Anyone been watching the Olympics

I've sloughed off in my posting here, and once again I apologize.

What can I say, it's winter. I wonder if I have seasonal (something) disorder? I look out at the grey skies and the snow and dread going out into the cold, and what is more awful, the wind.

Then I cocoon in my house and don't do anytihng...

Well, Olympics are over, the United States lost the medal battle (I think we finished with a medal count that puts us in third place, because of the failure of any of our speed skaters to live up to expectations...)

The meltdown (ha, hah, is that a pun?) of our speed skaters could perhaps have been anticipated - they trained on hard ice and the ice at Sochi was soft...so it had nothing to do with their suits, after all!

‘Endangered’ Mouse Could Delay Flood Recovery

It's like we're living in the Twilight Zone. I admit I'd prefer NEW construction to stop to protect the habitats of wild animals - but when you've got an already existing town that needs to repair itself and it can't because of a mouse - not a wolf or a lion or a tiger or a bear but a mouse - not as bad as a fish, buts still, it's ridiculous.

FEMA's going to pay for the litigation?  And where are they going to get the money for that? OUR TAX DOLLARS!

From: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02/04/endangered-mouse-could-delay-flood-recovery/

WELD COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – The Federal Emergency Management Agency is warning that many flood repair projects could be delayed because they are in an endangered mouse’s habitat.
The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse is listed as a threatened species, which means it and its habitat are protected by federal law. Its habitat lies along rivers and stream beds where flood repairs are underway.
The news upset Colorado State Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, who represents many of the flooded communities. He sent a letter to Colorado’s congressional delegation asking it to intervene saying the federal government has put a mouse ahead of Colorado families.
“We’re holding up the ability to redo safe drinking water, to rebuild sewage treatment facilities so we can keep sewage out of the rivers, trying to have a safe environment because of a mouse,” said Sonnenberg.
According to him, communities have to delay repairs after FEMA issued a warning that local governments could lose federal funding if they violate the Endangered Species Act.
The mouse is causing controversy with some Colorado scientists, saying it isn’t even endangered.
“This mouse has cost millions of dollars to Colorado taxpayers already. It threatens the livelihood of agriculture and now it’s threatening flood recovery efforts. This is absolutely incredible,” said United States Rep. Cory Gardner.
Gardner, whose district was hit hard by the floods, wrote a letter to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service asking for a waiver from the Endangered Species Act. Fish and Wildlife said that so far projects have only been delayed a couple days. However, Gardner said flooded communities can’t afford any delay as they race to make repairs before the spring runoff.
“The fact that so many people were impacted, thousands of people lost their homes or had their homes damaged, and here we are having federal relief dollars held up by a mouse that may not even be endangered. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Gardner.
Gardner said that if Fish and Wildlife doesn’t grant a waiver quickly he will draft legislation.
A Weld County commissioner said he asked FEMA two months ago about the mouse and was told it wouldn’t be a problem.
FEMA said that it is simply following federal law and that it has added staff to expedite the process and will pay for any mitigation necessary to accommodate the mouse habitat.

New blog: Collecting Amelia Earhart

I've started a new blog called Collecting Amelia Earhart.

http://collectingameliaearhart.blogspot.com/  is the URL.

If you're interested in women in aviation or Amelia Earhart, check it out.

Amnesty and Poverty

Below is just about half of Rush's comments on amnesty... it is scary.

As Rush points out - if we let poor, unskilled people into this country - they won't become rich, we will become even poorer.
 

RUSH:  Look, I don't care how you slice it, folks, it just doesn't make any sense.  Even the most accepted, and some might say logical explanation, it doesn't make sense, and here's what it is.  Why are the Republicans willing to commit suicide?  Because that's what it is.
Let's review.  Last fall, remember, leading up to the government shutdown, the Republican Party leadership is making sure they're out there, they're publicly saying, "Focus on Obamacare. Get rid of Obamacare. We gotta get rid of Obamacare."  They wanted us to think that's what they're focusing on, and do not lose sight of it.  Mike Lee and Ted Cruz pop up and take 'em seriously and it results in a government shutdown. The Republican Party leadership goes absolutely batty, "Oh, my God, you're killing us! We're gonna get blamed for shutting down the government and people love the government. People don't want the government shut down, oh, my God, oh, my God."

Now they've done a total flip-flop and to heck with Obamacare. They don't seem to care at all even though it's failing, even though it's ripe.  I mean, it's never been -- and it's been this way for a long time -- it's never been a greater opportunity for the Republican Party to connect with a majority of Americans across the spectrum.  The opposition to Obamacare knows no bounds.  People from all income levels, people from all walks of life, all religions, all creeds, all three sexes, it doesn't matter, there are opponents, and they are the vast majority.  And it is getting bigger.  And the Republicans who last fall said "Don't do anything to take the focus off that," have now taken the focus off that and have shifted to amnesty!
If you look at national polls, you find that amnesty is important to 3% of the population.  Obamacare polls at the top of issues the American people think are important, need to be addressed, fixed, done something with.  The minute that polling data comes out, we drop our pursuit of Obamacare, which was tepid anyway as a party, and now we've shifted at our retreat, which is a good name for what's happening here, retreat, to amnesty and advancing amnesty.  It doesn't make any sense.
Let me give you some numbers.  Phyllis Schlafly has a report coming out where she has looked at just reams of polling data and other demographic data on illegal immigrants.  Ann Coulter used some of it in a column that she wrote about this earlier this week. She made the point that Phyllis Schlafly's report was embargoed, but Coulter said (paraphrasing), "I don't care, it's too important. I'm gonna use it anyway." So she did.
Phyllis Schlafly put this together and here are just some of the highlights of this.  "According to a Harris poll, 81 percent of native-born citizens think the schools should teach students to be proud of being American. Only 50 percent of naturalized US citizens do."  Naturalized citizens equals immigrants, legal, illegal, whatever.  This is a huge problem.  That is major.  It cuts against the notion that there is assimilation.

You know, I wrote Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.  I love this country.  I want everybody to love this country.  It is the greatest country human beings have ever devised.  It's the greatest way to organize life.  It's the greatest way to organize business.  It's the greatest way to organize society that has ever been done on the face of the earth, in the course of human history.  There is every reason in the world not to just be proud of it, but to love it.  And I want everybody to.  The problem is that young people in public schools are being taught not only not to love the country, but they're being lied to about how the country was founded, why it was founded, who founded it, and what its purpose is.  They're telling young people this country has not warranted its superpower status, that we've discriminated, that we've killed, that we've been racist and bigoted, slave state, still are, you know the drill.
The multicultural curriculum has taken over and this country's beaten up, and there's no counter to it, talking about push-back or opposition.  That's why I wrote the book.  There was a mission behind the book.  This wasn't just to sell a book or come up with a different way of doing a book after having done two prior.  There's a mission here.  We've lost education.  We've lost pop culture.  We've lost books, movies, television shows, music, this kind of thing.  It's a little attempt here to forge the truth, to insert the truth into young skulls full of mush.  So 81% of native born citizens think the schools should teach students to be proud of being American.

Why is that even controversial?  Do you understand, to the left, that is controversial, because of the word "force."  Not "force," but "should."  That equals force to them.  They should teach students to be proud of being American.  Damn right they should.  But, no, they teach them to feel guilty about it.  But the point is only 50% of naturalized US citizens do.  See, my take is, we ought not be granting citizenship to people that don't love the country.  We ought not be granting citizenship to people that don't understand the history of this country.  We ought not be granting citizenship to people that don't understand the preamble to the Declaration, to the Constitution. We shouldn't be granting citizenship to people who come here and want to undermine it.
But we do, in the interest of the fairness and multiculturalism and being nonjudgmental and all this.  But the real reason we do is because the people granting citizenship to people like this share that opinion:  This is no place special.  And that's what's so damn frustrating and inconceivable about the Republican Party wanting to open the country up to this kind of immigration.  It just doesn't make any sense!  It's the end of the Republican Party. It's the end of the country as we know it. It doesn't make any sense, in the traditional way of judging this.
Now, there are other ways that it does make sense, and they're not pretty.  I touched on some of those yesterday.  But let me keep on with the Phyllis Schlafly data.  "While 67 percent of native-born Americans believe our Constitution is a higher legal authority than international law, only 37 percent of naturalized citizens agree."  Meaning, 63% of people that we are granting citizenship to do not accept, probably don't even understand, and do not believe that our Constitution trumps international law. 

Now, you may be thinking, "Well, who are we to say --" I'll tell you what it means.  It means that international law should trump the Constitution, meaning whatever some nefarious body somewhere like the UN wants to say should govern our country.  That's what it means.  That's why it's important.  Again, saying that the Constitution should trump international law is not us bragging.  It's not us saying we're smarter and better at all.  It is us recognizing our uniqueness and attempting to preserve it, for which there should never be an apology.
But why are we subjecting ourselves to these challenges?  They're unnecessary.  We do not need to be granting citizenship to people who essentially don't agree with nor understand nor love the country they're coming to.  So I don’t understand the point.  For those of you who think, "Well, Rush, this is the only way we're gonna attack poverty. It's the on me way we're gonna attack income inequality. Everywhere in the world is as poor as it can be."
We are not gonna wipe out world poverty by letting everybody that's poor into this country.  We're just gonna become one of them if that happens.  It cannot be done, folks.  There is too much poverty all over the world.  The numbers of people that live on less than $2 a day is huge -- although, although, Herbert Meyer, who was an official with the Reagan administration (we've talked to him, interviewed him for the Limbaugh letter), one of the things that he says is this.
One of the most remarkable things that's happening, and I've seen it now in two or three other places, is that poverty is slowly being eradicated -- real, real abject poverty.  We're not doing it with immigration, is the point.  We're not doing it by letting people into this country.  I've told you about the guy at the golf tournament I was with, my friend in California who lost it and walked out on this major international media figure you would know.
His only reason for supporting illegal immigration and amnesty was, "If somebody wants to come to my country and improve their life, who am I to stand in their way?"  You're not doing that. We cannot improve people.  We have to change the way they live, where they live.  We have to change systems that govern them where they live.  The problem with poverty is an unequal distribution of capitalism in the world.

Atlanta paralyzed by 2 inches of snow!!!!

Apparently the highways around Atlanta are one vast parking lot...this is really sad...They didn't have enough salt trucks?

ATLANTA -- The Georgia National Guard was out in force Wednesday to rescue motorists trapped all night in their cars on Atlanta's icebound freeways from a harsh winter storm that forced many drivers to abandon their cars outright and left children to camp out in their schools.
Some commuters pleaded for help via cellphones while still holed up in their cars, while others gave up and trudged miles home.
Highways around the nation's ninth largest metropolitan area were littered with abandoned cars as commuters bailed out, some seeking warmth at shelter at 17 Home Depot that opened their doors to take in wayward motorists.
Police in suburban Atlanta say one of their own helped assist the safe delivery of a baby girl on a gridlocked interstate Tuesday afternoon after snow and ice brought traffic to a crawl.
Sandy Springs Police Capt. Steve Rose told The Associated Press the baby girl was safely delivered around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday amid gridlocked traffic on Interstate 285. A traffic officer arrived with only minutes to spare before the infant arrived.
"Fortunately he had his emergency lights on and people got out of his way," Rose said. "The delivery was pretty flawless."
About 500 students in Paulding County were stuck at elementary, middle and high schools, and about 1,300 were sheltering in place in Douglas county. Students were also trapped overnight in Marietta, Cherokee and Atlanta counties.
At Atlanta's East River Elementary School, about 100 students spent the night on mats on the floor, covered with coats and blankets. The children got caught out when school buses were unable to pick them up.
Some relieved parents, who spent the night trying to reach their children's schools, had begun picking up their children Wednesday.
"This has been an ordeal for everyone," said Georgia DOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale. "This storm and the bitter temperatures have caused so much difficulty, discomfort and anxiety for so many Georgians. We believe roadways will be restored to some level of normalcy today but would encourage the public to remain home, preferably all day."
Only about two-to-three inches of snow fell in Atlanta on Tuesday, but it was enough to ground hundreds of flights at Hartsfield International Airport — the U.S.'s busiest -- and paralyze the metropolitan area.
Debbie Hartwig, a waitress at an Atlanta area waffle house, said she managed to keep her cool thanks in part to the kindness of strangers after 10 hours on the road.
"I'm calm," she said. "That's all you can be. People are helping each other out, people are moving cars that have spun out or had become disabled. It's been really nice. I even saw people passing out hot coffee and granola bars."
"This was, hands down, the worst day of my life," Evan McLean of Canton, who told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he "was literally stranded on Canton road for two and half hours without moving an inch."
Cobb County chairman Tim Lee was among drivers stuck on I-75 in his truck north of the Chattahoochee River.
He said residents were calling him to request salt trucks, but he saw a silver lining in the lengthy gridlock.
"The good news is that traffic is so jammed up they can't get going too fast, so there's a lot fender benders but there's no injuries," he told The Marietta Daily Journal.
One traveler who had arrived Tuesday afternoon at Atlanta's airport from Maine spent five hours in traffic without moving when an WXIA reporter caught up with him.
He offered some Back East advice to Georgia's highway maintenance teams.
"You should put some salt on the road," he said. "When it's going to be wet and cold, get the salt trucks on the road. It's not hard."
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who dispatched guard troops in Humvees to clear the freeways, said Tuesday's storm "came unexpectedly."
Are meteorologists to blame for the traffic debacle, or a poor forecast? No, says Marshall Shepherd a meteorologist with the University of Georgia and current president of the American Meteorological Society.
"The buses had a tough time getting kids home, but meteorologists should not be thrown under the bus," he said.
Deal, like the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, declared a state of emergency.
While the storm that gripped much of the Deep South has moved into the Atlantic, there is little chance of significant melting of untreated roads and bridges Wednesday, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Nick Wiltgen.
Highs may struggle to reach the freezing mark in cities such as Atlanta and Charleston, S.C., he said.. Areas near the Gulf Coast such as Mobile and Pensacola may not rise much above freezing, even if a few rays of sunshine peek through the clouds later in the day.

22 Jan 2014: Pres and VP schedules

10:00 am
The President and Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:45 am
The President and Vice President meet with the President’s Commission on Election Administration
Roosevelt Room
Pool Spray at the Top

11:30 am
The President and Vice President convene a meeting with select Cabinet Secretaries of the Council on Women and Girls
Oval Office
Pool Spray at the Top

12:30 pm
The President and Vice President meet for lunch
Private Dining Room
Closed Press

2:05 pm
The President and Vice President host an event for the Council on Women and Girls
East Room
Pooled Press

4:30 pm
The President and Vice President meet with Secretary of the Treasury Lew
Oval Office
Closed Press

Rush on Women in Politics

From Rush yesterday, Monday, 20 Jan

Don't have time right now to comment on it, will just share the transcript and discuss tomorrow.

Dawn Zimmer is the mayor of Hoboken.  (Somebody has to be, folks.)  Dawn Zimmer is the mayor of Hoboken, and she is claiming that back in May the New Jersey lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, pulled her aside after touring a ShopRite that had been rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy and told her that Hoboken would not get any Hurricane Sandy relief aid if she didn't help push a real estate development project that Governor Christie wanted.
So the story is that Dawn Zimmer, the mayor of Hoboken, was pulled aside by the New Jersey lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, also female, and it was babe to babe. And the lieutenant governor babe said to the mayor babe, "If you don't get on board with us, you're not getting any Sandy money." Dawn Zimmer is the mayor. The lieutenant governor's denying it, says it never happened.
The mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, is saying it did happen.  She is not conceding anything, and she has provided MSNBC with an entry from her personal diary in which she recounted the incident. Oh, speaking of which, the New York Times actually has a soap opera-type story today about how Christie has fallen out of favor with the hosts of MSNBC, that they loved Christie.
They had a lot of hope invested in him as a Republican who could screw other Republicans and now there's been a falling out because of the scandal.  It's actually written as though it's a breakup of a soap opera-type relationship.  We will explain that in due course as the program unfolds.  Now, the lieutenant governor, according to the mayor of Hoboken, said, "It's very important to Governor Christie..."
This is the diary entry that describes Lieutenant Governor Guadagno saying of the development project, "It is very important to the governor. The word is that you are against it and you need to move forward or we are not going to be able to help you. I know it's not right -- these things should not be connected -- but they are, she says, and if you tell anyone, I will deny it."
So she's out telling the world that this happened, and the lieutenant governor is denying it.  "Zimmer said she was given the same message four days later by Richard Constable, Christie’s community affairs commissioner. As the two prepared to appear on a television program about Sandy recovery, she said Constable told her she needed to support the project for her city to receive aid."
Now Guadagno and Constable are both denying what the mayor of Hoboken is saying.  So what are we to do with this?  Who are we supposed to believe here? Now, I guess one of the trains of thought is the governor wouldn't be this stupid, wouldn't make himself this big a target. He wouldn't tell the lieutenant governor go out there and deny aid if the mayor didn't come forth and help with the redevelopment project or supported it.
Nobody would do that.  So the tendency, I guess, is to not believe the mayor of Hoboken on the basis that Christie wouldn't do it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH:  Ladies and gentlemen, we were all told for a long time that having women in politics was gonna put an end to political corruption because there wouldn't be any testosterone. Having women in politics would end war, for example, and barbarism. With women in leadership, there wouldn't be any predatory-type behavior because women don't do that and don't have a dominance of testosterone and they're not made that way.
They're nurturers and peacemakers. They are focused on relationships and making things work.  So I'm sitting here a little confused reading of the contretemps between the female lieutenant governor alleging that it is the mayor of Hoboken is lying and then vice-versa.  So I'm gonna have to think. It'll take me some time to work through this, 'cause I believed all of that.  Now my world is upside down.  I don't quite know how to process this.