonstrably and overtly malicious and very probably opens the person doing the misquoting to civil litigation.

When a person misquotes another individually that egregiously and that maliciously the consensus is that that may well reach the level of proving "deliberate, malicious intent" and leave that person liable to substantial civil damages.

Up to this point O'Reilly and others have adhered to the strategy that ignoring these folks is the best possible strategy, as it denies them the attention they seek, but now that he's engaged Kos (over Jet Blue) , that attention is a moot point, so that strategy may no longer be sound.

O'Reilly acknowledges that the U.S. "must confront the Islamic jihadists," well, it's becoming increasingly clear that people like O'Reilly have to confront the Liberal jihadists here at home.

I ALMOST Can’t Believe It’s NOT News

When Cindy Sheehan was calling Bush and Cheney “war criminals” and comparing the current administration to the Third Reich, while ironically enough cuddling up to a real, honest-to-God totalitarian dictator (Hugo Chavez) THAT was big news, but now that the same Cindy Sheehan is saying things like, “The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th century, except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal income taxes, not one but two World Wars, Japanese concentration camps, and not one but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan -- all brought to us via the Democrats,” now she finally deserves to be ignored?!

Yeah, NOW, now that she’s bashing Dems, she’s deranged!

SEE: http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/188797.php

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/07/23/mother-sheehan-democrats-are-the-party-of-war-slavery-and-nuclear-holocaust/

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/234612.php#234612