Rush Limbaugh: The man who's always Right

Although Rush Limbaugh doesn't actually work from a bunker, he does have a bunker mentality. His studio is on the third floor of a (purposefully) anonymous building 100 yards off the white sands of Palm Beach, Florida, and about a mile from his gated mansion (the one next to Chuck Norris's). Along with the Gulfstream jet (cost: $54 million), fleet of sports cars and eight-year contract, worth $400 million, this mansion is his reward for being the most listened-to talk-radio host in America, a title he has held for 20 years. [READ MORE]

Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber

Investigators trying to determine whether access was illegal
Friday, October 24, 2008 8:57 PM
By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama.

The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.

Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.

Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.

Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated. "It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," he said.

Isaac Baker, Obama's Ohio spokesman, denounced Lindsay's statement as charges of desperation from a campaign running out of time. "Invasions of privacy should not be tolerated. If these records were accessed inappropriately, it had nothing to do with our campaign and should be investigated fully," he said.

The attorney general's office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher's BMV information through the office's Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.

"We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.

Records show it was a "test account" assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general's office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.

Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher's information was not accessed within the attorney general's office. She declined to provide details. The office's test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.

On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show.

Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher's information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.

The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said.

The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.

Sgt. Tim Campbell, a Toledo police spokesman, said he could not provide any information because the department only had learned of the State Highway Patrol inquiry today.

Presidential Tax Calculators

Barack Obama’s campaign Web site has posted a calculator that tells you how much you would be paying in taxes under his plan. The point, of course, is to demonstrate that Senator Obama’s plan “will cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.” If you select an income level of “$250,000 and up,” though, it does not tell you what your tax increase would be; it says only, “You will probably not get a tax cut under the Obama-Biden plan.” Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group, has also criticized the calculator’s methodology.

John McCain’s Web site does not appear to have a similar device. But there are a few other calculators on the Web that can give you more details, as well as a side-by-side comparison of how Senator Obama’s and Senator McCain’s proposals would affect you if passed.

This user-friendly site calculates the total taxes you would probably pay under both plans, although it does not show you how the figures compare with what you would pay under current law.

This site, run by an apparent Obama supporter, does give you a side-by-side comparison of the change in your tax liability. If you choose an income level at which you will likely see a tax increase under Senator Obama’s plan, it initially soft-pedals the result (”You probably will not get an Obama tax cut. This calculation is not perfect, and Obama has recently promised not to raise taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 per year.”) But at least it gives you the numbers. The calculations appear to be derived from an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank run jointly by Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.

[Originally at: New York Times]

Obama reminds me of Castro

Obama reminds me of Castro

I just woke up and couldn’t help but think that in about a month from today we Americans, will be deciding the future of our country. I would be betraying myself if I don’t call the spade a spade, straight up from the way I see it.

The Democratic Party candidates, Barrack Obama and Joseph Biden are presenting and offering, in my personal opinion, the most liberal/socialist/communistic platform every offered to the voters of the United States of America.

Believe me, I know what I’m writing about because I am referring to something I heard before, a long, long time ago. As a matter of fact it was almost 50 years ago, in January of 1959, when a then young Cuban revolutionary leader offered similar ideas to us, the people of the country where I was born and raised.

“We are going to change this and we are going to change that!”

“We are going to change and eliminate all government corruptions...

“We are going to change the whole government and help you poor and middle class people improve your standard of living and go up with your lives....We will change everything and tap into and raid the coffers of the rich bastards to help you, the poorer and oppressed...”

This is more or less the condensed version of the speech Fidel Castro gave upon his arrival in Havana, to the many like myself, the middle class Cubans. That speech lasted more than four hours and I can’t help but see that the ticket Obama/Biden is proclaiming is the same theme.

Yes, definitely, we need changes in the way our federal government handles our affairs. Yes someone needs to stop the corruption in Washington, D.C. As a fact, when elected and sworn in, our congressmen/women and senators men/women are supposed to handle the problems facing the United States of American and all its citizens. They are not supposed to follow the platform any particular political party.

Wake up people before it is too late. Believe me, those guys will get everyone to one level — down!

Cesar Guerra

Lake Wales

Where pros are putting their cash

Money magazine asked several financial experts: What are you doing with your own portfolio in the wake of the financial crisis?

Karen Altfest, financial planner, Altfest and Co, New York, N.Y.

"I'm not looking at the market every 20 minutes, not listening to every talking head on TV. I'm not making many changes [to my portfolio] because I've been well positioned for some time. But I recently bought some additional bonds because I found some good opportunities in bonds with very high yields." [READ MORE][ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

Planting Seeds of Disaster

October 7, 2008 7:00 AM

Planting Seeds of Disaster
ACORN, Barack Obama, and the Democratic party.

By Stanley Kurtz (National Review Online)

‘You’ve got only a couple thousand bucks in the bank. Your job pays you dog-food wages. Your credit history has been bent, stapled, and mutilated. You declared bankruptcy in 1989. Don’t despair: You can still buy a house.” So began an April 1995 article in the Chicago Sun-Times that went on to direct prospective home-buyers fitting this profile to a group of far-left “community organizers” called ACORN, for assistance. In retrospect, of course, encouraging customers like this to buy homes seems little short of madness.

Militant ACORN
At the time, however, that 1995 Chicago newspaper article represented something of a triumph for Barack Obama. That same year, as a director at Chicago’s Woods Fund, Obama was successfully pushing for a major expansion of assistance to ACORN, and sending still more money ACORN’s way from his post as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Through both funding and personal-leadership training, Obama supported ACORN. And ACORN, far more than we’ve recognized up to now, had a major role in precipitating the subprime crisis.

I’ve already told the story of Obama’s close ties to ACORN leader Madeline Talbott, who personally led Chicago ACORN’s campaign to intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to low-credit customers. Using provisions of a 1977 law called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), Chicago ACORN was able to delay and halt the efforts of banks to merge or expand until they had agreed to lower their credit standards — and to fill ACORN’s coffers to finance “counseling” operations like the one touted in that Sun-Times article. This much we’ve known. Yet these local, CRA-based pressure-campaigns fit into a broader, more disturbing, and still under-appreciated national picture. Far more than we’ve recognized, ACORN’s local, CRA-enabled pressure tactics served to entangle the financial system as a whole in the subprime mess. ACORN was no side-show. On the contrary, using CRA and ties to sympathetic congressional Democrats, ACORN succeeded in drawing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the very policies that led to the current disaster.

In one of the first book-length scholarly studies of ACORN, Organizing Urban America, Rutgers University political scientist Heidi Swarts describes this group, so dear to Barack Obama, as “oppositional outlaws.” Swarts, a strong supporter of ACORN, has no qualms about stating that its members think of themselves as “militants unafraid to confront the powers that be.” “This identity as a uniquely militant organization,” says Swarts, “is reinforced by contentious action.” ACORN protesters will break into private offices, show up at a banker’s home to intimidate his family, or pour protesters into bank lobbies to scare away customers, all in an effort to force a lowering of credit standards for poor and minority customers. According to Swarts, long-term ACORN organizers “tend to see the organization as a solitary vanguard of principled leftists...the only truly radical community organization.”

ACORN’s Inside Strategy
Yet ACORN’s entirely deserved reputation for militance is balanced by its less-well-known “inside strategy.” ACORN has long employed Washington-based lobbyists who understand very well how the legislative game is played. ACORN’s national lobbyists may encourage and benefit from the militant tactics of their base, but in the halls of congress they play the game with smooth sophistication. The untold story of ACORN’s central role in the financial meltdown is about the one-two punch to the banking system administered by this outside/inside strategy.

Critics of the notion that CRA had a major impact on the subprime crisis ask how a law passed in 1977 could have caused a crisis in 2008? The answer has a lot to do with ACORN — and the critical years of 1990-1995. While the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act did call on banks to increase lending in poor and minority neighborhoods, its exact requirements were vague, and therefore open to a good deal of regulatory interpretation. Banks merger or expansion plans were rarely held up under CRA until the late 1980s, when ACORN perfected its technique of filing CRA complaints in tandem with the sort of intimidation tactics perfected by that original “community organizer” (and Obama idol), Saul Alinsky.

At first, ACORN’s anti-bank actions were relatively few in number. However, under a provision of the 1989 savings and loan bailout pushed by liberal Democratic legislators, like Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, lenders were required to compile public records of mortgage applicants by race, gender, and income. Although the statistics produced by these studies were presented in highly misleading ways, groups like ACORN were able to use them to embarrass banks into lowering credit standards. At the same time, a wave of banking mergers in the early 1990's provided an opening for ACORN to use CRA to force lending changes. Any merger could be blocked under CRA, and once ACORN began systematically filing protests over minority lending, a formerly toothless set of regulations began to bite.

ACORN’s efforts to undermine credit standards in the late 1980s taught it a valuable lesson. However much pressure ACORN put on banks to lower credit standards, tough requirements in the “secondary market” run by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac served as a barrier to change. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy up mortgages en masse, bundle them, and sell them to investors on the world market. Back then, Fannie and Freddie refused to buy loans that failed to meet high credit standards. If, for example, a local bank buckled to ACORN pressure and agreed to offer poor or minority applicants a 5-percent down-payment rate, instead of the normal 10-20 percent, Fannie and Freddie would refuse to buy up those mortgages. That would leave all the risk of these shaky loans with the local bank. So again and again, local banks would tell ACORN that, because of standards imposed by Fannie and Freddie, they could lower their credit standards by only a little.

So the eighties taught ACORN that a high-pressure, Alinskyite outside strategy wouldn’t be enough. Their Washington lobbyists would have to bring inside pressure on the government to undercut credit standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Only then would local banks consider making loans available to customers with bad credit histories, low wages, virtually nothing in the bank, and even bankruptcies on record.

Democrats and ACORN
As early as 1987, ACORN began pressuring Fannie and Freddie to review their standards, with modest results. By 1989, ACORN had lured Fannie Mae into the first of many “pilot projects” designed to help local banks lower credit standards. But it was all small potatoes until the serious pressure began in early 1991. At that point, Democratic Senator Allan Dixon convened a Senate subcommittee hearing at which an ACORN representative gave key testimony. It’s probably not a coincidence that Dixon, like Obama, was an Illinois Democrat, since Chicago has long been a stronghold of ACORN influence.

Dixon gave credibility to ACORN’s accusations of loan bias, although these claims of racism were disputed by Missouri Republican, Christopher Bond. ACORN’s spokesman strenuously complained that his organization’s efforts to relax local credit standards were being blocked by requirements set by the secondary market. Dixon responded by pressing Fannie and Freddie to do more to relax those standards — and by promising to introduce legislation that would ensure it. At this early stage, Fannie and Freddie walked a fine line between promising to do more, while protesting any wholesale reduction of credit requirements.

By July of 1991, ACORN’s legislative campaign began to bear fruit. As the Chicago Tribune put it, “Housing activists have been pushing hard to improve housing for the poor by extracting greater financial support from the country’s two highly profitable secondary mortgage-market companies. Thanks to the help of sympathetic lawmakers, it appeared...that they may succeed.” The Tribune went on to explain that House Democrat Henry Gonzales had announced that Fannie and Freddie had agreed to commit $3.5 billion to low-income housing in 1992 and 1993, in addition to a just-announced $10 billion “affordable housing loan program” by Fannie Mae. The article emphasizes ACORN pressure and notes that Fannie and Freddie had been fighting against the plan as recently as a week before agreement was reached. Fannie and Freddie gave in only to stave off even more restrictive legislation floated by congressional Democrats.

A mere month later, ACORN Housing Corporation president, George Butts made news by complaining to a House Banking subcommittee that ACORN’s efforts to pressure banks using CRA were still being hamstrung by Fannie and Freddie. Butts also demanded still more data on the race, gender, and income of loan applicants. Many news reports over the ensuing months point to ACORN as the key source of pressure on congress for a further reduction of credit standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As a result of this pressure, ACORN was eventually permitted to redraft many of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s loan guideline.

Clinton and ACORN
ACORN’s progress through 1992 depended on its Democratic allies. Whatever ACORN managed to squeeze out of the George H. W. Bush administration came under congressional pressure. With the advent of the Clinton administration, however, ACORN’s fortunes took a positive turn. Clinton Housing Secretary Henry Cisnersos pledged to meet monthly with ACORN representatives. For ACORN, those meetings bore fruit.

Another factor working in ACORN’s favor was that its increasing success with local banks turned those banks into allies in the battle with Fannie and Freddie. Precisely because ACORN’s local pressure tactics were working, banks themselves now wanted Fannie and Freddie to loosen their standards still further, so as to buy up still more of the high-risk loans they’d made at ACORN’s insistence. So by the 1993, a grand alliance of ACORN, national Democrats, and local bankers looking for someone to lessen the risks imposed on them by CRA and ACORN were uniting to pressure Fannie and Freddie to loosen credit standards still further.

At this point, both ACORN and the Clinton administration were working together to impose large numerical targets or “set asides” (really a sort of poor and minority loan quota system) on Fannie and Freddie. ACORN called for at least half of Fannie and Freddie loans to go to low-income customers. At first the Clinton administration offered a set-aside of 30 percent. But eventually ACORN got what it wanted. In early 1994, the Clinton administration floated plans for committing $1 trillion in loans to low- and moderate-income home-buyers, which would amount to about half of Fannie Mae’s business by the end of the decade. Wall Street Analysts attributed Fannie Mae’s willingness to go along with the change to the need to protect itself against still more severe “congressional attack.” News reports also highlighted praise for the change from ACORN’s head lobbyist, Deepak Bhargava.

This sweeping debasement of credit standards was touted by Fannie Mae’s chairman, chief executive officer, and now prominent Obama adviser James A. Johnson. This is also the period when Fannie Mae ramped up its pilot programs and local partnerships with ACORN, all of which became precedents and models for the pattern of risky subprime mortgages at the root of today’s crisis. During these years, Obama’s Chicago ACORN ally, Madeline Talbott, was at the forefront of participation in those pilot programs, and her activities were consistently supported by Obama through both foundation funding and personal leadership training for her top organizers.

Finally, in June of 1995, President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and Secretary Cisneros announced the administration’s comprehensive new strategy for raising home-ownership in America to an all-time high. Representatives from ACORN were guests of honor at the ceremony. In his remarks, Clinton emphasized that: “Out homeownership strategy will not cost the taxpayers one extra cent. It will not require legislation.” Clinton meant that informal partnerships between Fannie and Freddie and groups like ACORN would make mortgages available to customers “who have historically been excluded from homeownership.”

Disaster
In the end of course, Clinton’s plan cost taxpayers an almost unimaginable amount of money. And it was just around the time of his 1995 announcement that the Chicago papers started encouraging bad-credit customers with “dog-food” wages, little money in the bank, and even histories of bankruptcy to apply for home loans with the help of ACORN. At both the local and national levels, then, ACORN served as the critical catalyst, levering pressure created by the Community Reinvestment Act and pull with Democratic politicians to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a pattern of high-risk loans.

Up to now, conventional wisdom on the financial meltdown has relegated ACORN and the CRA to bit parts. The real problem, we’ve been told, lay with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, however, ACORN is at the base of the whole mess. ACORN used CRA and Democratic sympathizers to entangle Fannie and Freddie and the entire financial system in a disastrous disregard of the most basic financial standards. And Barack Obama cut his teeth as an organizer and politician backing up ACORN’s economic madness every step of the way.

— Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Institute.

[ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

What Says to Employers, 'Hire Me!'

After several long months of unsuccessfully posting his resume and applying to jobs online, Alex Ballin, 24, decided to take his job search into his own hands. The 2008 graduate from Radford University planted himself at a busy intersection in downtown Roanoke, Va., sporting a white sign that read, "Talented B.A. Needs Career" along with his business suit.

While Ballin's tactic was a more extreme -- and literal -- way to grab an employer's attention, with such uncertainty surrounding the economy, these intense and creative approaches are a must for today's job seeker. [READ MORE]

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Text

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Text [PDF][442 Pages][Senate Version]

Full Text of the Bailout Bill [PDF]

Full Text of the Bailout Bill [PDF]-110 Pages

GM expects the Volt to be 100-mpg certified

General Motors Corp. said Friday that it had reached a preliminary agreement that cleared the way for U.S. regulators to certify the Chevrolet Volt as the first 100-mile-per-gallon car. But the Environmental Protection Agency said testing guidelines hadn't been finalized.

The Volt, an electric vehicle that can be charged at home and has a range-extending gas-powered generator on board, is expected to start selling in late 2010. GM says it will be able to travel 40 miles before the generator kicks in. [READ MORE]

Obama The Liberal Savior

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No
resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no
understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world
works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real
substance.

He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of
him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African
Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply
proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . Only a small part of
him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is
exclusively.

What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is 'African-American,' the
descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave
ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab
ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in
East Africa for centuries until theBritish ended it.

Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the
descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte
came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is
beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents
reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it
from the evil of being human to the evil of being white.

Thus Obama has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution
from the Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no
faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make
of any kind can be effective against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy
Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for
liberals to worship him: Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is
absurd.

Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and
are in no desperate need of a phony savior.

His candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any thinking American.

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler

Jack Wheeler is a brilliant man who was the author of the strategy to break the back of the Soviet Unionwith the star wars race and expose their inner weakness. For years he wrote a weekly intelligenceupdate that was extremely interesting and well structured and informed. He consults(ed) with several mega corporations on global trends and the future, etc. I think he is in semi-retirement now. He is a truepatriot with a no-nonsense approach to everything. He is also a somewhat well-known mountain climber and adventurer.

A Video Portrait Of Barack Hussein Obama

PART (1)

PART (2)

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Awesome soundtrack dudes...

Android’s threat to the iPhone

If Google plays its cards right, its unveiling of the first Android-powered phone on Tuesday will prove to be more than a distraction from iPhone-mania – it will be the moment the search giant capitalizes on Apple’s control issues.

First, the lowdown on Google’s (GOOG) Android mobile operating system. Think of it as an attempt to do for phones what Windows does for the PC, or OS X does for the Mac. But unlike Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL), Google isn’t looking to make money off of phone software or hardware; instead, it’s giving Android away for free to any phonemaker and wireless carrier who will bake it into a handset. Why? If people use their phones to get online, the more they’ll do Google searches, click Google ads, and in the process, make Google money. [READ MORE]

Common Misspelled Words

Common Misspelled Words [CLICK IMAGE TO ZOOM]

Secrets of Leading a Fulfilling Life

We live in a wonderful age, a time of great discovery and prowess. Yet many people believe that times are hard and that there are fewer opportunities for anyone to succeed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Success is not a set of circumstances is a set of attitudes. Even in times of great difficulty, there are always people who overcome adversity and become immensely successful.

Success never came easily to anyone. It takes a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. Both attributes are essential to reach goals and overcome minor setbacks today.

Strategies:

Be grateful for what you have: All of us have things for which we should be thankful. But we often overlook accomplishments such as a solid job or good health because we are obsessed with trying to achieve what we don't yet possess.

Working hard to reach a goal is important, but it can cause problems for those who focus on that goal and nothing else. Without stopping to appreciate what you have already achieved and realizing that it all can disappear overnight due to some quirk of fate, you leave yourself unprepared for inevitable setbacks.

Important: Think About what you already have before you start each day.

This sort of self-reflection will put your life in perspective and prevent you from having the feeling that all is lost when something doesn't work out.

Be enthusiastic about everything you do: Enthusiasm—that state of exuberance in which all things seem possible—is what drives each of us to pursue something we love. The Greek root word entheos means "possessed by a god or other superhuman power."

The individual who takes up an activity as a positive adventure can inspire the same attitude in others. The employee who looks for ways to enjoy his/her work—and to be enthusiastic about it— sets the stage for others to follow his example.

It takes practice to do anything well. Instead of dwelling on your dissatisfaction, focus on your happiness and watch it expand. A smile is contagious...and while no one can be sunny all the time, if you take up your task with enthusiasm, it is likely that those around you will catch your spirit. Conversely, negative behavior can destroy that spirit.

Example: When you are talking with someone and the two of you start to analyze the character of a third person who is not present, stop yourself. Gossip is always a negative force that leads you away from success and happiness.

It's also important to evaluate your level of enthusiasm. Questions to ask yourself...

-When I am asked to do a job, do I accept it enthusiastically and give it my all?

-Do I avoid cutting corners and give as much effort as promised or even more?

-Do I accept each assignment as a fresh challenge and a chance to grow as both a professional and a person?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, you must assess why your enthusiasm has diminished.

By developing a happy, positive acceptance of the good things that you have right now, you can be sure that you will know how to enjoy the surprises that come your way in the future.

Make sure your job is your career: A job can sustain your interest while you make enough money to support yourself in a comfortable lifestyle.

But a career is more than that—it is a vocation. The word vocation comes from the Latin root to call. Therefore, your vocation is a calling and, in a very deep sense, finding your vocation is finding yourself. When you have found your calling, you can give love through your work.

In fact, love is the key to successfully mastering your vocation. It directs you to those special talents you can give the world and shows you how to share them with others. It can return rewards far greater than the accumulation of wealth.

Realize that success is a journey, not a destination: Successful people do not stop working hard once they've reached their goals. Instead, they set new goals. These people know the law of inertia—it is easier for an object to stay in motion once it is moving. . .and to remain still once it has stopped.

Once you overcome your inertia of rest, you can use your inertia of motion to succeed at anything you start.

This will require you to work a little harder than those who are moderately; successful. That extra effort will product consistently higher quality in your work and fuel your morale. Your teamwork with your peers will also be extraordinary.

Learn as much as possible from those around you: You possess an inner wisdom that enables you to determine who your teachers are and what they have to teach you.

To find your teachers, look at the people closest to you—your family, your friends and your co-workers. The people with whom you spend the most time can tell you much about yourself.

To find teachers who will help you to become successful, carefully study the behavior and actions of those you admire a great deal. Look for someone with honesty, integrity and compassion, since these are the basic ingredients of a truly successful person.

And by becoming this kind of person, you will attract others of similar virtue. Your inner success will automatically create your outer success.

Perseverance is the difference between success and defeat: Reaching a goal may require repeated attempts. Each attempt brings you closer to achieving the objective and in the process helps you set other goals as well. Among these may be personal redirection or the achievement of a greater good that you had not initially planned.

Perseverance is the voice within, urging you that if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. To persevere is to remain constant to a purpose, idea or task in the face of obstacles and discouragement.

In order to persevere, you must have positive and loving thoughts. That's because they spark a whole range of feelings that lift your spirits. If, on the other hand, you concentrate on negative thoughts and fearful emotions, you conjure up an even greater negativity. You'll also be more likely to abandon the goal you are trying to achieve. Source: Sir John Templeton/Bottom Line Personal Mag.

The Socialist Republic of Florida, Chapter One

Matthew Falconer
September 19, 2008
Chapter One Save Our Homes-The beginning of the end.

In 1992, Ken Wilkinson, a County Property Appraiser from Lee County, Florida, was successful in promoting and getting into law a bill known as "Save Our Homes." The law limited the increase in property taxes on "homestead property" to CPI (the Consumer Price Index) or 3% annually. A homestead property is a permanent residence, not a second home, rental apartment, or commercial building. Wilkinson said, "Government should not be in the business of taxing people off their primary residence." This sounds nice, but as is often the case with government regulations, there were unintended consequences.

Save Our Homes was sold to the people of Florida as a tax limit. This couldn´t be farther from the truth. In essence, Save Our Homes is flawed because it is not a tax limit, but a tax shift. The "savings" of homestead property owners was/is made up by additional taxation of non-homestead property owners. This tax shift is estimated at $7 billion a year and counting (2). The biggest effect of this law was that most Florida taxpayers were shielded from sharp increases in property taxes. Most residents did not have to share in the increasing costs and economic burden of a growth in government spending, and thus government was "politically sheltered" to spend revenues more freely. [READ MORE]

Hackers block Qaeda’s 9/11 terror on tape

Hackers prevented Al Qaeda from releasing a videotape to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Al Qaeda has traditionally issued a video or audiotape by either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri, the terror network’s two leaders, to mark their massive terrorist attack on the US.

As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media unit, had indicated earlier this week that it would post such a videotape on September 11. As-Sahab had banner images on the internet showing a silhouetted head with a question mark and the words, “Wait 11 September”.

The US-based intelligence group IntelCenter had speculated the video would be a message from Osama or Zawahiri with a recording of the last will and testament of Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders of the 9/11 attackers.

Sources close to US intelligence said, “Hackers knocked out Al Qaeda’s online means of communication, thus preventing them from posting anything to commemorate the anniversary.”

Western intelligence suspects two hackers who have targeted Islamicist sites before were responsible: Aaron Weisburd from Internet Haganah and Rusty Shackleford from the web group My Pet Jawa. Continued on Page 20

Both have been active in ongoing Internet battle between Islamicist hackers and their opponents.

Terrorism expert B Raman says, “I received word two days ago that it was possible the tape would not be released because of hackers.” He noted: “As Sahab is having problems. (Al Qaeda spokesperson) Adam Gadan, in charge of the website, has not been heard of for six months. There are reports he may have been killed in Pakistan.” He expects the tape to be issued three or four days from now. “Or they will send it to Al Jazeera.”

This is not the first time hackers have dented the plans of the world’s deadliest terror network. In 2004, a hacker group called TeAmZ USA had knocked out the websites of Abu Musal al-Zarqawi, late head of the Al Qaeda in Iraq, for showing tapes of Westerners being beheaded. The hackers left the image of a gun-toting penguin on the website.

Last year’s Al Qaeda anniversary videotape included a eulogy by Bin Laden to 9/11 attacker Waleed al Shehri and his video will — a recording made by suicide bombers before they carry out their missions. Al Qaeda failed to issue an anniversary tape in 2004 as well, leading to speculation Bin Laden had died. Last year, Washington released the anniversary tape two days before Al Qaeda did. Says Raman, “This was probably to deliberately show the US had hacked the password to Al Qaeda’s website.”

[ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

The Wall Street Panic of 2008

Panic: In economics, acute financial disturbance, such as widespread bank failures, feverish stock speculation followed by a market crash, or a climate of fear caused by economic crisis or the anticipation of such crisis.
-- Britannica Online

Make no mistake -- by this definition, what we've witnessed so far in 2008 is nothing less than a global market panic. [READ MORE]

Lowering your Blood Pressure Naturally with DASH

Y O U R G U I D E T O:
Lowering Your Blood
Pressure With DASH

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

What you choose to eat affects your chances of developing high
blood pressure, or hypertension (the medical term). Recent studies
show that blood pressure can be lowered by following the Dietary
Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan—and by
eating less salt, also called sodium.

While each step alone lowers blood pressure, the combination of the
eating plan and a reduced sodium intake gives the biggest benefit
and may help prevent the development of high blood pressure.

[DOWNLOAD GUIDE (PDF) HERE]