Food Stamp use nearly 50 million.

I saw this article today and it reminded me with a discussion I had with someone involved trying to stem food stamp program abuse. As it is now, there are any number of ways one can get a state id without any documentation (via affidavit) and then that ID is used to apply for food stamps. This info has spread to all of the low income and illegal residents who should not qualify and they are now getting food stamps. In fact, I see no reason why they couldn't double or triple dip.

The wisdom of Jefferson is timeless and still relevant in the politics of our time--------

"No man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it. The honeymoon would be as short in that case as in any other, and its moments of ecstasy would be ransomed by years of torment and hatred. "
Read more at

http://quotes.dictionary.com/No_man_will_ever_bring_out_of_that#cwAzcY0efh4IyEMY.99

"Are you better off than you were 4 years ago? Quoted from a DEAD man in 1980--------OH PLEASE!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, quoted from 1980, or was that 1890?  Good God Almighty---------don't the Republicans have ANYTHING new to address our dire economic situation?????

Some of us are better off, some of us are less well off, but all-in-all the COUNTRY is better off.  We are turning the Titanic just ahead of hitting the iceberg----------we all pray that the country survives and thrives once again------------don't we?

We got where we are thanks to the GOP-------we have begun a fledgling recovery-----------the GOP , I suppose would prefer an abortion to a full-term recovery-----just to get rid of the POTUS.

Spare me the indignation and PLEASE give us the Republican plan---------------PLEASE!

'Eastwooding' Inspires National Empty Chair Day on Monday

This is hilarious. The MSM in its effort to denigrate Eastwood as strange and weird actually brought more attention to it. The Republican convention lives on. Obama is no longer cool and hip. Undone by an 82 year old man.

Wimp Obama begs Iran, don't attack us, as he abandons Israel.

The United States has indirectly informed Iran, via two European nations, that it would not back an Israeli strike against the country's nuclear facilities, as long as Tehran refrains from attacking American interests in the Persian Gulf, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4276276,00.html

“Republican Women for Obama”

 Yes more commercials from the Obama campaign.  living in a swing state is beyond painful as both campaigns are spending money beyond belief.  I have seen this ad and then found this piece which puts it into perspective.

Mark Stein:

The Democrats have just released an ad called “Republican Women for Obama”, in which a handful of women explain that they’ve voted Republican their entire lives until this Mitt Romney fellow came along and they decided he was just way too extreme. Also, they’re shocked to discover, after voting Republican non-stop for the last 40 years, that apparently the GOP is opposed to abortion. Who knew?

Prominently featured among these lifelong Republican women is a striking brunette who is aghast to find out that Romney wants to reverse Roe v Wade. This totally Republicanly Republican GOP-type conservative-to-the-hilt woman has since been identified as Maria Ciano of Colorado. She’s a registered Democrat, but don’t let that fool you. Her accumulated Facebook “likes” over the years testify to her rock-ribbed Republicanism. They include Amy Goodman, MoveOn.org, Bernie Sanders, and a Facebook page called “I Love It When I Wake Up In the Morning and Obama Is President”.
Wouldn’t it be easier for the Dems just to hire Tina Fey to star in “Sarah Palin for Obama”?
(*forthcoming Romney ad featuring endorsements from lifelong liberal Democrat women Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Bush, Phyllis Schlafly, and me in a black cocktail dress)

I hear tell---------Independents will swing the election

I think the Dems will run away with the election, but hey, the independents COULD make a big difference.  I also hear tell there are a LOT of indys just waiting for a sign of SOMETHING to believe in.

Despite all the media hype about monolithic voting blocks comprised of women, Asians, Latinos, Blacks, Gays, Trolls and The Three Billy Goat's Gruff--------------each vote is individual and every vote counts.  I believe in the collective wisdom to prevail, but I AM challenged, in my belief, with the election of W by the Supreme Court.

Voters out here in the real world are NOT looking for a freak show----------we are looking for a leader.

Everyone hear about this?

After much fanfare by the Federal Government and being reported by all news agencies. I stumbled on this.  Maybe they will cover it tomorrow night.  George S. says there is no bias in media.  Not sure he's right on that one.

 

By NBC News staff and wire services

 

The federal government has closed a criminal probe of alleged financial misconduct by Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio, who styles himself as "America's toughest sheriff," and no charges will be filed, the U.S. Attorney's Office said on Friday.

A separate federal investigation relating to allegations of civil rights abuses by Arpaio's office is continuing.

The announcement on Friday marked the end of an investigation that began in November 2010 at the behest of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to examine alleged financial improprieties by the county sheriff and his deputies.

A federal criminal inquiry into several of those matters was concluded last summer with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona declining to initiate criminal charges.

Maricopa County authorities were informed on Friday that federal prosecutors had likewise declined to bring charges in connection with allegations that the sheriff's office had misused county credit cards or misspent money from jail facilities excise taxes.

In addition, the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute two former officials of the county attorney's office who were accused of wrongfully prosecuting a local judge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel said in a statement that her office "is closing its investigation into allegations of criminal conduct by current and former members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office."

Arpaio, who returned from the Republican National Convention on Friday night, said he was "very happy" with decision.

"I send my appreciation to the federal government for their hard work in clearing my office," he said in a news briefing.

Arpaio, 80, who is seeking re-election to a sixth term as sheriff in November, has been under a separate federal inquiry since 2008 over allegations that he and his deputies engaged in an extensive pattern of civil rights abuses.

I'm waiting for the DEMOCRATIC convention this week------

It can't be any worse than the Republican Convention ----------------- but will it be any better?  Will there be as many outright lies, as much disrespect, and "whiteness"?  Will there be as much exclusion from the convention as conventions of old---------like the 50's?

A Republican strategist said on CNN, "The Republican Party has a big tent, we welcome everyone."  Oh really?

If you are gay, if you are of color, if you are female, if you are poor, if you believe in a woman's right to choose ------ your VOTE  is welcome but the TENT is closed.

Obama makes a deal with Russia, screws Israel.

US disowns Israel over Iran strike: No weapons or military backup DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis September 1, 2012, 10:04 AM (GMT+02:00) US Gen. Martin Dempsey’s assertion Thursday, Aug. 30 that the US would not be “complicit” in an Israel strike against Iran, together with the drastic reduction in the scale of next month’s joint US-Israeli war game disclosed by TIME, add up to a blunt message from US President Barack Obama to Israel: You are on your own! See how you manage without special US weapons and US military backup, including a shield against missile counter-attack, if you decide to defy us and go through with a military operation against Iran. Instead of the 5,000 US troops originally assigned for Austere Challenge 12, the annual joint exercise, the Pentagon will send only 1,200 to 1,500 service members. The missile interception systems at the core of the joint exercise will be reduced in number and potency: Patriot anti-missiles will come without crews and maybe one instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships, according to the magazine. debkafile’s military sources: The Obama administration has put Israel on harsh notice that an attack on Iran to disrupt or delay its nuclear armament will be refused US missile backup - both in the course of the operation and to cover Israel’s back in the event of a counter-strike widening into a general Middle East conflict. The Netanyahu government will bear full and exclusive responsibility for the consequences of attacking Iran. Obama, who has repeatedly pledged his commitment to Israeli security, is the first American president to cut Israeli adrift against a major threat to its security explicitly posed by Iran. The US president has put his campaign for reelection next month at great albeit calculated risk. His rival Mitt Romney will not doubt follow up on the charges he made during his acceptance speech to the Republican convention Thursday that Obama threw “allies like Israel under the bus” and failed utterly to stop Iran’s centrifuges spinning. Obama may find the Jewish vote and campaign contributions fading. For Romney an incumbent president throwing Israel to the wolves against the ayatollahs is a dream come true. Binyamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Ehud Barak must bear some of the onus for one of the most damaging ruptures US-Israel relations have ever faced - as will be discussed later. However, the prime cause must be sought elsewhere. In the last month, Obama has undergone a change of face: The top US soldier and ambassador Dan Shapiro were told to start treating Israel like a pest and telling its leaders that the administration is fed to the teeth with their clamor for action on Iran. This change did not come out of the blue. debkafile’s Washington and Moscow sources report it evolved from three events: 1. During this month, President Vladimir Putin severed Russia’s military ties with Iran and Syria as debkafile reported earlier: Obama reciprocated by cutting Israel down to size. Moscow informed Tehran and Damascus that there would be no more Russian arms supplies after the delivery of the last items in the pipeline. Putin therefore left both Iran and Syria high and dry amid war dangers in return for Obama cutting Israel off from advance military hardware at a time of peril. The Russian and American leaders thus put in place the first bricks of an accord for resolving their disputes over a nuclear Iran and the Syrian crisis by the device of slashing the military capacity of Iran, Israel and Syria. The Russian president took another step as a gesture to Obama: He pulled Russian warships out of the Syrian base of Tartus and the eastern Mediterranean, leaving only a floating dry dock. In return, he counted on Washington forcing Israel to abandon any plans to strike Iran. 2. But this exercise in symmetrical reciprocity ran into a major snag: Obama found a tough nut in Jerusalem: Binyamin Netanyahu held out for a pledge of US military action against Iran as his price for holding back. Despite the massive pressure Obama threw at the Israeli government, both through the highest ranking US political and military channels and by mobilizing the government’s most vocal opponents and anti-war circles at home, Netanyahu and Barak did not budge. They understood, despite Obama’s concealment, that the secret US-Russian deal would in fact preserve Iran’s nuclear program at a point at which Iran’s leaders could have a weapon assembled and unsheathed at any moment. The also realized that as long as Israel’s military option against Iran was alive, the Obama-Putin deal was stuck, because both Iran’s Ali Khamenei and Syria’s Bashar Assad would likewise refuse to fall into line. When Romney said he would give America’s friends “more loyalty” and Putin “a little less flexibility and more backbone,” he was referring to President Obama’s request from Putin on June 18, at the G20 conference in Mexico, for more time against his promise to the Russian leader of “more flexibility” later. To keep his deal with Putin in motion, the US president will have to tighten his squeeze on Israel’s leaders to forego an attack on Iran. 3. The Netanyahu government, for its part, committed three tactical errors: One: They dragged out the dialogue on Iran with the US administration for far too long - three years or more – and come away for it empty-handed. If their purpose was to persuade the United States to carry the can against Iran, as many Israelis believed, they failed. No Israeli leader has the right to procrastinate to this extent on action affecting its fundamental security, if not existence. Netanyahu fell into the trap of crying wolf by shouting year after year that Iran must be stopped – and doing nothing. Two: Israel’s deterrent capacity, already sapped by inaction, was further eroded by US General Martin Dempsey’s assertions that Israel lacks the capacity to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. Three: They failed to act expeditiously to prevent the political opposition using a campaign against an attack on Iran as a stratagem for bringing the government down. It has been four weeks since the former Mossad director Ephraim Halevi said that if he was an Iranian, he would be worried in the next twelve weeks. That was on Aug. 2. Thursday, Aug. 30, Halevi said: “It is important for Israel’s military threat to be credible.” He was throwing down the gauntlet for Netanyahu and Barak to show they were serious about striking Iran – or else back down completely. His timeline gives them another eight weeks to show their mettle. During that time, they will be under heavy bombardment from Washington.