There are many people out there that have been raising the flag on the unconstitionality of the proposed health care reform legislations, specially the one being rammed down by Baucus and Obama.
I - that so far consider myself kind of illiterate regarding the US Constitution; I had the pleasure to meet her for first time eight years ago - have had the same suspicion for quite a while.
But today, Investors Business Daily brings an excellent argument on the inconstitutionality of the fine - which we know is a tax, no matter what definition the President tries to find in the dictionary for it - the current proposal carries for individuals refusing to buy health insurance.
Follow my lead and inmerse yourself in learning the Constitution that protect us. Read why they are not interested in making the original text public for people to read it:
Sen. Baucus claims that the tax on the uninsured is an "indirect" excise tax — like the federal gasoline tax — that does not have to be apportioned. But Sen. Baucus appears to be in error. An excise tax is a tax on a "thing" (such as a commodity or a license). That is why an excise tax is classified as "indirect." People who choose not to buy insurance are not things.
They are people. And the tax is imposed directly on them in exactly the same way as a direct income tax, except that in this instance, the tax amount does not depend on the size of the person's income.
This constitutional defect in one of the linchpin elements of the health care legislation was not brought to light for public discussion by either the White House or the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
The Supreme Court is our last resource.
But I am, honestly, not very hopeful that will stand with us, the people.
Meanwhile, TV show after TV show, and speech after speech, the President and his accolades keep trying. But the harder they try, the deeper they sink.
Cubanita's Thoughts ... far away from el terruño
Sep 28, 2009
Sep 25, 2009
Are you ready to go to court?
Politico is reporting that Senator Ensign yesterday received a handwritten note confirming that a fine up to $25K, a misdemeanor and up to 1 year in jail will be the penalty for violating the mandate to buy health insurance.
Here is the .pdf of the handwritten note.
Sooo... are you ready to go to court?
Because, you know, according to our Constitution, we're innocent until proven guilty. And we have the right to an attorney to represent us. And if you can not afford one, the system will appoint you one, free of charge [ more taxpayers money, BTW].
That is, if after all, we still have the Constitution... or, if the country does not become a huge jail - perfectly a la Cuban, you know, that have the higher jail-per-population ratio in the continent.
Here is the .pdf of the handwritten note.
Sooo... are you ready to go to court?
Because, you know, according to our Constitution, we're innocent until proven guilty. And we have the right to an attorney to represent us. And if you can not afford one, the system will appoint you one, free of charge [ more taxpayers money, BTW].
That is, if after all, we still have the Constitution... or, if the country does not become a huge jail - perfectly a la Cuban, you know, that have the higher jail-per-population ratio in the continent.
Senate voted, and transparency died... for the 1,000 000 000 000 time
Cartoon by Michael Ramírez at IBDDid you really though this was going to be the most transparent administration in history?
Sure. And I have pink unicorns flying on my backyard.
Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted 12 to 11 against allowing two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office perform cost analysis of the Baucus health care bill, and refused the request to put in online on its original wording.
They just agreed to post online a "conceptual" version of the bill; which basically means that they will interpret the legislation wording for us.
Remember the Statist's political orgasm?
We're a just too subnormal, stupid and illiterate human beings to read the bill and draw our own conclusions.
Obviously, they are giving this notion their own extra push, by writing and approving 1,000-pages laws that they can't even read completely before voting on them.
Now, to add insult to injury, just read the IBD article that also contain details on the the gag order against Humana, for telling their own customers the new law could reducing their benefits.
Oh, boy! We're in the road to our own self-destruction. First amendment rights, anyone? Pretty soon, they will be only in the museums...
Sep 24, 2009
Moscú no cree en lágrimas
And Havana either, Juanes. They don't believe in your tears, or in Bosé's nor in Olga's. They don't give a crap about your good intentions.
They didn't care about the way to let the steam out of the average Cubans for a few hours. They never had. And they never will.
I know this is like beating a dead horse, but, man, we've told you so!
None of you shouldn't have been surprised, at all.
I personally don't take any joy on bad experiences suffered by anybody - including all artists in the concert - in the hands of castro's political police.
But this is a hard-core evidence that most of the "radical, crazy Cuban exiles" that spoke against the way the concert was handled were... well... right on the money!
IMHO, two extraordinary positive things -like everything in life, that has a good and a bad part- happened because of the concert.
One: regular Cubans, like the slaves in the old times of the Spanish's colony, had a day off from their daily misery - eventhough we know (and knew) how the public was astroturfed, with the first rows filled with the communist militants, the students from los camilitos, the chavistas on duty and et al.
Two: the back door of the regimen was left wide open for the world to see how things really are in the animal farm. If the world does not want to see it, well, it is because they rather choose not to.
The most important thing Juanes and the other artists could really do for the Cuban people hasn't happened yet.
After this video, and after everything that is being reported the regimen did prior and after the concert, after so many people having been intimidated, I can't either help to ask the same question that Juan Abreu is asking in Emanaciones:
WHERE IS THE PRESS CONFERENCE?
Why are not Juanes, Olga Tañón, Bosé and the rest publicly denouncing the backstage manipulations?
I mean, they are in freedom grounds now and it is not unusual for artists to conduct post-concert press conferences...
To answer Bosé's question with another question: Why are you not speaking out, as loud as you can, about it?
Why?
If none of you answer this simple question, the biggest response will be self-evident.
They didn't care about the way to let the steam out of the average Cubans for a few hours. They never had. And they never will.
I know this is like beating a dead horse, but, man, we've told you so!
None of you shouldn't have been surprised, at all.
I personally don't take any joy on bad experiences suffered by anybody - including all artists in the concert - in the hands of castro's political police.
But this is a hard-core evidence that most of the "radical, crazy Cuban exiles" that spoke against the way the concert was handled were... well... right on the money!
IMHO, two extraordinary positive things -like everything in life, that has a good and a bad part- happened because of the concert.
One: regular Cubans, like the slaves in the old times of the Spanish's colony, had a day off from their daily misery - eventhough we know (and knew) how the public was astroturfed, with the first rows filled with the communist militants, the students from los camilitos, the chavistas on duty and et al.
Two: the back door of the regimen was left wide open for the world to see how things really are in the animal farm. If the world does not want to see it, well, it is because they rather choose not to.
The most important thing Juanes and the other artists could really do for the Cuban people hasn't happened yet.
After this video, and after everything that is being reported the regimen did prior and after the concert, after so many people having been intimidated, I can't either help to ask the same question that Juan Abreu is asking in Emanaciones:
WHERE IS THE PRESS CONFERENCE?
Why are not Juanes, Olga Tañón, Bosé and the rest publicly denouncing the backstage manipulations?
I mean, they are in freedom grounds now and it is not unusual for artists to conduct post-concert press conferences...
To answer Bosé's question with another question: Why are you not speaking out, as loud as you can, about it?
Why?
If none of you answer this simple question, the biggest response will be self-evident.
Sep 23, 2009
What on earth?! UPDATE
Via Drudge Report, comes this shocking video, filmed in a South Jersey school, according to the YouTube source:
No words needed.
Un-real.
Allahpundit elaborates more.
UDDATE 09/24/09
HotAir is reporting that this video, dated from June 2009 at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, NJ, had been removed from YouTube.
And Michelle Malkin has the results of the investigative leg work, with the entire background of the video and its author.
Creepy is like, a really short word to describe it.
No words needed.
Un-real.
Allahpundit elaborates more.
UDDATE 09/24/09
HotAir is reporting that this video, dated from June 2009 at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, NJ, had been removed from YouTube.
And Michelle Malkin has the results of the investigative leg work, with the entire background of the video and its author.
Creepy is like, a really short word to describe it.
Yes!
In the soul of the monster, an American flag waves as a symbol of all those things -subjectives and objectives- three generations of Cubans have never had. Heck of a job!
H/T to Ziva.
Wake up, Supreme Court!
The bill (Obama-Baucus health care reform proposal) is a political and economical madness.
I could even help Congress a little; I could FedEx my borrowed copy of The 5000 Year Leap... you know, just sayin'
"H.R. 3200 does nothing to facilitate new entry, to control health care costs, ease medical malpractice burdens--or ironically to help the uninsured
population. Accordingly, judicial invalidation is a moral and social
necessity—unless Congress comes to its senses first. "
I could even help Congress a little; I could FedEx my borrowed copy of The 5000 Year Leap... you know, just sayin'
Gird your loins, the best is still to come
Seems like a tax, reads like an excise tax and sucks like tax, but it is not a tax - because HE says so - even though you know it is a tax. Still following me here?
Philip Klein, at The American Spectator, explains why.
The POTUS tet-a-tet with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday was, simply put, just that. Who would have imagined it! I mean, it was in the ALL Barack Channel (ABC) after all...
The course of this interview - which I didn't see because, again, I rather spend quality time with friends - leads me to believe that the president does not have a genuine desire to hear any other suggestion but the ones that fit his goal.
When someone switch gears when faced with direct questions, diverts the focus and engages into bogus comparisons - like the state-mandated auto insurance vs federal-mandated health insurance - even when talking to journalists that have bent to them like the MSM has done with Barack Obama, what are you left with?
Social engineering and the statist's political orgasm:
we are all subnormal human beings, unable to know what is good or bad for us and to stupid to make our own decisions; ergo, with need a supreme and dear leader to tell us what to do.
[ADD moment here: once upon a time, I lived in a land where the dear leader also decided for me; from the of pounds of rice I was supposed to eat, to the major I should follow in college, to the number of sanitary napkins that I would need in a month - no irregular gals allowed!]
Therefore, the whole thing about the healthy debate (along with the dirty attacks against every thing and every body that does not follow the dear leader's lead) is just smoke and mirrors.
Disclaimer: any similarity with the philosofies behind castro, chavez and et al is just a coincidence and the result of your sick, twisted and freaked imagination.
I can only hope that Obama notice one of the big elephants standing in his room, that huge pachiderm called Constitution that has no plans to leave... because a whole lot of people is noticing it, including, for the first time, the independents and moderate/fiscal conservatives democrats (the latter being in the brink of extinction) that put him on the job hoping he would be a pragmatic centrist.
An eight-point swing in just two months.
Ooops! I'm afraid they will need to request a refund on that purchase!
H/T Michelle Malkin
Philip Klein, at The American Spectator, explains why.
The POTUS tet-a-tet with George Stephanopoulos last Sunday was, simply put, just that. Who would have imagined it! I mean, it was in the ALL Barack Channel (ABC) after all...
The course of this interview - which I didn't see because, again, I rather spend quality time with friends - leads me to believe that the president does not have a genuine desire to hear any other suggestion but the ones that fit his goal.
When someone switch gears when faced with direct questions, diverts the focus and engages into bogus comparisons - like the state-mandated auto insurance vs federal-mandated health insurance - even when talking to journalists that have bent to them like the MSM has done with Barack Obama, what are you left with?
Social engineering and the statist's political orgasm:
we are all subnormal human beings, unable to know what is good or bad for us and to stupid to make our own decisions; ergo, with need a supreme and dear leader to tell us what to do.
[ADD moment here: once upon a time, I lived in a land where the dear leader also decided for me; from the of pounds of rice I was supposed to eat, to the major I should follow in college, to the number of sanitary napkins that I would need in a month - no irregular gals allowed!]
Therefore, the whole thing about the healthy debate (along with the dirty attacks against every thing and every body that does not follow the dear leader's lead) is just smoke and mirrors.
Disclaimer: any similarity with the philosofies behind castro, chavez and et al is just a coincidence and the result of your sick, twisted and freaked imagination.
I can only hope that Obama notice one of the big elephants standing in his room, that huge pachiderm called Constitution that has no plans to leave... because a whole lot of people is noticing it, including, for the first time, the independents and moderate/fiscal conservatives democrats (the latter being in the brink of extinction) that put him on the job hoping he would be a pragmatic centrist.
An eight-point swing in just two months.
Ooops! I'm afraid they will need to request a refund on that purchase!
H/T Michelle Malkin
Sep 22, 2009
What happens when you bite more than you can chew?
Photo source: veneco & Babalú BlogYou can perfectly give a free concert in Cuba!
Just to round up Juanes's concert in Havana last Sunday, and to close the topic once and forever. [Disclaimer: no, I didn't see it, I don't even like Juanes to sacrifice the wonderful quality time I spent with my loved one at a friend's wedding.]
I know people who went to the concert, under the brutal Caribbean sun, up since very early in the morning. Let's face it: there are not that many recreation choices back there in the gulag, you know. Despite the super early rise, they got to la Plaza just to find out the very first lines were already occupied/reserved for the "chosen", a.k.a. young communist militants, the chose ones from the CDR's, the chosen Venezuelans...
But, were you surprised by that? I wasn't. At all.
Been there. Seen that. Standard procedure.
Yesterday, I read Zoé Valdés (Spanish) post about it and I also share her suspicion about the astroturfing filing the first rows with Venezuelans chavistas. C'mon, they have planted police officers and state security officials in the prisons when the Human Rights commision went there!
Aguaya saw it on TV and also noted the perfect human lines... check Humberto's take here. And Gorki Ávila "in your face"explanation here.
I have to disagree with Zoé in one thing, though. My good, non-chavistas, Venezuelan friends do dance and move pretty good; it is just that they follow a beat, ergo, a hip movement taht is slightly different from ours.
It seems the comrades chavistas are becoming quite international; rallies in Honduras, concerts in Cuba..., I wonder if they are also receiving frequent flier miles...
BTW, I didn't knew that Miguel Bosé sang for Pinochet (video here, please). Yep, that evil right winger dictator (and I really mean it) condemned by that half of the world that now does not have the balls to condemn the left winger dictators that have destroyed Cuba for 50 years...
Nor that his father toreaba for Franco, or that Víctor Manuel also sang for "dear leader"Franco; the things one learns from this useful idiots... plain and simple opportunism.
I do believe that Juanes and Co. bit more than they could have even been able to chew, o sea, que se metieron en camisa de once varas - make that shirt any color you want.
If not, why were dissidents visited by the state security prior to the concert to be warned not to show up there, why was Olga Tañón told not to even think about singing Celia Cruz's songs, why Emilio Estefan and Willy Chirino request to Juanes to be included were trashed, why was Pánfilo so coincidentally released the day before the concert.
Apolitical? My shoes.
El Mundo (Spanish) has an editorial that summarizes it. Here are some of my rough and free translations:
... the event was marked by the underlying political dimension and the huge expectations generated both between supporters and detractors. The latter, mostly because of the thought that [the concert] was gonna be used by the regimen as a whitewashing for their image...
The result is a sour and sweet aftertaste ... it is sad that artists with such a dimension did not take a step forward to reject the dictatorship. It was not, obviously, a matter of throwing fliers from the stage, which could have result in a huge public unrest incident. But there were many ways to demonstrated their opposition to the regimen.
First of all, there was the leitmotiv -Concert for Peace-; if there is something that is never scarce in a dictatorship, including the Cuban one, is peace, the peace of the graveyards and the peace of the exterminated freedom.
The result is a sour and sweet aftertaste ... it is sad that artists with such a dimension did not take a step forward to reject the dictatorship. It was not, obviously, a matter of throwing fliers from the stage, which could have result in a huge public unrest incident. But there were many ways to demonstrated their opposition to the regimen.
First of all, there was the leitmotiv -Concert for Peace-; if there is something that is never scarce in a dictatorship, including the Cuban one, is peace, the peace of the graveyards and the peace of the exterminated freedom.
They could have also postponed the concert until the veto against several other artists was lifted by the Cuban government. Unfortunately, all clues take you to think that the event's organizers bent way too much to the regimen while putting together the plan.
Almost forgot! For a quick lesson in the relativity of numbers, as seen by the MSM, go here and see by yourself how 70 thousand can quickly become 1.15 million, and viceversa.
Memo to Juanes: you are either apolitical, or you are not. There is no middle ground in that one, hon. Read more often; in Cuba we don't need peace because we are not at
war. To get rid of a dictatorship, freedom is what is needed. And, pleeeeease, "asere" is
a slang. The wide and frequent use does not make it different, nor it is cool; still it is a slang.
Memo to Juanes: you are either apolitical, or you are not. There is no middle ground in that one, hon. Read more often; in Cuba we don't need peace because we are not at
war. To get rid of a dictatorship, freedom is what is needed. And, pleeeeease, "asere" is
a slang. The wide and frequent use does not make it different, nor it is cool; still it is a slang.
Sep 17, 2009
House votes to defunds ACORN
It was about time...
Big Government has final votes results for roll call. And a whole lot more.
It was way too much crap to sweep under the rug, so ACORN announced they will conduct and "audit".
But, as I tweetered last night, their auditors will be the same old cronies involved in their currupt business; the only ones they didn't invite to the panel were the pimps and hookers.
The audit is, indeed, a sham to cover another sham.
Meanwhile, in Capitol Hill, la madama Pelosi sheds crocodile tears worried about political violence - poor thing is concerned because "there will be blood"
Really? Isn't fear-mongering an unique Glen Beck's and right-wingers' treat? I thought Beck was a clown because he sheds some tears now and then...
And the fringe media?
Well, ABC, for example, is quite too busy with sneezing techniques.
H/T to Drudge Report & Big Government
Big Government has final votes results for roll call. And a whole lot more.
It was way too much crap to sweep under the rug, so ACORN announced they will conduct and "audit".
But, as I tweetered last night, their auditors will be the same old cronies involved in their currupt business; the only ones they didn't invite to the panel were the pimps and hookers.
The audit is, indeed, a sham to cover another sham.
Meanwhile, in Capitol Hill, la madama Pelosi sheds crocodile tears worried about political violence - poor thing is concerned because "there will be blood"
Really? Isn't fear-mongering an unique Glen Beck's and right-wingers' treat? I thought Beck was a clown because he sheds some tears now and then...
And the fringe media?
Well, ABC, for example, is quite too busy with sneezing techniques.
H/T to Drudge Report & Big Government
Constitution Day
It was 222 years ago that a remarkable group of American lay out the document that became the foundation of a nation seek by freedom lovers from all over the world: The United States Constitution.This document, that for quite a while has been in peril due to the constant efforts of politicians and groups of interest to undermine her, is the North Star that has guided countless individuals through the path of freedom.
No wonder why is a censored document in my homeland and why is being feared by dictators and totalitarian governments.
Today, is a good day to take a few minutes to think what the Constitution has brought us.
Take a minute to think of those that have never been protected by such carta magna.
Think about the ones that, while you read this, are being chastised and persecuted for having a Constitution similar to ours, or for wanting to have one.
And take a minute to go back in the history of the US Constitution; go a and see where all begun.
Remember: we should not take for granted the freedom that the Constitution give us.
PS: and have some fun with this interactive game to find out which founder are you? (I am James Madison, from Virginia)
Obama-Baucus plan and a second opinion: from doctors
The Wall Street Journal sums up Obama-Baucus public option lite in a vey few words:
What's doctors have to say?
IBD is running a series on doctor's views on the issue (and I highly doubt you'll find it in your regular primetime TV newscast):
65% of doctors oppose healthcare reform as presented so far, and they summarize their position with 21 objections. (Tomorrow they will publish the numbers and reasons of those physicians that are for it).
One thing I didn't see anywhere in the special report was the proper dissection of the so called 47 million of uninsured, which is, in real life, a much lower number.
"... the Baucus-Obama plan would increase the cost of insurance and then force people to buy it, requiring subsidies. Those subsidies would be paid for by taxes that make health care and thus insurance even more expensive, requiring even more subsidies and still higher taxes. It's a recipe to ruin health care and bankrupt the country..."Includes higher taxes, heavy subsidies, individual mandate, funding for abortions, the whole nine yards...
What's doctors have to say?
IBD is running a series on doctor's views on the issue (and I highly doubt you'll find it in your regular primetime TV newscast):
65% of doctors oppose healthcare reform as presented so far, and they summarize their position with 21 objections. (Tomorrow they will publish the numbers and reasons of those physicians that are for it).
"Doctor opposition to health care overhaul proposals is broad and deep, revealing concerns not just about soaring costs, declining care, possible rationing and a lack of limits on malpractice suits, but also about government competence and motives, detailed responses to a new IBD/TIPP Poll show."
One thing I didn't see anywhere in the special report was the proper dissection of the so called 47 million of uninsured, which is, in real life, a much lower number.
Sep 16, 2009
Unusual lucid moment in Comedy Central
I don't particularly watch this show or like its hosts, or follow it whatsoever - I really don't have much time to watch tv - but for once Jon Stewart is right:
it wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't so damned serious.
The MSM, which is not mainstraeam anymore, have a one of the kind priority's list for its coverage: the first lady arms, clothes, expensive sneakers to fundraisers and wearing shorts in the Grand Canyon are waaaayyyyyyyy more important than this stuff.
H/T George at Babalú Blog
it wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't so damned serious.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Audacity of Hos | ||||
| ||||
The MSM, which is not mainstraeam anymore, have a one of the kind priority's list for its coverage: the first lady arms, clothes, expensive sneakers to fundraisers and wearing shorts in the Grand Canyon are waaaayyyyyyyy more important than this stuff.
H/T George at Babalú Blog
ACORN anyone?
No, thanks. They may have taken over more than half of our nation, but they will never take over our brains.ACORN has pimped out more people and more taxpayer's money than what is starting to surface now, thanks to the undercover work of James O’Keefe, 25, an independent filmmaker in the era of YouTube.
Media malpractice and double (and triple, and quadruple) standards?
Not anymore.
To paraphrase Andrew Breitbart, it has evolved to media complicity, and at some point, the grounds for legal action - if we haven't lost our Republic first - should become clear.
The thing here is that - as the non-coverage of the "astroturfed" 9/12 rally in DC last Saturday proved - this traditional media is not mainstream anymore. No wonder newspapers are sinking by the minute.
Any American with two working neurones knows by now that the web is the only place to look for different points of views that would allow you draw your own conclusions.
Bloggers, online magazines, countless people on the web have been exposing ACORN corruption and its questionable links to POTUS, ad nausea um, for quite a while now.
The vote 83-7 in the Senate to pull off federal money that ACORN was going to received is indeed, a first step. And the letter from the Census Bureau announcing they have pulled the plug on ACORN's community organizers to gather information for them next year was a second one. But only that, a first step after the red flag was too big for them ignore again.
However, there has to be another vote in the House in order to fully disengage ACORN for the federal budget - which means your paycheck and mine - and there we might see a whole different story.
Call me pessimistic, but I don't hold my breath. I guess we'll have to wait and see. The arguments that they were played around and the threats to suit have already come up to plate.
How weird, eh?
After all, whoever is against POTUS policies and friends, is just a racist astroturfer, right?
Your average Cuban worst nightmare
(c)astro reloaded.
I wonder how much time before our growing-by-the-second government starts shutting down all other tv programming to air Obama' s speeches en cadena... like your good (Cuban) ol' times.
Someone will be delighted, though. I mean, he loved Che (The Butcher of la Cabaña) Guevara speeches and (c)astro eight-hours-in-a-row "addresses" to hypnotized Cubans...
Wait. But he is "apolitical", so... never mind.
I wonder how much time before our growing-by-the-second government starts shutting down all other tv programming to air Obama' s speeches en cadena... like your good (Cuban) ol' times.
Someone will be delighted, though. I mean, he loved Che (The Butcher of la Cabaña) Guevara speeches and (c)astro eight-hours-in-a-row "addresses" to hypnotized Cubans...
Wait. But he is "apolitical", so... never mind.
Sep 15, 2009
Pure Fiction
Can you imagine the day that Big Hollywood would get together to sing for 11 millions of Pánfilos, for food and for freedom?
I know.
Wishful thinking.
El Pichy Films featuring "We're Pánfilo":
H/T Penúltimos Días
PS: Look for the group Jama y Libertad in Facebook.
I know.
Wishful thinking.
El Pichy Films featuring "We're Pánfilo":
H/T Penúltimos Días
PS: Look for the group Jama y Libertad in Facebook.
Decadencia - real life in today's Cuba
Brought to you by Eskuadrón Patriótico (Cuban hip hop group), with embedded lyrics in English and Spanish:
The reality of the nation where I was born; the real life of the hombre nuevo generation. This is what I saw - and took a huge emotional toll - recently, up close and personal.This is what you are able to see once you have freed yourself from the tyranny's chains. This is what you never clearly realize when you still in the jaws of the monster:
Generations of Cubans that prefer to suffer everything instead of cutting the ties with the meager illusion of welfare that have enslaved them for 50 years.
Total slavery.
Physical slavery and mental slavery. You own no brains anymore.
An awful combination to erase freedom.
The reality of the nation where I was born; the real life of the hombre nuevo generation. This is what I saw - and took a huge emotional toll - recently, up close and personal.This is what you are able to see once you have freed yourself from the tyranny's chains. This is what you never clearly realize when you still in the jaws of the monster:
Generations of Cubans that prefer to suffer everything instead of cutting the ties with the meager illusion of welfare that have enslaved them for 50 years.
Total slavery.
Physical slavery and mental slavery. You own no brains anymore.
An awful combination to erase freedom.
Sep 11, 2009
Remembering
Eight years. Eights years ago, I woke up in my little studio in Miami Beach with the news of the terrorist attacks in New York, and the horrendous images of desperate people jumping off the World Trade Center towers, second before the first implosion.
2,996 innocent lives lost. Countless families living in pain, forever. (I wish I had known about this project earlier)
Recently arrived to this country, on Sept.11th 2001, I had been here only fourth months. On May 11th, I had set foot in American soil for the first time in my life.
I had no idea what was going on, I was totally clueless.
Four months into living in the US and you're still barely getting your employment authorization, you're learning to drive, taking English classes - I saw the news right before getting ready to go to my morning class at MDCC-, you still don't know whether I-95 runs South or East, you still feel guilty when buying yourself an ice cream or a pair of shoes you know your family back in Cuba can not have... I was in the middle of all that and, bam!
Eight years after 9/11 have giving me enough time to understand the magnitude of the attacks, enough background to understand the nation we were before, the nation we became on 9/12, and how far from it we are right now.
This morning, while driving to work, I turned the news off and showered myself with some music. Michael Bublé, for some reason that I don't know, always make me feel at peace.
I thought about the families who lost their loved ones. About the murderers at large, about the ones in Gitmo, about the people wanting to treat them like you average gas-station thief...
Then, while wondering what could I do to honor the victims, asking myself "Dear God, what could I write in this blog about 9/11?", North in 1-25, I drove under a bridge.
Up there, all by himself, there was a man waving an American flag. Waving at the drivers that were acknowledging him. I've got geese bumps and a not in my throat.
In a corner of the ramp, a dark pick up truck had flags in every corner of its bed. On both sides of the highway, dealerships had their American and Colorado flags waving at half-pole.
I flashed my car's lights at him, and he waved back. This man that I don't know just reaffirmed my conviction that we must not forget. Never.
And that we have to remember who we are, as a nation, and from where we come. We were bruised by this terrorist attack, but we were not exterminated. We will not surrender.
Now, a very appropriate mood music - lyrics included, for those of us that do not have English as their mother tongue:
Sep 9, 2009
And the winner of yesterday presidential "education" speech is...
... the pitch on universal health care Obama threw at the students during a meeting prior to the broad casted speech.
The Drudge Report, via CNSNews, is reporting that he did talked about current politics to a group of 40 students in Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va, during a face-to-face discussion before the speech. The nuts and bolts are worth posting:
The Drudge Report, via CNSNews, is reporting that he did talked about current politics to a group of 40 students in Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va, during a face-to-face discussion before the speech. The nuts and bolts are worth posting:
Asked by a student how he stays motivated to do his job, Obama replied that his staff gives him 10 letters every day from “ordinary folks.” “Some of the stories are really depressing,” Obama told the 40 freshman, who were chosen to meet with the president during freshman orientation, according to school officials.
“You hear about people who are sick but don't have health care, and suddenly they get a bill for $100,000, and there's no way they can pay for it, and they're about to lose their house. And you’re just reminded that the country is full of really good people who sometimes are going through a hard time,” Obama said.
“They just need a break. They need a little bit of help. Maybe the way things are set up right now isn't always fair for people, and that motivates you, because you say, well, I can't make everything perfect, I can't prevent somebody from getting sick, but maybe I can make sure that they've got insurance so that when they do get sick, they're going to get some help.”
Another student asked the president about health care in Iraq and Afghanistan: “And my question is, currently 36 countries have universal health coverage, including Iraq and Afghanistan, which have it paid for by the United States. Why can't the United States have universal health coverage?”
“Well, I think that’s the question I’ve been asking Congress, because I think we need it,” Obama said. “I think we can do it. And I'm going to be making a speech tomorrow night, talking about my plan to make sure that everybody has access to affordable health care.”
Obama told the students that in the 1940s and 50s, “most of the wealthy countries around the world decided to set up health care systems that covered everybody. The United States -- for a number of different reasons -- organized their health care around employer-based health insurance.” Obama noted that most Americans received health insurance through their jobs.
“And you can see some problems with that,” Obama continued: “Number one is, if you lose your job, then you don’t have health insurance. The other thing is some employers may not want to do right by their employees by giving them health insurance, and then they're kind of out of luck.” Obama noted that the majority of Americans still have health insurance through their jobs: “Most of them are happy with it, but a lot of people fall through the cracks,” Obama said.
“If you’re self-employed, if you start your own business, if you are working in a job that doesn't offer health insurance, then you’re -- you have real problems. “So what we’re trying to do is set up a system where people who have health insurance on the job, they can keep it, but if you don't have health insurance for the job, if you’re self-employed, if you’re unemployed, that you're able to get health insurance through another way,” Obama said. “And we can afford to do it and it will actually, I think, over time save us money if we set that up."I say as my mother would say: Al perro huevero, aunque le quemen el hocico... (I wish I could find the equivalent idiom in English)
Lesson plan & Math review
Here is a good lesson plan to follow tonight, if you decide to see POTUS informercial address to Congress: 
Alberto, over there at Babalú, has summarized for you the main concepts and theorems you should learn.
Educate yourself, practice common sense, and be free.
And no, you won't be, technically, a fear monger, just for using simple logic.
If you chose otherwise, brace for the worse, because it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Alberto, over there at Babalú, has summarized for you the main concepts and theorems you should learn. Educate yourself, practice common sense, and be free.
And no, you won't be, technically, a fear monger, just for using simple logic.
If you chose otherwise, brace for the worse, because it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Could this be the way out?
Mike Nelson, an oil rigs engineer from my town have announced his candidacy to the Colorado's 4th congressional seat, currently held by Fort Collins democrat Betsy Markey.
He is with the Unity Party of America - which, BTW, I've never heard of before - and the minute that I read the news, I immediately thought about an email a friend sent me a couple of days ago.
"I think the only solution is to start voting for the Ron Pauls and other Constitutionalists, even if they have no chance, because as long as we continue keeping this little game of D vs R, the government will continue to grow and the individual will continue to loose its freedoms, until we reach the point of the dictatorship so longed by the stupid majority," my friend wrote in his email. (And you've thought I was politically incorrect? Ha!)
And I can not agree more.
This is not a matter of Democrats or Republicans anymore. America was founded and has traditionally been a center-right representative Republic and politicians from both sides have given deaf ears to that. On top of seeing and treating us, the silent majority, like a herd of brainless lambs.
Both have sold their souls to the most radical and anti individual liberties factions of the the political spectrum - and for a lot of money too - and we, the average American citizen, do not have to stand that anymore.
Anyway, reading the details on Nelson's platform (Wow! Term limits? that sounds like music to my ears) and taking into account that I've come to terms with the fact that we need to VOTE OUT the 99.99999% of all incumbents, I just had a wild thought:
What if we try to kick down the myth that voting for a third choice is a waste of our vote? Be that Nelson or any other non-political experienced=not entitled to the seat average American?
What do we have to loose?
We have touched bottom with Obama's leftist radicalism and pseudo-socialist statism. Republicans have been detaching from the true conservative values by the minute. Could we have anything worse than what we have right now?
I know what my values and my beliefs are. I don't take freedom for granted, since I've lived without her most of my life and by now, any reader should know about my political incorrectness "disease"... I don't care about party affiliations anymore. Do you?
PS: It seems there are two more candidates from this party running for seats in Colorado, including the gubernatorial race. There are a few things that I don't like, though: the social-democracy term in some online descriptions, the fact they were born in the People's Republic of Boulder - I know, beat me with a feather for being so biased - and their lousy-looking main webpage. They need a new web designer, stat.
He is with the Unity Party of America - which, BTW, I've never heard of before - and the minute that I read the news, I immediately thought about an email a friend sent me a couple of days ago.
"I think the only solution is to start voting for the Ron Pauls and other Constitutionalists, even if they have no chance, because as long as we continue keeping this little game of D vs R, the government will continue to grow and the individual will continue to loose its freedoms, until we reach the point of the dictatorship so longed by the stupid majority," my friend wrote in his email. (And you've thought I was politically incorrect? Ha!)
And I can not agree more.
This is not a matter of Democrats or Republicans anymore. America was founded and has traditionally been a center-right representative Republic and politicians from both sides have given deaf ears to that. On top of seeing and treating us, the silent majority, like a herd of brainless lambs.
Both have sold their souls to the most radical and anti individual liberties factions of the the political spectrum - and for a lot of money too - and we, the average American citizen, do not have to stand that anymore.
Anyway, reading the details on Nelson's platform (Wow! Term limits? that sounds like music to my ears) and taking into account that I've come to terms with the fact that we need to VOTE OUT the 99.99999% of all incumbents, I just had a wild thought:
What if we try to kick down the myth that voting for a third choice is a waste of our vote? Be that Nelson or any other non-political experienced=not entitled to the seat average American?
What do we have to loose?
We have touched bottom with Obama's leftist radicalism and pseudo-socialist statism. Republicans have been detaching from the true conservative values by the minute. Could we have anything worse than what we have right now?
I know what my values and my beliefs are. I don't take freedom for granted, since I've lived without her most of my life and by now, any reader should know about my political incorrectness "disease"... I don't care about party affiliations anymore. Do you?
PS: It seems there are two more candidates from this party running for seats in Colorado, including the gubernatorial race. There are a few things that I don't like, though: the social-democracy term in some online descriptions, the fact they were born in the People's Republic of Boulder - I know, beat me with a feather for being so biased - and their lousy-looking main webpage. They need a new web designer, stat.
The bizarre reality of a bizarre island that you will never see in "Bizarre Worlds"
Fellow former reporter and cubanita blogger Carrie, over there in TN, has a excellent take on the recent show "Bizarre Worlds", in the Travel Channel, where Andrew Zimmern visited Cuba.
It was outrageous and at the lowest of the lowest regarding journalistic standards. I mean, even the NYT has taken on it. When that happens, it's because the editorial bias is really, really, way too outstanding... or we're near the end of the world or something...
Sorry to break the news, but I personally think that whoever was expecting something different from your usual MSM, was being, at best, naive.
Whoever is honestly interested in seeing the bizarre live of ordinary Cubans under a regimen that has consistently destroyed my homeland for fifty years, needs to embark in some sort of undercover mission.
Kind of what Spanish journalist Vicente Botín did while being an authorized reporter in Havana, who recently published the book "Los funerales de Castro", with the testimonies of the real life in Cuba, non sanctioned by the regimen, that he managed to sneaked out the country when he left.
That's the only way to see, up close and personal, how bizarre life in Cuba really is.
It was outrageous and at the lowest of the lowest regarding journalistic standards. I mean, even the NYT has taken on it. When that happens, it's because the editorial bias is really, really, way too outstanding... or we're near the end of the world or something...
Sorry to break the news, but I personally think that whoever was expecting something different from your usual MSM, was being, at best, naive.
Whoever is honestly interested in seeing the bizarre live of ordinary Cubans under a regimen that has consistently destroyed my homeland for fifty years, needs to embark in some sort of undercover mission.
Kind of what Spanish journalist Vicente Botín did while being an authorized reporter in Havana, who recently published the book "Los funerales de Castro", with the testimonies of the real life in Cuba, non sanctioned by the regimen, that he managed to sneaked out the country when he left.
That's the only way to see, up close and personal, how bizarre life in Cuba really is.
Sep 8, 2009
Pep talk and unanswered questions
POTUS gave his nationwide speech to schoolchildren today, and most people agree it was harmless - politically speaking.
Does that mean that I - and others who outrageously blew the whistle about it - have to agree to some sort of capitulation? Not at all.
As parent and American citizen, my concerns and questions remain unanswered, in the most traditional fashion this administration seems to sport.
1) Why the text of the speech was not made public until the public uproar reached the deaf ears of the White House?
2) Why creating a lesson plan to guide teachers into the "teaching" of the speech? Why not making a casual and informal interaction, if it was supposed to be so harmless since the beginning? And why that plan was written by a group of "educators" kind of dangerously tied to the WH?
3) Why asking kids to write a letter to the president telling him how would they help him? Since when schoolchildren are supposed to help presidents at all? And why the quick whitewashing when parents started to complain?
4) Why some school districts left it to the teachers to decide whether to see the speech or not? When did parents stop being the decision-takers regarding who the want for their children's role models?
How would have we known what that speech could have been, if there was not a huge public uproar about it? The book of possibilities. I know. Pero mas vale que digan aqui grito, que aqui murio...
And those concerns remain unanswered because, again, the devil is not in the speech per se; the devil is the subtext and in everything that surrounds it.
On top of that, those who disagreed with the whole theater, have been called all sort of things; from cowards to cavemen (and women). However, in 1991, when Bush gave an education-type-of-speech, Democrats formally investigated and held hearing about it. I guess that also makes them cowards and cavemen (and women), right?
By the way, the race card could not be missing either. Just check the comment's thread; including my own - which I now see as "too" nice for the reality we're facing:
I stand by what I said at the beginning: politicians and their political speeches have no place in a classroom. Be that president Obama, Bush, or any other for that matter. No place.
Period.
Does that make me a radical, nut job, righ-winger, fear-monger, coward and cave woman mother?
So be it.
After the PTSD caused by my own survival under communist indoctrination since I entered kindergarten, I will not economize in precautions to prevent my son from going through the same nightmare.
FYI: Just check this ADD moment.
Does that mean that I - and others who outrageously blew the whistle about it - have to agree to some sort of capitulation? Not at all.
As parent and American citizen, my concerns and questions remain unanswered, in the most traditional fashion this administration seems to sport.
1) Why the text of the speech was not made public until the public uproar reached the deaf ears of the White House?
2) Why creating a lesson plan to guide teachers into the "teaching" of the speech? Why not making a casual and informal interaction, if it was supposed to be so harmless since the beginning? And why that plan was written by a group of "educators" kind of dangerously tied to the WH?
3) Why asking kids to write a letter to the president telling him how would they help him? Since when schoolchildren are supposed to help presidents at all? And why the quick whitewashing when parents started to complain?
4) Why some school districts left it to the teachers to decide whether to see the speech or not? When did parents stop being the decision-takers regarding who the want for their children's role models?
How would have we known what that speech could have been, if there was not a huge public uproar about it? The book of possibilities. I know. Pero mas vale que digan aqui grito, que aqui murio...
And those concerns remain unanswered because, again, the devil is not in the speech per se; the devil is the subtext and in everything that surrounds it.
On top of that, those who disagreed with the whole theater, have been called all sort of things; from cowards to cavemen (and women). However, in 1991, when Bush gave an education-type-of-speech, Democrats formally investigated and held hearing about it. I guess that also makes them cowards and cavemen (and women), right?
By the way, the race card could not be missing either. Just check the comment's thread; including my own - which I now see as "too" nice for the reality we're facing:
MM4QBA wrote:
I guess the Black description couldn't be absent from this forum... what does race or the color of you skin has to do with being a good or bad role model anyway? Good people and bad people come in all colors and shapes ... I don't want Obama to be role model for my children not because he is 50% Black. I don't want him to be a role model for my children because he is 100% liberal, because he is 100% statist and yes, way too socialist-inclined for my own sake. Because instead of governing from the center and truthfully unite the country beyond our differences, he has done the opposite. He has chosen to step all over the foundations of this nation and its Constitution, and with every step, the government grows more and our liberties are even more eroded. As anybody can see, there are endless reasons to reject Obama's role model, and none of them have anything to do with the color of his skin. Or the color of ours.
I stand by what I said at the beginning: politicians and their political speeches have no place in a classroom. Be that president Obama, Bush, or any other for that matter. No place.
Period.
Does that make me a radical, nut job, righ-winger, fear-monger, coward and cave woman mother?
So be it.
After the PTSD caused by my own survival under communist indoctrination since I entered kindergarten, I will not economize in precautions to prevent my son from going through the same nightmare.
FYI: Just check this ADD moment.
No words needed
Our very own Maestro Pong have the perfect summary of the disastrous political nightmare our adoptive country is going through.
So much for the change we needed... words are totally useless. I can't help to wonder how those who got scammed by hopeandchange are feeling right now.
If only more cartoonists would separate themselves from the biases of the MSM...
So much for the change we needed... words are totally useless. I can't help to wonder how those who got scammed by hopeandchange are feeling right now.
If only more cartoonists would separate themselves from the biases of the MSM...
Sep 6, 2009
Good bye. And good riddance.
Obama's green czar Van Jones resigned in the late hours of Saturday - brought to you by the Washington Post, just one of many in the MSM that have ignored the past of this guy.
The news is spreading all over...
As expected, he is saying we - the ones who oppose his finger-pointed position, the other 30 something czars and the rest of the policies of the current administration - are distorting the facts and using lies.
Really? It is all caught in video, in YouTube, everything in his own words, but we're telling lies. Que clase de tipo mas descarao'!!!
I believed it was through Glenn Beck's radio and TV show that the investigation on the creepy past of this man started. But the sordid details of this guy's resume have been spreading online with fierce insistence over the past weeks. And some legislators took note of it.
I will repeat it again: Good Bye. And good riddance.
However, the WH recording machine said he will continue to work with the current administration; I guess old habits die hard. After all, it's the Chicago way.
The rest of the politburo need to start packing their bags. I've read their master in chief has increased the number of visas to Cuba. They could trade places with the thousands of Cubans willing and dying to leave the communist plantation.
If not, they will be voted out of office anyway.
Get the president a bright red recogedor; he'll need it to pick up the guy that just went under the bus.
UPDATE:
A timeline your MSM won't give you; el kid del asunto, o sea, the nutshell of all this, and how to re-write a sentence. Check it out here.
The news is spreading all over...
As expected, he is saying we - the ones who oppose his finger-pointed position, the other 30 something czars and the rest of the policies of the current administration - are distorting the facts and using lies.
Really? It is all caught in video, in YouTube, everything in his own words, but we're telling lies. Que clase de tipo mas descarao'!!!
I believed it was through Glenn Beck's radio and TV show that the investigation on the creepy past of this man started. But the sordid details of this guy's resume have been spreading online with fierce insistence over the past weeks. And some legislators took note of it.
I will repeat it again: Good Bye. And good riddance.
However, the WH recording machine said he will continue to work with the current administration; I guess old habits die hard. After all, it's the Chicago way.
The rest of the politburo need to start packing their bags. I've read their master in chief has increased the number of visas to Cuba. They could trade places with the thousands of Cubans willing and dying to leave the communist plantation.
If not, they will be voted out of office anyway.
Get the president a bright red recogedor; he'll need it to pick up the guy that just went under the bus.
UPDATE:
A timeline your MSM won't give you; el kid del asunto, o sea, the nutshell of all this, and how to re-write a sentence. Check it out here.
Sep 1, 2009
Remember how it was when we had a 4th power?
Just another two examples suporting what I've been blogging, ad nauseum: the 4th power is gone. Journalism ethics? - What was that again?
Sunk journalistic standards and blatanly false reporting are now the norm. And now, some are just starting to catch-up, amid lows-lows of calling tea-partiers terrorrists and so on.
I've been reading about these cases for a few days now, but was honestly tired to try to bang at the same wall and preaching to a long-gone choir about it.
Thankfully, the Conservative Libertarian Outpost has put together more or less my same line of thought about the people showing up armed at the townhalls meeting and how the MSM is not even bothering with checking their facts anymore.
I'm telling you, those standards seems to have been left in the concrete walls of my J-School classroom in FIU.
Me, however, still wants to think that there are still excellent journalists and reporters out there - I know, most of them probably on the internet - who are holding the fort for this dear profession.
Sunk journalistic standards and blatanly false reporting are now the norm. And now, some are just starting to catch-up, amid lows-lows of calling tea-partiers terrorrists and so on.
I've been reading about these cases for a few days now, but was honestly tired to try to bang at the same wall and preaching to a long-gone choir about it.
Thankfully, the Conservative Libertarian Outpost has put together more or less my same line of thought about the people showing up armed at the townhalls meeting and how the MSM is not even bothering with checking their facts anymore.
I'm telling you, those standards seems to have been left in the concrete walls of my J-School classroom in FIU.
Me, however, still wants to think that there are still excellent journalists and reporters out there - I know, most of them probably on the internet - who are holding the fort for this dear profession.
CA smoke is getting here
Yesterday I noticed the unusual cloudy and gray sky on NoCo, but it wasn't until this morning that I heard in the radio - during my morning commute with KCOL - that the smoke from California wildfires is getting here.
And the Denver Post is confirming it, with info from the weather station in Grand Junction. It looks like the highest peaks are lost in the horizon, due to the blanket of smoke. And a smoke health advisory alert has been issued for some areas of Colorado - where we have our very own share of wild fires too.
Gosh, I can not even imagine what Californians living in those areas are going through now... I hope my blogging friends are nowhere near the fires.
A little bit north though, a fiery red sun was calmingly going to bed last night, when I took these two pics on my way out of classes.
We're still able to see the front range hills, but the sky looks strangely gray and plain over here, where no matter how cold or how hot, the bright blue skies can always pump life out of you.
Mood Music
For you to ponder our current scary-as-hell national dilemmas, a few minutes of mood music to inspire your tired (and radical, fearmonger,extremist, fill in the blank _____) freedom-lover brain:
H/T to HotAir
H/T to HotAir
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