Cowboy rules

Cowboy rules for:

Arizona, Texas ,   Oklahoma,     Colorado , New Mexico , Wyoming , Montana , Utah, Idaho, Nebraska and the rest of the Wild West are as follows (This includes transplants): 1. Pull your pants up.  You look like an idiot. 2. Turn your cap right, your head ain't crooked. 3. Let's get this straight: it's called a 'gravel road.' I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're gonna get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way. 4. They are cattle. That's why they smell like cattle. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-10 & I-40 go east and west, I-17 & I-15 goes north and south. Pick one and go. 5. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 Combines that are driven only 3 weeks a year. 6. Every person in the Wild West waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept. 7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of geese/pheasants/ducks/doves are comin' in during a hunt, we WILL shoot it outta your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time. 8. Yeah. We eat trout, salmon, deer and elk. You really want sushi and caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop. 9. The 'Opener' refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November. 10. We open doors for women. That's applied to all women, regardless of age. 11. No, there's no 'vegetarian special' on the menu. Order steak, or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham and turkey.  12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup! Oh, yeah ... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat ... IT AIN'T REAL CHILI!! 13. You bring 'Coke' into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring 'Mary Jane' into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair. 14. College and High School Football is as important here as the Giants, the Yankees, the Mets, the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch. 15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards - it spooks the fish. 16. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump  ain't music, anyway. We don't want to hear it anymore than we want to see your boxers! Refer back to #1! A true Westerner will send this to at least 10 others and a few new friends that probably won't get it, but we're friendly so we share in hopes you can begin to understand what a real life is all about!!!

"I owe these unions."

"I owe these unions."
President Barack Obama couldn't have stated it any more clearly.
And after spending a cool BILLION dollars to put their political cronies in positions of power in Washington, D.C., the union bosses couldn't agree more.
They want PAYBACK.
After all, Barack Obama and the rest of Big Labor's allies have already promised, "What Big Labor wants, Big Labor GETS!"

Chaos and Organization in Health Care:

This is from a review by Joseph Rago of Chaos and Organization in Health Care:

Medicare recipients, on average, see seven doctors; patients with coronary artery disease see 10; those with lung cancer, 11. Usually these doctors don’t work together or even coordinate their care, resulting in errors, waste and a lower quality of treatment.

The Constitutionalist

Hi Everyone- Exciting news!!!....we are publishing Colorado Springs' (and surrounding areas) first conservative voice newspaper.  It has come to our attention over and over again and we have decided to proceed.  We will not be "the fair voice" nor will we be the "balanced" paper.  We are going to bring the truth, the facts and we will be the "tell all" on this administration and what is happening in our country. Our monthly newspaper will be called, "The Constitutionalist" and will be distributed all over El Paso, Teller and South Douglas County. Please come to a meeting of the minds on Monday, the 26th of October at Pikes Perk on Vickers and Academy at 10am for brain-storming ideas.  I have emailed all those I think would be contributors and please feel free to bring anybody you think would be an asset to this cause. Email me or call me with any questions you may have before then, otherwise we will see you then! Lana Fore-Warkocz Publisher The Constitutionalist 719.287.8890 lanafore@aol.com

one-liner of the week

"We should stop comparing Obama to Hitler.

Hitler got the Olympics to come to Berlin."

Captain Sullenberger III

"We need to try to do the right thing every time, to perform at our best, because we never know what moment in our lives we'll be judged on."  Chesley B. Sullenberger III

Quote of the Day

Oct 13, 2009
by John Goodman

I don’t believe that we can force vulnerable kids into private coverage. That’s what we’d be doing. They’d lose that special kind of defined benefit that comes under Medicaid…You cannot do that. They have requirements that you have to meet and can only be met through Medicaid, not in the exchange, where they’re at the mercy of people that will have them for lunch…

— Sen. Jay Rockefeller

Personally, I think Sen. Rockefeller’s health is also too important to be left to the private marketplace. Let’s enroll him in Medicaid.

America's Ten questions about Health Care reform

Quote of the Day

Sickness, poverty, and obesity are spun together in a dense web of reciprocal causality. Anyone who’s fat is more likely to be poor and sick. Anyone who’s poor is more likely to be fat and sick. And anyone who’s sick is more likely to be poor and fat.

       — Daniel Engber in Slate

Dylan Ratigan On Corporate Communism

Dylan Ratigan On Corporate Communism: "$24 Trillion Of National Capital Is Being Sucked Into A Broken Banking System At Our Expense"

• "The beneficiaries of an ongoing $24 trillion taxpayer-funded bailout...$24 trillion dollars."

• "That is national capital that is being sucked into a broken banking system at the expense of the rest of our country.  They continue to use "Too Big To Fail" as blackmail to the taxpayer in order to get us to provide capital to them."

• "It is a system that takes resources from the citizenry and redistributes it to a tiny elite."

• "A handful of weak, un-competitive, outdated companies and industries are purchasing control of the American political system in order to stay in business using their cronyism.

• "It is coming at the direct expense of the rest of us in this nation.  And it's a total betrayal of everything that represents America."

cinematic tea party

I hope you can come and join me at this movie.
It's about the true cost of global warming hysteria.
 The movie will be shown at the Pikes Peak Center.
Sunday Oct. 18th, doors open at 5pm, movie starts at 6pm.
It's in response to Al Gore and his lies about global warming.
  Tickets are free, they can be picked up at the Pikes Peak Center ticket office.
If you let me know you want to come I'll gladly go down and pick up tickets.
Should be a great time around people with the same mind set as you and me.
Call me or email.
Ron

--  Ron's Blog: http://ronincolorado.blogspot.com/

Taxing Health Insurance

Oct 6, 2009

by John Goodman

Under the Senate Finance Committee’s modified chairman’s mark, beginning in 2013, all plans (with a few exceptions) that cost more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families would be subject to a tax of 40% on the excess. Although the tax would be imposed on insurance providers and employers, the burden would be passed on to consumers. This is from the Joint Economic Committee Minority:

If companies seek to maintain absolute profit levels by increasing premiums, the high cost tax of 40% will not only add $1,600 to the cost of a $25,000 plan, but the added $1,600 to the cost of the plan will then be subject to the high cost tax, which will add another $640 to the plan’s cost. This cycle of tax increases followed by premium increases will result in a total increase of $2,667 to a $25,000 plan. Under this scenario, the result is that the stated tax rate of 40% would translate into an effective tax rate of 67%.

John Goodmans health policy blog

Quote of the Day

Oct 5, 2009

by John Goodman

There’s a public option; there’s a public option, and there’s a public option. And we’re gonna look at each of them.

                                                                             — Sen. Harry Reid

The Top Ten Things That Capitalism Has Done For Michael Moore

Michael Moore proclaims "Capitalism did nothing for me."

You're wrong, Michael. Dead wrong. Capitalism has done plenty for you, sport.

1. American Capitalism made your 7,500 calorie per day diet cheaper (and tastier) here than anywhere else in the world.
2. That shirt you're wearing. Polo, by Ralph Lauren. $80 in size XXXL, available at Big and Tall Mens shops nationwide.
3. Horizontal stripes. A guy your size would be locked up in most socialist countries for that fashion faux pas. Probably executed in Italy, France or Sweden.
4. The world's best health care system, good for taking care of behavior-related chronic health care issues like cardio-vascular disease, type II diabetes, and gout.
5. Intellectual property rights are protected under capitalism. (It makes me shudder to refer to your, ahem, body of work as "intellectual property", but there you have it.)
6. If you subtract out the rentals and royalties you've earned from theaters and distributors who are capitalists, you'd be living under a bridge somewhere.
7. Your freedom to ambush corporate CEOs made you rich. You try that stunt with the new owners of GM, and you'll have your kneecaps broken.
8. Or worse, your next movie will be called Jimmy Hoffa and Me.
9. A cushy apartment in Manhattan, the Bolshevik paradise.
10. Most of all, you should be thankful that capitalism has given you an affluent, liberal, self-loathing audience which eagerly laps up your tripe.

Medicaid Numbers Don’t Add Up

FYI | Medicaid Numbers Don’t Add Up

Oct 2, 2009

by John Goodman

This is from a Wall Street Journal editorial:

Currently, the federal government pays about 57 cents out of every dollar the states spend on Medicaid, though the “matching rate” ranges as high as 76% in some states. That would rise to 95% [under the Baucus bill] —but only for five years. After that, who knows? It all depends on which budget Congress ends up ruining. Either the states will be slammed, or Washington will extend these extra payments into perpetuity—despite the fact that CBO expects purely federal spending on Medicaid to consume 5% of GDP by 2035 under current law.

Police use acoustic warfare to disperse crowds

Oct 1, 7:10 AM (ET)

By JOE MANDAK

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Police ordered protesters to disperse at the Group of 20 summit last week with a device that can beam earsplitting alarm tones and verbal instructions that the manufacturer likens to a "spotlight of sound," but that legal groups called potentially dangerous.

The device, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, concentrates voice commands and a car alarm-like sound in a 30- or 60-degree cone that can be heard nearly two miles away. It is about two feet square and mounted on a swivel such that one person can point it where it's needed. The volume measures 140-150 decibels three feet away - louder than a jet engine - but dissipates with distance.

Robert Putnam, spokesman for the manufacturer, San Diego-based American Technology Corp., said it's "like a big spotlight of sound that you can shine on people."

"It's not a sonic cannon. It's not the death ray or anything like that," Putnam said. "It's about long-range communications being heard intelligibly."

During the Pittsburgh protests, police used the device to order demonstrators to disperse and to play a high-pitched "deterrent tone" designed to drive people away. It was the first time the device was used in a riot-control situation on U.S. soil, according to American Technology and police.

Those who heard it said authorities' voice commands were clear and sounded as if they were coming from everywhere all at once. They described the "deterrent tone" as unbearable.

Joel Kupferman, who was at Thursday's march as a legal observer for the National Lawyer's Guild, said he was overwhelmed by the tone and called it "overkill."

"When people were moving and they still continued to use it, it was an excessive use of weaponry," Kupferman said.

Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania, said the device is a military weapon capable of producing permanent hearing loss, something he called "an invitation to an excessive-force lawsuit."

The operator of the device is usually behind it and not in the path of the focused beam of sound.

Catherine Palmer, director of audiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said 140 decibels can cause immediate hearing loss. But there's no way to know if anyone was exposed to sounds that loud without knowing how far away they were, she said.

Putnam and public safety officials said the complaints prove the device worked as designed.

"You have to put your hands over your ears and cover them, and it's difficult to throw stuff," said Ray DeMichiei, deputy director of the city's emergency management agency.

Police said they used the device last Thursday to issue prerecorded warnings to disperse when hundreds of demonstrators, including self-described anarchists, without a protest permit held a march that threatened to turn violent.

Aware of concerns about the volume, police were careful to use it about 12 feet off the ground mounted on a tactical vehicle, so no individual would be directly in its path or too close to it, Assistant Chief William Bochter said.

"The only way anybody gets hurt is if the deterrent is on full blast and they stand directly in front of it," Putnam said.

A regional counterterror task force bought four of the devices from American Technology using $101,000 in federal Homeland Security funds, DeMichiei said. Because the amplified message was prerecorded, police could be sure the protesters heard exactly the instructions police desired and have confidence those in the back of the crowd could hear, Bochter said.

Such devices also have military and commercial applications. Putnam said the primary purpose is to transmit specific orders loudly and clearly.

They have been used against protesters overseas, and police in New York threatened to use one during demonstrations near the Republican National Convention in 2004.

He said the city of San Diego uses them to instruct people to leave large sections of beach after festivals. It has also been used in SWAT operations.

In military applications, it allows ships to hail approaching vessels and determine their intent, the company says. Cargo ships use them to tell pirates that they had been spotted. When the pirates know they have lost the element of surprise, they will not attack, Putnam said.

Putnam said those complaining about the device have probably exposed themselves to sounds nearly as loud at rock concerts, and for longer periods of time. Walczak, the ACLU attorney, isn't buying the analogy.

"People don't flee the front row of a rock concert. Why would they be fleeing here?" Walczak asked. "Because it's loud, it's painfully loud."