Interesting Items - Monday Dec 5, 2011 Come visit us at our new web site: www.interestingitems.org Leave your thoughts, comments and opinions. We look forward to hearing from you. Interesting Items Alex Gimarc [email protected] Monday Dec 5, 2011 Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy – In this issue: 1. Government Cheese 2. Iran 3. Audit 4. Unemployment 5. Barney 6. Gillam 7. ICP 8. Happy Meal 1. Government Cheese. This is an oldie but a goodie from The Rainmakers, a Kansas City rock band. The song is their 1986 Government Cheese and should be the theme song for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wksJcCy4BU 2. Iran. The destruction of Iranian missile and nuclear facilities continued last week with another large explosion at one of their nuclear facilities. This explosion was at least the fourth blast over the last two weeks. Only one of the previous blasts could have been credited to buffoonery by the Iranians; the one at the missile plant that killed the chief rocket scientist and several visiting dignitaries (Norks?). The blast last week took place about 2 hours before Khamenei was supposed to arrive for an inspection. The timing appears to be a message to the Mullahs that whoever is blasting the nuclear and rocket facilities knows the schedule of the leadership and can reach out and touch them at will. Shortly after the blast, the Iranians staged an assault on the British Embassy in Tehran, reprising the assault on the US Embassy in 1979. They also rounded up the Usual Suspects which were described as CIA operatives in Iran. Sounds like the blasts really shook up the leadership – which was part of the message. The other part of the message is to interdict the nuclear and missile industries to the point that they are unusable for conducting warfare. While I would be very happy if the blasts were due to a B-2 strike from long range, sadly I do not believe this administration is up to doing that sort of thing to Iran. On the other hand, Mossad is most certainly capable. There are some rumors that they may be working in concert with Saudi intelligence to penetrate and eliminate the Iranian nuclear problem. Whoever is doing this, we will wish well, as they have managed to completely freak out the Iranians while destroying some valuable weapons development facilities. 3. Audit. The democrats in charge of the Richmond VA city government decided to pick a fight with the local Tea Party last month. The Tea Party fired the first round a couple weeks ago by delivering an invoice to the city for refund of over $8,500 in fees paid to Richmond for three Tea Party rallies held in the town. The reason for the invoice was that Richmond allowed the Occupy Wall Street protestors to infest the same park used by the Tea Party for over two weeks without having to pay any fees to the city. Total costs incurred by the Occupy protest was over $7,000 not including police fees. The democrat mayor of Richmond did attend the Occupy protest to stand in solidarity with the protestors. The Tea Party attempt to get a refund was sufficiently embarrassing to the Mayor of Richmond that he responded with an audit letter to the local Tea Party. The audit claims that the Tea Party is delinquent in paying taxes and fees to the city of Richmond and demands all gross receipts for meals tax, admissions tax for 2010 and 2011, financial statements for meals and admissions taxes collected in 2010 and 2011, and finally their federal tax return for 2010 including depreciation schedule. And the city demanded all of this within 15 days of Nov 14. Of course, the Tea Party collects no taxes because it sells nothing. Expect the court case to adjudicate this harassment to be a lot of fun. Gateway Pundit article can be found here: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/11/outrage-after-demanding-refund-from-city-for-plaza-protests-richmond-tea-party-gets-letter-youre-being-audited/ 4. Unemployment. The Obama administration continued to diddle the unemployment numbers in the runup to the 2012 election last week as they announced an “unexpected” improvement in unemployment as it fell to 8.6%. The number was generated as they removed yet another 315,000 people from the total of those seeking jobs. This reduced the number of those seeking jobs to a near all time low of 64%. That last number is important, as this administration and the democrat majority in the Senate that is blocking legislation to fix it, has driven the employment participation rate from its normal 66% of all Americans to where it is today. If the unemployment rate had been computed on the total of those working in January 2009, the unemployment rate today would be over 11%. If you include those who want full time work but cannot get it, that total is 15.6% unemployed. The Obama administration and their media cheerleaders will continue to massage the unemployment numbers over the course of the next 10 months so that they will generate an unemployment rate around 7% right before Election Day next year. 5. Barney. Long time MA congress critter Barney Frank (D) announced he would not run for reelection next year. Frank has been kept in office via a properly gerrymandered district for a very long time. This time around, redistricting did not allow him to have such a favorable district. Additionally, Frank does not believe that he will be in the majority after the next election and did not want to serve another two years in the minority. Frank was the ranking member on the House Banking Committee. Next in line in seniority is Maxine (The Mouth) Waters (D, CA), who will demand the position from her party. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were most responsible for the housing bubble and economic crash in 2008. Both of them systematically supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and fought tooth and nail every attempt to fix the problem. They also supported the odious Community Reinvestment Act, which was used by the Clinton administration as a vehicle to strong arm banks and investing houses into making home loans to people who did not deserve them nor could pay for them. Dodd and Frank authored the foul Dodd – Frank banking reform legislation which is chasing investment overseas, jacking up banking and investment costs, and lining the pockets of their supporters at the expense of us all. Barney Frank was an evil character who will not be missed. Perhaps Club Fed will be in their future. 6. Gillam. Pebble Mine foe Bob Gillam is fending off a complaint to the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) that he flew Borough Assembly and local Assembly candidates from village to village onboard his corporate aircraft while charging them only for fuel used. The candidates were all anti-Pebble people. Gillam’s excuse is that the aircraft had empty seats and the candidates were only hitching a ride. APOC is investigating the complaint. Apparently campaign finance laws only apply to the little people. Read the entire article here: http://www.adn.com/2011/12/02/2199884/plane-rides-provided-by-pebble.html 7. ICP. Best political observation of the week came out of Glenn Renyolds at Instapundit after noting that Maxine (The Mouth) Waters (D, CA) was going to be the next ranking member of the House Banking Committee wrote: “I remember when “Insane Clown Posse” was just the name of a band, not a description of our political class.” 8. Happy Meal. It is always fun when the Nanny State runs up against the entrepreneurial spirit in the US. Latest example comes out of San Francisco where the city council is busily slapping restrictions on MacDonalds because foods they serve are too fattening and not sufficiently healthy for The Children. SF passed an ordinance that required fruit and vegetables (not including French fries) to be served with any meal that included a small toy. The ordinance effectively banned the Happy Meal. MacDonalds responded by refusing to change the Happy Meal and selling the toy for ten cents. You can continue to buy Happy Meals in SF but without the toy which is now extra. Next move is up to the Nanny Staters. Congratulations to MacDonalds for defending their product. More later - - AG "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: Our Home Page http://interestingitems.org/ Archives can be found at http://home.gci.net/~agimarc AnchorageDaily Planet http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com/ MatSuValley News http://matsuvalleynews.blogspot.com/ Subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/
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