Obama: Fed Gov't Should Stop "Poking Its Nose Into What States Are Doing"

Suddenly, the President is a states' rights kind of guy. Sort of.

At his news conference yesterday, the president said this:

"And so we’ve said we cannot defend the federal government poking its nose into what states are doing. . .

Of course, that wasn't the end of the sentence. Here it is:

". . . and putting the thumb on the scale against same-sex couples."

Funny how that works.

What states do concerning illegal alien problems, health insurance, industrial activity, Muslim demands for "accommodation," and even what kind of light bulbs state residents can use--well, that's another story.

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No More No Sheeples Here

Alas. With great regret I have removed from Today's Potluck Servings the now-defunct link to one of the Conservative Blogosphere's great lights, No Sheeples Here.

Carol @ No Sheeples Here, one stand-up lady with a BIG heart, has been providing us with her characteristically unstinting supply of on-the-money observations of American political life via her blog posts and original posters, cartoons, videos, and banners.

We laughed, we cried, we seethed, we applauded. We never failed to be amazed.

Now Carol has furled the ever-morphing No Sheeples banner and is taking a break.

We're gonna miss you, girl.

A lot.

A view of cyclists at No Sheeples Here.

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Panis Angelicus (Bread of Angels) - Oksana Lepska

This hymn was written in the mid-13th century by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Cesar Franck's 1872 arrangement is here sung by Oksana Lepska, who was only 14 years of age in 2009 when this video was recorded for Latvian Radio.

Latin: 

Panis angelicus
Fit panis hominum;
Dat panis coelicus
Figuris terminum;
O res mirabilis!
Manducat dominum
Pauper, pauper
Servus et humilis.

English:

Bread of Angels
That becomes the bread for all mankind;
Heavenly Bread
That is the end of all imaginings.
Oh, miraculous thing!
This Body of God will nourish
Even the poorest,
The most humble of servants.

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Ready to Return to a Strong America? John Bolton for President

How about a genuinely intelligent, vastly knowledgeable, truly experienced in foreign-relations, America-first patriot as president? John R. Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is considering a run for the presidency, and he says he'll make up his mind by Labor Day.  I hope he throws his hat into the ring.

A few Bolton quotes from the National Review Online:

“It is important that we are prepared to defend [Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget], even if that is not ultimately the adopted plan."

“We should not be seduced by momentary swings in public opinion. It has been a rock of conservative policy that we protect the national interest, whether it’s popular or unpopular. If we deviate from that, just because it’s politically opportune to do so, we are really making a mistake.”

“What I am in favor of is destroying the Taliban and al-Qaeda’s capability to wage war. Doing that does not require creating a Jeffersonian, democratic regime in Kabul and eliminating corruption countrywide, because we are not going to do either of those two things. It means defeating the enemy.”

“I think that Ronald Reagan had it right, being against abortion except in certain limited, defined circumstances.”

Bolton, who entitled his 2007 book Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad (a bargain for $10.80 @ amazon.com), has been a severe critic of what he termed the "failed approach to national security issues characterizing [Obama's] administration from the outset." Not surprisingly, Bolton is no fan of "Mr. Obama’s aversion to U.S. leadership and his decision to retreat behind the facade of NATO and the U.N. Security Council." About Libya, Bolton wrote in The Washington Times:

No one was fooled about America’s continuing central role militarily, but the charade has impeded finishing the job. Mr. Obama’s weakness and indecisiveness continue to risk having Libya descend into anarchy or split into two states and undercut our credibility and commitment elsewhere. 

The son of a fireman who eventually earned a doctorate in law from Yale, Bolton has proved throughout his long career that he predictably can be called on to favor the creation of unambiguous, no-nonsense objectives.

The ability to get people moving to fulfill unambiguous, no-nonsense objectives is called leadership.

After decades of pouring American dignity and treasure down the tubes in pursuit of will-o'-the-wisp, la-la-land, hopey-changey impossible-to-achieve progressive objectives, the people of this country desperately need to be brought together by a principled leader to work toward a few unambiguous, no-nonsense objectives.

It's what we do best.
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My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me - Adam Forsythe & Southern Sound

Happy Father's Day!
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Anthony "The Package" Weiner Drives an Uninspected, Unregistered Vehicle . . .

with plates switched out from another car. Those plates didn't expire in the last month or so -- they expired with the ringing in of the year 2006.

The discovery was made when the NY Daily News photographed Anthony Weiner "fleeing the Capitol in his Nissan Pathfinder," exposing the vehicle's expired registration sticker, expired plates, and lack of inspection sticker.

Anthony Weiner, who hopes to continue passing laws for the rest of us to follow and taxes for the rest of us to pay, maintained that Pathfinder was registered in New York State, however:

Driving a car with expired plates, let alone those pulled off another vehicle, meant Weiner's Pathfinder was unregistered, according to the DMV.

"Switching around license plates is what criminals do," noted a retired Brooklyn accident investigator. . . .

Details, details.

H/t: theblogprof
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On Flag Day: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

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News Flash: NY Public Employee Union Prez Notices That "Government Has Failed"!

At least that's the stated view of the president of the Civil Service Employees Union (CSEU), Danny Donahue.

Talk about coming late to the party. Nearly half of Americans already have concluded that the U.S. is likely to experience another Great Depression in the next year, about the same number of Americans who live in households where someone has lost a job or fears they soon will lose a job.

Now New York's Democrat Governor, Andrew Cuomo, is threatening to lay off nearly 10,000 state workers starting on July 15 unless their unions agree to a list of painful demands, including no across-the-board raises for four years; a 25%-35% raise in costs for health insurance coverage for dependents; huge increases in co-pays for medical treatments and prescription drugs; and even a $25-per-month charge to each public worker who smokes ($50 if the worker's spouse/domestic partner also smokes). All that plus a revised, more expensive pension plan for new hires who will retire at age 65 instead of age 62 or (in the case of teachers) age 57.

Ouch!

Cuomo looks like he is playing hardball, even with the Public Employees Federation (PEF) that endorsed him. (The CSEU remained neutral prior to the gubernatorial election.) The heads of New York's state agencies have been given until today to prepare for the threatened layoffs by providing lists of specific jobs to be eliminated.

Cuomo's rationale for the cuts is that "annual pension costs have ballooned over the last decade from $368 million to $6.6 billion outside New York City, and from $1.1 billion to $8.4 billion in the city."

Danny Donahue had a few choice words in reply:

"This is obscene. It's an attempt by the governor to make people frightened. Well, you've done that. You've gotten people frightened, but you've also identified yourself as the biggest bully on the block. . . . In my humble opinion, layoffs mean the government has failed. Layoffs mean the governor has failed because there has to be a better way."

A union president is calling a Democrat the "biggest bully on the block?" That's news.

"When," asked Donahue, "did a cafeteria worker, or a school bus driver, or someone cleaning the street become the enemy?"

Let me venture an answer to your question, Mr. Donahue. About the same time that a plumber did.

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Come Holy Spirit - Soulblackout

This Gregorian chant, Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Creator Spirit), has been passed down to us from the 9th century. Thanks to Soulblackout for a very moving performance of this sacred prayer.

Latin

Veni, Creator Spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita, Imple superna gratia, Quae Tu creasti pectora.

Qui diceris Paraclitus, Altissimi donum Dei, Fons Vivus, Ignis, Caritas,
Et spiritalis unctio.

Tu septiformis munere, Digitus paternae dexterae, Tu rite promissum Patris Sermone ditans guttura.

Accende lumen sensibus, Infunde amorem cordibus; Infirma nostri corporis,
Virtute firmans perpeti.

Hostem repellas longius, Pacemque dones protinus; Ductore sic te previo,
Vitemus omne noxium.

Per te sciamus da Patrem, Noscamus atque Filium Teque utriusque Spiritum,
Credamus omni tempore.

Deo Patri sit gloria, Et Filio, qui a mortuis Surrexit, ac Paraclito,
In saeculorum saecula.

Amen.

English

Come Holy Spirit, Creator, come from Your bright heavenly throne, come take possession of our souls and make them all Your own.

You Who are called Paraclete [Comforter, Uplifter, Advocate], blest gift of God above, the Living Spring, the Living Fire, Sweet Unction, and True love.

You Who are sevenfold in Your grace, finger of God's Right Hand; His promise, teaching little ones to speak and understand.

O guide our minds with Your blest light, with love our hearts inflame; and with strength, which never decays, confirm our mortal frame.

Far from us drive our deadly foe; true peace unto us bring; and through all perils, lead us safe beneath Your Sacred Wing.

Through You may we the Father know; through You the Eternal Son, and You the Spirit of them both, thrice-blessed Three in One.

All glory to the Father be, with his co-equal Son: the same to You, Great Paraclete, While endless ages run.

Amen.

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Trivia Pursuit: How Many New Jobs Did Legal Immigrants Absorb in May?

I love me some interesting trivia.

Here's a tidbit you can offer to your liberal friends this weekend, via Mark Steyn:

In May, the U.S. economy added just 54,000 jobs. For the purposes of comparison, that same month over 100,000 new immigrants arrived in America. 

Wait, there's more:

. . . according to an analysis by Morgan Stanley, half the new jobs created were at McDonald's. 

 
McDonalds--that's one of the first companies that got an ObamaCare waiver so it could "create jobs."

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Supreme Court Ruling Orders US Citizens to Move Over for Illegals

Looks like the Supreme Court wants young Americans to stay in their own states--or else pay a penalty for studying in another state. On the other hand, young Mexicans, Somalis, Guatemalans, and Yemenis who are living in the US illegally are welcome to see the USA at American expense.

Interesting.

Stilton Jarlsberg said it well:

On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld a California law that gives the children of illegal immigrants huge college tuition discounts, while denying those savings to those filthy rotten young good-for-nothing citizens who come from out-of-state.

Those U.S. citizens will have to cough up as much as $20,000 more...in part, to help pay for the students who are here illegally.

Remember a long, long time ago when kids were taught "crime doesn't pay" in hopes that fewer of them would grow up to be criminals? Well, those days are long gone. Now kids see illegal behavior being rewarded while those who "play by the rules" are penalized by the system, mocked as chumps, or branded as racists and xenophobes if they protest.

The other eleven states that prefer educating citizens of other countries living in the U.S. illegally to educating citizens of the U.S. whose families helped build the country (and whose family members often died for it) are:  Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

Si se puede.
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Video: Today's Awe-Inspiring Solar Eruption

From spaceweather.com:

Flares produce a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays.

This spectacular event, which started about 3:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, lasted for about 3 hours. Don't worry, though. It was an M-class flare, which, believe it or not, is considered a medium-sized flare likely to cause only brief radio blackouts in Earth's polar regions.

This particular flare is accompanied by a proton storm also classified as "minor," that is, the radiation might have a minor impact on satellite operations, cause weak fluctuations in the power grid, and affect migratory animals. People in northern Michigan and Maine and points north can expect to be treated to beautiful aurora borealis displays, weather permitting.

Want to know more? Go here.
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30,000 Participate in Fifth Avenue Parade to Salute Israel

From Atlas Shrugs. It's good to see.

In a glorious show of love and affection for the tiny Jewish state, tens of thousands descended upon Fifth Avenue to salute Israel today [Sunday, June 5]. An estimated thirty thousand people took part in the annual Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City, the largest number of participants ever in the parade, which has been held every year since 1964.

Question: How many of these people will support and vote for Barack Hussein Obama in 2012?

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Great is Thy Faithfulness--Fernando Ortega

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You Mean You Can't? Idiot Socialist Pipe Dreams vs. Real World Paychecks . . . .

There's nothing like a huge excess supply of labor due to rampant unemployment and a shift in hiring from good-paying construction and manufacturing jobs to lower-paying social work and nursing home jobs to put a damper on employed Americans' chances of earning more money this year (in terms of buying power) than 10 years ago.

Even during the Great Depression, Americans who had jobs and kept them managed bigger real wage gains, on average, than their counterparts today. (H/t: Investor's Business Daily.)

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One of these riders is not like the others . . .

And that's the one currently representing the power and prestige of our beloved United States of America.

(Courtesy of that intrepid observer and patriot, No Sheeples Here.)
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